Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1829-10-06

ART. 8. Due notice to be given Of the payment IF
the annual stpends, and the United States to furnish
provisions tor reasonable number OF CheroAees,
who shall assemble on these occasions.
ART. y. Horses stolen from Che. ,kees by whites
to be paid for by the United States and horses sto
en- from whites by Cherokees to be paid for by a de-
duction from the annuity.
ART. ~. The Agent of the United States resid.
ing among the Cherokees to have a sufficient piece
OF ground allotted for his temporary USE"
Lastly: this treaty to " be carried into effect ON
both sides scith all good faith"
The treaty was ratified soon after by President
Adams, and the Senate OF the United States.
A few remarks on this Treaty may not
not be improper.
The words cede, nation, and guoranty,
are used in the same senses here as IN the
treaty Of Holston, seven years before
During the interval the Government of
the United States had been frequently EN-
ployed in making treaties with numerous
tribes of indians; and it is sale to say
that in no period OF our national history
was the meaning Of publlck documents
more thoroughly weighed, or the tenden-
cy and ultimate effect Of pubIick measures
more seriously considered and the world
may be challenged to produce an exam
pie of the administration OF a Government
over an extensive territory, and over a
people in new, various, and complicated
relations, in which fewer mistakes, either
theoretical or practical, were made, than
during the administration of Gen. WASH
ington.
The parties were so careful of the invi-
olability and integrity OF the Cherokee
territory, that the use Of short road, in
the Northern extremity of that territory,
(now in the State Of Kentucky at a great
distance from the actual residence OF the
Cherokees generally, was made the
ground of a solemn treaty stipulation, and
an equivalent was given tor it. Nay more,
the Agent OF the United States, residing
among the Cherokees to distribute the an
nual payments, to encourage the natives
in agriculture and manufactures, and to
execute the treaties in other respects,
could not claim even the temporary use of
land for a garden, or COW pasture, till
this small convenience was allowed him
by treaty.
The United States not only acknowl-
edge former treaties, and declare them to
be in full force; but "the construction
and usage under their respective articles"
are acknowledged, ratified, and declared
to be the rule of future usage and con-
struction. This is very remarkable pro-
vision /; and was doubtless adopted to quiz
ct the Cherokees in regard to the en-
croachments feared from the U. States
The construction and usage, under the
previous treaties, can be proved at this
day, by living witnesses, and by publick
archives, to have tended invariably to this
one point-that the Cherokees were to re-
tain the unimpared sovereignty of their
country; and that to enable them to do
this permanently, and in the most effectu-
al manner, they were to be taught all the
common arts of civilized life. To this
course they we're urged in the most affec-
tionate manner, by letters written with
Gen. Washington's own hand. This was
pressed upon them at every council, and
habitually in private, by the Agent of the
United States, in pursuance of written and
verbal instructions from the head Of the
War Department. No historical facts can
be proved with more absolute certainty
than these and there is not, it is believ-
ed, even the pretence of any evidence to
the contrary.
1t appears, moreover, in the preamble
to this treaty of Tellico, that the misun-
derstamdings," had arisen, because white
settlers had transgressed the Cherokee
boundary, contrary to the intention Of
previous treaties )" and that these intru-
ders had been removed by the authority
of the United States.
Again this treaty was negotiated by
George Walton, citizen Of Georgia, in
whom that State reposed great confidence,
and by Thomas Butler, commanding the
troops Of the United States, in the State
of Tennessee and it was executed, Ito
use its own language ION Cherokee
ground"
Thus the country of the Cherokees is
called, as | have already shown, their
lands" their " territory" their nation,"
and their " ground" These epithets are
used, not by careless letter-writers, nor in
loose debate but in the most solemn in
by which nations bind them
selves to each other. And what is there
on the other side :? Is it said, or implied,
that the Cherokees had qualified title (? a
lease for term Of years 7 right to hunt
till Georgia should want the land for
growing corn or cotton z the privilege OF
administering their own laws till Georgia
should exercise her rightful jurisdiction,
as sovereign and Independent State =
Is there any thing that looks this way!
Not word not syllable; not the most
distant hint. While it is asserted in varl-
Gus forms, and implied more than hum
bred times over, that the Cherokees were
a nation, capable of treating with other
nations that they had country, which