The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-11-04
WHOLE NO. 1888.
From the National hateligencer.
PRESENT CRISIS IN THE CONDITION
OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.
NO. XIV.


that the United States have entered into solemn
engagements with the Cherokees, by which we
are pound, as people, to defend their title and
their sovereignty, and to protect them from ey-
ely species OF eDcroachment and aggression.
II TINS be not the obvious meaning of numerous
ana express stipulations, it will be impossible to
frame articles in the English language, which
small express any meaning whatever.
But Georgia complains that the Government
OF the United States transcribed its powers in
! making these engagements, which are therefore
to be considered null and void The reader
must bear in mind, that this complaint of Geor-
gia is not of long standing. Indeed, / am not
certain that the legislature has expressed it;
| put the leading men of that State, and some of
the newspapers, are loud in making and repeat
ing II. Till very recently, as was mentioned in
I my last, the authorities of Georgia have been
urging the United States to make treaties with
| the Indians.
In order to come to full understanding of
TINS case, In all ITS bearings, let us inquire how
the controversy would present itself, if the old
thirteen States, after obtaining their indepen-
dence, had never formed any system of confed.
Grafton whatever, and each State were entirely.
ana In all respects, independent of every other
State The whole question at issue would then
lie between Georgia and the Cherokees Nei-
ther South Carolina, nor any other State, would
have any right to interfere, however oppres-
|
the Indians; unless, indeed, South Carolina, or
some other State, had made a treaty with the
Cnerokees, OF the nature of an alliance offensive
| and defensive. On this supposition. both the
( allies would have right, by the laws Of nations,
( to speak to Georgia, and to be heard But we
| will suppose, that the Cherokees had made no
! treaty with any community upon earth. and
were, as to their mode of living, precisely in
| their present condition; that is, peaceably en-.
gagged in agricultural pursuits, and providing
for their own families by the labor of their own
hands.
In these circumstances, the people of Georgia
ask the Cherokees to remove; who, in their
turn, demand the reasons of so extraordinary a
request. And here let me say, no good reasons
can be given; no reasons, which an honest man
would not be ashamed to give, in any private
transaction. But will fairly state ali the rea-
sons which have come to my knowledge, and
would wish tho reader to give them every par
ticle of weight to which they are entitled.
The Georglans say to the Cherokees +" We
are civilized people; you are a vagrant, hunt
lng' ana savage people. By virtue of this dis
tlnction, the lands which you occupy, and which
your fathers called their hunting grounds. be-
long In reality to US; and we must take posses.
sion. The writers on the law of nations bear US
| out in the demand"
10 such astatement the Cherokees might
justly reply; We are not about to dispute as
to your being civilized people, though the
manner of urging this demand of the houses and
lands CT your poor neighbors, does not argue
great modesty or benevolence We do not pro-
| Tess to be learned in the law of nations; but Wa
read the Bible, and have learned there soma,
PLAIN principles of right and wrong The Gov
ernor OF the world gave US this country. We
are III peaceable possession. We have never
acknowledged any earthly lord, or sovereign.
1t our Creator has taken away our land, and CIV
en- it to you, we should like to see some proof
OF 1t, beside your own assertion. We have read
IN the book, which we understand you acknow-
ledge as the word of God, that "to Cypress a
stranger acrOHgfuuy" is mark of great nation.
al wickedness
!" But we are not the sort of people that YOU
take us to be- We are not Migrants, like some
tribes of which we have heard nor were our
fathers. They always had a fixed place of resi-
dence. And as to our wandering about, we
have not the time. We are busy with our crops;
and many of us do not go so far as our nearest
county court once year, unless called out az
Jurymen. We do not hunt. Not family with
In our bounds derives its subsistence from the
chase. AS TO our being savages we appeal TO
the white men, who travel on our turnpike
roads, whether they receive any i'll treatment.
We have legislature and judiciary, and the
Judges OF our supreme court are very rigid in
Furnishing immortality. We have herds Of cat
] tie, farms and houses, mills and looms, clothing
and furniture We are not rich; but we con.
trive, by our industry to provide against hun
ger and nakednessj and to lay up something
comfortable for winter. Besides these things,
we have schools and places of public worship.
Judge ye, whether we are such sort of people
| as the writers on the laws of nations had m
their minds, when they talked of Migrants, hunt
ers, and sayages."
! To this the Georgians reioin But you had
no business to betake yourselves to an agricul-
tural life 1t Is downright imposition upon
us, This is the very thing that we complain of
The more you work on land the more unwil-
ling you are to leave it. just SO it is with your
schools they only serve to attach you the
more strongly to your country. 1t is all design
ed to keep us, the people of a sovereign and in
dependent State, from the enjoyment of our
Just rights. We must refer you to the law Of
nations again, which declares that populous
countries, whose inhabitants live by arricul-
ture, have right to take the lands Of hunters,
and apply them to better use."
In answer TO this legal argument, the Chero-
KEGS have only to say, that, even if Vattel had
the power, by flourish of his pen, to dispossess
nation Of its patrimonial inheritance, the pres
emit case does not come within the limits which
he has prescribed. Georgia is not populous.
She has many millions of acres of unoccupied
land. The Cherokees are not an " cratic peo-
pie" to use the phrase of Vatte, so that neither
( part of the case answers to the description
| When Georgia shall have hundred souls to
the square mile; land her soil is capable Of sus-
tanning larger number than that j the Chero-
KEGS may have four times as many to the square
mile as Georgia now contains.
! If any one has the curiosity to read what
Vattel has said on this subject, he will find it in
sections 81 and 200; where he will also find
commentator Of the manner in which the Pu-
ritan settlers of New England, and the great
founder OF Pennsylvania, obtained possession Of
the lands Of the natives, viz by the consent OF
the occupants, and not by reliance on tho
charters Of kings.
T. 4.