Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1830-01-05

puhiSned with the guilty. The guilty
should not be punished without trial ;
and neither the innocent nor the guiIty
should be delivered over to private NAL
ice.
How would an intelligent foreigner, a
German, Frenchman, or an Engishman,
be astonlshed to learn, that the Cherokees
are neither savages nor criminals; that
they have never encroached upon the
lands OF others; and that their only offence
consists IN the possession of lands which
their neighbours covet; that they are
peaceful agriculturists, better clothed, fed,
and housed, than many of the peasantry
In most civilized countries; that they
hare sustained diplomatick relations with
the whites at different periods, from the
liIrst settlement Of the contiguous territory
Eby Europeans; that these relations have
Eripened into firm and lasting peace,
which has not been broken by single act
idf hostility for forty years; that the peace
thus cemented is the subject of numerous
treaties, the bases of which are sover-
eighty of the Cherokees, limited, in GER
tain respects, by express stipulations, and
guaranty, on the part of the United
States, Of protection and inviolate terrific
rial limits; that the treaties have been the
foundation of numerous legal enactments,
for the protection of the weaker party,
whose title has been pronounced, by the
highest tribunal in our country. to be wor-
thy Of the respect of all courts, will it be
legitimately extinguished; that the Cher
okees are not charged with having broken
their engagements, or done any thing to
forfeit the guaranty. which they had re-
|ceived as the indispensable condition of
their grants to the United States that
they have always been called brothers and
children by the President of the United
States, and by NIL other publick functional
ries, speaking in the name ofthe country !;
that they have been encouraged and aid
ed, in rising to state of civilization, by
our national government, and benevolent
associations of individuals that one
great motive, presented to their minds by
the government, has uniformly been the
hope and expectation of a permanent resi-
dence, as farmers and mechanicks, upon
the lands of their ancestors, and the en-
joyment of wise laws, administered by
themselves, upon truly republican princi-
piles ) that, relying upon these guaran-
ties, and sustained by such a hope, and
aided in the cultivation of their minds and
hearts by benevolent individuals stationed
among them at their own request, and
partly at the charge of the general govern
lment. they have greatly risen in their
character, condition, and prospects,, that
they have regularly organized govern
ment of their own, consisting of legisla-
tive, judicial, and executive departments,
formed by the advice of the third Presi-
dent Of the United States, and now in easy
and natural operation; that majority of
the people can read their own language,
which was never reduced to writing till
less than seven years ago, and never print
ed till within less than two years that
considerable number of the young, and
some ofthe older, ca read and write the
English language; that ten or twelve
schools are now attended by Cherokee
children that, for years past, unassisted
native Cherokees have been able to trans
act publick business, by written commu-
nications, which, to say the least, need not
fear comparison, in point of style, sense,
and argument, with many communications
made to them. by some Of the highest
functionaries of our national government !;
that these Cherokees, in their treatment
of whites, as in their intercourse with
each other, are mild in their manners, and
hospitable in their feelings and conduct f;
and, to crown the whole, that they are
bound to us by the ties Of christianity
which they profess, and which many Of
them exemplify as members of regular
christian churches.
These are the men, whose country is
to be wrested from them, and who are to
be brought under the laws of Georgia with
out their own consent. These civilized
and educated men these orderly men,
hers of a society, raised, in part, by the
fostering care Of our national government,
from rude materials but now exhibiting a
good degree of symmetry and beauty
these laborious farmers and practical re-
publicans; these dependent allies, who
committed their all to our good faith, on
the " guaranty" of Gen. Washington,
the " assurance" of Mr.. Jefferson, and
the reinsurance of Gen. jackson, and
Mr.. Calhoun, sanctioned, as these sever
al acts were, by the Senate of the United
States; these " citizens of the Cherokee
nation," as we called them in the treaty
of Holston: these fellow christians, reg
ular members of Moravian, Presbyterian,
Baptist, and Methodist churches, are to
be suddenly brought under the laws of
Georgia, according to which they can be
neither witnesses nor parties, in a court
ofiustice. Under the laws did say 1t
is monstrous perversion to call such a
state of things. living under law. They
4 a