New-York daily tribune., 1844-06-18
The Ch.rok.e Alphabet.

much Olnculty py Il person. to', "!io "d9 va a
race from whom least of all it might have been
expected. The Indian languages being peculiar
n their character and structure, possessing sounds
which an European finds ii difficult even to inn
tate, far less to express, it seemed almost impos-
sble to adapt to them the Roman character.
They have for example, deep gntturais and aspl-
rates to which no letter or complication Of letters
can be applied, and therefore, perhaps 1t was, that
che various attempts Of the Protestant mis-
sionary and Of the Catholic society De Propogando
IN addressing the Indians by books, had so sig
naIly failed. To the lnoi4n reading and writiue
had seemed as it did to Dogbcny to come BY the
grace of God and he looked at the mysterious line:
traced by the white man upon the scroll as "
would upon the hierogyphics OF It necromancer
This idea seemed 10 be universal 10 the native
of the whole hemisphere. The Cac!ques encoun.
tered by Oleda in Hayti, the Inca and the Mex
can Emperor had all shared this idea with Ope
chankenough, and every cIieftain, who, until ou'
own times, had made himsclf remarkable. Somc
twenty years ago, however, a Cherokee OF ihe
full blood or nearly so, by dint Of constant pom
dering upon this miraculous git OF God 10 th
whites, conceived the possibility OF nventing
similar system for his coutrymcn
The first thought upon which he dwet was /"
express the various syllable sounds by the figure
OF the beast, or natural object whose cry mos
nearly resemblcd it. Upon anal yzng, these how
ever, he discovered that they could not be re-
duced to less number than cnty-four o! five,
and that he would have the greatest difficulty
then in expressing them by symbols. Convinced
that this would BE- impracicable he next sue
ceeded in carrying yet farther his analysis irorn
eylables to simple sounds. His next object was
to find characters for them, which, simple and
easy as it may appear TO US, was no easy task.
In this chance assisted him. At the store ol
"the trader" he found piece Of printed paper
whose characters he adopted arbitrarily TO ex-
press his simple sounds TO form his Alphabet.
From the mingling OF Arabic numerals and Ro
man letters, this piece Of paper appears TO have
contained statistical table, for more than one OF
the numerals, is used to express vocal sound,
and we have been told that the sign S expressed
in the first attempts at an alphabet, vcwel
sound. The alphabet was formed and secretly
tested by Guess alone. Agreat difficulty yet re-
NAMED to impart it to his counrymcn. Upon Il
councl-day Guess appeared in his place; the or
dinary business having been finished, he an.
nounced his achievement. The Indian seldom
smiles and yet more rarely laughs, but one burst
of derison arose from the assembly, such u one
perhaps as greeted Copernicus when he announ-
ced his important theory.
He was treated unanimously madman
driven from his position, and his discovery was
on the point of being lost.
With much trouble, however, he persuaded Il
daughter TO attend to him, and impaired quickly
MS art
At length he persuaded the Council TO heal
hun once more, and going into ii requested that
it might be tested.
At the dictaton of the Council he wrote down
sentence, in all probability on a piece OF The IN
ner bark of the beach tree. This was taken 10
his daughter by one of the Conscript fathers of
the Nation and read at once BY her. But 4 mo-
ment before, her father was all but lost. He was
now hailed as one of his Nations savors. Before
long font of types was cast for the Cherokee
Nation, and at New Echota, IN Georgia, the
first number Of the Cherokee PheniN printed,
and within eighteen months a correspondence
between that part of the Nation beyond the Ms
sissippi and the part in Georgia was instituted.
Guess, four years ago, was living honored ard
wealthy, member of one of the Courts of the
Nation and with his grand. children living around
him. He is partisan of John Ross
Closely connected with the history of the Che
rokee Alphabet is that OF Elias Boudlnot. Of his
carly life bu, little is known, except that he WAS
halfblood and educated with more care than
his countrymen Of that day usually that
he married an educated and refined wcman from
one of the Eastern States, who became tie
mother of his family and identified herself en-,
tirely with his own interests and those Of his tribe.
When the State OF Georgia began her unholy per.
secuton of his people, looking at matters with
different ideas from those which had taken pos
session of the other Chiefs of the tribe he SAW no
alternative for the salvation Of the Cherokee but
to seek new home and under more iayorite aus.
pices to build up q new cdfcc. Whether he
was right or wrong III these opinions he was Ger
tainlv honest; but he had violated one OF the
Fundamental laws OF the Nation, which affixed
the penalty of death, TO even the offering to sell
any of the Cherokee lands. This may seem
unreasonable, but upon reflection Its justice VIII
soon be apparent were it legal even 10 talk Of the
traffic OF Indian lands. these supplemented beings
would be continually deluded by the swaIms o,
sharpers that hover around them, aud before long
the Indian would have no resting place. For
violating this law, by proposing in the National
Council, in Georgia to rclinquish their possessions
Immediately on the removal OF the people to Ar
kansas, where for the first time the supremacy Of
the Cherokee law was acknowledged, Boudmot
was arraigned, and not appearing before the
Council, with his coadjutors, the Ridges, who had
participated in all his deliberations was sentenced
to Death. The sentence was executed, sad lie.
y