Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1851-01-15
THE CHEROKEE INDIANS.

THE CHEROKEE INDIANS.
memorial has been forwarded to the Legislature
signed by white citizens Of Macon and Haywood
countless in favor of the removal of the small remnant
of Cherokee Indians who reside in this State. And
a memorial signed BY those Indians has also been
sent to the Legislature, from which the following
extract is taken. The memorialists, after setting
forth that petition has been forwarded for their
The Nor,h Carolina cherok4ss applied to ptesi-
dent Jefferson for permission to remain East to en-
gage in the pursuits of agriculture and civilized fe
President Jefferson promised that this should be done
in the year 1903. In 1917, tready was made with
Gen. Jackson and the Cherokees. The 9th article
provi led IS that such heads of families op
posed to renewal wes to be allowed to register
their names with the agent, and they and their faml-
lies to become citizens of the United States In
the treaty made two years afterwards, (lSl9,} the
2nd article provides for continuation of the provis
ions of the 18th article of the treaty of 1917 Under
this treaty large portion Of the North Carolina
Cherokees became citizens of the United States. The
treaty of 1885, article 10Th, provided for such
opposed TO removal west to become citizens of the
Your memoriasts further allegs that they have
become possessed of large scope of Mountain coun-
try; that they annually pay the taxes for the same
and feel themselves in every respect bound by and
time to abide their issue when enforced; that the
white citizens and themselves have always been
friendly. + 1t is true the undersign-
ed pay no poll tax, and do no public duty. save
working and making roads. We do not wish to vote
interfere with the elections of the whites, in any
manner-we are ignorant of the principl of the
candidates.
Your memorialists beg leave to state that should
their adopted State and country demand their services,
they will not be the to shrink from public duty.
Their ready rifle shall be the first to respond to their
country's call.
Your memoriasts further represent that this coun-
try the home of their forefa,hers that they do
not wish to remove west, nor was 1t ever their lnten-
ton. That they satisfied with the country, and
wish to lay their bones by the side of those of their
tribe who have gone before them"
We give the above as a matter of interest to the
people, connected with this powerful Tribe.
Through the efforts and the aid of the white man,
the small remnant remaining have greatly i'm
proved in their physical and mental condition; and
they entitled to the sympathy and the protection of
those who possess and enjoy this broad and fer
tile country. once their own.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
Without the Constitution, with the Constitution
disregarded and palpably violated, the Union of the
States would be an evil of much greater magnitude
than any which we might anticipate from dissolution
for violation of that instrument, if acquiesced
in, would speedily lead to others, ending only in the
complete overthrow of State sovereignty, and the
establishment of central, consolidated despotism.
The creature would thus, through usurped power, be-
come greater than those who gave it being and
instead of representative government and the voice
of the people, Constitutionally uttered, should
have the edcts of the dispensers of Federal patron
age and the iron sway of sectional majority. Human
liberty, and the elevation of the masses through all
lime to come, depend upon the preservation of the
Federal Constitution in its ury and gnal spirit;
md that Constitution can only be preserved by a
strict construction of the powers enumerated in it, and
BY constant and jealous regard for the rights of the
States.
1t is the duty Of North Carolina to speak out on
this question of Slavery, in the panest language she
While she acqusces in the action of the last
Congress on this question, she does with deep
sense of the wrongs which that action has inflicted
,pon her slaveholGng State and she owes it to
,ersef to declare, with her Southern sisters, that she
will regard the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law,
is essential modification by Congress, as conclusive
evidence that further continuance of the Union is
lot to be expected, even hoped for Such course
IN the part of Congress a0ouM, Of itseH dssoue the
and the responsibility of disunon and
or every evil which might flow from it, would be just
y chargeable, and chargeabe alone, the people of
he free States.