Mexico weekly ledger., 1878-02-21
he min argument to the Jury and he

uAo ~. VuSA tudt akSuAlcut WIS ~
ded, and by it. vast contributions to
the learning of the law had been
made, patriotism had received
new inspiration, treason was made
odious, eloquence had been given
new charms, new beauties and forces
had been developed in poetry and
Writ became-historic.
For Twenty years from this Writ
devoted himself and his vast powers
to his profession and to literature.
Eight of which years he held with
honor and usefulness to the whole
nation, the high Office of Attorney
General of the United States.
The Cherokees we're American In
dians, having tribal organization upon
their own lands, which were secured
to them by solemn treaty with the
Federal Government, but within the
territorial limits of Georgia. These
lands, by express words of the treaty,
under which the Indians held them,
excluded from all jurisdictions of that
State. No process of the State could
ran into those lands, no officer of the
State could go thereon to serve them.
This tribe within their own terrific
ry had exclusive jurisdiction. They
had their WI constitution, legisla-
ture and courts. and under their con-
stitution their Legislature made such
laws as it might and which were in
forced by their own C ,urts according
to peculiar Indian jurisprudence, a
people-free and Independent.
For years Georgia had been rest
less at the idea of having a people
within her borders and not of her or
hers, opposed the thought of such a
government within her own. The
private citizen clamoerd for the pos
session and ownership of these, the
fertile Indian lands, and municipal
ambition intensified by private greed
and personal hate, led to innumera-
bic violation by Georgia of the treaty
rights of the Indians, and these out
RACES became at length, uncomfortable.
The Federal Government refused or
neglected to enforce this treaty, and
the State courts were closed against
the injured, complaining Indians.
Their only recourse was to invoke
the aid of the Supreme court of the
United States. This could be done
only upon the theory that the Chero-
kee Nation was either a State within
he Federal Union o a foreign state /;
for upon m or the other state of
facts only, had that court jurisdic-
ton. The language of the constitu-
ton being that THAT court shall have
exclusive jurisdiction in actions be-
tween states, OIL state and foreign
state"
Was the Cherokee Nation a Estate
within the Uuion? Was it a foreign
state? Was it q state at all, was the
question, and singularly enough, no
where in all the range of judicial de-
termination, had this question re-
ceived judicial definition. However,
the action was brought in that court.
The Cherokee Nation against the
state of Georgia, and that court was
compelled to solve the question, and
to its discussion in behalf of the Ma
ton cane Writ; ut u time when years
sat easy upon him, when his Judgment
was ripe, and his natural strength
not abated, and to his work he de-
voted all his vast powers, aided by
unlimited research, every sentence
blazing with genius, and the whole
poured forth with unparalleled elo-
quence. The cause of the Indians
was lost, but the faue of Writ was
immortal.
Ten years later Writ died full Of
years, full of honors. At his grave
a whole nation wept.
To enable you to G just what a
man Writ was, what he accomplished,
what vast usefulness he must have
accomplished, l have alluded to these
two prominent scenes in his life.
Writ, my friends, in his earliest
professional life, was a wild, dissipat-
ed, drunken man. To such an *
tent was this so, that on more than
II occasion he was see at midday
drunk in the gutter of the streets of
the city of his residence. His most
cordial and admiring friends number
ed him ameng the best. They mourn
ed and wept e him as another
costly sacrifice to the moloch of in
temperance. Why, in the name of
all that is good, is it that the demon
of intemperanoe, like death, ''de-
lights to smite what smitten most pro-
proclaims the pride of power and
arbitrary nod?"
One day, a young lady friend of
Wirt's, walking along the streets OF
the city of their common residence,
beheld him lying in the gutter
drunk, his fair, though bloated
face, b~listering in the midda7, mid
summer Virginia sun. She stopped
amid the passing throng, took from
her pocket her handkerchief, having
/ II one of its the initial of her
name, and spread It owe his face and
weeping over the fallen man, she
passed ON, All she had done was to
cover the mans face from the g',ze
of the sun rs well as the gaze of his
fellow men, thss hiding his shame.
After awhile male friends came and
carried him to his office where Writ
slept off his debauch. When he came
to his consciousness, casting about
him, he saw the handkerchief; it was
not his bat whose was it? AS he
examined he SAW the initials upon it,
AMI soon learned its owner; but
whence came it? He went out, EN-
quired of his male friend and learned
the incident.
Writ vas astounded and exclaim-
al! IAN l so far gone that at mid
day | lie in the gutter as the swine!
Yet, am l of such value, that this
lady, seeing me thus, would stop in
the crowded street and cover my face
| with her own handkerchief, to hide
my shame and keep me from the