soil of their rightful inheritance, and while the excrtions and labors of various religious socictics of these United States are successfnlly engaged in promulgating to them the words of truth and life from the sacred volume of Holy Writ, and under the patronage of the General Government, thcy with removal or extinction.*** We appeal ty of the American Congress for justice, and the protection of the rights and liberties and lives of the Cherokee people. We claim it from the United States by the strongest obligation which imposes it on them-by treaties: and we expect it from theu under that memorable declaration, 'that all men are cre are threatencd to the maguanimi are endowed by their Creator with cer- ated equal; that they tain inalienable rights; that aunong these are life, liberty, and the putsuit of happiness.

The dignified and pathetic remonstrances of the Cherokee chiefs, their firm reiterations of their resolve not to part with their lands, was called by the angry Georgian governor "tricks of vulgar cunning," and "insults from the polluted lips of out- casts and vagabonds;" and he is not afraid, in an official letter to the Sceretary of War, to openly threaten the President that, if he upholds the Indians in their rejection of the overtures for removal, the "conseqnences are inevitable," and that, in resist ing tlhe occupation of the Cherokee lands by the Gcorgians, he will be obliged to "make war upon, and shed the blood of brothers and friends."’

To these Cherokees Mr. Jefferson had written, at one time during his administration, " I sineerely wish you may succeed in your landable endeavors to save the remnant of your nation by adopting industrious occupations, and a government of reg- ular law. In this you may always rely on the counsel and as- sistance of the United Statcs.

In 1791 he had written to General Knox, defining the United States' position in the matter of Indian lands "Government should irmly maintain this ground, that the Indians have a