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a nation. Why were we not told long ago, that we could not be
permitted to establish a government within the limits of any
state? Then we could have borne disappointment much easier
than now. The pretext for Georgia to extend her jurisdiction over
the Cherokees has always existed. The Cherokees have always
had a government of their own. Nothing, however, was said
when we were governed by savage laws, when the abominable
law of retaliation carried death in our midst, when it was a law-
ful act to shed the blood of a person charged with witchcraft,
when a brother could kill a brother with impunity, or an inno-
cent man suffer for an offending relative. At that time it might
have been a matter of charity to have extended over us the man-
tle of Christian laws & regulations. But how happens it now, af-
ter being fostered by the U. States, and advised by great and
good men to establish a government of regular law; when the aid
and protection of the General Government have been pledged to
us; when we, as dutiful children of the President, have fol-
lowed his instructions and advice, and have established for our
selves a government of regular law; when everything looks so
promising around us, that a storm is raised by the extension of
tyrannical and unchristian laws, which threatens to blast all our
rising hopes and expectations?
There is, as would naturally be supposed, a great rejoicing
in Georgia.
It is a time of important news gratifying intelli-
gence The Cherokee lands are to be obtained speedily. It is
even reported that the Cherokees have come to the conclusion
to sell, and move off to the west of the Mississippi not so fast.
We are yet at our homes, at our peaceful firesides, (except those
contiguous to Sandtown, Carroll, &c.) attending to our farms
and useful occupations.
We had concluded to give our readers fully our thoughts
on the subject, which we, in the above remarks, have merely
introduced, but upon reflection & remembering our promise,
that we will be moderate, we have suppressed ourselves, and
have withheld what we had intended should occupy our edito-
rial column. We do not wish, by any means, unnecessarily to
excite the minds of the Cherokees. To our home readers we sub-
mit the subject without any special comment. They will judge
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107
for themselves. To our distant readers, who may wish to know
how we feel under present circumstances, we recommend the
memorial, the leading article in our present number. We believe
it justly contains the views of the nation.
November 12, 1831
It has been customary to charge the failure of attempts hereto-
fore made to civilize and christianize the aborigines to the Indi-
ans themselves. Whence originated the common saying, An
Indian will still be an Indian. Do what you will, he cannot be
civilized you cannot reclaim him from his wild habits you
may as well expect to change the spots of the Leopard as to
effect any substantial renovation in his character he is as the
wild Turkey, which at night-fall seeks the tallest forest tree for
his roosting place. Such assertions, although inconsistent with
the general course of providence and the history of nations, have
nevertheless been believed and acted upon by many well mean-
ing persons. Such persons do not sufficiently consider that
causes, altogether different from those they have been in the
habit of assigning, may have operated to frustrate the benevolent
efforts made to reclaim the Indian. They do not, perhaps, think
that as God has, of one blood, created all the nations of the
earth, their circumstances, in a state of nature, must be some-
what the same, and therefore, in the history of mankind, we
have no example upon which we can build the assertion, that it
is impossible to civilize and christianize the Indian. On the con-
trary we have instances of nations, originally as ignorant and
barbarous as the American natives, having risen from their
degraded state to a high pitch of refinement from the worst
kind of paganism to the knowledge of the true God.
We have on more than one occasion remarked upon the
difficulties which lie in the way of civilizing the Indians. Those
difficulties have been fully developed in the history of the Cher-
okees within the last two years. They are such as no one can
now mistake their nature is fully revealed, and the source from
whence they rise can no longer be a matter of doubt. They are
not to be found in the nature of the Indians, which a man in
high authority once said was as difficult to change as the Leop-
ard his spots. It is not because they are, of all others, the most
degraded and ignorant that they have not been brought to enjoy
the blessings of a civilized life. But it is because they have to
contend with obstacles as numerous as they are peculiar.
With a commendable zeal the first Chief magistrate of the
United States undertook to bring the Cherokees into the pale of
civilization, by establishing friendly relations with them by trea-
ties, and introducing the mechanic arts among them. He was
indeed a father to them They regarded him as such They
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placed confidence in what he said, and well they might, for he
was true to his promises. Of course the foundation for the
improvement which the Cherokees have since made was laid
under the patronage of that illustrious man. His successors fol-
lowed his example and treated their red children as human
beings, capable of improvement, and possessing rights derived
from the source of all good, and guarantied by compacts as sol-
emn as a great Republic could make. The attempts of those good
men were attended with success, because they believed those
attempts were feasible and acted accordingly.
Upon the same principle have acted those benevolent asso-
ciations who have taken such a deep interest in the welfare of the
Indians, and who may have expended so much time and money
in extending the benign influence of religion. Those associations
went hand in hand with the Government it was a work of
co-operation. God blessed their efforts. The Cherokees have been
reclaimed from their wild habits Instead of hunters they have
become the cultivators of the soil Instead of wild and ferocious
savages, thirsting for blood, they have become the mild citizens,
the friends and brothers of the white man Instead of the super-
stitious heathens, many of them have become the worshippers of
the true God. Well would it have been if the cheering fruits of
those labors had been fostered and encouraged by an enlightened
community! But alas! no sooner was it made manifest that the
Cherokees were becoming strongly attached to the ways and
usages of civilized life, than was aroused the opposition of those
from whom better things ought to have been expected. No sooner
was it known that they had learned the proper use of the earth,
and that they were now less likely to dispose of their lands for a
mess of pottage, than they came in conflict with the cupidity and
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