Cherokee Phoenix

From the New York Advertiser

Published July, 16, 1831

Page 2 Column 3b

From the New York Advertiser.

When the law of Congress, passed at the first session under the administration of the General Jackson, authorizing him to take measures for the removal of the southern Indians beyond the Mississippi, was under discussion, and after it had been published, it was not only approved by the sycophantic and servile presses of the party through out the country, but the policy which gave rise to it was pronounced mild, liberal and humane. And when it was charged with being a part of a scheme to co-operate with the state of Georgia, in a series of measures not only unconstitutional, but grossly iniquitous, and unjust, to force the Indians, by the severity of legal and judicial oppression, to abandon their property and their homes, we were informed from the same pure and uncontaminated sources, that the Georgians were a magnanimous people, who would do nothing that was improper or unkind to the Indians--that every thing that was intended was fair negotiation and no force or compulsion was to be resorted to, or was even thought of. The ears of the public were perfectly dinned on this subject; and those who thought proper to condemn the whole system of measures respecting the Indians, were stigmatized as fanatics, revilers of Georgia, and enemies of Andrew Jackson.- Time unfolds events, and reveals the truth to mankind, however much pains may be taken by interested and unprincipled politicians to conceal it We publish today some documents from the Cherokee newspaper, which may throw some light upon the subject, and perhaps render it expedient for the degraded supporters of this unprincipled policy, to come out again in its justification.

It was stated in the newspaper some time since, that the Rev. Mr. Worcester, one of the missionaries among the Georgia Cherokees, had been arrested by authority of the laws of Georgia, for residing in the Cherokee Nation, but that he was afterwards dismissed, on the ground that he was a deputy postmaster, and therefore an officer under the government of the United States.--Shortly afterwards, Mr. Worcester was dismissed from the post office, and another person appointed in his place. Being thus, by the assistance of the national government, stripped of his official character, he was prepared for the unrestricted vengeance of the laws of Georgia. By a letter from a Col. Sanford, dated the 28th of May, Mr. Worcester and the Rev. Mr. Thompson, were warned to depart in ten days from the Cherokee territory, on the penalty, in case of disobedience of the order of arrest, of such punishment as the laws of Georgia provide--which we presume is confinement at hard labor in the state prison. Col. Sanford's letter was accompanied by a letter from Governor Gilmer of Georgia to each of these gentleman, informing them they must quit the territory, and giving them to understand that if they remained in it, punishment would certainly follow.

A letter from John Ridge, a Cherokee Chief, to the Editor of the Cherokee paper, states that four other persons had been arrested under similar pretenses, and were chained together in pairs, and fastened with locks. It also appears, that the Georgia officers were scouring the country, and picking up everybody they could find.

The points to which we wish to turn the attention of our readers are the mildness, justice, and humanity of the policy recommended by General Jackson towards the Cherokees, and the justice and magnanimity of the state of Georgia, in their attempts to plunder the Indians of their lands. It is perfectly obvious, from the circumstances that the moment it was found that Mr. Worcester could not be held a prisoner by Georgia, because he was an officer of the United States, that he was displaced for the purpose of removing that obstacle to the vengeance of Georgia, that the administration and Georgia perfectly understood each other; and this evidence, if further evidence could have been wanting; unanswerably established the fact of cooperation on the part of the National Administration with the state of Georgia, to enable the latter to drive these defenseless people from their country! And if established, what honest man will have the hardihood to justify such a deceitful and disgraceful course on the part of the national government? What is it except a cool and insidious plot, on the part of a great and powerful nation, to defraud and plunder a poor, defenseless, and helpless race of men, who want nothing but numbers, to drench their soil in blood, in attempting to defend their just rights and possessions?