Cherokee Phoenix

From the Columbus Enquirer

Published November, 11, 1832

Page 3 Column 2a

From the Columbus Enquirer.

The Lotteries- It will be recollected by our readers that the Land and Gold Lotteries commence drawing on Monday next. What hopes, what fears, what anxieties will these two inanimate machines, containing the names and prizes create in the agitated breasts of thousands! What a palpitation of heart-what a solicitous inquiry for the last news from the Lottery-what a tremulous handling of lists to hunt up the valuable prize attached to you fortunate name! What enveyings, what jealousies, what covetings will they produce! Here we see the unfortunate debtor waiting the good news to rid him of his inexorable creditor--there the young prodigal, to pay his 'debts of honor' and fill his pockets that he may continue to 'go it'. Here we behold the maiden hoping to heighten her personal charms by the not less brilliant but more substantial contents of the mine--there the lover, looking forward to the happy hour when he shall be enabled to pour his wealth at the feet of his adored fair. Here the poor but honest head of a large family, whose desire extends no further than 'a good tract,' that he may provide for his own household-there the ambitious 'single gentleman,' who would sell his chance of heaven for the poor momentary gratification to swell and strut and domineer his little hour above his fellow mortals. Here the humble follower of Him who gave us all, that he may do his deeds of charity and alms commensurate with his benevolent heart--there the miserable miser, that he may hoard and hoard and hoard to his own destruction. What thousands of opposite and contending emotions, we repeat, are concentrated in those two mute unconscious whirligigs as they roll and tumble the gold and land of the Cherokee country on the one hand, and the distinguished and obscure, reputable and disreputable names of the good people of the Commonwealth of Georgia on the other! Well, we have each a chance- May fortune favor the lovely, and brave and the deserving.

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Georgia, the Cherokees, and the Land Lottery. -The annexed statement from the Savannah Georgian, should be generally read. The tone of it is in keeping with the matter it relates. Oppression, avarice, and the gambler's hopes, have all mingled to work the destruction of the Cherokees, and the lawless appropriation of their property to the Christian! people of Georgia, by the connivance of President Jackson. It is possible there may be those devoted to this personage who, believing all right in his course towards Indians generally will particularly approve that towards these Cherokees; and such persons will naturally enough be delighted with the generous and Christian spirit, which it is related, that the lottery wheels, whence the prizes in Indian Lands and gold mines are to be distributed, were in part made by the hands of Christian missionaries, held in duress in contempt of the solemn decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.

[From the Savannah Georgian. of Oct. 4-]

Land Lotteries.--We have mentioned that the lotteries are to be commenced on the 22d inst. The following, as we learn from Milledgeville, are the number of draws placed in the wheels, and the prizes to be awarded them,viz.

The Land Lottery in which the prizes are square lots of 150 acres each; names given in 85,000 prizes, 18,309; or about four and half blanks to a prize.

In the Gold Lottery, in which the prizes are square lots of forty acres each; names given in, 133,000; prizes, 35,000; or nearly four blanks to a prize.

The commissioners have been industrious to prepare such a mass of tickets (which are printed) together with the numerical books necessary in so short a period. The wheels containing the names are of great circumferences, and so weighty with the tickets that a strong man can hardly turn them. They were manufactured in the Penitentiary, and these important aids towards speedy distribution of Cherokee territory were constructed with the united help of two persons whose stubborn zeal in asserting its independence has thus made them remote agents in its dismemberment-we mean the Missionaries-- Great accuracy being requisite in his registry, it will hardly be possible to draw more than 250 or 3000 names per day, so that with the latter number it will occupy seven months before the prizes are exhausted and the lottery finished. It is proposed to draw a day alternately from the wheels of each.