CHEROKEE PHOENIX

NEW ECHOTA.Jan 19th 1833

We contemplated an improvement of our paper at the commencement of this year with new type; but the absence of our printer by indisposition obliged us to defer it to the present number. We present now to our readers the CHEROKEE PHOENIX printed with a type entirely new, and of a smaller letter, which will enable us to publish a little more matter than was contained in our former numbers, and without increasing the price. The motto of the Cherokees granted them by treaties, which crowned the rising PHOENIX, and so earnestly urged upon the President for 'PROTECTION' and without effect, has been discontinued to give place to the ordinary but splendid capitals which will hereafter stand at the head of this paper.

It is deemed unnecessary at this time for us to enumerate more particularly the principles by which we shall be governed in our future labors, as we presume they are generally known to our readers.- The support of the rights of the Cherokees. The improvements which have been made is not without considerable expense to the Nation, and in order to the continuation of our paper we again solicit from a candid public an increased patronage.

__________________

The beautiful and beloved country of the Cherokees is now passing to the occupancy of the Georgians. The drawing of the lands and gold mines of the Cherokees continues to be prosecuted with vigor, under the authority of the enlightened and Christian Governor of Georgia. The fortunate drawers (so called) are daily entering into possession of the arable and otherwise valuable lots which they have drawn, and obtained by a game of chances. The Cherokee country is now wedged with settlers, and droves of land hunters, to which the Indians cry daily, and it is literally Robbery! Robbery! This crusade on our rights forms a new era in the history of the United States by which the Cherokees are denationalized, treaties destroyed, the legislation of Congress to carry them into effect annulled, and the faith of the republic fled to the western wilds. The approach of the crisis we were loth to believe; because it was unjust, it was uncouth, and incompatible to the known promises of protection by the government. Will Georgia be tolerated to plunder the Cherokees of their lands of incalculable worth and wrested from the guaranty of treaties, at a time when the sullen cannon is pointed, and bayonet is brandishing by the President against Carolina, to preserve inviolably a law, involving a question of taxation of doubtful legality? We are here in darkness; why of this distinction, we ask light on this question.

Query. Why are not our treaties as binding now, as when they were negotiated and ratified?

_______________________________

What does this mean?

We are informed from an authentic source that the Honorable Secretary of War has invited a delegation of Cherokees to attend at Washington City. About the time when the Principal Chief left the nation with a delegation for that place to attend to the interests of the Cherokees Nation, Secretary Cass, had conferred an appointment on Jack Walker with authority to select three others, and proceed to Washington. In accordance to the requirements from the White House, on Saturday last (not saying their honors) were to have moved and probably have proceeded, and as we are informed without any authority whatever from the Cherokees as a tory delegation on the road to Washington.- But we fear the road of Benedict Arnold.

_____________________

The following article we copy from one of our exchange papers, which is said to be taken from the Globe, the Government paper. The condition in which the commissioner has represented the western Cherokees is so prosperous, that the friends of the Indians and of truth will hardly credit it. By what means the commissioner ascertained the surplus of 28,000 bushels of corn, is not stated. It must be borne in mind that the Secretary of War reported to Congress the number of Cherokees of Arkansas at 3500 assuming this number, would give to each hand including women and children 800 bushels of corn. Truly this is preposterous! But we think it a fine cloak to cover many sins, and each statement should not be credited on the face of the Globe.

_________________

PROSPEROUS CONDITION OF THE INDIANS

WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

It will gratify the true friends of the Indians,and go far, we think, to convince those who have apprehended their position, west of the Mississippi, was an unfavorable one, to read the following extract from letter recently received from one of the Commissioners, now engaged in the adjustment of unsettled Indian matters, in that region:

'The condition of the Creeks and Cherokees is very prosperous. The Cherokees can, I think, disposed of 23,000 bushels of this season, and the Creeks 50,000 bushels; (this is over and above their own consumption.) Education is becoming an interesting topic. Five schools have been and are now being established among the Creeks, independent of benevolent school. The Cherokees have employed four native teachers at four hundred dollars each, and Mr. Guess, the inventor of the alphabet, at four hundred , thus consuming 'their own fund' of two thousand dollars. This, si to the Indian nations a most interesting time.'

_____________________

From the Boston Recorde.

GEORGIA PENITENTIARY.

A letter before us from a gentleman who lately visited the Georgia Penitentiary says:

'We found the prisoners [missionaries] apparently in good spirits, and Dr. Butler in excellent health. Mr. Worcester had been sick with ague and fever for about two weeks, but was so much better that he had been laboring the day on which we left Milledgeville. The situation of the prisoners, and of our brethren in particular, was much more comfortable than I had anticipated. Their [Messrs. W. and B.] clothing was decent and _______ for what I saw, their food also. Col. Mills [the keeper] is____________ loved by the prisoners, who consider him their friend. A great reformation has been effected in the morals of the convicts, fourteen of whom give evidence of a change of heart, while as many more have pledged themselves to abandon their wicked courses.'

The fact last mentioned is a remarkable instance of the over-ruling Providence of God, in bringing good out of evil and causing even the wickedness of men to subserve the interests of his kingdom. It also shows very strikingly the power of Christian character.- The missionaries have doubtless acted on the minds and hearts of their fellow prisoners at least as much by their example-by the consistent and pervading holiness of their lives-as by direct oral instructions and appeals. Without the former, indeed, the latter must have been powerless with such men.- It is also an instructive and encouraging fact for those interested in prison discipline. It is an important testimony to the practicability of reform, and to pure Christianity as a reforming principle even for the most vicious and degraded classes of men.- Once more; It is a fact that ought to excite the gratitude and encourage the hearts of the friends of missions. God does not permit their labors and prayers to be frustrated even by the interference of iniquitous and oppressive laws. The light that they send out in the persons of their missionaries, if those missionaries be found faithful, cannot be hid. Chains and imprisonment-torture and death itself, may be resorted to; but the power of the Gospel in the human heart and character is stronger than chains-stronger than death.

Let us hope that the justice which has ben awarded to those men by the highest tribunal of their country, will soon be actually secured to them. In respect to the case of South Carolina the President says:

'But reasoning on this subject is superfluous when our social compact in express terms declares, that the laws of the United States, the Constitution and treaties made under it, and the supreme law of the land'-and for greater caution adds, 'that the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.' And it may be asserted without fear of refutation, that 'no Federative Government could exist without a similar provision.'

This provision the President declares himself determined to abide by and enforce. And if in the case of South Carolina, why not in that of Georgia also? In principle there is not a particle of difference in the two cases; and till facts shall compel us to relinquish it, we shall cherish the hope that the decision of the Supreme Court will be enforced by the Executive-the language heretofore used in public documents notwithstanding.