Cherokee Phoenix

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Published January, 15, 1831

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INDIAN QUESTION

On our first page will be found an article from 'William Penn,' on the present situation of the 'Indian Question'. It will be followed by another next week, on our duties in relation to it. These articles demand the most serious attention of every American citizen: for they relate to HIS DUTY on an important subject.

One of the wickedest things ever done in Congress was the attempt at the last session to make this a party question. There was, however, too much virtue in that body to permit the entire success of that attempt. Many, who were and still are decided friends of the present administration, opposed the passage of the 'indian Bill'; and some who voted for it, have, by that vote, lost the confidence of their constituents, and failed of a re-election to Congress. The 'Indian Question' then, is one on which the friends of the administration are divided. Some of its fast friends are forward in petitioning in favor of the Indians. There is no occasion for making a party question of it. The evil did not begin with the present administration. Bribing Indian Chiefs to cede the lands of their tribes, obtaining treaties by iniquity, and insisting on their fulfilment against the judgment and wishes of the Indians, are practices which have been creeping in for several years. The moral sense of the community was first shocked by the first public exposure of this system, in the case of the fraudulent treaty with the Creeks, which cost their traitorous chief, MacIntosh, his life. It was the misfortune of the present administration to come into office at the very moment when the difficulties on this subject were greatest -- when demands for further atrocities were most clamorous, and the remonstrances of public virtue the loudest. We do not say that any party which has aspired to their place would have done better. That is a question, with which we have nothing to do. We merely say that the violation of treaties and the oppression of the needy are crimes, and pray that our country may be saved from the commission of them. This is a point on which men of all parties ought to be interested, and to do what they can.

Vt. Chron.