Cherokee Phoenix

CHEROKEE PHOENIX

Published September, 14, 1833

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CHEROKEE PHOENIX

NEW ECHOTA, SEPTEMBER 21. 1833

The unavoidable absence of the Editor prevented us from issuing our paper last week. The first side of the paper was put to press last week accounts for the difference in the date of that side and under this head.

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Will some friend of the enrolling agents inform us, the cause of suspending their operations, since they have given the Cherokees their secret letter, and the number of Georgians they have enrolled since we noticed them.

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The Resolutions of the Council which we had promised to our readers will be found below, together with the letter of the Principal Chief to the Secretary of War, and his answer severally thereto.- It will be perceived by these resolutions adopted by the representatives of the Cherokee people that they maintain the same position in regard to their rights as they have always done, and have decidedly and earnestly called upon the Executive of the Union to remove from the Nation, the power of the States which places them in duress, in order to restore them to liberty,to enabled (sic) them to deliberate freely on the momentous concerns of their Nation.- But the answer of the President by the Acting Secretary of War to the Chief considers it useless to continue a correspondence on the Cherokee case, as no hope now remains of a change in the councils of those who have mislead the unhappy Cherokees It may be fairly asked here by whom have the Cherokees been made unhappy? The Cherokees flourished under the administrations of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, and so soon as the salutary policy of these great ceased to exist, and the treaties of the Government with the Cherokees, were given over by the President to the new powers of the surrounding states, then in the language of Mr. Robb was commenced the unhappiness of the Cherokee people. It is not our intention knowingly to deceive our readers, but it is our immoveable impression that this seeming censure of the Secretary on the leaders of the Cherokee people is gratuitous, and not the true sentiments of the President, but equivocating on his acquiescence to the resolutions. The President addressed his liberal propositions to the Cherokees last year, and have been known to them since, but they have twice in the General Council convened been rejected. Again, In the first paragraph of the secret instruction to his enrolling Agents, the President say, the reluctance of the generality of the Cherokees to remove west does not rest upon their ignorance or dislike of that country? No intimation is here given, that the opposition of the Cherokees to the measures of the President is controlled by those who have obtained an ascendancy over the Cherokees. Therefore we conclude the sentiments of the Acting Secretary is not of that character to put to rest forever the action of the Government in this case, prejudicial to the rights of the Cherokees.

Again: Secretary Cass in his communication to the Cherokees Chief (Ross) of March 14th says that 'the complaints of the Cherokees are well grounded and that the Department cherished deep solicitude for the welfare of the Nation, and that it would endeavor to promote it.' Now it would appear from these passages that the Government at that time possessed full and correct information of the true feelings of the Cherokees, which were not created by the ascendancy of their leaders, and we cannot discover upon what authority the Secretary should, after having the resolutions of the National Council before him cast the reflection on those chiefs whom the choice of the Cherokees have placed them to preside over their affairs.

The Secretary then speaks of the 'liberal terms of the propositions, and are satisfactory to the American people, and would be so to the Cherokees were they to exercise their own judgment.' Upon the admission of the people of the U. S. to the benefits of these proposition to the Cherokees were they accepted, we shall render no objections. But before the government could consistently hold up to the Cherokees its liberality in regard to the new treaty, is it not the incumbent and paramount duty of the President, first to prove it by carrying into effect ' in good faith his 17 treaties with us! We sincerely hope that the fragments of these prostrated treaties may sincerely be considered, their obligations renewed, the Cherokees permitted to exercise their own free will, before these honest chiefs are blamed for calling on the President of the U. S. for the fulfillment of his bond with us.