attempts of the federal government, coeval with its origin, should receive an honorable notice. That they have essentially failed, the sad experience of every day but too strongly testifies. If the original plan, conceived in the spirit of benevolence, had not been fated to encounter that as yet unabated desire to bereave them of their lands, it would, perhaps, have realized much of the hopes of its friends. So long, however, as that desire continues to direct our councils, every effort must fail. A cursory review is all that is necessary to show the incongruity of the measures we have pursued, and the cause of their failure. Missionaries are sent among them to enlighten their minds, by imbibing them with religious impressions. Schools have been established by the aid of private as well as public donations, for the instruction of their youths. They have been persuaded to abandon the chase -to locate themselves and become cultivators of the soil-implements of husbandry and domestic animals have been presented them, and all these things have been done, accompanied with professions of disinterested solicitude for their happiness. Yielding to these temptations, some of them have reclaimed the forest, planted their orchards, and erected houses, not only for their abode, but for the administration of justice and for religious worship. And when they have so done, you send your agent to tell them they must surrender their country to the white man, and recommit themselves to some new desert, and substitute as the means of their subsistence the precarious chase for the certainty of cultivation. The love of our native land is implanted in every human bosom, whether he roams the wilderness, or is found in the highest state of civilization. This attachment increases with the comforts of our country, and is strongest when these comforts are the fruits of our own exertions. Can it be matter of surprise that they hear with unmixed indignation of what seems to them our ruthless purpose of expelling them from their country, thus endeared? They see that our professions are insincere-that our promises have been broken, that the happiness of the Indian is a cheap sacrifice to the acquisition of more lands; and when attempted to be soothed by the assurance that the country to which we propose to send them is desirable, they em

phatically ask us, what new pledges can you give us that we shall not again be exiled when it is your wish to possess these lands? It is easier to state than to answer this question. A regard for consistency, apart from any other consideration, requires a change of measures. Either let him retain and enjoy his home, or, if he is to be driven from it, abstain from cherishing illusions we mean to disappoint, and thereby make him to feel more sensibly the extent of his loss."

As a relief for existing evils, the secretary had some doubts of the efficacy of removing the Indians to the west of the Mississippi. He suggested many difficulties, and, moreover, expressed apprehensions that if removed "the same propensity which has conducted the white population to the remote regions they (the Indians) now occupy, will continue to propel the tide, till it is arrested only by the distant shores of the Pacific." He, however, prepared a bill, and submitted it with his report, the outlines of which were as follows:

First. The country west of the Mississippi, and beyond the states and territories, and so much on the east side of the Mississippi as lies west of Lakes Huron and Michigan, to be set apart for the exclusive abode of the Indians.

Second. Their removal by individuals, in contradistinction to tribes.

Third. A territorial government to be maintained by the United States.

Fourth. If circumstances shall eventually justify it, the extinction of tribes, and their amalgamation in one mass, and a distribution of property among the individuals.

Fifth. Leaves the condition of those who do not emigrate unaltered.

The secretary concludes his exhaustive report thus: "I will add, that the end proposed is the happiness of the Indianthe instrument of its accomplishment-their progressive, and, finally, their complete civilization. The obstacles to success are their ignorance, their prejudices, their repugnance to labor, their wandering propensities, and the uncertainty of the future. I would endeavor to overcome these by schools; by a distribution of land in individual right; by a permanent social establishment which should require the performance

of social duties; by assigning them a country of which they are never to be bereaved, and cherishing them with parental kindness." The report and bill of the secretary did not receive the favorable consideration of Congress. During the remainder of the administration of John Q. Adams the government was perplexed with the Indian problem. The states in which the Indians held reservations were urging that the Indian title be extinguished, and the Indians removed to the west of the Mississippi. Georgia was impatient for the fulfillment of the compact of 1802, and the removal of all Indians from that state. That portion of the Cherokees who declined to emigrate had organized a government of their own, within the State of Georgia, and the controversy growing out of this act became national; the people in every state were discussing it in their political assemblies; it pervaded Congress, and engaged the attention of the Supreme Court of the United States, Georgia having by legislation sought to repress the Indian government set up within her limits.

Thus matters stood at the time of the inauguration of President Jackson. In his first annual message, December 8, 1829, he dealt with the subject at considerable length, and especially with the existing aspect of affairs between the State of Georgia and the Cherokees. The president said: "The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within the limits of some of our states have become objects of much importance. It has long been the policy of the government to introduce among them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering life. This policy has, however, been coupled with another, wholly incompatible with its success. Professing a desire to civilize and settle them, we have, at the same time, lost no opportunity to purchase their lands, and thrust them further into the wilderness. By this means they have not only been kept in a wandering state, but been led to look upon us as unjust and indifferent to their fate. Thus, though lavish in its expenditures on the subject, government has continually defeated its own policy; and the Indians, in general, receding farther and farther to the west, have retained their savage habits. A portion, however, of the southern tribes, having mingled

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much with the whites, and made some progress in the arts of civilized life, have lately attempted to erect an independent government within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These states claiming to be the only sovereigns within their respective territories, extending their laws over the Indians, induced the latter to call upon the United States for protection. Under the circumstances, the question presented was, whether the general government had a right to sustain these people in their pretensions? The constitution declares, that no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state,' without the consent of its legislature. Georgia became a member of the confederacy which eventuated in our federal union, as a sovereign state, always asserting her claim to certain limits, which having been originally defined in her colonial charter, and subsequently recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since continued to enjoy, except as they have been circumscribed by her own voluntary transfer of a portion of her territory to the United States, in the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was admitted into the Union on the same footing with the original states, with boundaries which were prescribed by Congress. There is no constitutional, conventional, or legal provision which allows them less power over the Indians within their borders than is possessed by the people of Maine or New York. Would the people of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe to erect an independent government within that state? And unless they did, would it not be the duty of the general government to support them in resisting such a measure? Would the people of the State of New York permit each remnant of the Six Nations within her limits to declare itself an independent people under the protection of the United States? Could the Indians establish a separate republic on each of their reservations in Ohio? And if they were so disposed, would it be the duty of the gov ernment to protect them in the attempt? If the principle involved in the obvious answers to these questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects of the goverment are reversed, and that it has become a part of its duty to aid in destroying the states which it was established to protect. Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians

inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama, that their attempt to establish an independent government would not be countenanced by the executive of the United States; and advised them to emigrate beyond the Mississippi, or submit to the laws of those states." In the further discussion of the subject, President Jackson submitted to Congress, "the interesting question, whether something can not be done, consistently with the rights of the states, to preserve this much injured And added: "As a means of effecting this end, I suggest for your consideration the propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any state or territory now formed, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each tribe having the distinct control over the portion designated for its own use. There they may be secured in the enjoyment of governments of their own choice, subject to no other control from the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier and between the several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts of civilization; and by promoting union and harmony among them, to raise up an interesting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race, and to attest the humanity and justice of the government."

Congress took hold of the subject, and in February, 1830, both the Senate and House Committees on Indian Affairs made reports in favor of the policy of the removal of the Indians to the west of the Mississippi river; and before the close of the session, a law was passed, entitled "an act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing within any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi." This was approved by the president, May 28, 1830.

The first section authorized the president of the United States to cause so much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the river Mississippi, and not included in any state or organized territory, and to which the original Indian title was extinguished, as he might judge necessary, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to ex