[592] This objection to consolidation was afterwards withdrawn, and, based upon fuller information of the proposed plan, was most fully concurred in.
[593] September 18, 1865.
[594] Statement of Southern delegation at an interview held with Commissioners Cooley and Sells, March 30, 1866. They also proposed that a census be taken and each man be allowed to decide whether or not he would live under the jurisdiction of the Ross party.
[595] Statement of loyal delegation at interview held with Commissioners Cooley and Sells, March 30, 1866.
[596] Sundry interviews between Commissioners Cooley and Sells and the loyal and Southern delegations, from March to June, 1866.
[597] June 13, 1865.
[598] United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV, p. 799.
[599] See preamble to treaty of July 19, 1833.
[600] John Ross, or Kooeskoowe, was of mixed Scotch and Indian blood on both father's and mother's side. His maternal grandfather was John Stuart, who for many years prior to the Revolutionary war was British superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern tribes and who married a Cherokee woman. He was born about 1790 in that portion of the Cherokee Nation within the present limits of Georgia, and died in Washington, D. C., August 1, 1866. As early as 1813 Ross made a trip to the Cherokee country west of the Mississippi, ascending the Arkansas River to the present limits of Indian Territory, and wrote a detailed account of the situation and prospects of his brethren, the character of the country, etc. In 1820 (and perhaps earlier) he had become president of the Cherokee national committee, and continued so until the adoption of a constitution by the Cherokee Nation, July 26, 1827. Of this constitutional convention Mr. Ross was the president, and under its operation he was elected principal chief, a position which he continued to hold until his death.
[601] May 11, 1872. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 98.