The removal of the Creek Indians from this State was accomplished by the treaty of 1826, and that satisfied the obligations of the United States to Georgia, under the compact of 1802, so far as the Creek tribe was concerned. But the same obligation remained with respect to the Cherokees, contracted at the same time, and founded on the same valuable consideration, namely: the cession by Georgia to the United States of her western territory, now constituting the two States of Alabama and Mississippi. And twenty-five years' delay, and under incessant application, the compact had been carried into effect with respect to the Creeks; it was now thirty-five years since it was formed, and it still remained unexecuted with respect to the Cherokees. Georgia was impatient and importunate, and justly so, for the removal of this tribe, the last remaining obstacle to the full enjoyment of all her territory. General Jackson was equally anxious to effect the removal, both as an act of justice to Georgia, and also to Alabama (part of whose territory was likewise covered by the Cherokees), and also to complete the business of the total removal of all the Indians from the east to the west side of the Mississippi. It was the only tribe remaining in any of the States, and he was in the last year of his presidency, and the time becoming short, as well as the occasion urgent, and the question becoming more complex and difficult. Part of the tribe had removed long before. Faction split the remainder that staid behind. Intrusive counsellors, chiefly from the Northern States, came in to inflame dissension, aggravate difficulties, and impede removal. For climax to this state of things, party spirit laid hold of it, and the politicians in opposition to General Jackson endeavored to turn it to the prejudice of his administration. Nothing daunted by this combination of obstacles, General Jackson pursued his plan with firmness and vigor, well seconded by his Secretary at War, Mr. Cass—the War Department being then charged with the administration of the Indian affairs. In the autumn of 1835, a commission had been appointed to treat with the half tribe in Georgia and Alabama. It was very judiciously composed to accomplish its purpose, being partly military and partly ecclesiastic. General William Carroll, of Tennessee, well known to all the Southern Indians as a brave and humane warrior, and the Reverend John F. Schermerhorn, of New-York, well known as a missionary laborer, composed the commission; and it had all the success which the President expected.
In the winter of 1835-'36, a treaty was negotiated, by which the Cherokees, making clean disposal of all their possessions east of the Mississippi, ceded the whole, and agreed to go West, to join the half tribe beyond that river. The consideration paid them was ample, and besides the moneyed consideration, they had large inducements, founded in views of their own welfare, to make the removal. These inducements were set out by themselves in the preamble to the treaty, and were declared to be: "A desire to get rid of the difficulties experienced by a residence within the settled parts of the United States; and to reunite their people, by joining those who had crossed the Mississippi; and to live in a country beyond the limits of State sovereignties, and where they could establish and enjoy a government of their choice, and perpetuate a state of society, which might be most consonant with their views, habits, and condition, and which might tend to their individual comfort, and their advancement in civilization." These were sensible reasons for desiring a removal, and, added to the moneyed consideration, made it immensely desirable to the Indians. The direct consideration was five millions of dollars, which, added to stipulations to pay for the improvements on the ceded lands—to defray the expenses of removal to their new homes beyond the Mississippi—to subsist them for one year after their arrival—to commute school funds and annuities—to allow pre-emptions and pay for reserves—with some liberal grants of money from Congress, for the sake of quieting complaints—and some large departmental allowances, amounted, in the whole, to more than twelve millions of dollars! Being almost as much for their single extinction of Indian title in the corner of two States, as the whole province of Louisiana cost! And this in addition to seven millions of acres granted for their new home, and making a larger and a better home than the one they had left. Considered as a moneyed transaction, the advantage was altogether, and out of all proportion, on the side of the Indians; but relief to the States, and quiet to the Indians, and the completion of a wise and humane policy, were overruling considerations, which sanctioned the enormity of the amount paid.
Advantageous as this treaty was to the Indians, and desirable as it was to both parties, it was earnestly opposed in the Senate; and only saved by one vote. The discontented party of the Cherokees, and the intrusive counsellors, and party spirit, pursued it to Washington city, and organized an opposition to it, headed by the great chiefs then opposed to the administration of General Jackson—Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Calhoun. Immediately after the treaty was communicated to the Senate, Mr. Clay presented a memorial and protest against it from the "Cherokee nation," as they were entitled by the faction that protested; and also memorials from several individual Cherokees; all which were printed and referred to the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs, and duly considered when the merits of the treaty came to be examined. The examination was long and close, extending at intervals for nearly three months—from March 7th to the end of May—and assuming very nearly a complete party aspect. On the 18th of May Mr. Clay made a motion which, as disclosing the grounds of the opposition to the treaty, deserves to be set out in its own words. It was a motion to reject the resolution of ratification, and to adopt this resolve in its place: "That the instrument of writing, purporting to be a treaty concluded at New Echota on the 29th of December, 1835, between the United States and the chiefs, head men and people of the Cherokee tribe of Indians, and the supplementary articles thereto annexed, were not made and concluded by authority, on the part of the Cherokee tribe, competent to bind it; and, therefore, without reference to the terms and conditions of the said agreement and supplementary articles, the Senate cannot consent to and advise the ratification thereof, as a valid treaty, binding upon the Cherokee tribe or nation;" concluding with a recommendation to the President to treat again with the Cherokees east of the Mississippi for the whole, or any of their possessions on this side of that river. The vote on this resolve and recommendation was, 29 yeas to 15 nays; and it requiring two-thirds to adopt it, it was, of course, lost. But it showed that the treaty itself was in imminent danger of being lost, and would actually be lost, in a vote, as the Senate then stood. The whole number of the Senate was forty-eight; only forty-four had voted. There were four members absent, and unless two of these could be got in, and vote with the friends of the treaty, and no one got in on the other side, the treaty was rejected. It was a close pinch, and made me recollect what I have often heard Mr. Randolph say, that there were always members to get out of the way at a pinching vote, or to lend a hand at a pinching vote. Fortunately the four absent senators were classified as friends of the administration, and two of them came in to our side, the other two refusing to go to the other side: thus saving the treaty by one vote. The vote stood, thirty-one for the treaty, fifteen against it; and it was only saved by a strong Northern vote. The yeas were: Messrs. Benton of Missouri; Black of Mississippi; Brown of North Carolina; Buchanan of Pennsylvania; Cuthbert of Georgia; Ewing of Illinois; Goldsborough of Maryland; Grundy of Tennessee; Hendricks of Indiana; Hubbard of New Hampshire; Kent of Maryland; King of Alabama; King of Georgia; Linn of Missouri; McKean of Pennsylvania; Mangum of North Carolina; Moore of Alabama; Morris of Ohio; Niles of Connecticut; Preston of South Carolina; Rives of Virginia; Robinson of Illinois; Ruggles and Shepley of Maine; N. P. Tallmadge of New-York; Tipton of Illinois; Walker of Mississippi; Wall of New Jersey; White of Tennessee; and Wright of New-York—31. The nays were: Messrs. Calhoun of South Carolina; Clay of Kentucky; Clayton of Delaware; Crittenden of Kentucky; Davis of Massachusetts; Ewing of Ohio; Leigh of Virginia; Naudain of Delaware; Porter of Louisiana; Prentiss of Vermont; Robbins of Rhode Island; Southard of New Jersey; Swift of Vermont; Tomlinson of Connecticut; and Webster of Massachusetts—15. Thus the treaty was barely saved. One vote less in its favor, or one more against it, and it would have been lost. Two members were absent. If either had come in and voted with the opposition, it would have been lost. It was saved by the free State vote—by the fourteen free State affirmative votes, which precisely balanced and neutralized the seven slave State negatives. If any one of these fourteen had voted with the negatives, or even been absent at the vote, the treaty would have been lost; and thus the South is indebted to the North for this most important treaty, which completed the relief of the Southern States—the Chickasaws, Creeks and Choctaws having previously agreed to remove, and the treaties with them (except with the Creeks) having been ratified without serious opposition.
The ratification of this treaty for the removal of the Cherokees was one of the most difficult and delicate questions which we ever had to manage, and in which success seemed to be impossible up to the last moment. It was a Southern question, involving an extension of slavery, and was opposed by all three of the great opposition leaders; who only required a minority of one third to make good their point. At best, it required a good Northern vote, in addition to the undivided South, to carry the treaty; but, with the South divided, it seemed hardly possible to obtain the requisite number to make up for that defection; yet it was done, and done at the very time that the systematic plan had commenced, to charge the Northern States with a design to abolish slavery in the South. And I, who write history, not for applause, but for the sake of the instruction which it affords, gather up these dry details from the neglected documents in which they lie hidden, and bring them forth to the knowledge and consideration of all candid and impartial men, that they may see the just and fraternal spirit in which the free States then acted towards their brethren of the South. Nor can it fail to be observed, as a curious contrast, that, in the very moment that Mr. Calhoun was seeing cause for Southern alarm lest the North should abolish slavery in the South, the Northern senators were extending the area of slavery in Georgia by converting Indian soil into slave soil: and that against strenuous exertions made by himself.
CHAPTER CXXXVII.
EXTENSION OF THE MISSOURI BOUNDARY.
This was a measure of great moment to Missouri and full of difficulties in itself, and requiring a double process to accomplish it—an act of Congress to extend the boundary, and an Indian treaty to remove the Indians to a new home. It was to extend the existing boundary of the State so as to include a triangle between the existing line and the Missouri River, large enough to form seven counties of the first class, and fertile enough to sustain the densest population. The difficulties were threefold: 1. To make still larger a State which was already one of the largest in the Union. 2. To remove Indians from a possession which had just been assigned them in perpetuity. 3. To alter the Missouri compromise line in relation to slave territory, and thereby convert free soil into slave soil. The two first difficulties were serious—the third formidable: and in the then state of the public mind in relation to slave territory, this enlargement of a great slave State, and by converting free soil into slave, and impairing the compromise line, was an almost impossible undertaking, and in no way to be accomplished without a generous co-operation from the members of the free States. They were a majority in the House of Representatives, and no act of Congress could pass for altering the compromise line without their aid: they were equal in the Senate, where treaty for the removal of the Indians could be ratified except by a concurrence of two thirds. And all these difficulties to be overcome at a time when Congress was inflamed with angry debates upon abolition petitions, transmission of incendiary publications, imputed designs to abolish slavery; and the appearance of the criminating article in South Carolina entitled the "Crises," announcing a Southern convention and a secession if certain Northern States did not suppress the abolition societies within their limits within a limited time.
In the face of all these discouraging obstacles the two Missouri senators, Messrs. Benton and Linn, commenced their operations. The first was to procure a bill for the alteration of the compromise line and the extension of the boundary: it was obtained from the Judiciary Committee, reported by Mr. John M. Clayton of Delaware: and passed the Senate without material opposition. It went to the House of Representatives; and found there no serious opposition to its passage. A treaty was negotiated with the Sac and Fox Indians to whom the country had been assigned, and was ratified by the requisite two thirds. And this, besides doing an act of generous justice to the State of Missouri, was the noble answer which Northern members gave to the imputed design of abolishing slavery in the States! actually extending it! and by an addition equal in extent to such States as Delaware and Rhode Island; and by its fertility equal to one of the third class of States. And this accomplished by the extraordinary process of altering a compromise line intended to be perpetual, and the reconversion of soil which had been slave, and made free, back again from free to slave. And all this when, had there been the least disposition to impede the proper extension of a slave State, there were plausible reasons enough to cover an opposition, in the serious objections to enlarging a State already the largest in the Union—to removing Indians again from a home to which they had just been removed under a national pledge of no more removals—and to disturbing the compromise line of 1820 on which the Missouri question had been settled; and the line between free and slave territory fixed for national reasons, to remain for ever. The author of this View was part and parcel of all that transaction—remembers well the anxiety of the State to obtain the extension—her joy at obtaining it—the gratitude which all felt to the Northern members without whose aid it could not have been done; and whose magnanimous assistance under such trying circumstances he now records as one of the proofs—(this work contains many others)—of the willingness of the non-slaveholding part of the Union to be just and generous to their slaveholding brethren, even in disregard of cherished prejudices and offensive criminations. It was the second great proof to this effect at this identical session, the ratification of the Georgia Cherokee treaty being the other.