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1830 June 30. invested them, they could not claim such jurisdiction;- they only claim to stand on equal ground; they ask for no concession, not for any admissions which wouldbe in the slightest degree humiliating. They have no wish to trample on their laws, nor to disregard their rights: as a proof that they entertain no such disposition, they have not availed themselves of the advantages of their superior numbers in their intercourse with them. When they refused to mingle community with them for free conversation on their affair, & requested that their wishes might be reduced to writing, they offered to meet them on equal ground; but their just and reasonable "not clear" were unconditionally rejected and their communication treated with contempt. They have no disposition, however, to stand upon punctilios. But they ask what they are to understand by the propositions now made; which even, rigorous as they are, it appears are yielded with reluctance through the influence and at the instance of the General & the Agent. They ask if all the rights of the late emigrants are required to be relinquished & they themselves to appear before the wester chiefs in the attitude of suppliants? If such be their wish & they know not how otherwise to construe their words, they are compelled to say they do not believe their brethren, the western people, how the last desire to reduce them to so abject a condition. Indeed, they have already, continue the writers, expressed their sentiments; & in the exercise of their inalienable & indefeasible rights, have appointed a national convention for Monday, July 1; & for themselves, the writers are unable to perceive any irregularity in the proceeding. They formed an integral branch of the late general council, their acts are perfectly legitimate: the writers cannot assume the responsibility of protesting against them, or of declaring them invalid. To the writers it appear that the western chiefs in their communication blend questions which, in their nature, are altogether separate & distinct; and in so doing, have fallen into glaring inconsistencies,. While the eastern Cherokees are denied by them recognition in the character of the political community, and their representatives stripped by them, of their official re-