.MTA2MA.NzE3NTY

                                                                                                                                                 Arkansas Cher. Nation June 5 1839.
 

Visited the Cherokee council. This council was appointed by the chiefs of the old settlers, at the request of those who came in last winter and spring. The object was to form a united government suited to the present population and the exigencies of the times. But now, in the threshold, a very serious difficulty meets them. Some, at least, of the old settlers chiefs seem unwilling to allow the new settlers any national existence whatever, but consider the chiefs and counsellors from the east, in no other light than common citizens, to be received as such, under the laws of the old settlers. But the late emigrants, i.e. The nation from the East, consisting of sixteen thousand, except as they have died since their arrest, say that the violent measures by which they were involuntarily torn from all their possessions, did not affect their laws, or their right of self government. They did not voluntarily leave their own lands, and have never brought themselves under obligations to obey the laws of this country. Their views are more clearly expressed in the following resolutions of the national council before leaving the Nation.

Whereas, the title of the Cherokee people to their lands, is the most ancient, pure, and absolute known to man; its date is beyond the reach of human record; its validity, confirmed and illustrated by possession and enjoyment, antecedent to all pretense of claim, by any other position of the human race.

And whereas the free consent of the Cherokee people, is in dispensable to a valid transfer of the Cherokee title; and whereas the Cherokee people have, neither by themselves nor their representatives, given such consent; it follows, the original title and ownership of of said lands, still rest in the Cherokee Nation, unimpaired and absolute.

Resolved, therefore, by the National Committee and council, and people of the Cherokee nation, in general council assembled, that the whole Cherokee Territory, as described in the 1st article of the treaty of 1819, between the United States and the Cherokee nation, and also in the constitution of the Cherokee Nation, still remains the rightful and undoubted property of the said Cherokee nation; and that all damages and lapses direct or incidental, resulting from the enforcement

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