.MTA1Nw.NzEyMDY

Messrs John Martin John Ridge & Head of Coosa C.N. Wm S. Coodey Dec. 1. 1831.

Gentlemen, By the authority of the General Council, the advice & consent of the Committee, you have been nominated and appointed delegates to represent the affairs of the Cherokee Nation before the Government of the United States, therefore upon your arrival at the seat of the general government, you will report yourselves thro' the War Department, for the information of the President, and, after the usual salutations are over, make a communication for his consideration, setting forth the many grievous circumstances that beset the citizens of this nation, arising from the proceedings of Georgia and the course of policy pursued under his administration towards us. Remind him of the positive assurances of protection which he had made us, & respectfully ask the reason why it has been so long withheld, and earnestly urge its exterior according to the stipulation contained in our several treaties, and assure him, unequivocally, that the declaration which has been to repeatedly made by the proper authorities that "the Cherokee Nation will never consentingly abandon their country to remove west of the Mississippi river" accords with the true disposition of the people, and that their sentiments on this subject are unchangeable: That, by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the injunction case, the Cherokees "are recognized as a distinct political society, capable of managing its own affairs and governing itself & that the United States has recognized the Cherokee Nation as a State and that the Courts are bound by those acts." Here we have the strongest evidence which can be advanced in regard to our rights, and the unconstitutionality of the proceedings of Georgia. All that we desire is a peaceable, fair & honest decision upon the merits