.MTA1Ng.NzEwMjg

173 In left margin 1839 Nov: 4: continued.

have no legal right to arrest and for purposes at variance with the good understanding so long subsisting & cherished between the General's government & the Cherokee nation. The Principal Chief declares that the Cherokees are guilty of no offence against the government or people of the United States; and if arrested, it is yet purely a matter of conjecture by what mode or by what tribunal they are to be "punished." The Principal Chief asks why the department has not also given instructions on this point, when it is not less important than the arrest itself? Was it because the sanction of law was wanting? or was it committed to military discretion or martial law? -- The Principal Chief observes, that the absence of all information on this subject, under the existing state of things, renders it exceedingly improbable that any individual could willingly commit his safety to confinement in a garrison, or to be marched off to some neighboring jail. -- The General speaks of the obligations of the government to protect the Cherokees from "domestic strife," but omits all notice of the preceding declaration in the same sixth article of the Schermerhorn Treaty of 1835, that "perpetual peace and friendship shall exist between the citizens