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War Department February 16th 1835.

Gentlemen, I have received your letter of the 14th inst. & have submitted it to the President. I am directed by the President to say to you that he has examined your proposition with a sincere desire to do all that can be done to relieve you from the difficulties in which you are placed, and as far as possible to yield to your wishes. But on a full consideration of the whole subject & a review of all that has taken place, it appears clear that any arrangement short of a general removal of your people, would neither relieve the difficulties of the present, nor prevent those of the future. The considerations connected with this matter and the views of the Executive, have so often been stated to you, that it would be a work of supererogation again to discuss the matter. You are in the midst of a white community. The great body of your people are qualified, neither by education, habit, nor by their pursuits, to live in such a state of society. That this remark is not applicable to all, is most freely admitted. But that it is so to much the largest portion of the Cherokees, is firmly believed. What then would you gain by a permanent establishment in your present situation? Want & misery would press upon your people; Depredations would ensue: which would terminate in collisions, and too often in bloodshed. The laws of the state where you might reside, would immediately interpose with all those consequences which are known to you. The Cherokees would soon be driven to desperation & their fate would be similar to that of too many tribes of Indians who have heretofore existed in our country & who have disappeared before our advancing settlements. It is to prevent this melancholy result, that the