rds them, by
the executive government, may not therefore be uninteresting.

When Georgia, by becoming a member of the Union, ceded part of her
sovereignty to the general executive, that government acknowledged her
claimed limits, and guaranteed to her the protection of the Union against
foreign and domestic violence. Subsequently, in the year of 1802, in
consideration of a certain portion of lands ceded, the United States
became bound to purchase for Georgia, any claim which the Cherokee nation
might have on lands within her boundaries, whenever such purchase could be
made on reasonable terms. On these positions are based the Georgian
claims, which the United States government has hitherto pleaded inability
to satisfy, inasmuch as all efforts to purchase the Indian lands have
proved fruitless.

After the lapse of twenty-seven years, Georgia, finding herself precisely
in the same condition in which she then stood, has determined on forcibly
taking possession of the Cherokee lands, and extending her sovereignty
over the Cherokee people. But as this cannot be effected without doing
manifest violence to the Indian rights, she brings forward arguments to
show, that _she_ never acknowledged the independence of the Cherokee
nation; that that nation, from the time of the first settlement made by
Europeans in America, stood in the position of a conquered people; that
the sovereignty consequently dwelt in the hands of Great Britain; and
that, on the Declaration of independence, Georgia, by becoming a free
state, became invested with all the powers of sovereignty claimed or
exercised by Great Britain over the Georgian territory: and further, that
in November, 1785, when the first and only treaty was concluded with the
Cherokees by the United States, during the articles of confederation, both
she and North Carolina entered their solemn protests against this alleged
violation of their legislative rights. The executive government pretends
not to argue the case with Georgia, and is left no alternative but either
to annul its _conditional_ treaty with that state, or to cancel _thirteen
distinct treaties_ entered into with the Indians, despoil them of their
lands, and rob them of their independence. Jackson's message says, "It is
too late to inquire whether it was just in the United States to include
them and their territory within bounds of new states, whose limits they
could control. That step cannot be retracted. A state cannot be
d