ackson says, "this emigration should be
_voluntary_;" and in the very same paragraph, with a single sweep of the
pen, he annihilates all the treaties that have been made with that
people--tramples under foot the laws of nations, and deprives the Indian
of his hunting-grounds, one of his sources of subsistence. He says,--"But
it seems to me visionary to suppose that, in this state of things, claims
can be allowed on tracts of country on which they have neither dwelt nor
made improvements, merely because they have seen them from the mountain,
or passed them in the chase." It certainly may be unphilosophical to
permit any man to possess more ground than he can till with his own hands;
yet surely arguments that we do not admit as regards ourselves, we can
with no sense of propriety use towards others, particularly when our own
acts are directly in the very teeth of this principle. There is more land
at present within the limits and in the possession of the United States
than would be sufficient to support thirty times the present
population--yet to this must be added the hunting-grounds of the Indians,
merely because "it is _visionary to suppose_ they have any claim on what
they do not _actually occupy!"_

I have now before me the particulars of thirteen treaties[15] made by the
United States with the Cherokee nation, from the year 1785 down to 1819
inclusive; in all of which the rights of the Indians are clearly
acknowledged, either directly, or by implication; and by the seventh
article of the treaty of Holston, executed in 1791, being the first
concluded with that people by the United States, under their present
constitution, all the lands not thereby ceded are solemnly guaranteed to
the Cherokee nation. The subsequent treaties are made with reference to,
and in confirmation of this, and continually reiterate the guarantees
therein tendered.

To talk of justice, and honour, would be idle and visionary, for these
seem to have been thrown overboard at the very commencement of the
contest; but I would ask the American _people_, is their conduct towards
the Indians politic?--is it politic in America, in the face of civilized
nations, to violate treaties? is it politic in her, to hold herself up to
the world as faithless and unjust--as a nation, which, in defiance of all
moral obligation, will break her most sacred contracts, whenever it
becomes no longer her interest to keep them, and she finds herself in a
condition to do