the oath hereinafter required, shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor,
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by confinement to the
penitentiary, at hard labor, for a term not less than four years."

The 11th section authorizes the Governor, "should he deem it necessary
for the protection of the mines, or the enforcement of the laws in
force within the Cherokee Nation, to raise and organize a guard," &c.

The 13th section enacts, "that the said guard or any member of them,
shall be, and they are hereby, authorized and empowered to arrest any
person legally charged with or detected in a violation of the laws of
this State, and to convey, as soon as practicable, the person so
arrested, before a Justice of the peace, judge of the superior, justice
of inferior court of this State, to be dealt with according to law."

The extra-territorial power of every Legislature being limited in its
action, to its own citizens or subjects, the very passage of this act
is an assertion of jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation, and of the
rights and powers consequent on jurisdiction.

The first step, then, in the inquiry, which the constitution and laws
impose on this Court, is an examination of the rightfulness of this
claim.

America, separated from Europe by a wide ocean, was inhabited by a
distinct People, divided into separate nations, independent of each
other and of the rest of the world, having institutions of their own,
and governing themselves by their own laws. It is difficult to
comprehend the proposition, that the inhabitants of either quarter of
the globe could have rightful original claims of dominion over the
inhabitants of the other, or over the lands they occupied; or that the
discovery of either by the other should give the discoverer, rights in
the country discovered, which annulled the pre-existing rights of its
ancient possessors.

After lying concealed for a series of ages, the enterprise of Europe,
guided by nautical science, conducted some of her adventurous sons into
this Western world. They found it in possession of a People who had
made small progress in agriculture or manufactures, and whose general
employment was war, hunting, and fishing.

Did these adventurers, by sailing along the coast, and occasionally
landing on it, acquire for the several Governments to whom they
belonged, or by whom they were commissioned, a rightful property in the
soil, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; or rightful do