tant acknowledgment, that the
Cherokee nation is under the protection of the United States of
America, and of no other sovereign whosoever.

The meaning of this has been already explained. The Indian nations
were, from their situation, necessarily dependent on some foreign
potentate for the supply of their essential wants, and for their
protection from lawless and injurious intrusions into their country.
That Power was naturally termed their protector. They had been arranged
under the protection of Great Britain: but the extinguishment of the
British power in their neighborhood, and the establishment of that of
the United States, in its place, led naturally to the declaration, on
the part of the Cherokees, that they were under the protection of the
United States, and of no other Power. They assumed the relation with
the United States which had before subsisted with Great Britain.

This relation was that of a nation claiming and receiving the
protection of one more powerful: not that of individuals abandoning
their national character, and submitting as subjects to the laws of a
master.

The third article contains a perfectly equal stipulation for the
surrender of prisoners.

The fourth article declares, that "the boundary between the United
States and the Cherokee nation shall be as follows: Beginning," &c. We
hear no more of "allotments" or of "hunting grounds." A boundary is
described, between nation and nation, by mutual consent. The national
character of each, the ability of each to establish this boundary, is
acknowledged by the other. To preclude forever all disputes, it is
agreed that it shall be plainly marked by commissioners, to be
appointed by each party; and, in order to extinguish forever, all claim
of the Cherokees to the ceded lands, an additional consideration is to
be paid by the United States. For this additional consideration the
Cherokees release all right to the ceded land, forever.

By the fifth article, the Cherokees allow the United States a road
through their country, and the navigation of the Tennessee river. The
acceptance of these cessions is an acknowledgment of the right of the
Cherokees to make or withhold them.

By the sixth article it is agreed, on the part of the Cherokees, that
the United States shall have the sole and exclusive right of regulating
their trade. No claim is made to the management of all their affairs.
This stipulation has already been explained. The observation ma