i their improvement
in civilization, their security and happiness would be promoted. By the
paper bearing date on the 30th of January last, which was communicated
to the chiefs of the Cherokee Nation in this city, who came to protest
against any further appropriations of money for holding treaties with
them, the obligation imposed on the United States by the compact with
Georgia to extinguish the Indian title to the right of soil within the
State, and the incompatibility with our system of their existence as
a distinct community within any State, were pressed with the utmost
earnestness. It was proposed to them at the same time to procure and
convey to them territory beyond the Mississippi in exchange for that
which they hold within the limits of Georgia, or to pay them for it its
value in money. To this proposal their answer, which bears date 11th of
February following, gives an unqualified refusal. By this it is manifest
that at the present time and in their present temper they can be removed
only by force, to which, should it be deemed proper, the power of the
Executive is incompetent.

I have no hesitation, however, to declare it as my opinion that the
Indian title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the
compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on the United
States to remove the Indians by force. The express stipulation of the
compact that their title should be extinguished at the expense of the
United States when it may be done _peaceably_ and on _reasonable_
conditions is a full proof that it was the clear and distinct
understanding of both parties to it that the Indians had a right to
the territory, in the disposal of which they were to be regarded as
free agents. An attempt to remove them by force would, in my opinion,
be unjust. In the future measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians
within our limits, and, in consequence, within the limits of any State,
the United States have duties to perform and a character to sustain
to which they ought not to be indifferent. At an early period their
improvement in the arts of civilized life was made an object with the
Government, and that has since been persevered in. This policy was
dictated by motives of humanity to the aborigines of the country, and
under a firm conviction that the right to adopt and pursue it was
equally applicable to all the tribes within our limits.

My impression is equally strong that it would promote essentially t