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fall short of giving effect to the laws of the Union, the existence of the Federal Government is at an end."

If the President refuses to execute the mandate of the Court, the regular service of which has been contemned, the only remedy is impeachment. But two-thirds of the voices of the senate are required to sustain the action; and a majority, if party spirit happen to run into it, will peradventure acquit him. What then?-Let the Governor of Georgia answer this question from his message of November, 1832. Let it not be supposed, however, that I gravely subscribe to it:"A large majority of the people of this Union are confirmed in the conviction of the fallibility, infirmity, and errors of this supreme tribunal. This branch of the General Government must henceforth stand, where it always ought to have stood, in public estimation, as being liable to all the frailties and weaknesses of erring man." ! !

Beyond this we cannot predict the consequences. Whether an attempt at impeachment will be made, it is impossible to say. Whether the judges will resign their office, is yet another question; and how they can retain it in the face of such contempt, it is difficult to see. But I cannot agree with Governor Lumpkin, that the

102 DECISION OF UNITED STATES COURT.

venerable judges of that exalted tribunal will fall under contempt of the nation-much less of the world. Whether they shall remain in office, or not, their authority and their decision will yet have their influence; and no other court of sober men, it is believed, will ever presume to act differently in the same place, if they shall have occasion to adjudicate the same question. The case is now made plain, and the public opinion of the nation and of the world is rapidly forming, and ere long will demonstrate itself, to affirm for ever the decree of the Court already passed, and consign to merited infamy the doctrines of usurpation.

But what will become of the Indians in the mean time, and how the Federal Republic will bear the shock of such disaster, falling on the heads of its Judiciary, remain to be determined— and may justly be a subject of anxiety.

CHAPTER VI.

CONSIDERATION OF GEORGIA'S PLEA IN JUSTIFICATION OF HER COURSE.

BUT is it credible, that the State of Georgia has been guilty of all these outrages? that having so long and in so many forms acknowledged the separate political existence of the Cherokees, and concurred with the General Government in so many solemn treaties, recognizing and guaranteeing their national rights of territory and selfgovernment-is it credible, that the State should at last turn round, and deny those rights, and violate the obligations of treaties, break down the government and institutions of the Cherokees, throw over them the jurisdiction of the State and enforce the operation of a new and special code of penal statutes, imprison their religious teachers, and annihilate every vestige of their political and

civil economy?-that they should put themselves. in a position for resisting, by force of arms, all attempts of the Supreme Judiciary of the nation to rescue those Indians from such apparent usurpation?-that the Supreme Executive of the nation should favour their designs, and support their pretensions? Is there no show of apology for all this? Is there no more conscience in Georgia ?-no more respect for the opinion of mankind?

I declare myself not unwilling to find and make the best vindication, which the whole history of the case will afford. I would gladly do it; not only for Georgia, but for the credit of civilized society. It is due to Georgia, along with the publication of these enormities, (for enormities they certainly are) that the fairest possible statement of the grounds of her defence, should be made. After attentive observation of these transactions for some years; more especially since they have agitated the public mind; I have looked for the vindication, and will freely and fully state what it seems to have been. I should be glad, if I had the public documents to quote from; but lacking them, I will endeavour to present the most generous aspects of the case, which I believe are in substance, as follows:

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In 1802 Georgia relinquished her claims to the General Government, over the large territory on her west, which now constitutes the States of Alabama and Mississippi; and as one of the considerations in return, the Government of the Union "were bound," as Judge M'Lean says (see Appendix) "in good faith to extinguish the Indian title to lands within the limits of Georgia, as soon as could be done peaceably and on reasonable terms;" and of course to put Georgia in possession of those lands. The language of the judge, here quoted, we believe, is nearly, or quite a literal expression of the clause in the original document, defining the obligation of the General Government.

Georgia had certainly relinquished a very valuable consideration, and had an undoubted right to an equivalent. If the Cherokee country, lying within her own chartered limits, was the only consideration to be received in turn, it was little enough in any legitimate way of bargaining.* And the contingency, "as soon as could be done

* As to the propriety, or morality of such bargains: viz. for two States to assume by anticipation, as a material of negotiation, the territory of a third and defenceless power; first, because it is for their own advantage; and next, because they think they have the means of accomplishing their object without apparent violence;—it must be confessed, that the

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