It is proper in this place to observe, that one source of wealth, expected by Georgia, besides the possession and use of the Cherokee lands, is the gold mines, which have recently been discovered and opened there. Whether this was in part the temptation, which urged her so hastily to do such an amazing violence, is perhaps more probable, than the proof is tangible. The mines have been supposed to be immensely and inexhaustibly rich. It is these mines, to which reference is made in the letter of Chancellor Kent to Judge Clayton, in the Appendix; and for a decision concerning which, the latter gentleman was dismissed from his presidency over a court in Georgia; that is, because he conscientiously gave judgment in favour of the Cherokees, and against the State, whose officer he was.

The question naturally arises here--what will be done, and what ought to be done with the revenues accruing from the sale of these lands, on the east of the Mississippi, which have been and are yet to be ceded by the Indians to the Government of the United States? When the people of that country shall be informed on this subject, so as to be prepared to entertain proper sentiments in regard to the treatment, which the Indians have suffered from the hands of their Government, this question, I trust, will receive

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a grave consideration.

Notwithstanding, that the people of the United States will be held responsible, as a nation, for these transactions, it is yet true, that it would be unfair to judge them, or to estimate their disposition towards the Indians, by this rule. As a nation they do not yet understand the case; it is impossible they should. The change of policy, and the institution of its train of measures, have been too sudden and too recent to have given the opportunity for the people to know and judge of its merits. Their conscience, as a nation, has not yet been touched; it was impossible in the circumstances, that it could be. They have never been able to form a deliberate and an impartial judgment on the great question. But from the very nature of the Government, and from the habits of the people, the time must come, when the merits of the case will stand before them in their sober and true light. And if they do not then turn their eyes and hearts, with deep repentings, on that injured people, I will confess myself mistaken in all my impressions of their character, and join with the public reprobation of the world, that they are a nation recreant to their own principles, to justice, and to humanity.

And what can they do then less, as an atonement for these injuries of the Aboriginal race,

66

than resolve, that every penny of the public income from the sale of lands, which have been ceded by the Indians, shall be a sacred trust for their benefit? Nay, that their magnanimity shall not stop there, if any thing more may be necessary to redeem and save the people, who have been so long "scattered" and so cruelly peeled." It may possibly be even well, that this injustice has risen to such a pitch and become so flagrant, if it shall be overruled to work thorough repentance in the heart of the nation, that is responsible for their oppressions, so that they shall resolve to spare no pains and no expense; that they will go after those, whom they have ejected from their own rightful territories, and supplanted; that they will gather them up in their arms, raise them to the proper dignities of human society, and thoroughly atone before heaven and the world the injuries they have done them, or unwittingly permitted to be done. This is indeed a hope I have allowed myself to cherish and the only and last hope I can reasonably indulge for the American Indians. It is perhaps possible to save them; but it must be a great and persevering effort of a great and united people, whose virtue in the undertaking shall be equal to their obligations and to the exigency; it must be on a scale of expenditure and of high

endeavour, it must be a great State enterprise, of which there has been no former type. Far it had been from me to undertake this office of exposing their injuries and asserting their claims, especially as it involves the honour of my own country, if I had not some reason to hope, that, among the other influences operating to work conviction of these sacred obligations in the hearts of the people of that country, this feeble effort, if it should obtain any notice, might send back at least a faint echo of the public sentiments of the world to aid and quicken the hoped-forresult. The cause is paramount to the minor interests of a nation--it is the cause of humanity. I would not unnecessarily expose the faults of my own country;-much less would I be silent over the injuries of the injured, if I might hope to relieve them.

I have been most happy to observe, that the Secretary at War of the United States, in his report of Nov. 25, 1832, to the President, and through him to Congress and the nation, has suggested the very plan now under consideration of appropriating all the proceeds of Indian lands for their improvement:

"that a

"It cannot be doubted," he says, course, so consistent with the dictates of justice, and so honourable to the national character,

would be approved by public sentiment. Should we hereafter discard all pecuniary advantage in our purchases from the Indians, and confine ourselves to the great objects of their removal and establishment, and take care that the proceeds of the cessions are applied to their benefit, and in the most salutary manner, we should go far towards discharging the great moral debt, which has come down to us, as an inheritance, from the earlier periods of our history, and which has been unfortunately increased, during successive generations, by circumstances beyond our control. This policy would not be less wise than just. The time has passed away, if it ever existed, when a revenue derived from such a source was necessary to the Government. The remnant of our aboriginal race may well look for the full value, and that usefully applied, of the remnant of those immense possessions, which have passed from them to us, and left no substantial evidences of permanent advantage to them.”

I confess myself gratified by this expression, coming from such a quarter, and at so early a period, in the shape of a recommendation to the national legislature. It cannot now be lost sight of; and if it is not soon taken up and acted upon energetically, under a conscientious