Cherokees; that their views of the constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States, under which they acted, were correct; that they were right in appealing from the decision of the Court of Georgia to the Supreme Court; that they had a just claim to immediate and unconditional release from imprisonment, in compliance with the decision and mandate of that court; and that they might justly claim the further interposition of that court for their deliverance according to the course of law.

"Nor have they stopped short of accomplishing every object aimed at by them, which, in their view could possibly be accomplished by them, even if they should carry their suit to the utmost extremity. The law, under which their labours had been interrupted and their persons imprisoned, had been repealed, so that, by their discharge they are able, without delay or fear of further molestation, to resume their missionary labours. The Supreme Court, in giving an opinion in the case of the missionaries, have incidentally, but fully and explicitly, given an opinion respecting the meaning of the treaties and laws which have been made for protecting the rights of the Cherokees, sustaining them in all which they have claimed. Whether this unhappy people will be reinstated in these rights,

in conformity with the opinion of the court, will be matter for future history to record. The court, also, by deciding unequivocally, in the face of the country, that the missionaries, in the controversy with the State of Georgia, had right and justice on their side, and that they had been arrested and imprisoned contrary to the constitution and laws of the Union, have done all that the highest judicial tribunal in the nation could do to rescue their character from ignominy and reproach. In the present posture of our national affairs, it did not seem practicable to the missionaries, or to the Committee, to gain more. The ultimate result of this protracted and painful controversy, with prayerful and humble reliance on the wisdom of the Divine administration, must be left with HIM, on whose hands the name of Zion is engraved, and who will cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him.

"In closing this article, it is due in justice, and it affords great pleasure, to state that Col. Mills, the keeper of the penitentiary, continued his great and unvaried kindness to the imprisoned missionaries to the close of their confinement; and gave them every indulgence, with respect to correspondence, visits from their friends, the arrangements for their labours, opportunities

for instructing their fellow-prisoners, and other things of a similar nature, which could be expected by men in their circumstances from a Christian brother; and after their discharge he gratuitously furnished them the means of conveyance to their homes.

"From many other gentlemen of the State they have received numerous tokens of sympathy and kindness, which are duly appreciated by the missionaries and the Committee.

"It is due to Messrs. Worcester and Butler, also, to state, that in resuming their labours among the Cherokees, they do it with the confidence of the Committee in their firmness, prudence, and devotedness to the missionary work entirely unimpaired."

No. VII.

THE following is taken from the Cherokee Phoenix, 1832, and is an interesting document, as a specimen of the common editorial labours, conducted exclusively by Indians of the Cherokee nation:

"OPPRESSION OF THE CHEROKEES BY ALABAMA.

"We published in our last, the substance of a bill passed at the late assembly of the Legislature of Alabama, extending the laws of the State over the Cherokee and Creek nations Iwithin her chartered limits. Hundreds of the citizens of Alabama have taken license from this law, and from a resolution adopted by the same Legislature, to intrude on the lands guaranteed by the United States to the Cherokees and Creeks by treaty. When we see these intruders swarming in, and settling the country to the annoyance of the rightful occupants of the soil, our treaties with the United States disregarded

by the General Government-our lands and property taken away without our consent-our rights and liberties invaded and disturbed by lawless intruders, and that, too, under the sanction of the General Government, to whom we were taught in earlier days to look as our protectors, we cannot refrain from expressing our indignation at the wanton cruelty and oppression exercised over us. The resolution above alluded to, is well calculated to draw the most abandoned and lawless part of the citizens of the adjoining States into the nation: it authorizes all white men to settle on the lands of the Cherokees and Creeks, without any right or power from any quarter whatever to dispossess them. From the license of this single resolution, we understand that Will's Valley is now filled up by intruders; a great many are joining their fences to those of the Cherokees, others take possession of farms which may happen to be lying some distance from the house of the owner, without asking his consent. Others have threatened to possess themselves of ferries and bridges belonging to Cherokees, besides many other depredations they commit on the property of the Indians. And all this is done, for what? It is to effect the removal of the Cherokees and Creeks from their homes to the west of the Mississippi-to satisfy the avaricious