H. of R.] Removal of the Indians. MAY 24, 1830. if this measure shall be carried by a single vote, or by your partake of what the providence of God had given to him casting vote, Mr. Speaker--and no one more sincerely and his fathers as an inheritance--"that, as original wishes you such an accession of honor to that you have tenant of the soil, by immemorial possession, he holds already reaped in this struggle, and which never before, a title beyond and superior to the British Crown and her in the history of legislation, has been placed by fortune colonies, and to all adverse pretensions of our confederaso repeatedly in the power of a presiding officer in a single tion and subsequent union." Sir, we meet the honorable contest--the good which shall be done, even in the life- gentlemen who so fondly revert to the rights of these early time of those who are in the van of opposition, shall give and first lords of the soil, and deny that the Indian had to them a mortifying retrospection. But, sir, I will neither either ownership, proprietary right, or tenancy by occu triumph in anticipation, nor permit myself to use an ex-pancy, to the lands over which he roamed. It is commonly pression offensive to the most delicate of this humane and said, our ownership exists by purchase from the Indian, conscientious opposition, however much its earnestness and that he was proprietor and sovereign of the soil. may have obliterated the memory of the recent past, But both are said, only because he was found upon the and though it acts with a terrible energy in an opposite continent at its discovery. That he was in possession of direction to that which it took some three years since. portions of land, which were in savage cultivation, over Among those, sir, who have most cause to be offended, I which he roamed for game and war--that several of the can nevertheless look with serenity upon this opposition, tribes had designated natural boundaries as the limits of and calmly detect the elements which compose it; admire their hunting grounds, and claimed such an exclusive use the arrangement which has embodied the discontented in of it, against other tribes, no one will deny. But did the this House into a single phalanx, presenting uniformly, at extent of their natural rights against each other give such every hour in the night and the day, when a vote is to be a title or occupancy to all that they aggregately claimed, taken, an unbroken body of philanthropists, uniting in the as to include a power to exclude others from seeking this single chorus, continent as a resting place from persecution and want, and making it the land of civilization and christianity? Sir, they were proprietors of what they used, so long as it was used; but not sovereigns of any part. "The miserable have no other medicine, The one denotes a And, in looking at the opposition out of this House, I, sir, must be permitted to distinguish from the deluded, and, to thing or place in possession: the other is, strictly, an arti speak of him with respect, the venerable man who pre-ficial term, applicable only to that state of society where sided at the meeting which issued the New York memorial, Government is sufficiently advanced to class those living thinking of him only as bearing a name associated with re-under it in the community of nations; where there is indicollections which Americans love to cherish, and as an viduality of possession and pursuit, and a recognition of artist whose works will live when we are dead; and, if the leading principles of conduct between man and man, public report has assigned the authorship of "William with customs or laws to enforce the observance of them; Penn" to its proper owner, mistaken as are the principles and that compacted existence of a people, which separates of that publication, misled as the writer is, in the very heat them from others, and gives to them the name and attitude of this controversy, I do not hesitate to bear witness to his of a nation, in its relative position with other nations. Sobeing a man whose name will be put high upon the cata-vereignty over soil is the attribute of States; and it can logue of christian philanthropists, when our contentions never be affirmed of tribes living in a savage condition, shall be buried in the grave of coming generations. The without any of the elements of civilization, as they were cause we advocate needs not the proscription of its adver-exhibited in the nations of antiquity, or in those of modern saries; and the principles which sustain us, should induce times; whether they live under the pressure of As atic su us to forbear, and to repress resentment at opposition, perstitions, or in the emancipated privileges of christenexcept where opposition has become misrepresentation. dom. Among the Indians of North America, an appro Though in its consequences it may seem to bear hard upon priation of the soil to individuals was unknown-nor had the interests of the State of which I am a citizen, I am glad any of the tribes any institutions to indicate that the proto see it, for it will be another assurance to the world, that perty in the soil was in the tribe, as was the case among though our countrymen may have a mistaken subject of the ancient Germans, except the fluctuating limits which excitement, they are always alive to what may seem to press a stronger tribe chose to assume, from time to time, to upon human rights; and that, in this land, nothing can be prevent hunting excursions within them by a weaker. done to affect them, which will not stand the test of rigid Theirs was the hunter's state, and in a lower condition of and jealous scrutiny. It assures the world, too, that what-it than had been known before by civilized man. ever may be done, in this instance, can only be done with hunger being appeased, from flood and field, individuals, the consent of a majority of twenty-four States; the greater or parties of each tribe, roved over the land in pursuit of number of them having no interest in the question, and game, without regard to the place in which it was taken; therefore without temptation to be misled--thus presump and their wanderings in the chase knew no bounds, extively vindicating whatever may be the result. cept as they were regulated by the quantity of game, or But, sir, I proceed to the discussion of the subject: and as they ascertained the existence of some other tribe, using the first point of inquiry is, what was the condition of the the adjacent land for the same purpose. Without formal Indian, in regard to his right to land or soil upon this con- conventions to fix boundaries, the tribes in the neighbor tinent, before and at the time of the arrival of the white hood of each other, in the course of time, knew the huntman? This inquiry into the Indian's ownership of the soil, ing grounds as they were separately claimed. A trespass when he was first visited by the colonists, is forced upon by either upon the grounds of another, was followed by us by the manner in which the whole question has been individual contentions or tribal war. Wars taught the argued by our adversaries in and out of this House. savage prudence, or rather how to smother his revenge, would willingly have avoided it, if it had not been made until time or accident placed it in his power to slake his the source of fruitful imposition in this controversy. For demon remembrances of supposed or actual wrengs effect, and to produce a sympathy to interfere with the the blood and entrails of his enemy. When the relative understanding of the argument in support of the measure strength of tribes prevented one from extirpating or en now before us, the Indian has been called the owner of slaving another, the fears of each conceded to the other the soil--that he generously permitted our ancestors to rights, not to the land or soil, but to the fish in its streams, * In the course of the passage of this bill, Mr. Speaker Stevenson enjoyment was all that the Indian claimed. and to the animals on its surface; and this usufructuaty Can such a use of a country give a property in the soil? or did it, by gave the casting vote three times in favor of the bill; and cach of them were vital questions. Their MAY 24, 1830.] Removal of the Indians. [H. of R. the law of nature, empower the Indian to exclude the white from New England interpose to defeat, with an unfilial disman from making a settlement within the limits of the hunt-regard of the source from which we draw the example of ing grounds of the former, and maintaining his possession our conduct? Whenever it is said, then, that the Indian by force, if he had ability to do so? permitted the white man to occupy the lands we now posBut, sir, this question is settled for us; and, until this con- sess, no more is meant than that he stipulated, for a price, troversy began, I had not supposed it would have been to abstain from using the power of numbers to repress overlooked or denied; and it is with some surprise that I the settlement of a colony in its infancy. Every contract behave heard it stated, in the course of this debate, that it tween the early settlers and the Indians will show it to have was the generous consent of the Indians which permitted been the apprehension of the former that they were buyour ancestors to begin the settlement of these glorious ing peace, and not lands-though, to preserve the first, it States, that we were intruders upon their possessions, and was necessary that some boundaries should be determined were now to repay their kindnesses to our forefathers by by the parties, within which each were to live in their driving them into annihilation. Vattel says, folio 92, sec-accustomed manner. To acknowledge in the Indian a tion 81: "The whole earth is appointed for the nourish-greater right in the soil than has been stated, and to have ment of the inhabitants; but it would be incapable of doing allowed it in practice, would be an admission of the proso, was it uncultivated. Every nation is, then, obliged, by priety of his continuing to live in his irrational condition; the law of nature, to cultivate the ground that has fallen irrational, because their numbers might have been supplied to its share; and it has no right to expect or require assist- with food by the cultivation of a hundredth part of the ance from others any further than as the land in its posses- territory which the tribes claim for the chase. For, notsion is incapable of furnishing it with necessaries. Those withstanding it suits the purposes of gentlemen to call people, like the ancient Germans and modern Tartars, who, them great and powerful nations, which have dwindled having fertile countries, disdain to cultivate the earth, and into insignificance from their contact with the white man, choose rather to live by rapine, are wanting to themselves, who does not know that the fears of the colonists, the natuand deserve to be exterminated as savage and pernicious ral love of the marvellous in the savage, and his metaphoribeasts. There are others, who, to avoid agriculture, cal expression of numbers, magnified hundreds into thouwould live only by hunting and their flocks. This might, sands, and the hundred tribes into which they were divided doubtless, be allowed in the first ages of the world, when into millions of persons? Trumbull, in his history, gives the earth, without cultivation, produced more than was a condensed but very satisfactory view of this point, which sufficient to feed its few inhabitants. But at present, when corresponds with the researches of the best writers upon the human race is so greatly multiplied, it could not subsist the subject; and the question in regard to aboriginal popu if all nations resolved to live in that manner. Those who lation in the United States, when the colonists landed, is so still retain this idle life, usurp more extensive territories well settled, that even the warmest admirers of New Engthan they would have occasion for, were they to use honest land antiquities no longer repeat the delusions of Mather labor, and have, therefore, no reason to complain, if other and Neale. What, then, becomes of the position, so vauntnations, more laborious and too closely confined, come to ingly assumed and repeated in the course of this debate, possess a part. Thus, though the conquest of the unci- that God, in his providence, planted these tribes in this vilized empires of Peru and Mexico was a notorious usur- western world, and made them tenants of the soil by impation, the establishment of many colonies on the conti- memorial possession? The Indian the tenant of the soil! nent of North America may, on their confining themselves He never was so, in any sense of the word. But it is by the within just bounds, be extremely lawful. The people of misapplication of such terms to his condition, to which these vast countries rather overran than inhabited them." civilized man has affixed a distinct meaning, descriptive of And the same writer, in his chapter upon the establish- individual ownership in lands, that we are misled as to Inment of a nation in a country, remarks: "There is an-dian rights. other celebrated question, to which the discovery of the Sir, God, in his providence, had been pleased to reveal New World has principally given rise. It is asked, if a himself to the man of another continent--his purposes tonation may lawfully take possession of a part of a vast wards him, in time and for eternity--what was his rational country, in which there are found none but erratic nations, condition, his rights over the earth, though the penalty of incapable, by the smallness of their numbers, to people his transgression--how the proper use of it would conduce the whole. We have already observed, in establishing to his comfort, and the increase of his species, and, by the obligation to cultivate the earth, that these nations can-binding men in communities, would keep alive a social denot exclusively appropriate to themselves more land than votion to his Maker, and the remembrance of a hereafter, they have occasion for, and which they are unable to settle in which men are to live a life of immortality. It was this and cultivate. Their removing their habitations through providence which gave to our fathers the right to plant these immense regions cannot be taken for a true and legal possession; and the people of Europe, too closely pent up, finding land of which these nations are in no particular want, and of which they make no actual and constant use, may lawfully possess it, and establish colonies there. We have already said that the earth belongs to the human race in general, and was designed to furnish it with subsistence. If each nation had resolved, from the beginning, to appropriate to itself a vast country, that the people might live only by hunting, fishing, and wild fruits, our globe would not be sufficient to maintain a tenth part of Compare the present population of the world with its its present inhabitants. People have not, then, deviated magnitude; and, if men were still roving tribes, without from the views of nature, in confining the Indians within civilization or fixed habitation, its spontaneous producnarrow limits. However, we cannot help praising the tions of vegetables, fish, fowl, and animals, would be moderation of the English puritans who first settled in sufficient to prevent mankind from degenerating to the New England, who, notwithstanding their being furnished condition of cannibals. Sir, the civilized man of Europe, with a charter from their sovereign, purchased of the In-pinched by want, and worn down by intolerance, neither dans the land they resolved to cultivate." And, sir, is needed the edicts of popes, nor the charters of kings, to not this commendable moderation in regard to the Indians, authorize him to make this western world his refuge. His which we now propese to pursue, but which gentlemen wants admonished him to seek a land where his labors themselves by the side of the Indian--to draw themselves, and to teach their degraded brother to draw, from their mother earth, bounties which he neither knew how to produce nor to enjoy. What though the Indian roved through the forests of America cotemporaneously with the wanderings of God's chosen people in their escape from Egyptian bondage--time could give to him no right to more of the soil than he could cultivate; and the decree which denied him to be lord of the domain, was the Almighty's command to his creatures to till the earth. H. of R.] Removal of the Indians. Hos [MAY 24, 1830. would be rewarded by plenty; tyranny absolved him from tribes having the semblance of government-the Five all allegiance to the place of his nativity; and his right to Nations. They are termed, in the treaty, the subjects of make this continent the grave of himself and the home of England, and are distinguished from other Indians living his posterity, was, that the Indian claimed territories too within the grants of the King, who are called the friends large for the condition in which God intended man should of England, but had not acknowledged themselves to be be; and that the land which was not in individual as well as subjects. In regard to the latter, it is sufficient to assert, in tribal use, and only in use for hunting, was not such an what cannot be denied, that all the tribes in the provinces, occupancy as excluded others from its enjoyment, or which or on their borders, had acknowledged themselves to be created an ownership which it was unjust to invade. Nor subjects of the King previous to 1756, and no tribe more can the right for which I contend be refuted, until it can pointedly than the Cherokees. As early as the year 1730, be shown that no pressure of want or tyranny will justify they acknowledged England's King as their monarch, and expatriation, and that, in our necessities, we are debarred received from the hands of his envoy, Sir Alexander Cumfrom casting our eyes to those new regions which science ming, a commander in chief for the Cherokee nation. and enterprise have discovered, and which God intended They sent a deputation of chiefs to England-" laid the for the support of all which its surface, aided by cultiva- crown of their nation, with the scalps of their enemies tion, can maintain. The Indian, a creature like ourselves, and feathers of glory, at his Majesty's feet, as a pledge of had his share in this new world--and christians, coming their loyalty." They not only stipulated, by treaty, to be among them, had no right to trespass, but only to partake. the allies of England, in war and peace-but, by treaty, This was only a share-not a political right, or jurisdiction, they were to surrender their own people for a violation of or ownership, because God had placed him in the midst of the rights of Englishmen, as well as Englishmen who might these groves, mountains, and streams, to deprive his more trespass upon them. By this treaty the King acquired a civilized brother from resting in their shade, enjoying their right to give a title to Cherokee lands, and the Cherokees grandeur, or partaking of their products, and to commit became individually his subjects. Nor was their depen them as an inheritance to endless generations. I will not dency and subjection to Great Britain in any way interpresume to inquire by what tremendous moral or natural rupted for twenty-five years. convulsion a portion of the human race were separated When the disputes between the French and English, from the rest, and allowed to degenerate into barbarism; concerning their territories in America, brought on war, but, knowing the fact, reason and the records of divi- the Cherokees again acknowledged their fealty to the King nity tell me, as well by precept as by example, that, when of England; and though, at the termination of the war, resisted by the man of Europe, the savage of America they were seduced from their allegiance by the artifices was not in the condition which God intended his creatures of the French, and by the misconduct of some of our to be--that their rights over soil or territory were limited people, yet the war with them ended in their complete to what they could catch or kill, to appease the cravings of subjugation by Grant, Montgomery, and Stewart. hunger-to the spots upon which they may have built their tilities, it is true, ceased by treaty, but they were not treathuts-and that they had no such jurisdiction over the land, ed with as equals: and the King of England re-affirmed as would have justified them in refusing to receive from his sovereignty and jurisdiction over them, but left them the emigrant a something as the pledge that they were to in the undisturbed occupancy of their hunting grounds-live in amity with him. still retaining the right to grant them, only subject to such In this branch of the discussion, sir, I have advanced no occupancy. And this sovereignty and jurisdiction were principle inconsistent with the most rigid morality--none exercised in various ways, for more than twenty years, which it has not been convenient to gentlemen, in the ar- and were shown in the most undeniable character, when, dor of their opposition, to forget; and I have been forced in the war of the revolution, the Cherokees obeyed to occupy the time I have taken, the more effectually to the orders of England, and laid waste the frontiers of disabuse the minds of many of a misconception of Indian the Carolinas and Georgia. When the constancy of our rights over soil and territory, and of that amiable sympa-people terminated what had been gloriously begun, by thy for early Indian generosity, which has been so dex- a glorious peace, England, subdued where she had trously turned into opposition to the present administra- waged the war, surrendered her sovereignty and jurisdiction by the plaintive retrospection of our adversaries. tion of every kind over all the people within the bounda It is time, however, sir, to inquire into what was the ries of the United States. From that moment, not only political condition of the Indians in regard to England, Georgia, but every State in the confederacy, where Inafter the country was colonized. Did they continue to be dians were, asserted, by their legislation, a jurisdiction independent of that Government? And, if not, what por- over them and their lands; and, until very recently, nottion of their independence was surrendered voluntarily, withstanding the nature of the intercourse between the or taken away by conquest? Did the Indian, after having tribes and the United States, this jurisdiction of the States surrendered the right which he claimed to sell his hunting over the Indians within their limits had not been denied, grounds, by acknowledging the pre-emption of them to even by implication. Nor is it now denied entirely, exbe in Great Britain, retain any thing to himself but a quali- cept in behalf of the Cherokees, who are supposed to be fied right of occupancy, with a political and civil jurisdic- released from its operation by virtue of treaties between tion over their persons and lands in the King of England? that tribe and the United States. The weakness, however, I shall not, of course, detain the House with references to of such a pretence shall be shown, when the provisions of the history of the many tribes of Indians which acknow- those treaties shall be examined, as they will be before I ledged themselves to be subjects of the King of England conclude. previous to 1756: but, in illustration of the jurisdiction The jurisdiction, sir, of which I speak, did not extend claimed by the English over the Indian, and practically to a right, upon the part of the States, to deprive the Inasserted, it will be well to refer gentlemen who deny any dians of their hunting grounds, without a cause, and withjurisdiction to the States over the Indians living in their out compensation; but it was exercised, as it had been done limits, to the historical recollections of the treaties of Rys- by England, in preventing them from selling any of their wick and Utrecht, between the English and French, and lands without permission from the States--though they the last of which was ratified in 1713. In those treaties were granted by the States without consulting the tribes, we find the English claiming dominion, exercising sove- and the grantees took their titles, disburdened of every reignty, which was acknowledged by the Indians them- lien or encumbrance except Indian occupancy. The selves, and admitted by the French, over the most formi- States claimed, and without any exception the Indians acdable association of savages in North America, and the only knowledged they had a pre-emption of their lands. The MAY 24, 1830.] Removal of the Indians. [H. of R. States regulated their trade; and this without treaty stipu- While, sir, I am upon the subject of Massachusetts julations, but in virtue of the authority to do so, which the risdiction over the Indians, permit me to remind those of Indians had conceded to England. The States punished her citizens representing her in this House, and who are so them for violations of law, whether committed within the tender of Cherokee rights, that their State has distinguishterritory which had been reduced practically under their ed itself by one memorable instance of punishment for police, or without it. And, in short, the jurisdiction was a denial of her sovereignty over the Indians. The name asserted in every particular, and nothing was left to the of Roger Williams is familiar to the ears of gentlemen from Indians but an authority over each other, which, as savages, the East; and the memory of the man is dear to all who they had exercised, and which, in our then condition, it love to trace the beginning of that christian liberty which was inconvenient to the States to assume. This jurisdic- is now exhibiting itself in triumph in every part of Europe, diction was asserted by Massachusetts as early as 1672; and which we so fully enjoy; for he was among the foreand the Indians' right to land in that "jurisdiction," was most, if not the first, of those men in England or America, limited by statute to such as they had "possessed, im- who well understood, and were bold enough to preach proved, and subdued." At the same time, the Indians' christian toleration. Williams, however, was a politician right to sell land was prohibited, by severe penalties, with- as well as theologian; and though there was much conout "license from that court." Nor were they permitted tention concerning his orthodoxy, which exposed him to to "make grants for a term of years." All trade with persecution, his life will bear me fully out in the declarathe Indians in that province was forbidden, under the pen- tion that he would never have been banished, if, in the alty of a confiscation of the merchandise, "because the zeal for Indian rights, he had not said that the charter of trade of furs with the Indians in this jurisdiction doth pro- Massachusetts was good for nothing, as the soil and soveperly belong to the commonwealth." And his excellency reignty were not purchased from the Indians. Neither the Governor, with the consent of his council, was em- threats nor persuasions could prevail upon him to refrain powered to "appoint and commissionate discreet persons, from the promulgation of this political opinion; and the within several parts of this province, to have the inspec- magistrates of the commonwealth combatted it in the shorttion and more particular care and government of the In-est way, by a sentence of banishment. Sir, the State of dians in their respective plantations; and to have, use, and Georgia claims at the hands of the delegation from Massaexercise the power of a justice of the peace over them, chusetts, in her present controversy, the benefit of this in all matters, civil and criminal, as well for the hearing instance of the exercise of her sovereignty; and leaves, for and determining pleas between party and party, and to their consolation, the reflections which may be drawn from award execution thereon, as for examining, hearing, and the remembrance that the jurisdiction over the Indians punishing of criminal offences, according to the acts and within her limits, for which she contends, is sanctioned by laws of this province, so far as the power of a justice does the persecution of one of the most remarkable men of the extend; as also to nominate and appoint constables and age in which he lived, on account of his denial of it to other proper and necessary officers among them." Massachusetts. It would only have been discreet, too, in gentlemen Connecticut, too, sir, was not behind her elder sister in from Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, and New York, the assertion of her jurisdiction and sovereignty over the who have zealously distinguished themselves by opposition | Indians within her chartered limits; and we find her early to the measure now before us, to have examined more declaring "that all lands in this Government are holden minutely than they appear to have done, into the nature of the King of Great Britain, as the lord of the fee; and and extent of the jurisdiction claimed by the States over that no title to any lands in this colony can accrue by any Indians living in their limits. If they had done so, it is purchase made of Indians, on pretence of their being nareasonable to think that the fear of the re-action of their re- tive proprietors thereof, without the allowance and appro proaches against the State of Georgia, for having excluded bation of this Assembly." She restrained and regulated the Cherokees from giving testimony, but in certain cases, trade with them as she pleased; and directed her selectin her courts, would have restrained them from the free men to endeavor to assemble the Indians annually, "and indulgence of their regrets in that regard. Sir, in the acquaint them with the laws of the Government for the State just mentioned, as the law stands at this day, the punishment of such immoralities as they may be guilty of, evidence of an Indian, though sustained by strong "con- and make them sensible that they are not exempted from curring circumstances, amounting to a high presump. the penalties of such laws, any more than his Majesty's tion," in the only case in which an Indian is permitted by other subjects in the colony are." Purchases of lands from statute to testify, is nullified by the accused, if he will but the Indians, "under color or pretence of such Indians swear the accusation to be untrue. Nay, sir, so far is this being the proprietors of said lands by a native right," withjurisdiction carried by Massachusetts, that a devise of real out leave from the Assembly, are forbidden, under severe estate by an Indian was, and is to this day, null and void; penalties. The testimony of an Indian, though sustained and so uninterrupted has been the paternal superintend-by strong circumstances, is of no avail, if the accused will ence of that State over these children of the forest, who but swear to his innocence. And, notwithstanding Conhave been cruelly subjected to laws, under which at least necticut, by her representatives on this floor, remonstrates their numbers have not increased, though admirably cal-against any civil jurisdiction over the Cherokees by the culated to give happiness, strength, and respectability to State of Georgia, her legislators, in 1808, and only so far their masters, that, as late as 1805, we find statutory guar-back as 1821, passed acts subjecting Indians in her limits dians appointed to have the care and oversight of said In-to the same punishments as are to be inflicted upon white dians and their property, with full power to superintend men who may transgress her laws; and the regulation of the same. All conveyances by them of lands in fee, or their property and persons is committed to that kind guardfor a term of years, are declared to be "utterly void, and ianship which their degraded condition requires, and withof none effect, except approved by their guardians." out which they would be constant victims of imposition. And, by a statute passed in 1810, so wholesome has been Sir, I pass over the laws of Maine, New Hampshire, the operation of Massachusetts legislation upon the morals Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virand increase of the Indians within her limits, and so care-ginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, in all of which fully have they assured to them the rights of freemen, jurisdiction and sovereignty over the Indians in their rethat no action can be sustained "in any court of law in spective limits are asserted, as well before the revolution as that commonwealth, where an Indian is a plaintiff, unless after it, and practised to the present day; and, though the the original will be endorsed by two or more of their gentleman from New York [Mr. STORRS] has, by his manguardians." ner of arguing this question, subjected the State which H. of R.] Removal of the Indians. [MAX 24, 1830. he represents, in part, to some animadversion, and himself protecting and supporting the said Six Nations of Indians, to reproof, I will content myself with remarking that no and their tributaries, for upwards of one hundred years State in the Union has more positively insisted upon her last past, as the dependents and allies of the said Governsovereignty over Indians, and their lands within her limits, ment." than New York; and that her civil jurisdiction over their 3d. "That the Crown of England has always considered persons, both by the decision of her courts and her statutes, and treated the country of the said Six Nations, and their is affirmed in the strongest terms, as well over those In- tributaries, inhabiting as far as the forty-fifth degree of north dians who have not ceded their lands to that State, as over latitude, as appendant to the Government of New York." those who have; and this, notwithstanding the establish- 4th. "That the neighboring colonies of Massachusetts, ment by the Indians of a Government for themselves, claim-Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, have, ing to be independent of that State, as the Cherokees do also, from time to time, by their public acts, recognised, of Georgia, and the existence of treaties between those In- and admitted the said Six Nations, and their tributaries, to dians and the United States, containing the same assurances be appendant to the Government of New York." of protection and guaranties of territory, which, it is said And, as a further reason for accepting the cession of by gentlemen on this floor, make the Cherokees a distinct land from the State of New York, to which this report and independent nation. Nor, sir, should we have heard related, it is concluded in these remarkable words: "That, a denial of the jurisdiction of the States over Indians with- by Congress accepting this cession, the jurisdiction of the in their limits, if the too zealous anxiety of gentlemen to whole western territory, belonging to the Six Nations and defeat the administration, in this prominent point of its their tributaries, will be vested in the United States, greatly policy, had not caused an oblivion in their minds of the po- to the advantage of the Union." Words plainly showing litical history of our country. We have the records to show the jurisdiction to be in the State, and the State's right to that this claim of jurisdiction was collectively admitted by transfer it. Nor, sir, must it be said that these repeated the States, from the beginning of their first confederacy recognitions by Congress of the States' jurisdiction over until after the adoption of the present constitution; and it Indians within their limits, was owing to the terms in which will be for those opposed to us to prove when, how, and that part of the ninth article of the confederation giving to by what States, it has been surrendered to the United Congress "the sole and exclusive right and power of reguStates. We call for the convention, agreement, the direct lating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians clause in the constitution, by which it is given up; or for not members of any of the States," is expressed; for the any other which, by inference or construction, can take it article is no more than the concession, embodied, of the States' jurisdiction: and the care with which it was intendWhen a petition from a part of Virginia was laid before ed to be retained by the States, is shown, by Congress only Congress, on the 1st of June, 1775, intimating "fears of a having conceded to it the power to regulate trade and rupture with the Indians, on account of Lord Dunmore's manage all affairs "with the Indians not members of any conduct," and desiring commissioners to attend a meeting of the States," and this, too, "provided the legislative right of the Indians at Pittsburg, it was ordered “that the above of any State, within its own limits, be not infringed or be referred to the delegates of the colonies of Virginia and violated." But, in virtue of the authority given to ConPennsylvania." Nor were there any subsequent proceed-gress by the States over the Indians, Congress, by its proings in regard to it, without the consent and co-operation of clamation of September 2d, 1783, exercised the authority those States. In less than six weeks, Congress, aware of which the Crown of England had done, in prohibiting setthe efforts made by English emissaries to excite the Indians tlements and forbidding purchases of lands inhabited or to take up arms against the colonies, took such steps as the claimed by Indians, "without the limits or jurisdiction of exigency required, to secure their friendship and neutrality; any particular State." When it became necessary to preand three Indian departments were formed-the Northern, pare an ordinance for regulating the Indian trade, ĈonMiddle, and Southern. But in none of their subsequent gress exhibited the same commendable caution in regard measures was the jurisdiction of States, over Indians in to the States' jurisdiction over Indians in their limits, by their limits, in any way infracted. And the first proof in resolving "that the preceding measures of Congress relasupport of the declaration I have made, is to be found in the proceedings of Congress on the 2d November, 1782, when a deputation from the Catawba tribe urged Congress to secure to them certain lands in South Carolina, to preserve them from being “intruded into by force, and not to be alienated, even with their own consent. 33 Congress knowing where the jurisdiction was, away. Resolved, "That it be recommended to the Legislature of South Carolina to take such measures for the satisfaction and security of the said tribe, as the said Legislature shall, in their wisdom, think fit." tive to Indian affairs shall not be construed to affect the territorial claims of any of the States, or their legislative rights, within their limits." But why, sir, should I fatigue myself, and exhaust the patience of this House, by citing additional proofs of what was the universal appre hension of the jurisdiction possessed by the States over Indians and their lands? Those who are curious in this matter, will see, by consulting the Journals of the convention, how repeatedly, in framing the articles of confederation, it was acknowledged. There is enough, sir, to shield the State of Georgia from the imputation of setting up any And for the particular information of the gentleman from novel pretension in her claim of jurisdiction over the CheNew York, [Mr. STORRS] that he may hereafter know the rokees, and their lands lying in the State, and pursuing the true ground of that State's jurisdiction over Indians within course to which she has been urged by circumstances, her limits, and, in his future discussions of this subject, regardless of what may be said or thought. The State is either privately or in this House, that he may not mistake, prepared to maintain the position she has taken, against and mistake it to be from voluntary concessions by Indians any coercion which may be attempted, and her functionato the State, I refer him to the report of a committee of ries are ready to defend her rights before any tribunal Congress, May 1st, 1782, and ask to be permitted to read it: by which they can be constitutionally investigated. We 1st. It clearly appeared to your committee, that all the ask for no more than other States have and continue to lands belonging to the Six Nations of Indians, and their exercise, without having their claims of jurisdiction over tributarics, have been, in due form, put under the protec- the Indians in their limits questioned; and our authority, tion of the Crown of England, by the said Six Nations, as proceeding from the same common fountain, we shall not appended to the late Government of New York, so far as permit to be lessened, or any restraint to be imposed respects jurisdiction only." upon its exercise. Repeated calumnies against the State 24. That the citizens of the said colony of New York have taught her people to bear, with dignity, every slanhave borne the burden, both as to blood and treasure, of der upon its honor: and it is our pride that, though, in |