CHAP. XLVIII.

During his administration, an unusual number of exciting questions came up for consideration, and the many 1829. interests thus involved affected the people in every State in the Union. The first important measure, was the removal of the Cherokee Indians from the State of Georgia. They had been protected by the General Government, under Adams. The Supreme Court of the United States had decided in their favor, and against the action of the State; but that decision had little influence with the President. He did not rebuke the State, when she began to drive them from their homes, and to distribute their lands, many of them cultivated farms, among her own citizens. He sent General Scott with troops to remove them, and his kindness and persuasions induced them to migrate peacefully; yet with lamentations, they 1838 took leave of " the beloved land."

Their sacrifices as a people were very great, not only in the loss of property, but in the check given to their industrial and moral progress. The self-denying labors of missionaries and teachers had enabled them to advance rapidly toward a Christianized civilization. They derived their sustenance from their own cultivated fields; they clothed themselves almost entirely with the fabrics which their women spun and wove; they lived in settled habitations, some of wood and some of brick; they made provision for the education of their children-five hundred of whom were in schools-besides endowing a National Academy for the youth further advanced. They also established a newspaper, printed partly in English, and partly in their own language. "We hope,” said they, "that with God's blessing the time will soon come when the words war-whoop and scalping-knife will be heard no more."

Two of their missionaries, the Rev. S. A. Worcester and Dr. Elisur Butler, were ruthlessly imprisoned in the penitentiary by the authority of the State of Georgia,