themselves essentially from the rest of the Indian tribes, and had unexpectedly made great and surprising advances in civilization. They cultivated the ground, made cotton stuffs, had stone houses, laws, magistrates, printing-presses, newspapers, schools, and churches. They demanded to be recognized for the future, as they had been long before, as an independent people living on the soil which had descended to them from their forefathers; and to be protected by the government of the United States. Georgia, on the other hand, maintained, that to her alone belonged the right to regulate her internal affairs; she could not endure the formation within her boundaries of an independent, every where obstructing, inimical state; the Cherokees must adopt the institutions of Georgia and submit themselves to her laws, or emigrate.

The Cherokees now sought assistance from the Supreme Court of the United States. Georgia, they said, has arbitrarily and of her own power abolished all our laws, institutions, customs, &c.; she declares our possessions, which were guarantied o us by the treaty of Holston, in the year 1791, to be her property; she neither displays to us the justice due to a foreign state nor to fellow-citizens; she rejects all former provisions, according to which any changes that might be requisite were to be introduced in a kind and peaceable manner; she does not allow an Indian to testify against a white man; she prohibits our holding lawful assemblies, under penalty of four years hard labor; and the same threat is held out to prevent us from working on our gold mines.

Georgia, according to some statements, repealed a few of her harshest decrees, or postponed their strict execution; she adhered, however, on the whole to the above demands, and denied the right of the Supreme Court to decide the dispute in question. The court annulled some of Georgia's decisions, but could not agree on the main question. Investigations and discussions were gone into, to determine whether the Cherokees formed a separate, foreign state, or whether they should be regarded as a state of the Union; whether similar circumstances had ever occurred in history before; how they ought to be treated, &c. At length it was declared, by a majority of the members of the court, that, according to form, they were not entitled to pronounce a decision, and must dismiss the appeal of the Cherokees; although they did not intend hereby to express any opinion on the merits of the case. The minority (among whom were Chancellor

It is asserted, however, that all power was in the hands of a few educated chiefs, and that the masses were worse off than before. Register, 1830, p. 1120. North Amer. Review, xxx. 62; xxxi. 139, 423. The Case of the Cherokee

Nation, p. 282.

North American Review, xxxvii. 284.

Kent's Commentaries, iii. 383.

Kent and Judges Thomson and Story) maintained on the contrary, that it was necessary to go beyond the doubtful letter, to explain it in the right spirit, and not to sacrifice material right to unimportant forms. Georgia by her decrees broke all the treaties between the Cherokees and the United States; and the constitution and legislation of the Union must be miserably defective, if they afforded no relief against open despotism. When General Jackson asserted that the federal government could not assist the injured party, he was in error; and the Supreme Court was by no means under the necessity of referring to his opinion, but was itself the proper place of first and last resort. Suppose the Cherokees are not a foreign state, suppose they are a corporation, or whatever else you will; in no case are they destitute of rights, or subject to mere arbitrary power.

To the remark of Judge Johnson, that he had nothing to do with the morality of the matter, as the discussion was only concerning a question of law, it may be replied, that the question of law cannot be separated from considerations of morality, and that the immoral acts which had been committed (the violation of treaties and invasion of the rights of property) were likewise unlawful. Or if the formal reply of the court be approved of as such, the task of ascertaining what was right and just fell to the legislative power, to Congress; for in the courts of Georgia, and against the will and superior power of that state, the Cherokees could obtain no redress whatever.

President Jackson, in his message of 1831, expressed a noble sympathy on behalf of the condition and fate of the Indians : but their condition was not to be changed with words; a legal decision or an open feud would perhaps have interrupted many an arbitrary proceeding, but could never have transformed the general state of things. All parties, from Jefferson to Van Buren, have been unanimously of opinion, that a complete amalgamation of the Indians and whites, owing to the countless differences between them, is wholly impossible;* and a mere outward commingling, or living together, would only prolong and aggravate the evil, to which a decided separation or transplanting of them would put an end. "They have," said President Jackson, "neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement, which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, without appreciating the causes of their inferiority, or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances, and ere long disappear."†

As the European settlers had relinquished their original seats, * Amer. Quarterly Review, viii. 109.

† Message of 1833. Annual Register, p. 424.

so could the Indians do likewise, and all the more easily, inasmuch as they left no monuments, works of art, historical recollections, &c. behind. Beyond the Mississippi were immeasurable tracts of land; there the requisite possessions should be secured to them, the expenses attending their removal provided, advances granted to them, their support for the first year attended to, schoolmasters and ministers procured, &c.-The Cherokees, for 9,492,000 acres of land, received 13,554,000 beyond the Mississippi; and in addition thereto a compensation of $5,600,000 and $1,160,000 for provisions and other necessaries. From 1829 to 1838 the United States have fairly acquired from the Indians 116,349,000 acres of land,* and have paid or laid out therefor in many different ways $72,560,000-a sum that fully equals, nay, exceeds the value of the land, but which has often benefited only the Indian chiefs and their white associates.†

Whether the Cherokees, like many other Indian tribes now settled beyond the Mississippi, will fall back into utter barbarism or become extinct, or will gain for themselves a separate independent existence by virtue of the advantages above described, it is difficult to determine beforehand. However the latest official accounts speak more favorably than before. According to them, the Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees may now be regard ed as husbandmen; and in consequence of this important change in their way of life, there are gradually introduced among them laws, courts, juries, schools, and even political forms imitated. from the American. The temperance societies already count many members; and since the time when doctrinal subtleties have not been exclusively pressed upon their attention, but have been brought into connection with other means of culture, they exhibit a regular progress in various directions. Bigoted clergymen, however, are still here and there to be found, who complain that the bulwarks of religion are utterly overthrown, because the Indians-play at ball of a Sunday!

But there are other and weightier defects, which cannot remain concealed from the impartial observer. Many tribes adhere to their repulsive rudeness and beastly intemperance. The high annuities which the American government pays for surrendered lands (as for instance $92,000 per annum to 2183 Foxes) seduce them into laziness and extravagance, and lead to frauds on the part of the chiefs against their tribes. Many improvident or dissolute whites marry Indian girls in order to share their income, the amount of which to their joy increases, as intemperance diminishes the number of the Indians.

The conduct of the Americans has certainly been milder and more peaceable than that of the French in Africa.

† Calhoun's Speeches, p. 441.

Van Buren's Message of 1838. Casswall, p. 360. American Review, xi. 4. Buckingham's Slave States, ii. 101.

While some, in view of the constant savageness and unsociability of the Indians, prophesy their gradual extinction; others conclude, from advances they have already begun to make, that they will yet attain to perfect civilization. The most unbiassed observers distinguish between the different tribes; they regard the destruction of the more savage tribes as inevitable, and deny that-praiseworthy as the progress of the better tribes may be they will ever be able to raise themselves to an equality with the whites.

CHAPTER XIV.

IMMIGRANTS.

Nationality of the Americans-Immigrants, their Origin and Character-Germans and Irish-Native American Party-European Governments-Whither Emigrate?-Advantages of the United States-Number of Immigrants.

It is an established fact for the present and perhaps for all future times, that the negroes and men of color can never amalgamate or coalesce with the Americans into one people. Sometimes however the nationality even of the white Americans is disputed; because they have no long magnificent past, no antiquity to look back to; and because a conflux of many nations, a colluvies gentium, excludes the possibility of a finished, independent, peculiar character. To this it may be replied: The European past belongs also to those who have transferred themselves to America; it is the foundation, the pervading thread of their civilization, and they take with them to the new world whatever is worth the taking. But in truth that weak and idle predilection in favor of a dead antiquity, which is so widely spread only because it is indifferent to the present and no longer trusts to the future, is wholly foreign to their ways of thinking.

Again, it may be asked, Does not the mixture of several nations enlighten partial patriotism, prepare the way to higher forms of human development, and smoothe down rugged contradictions, by its salutary and instructive influence? Servility, arrogance, and hatred (e. g. among the Christian sects) are doubtless then repressed; and the highest wisdom is no longer sought in greatly prizing these feelings, but instead thereof union and

mutual support in state and church spring up into a new and higher existence, and with a power and a moderation hitherto unknown.

To those who believe that in this way no progress is possible, we reply that the inhabitants of the North American republic are of one stock, the Germanic. For to the vast majority of English are to be added the nearly related Germans; and the French and Spaniards are so few, that they cannot impart a different direction or form to the mass. The same holds true of the immigrants; for great and increasing as is their number, the population receives much larger accessions by domestic births, and the new-comers are soon blended with the majority.

The number of emigrants from England to the United States.

Next to the emigration from England and Ireland, that from Germany is by far the greatest.* The whole number of newcomers amounted

in the year 1833, to 59,513,

66

1844, to 84,764;

and, according to Tucker's estimates,† within the ten years from 1830 to 1840, to about 631,000; of whom, however, many emigrated again to Texas and Canada. Within fifty years, the population has increased by immigrants and their descendants about a million. The whole number of Germans in North America is stated at 4,886,632.

Complaints have been made against the morals and character of many of the immigrants; and a fear has arisen that they will convert North America into a sort of Botany Bay. It is true that many criminals, idlers, malcontents, and the like, seek here a place of refuge; but their number is proportionably very small, and bitter experience or punishment forces them to begin a new life in the new world.§

The United States proffer to immigrants the noblest moral and political education; and he who rejects it, who proudly considers himself above it, who trusts more to luck than to prudence and sagacity, who thinks to become rich without exertion, or perhaps to renovate and revolutionize mature America with superficial

*There left Bremen in 1837, 14,700; in 1838, 8,934; in 1839, 12,421; in 1840, 12,650; in 1841, 9,505.-Soetbeer, Hamburgs Handel, i. 174; ii. 121.

† Report for 1833, p. 33.

"America is a great vortex; it drags all the straws and chips, and floating sticks, driftwood and trash into it."- The Clockmaker, p. 39.

§ American Almanac for 1841, p. 82.