John Ross: Address to a General Council of the Cherokee Nation

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Early detachments of Cherokee suffered horrible losses as they were forced onto boats by the army for their journey to the West. Ross went to General Winfield Scott, who was under orders to complete the removal of the Indians, and begged him to allow the Cherokee to supervise their own removal. Scott agreed. The Cherokee thus migrated to the West as a nation; they were not, as some histories declare, forcibly marched by the U.S. Army to the Indian Territory. Clearly, Scott's decision to allow the Cherokee to superintend their own removal reduced the loss of life brought on by the exodus. Still, their incarceration in the stockades and their journey to the Indian Territory through the brutal winter of 1838–1839 resulted in the deaths of an estimated one-quarter to one-half of the Cherokee population.

The end of the journey did not bring peace for the Cherokee. First, Ross had to try to heal the divisions created by the Treaty of New Echota and the removal. In addition, he had to find some way to unite the newly arrived Cherokee with the “Old Setters,” the Cherokee and their descendants who had relocated to the West in the early years of the nineteenth century. In this address to the Cherokee people, Ross declares their community to be strong and intact. He also reaches out to the Old Settlers, who were concerned that their political voice would be overwhelmed by those of the nationally famous chief and the thousands of Cherokee who had just arrived. Ross promised that although the new arrivals vastly outnumbered the Old Settlers, all Cherokee would be treated equally and would possess the same rights and privileges. In closing, Ross refers to the words of Jesus that Abraham Lincoln would adopt so effectively in his “House Divided” Speech some twenty years later: “A House divided against itself cannot stand.”

Just twelve days after his address, assailants brutally killed Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot. When Major Ridge had signed the Treaty of New Echota, he reportedly commented that he was signing his death warrant. In fact, the Cherokee Nation had in the 1820s passed a law providing for death for any Cherokee who sold land without the consent of the Cherokee government. Members of the Treaty Party accused Ross's supporters of murdering the three men; Ross's followers contended that the victims were only receiving their just punishment under Cherokee law. The attacks on the Treaty Party leaders set off a long period of vendetta killings between the two factions that ended only after the United States brokered a peace in 1846. After the settlement of this internal strife, Ross led the Cherokee Nation into a period of renewal and prosperity. Unfortunately for the Cherokee, however, this renaissance ended when they were pulled into the Civil War.