John Ross:  Address to the Cherokee Nation

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Your delegation have in the discharge of the duties imposed upon them, most scrupulously observed to the best of their full abilities the known wishes and sentiments of the whole Nation, in the support of our common rights and interests. But, when the strong arm of power is raised against the weak and defenseless, the force of argument must fail. Our Nation have been besieged by a powerful Army and you have been captured in peace from your various domestic pursuits. And your wives & children placed in forts under a military guard for the purpose of being immediately transported to the West of the Mississippi—and a portion of them have actually been sent off!! Your leading men feeling for your distress, respectfully appealed to the magnanimity of the gallant and generous Commanding General [Winfield Scott] for a suspension of your removal until autumn, a season more propitious for a healthful and comfortable removal from a salubrious clime to a sickly one. As you all well know, this petition has been favourably received and kindly granted. These things transpired in the absence of your Delegation and whilst they were at Washington City in actual Negotiation and under a hopeful prospect of success, for concluding an arrangement with the United States through the Secry. of War [Joel R. Poinsett], and thereby alleviating our Nation from the embarrassing difficulties with which we have for years past been troubled. But, alas! the Negotiation was unexpectedly and suddenly terminated by the Secry. of War and the subject matter submitted to Congress by the President of the United States [Martin Van Buren] in a manner wholly inexplicable to the Delegation. Congress, has made an appropriation to meet the expenses for transportation, subsistence &c amounting to One Million forty seven thousand and sixty seven Dollars. Also an additional sum of One hundred thousand Dollars for arrearages of Annuities, for blankets clothing for the poor, medical aid &c. The Delegation have been advised by the Secretary of War that Major Genl. Winfield Scott has been instructed to close an arrangement with them for the control and management of our own emigration; thus has the Mission to Washington terminated; and the Delegation have found you under a Military duress, encamped in the forests along the sylvan brooks where you once gathered your flock of sheep and herds of cattle. Here, homeless and outcasts, we are only for a short space to be permitted to taking a passing view of the houses and farms we once inhabited & cultivated & the places in which we happily worshiped Almighty God. Amid these our afflictions, I rejoice, however, to find that you have so wisely and with Christian firmness maintained your peaceful and respectful relations toward our white brethren, as well as in the discharge of the solemn duties we owe one to the other, among ourselves. It is especially gratifying to me to be informed verbally by the Commanding Genl. who is charged with the painful duty of removing us from the land of our Nativity, that, he has found you faithful and honorable in the fulfilment of every promise or engagement which you have made with him, and that in no instance have you ever told him a lie. This distinguished officer has been pleased further to assure me, that, so far as it may be within his power to grant our request in reference to our comfortable removal, that the interests and wishes of the Nation shall be consulted and adopted.

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Source: Reprinted from The Papers of Chief John Ross: Volume I 1807–1839, Volume II 1840–1866, edited by Gary Moulton, University of Oklahoma Press, © 1985.