I have been, therefore, desirous that a just and
satisfactory arrangement should be made for their removal, and
propositions to that effect upon a liberal scale have been repeatedly
made to them. These have until now been rejected, and their rejection,
I have been induced to believe, has been owing more to the ascendency
acquired by individuals who are unwilling to go than to the deliberative
opinion of a majority of the Cherokee people. Some years since a form
of government was established among them, but since the extension of
the laws of Georgia and Alabama over them this government can have no
binding effect upon a great majority of them. Its obligation is also
denied by many of them in consequence of the continuance of certain
persons in power contrary to the principles of their fundamental
articles of association. A delegation from the persons claiming to hold
their authority under the former existing state of things is in this
city, and have communicated with the War Department on the subject of
their situation and removal. They deny the right of the persons who have
negotiated this treaty to perform such an act, and have remonstrated
against it.
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