“an unceasing current of … men, women, youths, and children” Ibid.
People might linger for days … freshly killed beef Ibid.
horns would echo through the woods Snell, “Councils at Red Clay Council Ground,” p. 352.
the crowd already numbered three thousand Wool to Cass, September 18, 1836, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, House of Representatives, 25th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 557.
attendance grew to between four and five thousand Butler, “Red Clay Council Ground,” p. 145.
“peaceful,” operating with “order and decorum” Ibid.
“upwards of twenty-one hundred male adults” According to Cherokee memorial to Wool, September 30, 1836, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, House of Representatives, 25th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 567.
Cherokee population of about 16,500 All figures from McLoughlin and Conser, “Cherokees in Transition,” pp. 678–703; Table 3, p. 682.
“streaked with gray … a dark, brown, brilliant eye” Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, p. 199.
translated sentence by sentence into Cherokee This was the practice at the 1837 Red Clay meeting described in Snell, “Councils at Red Clay Council Ground,” p. 351.
On the last day of the session According to General Wool, quoted in ibid., p. 350.
“a fraud upon the government of the United States and an act of oppression” Cherokee memorial to Wool, September 30, 1836, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, House of Representatives, 25th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 566.
Here were men who went by their English names Ibid., p. 567.
“good faith” and “magnanimity” of “the President and the Congress” John Ross et al. to Wool, ibid., p. 567.
“immediately return it … in regard to the treaty” C. A. Harris to Wool, October 17, 1836, ibid., p. 564.
The president also criticized his general Lewis Cass to Wool, October 12, 1836, ibid., p. 557.
“The people are opposed to the treaty” Wool to Lewis Cass, September 12, 1836, ibid., p. 554.
“dragged like so many beasts to the emigration camp” Wool to Cass, September 18, 1836, ibid., p. 557.
“If any officer of the army should countenance resistance”: Cass to Wool, October 12, 1836, ibid., pp. 556–57.
he thought Cherokees should move west for their own good Wool’s view is clear from his letters, and is supported by Hauptman, “General John E. Wool in Cherokee Country,” pp. 1–26.
“the shedding of human blood” Wool to Cass, September 18, 1836, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, House of Representatives, 25th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 564.
Alabamans were upset when he interfered Hauptman, “General John E. Wool in Cherokee Country,” p. 21.
State authorities complained to Washington Defense of Brigadier General Wool, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, pp. 567–71.
Supposedly he was recalled from command at his “own request” Wool to Joel R. Poinsett, August 11, 1837, ibid., p. 565.
Chapter Thirty-two: Perchance, You May Have Heard That the Cherokees Are in Trouble
He had staggered … “severe illness” B. F. Butler to Wool, November 23, 1836, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, House of Representatives, 25th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 562.
“advanced age and a broken frame” Jackson, farewell address, March 4, 1837, as reproduced in Woolley and Peters, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=67087.
Jackson declined Long, Duel of Eagles, p. 329.
expressed regret … cried when a crowd greeted his carriage Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 3, p. 630.
explanations and excuses for the soaring expense Joel R. Poinsett’s annual message to Congress, December 5, 1837, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 7, pp. 571–72.
if they could not recapture slaves, they would rather continue the war Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War, p. 201.
turned out hundreds of Seminoles being held in a detention camp Ibid., p. 204.
250 soldiers surrounded him and took him prisoner Ibid., pp. 214–16.
fifty thousand tons of granite and cut stone Ferguson, “An Overview of the Events at Fort Sumter, 1829–1991,” p. 6.
“twenty towns, three counties” Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War, p. 218.
Would Ross be willing to appeal to the Seminoles Moulton, “Cherokees and the Second Seminole War.”
stories of savages … contributed to prejudice Fiorato, “Cherokee Mediation in Florida,” p. 115.
“I am of the aboriginal race” John Ross to Seminoles, October 7, 1837, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 523–24.
Ross did not go along with a War Department suggestion Fiorato, “Cherokee Mediation in Florida,” p. 116.
including their leader Micanopy Ibid., pp. 113–14.
The Seminoles believed them Moulton, John Ross, Cherokee Chief, p. 88.
Chapter Thirty-three: The Thunder Often Sounding in the Distance
They cast off from the Cherokee Nation on March 3, 1837 Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, p. 290.
A steam locomotive arrived, pulling a string of open freight cars Ibid., p. 291.
watching the countryside blurring past in the dark Grant Foreman describes it as a night journey in Indian Removal, p. 275.
no reported deaths According to Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, p. 293.
365 emigrants loaded their wagons The number is from Foreman, Indian Removal, p. 280.
paid a call on white-haired General Jackson Journal of B. B. Cannon, reprinted as “An Overland Journey to the West (October–December 1837)” in Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, p. 168.
“Nov. 1st 1837 … Marched at 8 O’C A.M. buried Ducks child” Ibid.
“Nov 29th 1837 … child last night” Ibid.
“We will not attempt to describe the evils … deceived himself” Address by federal commissioners John Kennedy and Thomas W. Wilson, and Nathaniel Smith, Superintendent of Indian Removal, December 28, 1837, reprinted in Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, pp. 134–35.
The last census of the eastern Cherokees All figures from McLoughlin and Conser, “Cherokees in Transition,” pp. 678–703.
“had a long talk … he will weep!” John Ross to Lewis Ross, April 5, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 622.
The War Department assured him General Alexander Macomb to Scott, April 6, 1838, reprinted in Exec. Doc. 453, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 4, 1838, pp. 1–2.
cadets at … West Point were being ordered that spring Army and Navy Chronicle, reprinted in Boston Courier, June 21, 1838.
vowing “never to return without having killed at least one Indian” Scott, “If Not Rejoicing, at Least in Comfort: General Scott’s Version of Removal,” Journal of Cherokee Studies.
Arriving at Athens, Tennessee, fifteen days before the deadline He arrived May 8. Scott to Poinsett, May 18, 1838, reprinted in Exec. Doc. 453, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 4, 1838, p. 7.
“powerful army … whole people of America” Scott’s address, reprinted in Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, p. 145.
“a company of volunteers marched through Morganton” Fayetteville Observer, May 16, 1838.
North Carolina also announced its plan Raleigh Register and North Carolina Gazette, May 7, 1838.
“Nothing but destruction” Lewis Ross to John Ross, April 6, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 625.
He had seen Cherokees serenely planting their corn John Ross to Lewis Ross, April 5, 1838, ibid., p. 622.
twenty-three military posts throughout the Cherokee Nation Scott to Poinsett, May 18, 1838, reprinted in Exec. Doc. 453, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 4, 1838, p. 7.
enrolled so many volunteer soldiers Scott to Poinsett, May 18, 1838: “I shall be trammelled by an understanding, mounting almost to a compact, which had been entered into with the Governor of Georg
ia, in respect to eleven such companies.” Ibid.
“Whilst writing the foregoing” Ibid.
“were evidently deluded” John Ross to Lewis Ross, April 5, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 622–23.
“I replied that I had never deluded the Cherokees” Ibid., p. 623.
the depression had forced the closure of thirty-three thousand businesses Study cited in Roberts, America’s First Great Depression, p. 22.
Once again, religious groups led the way Moulton, John Ross, Cherokee Chief, p. 93.
“My friend Mr. Payne and myself” Ross to Elizabeth Milligan, April 10, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 626.
“Catlin’s Indian Gallery,” as it was called in an advertisement National Intelligencer, April 17, 1838, p. 3.
“The interests of your people cannot be dearer to you, than those of mine” Ross to Martin Van Buren, April 1838 (exact date uncertain), Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 633–34.
“You can expel us by force” Ross to Samuel Cooper, April 17, 1838, ibid., p. 631.
“The presence in this city of the chiefs” Poinsett to Scott, June 1, 1838, reprinted in Exec. Doc. 453, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 4, 1838, p. 4.
“No communication has reached me” Scott to R. Jones, May 22, 1838, ibid., pp. 12–13.
“When the soldier came to our house” Rebecca Neugin to Grant Foreman, reprinted in Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, p. 176.
“as we were going from school” From Journal of Commerce, reprinted in Liberator, July 20, 1838, p. 116.
“Many of our friends are troubling themselves” Ibid.
“Families at dinner were startled by the sudden gleam of bayonets” Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, p. 130.
“to rob them of the silver pendants” Ibid.
“I experienced no difficulty in getting them along” Reprinted in Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, p. 154.
“happily chosen,” a “well shaded” area Scott autobiographical fragment, reprinted in ibid., p. 139.
“scattered and dispersed” in “family camps” Quoted in Rozema, Voices from the Trail of Tears, pp. 128–29.
“consequent upon the hurry of capture and removal” Scott to N. Smith, cited in Evans, “Fort Marr Blockhouse,” p. 259.
“they are the most quiet people you ever saw” Reprinted in Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, p. 155.
In two follow-up letters Poinsett to Scott, June 25 and 27, 1838, reprinted in Exec. Doc. 453, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 4, 1838, pp. 5–6.
“and the squatters … are as likely to annoy, to dispossess, and make war” Scott to Poinsett, June 7, 1838, ibid., p. 18.
“Not only the comfort, but the safety of the Indians” Scott to Poinsett, June 18, 1838, ibid., p. 26.
“a high grade of Diarrhea … heat that has prevailed in this country” Quoted in Rozema, Voices from the Trail of Tears, p. 129.
“two thousand” people had died Missionary Herald, 1838, quoted in ibid., p. 29.
“The loss was the fault of the Cherokees” Quoted in Brown, Old Frontiers, p. 509.
“Paid to John Ross … 25,000.00” Receipt, June 25, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 647.
$7,000 for two seasons in Washington Travel expense receipt, June 26, 1838, ibid., p. 648.
“thrilling news” Ross to John Howard Payne, July 5 and 9, 1838, ibid., p. 648.
“suddenly terminated” Ross to the Cherokees, July 21, 1838, ibid., p. 649.
“I shall not stop here to complain” Scott to Poinsett, June 7, 1838, reprinted in “On the Removal of the Cherokees,” Exec. Doc. 453, 25th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 4, 1838, p. 20.
“extremely unwilling to delay the emigration” Scott to John Ross et al., August 25, 1838, Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1978, p. 152.
“I am still in the land of the living” Jackson to Blair, August 9, 1838, Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775–1874, reel 51.
“Benton is safe beyond a doubt” A. G. Harrison to Jackson, August 15, 1838, ibid.
“It is indispensable for us to have a new candidate for the Vice Presidency” C. Johnson to Jackson, August 1838, ibid.
“to be placed at West Point” Amanda P. Craig to Jackson, August 22, 1838, ibid.
“Col. Walker has just shewn me”: Jackson to Felix Grundy, August 23, 1838, Moser et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, reel 34.
He had left out an allowance for soap … total cost should be $66.24 “Moneys Due the Cherokee Nation,” clarifies this, p. 10. House Report no. 288, in 1843, gives the money figures and specifies that it was an allowance for soap. “Moneys Due the Cherokee Nation,” p. 10, also says that Scott asked for a reduction and that Ross countered with an increase.
John Ross took no actual salary Moulton, John Ross, Cherokee Chief, p. 106.
$1.357 million “Moneys Due the Cherokee Nation,” p. 11.
“accomplished with a much less expense to the United States” Ibid.
“At dawn of day the Emigrants were in readiness” Ross to Scott, November. 12, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 691–93.
“at least Two third are in a destitute condition” John Benge et al. to John Ross, September 29, 1838, ibid., p. 673.
Another party … “the payment of unjust & just Demands” George Hicks to Ross, November 4, 1838, ibid., p. 687.
“The Ice on the Mississippi” Thomas N. Clark to Ross, December 28, 1838, ibid., p. 696.
around 600 “Moneys Due the Cherokee Nation,” p. 11.
one Cherokee list recorded 324 “Emigration Detachments,” Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1977, p. 187.
Cherokee population may have been reduced by as many as eight thousand Thornton, “Cherokee Population Losses during the Trail of Tears,” pp. 289–300.
“excepting sickness” Ross to Winfield Scott, November 12, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 691.
“I wish I could have your influence for a few days” Thomas N. Clark to Ross, November 15, 1838, ibid., p. 695.
Epilogue
A glance at a modern census map For example, “American Indians and Alaska Natives,” produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, based on 2010 census data, www.census.gov.
reservations are in southeastern Alabama … Chickasaw and Choctaw Census maps, ibid.
their numbers dwindled to as little as a hundred Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War, p. 321.
it was apparently on a riverboat that Ross’s wife, Quatie, died Worthen, “Quatie Ross Gravestone Given to Museum.”
She was buried after the boat tied up at Little Rock, Arkansas An alternative version of Quatie’s death, conveyed in a supposed letter by one John Burnett, was discredited in ibid.
“The clouds vanished and the rain ceased to fall” John Ross to Mary B. Ross, March 5, 1865, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 631–32.
cede some of the land that had previously been granted Kappler, Article 31, “Treaty with the Cherokee, 1866,” Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, p. 947.
“he had been treated so bad by the whites life had lost all its endearments” The wife’s account was found by the scholar William Martin Jurgelski, who transcribed it in Pluckhahn and Ethridge, Light on the Path, pp. 137–39.
“one of those unfortunate individual occurrences” Ross to Winfield Scott, November 4, 1838, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 687.
Cherokees themselves put Tsali on trial: Pluckhahn and Ethridge, Light on the Path, pp. 148–50.
several hundred thousand people, on and off reservations U.S. Census Bureau, “American Indians and Alaska Natives,” based on 2010 census data, www.census.gov.
Sources and Acknowledgments
“endure … as long as the government itself” Van Buren, Autobiography, p. 295.
“wise and humane” Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 3, p. 279.
white men “very naturally” would not tolerate Wilson, Division and Reunion, 1829–1889, p. 37.
“were as religious, moral, high-minded a race of men who ever lived” Brooks, History of Georgia, pp. 225–26.
many Indians viewed him as “the devil” The video, narrated by Martin Sheen, was excerpted from Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency, a documentary released on DVD in 2008, and viewed at the Hermitage, August 17, 2013.
formal apology for the Trail of Tears Public Law 111-118 describes “years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of covenants by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes,” and apologizes for “the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect,” p. 45.
“paternalist” Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, p. 324.
“harried without ruth” Roosevelt, Winning of the West, vol. 4, p. 53.
the “race-importance” of the work Ibid., p. 52.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archives, Bound Letters, Pamphlets, and Other Documents
Adams, John Quincy. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795–1848. 12 vols. Edited by Charles Francis Adams. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1875.
Alabama Department of Archives and History: miscellaneous letters.
American State Papers, Library of Congress.
Anderson, William, et al., eds. The Payne-Butrick Papers. 6 vols. in 2-vol. set. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
Andrew, John III. From Revivals to Removal: Jeremiah Evarts, the Cherokee Nation, and the Search for the Soul of America. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.
Austill, Margaret Eades. “Memories of Journeying through Creek Country and of Childhood in Clarke County, 1811–1814.” Alabama Department of Archives and History, pages unnumbered.
Barrett, John S., ed. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. 7 vols. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institute, 1926–35.
Beecher, Catharine. Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, with Reference to the Duty of American Females. Philadelphia: Henry Perkins, 1837.
Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records database.
Cherokee Agency East Papers, National Archives, Microfilm Series M234, reels 71–76, 113, 115.
Jacksonland: A Great American Land Grab Page 40
