large portion, and probably
a majority, of the Cherokee nation residing east of the Mississippi had
been and still continued bitterly opposed to the terms of the treaty of
18 L 7. They viewed with jealous and aching hearts all attempts to
drive them from the homes of their ancestors, for they could not but
consider the constant and urgent importunities of the federal authori-
ties in the light of an imperative demand for the cession of more
territory. They felt that they were, as a nation, being slowly but
surely compressed within the contracting coils of the giant anaconda
of civilization; yet they held to the vain hope that a spirit of justice
and mercy would be born of their helpless condition which would
anally prevail in their favor. Their traditions furnished them no
guide by which to judgeof the results certain to follow such a conflict
as that in which they were engaged. This difference of sentiment in
the nation upon a subject so vital to their welfare was productive of
much bitterness and violent animosities. Those who had favored the
emigration scheme and had been induced, either through personal
preference or by the subsidizing influences of the government agents,
to favor the conclusion of the treaty, became the object of scorn and
hatred to the remainder of the nation. They were made the subjects
of a persecution so relentless, while they remained in the eastern
country, that it was never forgotten, and when, in the natural course
of events, the remainder of the nation was forced to remove to the
Arkansas country and join the earlier emigrants, the old hatreds and
dissensions broke out afresh, and