Cases and other equipments
had to be devised and fashioned by the printers, neither of whom
understood a word of Cherokee, but simply set up the characters, as
handed to them in manuscript by Worcester and the editor. Such was
the beginning of journalism in the Cherokee nation. After a precari-
ous existence of about six years the Phoenix was suspended, owiny to
the hostile action of the Georgia authorities, who went so far as to
throw Worcester and Wheeler into prison. Its successor, after the
removal of the Cherokee to the West, was the Oheroke* Advocate, of
which the first number appeared at Tahlequah in 1S44. with William
P. Ross as editor. It is still continued under the auspices of the
Nation, printed in both languages and distributed free at the expense
of the Nation to those unable tostaple, including cotton, tobacco,
and wheat, and some cotton was exported by boats as far as New Or-
leans. Apple and peach orchards were numerous, butter and cheese
were in use to some extent, and both cotton and woolen cloths, espe-
cially blankets, were manufactured. Nearly all the merchants were
native Cherokee. Mechanical industries nourished, the Nation was out
of debt, and the population was increasing.'- Estimating one-third
beyond the Mississippi, the total number of Cherokee, exclusive of
adopted white citizens and negro slaves, must then have been about
20,000.
Simultaneously with the decrees establishing a national press, the
Cherokee Nation, in general convention of delegates held for the pur-
pose at New Echota on July 26, 1827, adopted a national constitution,
based on the assumption of distinct and independent nationality. John
Ross, so celebrated in connection with the history of his