states that the
civilizing policy was as old as the government itself, and that in per-
forming the high duties of humanity to the Indians, it had never been
conceived that the stipulation of the convention was contravened. In
handing in the report the President again called attention to the con-
ditional nature of the agreement and declared it as his opinion that the
title of the Indians was not in the slightest degree affected by it and
that there was no obligation on the United States to remove them by
force. 1
Further efforts, even to the employment of secret methods, were
made in 1827 and 1828 to induce a cession or emigration, but without
avail. On July 26, 1827, as already noted, the Cherokee adopted a
constitution as a distinct and sovereign Nation. Upon this the Georgia
legislature passedbut now
a stronger motive was added. About the year 1815 a little Cherokee
boy playing along Chestatee river, in upper Georgia, had brought in
to his mother a shining yellow pebble hardly larger than the end of his
thumb. On being washed it proved to be a nugget of gold, and on
her next trip to the settlements the woman carried it with her and sold
it to a white man. The news spread, and although she probably con-
cealed the knowledge of the exact spot of its origin, it was soon known
that the golden dreams of DeSoto had been realized in the Cherokee
country of Georgia. Within four years the whole territory east of
the Chestatee had passed from the possession of the Cherokee. They
still held the western bank, but the prospector was abroad in