remaining
lands within the chartered state limits, coupling the complaint with a
threat to take the matter into her own hands. In 1820 Agent Meigs had
expressed the opinion that the Cherokee were now so far advanced that
further government aid was unnecessary, and that their lands should
be allotted and the surplus sold for their benefit, they themselves to
be invested with full rights of citizenship in the several states within
which they resided. This .suggestion had been approved by President
Monroe, but had met the most determined opposition from the states
concerned. Tennessee absolutely refused to recognize, individual
reservations made by previous treaties, while North Carolina and
Georgia bought in all such reservations with money appropriated
by Congress.* No Indian was to be allowed to live within those states
on any pretext whatsoever.
In the meantime, owing to persistent pressurethe fact that by the very wording of the L802 agreement
the compact was a conditional one which could not he carried out
without their own voluntary consent, and suggesting that Georgia
might be satisfied from the adjoining government lands in Florida.
Continuing, they remind the Secretary that the Cherokee are not
foreigners, but original inhabitants of America, inhabiting and stand-
ing now upon the soil of their own territory, with limits denned by
treaties with the United States, and that, confiding in the good faith
of the government to respect its treaty stipulations, they do not hesitate
to say that their true interest, prosperity, and happiness demand their
permanency where they are and the retention of their lands. '
A copy of this letter was sent by the Secretary to Governor Troup
of Georgia, who returned a reply in