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More than a year ago we were officially
given to understand by the secretary of war, that
the president could not protect us against the
laws of Georgia....Finding that relief could not
be obtained from the chief magistrate, and not
doubting that our claim to protection was just,
we made an application to Congress.... But,
just at the close of the session, an act was
passed, by which an half million of dollars was
appropriated towards effecting a removal of
Indians.... Thus have we realized, with heavy
hearts, that our supplication [humble plea] has
not been heard; that the protection heretofore
experienced is now to be withheld: that the
guaranty [treaty], in consequence of which our
fathers laid aside their arms and ceded the best
portions of their country, means nothing; and
that we must either emigrate to an unknown
region and leave the pleasant land to which we
have the strongest attachment, or submit to the
legislation of a state which has already made our
people outlaws.... But in the midst of our sorrows, we do not forget our obligations to our
friends and benefactors. It was with sensations
of inexpressible joy that we have learned that the
voice of thousands, in many parts of the United
States, has been raised in our behalf, and
numerous memorials [speeches] offered in our
favor, in both houses of Congress. To those
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numerous friends, who have thus sympathized
with us in our low estate, we tender our grateful
acknowledgments. In pleading our cause, they
have pleaded the cause of the poor and
defenceless throughout the world.... The
people of the United States will have the fairness
to reflect, that all the treaties between them and
the Cherokee were made, at the solicitation and
for the benefit, of the whites... our people have
trusted their country to the guaranty of the
United States. If this guaranty fails them, in
what can they trust, and where can they look for
protections?... We wish to remain on the land
of our fathers. We have a perfect and original
right to remain without interruption or molestation. The treaties with us, and laws of the United
States made in pursuance of treaties, guaranty
our residence and our privileges, and secure us
against intruders. Our only request is, that these
treaties may be fulfilled, and these laws
executed....
It is under a sense of the most pungent
[painful] feelings that we make this, perhaps our
last appeal to the good people of the United
States. It cannot be that the community we are
addressing, remarkable for its intelligence and
religious sensibilities, and preeminent for its
devotion to the rights of man, will lay aside this
appeal.
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