Following is the address to the Indians:
"_Major-General Scott, of the United States Army, sends to the
Cherokee people remaining in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and
Alabama this_
"ADDRESS.
"CHEROKEES: The President of the United States has sent me
with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience of the treaty of
1835, to join that part of your people who are already established
in prosperity on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhappily, the
two years which were allowed for the purpose you have suffered to
pass away without following and without making any preparation to
follow, and now, or by the time that this solemn address shall reach
your distant settlements, the emigration must be commenced in haste,
but, I hope, without disorder. I have no power by granting a further
delay to correct the error that you have committed. The full moon of
May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed
away every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those States must be in
motion to join their brethren in the far West.
"My friends, this is no sudden determination on the part of the
President, whom you and I must now obey. By the treaty the
emigration was to have been completed on or before the 23d of this
month, and the President has constantly kept you warned during the
two years allowed, through all his officers and agents in this
country, that the treaty would be enforced.
"I am come to carry out that determination. My troops already occupy
many positions in the country that you are to abandon, and thousands
and thousands are approaching from every quarter to render
assistance and escape alike hopeless. All those troops, regular and
militia, are your friends. Receive them, and confide in them as
such. Obey them when they tell you that you can remain no longer in
this country. Soldiers are as kind-hearted as brave, and the desire
of every one of us is to execute our painful duty in mercy. We are
commanded by the President to act toward you in that spirit, and
such is also the wish of the whole people of America.
"Chiefs, headmen, and warriors, will you then by resistance compel
us to resort to arms? God forbid! Or will you by flight seek to hide
yourselves in mountains and forests, and thus oblige us to hunt you
down? Remember, that in pursuit it may be impossible to avoid
conflicts. The blood of the white man or the blood of the red man
may be spilt, and if spilt, however accidentally, if may be
impossible for the discreet and humane among you or among us to
prevent a general war and carnage. Think of this, my Cherokee
brethren! I am an old warrior, and have been present at many a scene
of slaughter; but spare me, I beseech you, the horror of witnessing
the destruction of the Cherokees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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