Immediately on the passage of the first act the Cherokee appealed to
President Jackson, but were told that no protection would be afforded
them. Other efforts were then made--in 1829--to persuade them to
removal, or to procure another cession--this time of all their lands
in North Carolina--but the Cherokee remained firm. The Georgia law was
declared in force on June 3, 1830, whereupon the President directed
that the annuity payment due the Cherokee Nation under previous
treaties should no longer be paid to their national treasurer, as
hitherto, but distributed per capita by the agent. As a national fund
it had been used for the maintenance of their schools and national
press. As a per capita payment it amounted to forty-two cents to each
individual. Several years afterward it still remained unpaid. Federal
troops were also sent into the Cherokee country with orders to
prevent all mining by either whites or Indians unless authorized by
the state of Georgia. All these measures served only to render the
Cherokee more bitter in their determination. In September, 1830,
another proposition was made for the removal of the tribe, but the
national council emphatically refused to consider the subject. [301]
In January, 1831, the Cherokee Nation, by John Ross as principal chief,
brought a test suit of injunction against Georgia, in the United States
Supreme Court. The majority of the court dismissed the suit on the
ground that the Cherokee were not a foreign nation within the meaning
of the Constitution, two justices dissenting from this opinion. [302]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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