I did not expect to effect any arrangement with Mr. Ross, and my intention was to treat with the heads of the Southern party, Stand Watie and others. When we met Mr. Ross at Park Hill, he refused to enter into any arrangement with the Confederate States. He said that his intention was to maintain the neutrality of his people; that they were a small and weak people, and would be ruined and destroyed if they engaged in the war; and that it would be a cruel thing if we were to engage them in our quarrel. But, he said, all his interests and all his feelings were with us, and he knew that his people must share the fate and fortunes of Arkansas. We told him that the Cherokees _could_ not be neutral. We used every argument in our power to change his determination, but in vain; and finally General McCulloch informed him that he would respect the neutrality of the Cherokees, and would not enter their Country with troops, or place troops in it, unless it should become necessary in order to expel a Federal force, or to protect the Southern Cherokees. So we separated. General McCulloch kept his word, and no Confederate troops ever were stationed in or marched into the Cherokee Country, until after the Federal troops invaded it. Before leaving the Nation I addressed Mr. Ross a letter, which I afterwards printed, and circulated among the Cherokee people. In it I informed him that the Confederate States would remain content with his pledge of neutrality, although he would find it impossible to maintain that neutrality; that I should not again offer to treat with the Cherokees, and that the Confederate States would not consider themselves bound by my proposition to pay the Cherokees for the neutral land, if they should lose it in consequence of the war. I had no further communication with Mr. Ross until September. Meanwhile, he had persuaded Opoth le Yahola, the Creek leader, not to join the Southern States, and had sent delegates to meet the Northern and other Indians in Council near the Antelope Hills, where they all agreed to be neutral. The purpose was, to take advantage of the war between the States, and form a great independent Indian Confederation--I defeated all that, by treating with the Creeks at the very time that their delegates were at the Antelope Hills in Council.