The act of the Georgia legislature of December 20, 1828, already alluded to, was an act "to add the territory within this State and occupied by the Cherokee Indians to the counties of De Kalb _et al._, and to extend the laws of this State over the same." This was followed[360] by the passage of an act reasserting the territorial jurisdiction of Georgia and annulling all laws made by the Cherokee Indians. It further declared that in any controversy arising between white persons and Indians the latter should be disqualified as witnesses. Supplementary legislation of a similar character followed in quick succession, and the proclamation of the governor of the State was issued on the 3d of June, 1830, declaring the arrival of the date fixed by the aforesaid acts and the consequent subjection of the Cherokee territory to the State laws and jurisdiction.[361] The President of the United States about the same time gave directions[362] to suspend the enrollment and removal of Cherokees to the west in small parties, accompanied by the remark that if they (the Cherokees) thought it for their interest to remain, they must take the consequences, but that the Executive of the United States had no power to interfere with the exercise of the sovereignty of any State over and upon all within its limits. The President also directed[363] that the previous practice of paying their annuities to the treasurer of the Cherokee Nation should be discontinued, and that they be thereafter distributed among the individual members of the tribe. Orders were shortly after[364] given to the commandant of troops in the Cherokee country to prevent _all persons_, including members of the tribe, from opening up or working any mineral deposits within their limits. All these additional annoyances and restrictions placed upon the free exercise of their supposed rights, so far from securing compliance with the wishes of the Government, had a tendency to harden the Cherokee heart. FAILURE OF COLONEL LOWRY'S MISSION. In this situation of affairs Col. John Lowry was appointed[365] a special commissioner to visit the Cherokee Nation and again lay before them a formal proposition for their removal west. The substance of Mr. Lowry's proposal as communicated by him to their national council[366] was: (1) To give to the Cherokees a country west of the Mississippi, equal in value to the country they would leave; (2) each warrior and widow living within the limits of Alabama or Tennessee was to be permitted, if so desiring, to select a reservation of 200 acres, which, if subsequently abandoned, was to be sold for the reservee's benefit; (3) each Indian desiring to become a citizen of the United States was to have a reservation in fee-simple; (4) all emigrants were to be removed and fed one year at the expense of the United States, and to be compensated for all property, except horses, they should leave behind them, and, (5) the nation was to be provided with a liberal school fund.