A number of the chiefs and prominent men of the Old Settler and Ridge parties fled to Port Gibson for safety. From there on the 28th of June, John Brown, John Looney, John Rogers, and John Smith, signing themselves as the executive council of the Western Cherokees, addressed a proposition to John Ross to send a delegation of the chiefs and principal men of his party with authority to meet an equal number of their own at Fort Gibson, with a view to reach an amicable agreement between the different factions. Ross responded[458] by inviting them to meet at the council convened upon his call on the 1st of July, which was declined. A memorial was thereupon[459] addressed to the authorities of the United States by Brown, Looney, and Rogers as chiefs of the Western Cherokees, demanding protection in the territory and government guaranteed to them by treaty. Against this appeal the Ross convention or council in session at Illinois camp-ground filed a protest.[460] Between the dates of the appeal and the protest a part of the Old Settlers, acting in concert with Ross and his adherents, passed resolutions[461] declaratory of their disapproval of the conduct of Brown and Rogers, and proclaimed their deposition from office as chiefs. Looney escaped deposition by transferring his fealty to the Ross party. _Unification of Eastern and Western Cherokees._--It is proper to remark in this connection that on the 12th of July the Ross council adopted resolutions uniting the Eastern and the Western Cherokees "into one body politic under the style and title of the Cherokee Nation." This paper, without mentioning or referring to the treaty of 1835, speaks of the late emigration as constrained by the force of circumstances. The council also passed[462] a decree, wherein after reciting the murders of the Ridges and Boudinot, and that they in conjunction with others had by their conduct rendered themselves liable to the penalties of outlawry, extended to the survivors a full amnesty for past offenses upon sundry very stringent and humiliating conditions. They also passed[463] a decree condoning the crime of the murderers, securing them from any prosecution or punishment by reason thereof, and declaring them fully restored to the confidence and favor of the community. _Treaty of 1835 declared void._--At a council held at Aquohee Camp a decree was passed on the 1st of August, declaring the treaty of 1835 void, and reasserting the Cherokee title to their old country east of the Mississippi. Later in the same month a decree was passed,[464] citing the appearance before them, under penalty of outlawry, of the signers of the treaty of 1835, to answer for their conduct. This act called forth[465] a vigorous protest from General Arbuckle, commanding Fort Gibson, and was supplemented by instructions[466] to him from the Secretary of War to cause the arrest and trial of Ross as accessory to the murder of the Ridges in case he should deem it wise to do so.