How would you characterize the position of each historical actor? How specifically did each actor support his or her position? Ultimately, why was there an Indian Removal crisis?

Governor Gilmer Uses States’ Rights Against the Cherokees (1830-1831)

George Rockingham Gilmer (1790-1859) was the governor of Georgia during the Indian Removal Crisis. In the first letter to President Andrew Jackson, Gilmer enclosed a proclamation declaring in effect Georgia’s law of December 19, 1829, which annexed the Cherokee domain to give Georgia counties, extended state jurisdiction over it as of June 1, disbanded the Cherokee government and voided its laws, and prescribed criminal penalties for resisting state authority or attempting to deter Indians from emigrating. A Georgia law of December 22, 1830, prohibited and criminalized the operations of the Cherokee government, barred whites from entering the Cherokee nation without a license from the state, and authorized a Guard of sixty men to enforce state law and protect the gold mines. Under this law, the Guard had arrested several missionaries to the Cherokees. Gilmer, Jackson, and many other white southerners advocated states’ rights during the Indian Removal controversy, which contrasted with the more nationalist vision of Chief Justice John Marshall. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Marshall denied the Cherokees’ motion for an injunction against Georgia on jurisdictional grounds but recognized “the character of the Cherokees as a state, as a distinct political society, separated from others, capable of managing its own affairs and governing itself,” and with “an unquestionable, and, heretofore, unquestioned right to the lands they occupy, until that right shall be extinguished by a voluntary cession to our government.”

Executive Department

Milledgeville 17th June 1830

I transmit to the President for his information two proclamations, one of which is designed to notify the Indians within the State of the extension of its jurisdiction over them, the other white persons as well as Indians to desist from trespassing upon the property of the State by taking gold or other valuable minerals from its ungranted land. Before these proclamations had reached the part of the State occupied by the Cherokees, the U States troops had driven from it all persons except Indian occupants.

The President is aware that such an exercise of power is believed not to be authorized by the Constitution of the U States, and more especially since the passage of the law by Georgia extending the jurisdiction of the State over all its Indian territory….

From information just received there is much reason to apprehend considerable disturbances and perhaps bloodshed from the manner in which the orders of the President to remove intruders has been executed by the officers commanding the regular troops. The persons who have been removed by them were those engaged in mining for gold. Their number amounted to several thousand most of whom had found their employment exceedingly profitable. The Indians in their immediate vicinity so far from objecting to the occupation of their country by the gold miners it is said favored their presence, They were not interrupted in the accustomed enjoyment of their country by the taking of gold from its soil.

The gold region is situated very near the thickly inhabited part of the frontier of the State.

When the gold diggers were removed by the troops altho much discontent was felt they retired to their homes without any actual resistance It however soon became known that the mines from which they had been driven were immediately taken possession of by the Indians, and the whites connected with them, and that they were permitted to take the gold therefrom without any resistance from the troops who had dispossessed the citizens the citizens of the State. Very great excitement is said to be the result of this state of things.

There is much reason to apprehend that the Indians will be forcibly driven from the whole of the gold region unless they are immediately prohibited from appropriating its mineral wealth to themselves.

Since the discovery of gold in the Cherokee Country, the opinion has very generally prevailed, that those who were engaged in digging for it violated no right except that of the State, & that after the passage of the law extending the jurisdiction of the State over that Country, the Government of the U States would have no authority to enforce the non-intercourse laws. What effect the proclamation prohibiting all persons both Indian & whites from digging for gold may have in allaying the excitement among the persons who have been removed as intruders is very uncertain. It is probable that it may prevent an immediate attack upon the Indians who are so employed from the expectation that they will be restrained by the authority of the State.

I shall be compelled to resort to the tedious process of the courts for this purpose, the laws of the State not having invested the Governor with the power to protect the public property by military force. In the mean time it is very desirable that the President would direct the officers commanding the U States troops to prevent intrusion upon the property of the State by the Indians, at the same time that they are defending the occupant rights of the Indians from intrusion by the whites.

The President will perceive that in the proclamation forbidding all persons both whites & Indians from taking gold from the territory of the State in the occupation of the Indians that they right of the state to all the gold and silver in its ungranted land is directly asserted. It is believed that the President requires no argument in support of that right thus claimed for Georgia. All the European nations who make discoveries, conquests, or took possession of any portion of this continent claimed the exclusive right to all the gold and silver found within their possessions. This was in fact the first and strongest inducement to the enterprize of the early adventurers to this country. In addition to this right assumed by all European nations the King of Great Britain claimed by virtue of the common law of England to be the sovereign owner of all the lands within his kingdom and especially in the American Colonies Upon the Independence of the States their Governments became entitled to all the rights of sovereignty over the territory within their limits which had before belonged to the crown of G Britain. The State of Georgia is therefore entitled to the gold & silver in its territory occupied by the Indians as well by the customary law established by the nations by whom this country was settled, as the fee simple or paramount title which it derives from the crown of G Britain. The courts of this State have uniformly determined that the Government of the State is the universal proprietor of all the ungranted lands within it including those in the occupancy of the Indians. Such is believed to be the legal doctrine of all the other States it is certainly that of the supreme court of the U States as to the lands of Georgia. It is believed that if the Indians are permitted to take possession of the gold mines thro the assistance of the U States Government that instead of being removed they will become fixed upon the soil of Georgia. It is said that preparations are making a large number of the wealthy Cherokees to remove into the gold region, for the purpose of participating in its mineral riches. If they can be protected in so doing by the U States We shall thus not only retain the Cherokees who have hitherto occupied the lands of the State but many of those who reside in Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina. The U States are bound by contract to prevent this state of things and no doubt is entertained of the disposition of the President to perform the obligations of the Government in good faith. The State of Georgia cannot permit her rights to be violated by persons subject to her jurisdiction as the Indians are acknowledged to be without applying a remedy adequate to the removal of the evil. In exercising this power however if it should unfortunately become necessary it will be the object of the State to do it in such a manner as to aid rather than thwart the policy of the present administration, & carefully to guard from violation the rights intended to be secured to the Indians Very Respectfully Yours &c

George R Gilmer

Executive Department Georgia

Milledgeville 20th. June 1831

Sir,

Circumstances have enabled me to collect much information as to the present temper and designs and probable course of the Cherokees. The great interest felt by the people of this State, in having them removed from its limits, & the contract of 1802 finally executed, has induced me to communicate directly to the President so much of that information as may possibly be useful to him in his endeavors to effect that object. Strong hopes were at one time entertained that if the decision of the Supreme Court should be against the application of the Cherokees for a writ of injunction to stay the jurisdiction of Georgia, that they would immediately treat with the United States for an extinguishment of their present occupant rights.

It is known that, previous to that decision and during the pendency of the case before the Supreme Court, all classes had expressed their belief that such would be the course pursued by them. Those hopes have however proved illusory. Since that decision the wealthy and influential half breed chiefs have been exceedingly active in persuading the people to continue their present residence, in opposition to the desire of the General Government to extinguish their title, & in defiance of the rights & power of Georgia. These efforts have unfortunately been very successful. This has resulted from the extra judicial opinions of the Supreme Court in determining that the Cherokees formed a distinct political society separate from others & capable of managing its own affairs, and that they were the rightful owners of the soil which they occupied. Meetings of the Indian people have been called in most of their Towns, at which the Chiefs have used these opinions to convince them that their right of self Government and soil were independent of the United States and Georgia and would be secured to them thro the Supreme Court and the change (which they represented to be certain) in the administration of the General Government.… It is most respectfully suggested to the President, that no measure can at present be successfully adopted for the execution of the Contract of 1802, except that of inducing individuals, families and Towns to emigrate from this State by paying them the value for their improvements, or giving them such other advantages as may be found acceptable. And the President is earnestly requested to try the effect of this measure & as early as possible.

The great body of the common Indians are without wealth or power. Nothing prevents their acquiescence with the offers of the Government to unite them with that part of their tribe on the west of the Mississippi, but their habitual submission to the Control of their Chiefs, & their inert & listless character. What is said of their strong desire not to be separated from the bones of their fathers is but the expressions of those whose ancestors’ remains are deposited in Europe or the States. The confidence of the common Indians in the rule of their Chiefs has been of late impaired by their appropriation of the wealth of the tribe to themselves, their descent from the whites & the adoption of their manners: & their listlessness of temper in some degree overcome by the fear of unknown evils from the operation of the laws of Georgia. The Guard which was been stationed among them has been successful in preventing any trespasses upon the Gold mines, in putting a stop to their Legislative Councils, their Courts, the execution of their laws, and in removing all white men from among them disposed to excite their opposition to the Government of the State. The Chiefs can no longer prevent the people from enrolling for emigration by the fear of punishment. It is thought probable that the very attempt to remove the people by enrolling individuals for emigration will tend to produce a willingness on the part of the Chiefs to treat for the exchange of their lands. They know that by the removal of the common Indians they will lose their power, the exclusive possession of their Country and become subjected to the prejudices of a white population with whom they will be mingled….

This subject is of great importance not only to the peace, prosperity and quiet of the State, but to the character of its Government. The obstructions which been thrown in the way…the constant torrent of abuse which party violence has poured upon the Authorities of the State and its people on account of the measures which have been adopted for the support of its rights of soil & jurisdiction—the influence which that partizan violence is now exercising over the Cherokee Chiefs in inducing them to continue their opposition to the laws of Georgia & in exciting their expectation that by a change in the present Administration of the General Government they will be secured in the rights of Self Government—the conduct of the Chief Justice of the United States in interfering with the administration of the criminal laws of the State—and the intimation given the Cherokees in the late decision of the Supreme Court that the laws of Georgia were exceedingly oppressive, that the State had neither the right of jurisdiction nor of soil, have all conspired so to irritate the public mind here, that it will be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible to prevent the Legislature from disposing of all the lands of the State assigned to the Indians for their occupancy, except so much as may be in their immediate possession or required for their support, unless the President shall be enabled during the present year to adopt such measures as will give assurance that the Cherokees will be certainly and shortly removed from the State….

Hitherto the Indians have neither been compelled to pay taxes nor perform any civil duties. The only operation of the laws since the extension of the jurisdiction of the State over them has been to protect them from injury by the punishment of crimes, & the removal of the whites who had been tempted into their Country by the attraction of the Gold Mines. The State is at this time maintaining a Guard at great expense for the purpose of preventing the exercise on the part of the Chiefs, from the expectation that the President would be enabled during the present year to succeed in removing the Indians beyond its limits, and the strong disposition felt by its authorities to avoid the adoption of any measures which might have even the appearance of violating the laws of humanity or the natural rights of the Indians. If the Cherokees are to continue inhabitants of the State, they must be rendered subject to the ordinary operation of the laws with less expense and trouble and more effectually than heretofore. The State must put an end to even the semblance of a distinct political society among them. It has hitherto permitted from the belief that their happiness required it and that such a state was not inconvenient nor injurious to the rights of Georgia. The agitation which the Indian question has excited throughout our Country, and the manner in which it has endangered the most important political rights of the State renders it necessary that this should be done.

The millions of acres of land which are now of no value except to add to the gratification of the idle ambition of the Chiefs must be placed in the possession of actual cultivators of the soil who may be made the instruments for the proper administration of the laws.

It is hoped the President will concur with me in the necessity of making such efforts for removing the Cherokees as will ascertain whether it be practicable at all by treaty, enrollment for emigration or any other means….

With sentiments of the highest consideration, I remain most respectfully Yours &c

George R. Gilmer

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