May 4th 1835

To Eli S. Shorter, J.P.H. Campbell, and Alferd Iverson, Esqrs.

Gentlemen:

...It is true the President of the United States disclaims all right to intermeddle with the Government and jurisdiction of States, in regard to our Indian population, where the States have extended their laws and jurisdiction over these people. And while I most fully concur with the President, in denying the right of the Federal Government to impede or control the State authorities in an, manner whatever in relation to the government of these 'unfortunate people, I have, nevertheless, contended, and still believe, that it is the duty of the Federal Government to cooperate with the States in all just measures which may be calculated to speedily remove the evils of an Indian population from the States. In regard to our own State, it is wholly unnecessary for one, when addressing Georgians, to advert to the strong obligations which rest upon the Federal Government to relieve the State from the long-standing embarrassments and deeply injurious effects of an Indian population. It has been the settled convictions of my own mind, for years past (although not sustained by the public opinion of the country), that existing circumstances demanded from the Federal Government a radical change of policy in regard to the remnant tribes of the Cherokee and Creek Indians who still remain within the limits of the States. I consider it a perfect farce and degrading to the Government of the Union, under existing circumstances, to pretend any longer to consider or treat these unfortunate remnants of a once mighty race as independent nations of people, capable of entering into treaty stipulations as such. These conquered and subdued remnants deserve the magnanimous and liberal support and protection of the Government, and should be treated with tender regard, as orphans and minors who are incapable of managing and protecting their own patrimony. This course of policy, if pursued by the Federal Government, would soon relieve the States from the inquietudes of an Indian population, and settle the Indians in a land of hope where they would be shielded and protected from the enormous and degrading frauds which have been so often perpetrated on these sons of the forest by an avaricious and selfish portion of our white population....