came the authority for this virtual annulment of a treaty ratified by Congress? The President had sworn to execute the laws, and here he was setting himself against what, by his own logic, was one of the supreme laws of the land. As a pretext for his interposition he alleged that it was made in accordance with the eighth article of the treaty which guarantees protection to the friendly Indians. Under that guaranty the United States passively suffer MCINTOSH and his friends to be murdered; in the hour of peril no arm is lifted to protect or save; after the commission of the foul deed no voice comes from Washington for vengeance. The danger past, the chiefs massacreed, their property ravished, the surviving friends of MCINTOSH in exile in Georgia asking bread and protection, after abandoning every valuable to the insurgents, the United States now step forth with their armed power to defend, under the eighth article of the treaty, the so-called friendly Indians against their enemies. It might be supposed that the enemies to be defended against were the assassins, in the employment of POTHLEYOHOLO. No, the Federal administration find the enemies contemplated by the treaty to be the people of Georgia, at whose firesides the friendly Indians were then resting. Could the force of absurdity go farther? It was supposed that the Federal Government at its creation was a government of delegated powers expressly stated, or of powers necessarily implied for the support and maintenance of those expressly stated. Yet, here, the Government was straining the treaty-making power in order to dispose of the Indian most effectually and according to whatever policy might suit its pleasure; it was at the same time using the commerce-regulating power to acquire

possession of the territory of a State and to confine the benefit of trading posts to the friends of the agent. Worse than all, while denying the validity of a treaty which the Senate had approved, and which stood on the statute book as one of the supreme laws of the land, it was now seeking under a clause of that treaty which was intended to protect friendly Indians from the violence of hostile Indians, actually to defend the unjust pretensions of the hostile Indians who stood before them with the blood of the friendly Indians still dripping from their hands. The indignation of the State was aroused against these alleged usurpations of the General Government, and the hills and valleys of Georgia, from the mountains to the sea, rang with the cry of "TROUP AND THE TREATY."

The man with whom General GAINES was to deal upon reaching Georgia, was GEORGE M. TROUP. It was a a case of flint meeting steel. From the time he reached his majority, TROUP had been in public life as a representative of the people. He supported the claims of JEFFERSON against ADAMS when a member of the Georgia Legislature. As Representative in Congress he combatted the compromise made by the Federal Legislature with the Yazoo speculators. As chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, he was a leading spirit in the war of 1812. As Senator in Congress, he pleaded for the removal of the Indians. He was always active, fervid, and faithful. Every interest of his people found in him a stubborn and determined advocate.

General GAINES was received by the people of Georgia with great courtesy. While at Milledgeville, he informed the Governor that his instructions from Wash

ington were that no survey was to be made until the removal of the Indians under the treaty. The only point of controversy then existing was the authority of the chiefs to permit a survey outside of the letter of the treaty. Certainly if the Indians who made the treaty did not object, Georgia had a clear right to survey her own fee simple. It was a matter with which the United States had nothing to do. The reply of TROUP to this letter was courteous but decided. While deploring the vascillating conduct of the administration at Washington, he said: "On the part of the govern“ment of Georgia, the will of its highest constitutional authorities has been declared, upon the most solemn deliberation, that the line shall be run and the survey "executed. It is for you, therefore, to bring it to an issue; it is only for me to repeat that, cost what it will, the line will be run and the survey effected."

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At the same time the Governor suggested that the Georgia commissioners should be present at the council to be held by General Gaines at BROKEN ARROW, SO as to meet and repel any charges or misstatements preferred by the agent or the hostile Indians. To this General GAINES objected. He was to arrive at the truth by an ex parte examination. It appeared as though the approaching council was not for the purpose of ascertaining facts, but to carry out a policy already decided upon by President ADAMS. Upon reaching Flint river, General Gaines held a council with leading chiefs, and forthwith dispatched to the Governor a certificate of two persons of doubtful character to the effect that neither General MCINTOSH nor the chiefs had ever consented to a survey. General GAINES added, in a letter, that this certificate "proves that your excel

"lency has been greatly deceived in supposing that the "MCINTOSH party ever consented to the survey of the "ceded territory being commenced before the time set "forth in the treaty for their removal," and that it became "his duty to remonstrate against the surveys "being commenced until the Indians shall have re

moved, agreeably to the treaty." Down to this time. not a word had been said as to the illegality or annulment of the treaty itself. On every occasion General GAINES advised the Indians to entertain no hope as to its rescision. The stopping of the survey was designed, however, simply as a pretext for the entire abrogation of the treaty.

General Gaines

Governor TROUP So understood it. perhaps did not at that time understand the purpose of President Adams' cabinet.

Governor Troup very justly felt aggrieved that Georgia was refused an audience at the council; that her two eminent citizens, CAMPBELL and MERRIWETHER, who had negotiated the treaty of Indian Springs, on the part of the United States, were cavalierly excluded from vindicating their mission; and now that an ex parte examination of, and certificate from, two Indians should be set forth as conclusive testimony, without application to the Governor of Georgia to know what evidence was in his possession to the contrary.

The Governor replied: "The certificate of Mar"SHALL, no matter how procured, is one of the most daring efforts that ever was attempted by malignant

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villainy to palm a falsehood upon credulity." At that very moment the Governor had in his possession the agreement of MCINTOSH to the survey. He offered to make oath to the fact, and concluded his letter as fol

lows: "I very well know from the late events which "have transpired under the eyes of the commissioners, "that the oath even of a Governor of Georgia may be

passed for nothing, and that any vagabond of the "Indian country may be put in requisition to discredit "him." This was hot language, and barely to be pa liated on the ground of deep popular excitement.

General AINES responded to this letter, through the public press. He tried to sustain the character of the two persons who had signed the certificate, and declared that the "malignant villainy " was all on the part of those who had secured the treaty. As to the question of the Governor's veracity he used this remarkable language: "If you will take the trouble to read the newspaper essays with which the presses have been teeming for some years past, you will find that many "of the essayists have had the hardihood to refuse "credence to the word of their chief magistrate, and "yet we have no reason to despair of the Republic."

To this unmilitary letter Governor TROUP responded curtly by forbidding the General to have any further intercourse with the Georgia government And now the Secretary of War, alleging intrigue and deceit in the procurement of the treaty, addressed the Governor as follows: "I am, therefore, directed by the Presi "dent, to state distinctly to your excellency that for "the present he will not permit such entry or survey "to be made." To this the Governor replied by saying that no Indian treaty had ever been negotiated in better faith; that if there had been corruption in its procurement, the principles of the case of FLETCHER and PECK, estopped the United States from annulling it; and furthermore that he would advise the Georgia Legislature