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The amendment of Mr. M'D. was negatived; and the bill after having been amended, became a law. Separate acts were passed; one “to reduce the duty on molasses, and to allow a drawback on spirits distilled from foreign materials;" another, "to reduce the duty on salt;" and still another, “ to reduce the duties on tea, coffee, and cocoa.” It will perhaps be recollected, that the duty on molasses was, in 1828, increased from five to ten cents a gallon, against the wishes of the people of a large portion of the northern and eastern states. It was alleged, at the time, that the object of this proposed increase of duty on this and certain articles was to “ weigh down the bill" of that year, by making it objectionable to the friends of protection. This, with the additional fact, that the duties on tea, coffee, &c., had been laid for revenue only, was not now so much needed, doubtless facilitated the passage of these laws.

The establishment, by the Indian tribes, of independent governments within any of the states, with a view to a permanent location, and the expediency of arresting such location, had been made the subject of inquiry at the session of congress of 1827–8. It was referred to a committee, but no report was made: and the subject received no farther attention during Mr. Adams' administration. The determination expressed in the message of Gen. Jackson, to suppress the attempts of the Indians to establish and maintain governments of their own within the states of Georgia and Alabama, and to effect their removal beyond the Mississippi, or to permit their subjection to the sovereignty and legislation of those states, had been intimated almost immediately after the new administration came into power.

A delegation of the Cherokees were officially informed, that the gov. ernment would sustain the states in exercising jurisdiction over the Indians within their limits, and that their exemption from the operation of the laws of those states was to be hoped for only by removal. In August, 1829, a proposition was made by the general government through Gov. Carroll, of Tennessee, to John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokees, to meet commissioners to be appointed by the president, be secured and protected. Yet it was asserted that they held their lands only by a right of occupancy. They say: “In what light shall we view the conduct of the United States and Georgia, in their intercourse with us, in urging us to enter into treaties and cede lands? If we were but tenants at will, why was it necessary that our consent must be obtained before these governments could take lawful possession of our lands? * The undersigned memorialists humbly represent, that if their interpretation of the treaties has been different from that of the government, then they have ever been deceived as to how the government regarded them, and what she asked and promised.

“In view of the strong ground upon which their rights are founded, your memoralists solemnly protest against being considered mere tenants at will, or as mere occupants of the soil, without possessing the sovereignty. We protest against being forced to leave it, either by direct or indirect measures. To the land of which we are now in possession, we are attached—it is our fathers' gift—it contains their ashes—it is the land of our nativity, and the land of our intellectual birth. We do moreover protest against the arbitrary measures of our neighbor, the state of Georgia, in her attempt to extend her laws over us, in survey. ing our lands without our consent, and in direct opposition to treaties and the intercourse law of the United States, and interfering with our municipal regulations so as to derange the regular operation of our own

laws. The existence and future happiness of your memorialists are at - stake: divest them of their liberty and country, and you sink them in

degradation, and put a check, if not a final stop, to their present progress in the arts of civilized life, and in the knowledge of the Christian religion. Your memorialists can not anticipate such a result. You represent a virtuous, intelligent, and Christian nation. To you they willingly submit their cause for your righteous decision.”

On the 29th of March, 1830, the attorney-general, Mr. Berrien, having been applied to for his opinion in relation to the title of the lands occupied by the Cherokees, communicated the same to the war department. He maintained, on the authority of decisions of the supreme court, that the right of the Indians to the lands in question, was one of occupancy merely. The court had declared, that, by the treaty with Great Britain which concluded the revolution, the powers of government and the rights to the soil which had been in Great Britain, passed definitively to the states; and that the United States, or the several states, had a clear title to all lands within the boundary lines described in the treaty, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy.

In confirmation of his opinion, he referred also to the treaties with this tribe. In the first, which was concluded at Hopewell in 1785, they