CHEROKEE NATION v. GEORGIA, the historic case (1831) on the relations of the Indian tribes toward the United States govern ment. (For the preliminary history, see CH ERO an). The means taken by Georgia to oust the Cherokees were as follows: By six succes sive acts, from 20 Dec. 1828 to 22 Dec. 1830, Georgia laws and jurisdiction were extended over all inhabitants of the Cherokee territory, and resistance to her writs made indictable; Cherokee laws, usages, legislative assemblies and courts were abolished, and execution of their writs prohibited; Cherokees were declared incapable of testifying against or making con tracts with white men, hut the execution of the Cherokee laws against selling land to white men was punished as murder; their lands were ordered surveyed and distributed by lottery among the citizens of Georgia; their improve ments and gold mines were confiscated; and white men were forbidden under penalty to enter their country, without a license from the governor and taking the oath of allegiance to Georgia. The Cherokees appealed at once (early in 1829) to President J. Q. Adams, to make good the government's treaty guaran tees; but he, as his term was about to expire, left it to Jackson, who, as an old Indian fighter, sympathized with Georgia, refused to interfere and advised the Cherokees to submit or re move. Their next resort was to the Supreme Court, but the Georgians took care not to let i suits in the State courts conic to a decision, and so give opportunity for appeal. At length, however, a case was found. When the Geor gia authority over the Cherokee country be came operative in 1830 a Cherokee named Corntassel or George Tassels killed an officer serving a writ of ouster, and was sentenced to be hanged; a writ of error was obtained from the Supreme Court 12 Dec. 1830, citing State to appear; the legislature instructed the State officials to ignore it, and the sentence was carried out. The Cherokees' council then applied to the Supreme Court for an injunction to prevent Georgia from exercising her laws within the Cherokee country; the State put in no appearance, and the case was decided from the arguments on the other side: These were: That the Supreme Court had jurisdiction over cases between States of the Union and countries; and that the Cherokee Nation, by repeated acknowledgement of the United States in solemn treaties, was such a foreign country, sovereign and independent. Chief Justice John
Marshall for the court — Story and Thompson dissenting—decided that they were not a for eign nation in the meaning of the Constitu tion,— since, for example, an attempt by any other foreign nation to form a connection with them, or to trespass on their land, would be held an invasion of the rights or territory of the United States; that they were a domestic or dependent nation,. in a state of pupilage, their relation to the United States being like that of a ward to its guardian, that their title to their land was only that of occupancy, the United States succeeding to it whenever their own possession lapsed; that their appeal lay to the President that the Supreme Court could not call out force to resist the extension of Geor gia laws over territory claimed as its own; that it could pass on the title to land, upon suit properly brought, but this question was a po litical one.
A second case, though not cited under this head, properly belongs with this. Under the law restricting white men's entry into the Cher okee country, 10 missionaries and others were arrested and sentenced to four years' imprison ment, in September 1831. Eight were released on making submitsion; two refused; and one, Rev. Dr. Worcester, brought suit for a habeas corpus in the Supreme Court, which gave de'. cision in March 1832, and to the lay mind ap pears to have reversed its former one. It held that all the acts of the Georgia legislature with respect to the Cherokees were, unconsti tutional and in violation of the treaties and laws of the United States, and ordered the prisoner released as condemned on a void stat ute. The State refused to comply; but in place of waiting till the next term of the Su preme Court, to see if it would call on the United States authorities to enforce the decree, the prisoners made submission and were re leased. It is probable that Jackson's famous Marshall has made his decision—now let him enforce it," would have prevented them from regaining freedom till their term was up. Consult Cherokee Indians, 'Protest against land belonging to their nation being treated by the State of Georgia as its own' (Washington 1830) ; 'The relations existing between the nation and the State of Georgia' (Washington 1831) ; Ross, J., 'The Cherokees; their loyalty and suffering during the Civil War' (Philadel phia 1864).