conduct of church members. And nothing will tend more to bring the gospel into contempt among them, and destroy the whole influence of your preaching, than for them to see that those who profess obedience to the gospel, are no more upright or moral in any respect than their neighbors. In examining candidates for the church, therefore, be well satisfied of their sincere piety, and determination to lead a holy life. Instruct them thoroughly; and give them sufficient time to make a fair estimation of the strength of their religious principles. Fifthly. Do not despond if you should not see as much immediate success resulting from your labors, as you expected. You must recollect that in the case of all impenitent men, depravity and a habit of sinning have had a darkening and stupifying effect, and have interposed obstacles in the way of their conversion, which nothing but the power of the Holy Ghost can remove. In the case of a heathen people, or of one having had very little instruction on moral and religious subjects, the difficulty of making them apprehend and feel the truth is still greater. You will often have occasion to wonder at the little progress you make in conveying, what seem to you, perfectly simple truths to the minds of the Indians. Still go on, laboring cheerfully and perseveringly, looking humbly and prayerfully to the Holy Spirit to give your words effect on the conscience and heart. Do not feel, however, that success must necessarily be delayed. Realize deeply the great mercy of Christ, his readiness to save, and his willingness to render the weakest instrumentality efficacious. Always aim yourself to be in a revival frame of mind; so that if at any moment you should hear those about you calling out, "What must we do to be saved?" or praising the pardoning mercy of God, it should be just what you were prepared for-just in accordance with the state of your own heart. Sixthly. You will often hear it said that the Indians are indifferent to your instructions, and ungrateful for your labors in their behalf. Do not feel angry with them for this, nor be disposed to labor for them grudgingly. Think of their souls-their relation to God and the Redeemer, and their prospects for eternity. Let these thoughts induce you to spend yourself in their service, even if the more you should love them, the less you should be loved by them. In fact, you will probably find them no more indifferent and ungrateful than all unenlightened people are for favors of a religious and intellectual nature, which they have not learned duly to appreciate. Considering the habits and mode of thinking of such people, it is not strange if they feel as if they had a claim on those more highly favored, not only for instruction, but also for food, clothing, and aid in all their temporal affairs. Feel a tender sympathy for the Indians in these days of their suffering and despondency. These may be the last days for doing them good. Make a vigorous and affectionate effort to gather the remnants into the kingdom of God. Seventhly. In your intercourse with your inissionary brethren, do all that you can to benefit them, by your holy life, your zealous and persevering labors, and a spirit of frankness and sincere Christian love. Eighthly. You will necessarily have more or less intercourse with other white men besides your brethren of the mission. Treat the agents of the United States with the respect that is due to their station. Comply with their views and wishes as far as you can consistently with your duties as a minister of Christ and a missionary of the Board. State to them, and let your conduct show, that you have not come for any secular purpose, or to interfere in political affairs. Treat missionaries of other denominations with respect and courtesy; and, so far as you see in them the spirit of Christ, and a love for his cause, with unfeigned Christian affection and fellowship. Cooperate with them, as far as your several spheres of labor will permit, and give them no occasion to say that you manifest towards them hostile or sectarian feelings. # # # * # * Ninthly. Make it a part of your study to ascertain how the expenses of the stations among the Indians can be diminished, and how the gospel may be sent to all the scattered tribes of the west, with the least expense of men and funds. You enter on your labors, dear sir, in a field where the Lord has poured out his Spirit for the last year or two in a very gracious and encouraging manner, and at a time when those who were in the work before you, are rejoicing in what the Holy Spirit has already done by them, and in the hope that still greater numbers will speedily be born into the kingdom. May the Head of the church prepare you and them for such a service and reward. Assuring you of our Christian sympathies and prayers that you may be a faithful and successful missionary, we are your brethren and fellow-laborers in the work of the Lord. By order of the Prudential Committee. B. B. WISNER, Missionary Rooms, Boston, Nov. 20, 1832. Secretaries. Instructions, similar in their nature to those from which the preceding extracts were taken, were given to the Rev. JoHN FLEMING, missionary to the Creeks of the Arkansas, and to the Rev. ASHER BLISS, missionary to the Indians of the State of New York. MEMORIAL of the Board, praying for the Protection of the Missionaries, Teachers, and Mission Property, in the Cherokee Nation; forwarded Nov. 3, 1831. [Referred to at p. 93.] To his Excellency ANDREW JACKSON, President of the United States. The Memorial of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions respectfully sheweth, That your Memorialists, as a benevolent association, were authorized by a letter bearing date May 14th, 1816, from the Hon. William H. Crawford, then Secretary of War, to the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, the agent of your memorialists, a copy of which is hereunto annexed (A,) to send teachers and mission aties into the Cherokee Nation, agreeably to stipulations made by the United States in treaties with the said Cherokees, to erect buildings, to establish schools, enclose lands, and make other improvements, for their accommodation. Your memorialists have felt themselves further authorized and countenanced to proceed in their labors for the welfare of the Cherokees, by the repeated interviews which their agents have been permitted to have with successive Presidents of the United States and the Secretaries of the War Department; also by annual reports of the several Secretaries of War, and the Messages of the Presidents, made to Congress from year to year, in which the teachers and missionaries have uniformly been mentioned as entering and residing in the Indian country with the approbation of the Executive of the United States; as co-operating with the government and its agents in a benevolent and disinterested work, and as being under its patronage. Your memorialists have been further encouraged by the fact that portions of the fund appropriated by Congress for civilizing the Indians have been annually intrusted to them to expend, and that the annual reports, which the teachers have on this account been required to make to the War Department, have been uniformly approved; and also by the decided approbation which has been expressed by officers and agents of government who have visited and inspected many of the stations. Your memorialists have been further assured of the countenance and approbation of the government, by communications which they have received from the War Department, extracts from which are hereunto annexed. Sanctioned and patronized in this manner by the Executive of the United States, your memorialists have proceeded in their undertakings, and during the last fifteen years have erected buildings and made various other improvements at eight stations, at each of which, on the first of May last, there were schools with teachers and other laborers, sent out by your memorialists; and at all but one of which, there were boarding schools and agricultural establishments of greater or less extent. At these schools more than four hundred Cherokee children and youth have been instructed for a longer or shorter period of time; three quarters of whom have been boarded, and half of whom have received an English education adequate to the transaction of the common business. In sending forth and supporting teachers and other laborers, erecting buildings, making fields, providing agricultural implements and household furniture, in boarding and clothing the scholars, and in other ways for the accommodation of the schools and mission families, your memorialists have expended, for the purpose of instructing and civilizing the Cherokees (in addition to above $10,000 received from the government of the United States for the same purpose) more than $110,000. The teachers and other missionary laborers continued to prosecute their work unmolested, until January last, when the missionaries at four of the stations under the patronage of your memorialists, received a communication, containing a law, purporting to have been enacted at the last session of the legislature of the State of Georgia, of which the following is an extract: "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all white persons residing within the limits of the Cherokee nation, on the first day of March next, or at any time thereafter, without a license or permit from his excel lency the governor, or from such agent as his excellency the governor shall authorise to grant such a permit or license, and who shall not have taken the oath herein after required, shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary, at hard labor, for a term not less than four years." The teachers and missionaries believed this law to be an unwarrantable extension of the jurisdiction of Georgia over the Cherokee country; to be contrary to the express provision of the treaties entered into with the Cherokees, to the Intercourse Law of 1802, and to the Constitution of this Union; and that the enforcement of it would be a gross and oppressive violation of their rights as citizens of the United States; and knowing that they were demeaning themselves in a peaceable and orderly manner, they did not feel under obligation to obey this law; but decided to look to the Government of the United States for protection at the station which they occupied, and in the work which they had undertaken and were prosecuting under its sanction and patronage. In regard to the meaning of the treaties and laws and those clauses of the constitution, on which they relied, they were confident, and your memorialists are confident, that they could not be mistaken. In the treaty of Hopewell, Nov. 28, 1785, particularly in article 9, it is expressly stipulated that Congress shall have the exclusive right to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indians. In the treaty of Holston, July 2, 1791, the same stipulations are renewed more in detail; especially in article 11, a marked distinction is made between being within the Cherokee lands and within the jurisdiction of any State. In both the treaties above named provisions were made with special care for preventing white persons intruding on the Cherokee lands, and for punishing crimes and trespasses committed by citizens of the United States on the Cherokees, or by the Cherokees on citizens of the United States, either by the authorities of the United States, or by the Cherokees, without the slightest allusion to the right of the authorities of any State to interfere in the case, and of course to the exclusion of all such right. In the treaty of Oct. 2, 1798, the former treaties "are acknowledged to be in full and operative force; together with the construction and usage under their respective articles, and so to continue." It is well known what the construction and usage had been and what it continued to be till within the last two years. At the close it is stipulated that this and former treaties shall be carried into effect on both sides with all good faith. In the treaty of Oct. 25th, 1805, the first article declares "all former treaties, which provide for the maintenance of peace and preventing crimes, are on this occasion recognized and continued in force," and additional provisions are made in this treaty, and in that of October 27th, for roads and for the free passing of the United States mail, and of citizens. This right was purchased by the United States of the Cherokees, showing plainly how the two parties understood, and in practice construed, the stipulations of former treaties respecting entering the country of the Cherokees, or having intercourse with them. State authority or jurisdiction is not named or alluded to, In the treaty of July 8, 1817, it is again stipulated, that the former treaties between the Cherokees and the United States are to continue in full force; the United States to have the right of establishing factories, post roads, &c. No right of jurisdiction, or of making regulations respecting trade or intercourse, are named or recognized as belonging to the States. None of these stipulations have ever been annulled, or their force impaired, either by counter stipulations between the contracting parties, or by construction or usage, or by the failure of the Indians to perform their part. On the contrary, the manner in which they have been construed for forty years, by all parties concerned, show what is their true meaning, and how the United States, the Cherokees, and the State of Georgia, understood them. It was moreover expressly provided in the Indian Bill of May, 1830, that no part of that bill should be so construed as to authorize measures in viola tion of any of the treaties existing between the United States and any of the Indian tribes. The intercourse law of 1802, especially sections 14, 15, 16 and 17, gives expressly to the Courts of the United States the jurisdiction in respect to all cases arising out of the intercourse of citizens of the United States with the Indians, within the Indian country, to the exclusion of the Courts of any State. But even if the right of jurisdiction claimed by the State of Georgia should be admitted, the teachers and missionaries are confident, as are your memorialists, that they have a right, so far as the authority of any State is concerned, to a quiet residence and prosecution of any lawful employment in the Cherokee Nation, according to that clause of the constitution of the United States which declares that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." With the stipulations and provisions of these treaties, and of the intercourse law of 1802, before them, with all the light that has been thrown on their meaning by a course of proceedings based upon them and continued unvaried through more than forty years and under the direction of six different presidents, the missionarics were confident, and your memorialists are confident, that they could not be mistaken in their conclusion, that the sole and exclusive jurisdiction over the Cherokee country, is vested in the Cherokees; that while residing among said Cherokees they were amenable to no civil or military authority but that of the Cherokees, and that of the United States as specified in the treaties; and that all interference of the civil or military anthorities of the State of Georgia, or of any other State, would be a gross violation of their rights as citizens of the United States. But on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of March last, while relying on the protection vouchsafed to them by the constitution of the United States, and by treaties, Mr. Isaac Proctor, Rev. Samuel A. Worcester, and Rev. John Thompson, teachers and missionaries at Carmel, New Echota, and Hightower, were seized by a band of twenty-five armed men, with no warrant or civil precept, separated from their families, and forcibly carried to a place called Camp Gilmer, the head quarters of what is called the Georgia Guard. After being detained at this place one day, two of them were taken before the superior court of the state of Georgia, then sitting in Gwinnett county, and |