century, the Puritan ministers formed a galaxy of talent and literature that has never been equalled in splendor, far less surpassed. It may be laid down as a max. im in the morality of politics, that it is natural for a tory to reproach the Scottish Covenanters; and the historian of demonology and witchcraft has not belied his political creed in this instance. It was thought that his disposition to misrepresent and caricature the Covenanters, might have been gratified, by the full scope which he has given to this wanton feeling in some of his works of fiction. Has he forgotten the merited castigation which he received for this in the pages of "the Christian Instructor?" The repeated allusion, which is made to John Gible, and the conduct of the Covenanters, respecting him, are garbled misstatements, dragged in, to allow an opportunity of reproaching the friends of civil and religious liberty. Nor is the case of major Weir less malevolent. Because this man, some twenty years before his execution for the crime of witchcraft, had been in the military employment of the Covenanters, therefore he is a Cove. nanter of great profession and standing!!! There is not the slighest evidence from any thing produced, that Weir had any connection whatever with the Covenanters for probably twenty years previ. ous to the alledged crime; nor does it appear that the connection ever was of a religious kind. The Puritans and Covenanters are put as it were between the hanımer One and the anvil, by our author. They are charged with ferocity on the one hand, because of anxiety to punish the crime; and on the other, with superstition, because of indulging in it. of the charges we would have thought enough to preserve the consistency of the writer's opinions. The attack, unjust an inconsistent as it is, shows clearly the writer's dislike to the Covenanters. They have been the subjects of reproach and slander by such men for nearly two centuries; but the cloud of prejudice is passing away, and the true character of the Covenanters is beginning to be unfolded. We hope that the author of the Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft shall live long enough to change his opinion of those men whom he has, more than once, traduced, and retract the unfair insinuations which he has thrown upon their names and principles. It is to them, as instruments in the providence of God, that the world is now indebted for any thing that it has of civil and religious liberty. They taught and acted upon principles with which the world was previously ignorant. To their faithful contendings for truth, civil and religious, may now be traced, whatever is prized and valued by the friends of truth and liberty! So much is declared by Hume, and other historians, who were far from being favorable to the views of the Covenanters. Yet they have been compelled, reluctantly, to make such admissions from the force of evidence; were we to reproach, or even to refuse to vindicate the character of those men when they are reproached, who, in the seventeenth century, did so much in behalf of truth and righteousness, we would fear lest the curse of the Almighty would decend upon us, "his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." S. REVIEW OF THE CASE COMMONLY CALLED THE CHEROKEE PERSECUTION. It is not every prosecution, nor even every oppressive law, that may be called persecution. Such an indiscriminate use of the term would be destructive of the truth as well as of the honor due to "the martyrs of the reformation." Blessed be the Lord, "the blood of the saints" does not yet call for vengeance on our land. There is in fact neither religious persecution nor toleration, properly speaking, in this nation. If the constituted authorities of the state of Georgia have acted illegally in the case of the missionaries to the Cherokee Indians, the supreme court of the UNITED STATES has reversed the decree of that STATE. There we trust the matter ends. We must nevertheless say, that it were more becoming Christians to obey religiously their own Master, than to act even the heroic part of political partizans. The law of the Lord is manifest. Matt. x. 23,-" When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." We annex a summary of the of ficial account of this case, which has produced so much excitement. REPORT of the committee to whom was referred so much of the governor's message as related to the enforcement of the law making it penal under certain restrictions for white persons to reside within the limits of the Cherokee nation. By a law of the state passed at the last session of the general assembly, all white persons, except agents of the United States, are prohibited from residing within its territcry occupied by the Cherokees, unless authorized by license from the governor or his agent, upon taking an oath to support the constitution and laws of this state. The right of the state to pass this law results as a necessary consequence to the right which she has to the soil and jurisdiction over the Cherokee lands. *** The reason and necessity of the law are as obvious as the right to enact it. A leading object with the general government has been for many years the removal of the Cherokee Indians west of the Mississippi. This has been held by the most benevolent, and also the most distinguished of our statesmen, the only means left to the government to save the wretched remnants of this once numerous and powerful nation from moral ruin as individuals, and total extinction of the tribe. Year after year the tribes within the states have been seen to decrease in numbers, and to sink lower in crime, depravity, and sin. The parental arm of the government has been extended to their relief, and the federal and state govern ments have united their efforts to remove them from their present habitations, and locate them be. yond the Mississippi; there, under the protection of the government, and free alike from the crimes and cupidity of the white man, to live in their own peculiar way, the happy and lordly masters of the forest. *** The Cherokee tribe had assumed the attitude of an independent nation, with government and laws distinct from and independent of the state authority. The discovery of immense mineral wealth within the limits of the nation acting upon the avarice and cupidity of men, had brought into the territory a numerous body of men, lawless, abandoned, and hostile to the policy of the state. * * * * * * * his good character for industry, honesty, and sobriety, nor then without the consent of the Indians. And if, after permission is given under such testimonials, the person or persons to whom it is given shall become lazy, dishonest, intemperate, or in any way setting vicious examples before the Indians, exciting them against each other, or inflaming their jealousy and suspicion against the general government, or any of its acts towards them, or attempting to degrade in their eyes the agents of government, thereby destroying their influence over the Indians by false accusations or otherwise, you will forthwith order such person or persons out of the Indian country." * * * * The law of the last legislature herein adverted to did not, according to its provisions, take effect immediately. The commencement of its operation was fixed at a time sufficiently remote to put all persons interested upon their guard, and ample opportu nity was afforded for a knowledge of its existence and of its provisions. No man was entrapped, and all who offended against it sinned against the authority of the state with a perfect knowledge of the consequence. Most of those persons who were residents of the Cherokee country either removed from the state, or submitted to the requirements of the law. The board of directors of the United Brethren's mission at Salem, believing that the object of their mission to the Cherokees, under the peculiar circumstances of the state and the Indians, could not be effected, instructed their missionaries to remove from the country. Acting, as your committee believe, from a sense of respect to the laws and authorities of Georgia, they were unwilling to interfere with her laws or policy. In the conduct of those unobtrusive and devoted missionaries of the cross is exhibited, in bold relief, the pure and sublime principles of our holy religion. Some there were, however, who refused to comply with the conditions of residence prescribed in the law. These individuals were either missionaries or persons who were under their influence, and acted under their advisement. The most conspicuous and talented of these individuals are the Rev. S. Worcester and Dr. E. Butler, missionaries of the American Board of Foreign Missions. These persons had long been conversant with the policy of the general government, and with the rights as well as the laws of Georgia. The law, to whose penalty they became obnoxious, was known to them. The law had raised within their hearing its warning voice, and admonished them of their duty; but the governor of the state, reluctant to enforce upon them the penalty of the law, respecting their sacred profession, and respecting still more the most holy cause in which they were engaged, kindly and politely, and in the spirit of forbearance, warned them yet again of their crime, and invited them away from their own ruin. A personal address was made to each of them by his excellency, and ten days given for their re. moval. All this did not avail. They not only persisted in their VOL. I.-APRIL, 1832. If it is said that the state did require the missionaries to take an oath which in conscience they could not take, or suffer the penalty of the law, your commit. tee answer, that the state involved the missionaries in no such desperate dilemma. If the oath was taken, it was a voluntary act, and the oath could have been avoided by removal from our limits. If the penalty was suf fered it was a voluntary act, which might have been avoided either by taking the oath, or removing from the limits. The missionaries were left free to choose between the oath, the penalty of the law, and removal, and they chose the penalty of the law. Why then should the state be censured for an act which was the result of choice on the part of the missionaries? and which your committee fear was sought by them, either for the purposes of political effect, or to exhibit themselves to a sympathizing fraternity, as sufferers for righteousness' sake. *** Still the autho rity of the state followed them with anxious solicitude to relieve them; still kindness, and mercy, and forbearance, would have 61 Cherokee country, and providing for the punishment of persons therein residing without the license of the governor, and without taking an oath of allegiance to the state, are declared null and void, as contrary to the constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States. The opinion of the chief justice was very elaborate and clear. He took a review of the origin of the European title to lands in America upon the ground of discovery. He established that this right was merely conventional among the European govern. ments themselves, and for their own guidance, and the regulation of their own claims in regard to each other, and in no respect changed or affected to change the rights of the Indians as occupants of the soil: That the only effect of the European title was, as between European nations, to recognize an exclusive right of trade and intercourse with the Indians, and of ultimate domain in the territories occupied by the Indians in favor of the nation or government whose subjects were the first discoverers: That all the European governments, Spain, France, and especially Great Britain, had uniformly recognized the Indian tribes and nations as distinct communities, capable of and entitled to self-government as states, and in no respect, except as to their right of intercourse with other European nations, and the right of pre-emption in the discoverers to purchase their soil, as under the control or power of the Europeans. They were treated as nations capable of holding and ceding their territories, capable |