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About this time356 General William Carroll was designated by the President to make a tour through the Cherokee and Creek Nations, with both of which he was supposed to possess much influence. His mission was to urge upon them, and especially upon the former, the expediency of their removal west of the Mississippi under the inducements held out by the treaty of 1828. A month later357 Col. E. F. Tatnall and on the 8th of July General John Coffee were appointed to co-operate with General Carroll in the accomplishment of his mission. The results of this tour were communicated358 to the War Department by General Carroll in a report in which he remarked that nothing could be done with the Cherokees by secret methods; they were too intelligent and too well posted on the current news of the day to be long kept in ignorance of the methods and motives of those who came among them. He had met their leading men at Newtown and had submitted a proposal for their removal which was peremptorily rejected. The advancement the Cherokees had made in religion, morality, general information, and agriculture had astonished him beyond measure. They had regular preachers in their churches, the use of spirituous liquors was in great degree prohibited, their farms were worked much after the manner of white people, and were generally in good order. Many families possessed all the comforts and some of the luxuries of life. Cattle, sheep, hogs, and fowl of every kind were found in great abundance. The Cherokees had been induced by Eastern papers to believe the President was not sustained by the people in his views of their proposed removal. Eastern members of Congress had given their delegation to understand while in Washington the preceding spring that the memorial left by them protesting against the extension of the laws of Georgia and Alabama over Cherokee territory would be sustained by Congress, and that until that memorial had been definitely acted on by that body all propositions to them looking toward removal would be worse than useless.

Cherokees refuse to cede lands in North Carolina.—In the early summer of 1829359 a commission had also been appointed, consisting of Humphrey Posey and a Mr. Saunders, having in view the purchase from the Cherokees of that portion of their country within the limits of North Carolina, but it, too, failed wholly of accomplishing its purpose.

Coercive measures of the United States and Georgia.—Sundry expedients were resorted to, both by the General Government and by the authorities of Georgia, to compel the acquiescence of the Indians in the demands for their emigration.

The act of the Georgia legislature of December 20, 1828, already alluded to, was an act "to add the territory within this State and occupied by the Cherokee Indians to the counties of De Kalb et al., and to extend the laws of this State over the same." This was followed360 by the passage of an act reasserting the territorial jurisdiction of Georgia and annulling all laws made by the Cherokee Indians. It further declared that in any controversy arising between white persons and Indians the latter should be disqualified as witnesses. Supplementary legislation of a similar character followed in quick succession, and the proclamation of the governor of the State was issued on the 3d of June, 1830, declaring the arrival of the date fixed by the aforesaid acts and the consequent subjection of the Cherokee territory to the State laws and jurisdiction.361

The President of the United States about the same time gave directions362 to suspend the enrollment and removal of Cherokees to the west in small parties, accompanied by the remark that if they (the Cherokees) thought it for their interest to remain, they must take the consequences, but that the Executive of the United States had no power to interfere with the exercise of the sovereignty of any State over and upon all within its limits. The President also directed363 that the previous practice of paying their annuities to the treasurer of the Cherokee Nation should be discontinued, and that they be thereafter distributed among the individual members of the tribe. Orders were shortly after364 given to the commandant of troops in the Cherokee country to prevent all persons, including members of the tribe, from opening up or working any mineral deposits within their limits. All these additional annoyances and restrictions placed upon the free exercise of their supposed rights, so far from securing compliance with the wishes of the Government, had a tendency to harden the Cherokee heart.