MESSAGE.
TO THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE AND COUNCIL, IN NATIONAL COUNCIL CONVENED.
If the intention of the resolutions of your bodies of the 14th inst. (calling for a statement of all monies received, by me, from the United States' Government, since the year 1835, and how applied: and also the amount, if any in my hands, subject to legislation,) be, to seek information respecting the public monies of the Nation; I reply that the annuities were received by the Treasurer of the Nation, John Martin, and by him disbursed, under the laws of the Eastern Chero- kees, up to the fall of 1837. And in 1841 the annuities and school funds were received by the present Treasurer, Mr. David Vann.
In the summer of 1838, (in the absence of the Delegation appointed to represent our wrongs to the Government of the United States, and to ask redress, ) our people were captured by the troops of the United States, under pretext of carrying into effect the provisions of the Schermerhorn Treaty. Un- der these operations they were forced from their homes; some marched before the troops, through l'ivers and mud, to the forts and camps, in which they were confined, and some driven into boats at the point of the bayonet. Our people well remember the sufferings they endured, and it is afflictive to call to mind the frightful ravages, made among them, by sickness and death; and the ruinous loss of property they sustained, by this cruel treatment. While these things were doing, the Delegation was pressing on the attention of the Government of the United States, the claims of the Nation. The result of which was, a special appropriation by Congress, of One Million, One Hundred and forty seven thousand Dollars. Had this appropriation not been made, the whole of the expenses of the emigration must have
