75
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU Buo:NAPARTE LAMAR
sectionise and sell the lands reserved for and owne,d by the Cherokee indians Their claim being contested however, the word owned was stricken out, and occupied inserted and now reads (reserved for and occupied by the Cherokee indians) Still keeping up a semblance of original ownership in those indians, and that the government had acquired it by conquest, and as such it was not amenable to the loca- tion of land scrip, or any other claim existing against the government- that it was a new acquisition since those claims had been issued, and not amenable as public domain. Any thing acquired by conquest can be readily restored by treaty as it would perhaps infringe no individual right He had the unblushing affrontery to assume the same ground in Congress which he did in the consultation, but under a different guise; insiting that the indians _had acquired a title from the Mexican Governmt, and that the Consultation ratified it by their declaration. The guise now used to gild this pill of legislative quackery, so that it was swallowed without much oposition was, that this new acquisition was all the domain the government could claim that was untrammeled, and as such it was indespensably necessary if we wished to act in good faith as· a government which he strongly recommended, that this new acquisition should be retained as a reserve for the payment of the public debt. The Congress now in session, the majority of whom knew as little of the Cherokee history as did the Consultation, and not caring whether the government had acquired it by conquest from Mexicans or indians, and it being admitted to be government property and, well knowing that it was, perhaps, allready covered with claims, or soon would be, if left open; at least all that was valuable and within reach, and that they perhaps would derive no individual benefit; they con- cluded to sustain the integrity of the Country by voting for the law To be short however, his whole object was to tie up this favorite terri- tory from infringment; and that no individual interests should conflict with it This however, was so artfully managed that the Congress got no clue to his real objects and so were left in the fog Having now detered locators by an expression of legislative will was all he could do, without entrusting some of the managetnen:t out of his own hands, he was obliged there to let it rest His speeches on the floor of Con- gress touching the objects of his favorite bill; would seem to be prompted by the purest motives of patriotism His mournful eulogies on the departed (Bowl) would seem to be prompted by the purest feel- ings of philanthropy; but like Anthony's lament over the mangled body of Caesar, intended to shew his renegade brothers of the wigwam, that he was still their political Chief and still their champion in the field Having now traced him through his legislative quackery of three years and ascertained that his whole energies amounted to the susten- tation and protection of what he considered his own property, I have now arrived at the point whP.re the serpent in his devious windings cast his legislative slough, and assumed a new and more imposing char- acter by his induction to the Presidential chair. During this time his friend Santana b_v his mining sapping and batterin~ operations, had again clambered up to power in Mexico Our heroes, the Napoleon, and Wellington, are now to their mutual joy, both found in the ascendant, and stand in juxtaposition Cast in the same mould, governed by the same vile passions, both aiming for power without stint or drawback;
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