The letter invites me, if my strength and other duties will allow, to repair to the point where the Commissioners were then engaged in running out the line between Georgia and Alabama, and render them all the aid in my power, and in the close of the letter he says--"My apology for proposing thus to add to your labors, already great, is, that I know that wherever you are, you will be useful." But anxious as I was to obey this call, other duties that could not be dispensed with utterly forbid my joining the Commissioners as requested. But to return to the subject of my more immediate duties connected with the Board of Internal Improvements. My acquaintance with Mr. Fulton, the gentleman selected as Chief Engineer of the State, afforded me an interesting opportunity of gaining much useful information on the subject in which I had now embarked. He was a Scotchman by birth and education, though he had spent most of his life, (till past the meridian) in England. He had been but a short time in this country, and was rather aristocratic in his feelings, and austere in his manners-he had but little of the suavity of our Democratic nobles. However he had seen more, read more, and knew more, upon all the subjects appertaining to his office than the Governor and all the Board put together. I soon discovered that he had found out we were all novices on the subject of our immediate enterprise. However, he knew we were capable of scrutinizing his conduct, and could not very readily be imposed upon. I endeavored to draw from him all the information I could, and my child-like, unassuming manner of doing it was flattering to his vanity, and soon placed me pretty much in the character of a learner or pupil, and gave me free access to what reading he had on the subject, as well as free answers to all my numerous inquiries.

Although the day of rail roads was in the embryo state at this time, the subject had produced a spirit of inquiry, both in England and this country, and although but a few miles of rail road were then known to the world and those destitute of iron, or steam engine-constructed of wood, and propelled by animal force-yet I at that time, after full investigation of the subject, became fully satisfied that even wooden rail roads, with mule and horse power, should be preferred to any canal which could be constructed in middle and upper Georgia. After laborious and instrumental examination of the country, from Milledgeville to Chattanooga, it was the opinion of Mr. Fulton

and myself that a rail road could be located to advantage between the two points above named, but that a canal was impracticable. It is a very remarkable fact too, that the route selected by Mr. Fulton and myself, a large portion of it then in an Indian Country, and but little known to civilized men, should in its whole distance have varied so slightly from the location of our present rail roads now in operation. It proves that our examinations were faithful, and our judgments have been sustained by all the qualified persons who have come after us. My opinions were communicated to Governor Troup at this time, and will sustain my foregoing statements on this subject. From that time to this I have looked to rail roads as the great and leading work to promote the best interest of the country, and have upon all fit occasions, whether in private or public life, contributed my best aid to the promotion of the rail road cause. This year's labor in the public service induced me to believe, that if I had a seat in Congress I could effect something exceedingly important, not only to Georgia, but to the whole Union, on the subject of the Indian policy of the United States. I was rather impressed with the belief that it was my particular mission, instrumentally, to do something to relieve Georgia from the incumbrance of her Indian population, and at the same time benefit the Indians. Under these circumstances, in the fall of 1826 I became a candidate for Congress, and was elected in October, as a Representative from Georgia, to a seat in the 20th Congress of the United States. I endeavored to make the best use of the intervening year between my election and entering on my official duties at Washington. I reviewed all that I had read and known, connected with the history of Georgia, as well as the Federal Government. I studied as far as I had the means the various subjects of general interest which I was apprised must necessarily engross my attention as a member of the approaching Congress. And to use a commercial term, I was well posted on every item connected with our Indian relations. As well as I could, I arranged my private and home affairs, preparatory to entering upon my Congressional duties.

Before, however, I enter upon what transpired at Washington during the first session of the 20th Congress, it is necessary for me to advert to the then existing political complexion of the country in Georgia, as well as the Union. The reader will recollect that in the Presidential

contest for the successor to Mr. Monroe I not only supported Gen'l Jackson in opposition to Mr. Crawford, but that I was a candidate on the Jackson Electoral ticket, and received only one-third of the votes of the state, on that ticket, and that the Crawford Electors received, twothirds of the votes of the State. But now, at the close of the year 1827, we find Georgia almost unanimous in the support of Jackson for the next President, precisely where I was two years previously, and I was now applauded for what I had then been condemned. The only annoyance which I felt touching this change of public sentiment was to be found in the fact that some of the officeseeking leaders of the old Crawford party were not content with being received as equals into the Jackson ranks, and immediately aspired to the leadership of the old original panel of the Jackson party. Indeed some of the most violent defamers of Gen'l Jackson heretofore, seemed, now that the mind had changed, to consider themselves the original and best Jackson men of the country, and upon all occasions were endeavoring to thrust themselves between Jackson and his old friends who had borne the heat and burthen of the day.

Such conduct made me feel sometimes, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him?" But it is due to these men that the apology for their change should be fairly given. Although they had contributed largely, but indirectly, to the election of John Q. Adams to the Presidency, and thereby effected the defeat of Gen'l Jackson, upon trial they soon discovered that the administration of Mr. Adams would not be sustained in Georgia. Mr. Adams, at every step of his administration, from his inaugural to his farewell address, proved himself to be a genuine Federalist of the old school, his father's own legitimate son, a man "not to be palsied, by the will of his constituents," a consolidationalist at heart-holding in contempt the rights and sovereignty of the states. But for the want of nerve, he was ready to carry out the doctrine of force-brute force on the sovereign States. His controversy with Governor Troup, of Georgia, upon the subject of the Indian Springs Creek Treaty, and the transactions growing out of that Treaty, had rendered Mr. Adams peculiarly obnoxious to the people of Georgia, for no true hearted Georgian, not blinded by prejudice, whatever might have been his former political associations, could fail to sympathize with Governor Troup in this controversy. He was

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contending for the sovereign constitutional rights of the states, against Federal usurpation. And he contended for these rights with an unwavering ability and integrity altogether Roman. After the argument was exhausted, in this controversy, Governor Troup resolved that Georgia "would stand by her arms" rather than yield to oppression. Let it be recorded "that Georgia did." If this Roman spirit had been maintained in Georgia, up to the present day, no fears of the perpetuity of our Federal union would now harrass the timid imaginations of compromising submission politicians and office-seekers. Public men would not dare to yield the birth rights of the people, and say it was the best we could get. No, our controversies should be settled on the principles of Troup and Jackson-ask for nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing wrong.

Previous to going on to Congress in 1827, I had fully matured my own plan of operation in regard to our Indian relations. Our state controversy connected with the Creek Indians had now terminated, by the entire acquisition of the whole of the Creek lands within the limits of the State, and a final adjustment of the subject of all the conflicts with the Federal Government. But the state of affairs was far different, in regard to the Cherokees, who still occupied the whole of the northwestern part of Georgia, which is still known as Cherokee, Ga., embracing some five or six millions of acres of the best lands within the limits of the State. This state of things rendered it obvious to all well informed discerning men, that the resources of Georgia could never be extensively developed by a well devised system of internal improvements, and commercial and social intercourse with other portions of the Union, especially the great West, until this portion of the state was settled by an industrious, enlightened, free-hold population-entitled to, and meriting, all the privileges of citizenship. Moreover, a portion of the Cherokee people, composed mostly of mixed breeds and white bloods, had advanced in all the various arts of civilization to an extent that rendered it altogether impracticable to enforce the Laws of the United States passed by Congress for regulating intercourse with Indian Tribes within the United States, and for governing and restraining such tribes. The Cherokees at this time had their own written and printed Constitution, and code of laws, by which they had declared themselves to be a free and independent state and people, claiming, at the same time,

the guarantees, illegally and imprudently made to them by treaty stipulations on the part of the United States, to protect them in the peaceable and quiet possession of the country now occupied by them, to them and their heirs forever. By this state of things, the Cherokees claimed the right to govern themselves independently of all other governments whatsoever. The government of the United States claimed the right of enforcing her intercourse laws for the government of the Indian Tribes. And Georgia had now extended her criminal laws and jurisdiction over all that portion of the State on which the Cherokees were still located. And the laws of these three different governments, intended to operate and govern the same people, and on the same territory, were in their execution frequently found to be in conflict with each other, and the different governments liable to daily collision-neither yielding to the other the right of exclusive, or superior, jurisdiction. The intercourse laws of the United States prohibited any man from settling in any Indian country, or trading and trafficking in any article whatever, with any Indian, unless, under a special permit, or license, obtained from the legal authority of the United States, as provided for by law. The Cherokee authorities, in total disregard of the authority of the United States

Resolved, to suffer no man to settle in their limits, and traffic and trade with their people, without first obtaining a permit or license to do so from the Cherokee authorities. The Georgia law extended her criminal jurisdiction, over her Cherokee Territory

Provided, amongst other things-That every white man residing in the Cherokee part of Georgia should take and subscribe an oath to support the Constitution and laws of the State of Georgia; and in case of neglect, or refusal, to do so, said delinquent or delinquents should be liable to be indicted and convicted for a misdemeanor, and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary of the state for a term not exceeding seven, and not less than one year. And under this law, seven missionaries were sent to our state prison, and gave rise to the persecution and abuse of Georgia by Northern fanatics-of which I shall have occasion to dwell more at large hereafter. Although I had marked out a course for myself in relation to Indian affairs, I felt it to be my duty, on my arrival at Washington, to seek a conference and consultation with the Georgia delegation, including the Senators from the State, which I