in the annals of jurisprudence. Have the coun- | the jury, or the jury for the court, at pleasure; sel, on either side, a right to call on the other to address the court on facts, or the jury on side, to state all their evidence, before it be in- points of law? Such an attempt would not be troduced, and then to address the court without a greater encroachment on the right of the hearing it, if they think they have a better proper tribunal, than the present motion is on chance before the court than the jury? Has the rights of the jury.* either party a right to substitute the court for

THE CHEROKEE CASE.

The following is an extract from Mr. Wirt's | comparatively few. The great majority of the argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, on a motion for an injunction to prevent the execution of certain acts of the legislature of Georgia, in the territory of the Cherokee nation of Indians, on behalf of the Cherokee nation.*

SIR, I have presented to you all the views that have occurred to me as bearing materially on this question. I have endeavored to satisfy you that, according to the supreme law of the land, you have before you proper parties and a proper case to found your original jurisdiction: that the case is one which warrants and most imperiously demands an injunction; and unless its aspect be altered by an answer and evidence, -which I confidently believe it cannot be that if ever there was a case which called for a decree of perpetual peace, this is the case.

It is with no ordinary feelings that I am about to take leave of this cause. The existence of this remnant of a once great and mighty nation is at stake; and it is for your honors to say whether they shall be blotted out from the creation, in utter disregard of all our treaties. They are here in the last extremity, and with them must perish for ever the honor of the American name. The faith of our nation is fatally linked with their existence, and the blow which destroys them quenches for ever our own glory for what glory can there be, of which a patriot can be proud, after the good name of his country shall have departed? We may gather laurels on the field and trophies on the ocean, but they will never hide this foul blot upon our escutcheon. "Remember the Cherokee nation,' will be answer enough to the proudest boasts that we can ever make-answer enough to

:

cover with confusion the face and the heart of every man among us, in whose bosom the last spark of grace has not been extinguished. Such, it is possible, there may be who are willing to glory in their own shame, and to triumph in the disgrace which they are permitted to heap upon this nation. But, thank Heaven! they are

See the Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, AttorneyGeneral of the United States, by John P. Kennedy: vol 2. pp. 330-343.

American people see this subject in its true
light. They have hearts of flesh in their
bosoms, instead of hearts of stone; and every
rising and setting sun witnesses the smoke of
the incense from the thousands and tens of
thousands of domestic altars, ascending to the
throne of grace to invoke its guidance and bless-
ing on your councils. The most undoubting
confidence is reposed in this tribunal.
We know that whatever can be properly done
for this unfortunate people will be done by this
honorable court. Their cause is one that must
They
come to every honest and feeling heart.
have been true and faithful to us, and have a
right to expect a corresponding fidelity on our
part. Through a long course of years, they
have followed our counsel with the docility of
children. Our wish has been their law. We
asked them to become civilized, and they be-
came so. They assumed our dress, copied our
names, pursued our course of education, adopted
our form of government, embraced our religion,
and have been proud to imitate us in every
thing in their power. They have watched the
progress of our prosperity with the strongest
interest, and have marked the rising grandeur
of our nation with as much interest as if they
had belonged to us. They have even adopted
our resentments, and in our war with the Semi-
nole tribes they voluntarily joined our arms,
and gave effectual aid in driving back those bar-
barians from the very State that now oppresses
them. They threw upon the field in that war
a body of men, who proved, by their martial
bearing, their descent from the noble race that

66

were once the lords of these extensive forestsmen worthy to associate with the "lion" who, in their own language, walks upon the mountain-tops." They fought, side by side, with our present Chief Magistrate, and received his repeated thanks for their gallantry and conduct. May it please your honors, they have refused to us no gratification which it has been in their power to grant. We asked them for a portion of their lands, and they ceded it. We asked

*The remainder of Mr. Wirt's speech, in which he replied to Mr. Wickham's fourth objection to the admission of further evidence on the part of the prosecution, is omitted. + The Indian designation of their chieftain Ridge.

Forbid it,

again and again, and they continued to cede, | g.ory which we have been gaining before the until they have now reduced themselves within world for the last half century? the narrowest compass that their own subsist- Heaven! ence will permit. What return are we about to make to them for all this kindness? We have pledged for their protection, and for the guaranty of the remainder of their lands, the faith and honor of the nation; a faith and honor never sullied, nor even drawn into question till now. We promised them, and they trusted us. They have trusted us: Shall they be deceived? They would as soon expect to see their rivers run upwards on their sources, or the sun roll back in his career, as that the United States would prove false to them, and false to the word so solemnly pledged by their Washington, and renewed and perpetuated by his illustrious successors.

Is this the high mark to which the American nation has been so strenuously and successfully pressing forward? Shall we sell the mighty meed of our high honors at so worthless a price, and, in two short years, cancel all the

I will hope for better things. There is a spirit that will yet save us. I trust that we shall find it here, in this sacred court, where no foul and malignant demon of party enters to darken the understanding or to deaden the heart, but where all is clear, calm, pure, vital and firm. I cannot believe that this honorable court, possessing the power of preservation, will stand by and see these people stripped of their property and extirpated from the earth, while they are holding up to us their treaties and claiming the fulfilment of our engagements. If truth, and faith, and honor, and justice have fled from every other part of our country, we shall find them here. If not our sun has gone down in treachery, blood and crime, in the face of the world; and, instead of being proud of our country, as heretofore, we may well call upon the rocks and mountains to hide our shame from earth and heaven.