et by the original treaty. But
the surveyors soon met with resistance from the Indians; and the Indians
appealed to the President. The Secretary of War then notified Troup that
the President felt himself compelled to employ all the means under his
control to maintain the faith of the nation and to carry the treaty into
effect. Governor Troup replied defiantly that the "military character of
the menace" was well understood. "You will distinctly understand,
therefore, that I feel it my duty to resist to the utmost any military
attack.... From the first decisive act of hostility, you will be
considered and treated as a public enemy, and with less repugnance
because you, to whom we might constitutionally have appealed for our
defense against invasion, are yourselves the invaders, and, what is
more, the unblushing allies of the savages whose course you have
adopted." He at once issued orders to the state military officers to
hold the militia in readiness to repel any invasion of the soil of
Georgia.

The tension which had now become acute was relieved by the intelligence
that the President had ordered the Indian agent to the Creeks to resume
negotiations for the cession of the rest of their lands. The governor
hastened to point out jubilantly that the President had beaten a
retreat. Meantime, the President had laid the whole matter before
Congress in a special message. A committee of the House advised the
purchase of the rest of the Indian lands, but in the mean time the
maintenance of the terms of the Treaty of Washington. A committee of the
Senate, however, with Benton as chairman, took an opposite view of the
situation, and deprecated any action looking toward the coercion of a
sister State. A treaty concluded with the Creeks in November, 1827,
fortunately satisfied all parties and put an end to this exciting
controversy--a controversy in which the President had played a lone and
not very successful hand.

In this same year (1827), another Indian problem of even greater
perplexity arose. The Cherokees of northwestern Georgia, who were ruled
by a group of intelligent half-breeds, declared themselves one of the
sovereign and independent nations of the earth, and drafted a
constitution which completely excluded the authority of the State of
Georgia. Again, in no uncertain language, Georgia asserted her title to
all the lands within her limits, regarding the Indians simply as
"tenants at her will"; but before the controvers