Apr 14, 2015 - Sale 2380

Sale 2380 - Lot 6

Price Realized: $ 812
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(AMERICAN INDIANS.) Bell, John. Mr. Bell's Suppressed Report in Relation to Difficulties between the Eastern and Western Cherokees. 23 pages. 8vo, disbound; tightly trimmed with the loss of one line on page 22, minor dampstaining, a few pencil marks. [Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1840]
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This report describes the situation among the Cherokees in the year following the Trail of Tears. Several Cherokee leaders who had supported cooperation were assassinated in May 1839 by supporters of their rival John Ross. The Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington debated whether to interfere in internal Cherokee politics, and whether to pursue justice against the assassins. They drafted a long report on the crisis which offers a wealth of information on a dramatic moment in Cherokee history, but they voted 5-4 against releasing it to the public.
Committee member John Bell leaked it to the editors of the National Intelligencer, who here released a limited number in pamphlet form. Bell was a Whig congressman from Tennessee who later served as Secretary of War and opposed Lincoln in the 1860 presidential race. Sabin 4459. 2 copies in OCLC, and none known at auction.