Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 8

Price Realized: $ 5,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(AMERICAN INDIANS.) John Ross. Message of the Principal Chief to the National Committee and Council. 4 printed pages, 9 x 6 inches, on one folding sheet; foxing, folds, moderate wear. Van Buren, AR: A. Clarke, 1856
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The important Cherokee leader John Ross (1790-1866) delivers a state of the nation address, lauding the Cherokee progress in Indian Territory: "Peace and prosperity prevail within our limits. . . . The cause of civilization among us progresses, if not rapidly, at a steady and manifest pace. . . . Religion and education have received marked attention." He acknowledges complaints that missionaries had been fomenting trouble among the territory's enslaved people: "Slavery being recognized by the laws of the nation, is entitled to protection from agitation and disturbance. . . . The existence of slavery among us is sanctioned by our own laws and by the intercourse of the government of the United States. . . . The disturbed condition of affairs in Kansas in which we have lands . . . attracts attention here as well as elsewhere. . . . Our true policy is to mind our own business, and not travel beyond our own limits to seek difficulties." Ross also denounces "the nefarious traffic in stolen horses carried on by thieves from the Indian country with citizens of the neighboring states."

While other similar messages of the principal chief are traced in OCLC for 1859 and other dates, we find no record of this message in OCLC or elsewhere. Nor do we find any record of it being published in full elsewhere, although the New Orleans Times-Picayune of 18 December 1856 quoted the pro-slavery portions approvingly.