Reply of Cherokee Chief John Ross to Confederate Commissioner of Indian Affairs, David Hubbard, regarding the relationship of the Cherokee to the U.S. Government and the Confederate States.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, CHEROKEE NATION,
Park Hill, June 17, 1861

Hon. DAVID HUBBARD,
Com. Indian Affairs Confederate States, Fort Smith, Ark.:

SIR: Your communication dated at Fort Smith, 12th instant, has been received. The questions presented by you are of grave importance, and I have given them the best consideration I am capable. As the result of my deliberation allow me to say, with the highest respect for the Government you represent, that I feel constrained to adhere to the line of policy which I have heretofore pursued, and take no part in the unfortunate war between the United States and Confederate States of America.

When you were one, happy, prosperous, and friendly, as the United States, our treaties were made from time to time with your Government. Those treaties are contemporaneous with that Government, extending from the Confederacy of the United States previous to the adoption of the Constitution down to the present time. The first of them was negotiated at Hopewell in 1785 and the last at Washington in 1846. Some of them were the result of choice, others of necessity. By their operation the Cherokees surrendered large and valuable tracts of lands to the States which compose an important part of your Government. They came to the country now occupied by them with the assurance from the Government of the United States that it should be their home and the home of their posterity.

By the treaty of Hopewell the Cherokees placed themselves under the protection of the United State of America and of no other sovereign whatever. By the treaty of Holston, 1791, the stipulation quoted was renewed and extended so as to declare that- The Cherokee Nation will not hold any treaty with any foreign power, individual State, or with individuals of any State.

This stipulation has not been abrogated, and its binding force on the Cherokee Nation is as strong and imperative now as at any time since its adoption. I feel it to be so, and am not willing to disregard it even at the present time. You are well aware that a violation of its letter and spirit would be tantamount to a declaration of hostility toward the Government. There is no reason to doubt that it would be viewed in that light and so treated. There is no reason why we should wantonly assume such attitude and invoke upon our heads and upon the heads of our children the calamities of war between the United and Confederate States, nor do I think you should expect us without a sufficient cause. If our institutions, locality, and long years of neighborly deportment and intercourse do not suffice to assure you of our friendship, no mere instrument of parchment can do it. We have not cause to doubt the entire good faith with which you would treat the Cherokee people; but neither have we any to make war against the United States, or to believe that our treaties will not be fulfilled and respected by that Government. At all events a decent regard to good faith demands that we should not be the first to violate them.

It is not the province of the Cherokees to determine the character of the conflict going on the States. It is their duty to keep themselves, if possible, disentangled, and afford no grounds to either party to interfere with their rights. The obligations of every character, pecuniary and otherwise, which existed prior to the present state of affairs between the Cherokee Nation and the Government are equally valid now as then. If the Government owe us, I do not believed it will repudiate its debts. If States embraced in the Confederacy owe us, I do not believe they will repudiate their debts. I consider our annuity safe in either contingency.

A comparison of Northern and Southern philanthropy, as illustrated in their dealings toward the Indians within their respective limits, would not effect the merits of the question now under consideration, which is simply one of duty under existing circumstances. I therefore pass it over, merely remarking that the "settled policy" of former years was a favorite one with both sections when extended to the acquisition of Indian lands, and that but few Indians now press their feet upon the banks of either the Ohio or the Tennessee. The conflict in which you are engaged will possibly be brought to a close by some satisfactory arrangement or other before proceeding to very active hostilities. If you remain as one government our relations will continue unchanged; if you separate into two governments upon the sectional line we will be connected with you; if left to the uncertain arbitrament of the sword the party holding, succeeding to the reins of the Gen. Government, will be responsible to us for the obligations resting upon it.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

JNO. ROSS,
Principal Chief Cherokee Nation.