FOR THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE.

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Mr. Printer – In reading the Nashville Gazette, of the 22d Sept. I observed an Address delivered to both branches of the Legislature of the state of Tennessee, by Governor M’MINN; in which, among other extraordinary communications, was the following paragraph of self-congratulation and applause: -

“The benefits to be derived to the state of Tennessee from the Cherokee treaty of 1817, depended so much upon the success of ulterior measures to be pursued by the general government, as to make it a matter of much concern, that everything attempted for the execution of that treaty, should meet the hearty concurrence and support of every citizen of the state, who might be placed in a situation where he could act with effect. – Under this persuasion, I have for more than eighteen months, be seduously engaged in forwarding every effort of the administration, which had for its object the removal of the Cherokees to the Arkansas river upon the principles of an exchange of countries. The deep-rooted enmity of that nation towards the people of the western country, and particularly to wards the citizens of Tennessee, manifestly points to the wisdom of that policy, which would place the Mississippi as a barrier against mutual recrimination and bad neighborhood. How far my labors have been successful in seconding the views of government, may in some degree be seen from the result, as far as the effect of my efforts can be connected with it, and how far the terms obtained, are to be made useful to this state, must mainly depend upon the good policy of measures, yet to be adopted and pursued by us. In a long life of labor and active employment, more than thirty years of which have been devoted to the faithful service of my country, I have never been engaged in any one public duty from which I had reason to expect so much substantial good and lasting advantage to my fellow-citizens; and that it will prove to be the most useful part of my public life, I indulge the most positive and honest convictions.”

Fellow-citizens, suffer me to call your most serious attention to this open, public, and official declaration of hostilities waged against your country, your property, your rights, your freedom, your laws, your liberty, and your lives! This public avowal, this total prostration of the dignity of office, and those principles of justice and philanthropy which are the ligaments that cements our union, and binds man to man. What does Governor M’Minn call for the hearty concurrence and united exertions of every citizen for? Why, fellow-citizens, if we take his own words, we cannot mistake the object: it is to deprive you of your privileges and protection; to rob you of your property; to spill the blood of your aged parents, your brothers and sisters, your defenceless wives and children – (to gratify the caprice and avarice of a few Tennessee land-jobbers and speculators) – not personally themselves, that the just vengeance of the laws, and the indignation of the people might be poured upon them – but by turning loose a ferocious band of blood-thirsty marauding savages, with all their “deep-rooted enmity,” (as his excellency so emphatically expresses himself,) on a defenceless people, long since stripped of every means of protection, through that same intriguing junto which has, for a series of fifteen years, been playing off the same deceptive game on the people of Arkansas and the general government, thereby making the government accessory to their crimes! But, thanks to an all-wise and protecting Providence, we are fast rising to a state of manhood, and shall soon be able to protect ourselves. But had not the leading men among the Cherokee emigrants you sent us, possessed more humanity, and more liberal sentiments of that justice due from man to man, than our political enemies, your crimes might long ere this have been written—and our fie1ds moistened with the blood of the slain. Our citizens have generally escaped death, but many of them have been plundered, and some entirely ruined, without any possible means of redress.

At some future period I shall continue the subject, to show how far the government have been deceived with regard to the local situation of the Cherokees.
A Citizen of the Territory.

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