6. Bruce to Elias Boudinot, 1 July 1829
. . . We are told that the course we have pursued of establishing independent legislative government, is the cause why Georgia has departed from the forbearance she has so long practised! All the clamor that she has raised on this subject seems to have arisen from the adoption of our Constitution. Our government is no more a substantive one than it was twenty years ago, and all the difference is, we have improved exceedingly the laws, reduced to a form and committed to writing. Georgia has departed from her accustomed course of forbearance because she is fearful we shall become too much attached to civilization and happiness to make further sacrifices for her benefit. The Committee on Indian affairs in Congress last session in one of their reports, speaking of our Constitution, says, "the committee do not perceive that the regulations adopted by the Cherokees, under the form of a Constitution and laws, change in any manner their relation to the United States." As we stand related to the United States alone, let that suffice. It has been said by some that if the Indians were allowed their 'testimony' they would yield without further complaint to the laws of Georgia; but this can never be. There is much to be seen in all the legislative enactments of the state relative to Indians that exhibits much illiberal, despotic, and unchristianlike spirit, by which they will never agree to be governed. They are convinced, and every circumstance draws us irresistibly to the conclusion, that the grand objection looked to is not their welfare, but to oust them of their possessions and become owners of the soil; therefore they never will consent to "abide the consequences of such rules of action as Georgia might prescribe for their Government." The laws are to be made so burdensome on the Indians, that the whites, possessed of such superior advantages, may trample upon us with impunity, and render us so disheartened or aggravated as to remove at once, or commit some act of retributive justice, that may be swelled into a justification of our removal at the point of bayonet . . .
. . . We have done all we could to gratify the insatiable desire of Georgia, but she continues to prosecute us because we will not, now, abandon our homes, our farms, even the dust of our forefathers. And if we are to be annihilated for honestly striving to improve our condition, and render ourselves and posterity happy, we will fall with a consciousness of innocence, and the guilt shall rest upon the merited. Perhaps long after we shall have disappeared, cities may rise up where our beloved chiefs once kindled their Council fires, to receive and deliberate upon the 'good talks' of their Great Father Washington. - the finger of the historians may point to some gentle hillock where sleep in dust the last of our Chiefs - the only monument to perpetuate the memory of a brave but unfortunate tribe. - The muse may strike a melancholy note - and time hush into silence the tyranny of Georgia.
Bruce