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Show MOONEY] REUNION OF NATION 1839 135 had rendered themselves outlaws by their own conduct, extending amnesty on certain stringent conditions to their confederates, and declaring the slayers guiltless of murder and fully restored to the confidence and favor of the community. This was followed in August by another council decree declaring the New Eehota treaty void and reasserting the title of the Cherokee to their old country, and three weeks later another decree summoned the signers of the treaty to appear and answer for their conduct under penalty of outlawry. At this point the United States interfered by threatening to arrest Ross as accessory to the killing of the Ridges. 1 In the meantime the national party and the Old Settlers had been coming together, and a few of the latter who had sided with the Ridge faction and endeavored to perpetuate a division in the Nation were denounced in a council of the Old Settlers, which declared that '* in identifying themselves with those individuals known as the Ridge party, who by their conduct had rendered themselves odious to the Cherokee people, they have acted in opposition to the known sentiments and feelings of that portionvof this Nation known as Old Settlers, frequently and variously and publicly expressed/' The offending chiefs were at the same time deposed from all authority. Among the names of over two hundred signers attached that of " George Guess" ( Sequoya) comes second as vice- president. 2 On July 12, 1839, a general convention of the eastern and western Cherokee, held at the Illinois camp ground, Indian territory, passed an act of union, by which the two were declared " one body politic, under the style and title of the Cherokee Nation." On behalf of the eastern Cherokee the instrument bears the signature of John Ross, principal chief, George Lowrey, president of the council, and Going-snake ( I'nadu- na'i), speaker of the council, with thirteen others. For the western Cherokee it was signed by John Looney, acting principal chief, George Guess ( Sequoya), president of the council, and fifteen others. On September 6, 1839, a convention composed chiefly of eastern Cherokee assembled at Tahlequah, Indian territory- then first officially adopted as the national capital- adopted a new constitution, which was accepted by a convention of the Old Settlers at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, on June 26, 1840, an act which completed the reunion of the Nation. 8 THE ARKANSAS BAND- 1817- 1838 Having followed the fortunes of the main body of the Nation to their final destination in the West, we now turn to review briefly 1Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. fit., pp. 294. 295. ^ Council resolutions, August 23, 1839, in Report Indian Commissioner, p. 387, 1839; Royee. op. cit., p. 294. 3See" Actof Union " a n d " Constitution" in Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation, 1K75; General Arbuckle's letter to the Secretary of War, June 28, 1840, in Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 46,1840; also Royce, op. cit., pp. 294, 295. |