on the part of the Department and of Congress to bring these troubles to a close before the adjournment of the latter body. The Commissioner, however, drew up a memorandum agreement for the signature of the several delegations of Cherokees representing the different factions of the tribe. It provided for the appointment of three commissioners, whose duty it should be to examine into all matters in controversy and adjust the same, and that all parties should abide absolutely by their decision, agreeing to execute and sign such treaty or other instrument of agreement as should be considered necessary to insure the execution of the award of the commissioners.495 This agreement was duly signed by the members of the several delegations present in Washington, and in pursuance of its provisions President Polk appointed496 Edmund Burke, William Armstrong, and Albion K. Parris commissioners with the powers and for the purposes above indicated. These commissioners at once entered into communication and negotiation with the three delegations representing the different factions of the Cherokee Nation, which were then in Washington, and the result was the conclusion of the treaty of August 6, 1846,497 in thirteen articles, making detailed provision for the adjustment of all questions of dispute between the Cherokees themselves and also for the settlement of all claims by the Cherokees against the United States.498 This treaty, with some slight amendments, was ratified and proclaimed by the President on the 17th of the same month; an abstract of its provisions has already been presented. It was not until this treaty that the Ross party ever consented in any manner to recognize or be bound by the treaty of 1835.499
Objects of the treaty.—The main principle involved in the negotiation of the treaty of 1846 had been the disposition on the part of the United States to reimburse to the Cherokee fund sundry sums which, although not justly chargeable upon it, had been improperly paid out of that fund.500 In the treaty of 1835 the United States had agreed to pay to the Cherokees $5,000,000 for their lands and $600,000 for spoliations, claims, expenses of removal, etc.501 By the act of June 12, 1838,502 Congress appropriated the further sum of $1,047,067 for expenses of removal. As all these sums were for objects expressed in the treaty of 1835, the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of 1846 regarded them as one aggregate sum given by the United States for the lands of the Cherokees, subject to the charges, expenditures, and investments provided for in the treaty. This aggregate sum was appropriated and placed in the Treasury of the United States, to be disposed of according to the stipulations of the treaty. The United States thereby became the trustee of this fund for the benefit of the Cherokee people, and were bound to manage it in accordance with the well known principles of law and equity which regulate the relation of trustee and cestui que trust.
Adjudication of the treaty of 1835.—In order, therefore, to carry out the principle thus established by the treaty of 1846, Congress, by joint resolution, of August 7, 1848,503 required the proper accounting officers of the Treasury to make a just and fair statement of account with the Cherokee Nation upon that basis. The joint report of the Second Comptroller and Second Auditor was submitted to Congress504 after a full and thorough examination of all the accounts and vouchers of the several officers and agents of the United States who had disbursed funds appropriated to carry into effect the treaty of 1835, and also of all claims that had been admitted at the Treasury.
The result of this examination showed that there had been paid—
| For improvements | $1,540,572 27 |
| For ferries | 159,572 12 |
| For spoliations | 264,894 09 |
| For removal and subsistence and commutation therefor, including $2,765.84 expended for goods for the poorer Cherokees under the fifteenth article of treaty of 1835, and including also necessary incidental expenses of enrolling agents, conductors, commissioners, medical attendance, and supplies, etc. | 2,952,196 26 |
| For debts and claims upon the Cherokee Nation | 101,348 31 |
| For the additional quantity of land ceded to the nation | 500,000 00 |
| For amount invested as the general fund of the nation | 500,880 00 |
| ____________ | |
| The aggregate of which sums is | 6,019,463 05 |
| which, being deducted from the sum of | 6,647,067 00 |
| ____________ | |
| agreeably to the directions of the ninth article of the treaty of 1846, left a balance due the Cherokee Nation of | 627,603 95 |
They also reported that there was a further sum of $96,999.31, charged to the general treaty fund, which had been paid to the various agents of the Government connected with the removal of the Indians and which the Cherokees contended was an improper charge upon their fund. The facts as to this item were submitted by the Auditor and Comptroller without recommendation for the decision of the question by Congress, and Congress, admitting the justice of the Cherokee claim, included this sum in the subsequent appropriation of February 27, 1851.505
It was also resolved506 by the United States Senate (as umpire under the treaty of 1846) that the Cherokee Nation was entitled to the sum of $189,422.76 for subsistence, being the difference between the amount allowed by act of June 12, 1838, and the amount actually paid and expended by the United States, and which excess was improperly charged to the treaty fund in the report of the accounting officers of the Treasury just recited. It was further resolved that interest at 5 per cent. should be allowed upon the sums found due the Eastern and Western Cherokees respectively from June 12, 1838. The amount of this award was made available to the Cherokees by Congressional appropriation of September 30, 1850.507
Settlement of claims of "Old Settler" party.—By the fourth and fifth articles of the treaty of 1846,508 provision is made and a basis fixed for the settlement with that part of the Cherokee Nation known as "Old Settlers" or "Western Cherokees," or, in other words, those who had emigrated under the treaties of 1817,509 1819,510 and 1828,511 and who were, at the date of the treaty of 1835,512 an organized and separate nation of Indians, whom the United States had recognized as such by the treaties of 1828 and 1833513 made with them. In making the treaty of 1835 with the Cherokees east, which provided for their final and complete transfer to the country west, then occupied by the "Western Cherokees," and guaranteed in perpetuity by two treaties, upon considerations alone connected with them, the rights of the latter seem to have been forgotten. The consequences of the influx of the Eastern