The news of Fort Mims reached the Cherokees while a friendly Creek named William Mcintosh,
the headman of Coweta and a half-blood relative of the Troup family in Georgia, visited in
their midst enlisting aid against the Red Stick insurgents.44 One of his wives was a
Cherokee, and Mcintosh had much the same status among the Cherokees as The Ridge enjoyed
among the Creeks. it was his privilege, though a Creek, to sit as a chief in the council
at Oostanaula. His popularity was immense with the Cherokee head men, who feared for his
safety, since the Red Sticks aimed to kill him on sight.  When the time came for his
departure, The Pathkiller instructed The Ridge to raise a band of warriors and escort
McIntosh across the hostile Cherokee border and his home.

Meanwhile it was during the hot and sickly season that the Creeks and Cherokees debated.
Tempers flared; but after heated words between Richard Brown and William McIntosh, the two
delegations agreed to enter into a "voluntary and friendly arrangement," to be committed
to writing, which specified that the Creeks were "too distressed" at the moment to deal
with the boundary question, though they anticipated a settlement at some future date and
in the meantime had no objection to the Cherokees' occupation of the disputed territory.
Jackson, Meigs, and Hawkins witnessed this bizarre document on August 9, and on the
following day the peace treaty was concluded. It was a "treaty of conquest,  severe and
unequivocal, whereby the United States appropriated twenty-three million acres of Creek
land, or half the future state of Alabama. The surge of American migration across the
Appalachians was mounting with each passing year, creating tremendous pressure for new
lands on which the pioneers could settle.

The Cherokees, seventy-two of whom constituted a company under The Ridge, who served as
captain, joined Jackson's army around Fort Scott near the Florida border early in March,
1818, and seem to have been attached to the friendly Creek force under McIntosh, now a
brigadier general. The Seminole campaign that followed was pure opera bouffe, with
provisions almost nonexistent at times and roads made quagmires by the heavy rains. But at
the expense of a single soldier killed Jackson not only achieved his ostensible purpose of
cowing a few bedraggled Creeks, Seminoles, and refugee blacks and hanging the prophet
Francis but also his real design of wresting Florida from the palsied grasp of Spain and
presenting a conquest to the President, in certainty that American diplomats could seal
the ourage without a declaration of war.

In 1819 the Cherokees had sent a delegation to Washington City, led by Charles Hicks, and
a fringe of land along their entire northern border was ceded to the United States as
payment for past and future emigration to Arkansas. The Americans proved insatiable: the
state of Georgia was now clamoring for the United States Government to make good a
commitment given in 1802 to extinguish in Georgia's favor the Indian title of all lands
within the boundaries of the state, in return for the claim on western lands that Georgia
had ceded to the Federal Government, the lands that now composed Mississippi and Alabama.
Since the bulk of what remained of the Cherokee domain lay within the chartered limits of
Georgia, the Indians felt more pressured than ever. The issue came to a head in the annual
council of 1823, at which John was asked to serve as interpreter, thus receiving his first
real taste of Cherokee politics. "Since the organization of a code of laws now in
operation in this nation," he wrote, "I had the first opportunity of acquainting myself
with the manner of the proceedings ... of the Cherokee legislative Council. ion. The
commissioners went about their business in a leisurely manner. They needed time in which
to make a judicious application of the funds at their disposal, their purpose to detach
the more susceptible chiefs from the hard core of opposition and to split the council into
factions. At length those from Georgia presented the object of their mission in writing,
the Cherokees having insisted that the negotiations could proceed only if reduced to
writing, an expedient they deemed necessary on recalling misrepresentations in the past.
"Its whole drift and motive," John Ridge wrote, "was to impress the Cherokees with a
conviction that the State of Georgia had just, but long-standing claims against this
Nation, which they attempted to authenticate by quotations from some old treaties . . .
entered into by the United States with this nation." In the formal maneuvers which
followed, always conducted in writing, the Cherokees remained firm in their resolve never
to part with another foot of land. The U.S. commissioners, no more successful in their
manipulations than those from Georgia, grew harsh and threatening and then, by turns,
suave and wheedling. "Gentle, brilliant, and forceful periods of eloquence, strongly
backed by large sums of money as presents, were spent in vain. The chiefs remained
firm. It was at this point that the Creek ambassador, General Mcintosh, arrived with six
or seven Creek chiefs and received a rousing welcome. He was hailed as "Beloved Brother."
As Butrick explained in his journal, "He was the Creek King in the Cherokee council as
Major Ridge was the Cherokee King in the councils of the Creek Nation"; and he was
escorted to the White Bench, reserved only for dignitaries held in the highest esteem. In
private conversation the general surprised his friends by favoring cession and emigration,
saying in substance.- "The white man is growing. He wants our lands, he will buy them now.
By and by he will take them and the little band of our people, poor and despised, will be
left to wander without homes and be beaten like dogs. We [should sell now and] go to a new
home and learn like the white men, to till the earth, grow cattle and depend on these for
food and life." Soon be sent John Ross a letter dictated to his semiliterate son Chilly.
In barbarous English it raised the question of a treaty. in case Ross could bring himself
to favor it, $2000 would be given to him as a present. The same amount would be available
to the clerk of the council, Alexander McCoy, and to Charles Hicks $3000 "for pre-sent.
And "nobody shall know it," the general promised. In addition the amounts would be paid
before the treaty was signed; "and if you got any friend you want him to receive they
shall receive the same amount.  If the offer were taken, the commissioners for Georgia had
promised to pay McIntosh $7000 for his services. Astonished, Ross confided the matter to
several of his closest associates. They decided that Major Ridge and Alexander McCoy
should confer with the general that evening and verify whether or not his proposal had
been made with the knowledge and sanction of the U.S. commissioners. McIntosh revealed
that it had, and added he would be glad to address the two houses in person and press for
a compliance with the commissioners' views. He was sure, he said, that if the National
Committee fell in line with his views and said they despaired of holding out longer
against the United States, The Pathkiller could be induced to yield. Re ended by glibly
trying to galvanize them with descriptions of his spoils from former treaties. The
committee convened in secret early the next morning to receive the letter and a report of
the interview. It resolved to invite the general before an immediate meeting of both
houses; and on his appearance the Cherokees received him with their customary deference.
Major Ridge opened the session. Then Ross, a small man only five feet, six and a half
inches tall, arose with the letter in his hand. After explaining the reason for the joint
meeting, he concluded by informing the chiefs that "a gross contempt" had been offered his
character, "as well as that of the General Council. This letter .. will speak for itself.
Fortunately the author has mistaken my character and my sense of honor." He handed the
general's letter to the clerk, an ominous silence having fallen over the house. Sentence
by sentence McCoy read and interpreted its contents to the audience. No one seemed more
thunderstruck than The Pathkiller. Slowly he rose, racked by the aches of rheumatism, and
when he addressed the council the whole tenor of his speech was that of mourning. McIntosh
stammered out a lame reply. The Pathkiller turned away and ordered: "Set him aside." The
headmen whispered in a brief consultation. Then The Ridge arose. "As speaker for the
Cherokee Nation," he began, in obvious sorrow, for McIntosh had been his friend, his
comrade-in-arms, "I now address the Honorable Council. It is a talk which must spread and
be universally heard. It is concerning a brother, who these twelve years has been
considered a standing guardian of the interests of the rising generation. A plain maxim of
this Nation is, never to trust a man who goes astray from duty, or corrupts the obligation
of sacred confidence. This has been observed in McIntosh's conduct. He has stood erect,
encircled with the generous confidence of the people and the authorities of his own
Nation. I now depress him [sic]. I cast him behind my back. I now divest him of his trust,
and put it firmly in my hand.-I do not pretend to extend this disgrace in his own Nation.
He is at liberty to retire in peace. We are not advanced to public notice for confidence
to make fortunes. Money is out of the question. We are not to be purchased with money. The
trust placed in our hands is a sacred trust. The most distinguished chief of this Nation
is liable to be disgraced, as this man, when found deficient of patriotism, that precious
standard of moral excellence and political virtue. "But let us not triumph in the
disgrace. He may resort to the bosom of his family to spend his sorrows and revive his
wounded spirits. He has been the concern of my warmest friendship and still carries my
sympathies with him." The general left the council grounds at once and in his agitation
rode his horse until it dropped. The National Committee sent a letter to the head chiefs
of the Creeks that the Cherokee council had decreed William McIntosh "discharged from ever
having any Voice in Cherokee Councils hereafter as a chief connected with this Nation."
The committee also advised the Creeks, as brothers, to keep a strict watch over his
conduct lest he ruin their nation.

Major Ridge addressed General Jackson as a diplomat, whatever his real purpose in coming
to Washington City. As he was no longer a member of the Cherokee delegation, and as the
Cherokees were now making common cause with the Creeks, a statement published years later
by his grandson, John R. Ridge, seems to the point: "Ka-nung.ta.ciaga, a war chief of the
Cherokees," wrote Yellow Bird, "possessed influence at Washington; and his son John Ridge,
afterwards chief of the Ridge Division of the Nation, then a young man of twenty-two or
twenty-three years of age, could speak the English language fluently. The Creek chiefs
applied to them to act as their agents.... The Ridges accordingly proceeded to Washington
and set the ball in motion."37 They were probably in the company of The Big Warrior,
principal chief of the Creeks, who, old and ailing, was to die in the capital a few weeks
hence. Such work on behalf of the Creeks, whatever it might be, agreed with the policies
of the Cherokees ever since McIntosh's authority had been "washed away" by the Cherokee
council in October 1823. John Ross had written to the Creek chiefs, unmasking McIntosh's
aims, proposing a concert of action between the two tribes, and appealing to the Creeks to
follow "the pattern set by the Cherokees" and refuse to make any further cessions of land.
This they had resolved to do in two councils in I824. The Cherokees appealed to them again
in December, Major Ridge probably taking the message to their council at Broken Arrow, and
their stand was so firm that the U.S. commissioners complained to Governor Troup of
Georgia that "for some time past the Cherokees [had] exerted a steady and officious
interference in the affairs of [the Creeks.] Because of his furtive midnight meetings with
the commissioners, the Creek chiefs summarily broke Mcintosh of all authority, and
doubtless out of pique he proceeded to sign a treaty with the U.S. commissioners on
February 12,1825, at Indian Springs, Georgia-a treaty that ceded to the United States all
of the Creek lands in Georgia and several millions of acres in Alabama and pro-vided for
the removal of the Creeks beyond the Mississippi. He was induced to do so, and to persuade
his adherents to do so also, for large bribes including reservations of land on the
Chattahoochee. At the same time he was reported to have said that, in doing so, he
forfeited his life under the laws of the Creek Nation.41 On that score he proved right. At
daylight on the morning of April 30,1825, a band of about two hundred Creek warriors
surrounded the buildings owned by Mcintosh on the bank of the Chattahoochee. It was a
company of executioners sent by the Creek chiefs to avenge the Creek nation. They spread
bales of kindling wood at the foot of the walls, and soon the buildings were burning
briskly. Chilly, the son of McIntosh, made his escape through a window and swam the river
to safety, and the wives and children of the general were allowed to escape. McIntosh was
left alone in his burning house; he could be seen at a window on the second floor with a
rifle in his hands. Then as he came down the burning stairs, he was met by a volley of
bullets and fell and would have been burned in the building had not several warriors
rushed inside and grasped him by the legs and dragged him down the steps to the ground.
"While lying in the yard," according to one report, "and while the blood was gushing from
his wounds, he raised himself on one arm, and surveyed his murderers with looks of
defiance. At that moment an Ockfuskie Indian plunged a long knife, to the hilt, in the
direction of his heart. He brought a long breath and expired." The warriors continued to
fire at his body until they had put more than fifty balls through his head. His
lieutenant, Etome Tustunuggee, was discovered in the second burning building, a public
stand which the general had operated, and was executed with equal barbarity. Then the
warriors fell to slaughtering stock and destroying property. They would not allow the
wives of Mcintosh even a suit in which to bury their husband, and he was lowered naked
into the ground. Major Ridge, along with most of the Cherokees, approved of the execution.
According to John R. Ridge, it became the object of the Ridges to secure the abrogation of
the McIntosh treaty. How they proceeded, and the extent of what they did in pursuit of
this purpose, can only be surmised now. But in point of fact suspicion of the treaty was
sown in the mind of the new President, John Quincy Adams, who had been chosen upon the
vote being brought to Congress, though General Jackson had received more votes in the
electoral college; and after a preliminary investigation General Edmund P. Gaines was sent
to Georgia with Federal troops to prevent the Georgians from taking forceable possession
of the territory in question. lie was also instructed to secure from "the hostile Creeks"
their side of the story in that explosive situation.

Cherokee Tragedy, Thurman Wilkins, The Mac  Millan Company, 1970

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