1843,27th Congress Document Regarding Cost+Removal of Cherokees "Trail of Tears"

Description

69 pages, tied together with a string.  A report on the (political bickering) removal of the Cherokee Indians to Oklahoma during what is famously known as
"The Trail of Tears".
It seems to be concerned mostly with the calculation of payment to the Chief of the Cherokee at that time, John Ross.  They seem to be arguing that the
payment was excessive in this report and go into detail of the costs incurred. Free USPS priority shipping.
Background:The Trail of Tears was a series of forced displacements of approximately 60,000 Indigenous people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830
and 1850 by the United States government. Part of the Indian removal, the ethnic cleansing was gradual, occurring over a period of nearly two decades.
Members of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes"—the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations (including thousands
of their black slaves)—were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to areas to the west of the Mississippi River
that had been designated Indian Territory. The forced relocations were carried out by government authorities after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Cherokee removal in 1838 (the last forced removal east of the Mississippi) was brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1828, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush.
The relocated peoples suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while En route to their newly designated Indian reserve. Thousands died from disease
before reaching their destinations or shortly after.  According to Native American activist Suzan Shown Harjo of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the
American Indian, the event constituted a genocide.
This set is from March 1843.
The contents of the first page are below for reference:
27th CONGRESS,
3d Session.
Rep. No. 288.
Ho. of REPS.
"REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES, &c".
MARCH 2, 1843.
Read, and laid upon the table.
Mr. COOPER, of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, sub-
mitted the following:
REPORT:
On the 9th of July
1842, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution in the following words:
Resolved, that the Committee on Indian Affairs be, and hereby are, instructed to inquire into the contract for the removal of the Cherokee Indians to the west of the Mississippi river; the amount contracted for the removal; the amount actually paid; how and by what officer the account of the contractor was settled and allowed:
whether there was any appeal from such settlement, and the decision on the appeal, and whether the appeal was final or not, by what officer and by what authority the account was reopened and finally settled and allowed, and out of what fund such account was paid, and on what authority: also, to inquire whether any and what other
offers had been made for their removal, and why not accepted; and whether any further and what further action of Congress should be had for the protection of the Cherokees, or to guard the public "Treasury: and that the said committee have power to send for persons and papers.
The Committee on Indian Affairs, in pursuance of the above resolu
tion, report:
That the inquiries directed by the same are hereinafter stated and answered in their order:
Ist. What was the amount contracted to be paid per head for the removal of the Cherokees to the west of the Mississippi?
By a contract made on the 2d of August 1838, by General Scott, as agent of the United States, with John Ross, Elijah Ilicks, and others, on the part of the Cherokees,
the sum of .88 was stipulated to be paid per head for the removal of the Cherokees to the country assigned them beyond the Mississippi. (See page 12.)
This price Gen. Scott regarded as extravagant.
R. E. Clements, who was examined as a witness on this subject, states that he considers the price paid to John Ross, agreeably to his contract, as having been
exceedingly extravagant.” He says, further, that "there were persons on the ground every way able and competent to carry out the contract. who would have taken it
for less than one-half the amount agreed to be paid to John Ross." (See deposition, page 41 of this report. Gary Hinant, another witness, states that he was a citizen
of the Cherokee nation. and removed himself; that he was fifty-five days on the route; that he moved at his ease, stopping when necessary for rest and refreshment,
and that his expenses after starting were less than per head. The distance was about 800 miles. (Deposition, page 45.)
The treaty party offered to remove themselves for per head; and Watson & Co. offered to do it at per head. The Secretary of War.