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Subject: 160 years late, Ga. pardons churchmen
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 15:07:21 EST
Message-ID: <news121.1992Nov23.150721@AmeriCast.com>

\SE A;NATION
\SS (WS)
\HD 160 years late, Ga.  pardons churchmen
\BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
\DT ATLANTA

ATLANTA (AP) - More than 160 years after Georgia officials ignored a
direct order from the U.S.  Supreme Court to stop actions leading up to the
infamous Trail of Tears, the state is admitting it made a mistake.

Officials on Wednesday will formally pardon two missionaries jailed
when they fought the state's seizure of Cherokee Indian land.

"This is one of many injustices done, but it's something that we could
do something about," said Marsha Bailey, spokeswoman for the state Board of
Pardons and Paroles.  "It was a miscarriage of justice."

The pardon says it "acts to remove a stain on the history of criminal
justice in Georgia" and acknowledges the state usurped Cherokee sovereignty
and ignored the Supreme Court.

A legislator and Cherokee descendant called the pardon a sign that
Georgia finally realizes the scope of its mistreatment of the Cherokee
Nation.

"If we ever had political prisoners in this state or this nation, these
two were the best examples," said state Rep.  Bill Dover, chief executive
of the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee.

"It's been a sore place in the side of the Indian people for all these
generations that these two wonderful Christian gentlemen were sent to
prison because they believed in God and they believed in the Cherokee
Nation," Mr.  Dover said.

Samuel Austin Worcester and Elihu Butler were sentenced to four years
in jail in 1831 for residing in the Cherokee Nation without a license.  A
law was enacted to try to stop the two from protesting the state's seizure
of Cherokee land in northwest Georgia.

Until 1828, the Cherokee Nation was considered a sovereign foreign
country, with its land off limits to settlers.  But the next year, gold was
discovered in Dahlonega, and Georgia seized much of the land and abolished
Cherokee sovereignty.

Mr.  Worcester and Mr.  Butler, who lived at the Cherokee capital of
New Echota, attracted national attention to the Indians' cause.  To muzzle
them, the state required all white men living on Cherokee land to obtain a
state license.  Mr.  Worcester and Mr Butler refused and were convicted of
"high misdemeanor."

The missionaries appealed to the U.S.  Supreme Court.  In 1832, Chief
Justice John Marshall declared Georgia had no constitutional right to
extend any state laws over the Cherokee, including seizing their land, and
must release the missionaries.

But Georgia ignored the ruling.  The missionaries spent 16 months doing
hard labor as part of a chain gang, Mr.  Dover said.

They were released in time to join the Trail of Tears, when Georgia
forced up to 17,000 Cherokees to move west.


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