SINCE the body of the preceding work was mostly in type, the author has met with a volume containing the Constitutions and Laws of the Cherokees and Choctaws, which embrace many provisions on the subject of Slavery, very similar to those of our American Slave States in their vicinity, and evidently borrowed from them. A few specimens may be interesting, especially as throwing light upon the question whether it is proper to assist in building up churches in those nations that .admit and retain as members those who enact, administer, and support such laws, or who uphold them by claiming and sustaining the relation of slave owners.

     The “Constitution of the Cherokee Nation,” formed by a Convention of Delegates from the several districts at NewEchota, July, 1827, contains the following:

     “No person shall be eligible to a sent in General Council but a free Cherokee male citizen, who shall have attained to the age of twenty-five years. The descendants of Cherokee men by all free women, except the African race, whose parents may [have] been living together as man and wife, according to the customs and laws of this nation, shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of this nation, as well as the posterity of

Cherokee women by all free men. No person who is of negro or mulatto parentage, either by the father or mother side, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit, honor, or trust in this Government.” (Art. III., sect. 4.)

     The same provision is retained in the New Constitution of the Cherokee Nation, passed at Tah-le-quah, in Sept. 1839. (Art. HL, sect. 5.)

     Among the laws of the Cherokees we find one, Sept. 133:1, entitled, “An act to prevent amalgamation with colored persons,” (meaning descendants of Africans,) just as if Cherokees were whites, and not “colored.” Penalty, corporal punishment, not to exceed fifty stripes, and such intermarriages declared not to be lawful.

     Another “Act,” under date of Nov. 15, 1843, is “to legalize intermarriage with white men!”

     Another Act, 7th Nov. 1810, declares that “it shall not be lawful for any free negro or mulatto, not of Cherokee blood, to hold or own any improvement within the limits of this nation; neither shall it be lawful for slaves to own any property of the following description, viz: horses, cattle, hogs, or fire-arms.” Provision is made for the seizure and sale of such property, &c.

     Another “Act,” Oct. 19, 1841, is for “authorizing the appointment of patrol companies,” who “shall take up and bring to punishment any negro or negroes that may be strolling about, not on their owner’s premises, without a pass from their owner or owners.” And any negro o not entitled to Cherokee privileges, if found armed, may be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.

     Another “Act,” dated 22d October, 1841 is for “prohibiting the teaching of negroes to read and write.” “Be it enacted by the National Council, That from and after the passage of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons whatever to teach any free negro or negroes not of Cherokee blood,* or

any slave belonging to any citizen or citizens of the nation, to read or write.” The penalty annexed to a violation of this enactment is a fine of $100 to $500, at the discretion of the Court trying the offense.

     “An Act in regard to free negroes,” Dec. 2, 1342, directs “the sheriffs of the several districts” to notify free negroes to leave the limits of the nation by the 1st of Jan. 1843. If they refused to go, they were to be immediately expelled. “Sect. 4. Be it further enacted, That should any free negro or negroes be found guilty of aiding, abetting, or decoying any slave or slaves to leave his or their owner or employer, such free negro or negroes shall receive for each and every such offense one hundred lashes on the bare back, and be immediately removed from this nation.”

     Bound up in the same volume with these Constitutions and enactments, we find the “Constitution of the Cherokee Bible Society,” in which is the following: “Art. 2. The object of the Society shall be to disseminate the Sacred Scriptures in the English and Cherokee languages among the people of the Cherokee nation; and all funds collected by the Society shall be expended for that object.”

     From the preceding extracts of the Constitutions and Laws it would seem that “free negroes and mulattoes not of Cherokee blood” were not considered as “entitled to Cherokee privileges,” or as constituting a part of “the Cherokee nation.” And the teaching of them or the slaves to read or write, as has been shown, is expressly forbidden, under heavy penalties. So that the peculiar phraseology employed by the Bible Society is readily understood. Its object did not include the supply of such persons, and it was intended to guard against any such use of its funds! It is lamentable to see a nation so recently put in possession of the Bible, so forward to withhold it from others, even forbidding its use! But in this the Cherokees only imitate our own nation and our own Bible Societies, from whom they have received the Scriptures! They have only practised the religion they have received from us! We may see in this

the fruit of sending to the heathen a gospel that tolerates slaveholding.

     The Constitution of the Choctaw Nation, approved October, 1838, embodies a “Declaration of Rights,” the first article of which commences with, “All freemen, when they form a social compact, are equal in rights,” &c. It is not difficult to trace the parentage of this emendation of the Declaration of ’76. It is revealed in the following:

     “From and after the adoption of this Constitution, no free negro, or any part negro, unconnected with Choctaw or Chickasaw blood, shall be permitted to come and settle in the Choctaw nation.” (Art. VIII., sect. 6.)

     “No person who is any part negro shall ever be allowed to hold any office under this Government.” (Art. VIII., sect. 14.)

     “The General Council, when in session, shall have the power by law to naturalize and adopt as citizens of this nation, any Indian, or descendant of other Indian tribes, except a negro or descendant of a negro.” (Art. VIII., sect. 15.)

     The following is an act approved 5th October, 1836:

     “Be it enacted, &c., That from and after the passage of this Act, if any citizen of the United States, acting as a missionary or a preacher, or whatever his occupation may be, is found to take an active part in favoring the principles and notions of the most fatal and destructive doctrines of Abolitionism, he shall be compelled to leave the nation, and for ever stay out of it.

     “Be it further enacted, &c., That teaching slaves how to read, to write, or to sing in meeting-houses or schools, or in any open place, without the consent of the owner, or allowing them to sit at table with him, shall be sufficient ground to convict persons of favoring the principles and notions of Abolitionism.

     It was provided also that no slave should “be in possession of any property or arms;” that if any slave infringed any Choctaw rights, he should “be driven out of company to behave himself;” and in case of his return and further intrusion, “he

should receive ten lashes.” But “any good honest slave shall be permitted to carry a gun, by having a pass from his master.”

     In 1838 it was enacted, “That from and after the passage of this law, if any person or persons, citizens of this nation, shall publicly take up with a negro slave,* he or she so offending shall be liable to pay a fine of not less than ten dollars, nor exceeding twenty-five dollars, and shall be separated; and for a second offense of a similar nature the party shall receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes nor less than five, on the bare back, and shall be separated, as the Court may determine.”

     “The Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nation,” from which the preceding extracts are taken, bears the imprint of 1840, and the latest enactments it contains are dated Oct. 1839. But the “American Missionary,” New-York, January, 1853, contains an account of some later enactments, taken from a Report made in 1848 by Mr. Treat, one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The following is an extract from this statement of the “American Missionary:”

     In 1840 “it was enacted that all free negroes in the nation, unconnected with the Choctaw or Chickasaw blood, ‘should leave the nation by the first of March, 1841,’ and ‘for ever keep out of it.’ In case of their infringing this law, ‘they were to be seized and sold to the highest bidder for life.’ It was also enacted that if any citizen of the nation hired, concealed, or in any way protected any free negro, to evade the foregoing provision, he should forfeit from $250 to $500, or if unable to pay this fine, ‘receive fifty lashes on his bare back.’

     “In 1846 a law was passed, which prohibited all negroes, whether they had ‘papers’ or not, from entering and remaining in the Choctaw nation. The offenders were to receive ‘not less than one hundred lashes on the bare back,’ besides a forfeiture of all property found in their possession, one third ‘to

go to the light horsemen’ who apprehended them, and two thirds ‘to be applied to some beneficial purpose.’

     “The most objectionable enactment, says Mr. Treat, which he found, having any bearing upon slavery, was approved October 15th, 1846. It is as follows:

     “‘Be it enacted, &c., That no negro slave can be emancipated in this Nation except by application or petition of the owner to the General Council; and provided also, that it shall be made to appear to the Council the owner or owners, at the time of application, shall have no debt or debts outstanding against him or her, either in or out of this Nation. Then, and in that case, the General Council shall have the power to pass an act for the owner to emancipate his or her slave, which negro, after being freed, shall leave this nation within thirty days after the passage of the Act. And in case said free negro or negroes shall return into this Nation afterwards, he, she, or they shall be subject to be taken by the light horsemen and exposed to public sale for the term of five years; and the funds arising from such sale shall be used as national funds.’”