not fired upon, unless they should make a stand to resist.  Even in such cases mild remedies may sometimes better succeed than violence; and it can not be doubted, if we get possession of the women and children first, or first capture the men, that in either case the outstanding members of the same families will readily come in on the assurance of forgiveness and kind treatment.

“Every captured man, as well as those who surrender themselves, must be disarmed, with the assurance that their weapons will be carefully preserved and restored at or beyond the Mississippi.  In either case the men will be guarded and escorted, except it may be where their women and children are safely secured as hostages; but in general, families in our possession will not be separated, unless it be to send men as runners to invite others to come in.

“It may happen that Indians will be found too sick, in the opinion of the nearest surgeon, to be removed to one of the depots indicated above.  In every such case one or more of the family or the friends of the sick person will be left in attendance, with ample subsistence and remedies, and the remainder of the family removed by the troops.  Infants, superannuated persons, lunatics, and women in helpless condition, will all, in the removal, require peculiar attention, which the brave and humane will seek to adapt to the necessities of the several cases.”

Following is the address to the Indians: 

“Major-General Scott, of the United States Army, sends to the
Cherokee people remaining in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and
Alabama this

“ADDRESS.

“CHEROKEES:  The President of the United States has sent me with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience of the treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are already established in prosperity on the other side of the Mississippi.  Unhappily, the two years which were allowed for the purpose you have suffered to pass away without following and without making any preparation to follow, and now, or by the time that this solemn address shall reach your distant settlements, the emigration must be commenced in haste, but, I hope, without disorder.  I have no power by granting a further delay to correct the error that you have committed.  The full moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed away every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those States must be in motion to join their brethren in the far West.

“My friends, this is no sudden determination on the part of the President, whom you and I must now obey.  By the treaty the emigration was to have been completed on or before the 23d of this month, and the President has constantly kept you warned during the two years allowed, through all his officers and agents in this country, that the treaty would be enforced.

“I am come to carry out that determination.