Cherokee acceptance of the federal initiative to "civilize" Native Americans resulted in a profound legal transformation of their traditional society, culminating in 1827 with adoption of a written constitution on the pattern of that of the United States. When the Jackson administration and the state of Georgia nonetheless intensified the pressure for removal, editor Elias Boudinot of the Cherokee Phoenix expressed the tribe's frustrated sense of betrayal on 17 June 1829: Why were we not told long ago, that we could not be permitted to establish a government within the limits of any state? Then we could have borne the disappointment much easier than now. The pretext for Georgia to extend her jurisdiction over the Cherokees has always existed.

The Cherokees have always had a government of their own. Nothing, however, was said when we were governed by savage laws, when the...