The Georgia compact
of 1802 involved the Cherokee, the state of Georgia, and the
Federal government. Who would control Indian lands? The
struggle that ensued over the answer to that question set up the
most violent social cataclysms of the 19th century.
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Alabama and
Mississippi were cut from land that was formerly part of
Georgia. The federal government disputed Georgia's
claim to the land, but in getting her to quit her claim to it
Thomas Jefferson secretly promised that the federal government
would extinguish, at its own expense, title to Cherokee lands
within the reserved limits of Georgia as soon as it could be done
"peaceably and on reasonable terms." Under this compact,
which would take 40 years to fulfill, any lands that were vacated
by the Indians would immediately became the possession of the
state, not of the federal government - a egregious violation of
treaties, the Constitution's 'supremacy clause,' and the Commerce
Clause.
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