George M. Troup:

Born near the Tombigbee River in that part of Georgia which even-
tually became Alabama, and educated at Princeton College, George
M. Troup was the political leader of the anti-Clarke and anti-Lumpkin
men in Georgia. His strongest following came from the coastal coun-
ties, from the merchants and planters. During the crisis over the
removal of the Cherokees, Troup was serving as United States Sena-
tor. Since Troup, like Lumpkin, supported Andrew Jackson in the
war against the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States
(and was also known as a "States' Rights Democrat"), outsiders were
puzzled by the complexities of Georgia politics. ("We know not,"
wrote Hezekiah Niles in his Register, "what they differ about, but they
do violently differ.") One thing was clear. Both factions were deter-
mined to see the final removal of the Indian tribes. Both factions were
determined to carry out this policy in the face of all opposition.

Washington, 5th March, 1832.

D EAR sirs:--The people of Georgia
will receive with indignant feel-
ings, as they ought, the recent decision
of the supreme court, so flagrantly viola-
tive of their sovereign rights. I hope the
people will treat it, however, as becomes
them; with moderation--dignity, and
firmness; and so treating it, Georgia will
be unhurt by what will prove it to be
a brutum fulmen. The judges know you
will not yield obedience to mandates,
and they may desire pretexts for the
enforcement of them, which I trust you
will not give.

The chief magistrate of the United
States will perform all his constitutional
duties; but he will not lend himself to
party to perform more. He will, if I
mistake not, defend the sovereignty of
the states, as he would the sovereignty
of the union; and if the blow be aimed
equally at him and at us, it would be
ungenerous, by an improvident act of
ours, to make him the victim of the
common enemy.

The jurisdiction claimed over one
portion of our population may very soon
be asserted over another; and in both
cases they will be sustained by the fa-
natics of the north. Very soon, there-
fore, things must come to their worst;
and if in the last resort we need de-
fenders, we will find them every where
among the honest men of the country;
whom a just and wise conduct will rally
to our banner--for the rest we care
nothing. Dear sirs, very respectively
yours, G. M. TROUP

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