Indictment for Samuel Worcester, Elizur Butler, and Other Defendants
9/1831
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In 1830, Georgia passed a law requiring non-Cherokee to obtain a permit from the state of Georgia to reside on Cherokee land. A group of missionaries, including Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler, went to live on Cherokee land with permission from the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Government.
Georgia charged Worcester, Butler, and the rest of the defendants with violating state law by residing in Cherokee territory without a permit and failing to swear an oath to the constitution and laws of the State of Georgia. This document is the grand jury's indictment of the missionaries. It comes from the case file for Worcester v. Georgia.
The defendants pleaded not guilty, but the Superior Court of Gwinnet in Georgia found them guilty and sentenced them to four years of hard labor. The men appealed. After they were unsuccessful in the highest state court, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of error (which demands the lower court provide the full record to a higher court for review of errors) in Worcester v. Georgia.
The Federal question raised (necessary to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court) was whether the state of Georgia had jurisdiction, since the men were present in the territory under authority of the U.S. President doing missionary work, and with the permission of the Cherokee Nation. In other words, did the state of Georgia have the authority to hear the case or to pass laws concerning sovereign Indian nations?
The question had been asked of the Supreme Court before. In 1828, Georgia had passed a series of acts taking away rights of Cherokees residing within the state, including Cherokee removal from land that the state wanted. The Cherokee asserted that Georgia did not have the jurisdiction or authority to do these things, since the Cherokee Nation was sovereign and protected under a treaty with the United States. They sought an injunction — or order to stop what the State of Georgia was doing — from the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831. The Supreme Court said they lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and it was dismissed, leaving the Cherokee at the mercy of the laws of the state of Georgia.
In Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, however, the Supreme Court ruled that states, like Georgia, could not diminish rights of tribes because the Cherokee Nation constituted a nation holding distinct sovereign powers as granted by Congress and the United States. This established the principle of "tribal sovereignty." The Court also issued a mandate to release Worcester and Butler.
Georgia ignored the ruling, however, and did not release the men. President Andrew Jackson did not intervene to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. (Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin pardoned Butler and Worcester in 1833.)
So the judicial branch handed down a ruling that should have freed Butler and Worcester and established more sovereignty for the tribes; but it didn't have that effect because the executive branch did not enforce it.
President Andrew Jackson had called for the relocation of eastern Native American tribes to land west of the Mississippi River, and Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act, in 1830. The Cherokee were forcibly removed from Georgia — a journey west that became known as the “Trail of Tears” because of the thousands of deaths along the way.
This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2016 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.
Georgia charged Worcester, Butler, and the rest of the defendants with violating state law by residing in Cherokee territory without a permit and failing to swear an oath to the constitution and laws of the State of Georgia. This document is the grand jury's indictment of the missionaries. It comes from the case file for Worcester v. Georgia.
The defendants pleaded not guilty, but the Superior Court of Gwinnet in Georgia found them guilty and sentenced them to four years of hard labor. The men appealed. After they were unsuccessful in the highest state court, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of error (which demands the lower court provide the full record to a higher court for review of errors) in Worcester v. Georgia.
The Federal question raised (necessary to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court) was whether the state of Georgia had jurisdiction, since the men were present in the territory under authority of the U.S. President doing missionary work, and with the permission of the Cherokee Nation. In other words, did the state of Georgia have the authority to hear the case or to pass laws concerning sovereign Indian nations?
The question had been asked of the Supreme Court before. In 1828, Georgia had passed a series of acts taking away rights of Cherokees residing within the state, including Cherokee removal from land that the state wanted. The Cherokee asserted that Georgia did not have the jurisdiction or authority to do these things, since the Cherokee Nation was sovereign and protected under a treaty with the United States. They sought an injunction — or order to stop what the State of Georgia was doing — from the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831. The Supreme Court said they lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and it was dismissed, leaving the Cherokee at the mercy of the laws of the state of Georgia.
In Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, however, the Supreme Court ruled that states, like Georgia, could not diminish rights of tribes because the Cherokee Nation constituted a nation holding distinct sovereign powers as granted by Congress and the United States. This established the principle of "tribal sovereignty." The Court also issued a mandate to release Worcester and Butler.
Georgia ignored the ruling, however, and did not release the men. President Andrew Jackson did not intervene to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. (Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin pardoned Butler and Worcester in 1833.)
So the judicial branch handed down a ruling that should have freed Butler and Worcester and established more sovereignty for the tribes; but it didn't have that effect because the executive branch did not enforce it.
President Andrew Jackson had called for the relocation of eastern Native American tribes to land west of the Mississippi River, and Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act, in 1830. The Cherokee were forcibly removed from Georgia — a journey west that became known as the “Trail of Tears” because of the thousands of deaths along the way.
This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2016 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.
Transcript
7Georgia
Gwinnett County
The Grand Jurors sworn chosen & selected for the County of Gwinnett to wit—[illegible] L. Wilson-Isaac Gilbert-James Wells Jr.-Benjamin L. [illegible]-[illegible] Wm. Moore-Robert Craig-John M. Thompson-Hamilton [illegible]-Amos Wellhouse-William Green-Buckner Harris-William Rakestraw-Louis Douglass-Wiley Brogdow-B.F. Johnston-Wilson Strickland-Richard J. Watts & John White-
In the name and behalf of the citizens of Georgia charge and accuse Elizur Butler, Samuel A. Worcester, James Trott, Samuel Mays, Surry Eaton, Austin Copeland, and Edward D. Losure—white persons of said County with the offense of “residing within the limits of the Cherokee Nation without a license – for that the said Elizur Butler, Samuel A. Worcester, James Trott, Samuel Mays, Surry Eaton, Austin Copeland, and Edward D. Losure—white persons as aforesaid on the fifteenth day of July Eighteen hundred and thirty one did reside in that part of the Cherokee Nation attached by the laws of said State to said County & in the County aforesaid without a license or permit from his Excellency the Governor of said State or from any agent authorized by his Excellency the Governor aforesaid to grant such permit or License & without having taken the oath to support & defend the Constitution & Laws of the State of Georgia—& and uprightly to demean themselves as citizens thereof contrary to the laws of said State the good order peace & dignity thereof.
September 1831
Turner H. Trippe
Sol. Genl.
Jus. W. A. Lanford [illegible]
True Bill -
John S. Wilson [illegible]
Witnesses sworn [column on left]
Jus. W.A. Lanford
Chas. A. Nelson
Moses Cantrell
William Wood
Jacob R. Brooks
Jus. F. Cook
William Tippins
Hubbard Barker
Jus. W.A. Lanford
Chas. A. Nelson
Moses Cantrell
William Wood
Jacob R. Brooks
Jus. F. Cook
William Tippins
Hubbard Barker
This primary source comes from the Records of the Supreme Court.
National Archives Identifier: 38995510
Full Citation: Indictment for Samuel Worcester, Elizur Butler, and Other Defendants; 9/1831; Appellate Case File Number 1705; Case File for Worcester v. Georgia; Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792-2010; Records of the Supreme Court, Record Group 267; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/worcester-v-georgia-indictment, October 9, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
