they term free territory and after a time a free State; and they have been also warned by the fate which has befallen those of their race in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon that at no distant day they too would be compelled to surrender their country at the demand of Northern rapacity, and be content with an extinct nationality, and with reserves of limited extent for individuals, of which their people would soon be despoiled by speculators, if not plundered unscrupulously by the State.

Urged by these considerations, the Cherokees, long divided in opinion, became unanimous, and like their brethren, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, determined, by the undivided voice of a General Convention of all the people, held at Tahlequah, on the 21st day of Augusta, in the present year, to make common cause with the South and share its fortunes.

In now carrying this resolution into effect and consummating a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Confederate States of America the Cherokee people declares that it has been faithful and loyal to its engagements with the United States until, by placing its safety and even its national existence in imminent peril, those States have released them from those engagements.

Menaced by a great danger, they exercise the inalienable right of self-defense, and declare themselves a free people, independent of the Northern States of America, and at war with them by their own act. Obeying the dictates of prudence and providing for the general safety and welfare, confident of the rectitude of their intentions and true to the obligations of duty and honor, they accept the issue thus forces upon them, unite their fortunes now and forever with those of the Confederate States, and take up arms for the common cause, and with entire confidence in the justice of that cause and with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, will resolutely abide the consequences.

Tahlequah, C. N., October 28, 1861.

THOMAS PEGG,

President National Committee..

JOSHUA ROSS,

Clerk National Committee.

Concurred.

LACY MOUSE,

Speaker of Council.

THOMAS B. WOLFE,

Clerk Council.

Approved.

JNO. ROSS.

SAINT LOUIS, MO., July 22, 1862.

To all military posts in Missouri:

An order will be published to-morrow calling out all the loyal men of Missouri to exterminate the guerrillas. Send notice to everybody to assemble at the nearest post without delay and bring all the arms and ammunition they can find. Seize immediately all arms and ammunition of which you can get information. Let every man bring a good horse.

Commanding officers of the telegraph lines will forward this dispatch by express to the posts in their vicinity.

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Brigadier-General.