When the Government was first formed we had the idea that there could be many independent nations within our own borders with authority and power. that we should treat with as independent nations. and yet we found it utterly impossible to kee) ourselves our agreements with them. The treaties we made came to be with ourselves mere idle words. The progress of population and immigration was like a mighty wave sweeping our boundaries and limitations away without the slightest regard to the solemn obligations into which we had entered. Then we undertook to enact a line of nonintercourse with the Indians. running from a point on Lake Erie right where the city of Cleveland now is. inn southeastwardly direction around through the mountains of Tennessee and across North Carolina and terminating in the southeast corner of Georgia. less than seventyfive years ago. and we enacted that if any citizen of or other person resident in the United States or either of the Territorial districts of the United Stat6s shall cross over or go within that boundary line he should be fined a sum not exceeding $100 or be imprisoned not exceeding six months. or if he made a settlement beyond the line that he should be fined $1.000 or be haprisoned twelve months. The whole line bristled with penalties from Lake Erie to the Atlantic in Georgia.
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immigration