The
Indians were represented before the Court by two attorneys, one of
them being William Wirt; Georgia employed no counsel. The opinion of
the Court as announced at the January term, 1831, by Chief Justice
Marshall was that while the Cherokee nation was a State and had
uniformly been dealt with as such by the Federal Government since
1789, it was not a "foreign State" within the meaning of the
Constitution, and therefore was not entitled to sue in that character
in the courts of the United States. "If it be true," the decision
concluded, "that wrongs have been inflicted and that still greater are
to be apprehended, this is not the tribunal which can redress the past
or prevent the future. The motion for an injunction is denied."
The case was thus thrown out of court. Yet the Cherokees were
recognized as a "domestic, dependent" nation, and there was nothing in
the decision to indicate that the extension of the laws of Georgia
over them was valid and constitutional. Indeed, in a second case that
came up shortly, Worcester _vs.
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