_ State of Georgia, the Court strongly
backed up the Indians' contention. Worcester was a Presbyterian
missionary who was imprisoned for violation of a Georgia statute
forbidding white persons to reside in the Cherokee territory without a
license. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and in the
decision of March 10, 1832, Marshall affirmed the status of the
Cherokees as a "nation" within whose territory "the laws of Georgia
can have no force, and which the citizens of Georgia have no right to
enter but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves or in conformity
with treaties and with the acts of Congress." The statute was
accordingly declared to be unconstitutional and Worcester was ordered
to be discharged.
This ought to have been enough to protect the Cherokees in their
rights. But it was not, and for two reasons: the contempt of Georgia
for the Court's opinions, and the refusal of Jackson to restrain the
State in its headstrong course. Already the state authorities had
refused to take notice of a writ of error to the Supreme Court sued
out in December, 1830, in behalf of a condemned Cherokee, Corn Tassel,
and had permitted the execution of the unfortunate redskin.
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