No instance,
however, has hitherto occurred in which this collision has been urged
into a conflict of actual force. No other case is known to have happened
in which the application of military force by the Government of the
Union has been prescribed for the enforcement of a law the violation of
which has within any single State been prescribed by a legislative act
of the State. In the present instance it is my duty to say that if the
legislative and executive authorities of the State of Georgia should
persevere in acts of encroachment upon the territories secured by a
solemn treaty to the Indians, and the laws of the Union remain
unaltered, a superadded obligation even higher than that of human
authority will compel the Executive of the United States to enforce the
laws and fulfill the duties of the nation by all the force committed for
that purpose to his charge. That the arm of military force will be
resorted to only in the event of the failure of all other expedients
provided by the laws, a pledge has been given by the forbearance to
employ it at this time.
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