several Treaty advocates, most notably John Walker Jr., were assassinated. In July 1835, hundreds of Cherokee, from both the Treaty Party and the National Party (including John Ross), converged on John Ridge’s plantation, Running Waters (near Calhoun, Georgia). There they met with John F. Schermerhorn, President Jackson's envoy for a removal treaty, Return J. Meigs, Jr., the Commissioner for Indian Affairs, and other U.S. officials. In October 1835, the General Council rejected the proposed treaty, but appointed a committee to go to Washington to negotiate a better treaty. The committee included John Ross, and also treaty advocates John Ridge, Charles Vann, and Elias Boudinot (later replaced by Stand Watie). They were authorized to make a removal treaty, with the stipulation that the Cherokees would receive more than $5,000,000 in compensation and assistance. Schermerhorn, who was present at the meeting, advocated a meeting at New Echota, the Cherokee capital. The National Council approved a delegation to meet there. Both delegations were specifically charged with negotiating a removal treaty. New Echota meeting and final treaty 100 to 500 men converged on the Cherokee capital in December 1835, almost exclusively from the Upper and Lower Towns. (Heavy snow in the western North Carolina mountains made it nearly impossible for those from the Hill and Valley Towns to travel.) After a week of negotiations, Schermerhorn proposed that in exchange for all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River, the Cherokees would receive $5,000,000 from the U.S. (to be distributed per capita to all members of the tribe), an additional $500,000 for educational funds, title in perpetuity to land in Indian Territory equal to that given up, and full compensation for all property left behind. (By contrast, the entire Louisiana Territory was purchased from Napoleon for just over $23,000,000.) The treaty included a clause to allow all Cherokees who so desired to remain and become citizens of the states in which they resided, on individual allotments of of land. With that clause, it was unanimously approved by the contingent at New Echota, then signed by the negotiating committee of twenty, but that clause later was struck out by President Jackson. The committee reported the results to the full Council gathered at New Echota, which approved the treaty unanimously. In a lengthy preamble, the Ridge party laid out its claims to legitimacy, based on its willingness to negotiate in good faith the sort of removal terms