1875 CHEROKEE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation w/ First-Hand MSs Note

A superb artifact, being the first edition of the Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation. This 1875 St. Louis imprint stands as one of the most significant legal and constitutional texts by an Indigenous nation produced in 19th-century America. 

Printed in the immediate post-Civil War Reconstruction era, the volume compiled the foundational frame of government and codification of statutes for the Cherokee Nation, which was then operating as an autonomous, sovereign constitutional republic in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Following the severe internal divisions and physical devastation caused by the Civil War, the Cherokee Nation was forced to reconstitute its government. Utilizing its 1839 constitution as a basis for revision, the new text also saw the addition of an extensive legislative framework covering everything from criminal law and property rights to public education, tribal citizenship, and judicial organization. 

The text also contains a rather tantalizing manuscript inscription, dated to December 4, 1875, just after the Constitution's adoption and publication. It appears to be by a person for whom English was a second language, likely a person from the Cherokee tribe, and it  provides a striking, contemporary window into the contentious internal politics surrounding the Cherokee National Council at the very moment this book was issued.

The writer’s note seems to be engaging the then-active constitutional debates over legislative legitimacy, factional election disputes, and the enforcement of statutory law. The phrase regarding "Organizing a legal vote" and whether a vote "is Constutional" directly echoes the fierce political squabbles and disputed national elections of the mid-1870s in the Cherokee Nation, where competing political factions frequently debated whether Council proceedings strictly adhered to the Cherokee Constitution. This handwritten marginalia transforms this specific copy from an official legal text into an intimate, primary historical artifact, capturing a citizen's or legislator's real-time reflection on law, constitutionalism, and political legitimacy within the Cherokee Nation.

The inscription as follows. We have not attempted to correct it.

Law Book

December 4th, 8875

The National Council three weeks Organizing a legal vote is is Constutional elegal vote is not Constutional So to ***** out the Laws wee have to Confirm our selves to Constution & with that we have nothing to base our hopes on. 

Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation. Published by Authority of the National Council. St. Louis. R. & T. A. Ennis, Stationers, Printers and Book Binders, 118 Olive Street. 1875. 284 + Index + Appendix

Good - in original sheep, part of spine cover lacking as shown, front hinge tender and blank prelims absent, beginning with title page. Some handling and foxing, but generally sound and textually generally clean attractive as shown.