<P> By the late 1720s, the territory of the Cherokee Indian nation lay almost entirely in northwestern Georgia, with small parts in Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina . It extended across most of the northern border and all of the border with Tennessee . An estimated 16,000 Cherokee people lived in this territory . Others had emigrated west to present - day Texas and Arkansas . In 1826, the Georgia legislature asked President John Quincy Adams to negotiate a removal treaty . </P> <P> Adams, a supporter of Indian sovereignty, initially refused, but when Georgia threatened to nullify the current treaty, he approached the Cherokee to negotiate . A year passed without any progress toward removal . Andrew Jackson, a Democrat and supporter of Indian removal, was elected president in 1828 . </P> <P> Shortly after the 1828 election, Georgia acted on its nullification threat . The legislature passed a series of laws abolishing the independent government of the Cherokee and extending state law over their territory . Cherokee officials were forbidden to meet for legislative purposes . White people (including missionaries and those married to Cherokee) were forbidden to live in Cherokee country without a state permit, and Cherokee were forbidden to testify in court cases involving European Americans . </P> <P> Soon after his inauguration, Jackson wrote an open letter to the Southeastern Indian nations, urging them to move west . After gold was discovered in Georgia in late 1829, the ensuing Georgia Gold Rush increased white residents' determination to see the Cherokee removed . The Cherokee were forbidden to dig for gold, and Georgia authorized a survey of their lands to prepare for a lottery to distribute the land to whites . The state held the lottery in 1832 . </P>

How did the federal government respond to the cherokee rejection of the new echota treaty