promptly announcing boudinot's resignation represented a drop in the bucket, boudinot had become detached from the nation and was now no more a patriot. there's nothing in my letter of resignation, boudinot fired back, my motives certainly were of the most patriotic kind. in one word i may say that my patriotism consists in the love of the country and the love of the people. that's not really one word, but that's what he's saying. his position could not have been plainer. the cherokee people were facing a devastating loss. better to relocate where they can survive as a people than stubbornly resist the inevitable and lose both their land and their souls. our lands, or a large parse of them, are about to be seized and taken from us, he wrote. now, as a friend of my people i cannot say peace, peace when there is no peace, i cannot ease tire minds with any expectation of a calm when the vessel is already tossed to and fro and threatened to be shattered by an approaching tempest or as his cousin john ridge put it,a man sees a cloud charged with rain, thunder and storm and urges the people to