Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

President Jefferson transmitted it to the Senate with a favorable message,[178] but before any action was taken by that body it was ascertained that the tract selected and ceded was within the limits of the State of Tennessee.

The matter of ratification was therefore postponed, with the hope that the State of Tennessee would consent to relinquish her claim to the land. In this the President was disappointed. No further action was taken for several years, until, it having become evident that no concession would be made in the matter by the legislature of Tennessee, the United States Senate[179] unanimously rejected the treaty. In consequence of this action, Colonel Earle made claim[180] against the Government either for the value of his time and expenses incurred in exploring the Cherokee country, selecting the site, and procuring the conclusion of the treaty, or, as an alternative, that the consent of the Cherokees should be secured to the cession of another tract of similar area and character.

The latter proposition was accepted, and Agent Meigs was advised[181] that Mr. Earle had been granted permission to select some other site suitable for his iron works, and instructed that in case he did so, negotiations should again be opened with the Cherokees for an exchange of the tract covered by the cession of 1807 for the one newly selected.

Success, however, does not seem to have attended this second attempt, and Agent Meigs was advised[182] by the Secretary of War that $985 had been paid Colonel Earle for damages sustained by him in the Cherokee country while detained there by the Indians, which amount must be deducted from the Cherokee annuity.

A third attempt of a similar character was made in 1815, when[183] Colonel Earle was appointed to negotiate, in conjunction with the Indian agent, a treaty with the Cherokees or Chickasaws for the purchase of a 6-mile square tract for the erection of his proposed iron works. Like the previous efforts, it was without results.[184]

TENNESSEE FAILS TO CONCLUDE A TREATY WITH THE CHEROKEES.

Congress on the 18th of April, 1806,[185] had passed an act entitled "An act to authorize the State of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles to certain lands therein described, and to settle claims to the vacant and unappropriated lands within the same."

This act, for the purpose of defining the limits of the vacant and unappropriated lands in the State of Tennessee, thereafter to be subject to the sole control and disposition of the United States, established the following described line, viz: Beginning at the place where the eastern or main branch of Elk River intersects the southern boundary of Tennessee; running thence due north until such line shall intersect the northern or main branch of Duck River; thence down the waters of Duck River to the military boundary line established by North Carolina in 1783; thence with the military line west to the place where it intersects Tennessee River; thence down the waters of Tennessee River to where it intersects the northern line of Tennessee. The act further provided that upon the execution by the State of Tennessee (through her Senators and Representatives in Congress, duly authorized thereto) of a deed of relinquishment to the United States of all the claim of that State to lands lying south and west of the described line, the United States should thereupon cede and convey to the State of Tennessee all claim to the land north and east of the line, with certain conditions and limitations therein prescribed, and with the proviso that nothing contained in the act should be construed to affect the Indian title.

Predicated upon this act of Congress, the legislature of Tennessee passed an act, on the 3d of December, 1807,[186] appropriating $20,000 for the purpose of holding a treaty or treaties with the Cherokees (when authorized so to do by the Federal Government) for the purpose of extinguishing their claim to all or any part of the lands within the territorial limits of Tennessee lying to the north and east of the line described in the act of Congress just mentioned.

Congress having assented to the request of Tennessee, the Secretary of War appointed[187] Return J. Meigs a commissioner to superintend the negotiations with the Cherokees about to be held with them by the two commissioners appointed on the part of that State. Mr. Meigs was advised that all the expenses incident to the holding of the treaty, as well as any consideration that should be agreed upon in case of a cession by the Indians, should be borne by the State of Tennessee, and that the only lands the commission were authorized to treat for was that portion of the territory described in the act of April 18, 1806, as being ceded to Tennessee which should be found to lie east of the line established by Robertson and Meigs, running from the upper part of Chickasaw Old Fields northwardly so as to include all the waters of Elk River. The jealousy with which the Cherokees regarded a proposition for the sale of more land, and their especial aversion toward the people and government of Tennessee, prevented success from attending these negotiations in any degree.

REMOVAL OF CHEROKEES TO THE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI PROPOSED.

It had been the policy of the Federal Government, from the beginning of its official relations with the Indian tribes, to encourage and assist the individuals of those tribes in grasping and accepting the pursuits and habits of civilized life, with a view to their preparation for the condition in which the rapidly encroaching white settlements would in a few years inevitably place them.

With the disappearance of game the hunter must become a tiller of the soil or a herdsman, with the alternative of starvation. This humane policy, begun systematically in the first administration of Washington,[188] took the form of a considerable annual expenditure in the purchase for the Indians of hoes, plows, rakes, and other agricultural implements, as well as looms, cards, and spinning wheels. Among the northwestern tribes these efforts at industrial civilization were productive of trifling results. The southern tribes, however, and more especially the Creeks and Cherokees, had, in considerable numbers, manifested a partial though gradually increasing tendency toward self-support. Many of them, in addition to raising the necessaries of life, were producers in a limited degree of cotton, from which their women had learned to make a coarse article of cloth; others owned considerable herds of cattle and hogs, and altogether these tribes had made a degree of progress which was alike commendable to themselves and encouraging to the Government.

However, the persistent and unremitting demands of the border settlers for more land, backed by the thorough sympathy and influence of the State governments of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, as well as by their Senators and Representatives in Congress, acted as a powerful lever for moving the Congress and Executive of the United States to seek the complete possession of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw lands.

As early as 1803[189] President Jefferson had suggested the desirability of the removal of these tribes beyond the Mississippi River, although the first official action taken in this direction was contained in the fifth section of an act of Congress approved March 26, 1804, erecting Louisiana into two Territories. This act appropriated $15,000 to enable the President to effect the desired object. This was supplemented in 1808,[190] when the Secretary of War, in a letter to Agent Meigs giving permission for a delegation of Cherokees to visit Washington, instructed him to improve every opportunity of securing the consent of the Cherokees to an exchange of their lands for a tract west of the Mississippi.

The delegation here spoken of (composed of what were known as Upper Cherokees) visited Washington about the 1st of May, 1808, and, in the course of a discussion of the subject with the Secretary of War, took occasion to complain of an unequal distribution of annuities between the Upper and Lower Cherokees, and advanced a proposition that a dividing line be run between the territory of these two branches of the tribe, inasmuch as the former were cultivators of the soil, and desired to divide their lands in severalty and become citizens of the United States, while the latter were addicted to the hunter life and were indisposed to adopt civilized habits.[191] This proposition met with the personal approval of the Secretary of War. He instructed the agent[192] to ascertain the sentiments of the nation upon such a proposition, to the end that, if possible, those who adhered to aboriginal habits could be induced to accept a country in the newly acquired Territory of Louisiana, in lieu of their proportionate share of the country then occupied by the Cherokee Nation. In pursuance of this plan, the agent lost no opportunity of impressing upon the Cherokees the importance of the approaching crisis in their tribal affairs, and the necessity that some practical method should be adopted to solve the problem of subsistence involved in the rapid diminution of game. Many of the Lower or "hunter" Cherokees became persuaded of the necessity of looking out a new home, and early in January, 1809,[193] President Jefferson addressed a "talk" to them, approving their project and promising facilities for the transportation of a delegation to visit the Arkansas and White River countries, where, in case they found a suitable location, the United States would assign them a sufficient area of territory for their occupation in exchange for their share of the Cherokee domain east of the Mississippi.

Based upon this proposition, a pioneer delegation of the Indians visited that country in the year 1809, and upon their report large numbers (about 2,000, as reported by Agent Meigs) of the nation signified their intention of removal as early as the autumn of that year. The United States authorities were not as yet prepared to defray the pecuniary expense of so large a migration. The agent was therefore directed to discourage for the present anything except the removal of individual families.[194] The situation remained unchanged until the spring of 1811,[195] when the Secretary of War informed Agent Meigs that time and circumstances had rendered it expedient to revive the subject of a general removal and exchange of lands. The latter was advised that it was very desirable to secure a cession of the Cherokee lands lying within the States of Tennessee and South Carolina, and that in case the whole nation could be brought to agree to the proposition of ceding these tracts, as the proportionate share of the "emigrant party," in exchange for lands to be assigned such party on White and Arkansas Rivers, he would be authorized and directed to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee Nation for that purpose. From this time the subject remained _in statu quo_ for several years, except that small parties of Cherokees, consisting of a few individuals or families, continued to emigrate to the "promised land." It is perhaps interesting to state, in connection with this emigration movement of the Cherokees, that it was primarily inaugurated shortly after the treaty of 1785, at Hopewell, when a few of those dissatisfied with the terms of that instrument embarked in pirogues, and, descending the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, reached and ascended the Saint Francis, then in the Spanish province of Louisiana, where they formed a settlement, from whence in a few years they removed to a more satisfactory location on White River. Here they were joined from time to time by their dissatisfied eastern brethren, in families and small parties, until they numbered, prior to the treaty of 1817, between two and three thousand souls.

EFFORTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA TO EXTINGUISH CHEROKEE TITLE.

On the 31st of December, 1810, the governor of South Carolina transmitted to the President a resolution of the legislature of that State urging an extinguishment of the Cherokee Indian title to lands within her State limits.[196] The Secretary of War, in his letter of acknowledgment,[197] assured the governor that measures would soon be taken to bring about the desired cession if possible. Nothing of importance seems, however, to have been done until the winter of 1814, when Agent Meigs was appointed[198] a commissioner for the purpose of negotiating a treaty with this end in view. He was instructed that the State of South Carolina would have an agent present, authorized to defray the expenses of the treaty and to adjust the compensation that should be agreed upon in consideration of the proposed cession, agreeably to the provisions of the twelfth section of an act of Congress approved March 30, 1802, for regulating trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes.

These negotiations not having proved successful, the Secretary of War authorized Agent Meigs[199] to bring a delegation of the Cherokees to Washington for this and other purposes of negotiation.

This delegation arrived early in the spring of 1816, and the Hon. George Graham, being specially authorized by the President, concluded a treaty on the 22d of March of that year.[200] Therein, in consideration of the sum of $5,000, to be paid by the State of South Carolina within ninety days from the date of its ratification by the President and Senate, subject also to ratification by the Cherokee national council and by the governor of South Carolina, the Cherokees ceded to that State all claim to territory within her boundaries.

This treaty was transmitted[201] to the Senate by President Madison, and ratified and proclaimed, as set forth in the abstract of its provisions hereinbefore given, on the 8th of April, 1816.

BOUNDARY BETWEEN CHEROKEES, CREEKS, CHOCTAWS, AND CHICKASAWS.

The lines of demarkation between the respective possessions of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations had long been a subject of dispute between them. People living in a state of barbarism and principally dependent upon the chase for a livelihood, necessarily roam over a vast amount of territory within which no permanent habitations have been established by themselves. An accurate definition of the boundaries between them and their nearest neighbors pursuing a similar mode of life is unnecessary so long as no disturbing factor is brought into the case. But contact with an ever-encroaching tide of civilization renders essential an accurate definition of limits. The United States, in several of its numerous treaties for the acquisition of territory from these four tribes, had been met with conflicting claims as to its ownership. In order that future disputes and embarrassments of this character should be avoided, the authorities of the United States entertained the idea of causing a boundary line to be run and marked between the adjoining territory of these tribes. The Indian agents were advised by the Secretary of War[202] that the subject was under consideration, the plan being to constitute a commission, consisting of two representatives selected by each tribe and of the United States agents for those tribes, who should, after full examination of the country and the subject, agree upon and fix their respective boundaries. Owing, however, to the complicated state of our foreign relations and the feverish condition of mind manifested by the border tribes, soon followed by war with England and with the Creek Indians, it became necessary to drop further negotiations on the subject, and the matter was not again revived in this form.

After the treaty of 1814 with the Creeks, however, whereby General Jackson exacted from them, as indemnity for the expenses of the war, the cession of an immense tract of country in Alabama and Georgia,[203] the question of the proper limits of this cession on the north and west became a subject of controversy between the United States and the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.

The United States authorities at Washington were anxious that nothing should occur in the adjustment of these boundaries which should cause a feeling of irritation among those tribes. Commissioners had been appointed in the summer of 1815 to survey and mark the boundaries of this Creek cession, and in August of that year we find the Secretary of War giving instructions to Agent Meigs, of the Cherokees, to meet the boundary commissioners, with a few of the principal Cherokee chiefs, at the point on Coosa River where the south boundary of the Cherokee Nation crossed the same, in order that the Cherokees should be satisfied that the commissioners began at the proper point. Several additional reminders were given the agent, during the progress of the survey, that the matter of boundary was a question of fact to be ascertained and determined from the best attainable evidence, and that care must be taken that no injustice should be done the Cherokees.[204] In the following spring[205] a delegation of Cherokees was brought to Washington, by direction of the War Department, and, pending the completion of treaty negotiations with them, the boundary commissioners were instructed not to mark the line between the Cherokees and the Creek cession until further orders.

These negotiations resulted in a second treaty of March 22, 1816[206] (the one for the cession of the tract in South Carolina bears the same date), wherein it was declared that the northern boundary line of the Creek cession of 1814 should be established by the running of a line from a point on the west bank of Coosa River opposite to the lower end of the Ten Islands, above Fort Strother, directly to the Flat Rock or Stone on Bear Creek, said Flat Rock being the southwest corner of the Cherokee possessions, as defined by the treaty with them concluded January 7, 1806.

This boundary brought forth a vigorous though unavailing protest from General Jackson, who argued that the Cherokees never had any right to territory south of the Tennessee and west of Coosa River, but that it belonged to the Creeks and was properly within the limits of their cession of 1814.[207]

All efforts were fruitless in securing any further cession of lands, either north or south of the Tennessee.[208]

Previous to the visit of the Cherokee delegation to Washington and to the instructions given, as referred to above, to the boundary commissioners to suspend the running of the boundary line between the Creek cession and the Cherokees pending negotiations with the latter, General Coffee had been engaged in surveying the line from Coosa River to the Tennessee River.[209] As a result of the negotiations with the Cherokees, additional instructions were given the boundary commissioners[210] (accompanying which was a copy of the Cherokee treaty concluded on the 22d of March preceding) to run and mark the boundary line therein agreed upon from the lower end of the Ten Islands, on Coosa River, to the Flat Rock, on Bear Creek. They were advised that the surveys already made by General Coffee might be of advantage to them, though from an examination of his report it did not appear he had taken any notice of the point at which this line was to terminate, notwithstanding he seemed to have had in view the treaty made with the Cherokees in the year 1806, which proposed Caney Creek and a line from its source to the Flat Rock as the boundary between the Cherokees and Chickasaws. Coffee's line had already excited the jealousy and opposition of the Chickasaws, and on the same day final instructions were given the commissioners to run the line from Coosa River to Flat Rock, Major Cocke, the Chickasaw agent, was directed to advise the Chickasaws that in agreeing upon this line with the Cherokees the United States had in no degree interfered with the conflicting claims of the Chickasaws south of that line and east of Coffee's line; that from an examination of the treaties with the Chickasaws and Cherokees, and especially that of 1786 with the former tribe, it appeared that a point called the Flat Rock was considered a corner of the lands belonging to them, and had since been considered as the corner to the Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw hunting grounds. It is proper to state in this connection that for many years an uncertainty had existed in the minds of both the Indians and the United States authorities as to the exact location of this Flat Rock,[211] and whether it was on Bear Creek or on the headwaters of the Long Leaf Pine, a branch of the Black Warrior River. The line as finally run by the commissioners from Flat Rock, on Bear Creek, to Ten Islands, pursued a course bearing S. 67° 56' 27" E. 118 miles and 40 perches.[212] It may be interesting also to quote from a letter[213] from William Barnett, one of the United States boundary commissioners, to his co-commissioner, General Coffee, in which, he states that he has just returned from the council at Turkeytown, at which the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks were represented, and that the principal purpose of the council was to agree upon and adjust their several boundaries. He notes the fact that the Creeks and Cherokees had agreed to make a joint stock of their lands, with a privilege to each nation to settle where they pleased. The Creeks and Choctaws had fixed on the ridge dividing the waters of the Black Warrior and the Cahawba as their former boundary. The Chickasaws and Cherokees could come to no understanding as to their divisional line, the former alleging that they had no knowledge of any lands held by the latter on the south side of the Tennessee River adjoining them; that they always considered the lands so claimed by the Cherokees as belonging to the Creeks, and in support of this they had exhibited to him a number of affidavits in proof that their line ran from the mouth of a small creek emptying into the Tennessee near Ditto's Landing (opposite Chickasaw Island), up the same to its source, thence to the head of the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior, and down the same to the Flat Rock, where the Black Warrior is 200 yards wide; that they had no knowledge of any place on Bear Creek known as Flat Rock, and that running the line to the last mentioned place would be taking from them a considerable tract of country, to which they could by no means consent.[214]

ROADS THROUGH THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY.

In order to secure a proper system of communication between the Tennessee and the Lower Alabama and Mississippi settlements, the United States had long desired the establishment of sufficient roads through the Indian country between those points. The Indians, however, were shrewd enough to perceive that the granting of such a permission would be but an entering wedge for splitting their country in twain, and afford excuse for the encroachments of white settlers.

The establishment of new thoroughfares had therefore been regarded with extreme jealousy and had never been yielded to by them except after a persistency of urging that bordered on force.

In the spring of 1811[215] Agent Meigs was advised by the Secretary of War of the expediency of having a road opened without delay from the Tennessee to the Tombigbee, and also one from Tellico. Both these propositions would require the consent of the Creeks, and for the purpose of securing the most advantageous routes it was contemplated that Captain Gaines should make a journey of exploration and survey of the country between the Alabama and Coosa Rivers on the south and Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers on the north. The fruition of these plans was also postponed on account of the ensuing war with the Creeks, and the subject was not again broached until after their subjugation. In the spring of 1814 the legislature of Tennessee transmitted two memorials to Congress on the subject, and, by direction of the Secretary of War, Agent Meigs was again instructed[216] to ascertain the bent of the Indian mind in relation thereto. The result was the conclusion, with the approval of the President, of two agreements between the Cherokees and the agents of certain road companies for the opening of two roads through the country of the latter from Tennessee to Georgia. But when the treaty of March 22, 1816, came to be negotiated at Washington, the United States authorities, after much persuasion, procured the insertion therein of an article conceding to the United States a practically free and unrestrained permission for the construction of any and all roads through the Cherokee country necessary to convenient intercourse between the northern and southern settlements.

[Footnote 172: Two treaties appear of the same date and negotiated by the same parties. It is to be noted that the first controls a cession to the State of South Carolina and the second defines certain other concessions to the United States.]

[Footnote 173: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 139.]

[Footnote 174: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, pp. 138 and 139.]

[Footnote 175: February 28, 1807.]

[Footnote 176: December 2, 1807. See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 753.]

[Footnote 177: Letter of Return J. Meigs to Secretary of War, December 3, 1807.]

[Footnote 178: March 10, 1808. See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 752.]

[Footnote 179: January 10, 1812.]

[Footnote 180: In March, 1812.]

[Footnote 181: May 14, 1812.]

[Footnote 182: March 24, 1814.]

[Footnote 183: February 3, 1815.]

[Footnote 184: A full history of Colonel Earle's attempt to secure a site for the erection of iron works will be found among the records and files of the Office of Indian Affairs.]

[Footnote 185: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. II, p. 381. See also amendment to this act by act of February 18, 1841, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. V, p. 412.]

[Footnote 186: Scott's Laws of North Carolina and Tennessee.]

[Footnote 187: March 26, 1808.]

[Footnote 188: See report of General Knox, Secretary of War, to President Washington, July 7, 1789; Creek treaty of 1790; Cherokee treaty of 1791, etc.]

[Footnote 189: Confidential message of President Jefferson to Congress, January 18, 1803.]

[Footnote 190: March 25.]

[Footnote 191: See letter of Secretary of War to Col. R. J. Meigs, May 5, 1808.]

[Footnote 192: May 5, 1808.]

[Footnote 193: January 9, 1809]

[Footnote 194: Letter of Secretary of War to Col. R. J. Meigs, November 1, 1809.]

[Footnote 195: March 27, 1811.]

[Footnote 196: Indian Office files.]

[Footnote 197: March 28, 1811.]

[Footnote 198: December 26.]

[Footnote 199: November 22, 1815.]

[Footnote 200: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 138.]

[Footnote 201: March 26, 1816.]

[Footnote 202: May 8, 1811.]

[Footnote 203: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 120.]

[Footnote 204: Letter of Secretary of War to Agent Meigs, November 22, 1815.]

[Footnote 205: March, 1816.]

[Footnote 206: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 139.]

[Footnote 207: Letter from General Jackson to Secretary of War, June 10, 1816.]

[Footnote 208: Letter from Secretary of War to United States Senators from Tennessee, April 4, 1816.]

[Footnote 209: See letter of Secretary of War to Barnett, Hawkins, and Gaines, April 16, 1816.]

[Footnote 210: April 16, 1816. These boundary commissioners were William Barnett, Col. Benjamin Hawkins, and Maj. E. P. Gaines.]

[Footnote 211: Letter of General Jackson to Secretary of War, June 10, 1816; also from Commissioner Barnett, June 7, 1816.]

[Footnote 212: Old map on file in General Land Office.]

[Footnote 213: June 7, 1816.]

[Footnote 214: From a letter of Agent Meigs bearing date December 26, 1804, it seems that he was just in receipt of a communication from the Chickasaw chiefs relative to their claim to lands on the north side of Tennessee River. The chiefs assert that part of their people formerly lived at a place called Chickasaw Old Fields, on the Tennessee, about 20 miles above the mouth of Elk River; that while living there they had a war with the Cherokees, when, finding themselves too much separated from their principal settlements, they removed back thereto. Afterwards, on making peace with the Cherokees, their boundaries were agreed on as they are defined in the instrument given them by President Washington in 1794.

They further state that they had a war with the Shawnees and drove them from all the waters of the Tennessee and Duck Rivers, as well as conflicts with the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Creeks, in which they defeated all attempts of their enemies to dispossess them of their country.

Agent Meigs remarks that he is convinced the claim of the Chickasaws is the best founded; that until recently the Cherokees had always alluded to the country in controversy as the hunting ground of the four nations, and that their few settlements within this region were of recent date.]

TREATY CONCLUDED SEPTEMBER 14, 1816; PROCLAIMED DECEMBER 30, 1816.[217]

_Held at Chickasaw Council House, between Maj. Gen. Andrew
Jackson, General David Merriwether, and Jesse Franklin,
commissioners plenipotentiary on the part of the United States, and
the delegates representing the Cherokee Nation._

MATERIAL PROVISIONS.

To perpetuate peace and friendship between the United States and the Cherokees and to remove all future dissensions concerning boundaries it is agreed:

1. Peace and friendship are established between the United States and Cherokees.

2. The Cherokee Nation acknowledge the following as their western boundary: South of the Tennessee River, commencing at Camp Coffee, on the south side of the Tennessee River, which is opposite the Chickasaw Island; running from thence a due south course to the top of the dividing ridge between the waters of the Tennessee and Tombigby Rivers; thence eastwardly along said ridge, leaving the headwaters of the Black Warrior to the right hand until opposed by the west branch of Wells' Creek; down the east bank of said creek to the Coosa River, and down said river.

3. The Cherokees cede all claim to land south and west of the above line. In consideration for such cession the United States agree to pay an annuity of $6,000 for ten years and the sum of $5,000 within sixty days after ratification of the treaty.

4. The boundary line above described, after due notice given to the Cherokees, shall be ascertained and marked by commissioners appointed by the President, accompanied by two representatives of the Cherokee Nation.

5. The Cherokee Nation agree to meet the United States treaty commissioners at Turkeytown, on Coosa River, September 28, 1816, to confirm or reject said treaty; a failure to so meet the commissioners to be equivalent to ratification.

Ratified at Turkeytown by the whole Cherokee Nation, October 4, 1816.

HISTORICAL DATA.

FURTHER PURCHASE OF CHEROKEE LANDS.

On the 27th of May, 1816, the Secretary of War instructed Agent Meigs to endeavor, at the next session of the national council of the Cherokees, to obtain a cession of the Cherokee claim north of Tennessee River within the State of Tennessee. For this proposed cession he was authorized to pay $20,000, in one or more payments, and $5,000 in presents; also to give Colonel Lowry, an influential chief among them, a sum equal to the value of his improvements.[218]

He was further instructed to make an effort to secure the cession of the lands which they had declined to sell the previous winter and which lay to the west of a line drawn due south from that point of the Tennessee River intersected by the eastern boundary of Madison County, Alabama.

The necessity for these cessions, and especially that of the former tract, had been urged upon the Government of the United States by the legislature and by the citizens of Tennessee, many of whom had been purchasers of land within its limits, from the State of North Carolina, a quarter of a century previous, and who had been restrained from possession and occupancy of the same by the United States authorities so long as the Indian title remained unextinguished. In the event that the national council of the Cherokees should decline to accede to the desired cessions, Agent Meigs was to urge that the Cherokee delegation appointed to meet the boundary commissioners at the Chickasaw Council House on the 1st of September following should be invested with full authority for the conclusion of such adjustment of boundaries as might be determined on at that place. This authority was conditionally granted by the council,[219] and when the delegation came to meet the United States commissioners at the Chickasaw Council House, in the month of September, an agreement was made as to boundaries as set forth in the second article of the treaty of September 14, 1816. By this agreement the Cherokees ceded all claim west of a line from Camp Coffee to the Coosa River and south of a line from the latter point to Flat Rock, on Bear Creek.[220] The treaty was ratified by the nation in general council, at Turkeytown, on the 4th of October following.[221]

_Alabama alleges error in survey._--When the due-south line from Camp Coffee provided for in the treaty was surveyed, the surveyor, through an error in running it, deflected somewhat to the west. When the adjacent country came to be surveyed and opened up to settlement much complaint was made, and the legislature of Alabama[222] passed a joint resolution reciting the fact that through this erroneous survey much valuable land had been left within the Cherokee limits which had properly been ceded to the United States and instructing Alabama's delegation in Congress to take measures for having the line correctly run. The matter having been by Congress referred to the Secretary of War for investigation and report, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, at his request, reported[223] that when the public surveys were made in that section it was found that neither the line due south from Camp Coffee nor from the head of Caney Creek had been surveyed on a true meridian. Inasmuch, however, as they had been run and marked by commissioners appointed by the United States, the surveyors necessarily made the public surveys in conformity to them. By this deviation from the true meridian the United States and the State of Alabama had gained more land from the manner in which the Caney Creek or Chickasaw boundary line had been run than had been lost by the deviation in the Cherokee or Camp Coffee line, and the quantity in either case did not perhaps exceed six or eight thousand acres.

[Footnote 215: May 25.]

[Footnote 216: April 7.]

[Footnote 217: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 148.]

[Footnote 218: See Indian Office records.]

[Footnote 219: Letter of Return J. Meigs to the Secretary of War, dated August 19, 1816. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 113.]

[Footnote 220: Report of Commissioners Jackson, Merriwether, and Franklin to Secretary of War, dated Chickasaw Council House, September 20, 1816. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 104.]

[Footnote 221: Report of Commissioners Jackson and Merriwether to Secretary of War, October 4, 1816.]

[Footnote 222: January 7, 1828.]

[Footnote 223: February 25, 1828.]

TREATY CONCLUDED JULY 8, 1817; PROCLAIMED DECEMBER 26, 1817.[224]

_Held at Cherokee Agency, in the Cherokee Nation, between
Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Joseph McMinn, governor of Tennessee,
and General David Merriwether, commissioners plenipotentiary of
the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the
Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River, and those on the
Arkansas River, by their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James
Rogers, duly authorised by written power of attorney._

MATERIAL PROVISIONS.

1. The whole Cherokee Nation cede to the United States all the lands lying north and east of the following boundaries, viz: Beginning at the High Shoals of the Appalachy River, and running thence along the boundary line between the Creek and Cherokee Nations westwardly to the Chatahouchy River; thence up the Chatahouchy River to the mouth of Souque Creek; thence continuing with the general course of the river until it reaches the Indian boundary line; and should it strike the Turrurar River, thence with its meanders down said river to its mouth, in part of the proportion of land in the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi to which those now on the Arkansas and those about to remove there are justly entitled.

2. The whole Cherokee Nation do also cede to the United States all the lands lying north and west of the following boundary lines, viz: Beginning at the Indian boundary line that runs from the north bank of the Tennessee River opposite to the mouth of Hywassee River, at a point on the top of Walden's Ridge where it divides the waters of the Tennessee River from those of the Sequatchie River; thence along said ridge southwardly to the bank of the Tennessee River at a point near to a place called the Negro Sugar Camp, opposite to the upper end of the first island above Running Water Town; thence westwardly a straight line to the mouth of Little Sequatchie River; thence up said river to its main fork; thence up its northermost fork to its source; and thence due west to the Indian boundary line.

3. A census to be taken of the whole Cherokee Nation during June, 1818. The enumeration of those east of the Mississippi River to be made by a commissioner appointed by the President of the United States and a commissioner appointed by the Cherokees residing on the Arkansas. That of those on the Arkansas by a United States commissioner and one appointed by the Cherokees east of the Mississippi.

4. The annuities for 1818 and thereafter to be divided upon the basis of said census between Cherokees east of the Mississippi and those on the Arkansas. The lands east of the Mississippi also to be divided, and the proportion of those moved and agreeing to remove to the Arkansas to be surrendered to the United States.

5. The United States agree to give to the removing Cherokees a tract of land on the Arkansas and White Rivers equal in area to the quantity ceded the United States by first and second articles hereof. Said tract to begin on north side of the Arkansas River, at mouth of Point Remove, or Budwell's Old Place; thence northwardly by a straight line to strike Chataunga Mountain, the first hill above Shield's Ferry, on White River, and running up and between said rivers for quantity. Said boundary from point of beginning to be surveyed, and all citizens of the United States except Mrs. P. Lovely to be removed therefrom. All previous treaties to remain in full force and to be binding on both parts of the Cherokee Nation. The United States reserves the right to establish factories, a military post, and roads within the boundaries last above defined.

6. The United States agree to give all poor warriors who remove a rifle, ammunition, blanket, and brass kettle or beaver trap each, as full compensation for improvements left by them; to those whose improvements add real value to the land, the full value thereof, as ascertained by appraisal, shall be paid. The United States to furnish flat-bottomed boats and provisions on the Tennessee River for transportation of those removing.

7. All valuable improvements made by Cherokees within the limits ceded to the United States by first and second articles hereof shall be paid for by the United States or others of equal value left by removing Cherokees given in lieu thereof. Improvements left by emigrant Cherokees not so exchanged shall be rented to the Indians, for the benefit of the poor and decrepit of the Eastern Cherokees.

8. Each head of a Cherokee family residing on lands herein or hereafter ceded to the United States who elects to become a citizen of the United States shall receive a reservation of 640 acres, to include his or her improvements, for life, with reversion in fee simple to children, subject to widow's dower. On removal of reservees their reservations shall revert to the United States. Lands reserved under this provision shall be deducted from the quantity ceded by first and second articles.

9. All parties to the treaty shall have free navigation of all waters herein mentioned.

10. The Cherokee Nation cedes to the United States all claim to reservations made to Doublehead and others by treaty of January 7, 1806.

11. Boundary lines of lands ceded to the United States by first and second articles, and by the United States to the Cherokees in fifth article hereof, to be run and marked by a United States commissioner, to be accompanied by commissioners appointed by the Cherokees.

12. Citizens of the United States are forbidden to enter upon lands herein ceded by the Cherokees until ratification and proclamation of this treaty.

13. Treaty to be binding upon the assent and ratification of the Senate and President of the United States.

HISTORICAL DATA.

POLICY OF REMOVING INDIAN TRIBES TO THE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

In the settlement and colonization by civilized people of a country theretofore a wilderness, and inhabited only by savage tribes, many important and controlling reasons exist why the occupation of such a country should be accomplished by regular and gradual advances and in a more or less connected and compact manner. It was expedient that a united front should be presented by the earlier settlers of this continent, in order that the hostile raids and demonstrations of the Indian warriors might be successfully resisted and repulsed. Therefore, the settlements were, as a rule, extended from the coast line toward the interior by regular steps, without the intermission of long distances of unoccupied territory. This seemed to be the policy anterior to the Revolution, and was announced in the proclamation of King George in 1763 wherein he prohibited settlements being made on Indian lands or the purchase of the same by unauthorized persons.

The first ordinances of Congress under the Articles of Confederation for disposing of the public lands were predicated upon the same theory. But after the close of the war for independence, circumstances arising out of the treaty of 1783 with Great Britain and the acquisition of Louisiana from France imposed the necessity for a departure from the old system. Within the limits of the territory thus acquired sundry settlements had been made by the French people at points widely separated from one another and with many hundreds of miles of wilderness intervening between them and the English settlements on the Atlantic slope. The evils and inconveniences resulting from this irregular form of frontier were manifest.

Settlements thus widely separated, or projecting in long, narrow columns far into the Indian country, manifestly increased in large ratio the causes of savage jealousy and hostility. At the same time the means of defense were rendered less certain and the expense and difficulty of adequately protecting such a frontier were largely enhanced.

Such, however, was the condition and shape of our frontier settlements during the earlier years of the present century. Settlements on the Tennessee and Cumberland were cut off from communication with those of Georgia, Lower Alabama, and Mississippi by long stretches of territory inhabited or roamed over by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.

The French communities of Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and Detroit were similarly separated from the people of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and newly settled Ohio by the territory of the hostile Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandots, Pottawatomies, Ottawas, Kickapoos, _et al._

A cure for all this inconvenience and expense had been sought and given much consideration by the Government authorities.

President Jefferson (as has been previously stated) had, as early as 1803,[225] suggested the propriety of an exchange of lands by those tribes east of the Mississippi for an equal or greater area of territory within the newly acquired Louisiana purchase, and in 1809 had authorized a delegation of Cherokees to proceed to that country with a view to selecting a suitable tract to which they might remove, and to which many of them did remove in the course of the years immediately succeeding.[226]

The matter of a general exchange of lands, however, became the subject of Congressional consideration, and the Committee on Public Lands of the United States Senate reported[227] a resolution for an appropriation to enable the President to negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes which should have for their object an exchange of territory owned by any tribe residing east of the Mississippi for other land west of that river.

The committee expressed the opinion that the proposition contained in the foregoing resolution would be better calculated to remedy the inconvenience and remove the evils arising out of the existing condition of the frontier settlements than any other within the power of the Government. It was admitted, however, that this object could not be attained except by the voluntary consent of the several tribes interested, made manifest through duly negotiated treaties with them.

The Senate was favorable to this proposition, but the House of Representatives interposed a negative upon the action taken by the former body.[228]

_Removal of Cherokees encouraged._--The subject had long been under consideration by the Cherokees, and no opportunity had been lost on the part of the executive authorities of the United States to encourage a sentiment among them favorable to the removal scheme. Many individuals of the tribe had already emigrated, and on the 18th of October, 1816, General Andrew Jackson, in addressing the Secretary of War upon the subject of the recent Cherokee and Chickasaw treaties, suggested his belief that the Cherokees would shortly make a tender of their whole territory to the United States in exchange for lands on the Arkansas River. He further remarked that a council would soon be held by them at Willstown to select a proper delegation who should visit the country west of the Mississippi and examine and report upon its character and adaptability for their needs. In case this report should prove favorable, a Cherokee delegation would thereupon wait upon the President, with authority to agree upon satisfactory terms of exchange. To this the Secretary of War replied that whenever the Cherokee Nation should be disposed to enter into an arrangement for an exchange of the lands occupied by them for lands on the west side of the Mississippi River and should appoint delegates clothed with full authority to negotiate a treaty for such exchange they would be received by the President and treated with on the most liberal terms.

This state of feeling among the Cherokees had been considerably increased by the fact that those of their people who had already settled upon the Arkansas and White Rivers had become involved in territorial disputes of a most serious character with the Osages and Quapaws. The latter tribes claimed ownership of the lands upon which the former were settled. Upon the Arkansas Cherokees laying their complaints before the United States authorities, they were informed that nothing could be done for their relief until the main body of the nation should take some definite action, in accordance with previous understanding, toward relinquishing a portion of their territory equal in area to the tract upon which the emigrant party had located.[229]

FURTHER CESSION OF TERRITORY BY THE CHEROKEES.

With a view to reaching a full understanding on this subject, the Secretary of War notified[230] General Andrew Jackson, Governor McMinn of Tennessee, and General David Merriwether that they had been appointed commissioners for the purpose of holding a treaty with the Cherokees on or about the 20th of June, 1817.[231] In pursuance of these instructions a conference was called and held at the Cherokee Agency, which resulted in the treaty of July 8, 1817.[232] By this treaty the Cherokees ceded two large tracts of country[233] in exchange for one of equal area on the Arkansas and White Rivers adjoining the territory of the Osages. The Cherokees also ceded two small reservations made by the treaty of January 7, 1806.[234]

The large cession by the first article of the treaty of 1817, though partially in Georgia, was at the time supposed to cover all the territory claimed by the Cherokees within the limits of North Carolina,[235] and was secured in deference to the urgent importunities of the legislature and people of that State. It was subsequently ascertained that this supposition was incorrect.

_Majority of Cherokees averse to removal._--During the conference, but before the negotiations had reached any definite result, a memorial was presented to the United States commissioners, signed by sixty-seven of the chiefs and headmen of the nation, setting forth that the delegation of their nation who in 1809 visited Washington and discussed with President Jefferson the proposition for an exchange of lands had acted without any delegated authority on the subject. The memorialists claimed to represent the prevailing feeling of the nation and were desirous of remaining upon and retaining the country of their nativity. They were distressed with the alternative proposals to remove to the Arkansas country or remain and become citizens of the United States. While they had not attained a sufficient degree of civilization to fit them for the duties of citizenship, they yet deprecated a return to the same savage state and surroundings which had characterized their mode of life when first brought in contact with the whites. They therefore requested that the subject should not be further pressed, but that they might be enabled to remain in peaceable possession of the land of their fathers.[236]

The commissioners, however, proceeded with their negotiations, and concluded the treaty as previously set forth, which was finally signed by twenty-two of the chiefs and headmen whose names appeared attached to the memorial, as well as six others, on behalf of the eastern portion of the nation, and by fifteen chiefs representing those on the Arkansas.[237] The treaty was submitted to the Senate, for its advice and consent, at the ensuing session of Congress, and although it encountered the hostility of those Senators who were opposed to the general policy of an exchange of lands with the Indians, and of some who argued, because of the few chiefs who had signed it, that it did not represent the full and free expression of their national assent,[238] that body approved its provisions, and the President ratified and proclaimed it on the 26th of December, 1817.

_A portion of the Cherokees emigrate west._--Immediately upon the signing of the treaty, the United States authorities, presuming upon its final ratification, took measures for carrying into effect the scheme of emigration. Within a month Agent Meigs reported that over 700 Cherokees had already enrolled themselves for removal the ensuing fall.

The Secretary of War entered into a contract for 60 boats, to be delivered by 1st of November at points between the mouths of the Little Tennessee and Sequatchie Rivers, together with rifles, ammunition, blankets, and provisions;[239] and, under the control and directions of Governor McMinn, of Tennessee, the stream of emigration began to flow, increasing in volume until within the next year over 3,000 had emigrated to their new homes, which numbers had during the year 1819 increased to 6,000.[240]

_Persecution of those favorable to emigration._--There can be no question that a very large portion, and probably a majority, of the Cherokee Nation residing east of the Mississippi had been and still continued bitterly opposed to the terms of the treaty of 1817. They viewed with jealous and aching hearts all attempts to drive them from the homes of their ancestors, for they could not but consider the constant and urgent importunities of the Federal authorities in the light of an imperative demand for the cession of more territory. They felt that they were, as a nation, being slowly but surely compressed within the contracting coils of the giant anaconda of civilization; yet they held to the vain hope that a spirit of justice and mercy would be born of their helpless condition which would finally prevail in their favor. Their traditions furnished them no guide by which to judge of the results certain to follow such a conflict as that in which they were engaged.

This difference of sentiment in the nation upon a subject so vital to their welfare was productive of much bitterness and violent animosities. Those who had favored the emigration scheme and had been induced, either through personal preference or by the subsidizing influences of the Government agents, to favor the conclusion of the treaty, became the object of scorn and hatred to the remainder of the nation. They were made the subjects of a persecution so relentless, while they remained in the eastern country, that it was never forgotten, and when, in the natural course of events, the remainder of the nation were forced to remove to the Arkansas country and join the earlier emigrants, the old hatreds and dissensions broke out afresh, and to this day they find lodgment in some degree in the breasts of their descendants.

_Dissatisfaction with the treaty of 1817._--The dissatisfaction with the treaty of 1817 took shape in the assemblage of a council at Amoha, in the Cherokee Nation, in September of the same year, at which six of the principal men were selected as a deputation to visit the President at Washington and present to him in person a detailed statement of the grievances and indignities to which they had been subjected in greater or less degree for many years and to ask relief and redress.

They were to present, with special particularity, to the President's notice a statement of the improper methods and influences that had been used to secure the apparent consent of the nation to the treaty of 1817. They were authorized to enter into a new treaty with the United States, in lieu of the recent one, in which an alteration might be made in certain articles of it, and some additional article inserted relative to the mode of payment of their annuity as between the Eastern and Arkansas Cherokees.[241]