Part 8

It was also represented by the Secretary of War that the arts and practices used to obtain Indian land in defiance of treaties and the laws, at the risk of involving the whole country in war, had become so daring, and received such countenance from persons of prominent influence, as to render it necessary that the means to countervail them should be augmented. To this end, as well as to more effectually secure to the United States the advantages of the land which should be obtained by the treaty, the commissioners were instructed to secure the insertion into the treaty of provisions of the following import:

1. That the new line should be run and marked by two commissioners, one of whom should be appointed by the treaty commissioners and the other by the Indians. They should proceed immediately upon the signing of the treaty to the execution of that duty, upon the completion of which three maps thereof should be prepared, one for the use of the Secretary of War, one for the executive of the State of Tennessee, and one for the Cherokees.

2. That the Cherokees should at all times permit the President of the United States to employ military force within their boundaries for the arrest and removal of all persons seeking to make unauthorized negotiations with or to incite their hostility toward the United States or any of its citizens, or toward any foreign nation or Indian nation or tribe within the limits and under the protection of the United States; also, of all persons who should settle on or who should attempt to reside in the Indian country without the written permission of the President.

3. That the treaty should not be construed either to affect the right or title of any ejected settler upon the Indian lands to the tract theretofore occupied by him or in any manner to enlarge his right or claim thereto; and that all Indian land purchased by the contemplated treaty, which had not been actually occupied as aforesaid, should remain subject to the operation of all the provisions of the proposed as well as any former treaty and of the laws of the United States relative to Indian country, until such time as said lands should be sold by and under the authority of the United States. This provision was intended to prevent any further intrusion on any part of the land ceded by the State of North Carolina to the United States; as also upon the land set apart to the Cherokee Indians by the State of North Carolina, by act of her legislature, passed May 17, 1783, described as follows, viz: "Beginning on the Tennessee, where the southern boundary of this State intersects the same, nearest to the Chicamauga towns; thence up the middle of the Tennessee and Holston to the middle of French Broad; thence up the middle of French Broad River (which lines are not to include any island or islands in the said river) to the mouth of Big Pigeon River; thence up the same to the head thereof; thence along the dividing ridge, between the waters of Pigeon River and Tuckasege River, to the southern boundary of this State."

4. The United States should have the right to establish such military posts and garrisons within the Indian limits for their protection as should be deemed proper. In case it should be found impracticable to obtain Duck River or a line that should include within it the road leading from Southwest Point to Cumberland River for a boundary, the commissioners were to stipulate for certain parcels of land lying on such road at convenient distances from each other for the establishment of houses of entertainment for travelers. Also in case the cession obtained should not include both sides of the ferry on Clinch River, to secure a limitation upon the rates of toll that should be charged by the occupant.

The commissioners repaired to Knoxville, where they ascertained it to be the desire of the Indians that the treaty negotiations should be held at Oostenaula, the Cherokee capital.

To this the commissioners objected, but agreed to meet the Indians at Chota, which they concluded to change to Tuckasege, and, finally, before the date fixed for the meeting, June 25, again changed it to Tellico, where the conference was held.[112]

_Tennessee commissioners attend the council._--In the mean time[113] Governor Sevier of Tennessee designated General Robertson, James Stuart, and Lachlan McIntosh as agents to represent the interests of that State at the treaty, and gave them minute instructions covering the following points,[114] viz:

1. To obtain as wide an extinguishment of the Cherokee claim north of the Tennessee River as possible.

2. An unimpeded communication of Holston and Clinch Rivers with the Tennessee and the surrender of the west bank of the Clinch opposite South-West Point.

3. To secure from future molestation the settlements as far as they had progressed on the northern and western borders of the State and the connection of Hamilton and Mero districts, then separated by a space of unextinguished hunting ground 80 miles wide.

4. To examine into the nature and validity of the claim recently set up by the Cherokees to lands north of the Tennessee River; whether it rested upon original right or was derived from treaties; or was founded only upon temporary use or occupancy.

The council opened early in July. The "Bloody Fellow," a Cherokee chief, at the outset delivered a paper which he stated to contain their final resolutions, and which covered a peremptory refusal to sell any land or to permit the ejected settlers to return to their homes. After seeking in vain to shake this determination of the Cherokees, further negotiations were postponed until the ensuing fall, and the commissioners departed.

On the 27th of August, the Secretary of War addressed some additional instructions upon the subject to George Walton and Lieut. Col. Thomas Butler as commissioners (John Steele having resigned and Alfred Moore having returned to his home in North Carolina), authorizing them to renew the negotiations. The original instructions were to form the basis of these negotiations, but if it should be found impracticable to induce the Indians to accede to either of the first three propositions, an abandonment of them was to take place, and resort was to be had to the fourth proposition, which might be altered in any manner as to boundaries calculated to secure the most advantageous results to the United States.[115] The council was resumed at Tellico on the 20th of September, but it was found, during the progress thereof, that there was no possibility of effecting the primary objects of the State agents of Tennessee. General Robertson failed to attend. General White (who had been appointed in the place of Stuart) was there, but Mr. McIntosh resigned and Governor Sevier himself attended in person.

The treaty was finally concluded on the 2d of October, by which a cession was secured covering most of the territory contemplated by the fourth proposition, with something additional. It included most if not all the lands from which settlers had been ejected by the United States troops, and they were permitted to return to their homes.

The road privilege sought to be obtained between East and Middle Tennessee was also realized, except as to the establishment of houses of entertainment for travelers.[116]

President Adams transmitted the treaty to the Senate,[117] and that body advised and consented to its ratification.

_Boundary lines surveyed._--In fulfillment of the provisions of the fifth article of the treaty concerning the survey of boundary lines, the President appointed Captain Butler as a commissioner to run that portion of the line described as extending from Great Iron Mountain in a southeasterly direction to the point where the most southerly branch of Little River crossed the divisional line to Tugaloo River, which trust he executed in the summer of 1799.[118] Owing to the unfortunate destruction of official records by fire, in the year 1800, it is impossible to ascertain all the details concerning this survey, but it was executed on the theory that the "Little River" named in the treaty was one of the northernmost branches of Keowee River.

This survey seems not to have been accepted by the War Department, for on the 3d of June, 1802, instructions were issued by the Secretary of War to Return J. Meigs, as a commissioner, to superintend the execution of the survey of this same portion of the boundary. Mr. Thomas Freeman was appointed surveyor.[119]

From the letter of Commissioner Meigs, transmitting the plat and field notes of survey,[120] it appears that much difference of opinion had existed as to what stream was meant by the "Little River" named in the treaty, there being three streams of that name in that vicinity. Two of these were branches of the French Broad and the other of Keowee River. If the line should be run to the lower one of these two branches of the French Broad, it would leave more than one hundred families of white settlers within the Indian territory. If it were run to the branch of Keowee River, it would leave ten or twelve Indian villages within the State of North Carolina.

It was therefore determined by Commissioner Meigs to accept the upper branch of French Broad as the true intent and meaning of the treaty, and the line was run accordingly, whereby not a single white settlement was cut off or intersected, and but five Indian families were left on the Carolina side of the line.[121]

_Status of certain territory._--In this connection it is pertinent to remark that the State of North Carolina claimed for her southern boundary the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude.

The line of this parallel was, however, at that time supposed to run about 12 miles to the north of what was subsequently ascertained to be its true location.

Between this supposed line of 35° north latitude and the northernmost boundary of Georgia, as settled upon by a convention between that State and South Carolina in 1787, there intervened a tract of country of about 12 miles in width, from north to south, and extending from east to west, from the top of the main ridge of mountains which divides the eastern from the western waters to the Mississippi River. This tract remained, as was supposed, within the chartered limits of South Carolina, and in the year 1787 was ceded by that State to the United States, subject to the Indian right of occupancy. When the Indian title to the country therein described was ceded to the United States by the treaty of 1798 with the Cherokees, the eastern portion of this 12-mile tract fell within the limits of such cession.

On its eastern extremity near the head-waters of the French Broad River, immediately at the foot of the main Blue Ridge Mountains, had been located, for a number of years prior to the treaty, a settlement of about fifty families of whites, who by its ratification became occupants of the public domain of the United States, but who were outside the territorial jurisdiction of any State. These settlers petitioned Congress to retrocede the tract of country upon which they resided to South Carolina, in order that they might be brought within the protection of the laws of that State.[122] A resolution was reported in the House of Representatives, from the committee to whom the subject had been referred, favoring such a course,[123] but Congress took no effective action on the subject, and when the State boundaries came to be finally adjusted in that region the tract in question was found to be within the limits of North Carolina.

_Yellow Creek settlement._--After that portion of the boundary of the country ceded by the treaty of 1798 which extended along the foot of Cumberland Mountain until it intersected "Campbell's Line" had been surveyed, complaint was made by certain settlers on Yellow Creek that by the action of the surveyors in not prolonging the line to its true point of termination, their homes had been left within the Indian country.

Thereupon the Secretary of War instructed Agent Meigs[124] to go in person and examine the line as surveyed with a view to ascertaining the truth concerning the complaints.

It was ascertained that the "point" of Campbell's Line was not on Cumberland Mountain proper, but on the ridge immediately east thereof, known as Poor Valley Ridge. This ridge is nearly as lofty as the main range, and Colonel Campbell, in approaching it from the east, had mistaken it for that range and established his terminal point accordingly. The surveyors under the treaty of 1798, assuming the correctness of Colonel Campbell's survey, had made the line of their survey close thereon. By such action the Indian boundary in that locality was extended 332 poles further to the east than would have been the case had the true reading of the treaty been followed.

A number of families of settlers on Yellow Creek, together with a tract of about 2,500 acres of land, were thus unfortunately left within the Indian country. All efforts of Agent Meigs to secure a relinquishment of this strip of territory from the Indians were, however, ineffectual.[125]

[Footnote 105: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. I, p. 496.]

[Footnote 106: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 62.]

[Footnote 107: This address and remonstrance will be found in full in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, page 625.]

[Footnote 108: December 20, 1797.]

[Footnote 109: American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 629.]

[Footnote 110: American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 631.]

[Footnote 111: These instructions were dated March 2, 1798. See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 639]

[Footnote 112: Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, pp. 693, 695.]

[Footnote 113: June 20, 1798.]

[Footnote 114: Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, pp. 693, 695.]

[Footnote 115: American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 640.]

[Footnote 116: By act of September 27, 1794, the legislature of the territory southwest of the Ohio authorized the raising of a fund for cutting and clearing a wagon road from Southwest Point to Bledsoe's Lick on the Cumberland. The funds for this purpose were to be raised by a lottery managed by Cols. James White, James Winchester, Stockley Donelson, David Campbell, William Cocke, and Robert Hayes. The Indians not having granted the necessary right of way, its construction was necessarily postponed, but subsequently, by act of the legislature of Tennessee passed November 14, 1801, the Cumberland Road Company was incorporated and required to cut and clear a road from the Indian boundary on the east side of Cumberland Mountain to the fork of the roads leading to Fort Blount and Walton's Ferry.]

[Footnote 117: January 15, 1799.]

[Footnote 118: See letter of General Pickens to Representative Nott, of South Carolina, January 1, 1800. American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, p. 103.]

[Footnote 119: Letter of Secretary of War to Return J. Meigs, in Indian Office records.]

[Footnote 120: Dated October 20, 1802.]

[Footnote 121: Commissioner Meigs mentions that the accompanying plat and field notes of Mr. Freeman, the surveyor, will give more abundant details regarding this survey. After a careful search, however, no trace has been found among the Indian Office records and files of the plat and field notes in question. There is much difficulty in ascertaining the exact point of departure of "Meigs Line" from Great Iron Mountains. In the report of the Tennessee and North Carolina boundary commissioners in 1821 it is stated to be 31-1/2 miles by the course of the mountain ridge in a general southwesterly course from the crossing of Cataluche Turnpike; 9-1/2 miles in a similar direction from Porter's Gap; 21-1/2 miles in a northeasterly direction from the crossing of Equovetley Path, and 33-1/2 miles in a like course from the crossing of Tennessee River. All of these courses and distances follow the crest of the Great Iron Mountains. It is stated to the author, by General R. N. Hood, of Knoxville, Tenn., that there is a tradition that "Meigs Post" was found some years since about 1-1/2 miles southwest of Indian Gap. A map of the survey of Qualla Boundary, by M. S. Temple, in 1876, shows a portion of the continuation of "Meigs Line" as passing about 1-1/2 miles east of Quallatown. Surveyor Temple mentions it as running "S. 50° E. (formerly S. 52-1/2° E.")]

[Footnote 122: See memorial of Matthew Patterson and others, dated "French Broad, 8th January, 1800," printed in American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, p. 104.]

[Footnote 123: This resolution was reported by Mr. Harper, from the committee to whom it was referred, to the House of Representatives, April 7, 1800, and is printed in American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, p. 103.]

[Footnote 124: February 7, 1803. See Indian Office records.]

[Footnote 125: See report of Agent Return J. Meigs to the Secretary of War, May 5, 1803, on file in the Office of Indian Affairs.]

TREATY CONCLUDED OCTOBER 24, 1804; PROCLAIMED MAY 17, 1824.[126]

_Held at "Tellico Block House," Tennessee, between Daniel Smith and Return J. Meigs, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the principal chiefs representing the Cherokee Nation._

MATERIAL PROVISIONS.

It is agreed and stipulated that--

1. The Cherokee Nation relinquish and cede to the United States a tract of land bounding southerly on the boundary line between the State of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation, beginning at a point on the said boundary line northeasterly of the most northeast plantation in the settlement known by the name of Wafford's Settlement, and running at right angles with the said boundary line 4 miles into the Cherokee land, thence at right angles southwesterly and parallel to the first mentioned boundary line so far as that a line to be run at right angles southerly to the said first mentioned boundary line shall include in this cession all the plantations in Wafford's Settlement, so called, as aforesaid.

2. In consideration of this cession the United States agree to pay the Cherokees $5,000, in goods or cash, upon the signing of the treaty, and an annuity of $1,000.

HISTORICAL DATA.

NEW TREATY AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS.

Congress, under date of February 19, 1799,[127] appropriated $25,000 to defray the expense of negotiating a treaty or treaties with the Indians, and again, on the 13th of May, 1800,[128] appropriated $15,000 to defray the expense of holding a treaty or treaties with the Indian tribes southwest of the Ohio River, with the proviso that nothing in the act should be construed to admit an obligation on the part of the United States to extinguish for the benefit of any State or individual the Indian claim to any lands lying within the limits of the United States.

Pursuant to the authority conferred by these enactments, President Jefferson appointed[129] General James Wilkinson, Wm. R. Davie, and Benj. Hawkins as commissioners, and they were instructed by the Secretary of War to proceed to negotiate treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.

_Objects of the treaty._--The objects sought to be attained with the Cherokees were to secure their consent, 1st. To cede to the United States all that portion of their territory lying to the northward of a direct line to be run from a point mentioned in treaty of October 2, 1798, on Tennessee River, 1 mile above its junction with the Clinch, to the point at or near the head of the West Fork of Stone's River, on the ridge dividing the waters of the Cumberland and Duck Rivers which is struck by a southwest line from the point where the Kentucky road crosses Cumberland River, as described in the treaty of Holston.

2. That the Tennessee River should be the boundary from its mouth to the mouth of Duck River; that Duck River should be the boundary thence to the mouth of Rock Creek; and that a direct line should be run for a continuation of the boundary from the mouth of Rock Creek to the point on the ridge that divides the waters of Cumberland from Duck River.

3. That a road should be opened from the boundary line to a circular tract on Tennessee River at the mouth of Bear River, reserved to the United States by treaty of 1786 with the Chickasaws. From this point the road should continue until it reached the Choctaw territory, where it was to connect with a road through the country of the latter to Natchez. The entire line of this road must be open to the free use of citizens of the United States.

4. In case the Indians should refuse to cede any of the lands designated, the commissioners were instructed to obtain, if possible, a cession of all the land lying northward of the road leading from Knoxville to the Nashville settlements, run conformably to the treaty of 1791. If they should be unwilling to grant this, then to ask for a strip of land from 1 to 5 miles in width, to include the said road in its whole extent across their lands. Whether success or failure should attend the first or second objects of their mission, the commissioners were to seek the consummation of the third proposition for a road to the Bear Creek reservation, which would otherwise be of no practical value to the United States.

If consent was obtained to the first three proposals or to the alternative marked 4th, an annuity of $1,000 was authorized and an immediate sum not exceeding $5,000 in cash or goods. If, as had been represented to the War Department, the Cherokees and Chickasaws both claimed the land on either side of Tennessee River for a considerable distance, the commissioners were instructed that they must obtain the assent of both tribes to the opening of the road.

Six days after the issuance of these instructions, a delegation of Cherokees, headed by Chief "Glass," arrived in Washington, and obtained an interview with the Secretary of War.[130] They represented that the promise had been made them, at the treaty of 1798, that they would never be asked to cede any more land. Now they learned that the United States was about to hold another treaty with them to secure further cessions. They also desired to know whether the United States or the settlers got the land theretofore ceded, and why they had not been furnished with the map showing the boundary lines by the treaty of 1798, as had been promised them. In his reply,[131] after seeing the President, the Secretary of War informed them that no desire existed to purchase any more land from them unless they were anxious to sell; that the map should be at once furnished them; that the States of Kentucky and Tennessee had been formed out of the lands already purchased from them, and the main object of the proposed treaty with their nation was to secure the right of way for roads through their country in order to maintain communication between detached white settlements.

The delegation strenuously objected to the proposed "Georgia" road and were informed that the matter would not be pressed, but that the road to Bear River and Natchez was a necessity.

As a result of the visit of this delegation, the instructions to Messrs. Wilkinson, Davie, and Hawkins were modified,[131] it being stated by the Secretary of War that he had been mistaken as to part of the line between the United States and the Cherokees. He therefore directed that the second object of their instructions should be suspended as regarded both the Cherokees and the Chickasaws. Commissioner Davie having declined his appointment, General Andrew Pickens was substituted in his stead.[132]

_Failure of negotiations._--It is only necessary to observe that the commissioners failed in the accomplishment of any of their designs with the Cherokees.

WAFFORD'S SETTLEMENT.