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.