By an agreement between the United States and the State of Georgia
bearing date April 24, 1802,[277] Georgia ceded to the United States
all the lands lying south of Tennessee and west of Chattahoochee River
and a line drawn from the mouth of Uchee Creek direct to Nickojack, on
the Tennessee River. In consideration of this cession the United States
agreed to pay Georgia $1,250,000, and to extinguish the Indian title
whenever the same could be done on peaceable and reasonable terms; also
to assume the burden of what were known as the Yazoo claims.
_Georgia charges the United States with bad faith._--Ever since the
date of this agreement the utmost impatience had been manifested by the
Government and the people of the State of Georgia at the deliberate
and careful course which had characterized the action of the General
Government in securing relinquishment of their lands in that State
from the Creeks and Cherokees. Charges of bad faith on the part of the
United States, coupled with threats of taking the matter into their
own hands, had been published in great profusion by the Georgians.
These served only to enhance the difficulties of the situation and to
excite a stubborn resistance in the minds of the Indians against any
further cessions of territory.
_Report of Congressional committee._--The subject was brought to
the attention of Congress through the action of the governor and
legislature of Georgia. A select committee was appointed by the House
of Representatives, at the first session of the Seventeenth Congress,
to take the matter into consideration and to report whether the said
articles of agreement between that State and the United States had so
far been executed according to the terms thereof, and what were the
best means of completing the execution of the same. This committee
submitted a report to the House,[278] wherein, after reciting the
terms of the agreement, allusion is made to the Creek treaty of 1814,
and the opinion expressed that the agreement might have been more
satisfactorily complied with by demanding the cession at that treaty of
the Creek lands within Georgia's limits, instead of accepting in large
measure those within the Territory of Alabama. The Indians were by this
action forced, in the opinion of the committee, within the limits of
Georgia, instead of being withdrawn therefrom.
Respecting the Cherokee treaty of July 8, 1817, the committee say that
some time previous to its conclusion the Cherokees had represented to
the President that their upper and lower towns wished to separate;
that the Upper Cherokees desired to be confined to a smaller section
of country and to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and civilized
life; that the Lower Cherokees preferred continuing the hunter's life,
and, owing to the scarcity of game in their own country, proposed to
exchange it for land on the west of the Mississippi River; that to
carry into effect these wishes of the Indians the treaty of 1817 was
held, and the United States then had it in their power to have so far
complied with their contract with Georgia as to have extinguished the
title of the Cherokees to most of their lands within the limits of
that State; that this could readily have been done, for the reason
that the Upper Cherokees resided beyond the boundaries of Georgia,
and had expressed a desire to retain lands on the Hiwassee River,
in Tennessee, whilst the Lower Cherokees, who were desirous of
emigrating west, mostly resided in the former State. But, in spite of
this opportunity, the United States had purchased an inconsiderable
tract of country in Georgia and a very considerable one in Tennessee,
apparently in opposition to the wishes of the Indians, the interests
of Georgia, and of good faith in themselves. By this treaty the United
States had also granted a reservation of 640 acres to each head of
an Indian family who should elect to remain on the eastern side of
the Mississippi. This the committee viewed as an attempt on the part
of the United States to grant lands in fee simple within the limits
of Georgia in direct violation of the rights of that State. The
provision permitting Cherokees to become citizens of the United States
was also characterized as an unwarrantable disregard of the rights
of Congress. It was further asserted that by the treaty of 1819 the
United States had shown a disposition and determination to permanently
fix the Cherokee Indians upon the soil of Georgia, and thereby render
it impossible to comply with their contract with that State. Yet
another feature of this treaty too objectionable to be overlooked was
the agreement of the United States that 12 miles square of land ceded
by the Indians should be disposed of and the proceeds invested for
the establishment of a school fund for those Indians. In conclusion
the committee suggested that in order to a proper execution of the
agreement with Georgia it would be necessary for the United States
to relinquish the policy they had apparently adopted with regard to
civilizing the Indians and keeping them permanently on their lands, at
least in respect to the Creeks and Cherokees, and that appropriations
should be made from time to time sufficiently large to enable the
Government to hold treaties with those Indians for the extinguishment
of their title.
_Commissioners appointed to negotiate a new treaty._--Stimulated by
the sentiments so strongly expressed in this report of a committee of
the House of Representatives, the executive authorities determined to
make another effort to secure a further cession of territory from the
Cherokees.
Accordingly the President appointed[279] General John Floyd, Maj.
Freeman Walker, and Hon. J. A. Cuthbert, all of Georgia, commissioners
to negotiate a treaty with that nation, and advised them of his earnest
desire that a cession should be secured from the Indians such as
would prove satisfactory to that State. Messrs. Walker and Cuthbert
declined their appointments, and Duncan G. Campbell and General David
Merriwether were appointed[280] in their places. General Merriwether
dying shortly after, was succeeded by Maj. James Merriwether, whom it
had been the original intention to appoint, but for whose name that
of General Merriwether had been inserted in the primary appointment
through mistake. Before any active steps had been taken toward the
performance of the duties assigned the commission, General Floyd
resigned,[281] and the President determined to allow the remaining
two members to constitute the full commission. Their appointment was
submitted to and approved[282] by the Senate, and in the transmission
of their new commissions by the Secretary of War perseverance and
judicious management were enjoined upon them as essential to success
in their negotiations. It would seem that all their perseverance was
needed, for the commissioners were unable to secure even an interview
with the Cherokee authorities until a date and place had been
designated for the fourth time.
_Death of Agent Meigs._--About this time[283] Agent Meigs, who since
1801 had represented the Government with the Cherokees, died, and
ex-Governor McMinn, of Tennessee, was appointed[284] to succeed him.
_Failure to conclude proposed treaty._--The treaty commissioners
finally met the council of the Cherokee Nation at Newtown, their
capital, on the 4th of October, 1823.[285] They were also accompanied
by Johnson Wellborn and James Blair, who had been appointed by the
governor of Georgia as commissioners to advance the interests and
protect the rights of that State. The negotiations were all conducted
in writing, and form an interesting chapter in the history of the
methods used throughout a long series of years to secure from the
Cherokees, by "voluntary, peaceful, and reasonable means," the
relinquishment of their ancestral territory. The commissioners set
forth their desire to procure the cession of a tract of country
comprising all to which the Cherokees laid claim lying north and east
of a line to begin at a marked corner at the head of Chestatee River,
thence along the ridge to the mouth of Long Swamp Creek, thence down
the Etowah River to the line to be run between Alabama and Georgia,
thence with that line to the dividing line between the Creeks and
Cherokees, and thence with the latter line to the Chattahoochee. In
consideration of this proposed cession, the commissioners agreed that
the United States should pay the sum of $200,000 and also indemnify the
nation against the Georgia depredation claims, as well as the further
sum of $10,000 to be paid immediately upon the signing of the treaty.
To this proposition, in spite of the threatening language used by the
commissioners, the Indians invariably and repeatedly returned the
answer, "We beg leave to present this communication as a positive and
unchangeable refusal to dispose of one foot more of land."[286]
The commissioners, seeing the futility of further negotiations,
adjourned _sine die_,[287] and a report of their proceedings was made
by Commissioner Campbell thirty days later, Major Merriwether having in
the mean time resigned.
_Cherokees ask protection against Georgia's demands._--Shortly
following these attempted negotiations, which had produced in the
minds of the Indians a feeling of grave uneasiness and uncertainty, a
delegation of Cherokees repaired to Washington for a conference with
the President touching the situation. Upon receiving their credentials,
the Secretary of War sounded the key-note of the Government's purpose
by asking if they had come authorized by their nation to treat for
a further relinquishment of territory. To this pointed inquiry the
delegation returned a respectful and earnest memorial,[288] urging that
their nation labored under a peculiar inconvenience from the repeated
appropriations made by Congress for the purpose of holding treaties
with them having in view the further purchase of lands. Such action had
resulted in much injury to the improvement of the nation in the arts of
civilized life by unsettling the minds and prospects of its citizens.
Their nation had reached the decisive and unalterable conclusion to
cede no more lands, the limits preserved to them by the treaty of 1819
being not more than adequate to their comfort and convenience. It was
represented as a gratifying truth that the Cherokees were rapidly
increasing in number, rendering it a duty incumbent upon the nation to
preserve, unimpaired to posterity, the lands of their ancestors. They
therefore implored the interposition of the President with Congress
in behalf of their nation, so that provision might be made by law to
authorize an adjustment between the United States and the State of
Georgia, releasing the former from its compact with the latter so far
as it respected the extinguishment of the Cherokee title to land within
the chartered limits of that State.
The response[289] of the Secretary of War to this memorial was a
reiteration of the terms of the compact with Georgia and of the zealous
desire of the President to carry out in full measure the obligations of
that compact. The manifest benefits and many happy results that would
inure to the Cherokee Nation from an exchange of their country for
one beyond the limits of any State and far removed from the annoying
encroachments of civilization were pictured in the most attractive
colors, but all to no purpose, the Cherokees only maintaining with
more marked emphasis their original determination to part with no more
land. Seeing the futility of further negotiations, the Secretary of War
addressed[290] a communication to the governor of Georgia advising him
of the earnest efforts that had been made to secure further concessions
from the Cherokees and of the discouraging results, and inviting an
expression of opinion from him upon the subject.
_Governor Troup's threatening demands._--Governor Troup lost no time in
responding to this invitation by submitting[291] a declaration of views
on behalf of the government and people of the State of Georgia, the
vigorously aggressive tone of which in some measure perhaps compensated
for its lack of logical force. After censuring the General Government
for the tardiness and weakness that had characterized its action on
this subject throughout a series of years and denying that the Indians
were anything but mere tenants at will, he laid down the proposition
that Georgia was determined at all hazards to become possessed of the
Cherokee domain; that if the Indians persisted in their refusal to
yield, the consequences would be that the United States must either
assist the Georgians in occupying the country which is their own and
which is unjustly withheld from them, or, in resisting the occupation,
to make war upon and shed the blood of brothers and friends. He further
declared that the proposition to permit the Cherokees to reserve a
portion of their land within that State for their future home could
not be legitimately entertained by the General Government except with
the consent of Georgia; that such consent would never be given; and,
further that the suggestion of the incorporation of the Indians into
the body politic of that State as citizens was neither desirable
nor practicable. The conclusion of this remarkable state paper is
characterized by a broadly implied threat that Georgia's fealty to
the Union would be proportioned to the vigor and alertness with which
measures were adopted and carried into effect by the United States for
the extinguishment of the Cherokee title.
_Response of President Monroe._--These criticisms by the executive of
Georgia, which were sanctioned and in large measure reiterated by the
legislature and by the Congressional delegation of that State,[292]
called forth[293] from President Monroe a message to Congress upon
the subject in defense of the course that had been pursued by the
executive authorities of the United States. Accompanying this message
was a report[294] from John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, wherein it
is alleged that at the date of the compact of 1802 between the United
States and Georgia the two Indian nations living within the limits
of that State (the Creeks and the Cherokees) were respectively in
possession of 19,578,890 and 7,152,110 acres of territory. At the date
of such compact, treaties existed between the United States and those
tribes defining the limits of their territories. In fulfillment of the
stipulation with Georgia, seven treaties had been held with them, five
of which were with the Creeks and two with the Cherokees. The lands
thus acquired from the former in Georgia amounted to 14,449,480 acres
and from the latter to 995,310 acres. In acquiring these cessions
for the State of Georgia the United States had expended $958,945.90,
to which should be added the value of the 995,310 acres given by the
Cherokees in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi, the estimated
value of which, at the minimum price of public lands, would amount to
$1,244,137.50. The United States had also (in addition to $1,250,000
paid to Georgia as a part of the original consideration) paid to the
Yazoo claimants, under the same compact, $4,282,151.12, making in the
aggregate $7,735,243.52, which sum did not include any portion of the
expense of the Creek war, whereby upwards of 7,000,000 acres were
acquired for the State of Georgia.[295]
The President expressed it as his opinion that the Indian title was
not in the slightest degree affected by the compact with Georgia, and
that there was no obligation resting on the United States to remove the
Indians by force, in the face of the stipulation that it should be done
_peaceably_ and on _reasonable_ conditions. The compact gave a claim to
the State which ought to be executed in all its conditions with good
faith. In doing this, however, it was the duty of the United States to
regard its strict import, and to make no sacrifice of their interest
not called for by the compact, nor to commit any breach of right or
humanity toward the Indians repugnant to the judgment and revolting
to the feelings of the whole American people. The Cherokee agent,
Ex-Governor McMinn, was shortly afterward ordered,[296] "without delay
and in the most effectual manner, forthwith to expel white intruders
from Cherokee lands."
_Alarm of the Cherokees and indignation of Georgia._--The views
expressed by the governor and legislature of Georgia upon this subject
were the cause of much alarm among the Cherokees, who, through their
delegation, appealed[297] to the magnanimity of the American Congress
for justice and for the protection of the rights, liberties, and lives
of the Cherokee people. On the other hand, the doctrines enunciated in
President Monroe's special message, quoted above, again aroused the
indignation of the governor of Georgia, who, in a communication[298] to
the President, commented with much severity upon the bad faith that for
twenty years had characterized the conduct of the executive officers of
the United States in their treatment of the matter in dispute.
_Message of President John Quincy Adams._--Every day but added
acrimonious intensity to the feelings of the officials and people of
Georgia. Their determination to at once possess both the Creek and the
Cherokee territory within her chartered limits would admit of no delay
or compromise. Following the Creek treaty of 1826, her surveyors were
promptly and forcibly introduced into the ceded country, in spite of an
express provision of the treaty forbidding such action prior to the 1st
of January, 1827. So critical was the state of affairs considered to be
that President John Quincy Adams invited the attention of Congress to
the subject in a special message.[299] Therein the President declared
that it ought not to be disguised that the act of the legislature of
Georgia, under the construction given to it by the governor of that
State, and the surveys made or attempted by his authority beyond the
boundary secured by the treaty of 1826 to the Creek Indians, were in
direct violation of the supreme law of the land, set forth in a treaty
which had received all the sanctions provided by the Constitution;
that happily distributed as the sovereign powers of the people of this
Union had been between their general and State governments, their
history had already too often presented collisions between these
divided authorities with regard to the extent of their respective
powers. No other case had, however, happened in which the application
of military force by the Government of the Union had been suggested
for the enforcement of a law the violation of which had within any
single State been prescribed by a legislative act of that State. In
the present instance it was his duty to say that if the legislative
and executive authorities of the State of Georgia should persevere in
acts of encroachment upon the territories secured by a solemn treaty to
the Indians and the laws of the Union remained unaltered, a superadded
obligation, even higher than that of human authority, would compel the
Executive of the United States to enforce the laws and fulfill the
duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose to his
charge.