Mention has already been made in discussing the terms of the treaty of
September 22, 1816, of the complications arising out of the question
of disputed boundaries between the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws,
and Chickasaws. These disputes related chiefly to an adjustment of
boundaries within the Territory of Alabama, rendered necessary for the
definite ascertainment of the limits of the Creek cession of 1814. But
as a result of the Cherokee cession of 1817 and the Creek cessions of
1818, 1821, 1826, and 1827, the true boundary between the territories
of these two latter nations became not only a matter of dispute, but
one that for years lent additional bitterness to the contest between
the people of Georgia and the Indians, especially the Cherokees. Prior
to the Revolution, the latter had claimed to own the territory within
the limits of Georgia, as far south as the waters of Broad River, and
extending from the headwaters of that river westward. Some of this
territory was also claimed by the Creeks, and the British Government
had therefore in purchasing it accepted a cession from those tribes
jointly.[374]
At the beginning of the Federal relations with the Cherokees, a
definition of their boundaries had been made by treaty of November
28, 1785, extending on the south as far west as the headwaters of the
Appalachee River. Beyond that point to the west no declaration as
to the limits of the Cherokee territory was made, because, for the
purposes of the Federal Government, none was at that time necessary.
But when in course of time other cessions came to be made, both by
the Cherokees and Creeks, it began to be essential to have an exact
definition of the line of limits between them. Especially was this
the case when, as by the terms of the Creek treaty of February 12,
1825,[375] they ceded all the territory to which they laid claim within
the limits of Georgia, and although this treaty was afterwards declared
void by the United States, because of alleged fraud, Georgia always
maintained the propriety and validity of its negotiation.
As early as June 10, 1802, a delegation of Cherokees interviewed
Colonel Hawkins and General Pickens, and after demanding the removal of
certain settlers claimed to be on their lands, asserted the boundary of
their nation in the direction of the Creeks to be the path running from
Colonel Easley's, at High Shoals of the Appalachee, to Etowah River.
This they had agreed upon in council with the Creeks. A delegation of
the Creeks, whom they brought with them from the council, were then
interrogated on the subject by Messrs. Hawkins and Pickens, and they
replied that the statement of the Cherokees was correct.
In the spring of 1814 (May 15) Agent Meigs had written the Secretary of
War that the Cherokees were sensible that the Creeks ought to cede to
the United States sufficient land to fully compensate the latter for
the expenses incurred in prosecuting the Creek war. However, they (the
Cherokees) were incidentally interested in the arrangements, and hoped
that the United States would not permit the Creeks to point out the
specific boundaries of their cession until the division line between
the two nations had been definitely determined. In the following year,
in a discussion of the subject with Colonel Hawkins, the Creek agent,
Colonel Meigs declares that the Cherokees repel the idea entertained by
the Creeks that the Cherokee or Tennessee River was ever their southern
boundary. On the contrary, the dividing line between the territories
of the two nations should begin at Vann's Old Store, on the Ocmulgee
River, thence pursuing such a course as would strike the Coosa River
below the Ten Islands. This claim was predicated upon the assertion
that the Cherokees had in the course of three successive wars with
the Creeks driven them more than a degree of latitude below the point
last named. Another Cherokee version was to the effect that at a joint
council of the two nations, held prior to the Revolutionary War, the
boundary question was a subject of discussion, when it was agreed to
allow the oldest man in the Creek Nation to determine the point. This
man was James McQueen, a soldier who had deserted from Oglethorpe's
command soon after the settlement of Savannah. McQueen decided that the
boundary should be a line drawn across the headwaters of Hatchet and
Elk Creeks, the former being a branch of the Coosa and the latter a
tributary of the Tallapoosa. This decision was predicated upon the fact
that the Cherokees had driven the Creeks below this line, and it had
been mutually agreed that it should constitute the boundary.
In contradiction of this it was asserted by the Creeks that in the year
1818 it had been admitted at a public meeting of the Creeks by "Sour
Mush," a Cherokee chief, that the Creeks owned all the land up to the
head of Coosa River, including all of its waters; that the Tennessee
was the Cherokee River, and the territories of the two nations joined
on the dividing ridge between those rivers. In former times, on the
Chattahoochee, the Cherokees had claimed the country as low down as
a branch of that river called Choky (Soquee) River. Subsequently
they were told by the Coweta king, that they might live as low down
as the Currahee Mountain, but that their young men had now extended
their claim to Hog Mountain, without however any shadow of right or
authority.[376]
With a view to an amicable adjustment of their respective rights a
council was held between the chiefs and headmen of the two nations
at the residence of General William McIntosh, in the Creek country,
at which a treaty was concluded between themselves on the 11th of
December, 1820. In the first article of this treaty the boundary line
between the two nations was fixed as running from the Buzzard's Roost,
on the Chattahoochee, in a direct line to the Coosa River, at a point
opposite the mouth of Wills Town Creek, and thence down the Coosa River
to a point opposite Fort Strother. This boundary was reaffirmed by them
in a subsequent treaty concluded October 30, 1822.[377]
The Cherokee treaty of 1817 had assumed to cede a tract of country
"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," etc.
The Creek treaty of 1818[378] in turn ceded a tract the northern
boundary of which extended from Suwanee Old Town, on the Chattahoochee,
to the head of Appalachee River, and which overlapped a considerable
portion of the Cherokee cession of 1817.
The Creek treaty of 1821[379] ceded a tract running as far north as the
Shallow Ford of the Chattahoochee, which also included a portion of
the territory within the limits of the Cherokee domain, as claimed by
the latter.
By the treaty of 1825[380] with the Creeks they ceded all their
remaining territory in Georgia. Complaint being made that this treaty
had been entered into by only a small non-representative faction of
that nation, an investigation was entered upon by the United States
authorities, and as the result it was determined to declare the treaty
void and to negotiate a new treaty with them, which was done on the
24th of January, 1826.[381]
By this last treaty as amended the Creeks ceded all their land east
of the Chattahoochee River, as well as a tract north and west of that
river. In the cession of this latter tract it was assumed that a point
on Chattahoochee River known as the Buzzard's Roost was the northern
limit of the Creek supremacy.
The authorities of Georgia strongly insisted that not only had the
treaty of 1825 been legitimately concluded, whereby they were entitled
to come into possession of all the Creek domain within her limits, but
also that the true line of the Creek limits toward the north had been
much higher up than would seem to have been the understanding of the
parties to the treaty of 1826.
In the following year the Creeks ceded all remaining territory they
might have within the limits of Georgia.[382] This left the only
question to be decided between the State of Georgia and the Cherokees
the one of just boundaries between the latter and the country recently
acquired from the Creeks.
The War Department had been of the impression that the proper boundary
between the two nations was a line to be run directly from the High
Shoals of the Appalachee to the Ten Islands, or Turkeytown, on the
Coosa River.[383] On this hypothesis Agent Mitchell, of the Creeks,
had been instructed, if he could do so, "without exciting their
sensibilities," to establish it as the northern line of the Creek
Nation.
Georgia, on the contrary, claimed that the proper boundary extended
from Suwanee Old Town, on the Chattahoochee, to Sixes Old Town, on the
Etowah River; from thence to the junction of the Etowah and Oostanaula
Rivers, and following the Creek path from that point to Tennessee
River. In pursuance of this claim Governor Forsyth instructed[384] Mr.
Samuel A. Wales as the surveyor for that State to proceed to establish
the line of limits in accordance therewith. Mr. Wales, upon commencing
operations, was met with a protest from Colonel Montgomery, the
Cherokee agent,[385] notwithstanding which he continued his operations
in conformity with his original instructions.
This action of the surveyor having produced a feeling of great
excitement and hostility within the Cherokee Nation, rendering
the danger of collision and bloodshed imminent, the United States
authorities took the matter in hand, and, by direction of the
President, General John Coffee was appointed and instructed[386] to
proceed to the Cherokee Nation, and from the most reliable information
and testimony attainable to report what, in his judgment, should in
justice and fairness to all parties concerned be declared to be the
true line of limits between Georgia, as the successor of the Creeks,
and the Cherokee Nation.
General Coffee proceeded to the performance of the duty thus assigned
him. A large mass of testimony and tradition on the subject was evoked,
in summing up which General Coffee reported[387] to the Secretary of
War that the line of demarkation between the two nations should begin
at the lower Shallow Ford of the Chattahoochee, which was about 15
miles below the Suwanee Old Town. From thence the line should run
westwardly in a direction to strike the ridge dividing the waters
running into Little River (a branch of the Hightower or Etowah) from
those running into Sweet Water Creek (a branch of the Chattahoochee
emptying about 2 miles below Buzzard's Roost). From this point such
ridge should be followed westwardly, leaving all the waters falling
into Hightower and Coosa Rivers to the right and all the waters that
run southwardly into Chattahoochee and Tallapoosa Rivers to the left,
until such ridge should intersect the line (which had been previously
as per agreement of 1821 between the Creeks and Cherokees themselves)
run and marked from Buzzard Roost to Wills Creek, and thence with this
line to the Coosa River opposite the mouth of Wills Creek.
Two weeks later[388] General Coffee, in a communication to the
Secretary of War, alludes to the dissatisfaction of Georgia with the
line as determined by him, and her claim to an additional tract of
territory by remarking that "I have thought it right to give this
statement for your own and the eye of the President only, that you may
the better appreciate the character of the active agents and partisans
of the Georgia claim, for really I cannot see any reasonable or
plausible evidence on which she rests her claim."
The President, after a careful examination of the testimony and much
solicitude upon the subject, decided to approve General Coffee's
recommendation. The Cherokee agent was therefore directed[389] to
notify all white settlers living north of Coffee's line to remove at
once. The governor of Georgia was also notified of the President's
decision, and, though strongly and persistently protesting against it,
the President firmly refused to revoke his action.[390] The Cherokees
were equally dissatisfied with the decision, because the line was not
fixed as far south as Buzzard's Roost, in accordance with the agreement
of 1821 between themselves and the Creeks.[391]