Native Americans: 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies. James Mooney

shops, and so forth. Earle, on his part, engaged to erect such iron works and shops as to enable him to furnish such quantities of iron and implements of husbandry as should be sufficient for the use of the various Indian tribes in that part of the country, including those on the west side of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; also to deliver annually to the order of the Government of the United States such quantities of iron and implements as should be needed for the Indian service, and on such reasonable terms as should be mutually agreed upon.

The Secretary of War referred the propositions of Colonel Earle to the President of the United States, who gave them his sanction, and accordingly Agent Meigs, of the Cherokees, was instructed175 to endeavor to procure from the Cherokees such a cession as was proposed, so soon as Colonel Earle should have explored the country and selected a suitable place for the proposed establishment. Colonel Earle made the necessary explorations, and found a place at the mouth of Chickamauga Creek which seemed to meet the requirements of the case.

Thereupon Agent Meigs convened the Indians in council at Highwassee, Tennessee, at which Colonel Earle was present, and concluded a treaty176 with them. By its terms, in consideration of the sum of $5,000 and 1,000 bushels of corn, the Cherokees ceded a tract of country 6 miles square at the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, on the south side of Tennessee River, to be laid off in square form so as to include the creek to the best advantage for such site. The treaty also contained a proviso that in case the ore supply should fail at this point, the United States should have full liberty to procure it within the Cherokee territory at the most suitable and convenient place. Twenty-five hundred dollars of the consideration was at once paid in cash to the Indians and 1,000 bushels of corn agreed to be delivered to them the following spring. Colonel Earle carried the treaty to Washington at the next session of Congress for ratification.177

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 Senate179 unanimously rejected the treaty. In consequence of this action, Colonel Earle made claim180 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 advised181 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 advised182 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, when183 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

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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 appointed187 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

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      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