A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 1, part 1: George Washington

by Unknown

SECRET ARTICLE.

The commerce necessary for the Creek Nation shall be carried on through the ports and by the citizens of the United States if substantial and effectual arrangements shall be made for that purpose by the United States on or before the 1st day of August, 1792. In the meantime the said commerce may be carried on through its present channels and according to its present regulations.

And whereas the trade of the said Creek Nation is now carried on wholly or principally through the territories of Spain, and obstructions thereto may happen by war or prohibitions of the Spanish Government, it is therefore agreed between the said parties that in the event of any such obstructions happening it shall be lawful for such persons as —— —— —— —— shall designate to introduce into and transport through the territories of the United States to the country of the said Creek Nation any quantity of goods, wares, and merchandise not exceeding in value in any one year $60,000, and that free from any duties or impositions whatsoever, but subject to such regulations for guarding against abuse as the United States shall judge necessary, which privilege shall continue as long as such obstruction shall continue.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, August 6, 1790.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

Considering the circumstances which prevented the late commissioners from concluding a peace with the Creek Nation of Indians, it appeared to me most prudent that all subsequent measures for disposing them to a treaty should in the first instance be informal.

I informed you on the 4th instant that the adjustment of the terms of a treaty with their chiefs, now here, was far advanced. Such further progress has since been made that I think measures may at present be taken for conducting and concluding that business in form. It therefore becomes necessary that a proper person be appointed and authorized to treat with these chiefs and to conclude a treaty with them. For this purpose I nominate to you Henry Knox.

GO. WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, August 6, 1790.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have directed my secretary to lay before you a copy of an exemplified copy of a law to ratify on the part of the State of New Jersey certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States, together with a copy of a letter, which accompanied said ratification, from Hon. Elisha Lawrence, esq., vice-president of the State of New Jersey, to the President of the United States.

GO. WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, August 7, 1790.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

I lay before you a treaty between the United States and the chiefs of the Creek Nation, now in this city, in behalf of themselves and the whole Creek Nation, subject to the ratification of the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate.

While I flatter myself that this treaty will be productive of present peace and prosperity to our Southern frontier, it is to be expected that it will also in its consequences be the means of firmly attaching the Creeks and the neighboring tribes to the interests of the United States.

At the same time it is to be hoped that it will afford solid grounds of satisfaction to the State of Georgia, as it contains a regular, full, and definitive relinquishment on the part of the Creek Nation of the Oconee land in the utmost extent in which it has been claimed by that State, and thus extinguishes the principal cause of those hostilities from which it has more than once experienced such severe calamities.

But although the most valuable of the disputed land is included, yet there is a certain claim of Georgia, arising out of the treaty made by that State at Galphinston in November, 1785, of land to the eastward of a new temporary line from the forks of the Oconee and Oakmulgee in a southwest direction to the St. Marys River, which tract of land the Creeks in this city absolutely refuse to yield.

This land is reported to be generally barren, sunken, and unfit for cultivation, except in some instances on the margin of the rivers, on which by improvement rice might be cultivated, its chief value depending on the timber fit for the building of ships, with which it is represented as abounding.

While it is thus circumstanced on the one hand, it is stated by the Creeks on the other to be of the highest importance to them as constituting some of their most valuable winter hunting ground.

I have directed the commissioner to whom the charge of adjusting this treaty has been committed to lay before you such papers and documents and to communicate to you such information relatively to it as you may require.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, August 11, 1790.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

Although the treaty with the Creeks may be regarded as the main foundation of the future peace and prosperity of the Southwestern frontier of the United States, yet in order fully to effect so desirable an object the treaties which have been entered into with the other tribes in that quarter must be faithfully performed on our parts.

During the last year I laid before the Senate a particular statement of the case of the Cherokees. By a reference to that paper it will appear that the United States formed a treaty with the Cherokees in November, 1785; that the said Cherokees thereby placed themselves under the protection of the United States and had a boundary assigned them; that the white people settled on the frontiers had openly violated the said boundary by intruding on the Indian lands; that the United States in Congress assembled did, on the 1st day of September, 1788, issue their proclamation forbidding all such unwarrantable intrusions, and enjoined all those who had settled upon the hunting grounds of the Cherokees to depart with their families and effects without loss of time, as they would answer their disobedience to the injunctions and prohibitions expressed at their peril.

But information has been received that notwithstanding the said treaty and proclamation upward of 500 families have settled on the Cherokee lands exclusively of those settled between the fork of French Broad and Holstein rivers, mentioned in the said treaty.

As the obstructions to a proper conduct on this matter have been removed since it was mentioned to the Senate on the 22d of August, 1789, by the accession of North Carolina to the present Union and the cessions of the land in question, I shall conceive myself bound to exert the powers intrusted to me by the Constitution in order to carry into faithful execution the treaty of Hopewell, unless it shall be thought proper to attempt to arrange a new boundary with the Cherokees, embracing the settlements, and compensating the Cherokees for the cessions they shall make on the occasion. On this point, therefore, I state the following questions and request the advice of the Senate thereon:

First. Is it the judgment of the Senate that overtures shall be made to the Cherokees to arrange a new boundary so as to embrace the settlements made by the white people since the treaty of Hopewell, in November, 1785?

Second. If so, shall compensation to the amount of —— dollars annually, or of —— dollars in gross, be made to the Cherokees for the land they shall relinquish, holding the occupiers of the land accountable to the United States for its value?

Third. Shall the United States stipulate solemnly to guarantee the new boundary which may be arranged?

GEORGE WASHINGTON.