MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
It is agreed and stipulated that—
1. The Cherokee Nation relinquish and cede to the United States a tract of land bounding southerly on the boundary line between the State of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation, beginning at a point on the said boundary line northeasterly of the most northeast plantation in the settlement known by the name of Wafford's Settlement, and running at right angles with the said boundary line 4 miles into the Cherokee land, thence at right angles southwesterly and parallel to the first mentioned boundary line so far as that a line to be run at right angles southerly to the said first mentioned boundary line shall include in this cession all the plantations in Wafford's Settlement, so called, as aforesaid.
2. In consideration of this cession the United States agree to pay the Cherokees $5,000, in goods or cash, upon the signing of the treaty, and an annuity of $1,000.
HISTORICAL DATA.
NEW TREATY AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS.
Congress, under date of February 19, 1799,[127] appropriated $25,000 to defray the expense of negotiating a treaty or treaties with the Indians, and again, on the 13th of May, 1800,[128] appropriated $15,000 to defray the expense of holding a treaty or treaties with the Indian tribes southwest of the Ohio River, with the proviso that nothing in the act should be construed to admit an obligation on the part of the United States to extinguish for the benefit of any State or individual the Indian claim to any lands lying within the limits of the United States.
Pursuant to the authority conferred by these enactments, President Jefferson appointed[129] General James Wilkinson, Wm. R. Davie, and Benj. Hawkins as commissioners, and they were instructed by the Secretary of War to proceed to negotiate treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.
Objects of the treaty.—The objects sought to be attained with the Cherokees were to secure their consent, 1st. To cede to the United States all that portion of their territory lying to the northward of a direct line to be run from a point mentioned in treaty of October 2, 1798, on Tennessee River, 1 mile above its junction with the Clinch, to the point at or near the head of the West Fork of Stone's River, on the ridge dividing the waters of the Cumberland and Duck Rivers which is struck by a southwest line from the point where the Kentucky road crosses Cumberland River, as described in the treaty of Holston.
2. That the Tennessee River should be the boundary from its mouth to the mouth of Duck River; that Duck River should be the boundary thence to the mouth of Rock Creek; and that a direct line should be run for a continuation of the boundary from the mouth of Rock Creek to the point on the ridge that divides the waters of Cumberland from Duck River.