The necessity for these cessions, and especially that of the former tract, had been urged upon the Government of the United States by the legislature and by the citizens of Tennessee, many of whom had been purchasers of land within its limits, from the State of North Carolina, a quarter of a century previous, and who had been restrained from possession and occupancy of the same by the United States authorities so long as the Indian title remained unextinguished. In the event that the national council of the Cherokees should decline to accede to the desired cessions, Agent Meigs was to urge that the Cherokee delegation appointed to meet the boundary commissioners at the Chickasaw Council House on the 1st of September following should be invested with full authority for the conclusion of such adjustment of boundaries as might be determined on at that place. This authority was conditionally granted by the council,[219] and when the delegation came to meet the United States commissioners at the Chickasaw Council House, in the month of September, an agreement was made as to boundaries as set forth in the second article of the treaty of September 14, 1816. By this agreement the Cherokees ceded all claim west of a line from Camp Coffee to the Coosa River and south of a line from the latter point to Flat Rock, on Bear Creek.[220] The treaty was ratified by the nation in general council, at Turkeytown, on the 4th of October following.[221]
Alabama alleges error in survey.—When the due-south line from Camp Coffee provided for in the treaty was surveyed, the surveyor, through an error in running it, deflected somewhat to the west. When the adjacent country came to be surveyed and opened up to settlement much complaint was made, and the legislature of Alabama[222] passed a joint resolution reciting the fact that through this erroneous survey much valuable land had been left within the Cherokee limits which had properly been ceded to the United States and instructing Alabama's delegation in Congress to take measures for having the line correctly run. The matter having been by Congress referred to the Secretary of War for investigation and report, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, at his request, reported[223] that when the public surveys were made in that section it was found that neither the line due south from Camp Coffee nor from the head of Caney Creek had been surveyed on a true meridian. Inasmuch, however, as they had been run and marked by commissioners appointed by the United States, the surveyors necessarily made the public surveys in conformity to them. By this deviation from the true meridian the United States and the State of Alabama had gained more land from the manner in which the Caney Creek or Chickasaw boundary line had been run than had been lost by the deviation in the Cherokee or Camp Coffee line, and the quantity in either case did not perhaps exceed six or eight thousand acres.
TREATY CONCLUDED JULY 8, 1817; PROCLAIMED DECEMBER 26, 1817.[224]
Held at Cherokee Agency, in the Cherokee Nation, between Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Joseph McMinn, governor of Tennessee, and General David Merriwether, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River, and those on the Arkansas River, by their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James Rogers, duly authorised by written power of attorney.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The whole Cherokee Nation cede to the United States all the lands lying north and east of the following boundaries, viz: 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; thence up the Chatahouchy River to the mouth of Souque Creek; thence continuing with the general course of the river until it reaches the Indian boundary line; and should it strike the Turrurar River, thence with its meanders down said river to its mouth, in part of the proportion of land in the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi to which those now on the Arkansas and those about to remove there are justly entitled.
2. The whole Cherokee Nation do also cede to the United States all the lands lying north and west of the following boundary lines, viz: Beginning at the Indian boundary line that runs from the north bank of the Tennessee River opposite to the mouth of Hywassee River, at a point on the top of Walden's Ridge where it divides the waters of the Tennessee River from those of the Sequatchie River; thence along said ridge southwardly to the bank of the Tennessee River at a point near to a place called the Negro Sugar Camp, opposite to the upper end of the first island above Running Water Town; thence westwardly a straight line to the mouth of Little Sequatchie River; thence up said river to its main fork; thence up its northermost fork to its source; and thence due west to the Indian boundary line.
3. A census to be taken of the whole Cherokee Nation during June, 1818. The enumeration of those east of the Mississippi River to be made by a commissioner appointed by the President of the United States and a commissioner appointed by the Cherokees residing on the Arkansas. That of those on the Arkansas by a United States commissioner and one appointed by the Cherokees east of the Mississippi.
4. The annuities for 1818 and thereafter to be divided upon the basis of said census between Cherokees east of the Mississippi and those on the Arkansas. The lands east of the Mississippi also to be divided, and the proportion of those moved and agreeing to remove to the Arkansas to be surrendered to the United States.