Report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations on the Petition of the Honourable Thomas Walpole, Benjamin Franklin, John Sargent, and Samuel Wharton, Esquires, and their Associates / 1772

by Great Britain. Board of Trade

I. The first paragraph of the Report, we apprehend, was intended to establish two propositions as facts;—viz.—

First, That the tract of land agreed for with the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, contains part of the dominion of Virginia.

Second, That it extends several degrees of longitude Westward from the Western ridge of the Allegany mountains.

On the first proposition we shall only remark, that no part of the above tract is to the Eastward of the Allegany mountains;—and that these mountains must be considered as the true Western boundary of Virginia;—for the King was not seised and possessed of a right to the country Westward of the mountains, until his Majesty purchased it, in the year 1768, from the Six Nations: and since that time, there has not been any annexation of such purchase, or of any part thereof, to the colony of Virginia.

On the second proposition,—we shall just observe, that the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations appear to us to be as erroneous in this as in the former proposition; for their Lordships say, that the tract of land under consideration extends several degrees of longitude Westward. The truth is, that it is not more, on a medium, than one degree and a half of longitude from the Western ridge of the Allegany mountains to the river Ohio.

II. It appears by the second paragraph, as if the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations apprehended,—that the lands south-westerly of the boundary line, marked on a map annexed to their Lordships report,—were either claimed by the Cherokees, or were their hunting grounds, or were the hunting grounds of the Six Nations and their confederates.

As to any claim of the Cherokees to the above country, it is altogether new and indefensible; and never was heard of, until the appointment of Mr. Stewart to the superintendency of the Southern colonies, about the year 1764; and this, we flatter ourselves, will not only be obvious from the following state of facts, but that the right to all the country on the Southerly side of the river Ohio, quite to the Cherokee River, is now undoubtedly vested in the King, by the grant which the Six Nations made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix, in November 1768.—In short, the lands from the Great Kenhawa to the Cherokee river never were, either the dwelling or hunting grounds of the Cherokees;—but formerly belonged to, and were inhabited by the Shawanesse, until such time as they were conquered by the Six Nations.

Mr. Colden, the present Lieutenant Governor of New York, in his History of the Five Nations, observes, that about the year 1664, "the Five Nations being amply supplied by the English with firearms and ammunition, gave a full swing to their warlike genius. They carried their arms as far South as Carolina, to the Northward of New England, and as far West as the river Mississippi, over a vast country,—which extended 1200 miles in length from North to South, and 600 miles in breadth,—where they entirely destroyed whole nations, of whom there are no accounts remaining among the English."

In 1701,—the Five Nations put all their hunting lands under the protection of the English, as appears by the records, and by the recital and confirmation thereof, in their deed to the King of the 4th September 1726;—and Governor Pownal, who many years ago diligently searched into the rights of the natives, and in particular into those of the Northern confederacy, says, in his book intituled, the Administration of the Colonies, "The right of the Five Nation confederacy to the hunting lands of Ohio, Ticûcksouchrondite and Scaniaderiada, by the conquest they made, in subduing the Shaöanaes, Delawares (as we call them) Twictwees and Oilinois, may be fairly proved, as they stood possessed thereof at the peace of Reswick 1697."—And confirmatory hereof, Mr. Lewis Evans, a gentleman of great American knowledge, in his map of the middle colonies, published in America in the year 1755, has laid down the country on the South-easterly side of the river Ohio, as the hunting lands of the Six Nations; and in his Analysis to this map, he expressly says,—"The Shawanesse, who were formerly one of the most considerable nations of those parts of America, whose seat extended from Kentucke South-westward to the Mississippi, have been subdued by the confederates (or Six Nations) and the country since became their property. No nation," Mr. Evans adds, "held out with greater resolution and bravery, and although they have been scattered in all parts for a while, they are again collected on Ohio, under the dominion of the confederates."

At a congress held in the year 1744, by the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia with the Six Nations,—the Commissioners of Virginia, in a speech to the Sachems and Warriors of that confederacy, say, "tell us what nations of Indians you conquered any lands from in Virginia, how long it is since, and what possession you have had; and if it does appear, that there is any land on the borders of Virginia that the Six Nations have a right to, we are willing to make you satisfaction."