selves Independent of that State, have chosen a Governor and Council of their own, elected delegates, and are now sitting in General Assembly. They call their State Franklin. They intend to lay off a new county South of French Broad river, in lands reserved by the State of North Carolina for the Indians, which county so laid off will include some of the towns the Indians are now living in.* Capt. Cocke is chosen a member of Congress, who sets out about the tenth of April-which, if they proceed, undoubtedly involve the States in a war with the Indians. Hubbard, who murdered Butler, is one of their delegates; that has provoked the Indians much, as they now despair of his being brought to justice, & I suppose, have attempted to take satisfaction at the house of one Cox, near the end of Clinch Mountain, where an attack was made the 10th inst., the damage done there was one horse killed.t Martin writes Governor Henry from Smith's River, April 17, 1785: * Governor Martin tells me he is well informed that the greatest part of the Cherokee and Creek Indians are for war, occasioned by the State of Franklin passing an act to extend their boundary within 20 miles of Chota, without holding any treaty with them. He also informs me, that he has declined holding any treaty with the Indians, as the people over the mountains have separated themselves from North Carolina. These letters show that there was a necessity for a better understanding with the Indians, and with the treaty of Hopewell a new era in the relations with the Cherokee Nation began. Before this time the colonies had dealt with them separately, but the contentions between the border settlers of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as the authorities of these States, with the Cherokees and Creeks had now induced the Congress of the Confederation to take the matter into their own hands. Its object was to define the claims of the Indians and of the whites, respectively, and in this way to prevent the encroachment of the latter on the Indian reservation. Benjamin Hawkins and Lachlan McIntosh of Georgia, Andrew Pickins of South Carolina, and Joseph Martin were appointed commissioners. Before meeting the Cherokees the commissioners made arrangements to meet the Creeks and proceeded to Galphinton, in Jefferson County, Ga. They arrived here on the 24th and 28th of October, 1785, having procured all things necessary for their purpose. But, owing to false reports which had been spread among the Indians, few of them attended, although *This was open in 1787. Calendar Virginia State Papers, IV, 256. they were anxious to make peace with the States; the number in attendance was too small to justify the commissioners in making a treaty. They explained the object of their commission, gave them presents and left, but the agents of Georgia held a treaty with the few who were there. The Continental Commissioners then returned to South Carolina, and on November 18, 1785, met the Cherokees at Hopewell on Keowee, 15 miles above its juncture with the Tugaloo. Martin was thoroughly acquainted with the situation and the negotiations were left largely with him. The Cherokees were estimated at this time at 2,000 warriors,* of whom 918 attended the conference. William Blount was present as agent for North Carolina, John King and Thomas Glasscock for Georgia. The commissioners announced the change in sovereignty due to the successful termination of the revolution; promised the Indians justice and a redress of grievances if they had any. The main question to be settled was the respective boundaries of the two. The Indians drafted a map † showing the territory claimed by them and including the greater part of Kentucky and Tennessee and parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The treaty was signed November 28, 1785. Prisoners were to be restored to liberty on both sides; negroes and other property to be given up; the Cherokees acknowledged themselves under the United States alone. Their boundaries were then defined: Beginning at the mouth of Duck River on the Tennessee, thence northeast to the ridge dividing the waters of the Cumberland from those of the Tennessee; thence eastwardly along the said ridge to a northeast line to be run, which shall strike the river Cumberland 40 miles above Nashville; thence along the said line to the river; thence up the said river to the ford where the Kentucky road crosses the river; thence to Campbell's line near Cumberland Gap; thence to the mouth of Cloud's Creek on Holston; thence to the Chimney Top Mountain; thence to Camp Creek, near the mouth of Big Limestone on Nolichuckey; thence a southerly course 6 miles to a mountain; thence 5 to the North Carolina line; thence to the South Carolina Indian boundary, and along the same southwest over the top of the Oconee *In 1787 Gen. Martin estimated them at 2,650. This map is reproduced in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, 1, 40, and in Putman's Middle Tennessee. Mountain till it struck Tugaloc River, thence a direct line to the top of Currahee Mountain; thence to the head of the south fork of Oconee River. If any white person should settle on the Indian lands or any who were there did not remove in six months they were to be punished or not, as the Indians wished. But this did not extend to the people between French Broad and Holston, who were too numerous to be removed, and their particular case was to be referred to Congress. The Indians were to give up all persons guilty of capital offences to be punished by the United States, just as its own citizens were. And article 7 provides: "If any citizen of the United States, or person under their protection, shall commit a robbery or murder, or other capital crime, on any Indian, such offender or offenders shall be punished in the same manner as if the murder or robbery, or other capital crime, had been committed on a citizen of the United States; and the punishment shall be in presence of some of the Cherokees, if any shall attend at the time and place, and that they may have an opportunity so to do, due notice of the time of such intended punishment shall be sent to some one of the tribes. The innocent were not to be punished for the guilty; if the treaty was violated, war was to be preceded by a declaration of hostilities. The United States alone was to regulate trade with the Indians, and until the pleasure of Congress was known all traders were at liberty to visit them. The Indians were to give notice of any "designs which they may know or suspect to be formed in any neighboring tribe or by any person whosoever against the power, trade, or interest of the United States of America." This was designed against the Spaniards. They were given the right to send a deputy to Congress when they thought proper, and the hatchet was to be buried forever. After signing the treaty Martin and McIntosh set out for their homes, leaving Hawkins and Pickins to settle affairs with the Indians. But Martin, learning that the Choctaws were coming to meet them to make a treaty, returned on December 27. The Choctaws had arrived on the 26th in a naked and destitute condition, after having traveled nearly 500 miles and suffering many hindrances from the Spaniards and Creeks. It was first found necessary to clothe them, and on the 3d of January, 1786, a treaty was signed. January 10 they signed a treaty with the Chickasaws at the same place. The Chickasaws granted a circle 5 miles in diameter at the Muscle Shoals for a trading post; the Choctaws gave 3 posts each 6 miles square. In all other respects, after defining the boundaries of the separate nations, the terms of these treaties are the same as that made with the Cherokees, except that the Chickasaws and Choctaws are asked to surrender no prisoners and were not invited to send a delegate to Congress.* The relations with the Cherokees were at that time the most pressing. The Cherokee Hopewell treaty was a compromise. It is evident that the commissioners sought to conciliate both the Spaniards and the Cherokees. They sought to lessen the horrors of Indian warfare and this was reduced for the next year. They knew that the treaty would make them enemies among the whites. "Through the whole of our negotiations," they write, "we have paid particular attention to the rights and interest of the United States as far as our abilities comprehended them, regardless, of the adjoining Statest. The Georgia commissioners protested that the treaty of Hopewell was "a manifest and direct attempt to violate the retained sovereignty and legislative right of this State," and that the commissioners "did attempt to exercise powers that are not delegated by the respective States to the United States." William Blount said that the boundary fixed by the treaty was different from that fixed by the assembly of North Carolina in 1783 and was therefore "a violation and infringement of her legislative rights," that some of the lands ceded to the Indians had been granted to Revolutionary soldiers and that others had been sold. On July 12, 1786, Governor Caswell writes John Sevier that the people of North Carolina are making "a very great clamor respecting the conduct of Col. Blount at the Indian treaty, though I am satisfied he did everything in his power to prevent the same taking place, so much to the disadvantage of this State if carried into effect." But he concludes that Congress will come to the opinion that this treaty is so repugnant to the rights of the States "that they will not consider us, by any means bound to abide by those treaties." The Indians had in the beginning claimed most of Kentucky and Tennessee with a considerable part of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They were induced to give up their claims to Transylvania and to consent to such a boundary as would, in the opinion of all, leave all the people * Indian Treaties of the United States to 1837, pp. 8-17. + American State Papers, Indian Affairs, 1, 48-52. in the Cumberland section outside of the Indian territory. The commissioners agreed to remove a few families who had gone within the Indian bounds but those who had settled between French Broad and Holston were too numerous for them to agree positively to their removal. This was a source of discontent to the Indians. They said there were 3,000 of these settlers and noted their disposition to encroach still further on their preserves. They maintained that they had never sold the land and that the settlers were there in defiance of their protest. On the other hand the whites were angry because any favors had been shown the Indians and because there were not further curtailment of their territory.* But the boundaries thus fixed by the treaty of Hopewell "were the most favorable it was possible to obtain from the latter [Cherokees] without regard to previous purchases and pretended purchases made by private individuals and others. Although the Indians yielded an extensive territory to the United States, yet, on the other hand, the latter conceded to the Cherokees a considerable extent of territory that had already been purchased from them by private individuals or associations, though by methods of more than doubtful legality."+ Reference is had here to the treaties made by the State of * Some of the writers whom I have consulted represent the views of the whites only, and we find the treaty denounced and misinterpreted. Putnam, Middle Tennessee, 239, warps the seventh article, which, as the context clearly shows, was intended to put the power of punishing offenders against the Indians into the hands of the States, when he says it clothed the savages 66 with judicial and executive powers of a startling character." Gilmore, either too indifferent or too careless of the truth to go to the original record, copies Putnam instead and even forgets to mention that clause of the treaty which refers the case of the settlers on the French Broad tract to Congress. John Sevier, 61-63; See American State papers, Indian Affairs, 1, 38-52; Indian Treaties of United States to 1837. The three treaties were ratified by Congress April 17, 1786. It may be of interest for these gentlemen to know also that in the treaty signed by William Blount with the Cherokees in 1791 and in the treaty signed by Knox in 1794 the article in regard to felonies was not altered and the one in regard to trespassing still reads: "If any citizen of the United States, or other person not being an Indian, shall settle on any of the Cherokee's lands, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Cherokee's may punish him or not as they please."-American State Papers, Indian Affairs, 1, 124. +Charles C. Royce: "The Cherokee Nation of Indians" in report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-'84, pp. 152, 153 et seq. See also Ramsey's Tenn., 463, 499. S. Mis. 10429 |