By the treaty of October 25, 1805, the settlements in eastern
Tennessee were brought into connection with those about Nashville
on the Cumberland, and the state at last assumed compact form. The
whole southern portion of the state, as defined in the charter, was
still Indian country, and there was a strong and constant pressure
for its opening, the prevailing sentiment being in favor of making
Tennessee river the boundary between the two races. New immigrants
were constantly crowding in from the east, and, as Royce says,
"the desire to settle on Indian land was as potent and insatiable
with the average border settler then as it is now." Almost within two
months of the last treaties another one was concluded at Washington on
January 7, 1806, by which the Cherokee ceded their claim to a large
tract between Duck river and the Tennessee, embracing nearly seven
thousand square miles in Tennessee and Alabama, together with the
Long island (Great island) in Holston river, which up to this time
they had claimed as theirs. They were promised in compensation ten
thousand dollars in five cash installments, a grist mill and cotton
gin, and a life annuity of one hundred dollars for Black-fox, the aged
head chief of the nation. The signers of the instrument, including
Doublehead and Tollunteeskee, were accompanied to Washington by the
same commissioners who had procured the previous treaty. In consequence
of some misunderstanding, the boundaries of the ceded tract were still
further extended in a supplementary treaty concluded at the Chickasaw
Old Fields on the Tennessee, on September 11, 1807. As the country
between Duck river and the Tennessee was claimed also by the Chickasaw,
their title was extinguished by separate treaties. [210] The ostensible
compensation for this last Cherokee cession, as shown by the treaty,
was two thousand dollars, but it was secretly agreed by Agent Meigs
that what he calls a "silent consideration" of one thousand dollars
and some rifles should be given to the chiefs who signed it. [211]
In 1807 Colonel Elias Earle, with the consent of the Government,
obtained a concession from the Cherokee for the establishment of iron
works at the mouth of Chickamauga creek, on the south side of Tennessee
river, to be supplied from ores mined in the Cherokee country. It was
hoped that this would be a considerable step toward the civilization
of the Indians, besides enabling the Government to obtain its supplies
of manufactured iron at a cheaper rate, but after prolonged effort
the project was finally abandoned on account of the refusal of the
state of Tennessee to sanction the grant. [212] In the same year, by
arrangement with the general government, the legislature of Tennessee
attempted to negotiate with the Cherokee for that part of their unceded
lands lying within the state limits, but without success, owing to
the unwillingness of the Indians to part with any more territory,
and their special dislike for the people of Tennessee. [213]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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