specially authorized therefor by the President of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi.
Material Provisions
The preamble recites the desire of the United States to secure to the Cherokees, both east and west of the Mississippi, a permanent home, "that shall never in all future time be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territory or State, nor be pressed upon by the extension in any way of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State."
It also assumes that their actual surroundings, both east and west of such river, were unadapted to the accomplishment of such a purpose, and therefore the following articles of agreement were made:
1. The western boundary of Arkansas shall be * * * viz: A line shall be run commencing on Red River at the point where the Eastern Choctaw line strikes said river, and run due north with said line to the river Arkansas; thence in a direct line to the southwest corner of Missouri.
2. The United States agree to possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever, * * * of seven million of acres of land, to be bounded as follows, viz: Commencing at that point on Arkansas River where the eastern Choctaw boundary lines strikes said river, and running thence with the western line of Arkansas, as defined in the foregoing article, to the southwest corner of Missouri, and thence with the western boundary line of Missouri till it crosses the waters of Neasho, generally called Grand River; thence due west to a point from which a due-south course will strike the present northwest corner of Arkansas Territory; thence continuing due south on and with the present western boundary line of the Territory to the main branch of Arkansas River; thence down said river to its junction, with the Canadian River, and thence up and between the said rivers Arkansas and Canadian to a point at which a line running north and south from river to river will give the aforesaid seven million of acres.
In addition to the seven millions of acres thus provided for and bounded, the United States guarantee to the Cherokee Nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of the above described limits and as far west as the sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extend.
3. The United States agree to survey the lines of the above cession without delay, and to remove all white settlers and other objectionable people living to the west of the east boundary of the Cherokee tract.
4. The United States agree to appraise and pay the value of all Cherokee improvements abandoned by the latter in their removal; also to sell the property and improvements connected with the agency, for the erection of a grist and saw mill in their new home.
5. The United States agree to pay the Cherokees $50,000 as the difference in value between their old and their new lands; also an annuity for three years of $2,000 to repay cost and trouble of going after and recovering stray stock; also $8,760 in full for spoliations committed on them by the Osages or citizens of the United States; also $1,200 for losses sustained by Thomas Graves, a Cherokee chief; also $500 to George Guess, the discoverer of the Cherokee alphabet, as well as the right to occupy a saline; also an annuity of $2,000 for ten years to be expended in the education of Cherokee children; also $1,000 for the purchase of printing press and type; also, the benevolent society engaged in instructing Cherokee children to be allowed the amount expended by it in erection of buildings and improvements; also, the United States to release the indebtedness of the Cherokees to the United States factory to an amount not exceeding $3,500.
6. The United States agree to furnish the Cherokees, when they desire it, a system of plain laws and to survey their lands for individual allotment.
7. The Cherokees agree within fourteen months to leave the lands in Arkansas assigned them by treaties of January 8, 1817, and February 27, 1819.
8. Each head of a Cherokee family east of the Mississippi desiring to remove to the country described in the second article hereof to be furnished by the United States with a good rifle, a blanket, a kettle, five pounds of tobacco, and compensated for all improvements he may abandon; also a blanket to each member of his family. The United States to pay expenses of removal and to furnish subsistence for one year thereafter. Each head of family taking with him four persons to receive $50.
9. The United States to have a reservation 2 by 6 miles at Fort Gibson, with the right to construct a road leading to and from the same.
10. Capt. James Rogers to have $500 for property lost and services rendered to the United States.
11. Treaty to be binding when ratified.
Note.—The Senate consented to the ratification of this treaty with the proviso that the "western outlet" should not extend north of 36°, nor to interfere with lands assigned or to be assigned to the Creeks; neither should anything in the treaty be construed to assign to the Cherokees any lands previously assigned to any other tribe.
Historical Data
Return J. Meigs and the Cherokees
Return J. Meigs had for nearly twenty years270 occupied the position of United States agent for the Cherokee Nation. As a soldier of the Revolutionary war he had marched with Arnold through the forests of Maine and Canada to the attack on Quebec in 1775.271
He had also, by his faithful, intelligent, and honest administration of the duties of his office as Indian agent, secured the perfect confidence of his official superiors through all the mutations of administration. He had acquired a knowledge of and familiarity with the habits, character, and wants of the Cherokees such as was perhaps possessed by few, if indeed by any other man.
Any suggestions, therefore, that he might make concerning the solution of the Cherokee problem were deserving of grave consideration. His views were submitted in detail upon the condition, prospects, and requirements of the Cherokee Nation in a communication to the Secretary of War.272 To his mind the time had arrived when a radical change in the policy of managing their affairs had become essential. Ever since the treaty of 1791 the United States, in pursuance of a policy therein outlined for leading the Cherokees toward the attainment of a higher degree of civilization, in becoming herdsmen and cultivators instead of hunters, had been furnishing each year a supply of implements for husbandry and domestic use. In consequence a respectable proportion of that nation had become familiarized with the use of the plow, spade, and hoe. Many of their women had learned the art of spinning and weaving, and in individual instances considerable progress had been made in the accumulation of property. Agent Meigs now thought that the point had been reached where the Cherokee people should begin to fight their own battles of life, and that any further contributions to their support, either in the shape of provisions or tools, would have only a tendency to render them more dependent upon the Government and less competent to take care of themselves. Those who were already advanced in the arts of civilized life should be the tutors of the more ignorant. They possessed a territory of perhaps 10,000,000 acres of land, principally in the States of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, for the occupation of which they could enumerate little more than 10,000 souls or 2,000 families. If they were to become an agricultural and pastoral people, an assignment of 640 acres of land to each family would be all and more than they could occupy with advantage to themselves. Such an allotment would consume but 1,280,000 acres, leaving more than 8,000,000 acres of surplus land which