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ОглавлениеContinued Negotiations Authorized
The commissioners (Return J. Meigs and Daniel Smith) who were appointed and instructed under date of April 4,1804, and who negotiated the treaty of October 24, 1804, with the Cherokees, it will be remembered, failed in the object of their instructions, except as to the single matter of securing the cession of a tract covering the settlement of Colonel Wafford and others near Currahee Mountain. They were, however, directed to continue their negotiations from time to time until the full measure of their original instructions should be secured.
Treaties of October 25 and 27, 1805, considered together.—This course was pursued, and after several fruitless conferences the commissioners succeeded in concluding the treaties of October 25, 1805, and October 27, 1805. Inasmuch as these two treaties were negotiated by the same commissioners, acting under the same instructions and at the same conference, they will be considered together. The treaties were upon their conclusion transmitted to the Secretary of War,152 and, upon submission to the Senate, that body duly advised and consented to their ratification. They were ratified and proclaimed by the President on the 24th of April and 10th of June, 1806, respectively.153
Secret agreement with Doublehead.—Following the transmission of the treaties to the Secretary of War by the commissioners, the latter addressed154 an explanatory communication to him, in which they set forth that by the terms of the treaty of October 25, 1805, there were reserved three square miles of land, "for the particular disposal of the United States, on the north bank of the Tennessee, opposite and below the mouth of Hiwassa." This reservation, they affirmed, was predicated ostensibly on the supposition that the garrison at Southwest Point and the United States factory at Tellico would be placed thereon during the pleasure of the United States, but that they had stipulated with "Doublehead," a Cherokee chief, that whenever the United States should find this land unnecessary for the purposes mentioned it was to revert to him (Doublehead), provided that he should retain one of the square miles to his own use, but should relinquish his right and claim to the other two sections in favor of John D. Chisholm and John Riley in equal shares.
Purchase of site for State capital.—The cession by the treaty of October 27, 1805, of the section of land at Southwest Point was secured upon the theory that the State of Tennessee would find Kingston a convenient and desirable place for the establishment of the State capital. A subsequent change of circumstances and public sentiment, however, caused it to be located seven years later at Nashville.
Boundaries surveyed.—On the 11th of July, 1806, the Secretary of War notified Return J. Meigs of his appointment as commissioner to superintend the running and marking of the line "from the junction of the fork at the head of which Fort Nash stood with the main south fork of Duck River to a point on the Tennessee River bank opposite the mouth of Hiwassee River." He was also to superintend the survey of the lines of the reserved tracts agreeably to the treaty of October 25, 1805.
He was directed to appoint a surveyor, but before running the line from Duck to Tennessee Rivers above described, to have him survey and mark the lines of the 3-mile tract reserved opposite to and below the mouth of Hiwassee, and also, when completed, to designate the most suitable site for the military post, factory, and agency, each site to be 300 feet square and 40 rods distant from the others.
Commissioner Meigs followed the letter of his instructions and caused the lines to be surveyed in accordance therewith. The line from Duck River to the mouth of Hiwassee was begun on the 9th and finished on the 26th of October, 1806. The point of departure at the west end of the boundary line was a red elm tree, trimmed and topped, standing on the extreme point of land formed by the confluence of that branch of Duck River at the head of which Fort Nash stood, with the main south fork of the river. The eastern terminus of the line was a mulberry tree on the north bank of Tennessee River opposite the mouth of Hiwassee River, 73 miles and 166 poles from the beginning.155
