The Removal of the Cherokees

The Removal of the Cherokees

After England's acceptance of the terms of the peace made with France and Spain in 1763, in which France gave Louisiana to Spain, the grants formerly made to the six English colonies were considered good only to the Mississippi River. During the American Revolution and soon there after these former colonies were considered good only to the Mississippi River. During the American Revolution and soon thereafter these former colonies, now states of the Union ceded their unoccupied western lands to the government of the United States, thereby establishing the so-called public domain. Of these states, the last to cede its western lands was Georgia, which in 1802 surrendered all claim to land included in the present states of Alabama and Mississippi. This cession was made by what was known as the Georgia Compact. It also provided that the United States should at its own expense extinguish for the use of Georgia the Indian title to all lands within the state as soon as it could be done peaceably and upon reasonable terms.

The purchase of Louisiana the following year placed the United States in possession of a large amount of territory It seemed reasonable, at least to the white man, that these Georgia Indians, mainly the Cherokees and Creeks, might be induced to move. One reason given by President Jefferson for this purchase was that it would make a suitable area for a new home for large tribes east of the Mississippi owning fertile lands needed for settlement by the whites. Years earlier some parties of Cherokees had crossed the Mississippi and had gone into what is now northwestern Arkansas because of the abundance of game in that region. Some of them had settled there more or less permanently, and from time to time others came out to join them.

President Jefferson believed that others, or perhaps the entire tribe, might be induced to migrate to the West. The year following the treaty for the purchase of Louisiana he instructed officials of the United States government residing in the Cherokee Nation to approach the chiefs and head men of the tribe with the suggestion that the Cherokees exchange their lands in Georgia for others beyond the Mississippi. The officials reported to the President, however, that the Indians showed no sympathy with the proposal and had expressed themselves as determined to retain their lands and remain in the east.

Yet the suggestion had apparently not fallen upon altogether deaf ears; or perhaps the fact that a number of Cherokees were already living beyond the Mississippi as squatters upon land to which they had no title also had its effect. At any rate, in 1808 a small party of Cherokees appeared in Washington and called to see the President. They explained to him that many whites had settled along the borders of their country; that, as a result, game was growing scarce; and that, moreover, the livestock of these settlers trespassed upon their fields and caused the Indians much trouble and annoyance. At times, too, lawless white men preyed upon their people, sold them liquor, and often stole their horses and cattle. Under such circumstances the Indians were at a loss as to what they should do.

Some thought that it would be better to give up their lands in Georgia and remove to the West where there was an abundance of game, and there, remote from the influence of the whites, to continue to live as their forefathers had in the past. Others believed it would be better to remain where they were, learn more of the white civilization and ways of life, and come ultimately to accept them as their own. Since the two groups could not agree, they asked President Jefferson to send surveyors to their country to establish a line separating the land of those who wished to remain from that of others who wanted to go, and to give to the latter in exchange for the lands they would cede in the East a new country beyond the Mississippi.

Jefferson replied that it should be as they wished; he instructed them to return to their homes and send an exploring party to the West to look for a new home. When they had found lands suited to their needs, he would by treaty grant them this country, giving them "acre for acre as much land as they gave up in the East". He would also pay them for any improvements which they might abandon, and would assist them to move by providing subsistence for the journey and a year's supply of provisions after the new home had been reached in order that they might not be reduced to want before crops could be grown and harvested.

President Jefferson went out of office, the following March, and the growing difficulties between the United States and Europe, culminating in 1812 with the outbreak of the second war with Great Britain, served to delay the Cherokee affairs. Because of this the first Cherokee treaty of removal was not