160 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
HISTORICAL DATA, 
CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION WITH THE BOUNDARY OF 1785. 
The boundary line prescribed by the treaty of November 28, 1785, 
had been unsatisfactory to both the Cherokees and the whites. On 
the part of the former the chief cause of complaint was the non-remoyal 
of the settlers in the fork of the French Broad and Holston Rivers 
and their evident disposition to encroach still farther into the Indian 
country atevery opportunity. The whites, on the other hand, were dis- 
contented because further curtailment of the Cherokee territory had 
not been compelled by the commissioners who negotiated the treaty, 
and the State authorities of North Carolina and Georgia had protested 
because of the alleged interference by the General Government with 
the reserved rights of the States.!. In retaliation for the intrusions of 
the whites the Indians were continually engaged in pilfering their stock 
and other property. 
The state of affairs resulting from this continual friction rendered 
some decisive action by Congress necessary. <A large portion of the 
land in Greene and Hawkins Counties, Tennessee, had been entered by 
the settlers under the laws of North Carolina, whereby she had as- 
sumed jurisdiction to the Mississippi River.?- These lands were south 
and west of the treaty line of 1785, as were also the lands on the west 
side of the Clinch upon which settlements had been made. Settlers to 
the number of several thousand, south of the 'rench Broad and Hol- 
ston, were also within the Cheroxee limits.* 
It is true that the authorities of the so-called State of Franklin had 
in the years 1785 and 1786 negotiated two treaties with the Cherokees, 
obtaining cessions from the latter covering most, if not all, of these 
lands,* but neither the State of North Carolina nor the United States 
recognized these treaties as of any force or validity. 
These trespasses called forth under date of September 1, 1788, a 
proclaination from Congress forbidding all such unwarrantable intru- 
sions, and enjoining all those who had settled upon the hunting ground 
of the Cherokees to depart with their families and effects without loss 
of time. 
General Knox, Secretary of War, under date of July 7, 1789, in a 
communication to the President, remarked that “ the disgraceful viola- 
tion of the treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokees requires the 
serious consideration of Congress. If so direct and manifest con- 

‘American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 44. 
* Protest of Col. William Blount to Treaty Commissioners of 1785. American State 
Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 44, and Ramsey’s Annals of Teun., p. 549. Also 
Scott’s Laws of Tennessee and North Carolina, Vol. I. 
* American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 38. 
‘Ramsey’s Annals of Tennessee, p. 345. 
