ROYCE. ] TREATY OF MARCH 22, 1816. 201 
6-mile square tract for the erection of his proposed iron works. Like 
the previous efforts, it was without results.' 
TENNESSEE FAILS TO CONCLUDE A TREATY WITH THE CHEROKEES. 
Congress on the 18th of April, 1806,? had passed an act entitled “An 
act to authorize the State of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles 
to certain lands therein described, and to settle claims to the vacant and 
unappropriated lands within the same.” 
This act, for the purpose of defining the limits of the vacant and un- 
appropriated lands in the State of Tennessee, thereafter to be subject 
to the sole control and disposition of the United States, established the 
following described line, viz: Beginning at the place where the eastern 
or main branch of Elk River intersects the southern boundary of Tenn- 
essee ; running thence due north until such line shall intersect the north- 
ern or main branch of Duck River; thence down the waters of Duck 
River to the military boundary line established by North Carolina in 
1783; thence with the military line west to the place where it intersects 
Tennessee River: thence down the waters of Tennessee River to where 
it intersects the northern line of Tennessee. The act further provided 
that upon the execution by the State of Tennessee (through her Senators 
and Representatives in Congress, duly authorized thereto) of a deed of re- 
linquishment to the United States of all the claim of that State to lands 
lying south and west of the described line, the United States should 
thereupon cede and convey to the State of Tennessee all claim to the 
land north and east of the line, with certain conditions and limitations 
therein prescribed, and with the proviso that nothing contained in the 
act should be construed to affect the Indian title. : 
Predicated upon this act of Congress, the legislature of Tennessee 
passed an act, on the 3d of December, 1807,° appropriating $20,000 for 
the purpose of holding a treaty or treaties with the Cherokees (when 
authorized so to do by the Federal Government) for the purpose of ex- 
tinguishing their claim to all or any part of the lands within the ter- 
ritorial limits of Tennessee lying to the north and east of the line de- 
scribed in the act of Congress just mentioned. 
Congress having assented to the request of Tennessee, the Secretary 
of War appointed? Return J. Meigs a commissioner to superintend the 
negotiations with the Cherokees about to be held with them by the two 
commissioners appointed on the part of that State. Mr. Meigs was ad- 
vised that all the expenses incident to the holding of the treaty, as well 
as any consideration that should be agreed upon in case of a cession by 

1A full history of Colonel Earle’s attempt to secure a site for the erection of iron 
works will be found among the records and files of the Office of Indian Affairs. 
2 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. II, p. 381. See also amendment to this act 
by act of February 18, 1841, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. V, p. 412. 
*Scott’s Laws of North Carolina and Tennessee. 
4March 26, 1808. 
oo 
