ROYCE, ] TREATY OF MARCH 22, 1816. 203 
of the removal of these tribes beyond the Mississippi River, although 
the first official action taken in this direction was contained in the fifth 
section of an act of Congress approved March 26, 1804, erecting Loui- 
siana into two Territories. This act appropriated $15,000 to enable the 
President to effect the desired object. This was supplemented in 
1808,' when the Secretary of War, in a letter to Agent Meigs giving 
permission for a delegation of Cherokees to visit Washington, instructed 
him to improve every opportunity of securing the consent of the 
Cherokees to an exchange of their lands for a tract west of the Missis- 
sippi. 
The delegation here spoken of (composed of what were known as 
Upper Cherokees) visited Washington about the Ist of May, 1808, and, 
in the course of a discussion of the subject with the Secretary of War, 
took occasion to complain of an unequal distribution of annuities ae 
tween the Upper and Lower Cherokees, and advanced a proposition that 
a dividing line be run between the territory of these two branches of 
the tribe, inasmuch as the former were cultivators of the soil, and de- 
sired to divide their lands in severalty and become ee of the 
United States, while the latter were addicted to the hunter life and 
were indisposed to adopt civilized habits.2. This proposition met with 
the personal approval of the Secretary of War. He instructed the 
agent* to ascertain the sentiments of the nation upon such a proposi. 
tion, to the end that, if possible, those who adhered to aboriginal habits 
could be induced to accept a country in the newly acquired Territory of 
Louisiana, in lieu of their proportionate share of the country then oe- 
cupied by the Cherokee Nation. In pursuance of this plan, the agent 
lost no opportunity of impressing upon the Cherokees the importance 
of the approaching crisis in their tribal affairs, and the necessity that 
some practical method should be adopted tosolve the problem of sub- 
sistence involved in the rapid diminution of game. ° Many of the Lower 
or “hunter” Cherokees became persuaded of the necessity of looking 
out a new home, and early in January, 1809,‘ President Jetterson ad- 
dressed a “talk” to them, approving their project and promising facil- 
ities for the transportation of a delegation to visit the Arkansas and 
White River countries, where, in case they found a suitable location, the 
United States would assign them a sufficient area of territory for onee 
occupation in exchange for their share of the Cherokee domain east of 
the Mississippi. 
Based upon this proposition, a pioneer delegation of the Indians 
visited that countzy, in the year 1809, and upon their report large num- 
bers (about 2,000, as reported by Agent Meigs) of the nation signified 
their iets of removal as early as the autumn of that year. The 

Marah 25. 
*See letter of Secretary of War to Col. R. J. Meigs, May 5, 1808, 
3May 5, 1808. 
4January 9, 1809 
