ROXCE. | TREATY OF SEPTEMBER 14, 1816 209 
The establishment of new thoroughfares had therefore been regarded 
with extreme jealousy and had never been yielded to by them except 
after a persistency of urging that bordered on force. 
In the spring of 1811' Agent Meigs was advised by the Secretary of 
War of the expediency of having a road opened without delay from the 
Tennessee to the Tombigbee, and also one from Tellico. Both these prop- 
ositions would require the consent of the Creeks, and for the purpose of 
securing the most advantageous routes it was contemplated that Cap- 
tain Gaines should make a journey of exploration and survey of the 
country between the Alabama and Coosa Rivers on the south and Ten- 
nessee and Hiwassee Rivers on the north. The fruition of these plans 
was also postponed on account of the ensuing war with the Creeks, and 
the subject was not again broached until after their subjugation. In 
the spring of 1814 the legislature of Tennessee transmitted two me- 
morials to Congress on the subject, and, by direction of the Secretary of 
War, Agent Meigs was again instructed? to ascertain the bent of the 
Indian mind in relation thereto. The result was the conclusion, with 
the approval of the President, of two agreements between the Chero- 
kees and the agents of certain road companies for the opening of two 
roads through the country of the latter from Tennessee to Georgia. 
But when the treaty of March 22, 1816, came to be negotiated at Wash- 
ington, the United States authorities, after much persuasion, procured 
the insertion therein of an article conceding to the United States a 
practically free and unrestrained permission for the construction of any 
and all roads through the Cherokee country necessary to convenient in- 
tercourse between the northern and southern settlements. 
TREATY CONCLUDED SEPTEMBER 14, 1816; PRCCLAIMED DECEM- 
BER 30, 1816.% 
Held at Chickasaw Council House, beticcen Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, 
General David Merriwether, and Jesse Franklin, commissioners -pleni- 
potentiary on the part of the United States, and the delegates representing 
the Cherokee Nation. 
MATERIAL PROVISIONS. 
To perpetuate peace and friendship between the United States and 
the Cherokees and to remove all future dissensions concerning bound- 
aries it 1s agreed : 
1. Peace and friendship are established between the United States 
and Cherokees. 
2. The Cherokee Nation acknowledge the following as their western 
boundary : South of the Tennessee River, commencing at Camp Coffee, 

1 May 25. 
* April 7. 
‘United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 148. 
5 ETH——14 
