236 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
Death of Agent Meigs —About this time! Agent Meigs, who since 1801 
had represented the Government with the Cherokees, died, and ex-Goy- 
ernor McMinn, of Tennessee, was appointed? to succeed him. 
Failure to conclude proposed treaty.—The treaty commissioners finally 
met the council of the Cherokee Nation at Newtown, their capital, on 
the 4th of October, 1825.5 They were also accompanied by Johnson 
Wellborn and James Blair, who had been appointed by the governor 
of Georgia as commissioners to advance the interests and protect the 
rights of that State. The negotiations were all conducted in writing, 
and form an interesting chapter in the history of the methods used 
throughout a long series of years to secure from the Cherokees, by ‘“ vol- 
untary, peaceful, and reasonable means,” the relinquishment of their 
ancestral territory. The commissioners set forth their desire to procure 
the cession of a tract of country comprising all to which the Cherokees 
laid claim lying north and east of a line to begin at a marked corner 
at the head of Chestatee River, thence along the ridge to the mouth of 
Long Swamp Creek, thence down the Etowah River to the line to be 
run between Alabama and Georgia, thence with that line to the divid- 
ing line between the Creeks and Cherokees, and thence with the latter 
line to the Chattahoochee. In consideration of this proposed cession, 
the commissioners agreed that the United States should pay the sum 
of $200,000 and also indemnify the nation against the Georgia depre- 
dation claims, as well as the further sum of $10,000 to be paid imme- 
diately upon the signing of the treaty. 
To this proposition, in spite of the threatening language used by the 
commissioners, the Indians invariably and repeatedly returned the an- 
swer, “ We beg leave to present this communication as a positive and 
unchangeable refusal to dispose of one foot more of land.”* 
The commissioners, seeing the futility of further negotiations, ad- 
journed sine die,® and a report of their proceedings was made by Com- 
missioner Campbell thirty days later, Major Merriwether having in the 
mean time resigned. 
Cherokees ask protection against Georgia’s demands.—Shortly following 
these attempted negotiations, which had produced in the minds of the 
Indians a feeling of grave uneasiness and uncertainty, a delegation of 
Cherokees repaired to Washington for a conference with the President 
touching the situation. Upon receiving their credentials, the Secretary 
of War sounded the key-note of the Government’s purpose by asking 
if they had come authorized by their nation to treat for a further relin- 
quishment of territory. To this pointed inquiry the delegation re- 
turned a respectful and earnest memorial,® urging that their nation 

' February, 1823. 
2 March 17, 1823. 
’ Report of commissioners on file in Office Indian Affairs. 
4 See correspondence between commissioners and Cherokee council. American State 
Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 465-473. 
> October 23, 1823. 
' January 19, 1824. This memorial is signed by John Ross, George Lowrey, Major 
Ridge, and Elijah Hicks, as the Cherokee delegation. 
