ROYCE. ] TREATY OF AUGUST 6, 1816 319 
dividual and a national character. Their debts had come to be very 
oppressive, and they were anxiously devising methods of relief. 
Proposed cession of the “neutral land.”—At length in the fall of 1852 
they began to discuss the propriety of retroceding to the United States 
the tract of 800,000 acres of additional land purchased by them from the 
_ Government under the provisions of the treaty of 1835. This tract was 
commonly known as the “neutral land,” and occupied the southeast 
corner of what is now the State of Kansas. 
It was segregated from the main portion of their territory, and had 
never been occupied by any considerable number of their people. After 
a full discussion of the subject in their national council it was decided 
to ask the United States to purchase it, and a delegation was appointed 
to enter into negotiations on the subject. They submitted their propo- 
sition in two communications,! but after due consideration it was de- 
cided by the Secretary of the Interior? to be inexpedient for the Gov- 
ernment to entertain the idea of purchase at that time. Thereupon, un- 
der instructions from their national council, they withdrew the propo- 
sition. 
As soon as the Cherokees resident in North Carolina and the neigh- 
boring States learned of this proposed disposition of the ‘neutral 
land” they filed a protest® against any sale of it that did not make 
full provision for securing to them a proportional share of the proceeds. 
MURDER OF THE ADAIRS AND OTHERS. 
In September of this year occurred another of those sudden acts of 
violence which had too frequently marked the history of the Cherokee 
people during the preceding fifteen years. Superintendent Drew first 
reported * to the Indian Office that a mob of one hundred armed men 
had murdered two unoffending citizens, Andrew and Washington Adair; 
that not less than two hundred men were in armed resistance to the 
authorities of the nation, who were unable or disinclined to suppress 
the insurrection, and that from sixty to one hundred of the best-known 
friends of the Adairs had been threatened with a fate similar to theirs. 
The presence and protection of an additional force of United States 
troops was therefore asked to preserve order in the Cherokee country 
and to allay the fears of the settlers along the border of Arkansas. 
An additional United States force was accordingly dispatched, but 
the Cherokee authorities found little difficulty in controlling and allay- 
ing the excitement and disorder without their aid. In truth, the first 
report had been in large measure sensational, the facts as reported by 

! February 17 and March 17, 1853. 
? March 26, 1853. 
‘This protest bore date of November 9, 1853, and was filed by Edwin Follin, as 
their attorney or representative. 
4September 21, 1853. 
