320 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
Agent Butler some two months later! being that the murder was oe- 
easioned by a purely personal difficulty and had no conneetion with any 
of the bitter political animosities that had cursed the nation for so 
many years. It seems that several years previous to the murder a 
Cherokee by the name of Proctor and one of the Adairs had a difficulty. 
Adair’s friends took Proctor a prisoner through false pretenses and 
murdered him while in their hands. Proctor’s friends in consequence 
were much enraged and made violent threats of retaliation. In faet 
during the period immediately folowing Proctor’s death several other 
persons had been killed in consequence of the existing feud. The mur- 
der of the Adairs was the culmination of their enemies’ revenge. The 
murderers were arrested, tried, and acquitted by the Cherokee courts.? 
FINANCIAL DISTRESSES — NEW TREATY PROPOSED. 
The year 1854 was in an unusual degree a period of quiet and com- 
parative freedom from internal dissensions among the Cherokees. Their 
government was, however, still in an embarrassed financial condition. 
Their national debt was constantly increasing, and they possessed no 
revenue aside from the small income derived from the interest on their 
invested funds in the hands of the United States. 
For a while, following the payment of their per capita money, they 
were in the enjoyment of plenty, but with the natural improvidence of 
a somewhat primitive people, their substance was wasted and no last- 
ing benefits were derived therefrom. To add to their embarrassments. 
a severe drought throughout the summer resulted in an almost total 
failure of their crops. Distress and starvation seemed to be staring 
them in the face. Their schools, in which they had taken much com- 
mendable pride, were languishing for want of the funds necessary to 
their support, and the general outlook was anything but cheerful.’ 
In this dilemma a delegation was sent to Washington with authority 
and instructions to negotiate, if possible, another treaty with the United 
States, based upon the following conditions ;* 
1. The Cherokecs to retrocede to the United States the 800,000 acre 
tract of ‘‘ neutral land” at the price of $1.25 per acre, as a measure of 
relief from their public debt burdens and to replenish their exhausted 
school fund. 
2. To cede to the United States the unsold portion of the 12-mile- 
square school fund tract in Alabama, set apart by the treaty of 1819, 
also at $1.25 per acre, together with the other small reserves in Tennes- 
see set apart for the same purpose and by the same treaty, for which 
latter tracts they should receive $20,000. 
‘November 22, 1853. 
> Letter of Agent Butler, dated November 380, 1853. 
*Annual report of Agent Butler for 1854. 
‘The delegation submitted these propositions in a communication to the Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs, dated December 28, 1854. 
