From James Madison to the Senate, 26 March 1816
To the Senate
Tuesday March 26th. 1816.
I lay before the Senate for their advice as to a ratification Articles of a Treaty1 and of a Convention2 which has been concluded with the Cherokee nation; with Documents relating to the losses by the Indians for which in demnity [sic] is Stipulated.
James Madison
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 46, Executive Proceedings, Indian Relations, 14B–C2). RC in John Payne Todd’s hand, signed by JM. Enclosures printed in , Indian Affairs, 2:88–89 (see nn. 1–2).
1. JM forwarded a treaty (3 pp.), negotiated by George Graham and a delegation from the Cherokee Nation on 22 Mar. 1816, extinguishing the claims of that nation to those parts of their lands within the boundaries of North and South Carolina. In return, the United States promised that South Carolina would pay the nation the sum of $5,000, subject to the agreement of both the council of the nation and the executive of South Carolina.
2. The convention of 22 Mar. 1816 (5 pp.), also negotiated by Graham, dealt with a conflict over the boundaries of the Cherokee and Creek Nations arising from the treaties they had made with the United States on 7 Jan. 1806 and 9 Aug. 1814, respectively. In doing so, it redrew the boundaries of Creek lands in Tennessee by restoring to the Cherokee territory that they claimed had been wrongly taken by the United States in the 1814 treaty of Fort Jackson. These provisions provoked considerable opposition in Tennessee, led by Andrew Jackson and Tennessee Gov. Joseph McMinn, who subsequently forced the headmen of the Cherokee to cede back the restored land in October 1816. Jackson, in particular, complained of the “trouble & cost” he had been put to by “the rashness, folly, & Ignorance of a great little man” (possibly a reference to JM) (see McLoughlin, Cherokee Renascence, 198–212; Jackson to Rachel Jackson, 18 Sept. 1816 [Smith et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, 4:62]). Articles of the convention also stipulated that the Cherokee would allow Americans free access to roads and rivers through the Nation in order to facilitate “free intercourse” between Georgia, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory; that to preclude future disputes and delays in the running of the new boundary lines and the opening of new roads, the Cherokee would appoint a commissioner to accompany commissioners appointed by the United States for such purposes; and that the United States would indemnify the Cherokee to the amount of $25,500 for losses incurred when the militia and other troops in the service of the United States marched through their territories.