Until this
question can be decided under legislative authority, measures have been
taken according to law to prevent any change in the state of things and
to keep the grounds clear of intruders. The settlement of this title,
the appropriation of the grounds and improvements formerly occupied for
provincial purposes to the same or such other objects as may be better
suited to present circumstances, the confirmation of the uses in other
parcels to such bodies, corporate or private, as may of right or on
other reasonable considerations expect them, are matters now submitted
to the determination of the legislature.
The papers and plans now transmitted will give them such information on
the subject as I possess, and being mostly originals, I must request
that they may be communicated from the one to the other House, to answer
the purposes of both.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 10, 1808.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
A purchase having lately been made from the Cherokee Indians of a
tract of land 6 miles square at the mouth of the Chickamogga, on the
Tennessee, I now lay the treaty and papers relating to it before the
Senate, with an explanation of the views which have led to it.
It was represented that there was within that tract a great abundance of
iron ore of excellent quality, with a stream and fall of water suitable
for iron works; that the Cherokees were anxious to have works
established there, in the hope of having a better supply of those
implements of household and agriculture of which they have learned the
use and necessity, but on the condition that they should be under the
authority and control of the United States.
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