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CHAPTER VIII
THE OCONEE WAR—GROWS OUT OF CERTAIN INDIAN TREATIES NEGO
TIATED BY THE STATE WITHOUT CONSULTING THE GENERAL GOVERN
MENT—UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF ALEXANDER MCGILLIVRAT, AN
ARTFUL HALF-BREED CHIEF OF THE CHEEKS, THESE TREATIES ARE
REPUDIATED—INDIAN DEPREDATIONS ON THE BORDER—THE CONTI
NENTAL CONGRESS INVALIDATES Two OF THE GEORGIA TREATIES:
GALPHINTON AND SHOULDER-BONE—DESULTORY WARFARE CONTINUES
UNTIL WASHINGTON BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES—
THE TREATY OF NEW YORK—INDIANS GUARANTEED POSSESSION OF
CERTAIN LANDS, INCLUDING THE TALLASSEE STRIP—THIS ANGERS
GEORGIA AND BECOMES A SOURCE OF PROLONGED IRRITATION—UNREPRE
SENTED AT THE CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK—THE WAR CONTINUES—
BUT THE DEATH OF McGiLLivRAY AT LENGTH BRINGS HOSTILITIES TO
AN END—THE TREATY OF COLERAINE IN 1795 RESTORES AN OLD
FRIENDSHIP, THOUGH No LANDS ARE CEDED—THE MORAVIAN MISSION
AT SPRING PLACE IN THE COHUTTA MOUNTAINS. ,
NOTES :—THE BATTLE OF JACK'S CREEK.
We have reserved for the concluding chapter of this section an account
of the Oconee war. Both of the treaties made at Augusta, in 1783, the one
with the Creeks and the other with the Cherokees, were made without
consulting the general government which, under the Articles of Confed
eration, was given jurisdiction over Indian affairs. The Continental
Congress of 1785, therefore, dispatched commissioners to these tribes,
with instructions to make definite peace and, if possible, to obtain further
cessions. The state also appointed commissioners to attend these nego
tiations and to protest any measure which might seem to exceed the powers
conferred by the Articles of Confederation.* In due time, the Creeks
were invited to a conference at Galphinton, but only a small delega
tion responded to this overture. The commissioners of the general
government refused to negotiate a treaty under these circum
stances and left for Hopewell, South Carolina, to keep an engagement
with the Cherokees. But the Georgians, seizing the strategic opportunity,
made a treaty with the chiefs on the spot, obtaining from them a cession
in the name of the whole Creek Nation, to the region south of the Alta-
maha River, called Tallassee.t According to the treaty of Galphin
ton, a line drawn from the confluence of the Oconee and Ocmulgee
rivers "to the most southern part of the stream called the St. Marys
*" Georgia and State Bights,
t Ibid., p. 40.
U. B. Phillips, p. 40.
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