Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

396 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
cited as showing that all lands lying westward of the fountain heads
of rivers flowing into the Atlantic were reserved to the crown of Eng
land and exempted from Georgia's grant. On the other hand, under
the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, Georgia remained in undisputed posses
sion of all her western lands, so far at least as England was concerned.
But the Federal Government itself was a claimant to at least a part of
this domain; and in 1798 Congress passed an act providing for a govern
ment of the Mississippi Territory, without waiting for an expression
of consent from the state authorities. Georgia filed a remonstrance to
this action; but there was no redress. Finally to make an end of mat
ters, Georgia was forced into ceding to the general government all of
her western lands. The conditions of this grant which conveyed to the
Federal Government a domain containing 80,000,000 of acres were as
follows:
1. Georgia was to receive from the United States Government out
of the proceeds arising from a sale of these lands the sum of $1,250,000.
2. All persons settled in this territory were to be given valid titles
by the United States Government.
3. These ceded lands were to constitute a public domain for the
benefit of all the states, to be disposed of as other public lands.
4. The Federal Government at its own expense was to extinguish
for the use of Georgia all Indian titles' to the remaining lands unceded.
This was to be peaceably done, and on terms just to all parties, but with
the utmost dispatch consistent with these restrictions.
5. These ceded lands were to be erected into a state and admitted
into the Union whenever the requisite population of 60,000 inhabitants
was reached.
This treaty of cession was consummated on April 24, 1802, and out
of the territory thus acquired were afterwards erected the states of Ala
bama and Mississippi.
Georgia was represented in this important transaction by the follow
ing commissioners: Abraham Baldwin, James Jones, Benjamin Talia-
ferro, and John Milledge.
At the same time, the United States Government ceded to Georgia a
twelve-mile strip, on her northern border, thus making the thirty-fifth
parallel of latitude the state's boundary line on the north.
Without delay, all money paid into the state treasury by the Yazoo
purchasers was transferred to the United States Government, thus end
ing Georgia's connection with the Yazoo litigation.
It was further stipulated in the above agreement that a treaty was
to be made with the Creek Indians at once, looking to a cession of land;
and this promise was redeemed at Fort Wilkinson within a few months,
at which time two bodies of land were acquired, one west of the Oconee
River, and the other extending in a belt from the Altamaha River to the
St. Marys.
To quote Mr. Phillips, the chief immediate effect of this cession of
Georgia's western lands was to place within the sphere of the Federal
Government the whole problem of quieting the Yazoo claims. Georgia was
relieved of this problem; but to the Federal Government it continued
for years to be a source of endless contention. Congress was divided
on the questio*n of giving relief to the Yazoo complainants. President