the consent of some of the leading chiefs, the
treaty commissioners resorted to the disgraceful precedent of secret
articles, by which several valuable small tracts were reserved for
Doublehead and Tollunteeskee, the agreement being recorded as a part
of the treaty, but not embodied in the copy sent to the Senate for con-
firmation. 1 In consequence of continued abuse of his official position
for selfish ends Doublehead was soon afterward killed in accordance
with a decree of the chiefs of the Nation, Major Ridge being selected
as executioner. 2
By the treaty of October 25, 1805, the settlements in eastern Tennessee
were brought into connection with those about Nashville on the Cumber-
land, and the state at last assumed compact form. The whole southern
portion of the state, as defined in the charter, was still Indian coun-
try, and therewas a strong and constant pressure for its opening, the
prevailing sentiment being in favor of making Tennessee river the
boundary between the two races. New immigrants were constantly
crowding in from the east. and. as Royce says, "the desire to settle
on Indian land was as potent and insatiable with the average border
settler then as it is now." Almost within two months of the last
treaties another one was concluded at Washington on January 7, 1806,
by which the Cherokee ceded their claim to a large tract between
Duck river and the Tennessee, embracing nearly seven thousand
' square miles in Tennessee and Alabama, together with the Long island
(Great island) in Holston river, which up to this time they had claimed
as theirs. They were promised in compensation ten thousand dollars
in five cash installments, a grist