r and denser population pressed more eagerly for
new lands, partly--it must be admitted--because lands obtained by
cession were, under the practice of that State, distributed among the
people by lottery. The first move in this direction was to dispossess
the Creeks. As far back as 1802, when Georgia made her final cession
of western lands to United States, the latter agreed to extinguish the
Indian title to lands within the State whenever it could be done
"peaceably and on reasonable terms." This pledge the Georgians never
allowed the federal authorities to forget. After 1815 several large
tracts were liberated. But by that date the State wanted unbroken
jurisdiction over all of the territory within her limits, and her
complaints of laxness on the part of the Federal Government in
bringing this about became no less frequent than vigorous.

Near the close of his Administration President Monroe sent two
commissioners to procure a general cession; and at Indian Spring a
treaty was concluded in which the Creeks ceded practically all of
their lands between the Flint and the Chattahoochee rivers. The Senate
ratified the treaty, and the Georgians were elated. But investigation
showed that the Creeks who stood behind the agreement represented only
an insignificant fraction of the nation, and President Adams refused
to allow Troup, the irate Georgian Governor, to proceed with the
intended occupation until further negotiations should have taken
place. Stormy exchanges of views followed, in the course of which the
Governor more than once reminded Adams that Georgia was "sovereign on
her own soil." But in 1826 and 1827 treaties were obtained finally
extinguishing Creek titles in the State. Land west of the Mississippi
was promised to all Creeks who would go there.

The problem of the Cherokees was more difficult. By a series of
treaties beginning in 1785 the United States had recognized this
people as a nation, capable of making peace and war, of owning the
lands within its boundaries, and of governing and punishing its own
citizens by its own laws. At the close of Jefferson's second
Administration the tribe seriously considered moving west of the
Mississippi, and shortly after the War of 1812 most of the northern
members resident in Tennessee took the long-deferred step. The refusal
of the Georgia members to go with the Tenneseeans disappointed the
land-hungry whites, and from that time the authorities of the State
labored inces