"Executive Department" Activities Occurring at 190 High Street
By Dr. James Mueller
May 12, 2003
This is a Document From the National Parks Service from the National Archives. The parts of the document which are pertinent to The Chickamauga Nation are quoted Verbatim with the Page Numbers added along with the footnotes when associated with the Quote.
From Page 1
Summary: Intrigue, bribes, nepotism, resignations, dismissals, and re-organizations of executive officers (2) characterized the presidencies of Washington (GW hereafter, unless quoted) and Adams at 190 High Street. Such governmental intrigue and ministerial shifts were also commonly-accepted parts of the modern era, Enlightenment governance that America inherited most directly from raucous English politics throughout the eighteenth century. The Washington and Adams administrations were also riddled with internal threats and besieged by external threats to test the power and resolve of the fledgling American nation. These characteristics are quite retrodictable, given the cultural-historical context.
Most of Washington's and Adams' presidential activities were duties directly enumerated in Article II, Sections 2 and 3, of the Constitution, which is appended. These Constitutionally enumerated activities that are discussed in this brief report and that took place at 190 High include commander-in-chief, written opinions of executive officers, reprieves and pardons, treaty making, appointment of American ambassadors, judges, officers, etc.; state of the union information and recommendations, and reception of foreign ambassadors and public officials. One time consuming activity of both presidents of this Age of Federalism (1790-1800) was resolving Cabinet differences. This resolution of opinions among his officers was an "implied" duty based on the Constitution statement, "He [the president] may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer of each of the executive department ... " The major points are made in the text, while the endnotes contain supporting details. A map showing locations of executive departments within INDE is also appended. Washington's Presidency The Following historical events are discussed in this first section:
From Pages 2 - 3
I. Concerning Native Americans--Historic Southwestern Frontier
1. Treaty Making and Commander-in-Chief Threat: Secretary of War Henry Knox (3) had written GW about the American settlers' "disgraceful violation of the [November 28, 1785] Treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokees [requiring] serious consideration of Congress." (4) The treaty provisions are contained in the endnote. (5) Possible explanations for violations of the territorial boundaries include: 1-- local settlers on the frontier may have had no knowledge of the Treaty; 2-local settlers who were sectionalists ("anti-federalists in spirit," who did not believe in the authority of the new national government); 3- unscrupulous land speculators (such as Andrew Jackson, later in the 19th century).
GW had disliked this Cherokee situation for both humanitarian and political reasons and "threatened [as Commander in Chief; my emphasis] to send the regular army to the Indian country to uphold the Indians' rights. To avert this, the Treaty of Holston was negotiated [and became 7 Stat. 39 on July 2, 1792] ." (6) This threat of force was probably GW's first use of the Commander-in-Chief's power under the Constitution, Article II, Section 2. GW orchestrated the Treaty by ordering the Cherokees to be at Holston in Tennessee for a treaty council. By upholding Indians' rights first, GW as Commander in Chief was implying that states' rights were secondary in this case.
GW was concerned with this "outrageous conduct [that] not only violates the rights of humanity, but also endangers the public peace." (7) Therefore, in 1792, from 190 High Street in Philadelphia, GW and Thomas Jefferson signed a presidential proclamation offering a $500 reward for the apprehension of "certain lawless and wicked persons of the western frontier in the State of Georgia, [who] did lately invade, burn and destroy a town belonging to the Cherokee Nation, although of
amity with the United States, and put to death several
Indians of the Nation ... " (8)
2. Receiving and Awarding Native Americans at 190 High: As part of the second round of negotiations that resulted in the Treaty of Holston, GW received Native American officials, as described by Woodward: "So well did Bloody Fellow [a Cherokee or Chickamauga (9) chief] and his outlaw deputation acquit themselves when they were presented to President Washington and Secretary Knox that a treaty was negotiated by the delegation between the Cherokee Nation and the United States government on February 17, 1792. (10) This [supplemental] treaty (11) provided that, instead of $1,000, the sum of $1,500 be paid the Cherokee Nation annually by the United States. "To seal the bargain, the President gave Bloody Fellow the new name of Iskagua or Clear Sky, as well as an American flag and a brigadier general's uniform-to be worn with a medal that had been especially struck for him at the President's orders." (12) Overall, GW was as concerned with the ability of the new government to honor its treaties as with the treaty's previsions.
3. Receiving Native Americans at 190 High and Treaty Making: "An attempt was made by Washington and Knox to win over Doublehead [a Chickamauga chief} in June, 1794. Conveyed to Philadelphia in an American warship, Doublehead and a deputation of Chickamaugans met with the President and his Secretary of War - as had Bloody Fellow two years before. Every effort was made by Knox and the President to make the Chickamauga as law-abiding as the more-acculturated Cherokee. "In the treaty that resulted from this meeting at Philadelphia, Doublehead managed to boost the Cherokees' annuity from $1,500 to $5,000, in goods paid for in advance by the United States. The date of this treaty (13) was June 26, 1794. Although the meeting ended pleasantly enough, the resultant treaty did not greatly benefit the [Cherokee]
Nation [because of the lands that the Cherokee had to surrender by the terms of the treaty] . " (14)
More of the story:
1. "Each new treaty meant more cessions of land." (15) in this second, or 1794, supplement (7 Stat. 43; dated June 26, 1794) to the Treaty of Holston, a new annual sum of $5,000 was to be paid to the Cherokee, and this sum substituted for "goods suitable for their use" (Article III, last sentence of attached Treaty). The original, 1791 Treaty of Holston allowed the Cherokee both "certain valuable goods" with no dollar limit and an annual sum of $1,000 (cf. Article IV of the attached 1791 Holston Treaty) .
2. The new federal government considered this area as stabilized when Spain's inciting of Native Americans (Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees, including the Chickamauga) was terminated by the Pinckney Treaty of 1795. Whether local settlers terminated their retaliatory efforts is an unanswered question. The Cherokee term, "Unakas," referring to local, Anglo-American settlers or to federal, Anglo-American officers of this time period, was probably pejorative.(16)
From Pages 3 - 4
4. General: Cherokees referred to the president as "their great father General Washington" (18) "President Washington and his Secretary Henry Knox, worked together to treat the American Indians fairly, and as far as possible remedy the wrongs done to them during the haphazard Confederation period." (19) "President Washington's rejection of a third term boded ill for the Cherokees. Never again would they know the kind and just protection of a President whose Indian policy was designed to defend rather than offend the American aborigines." (20)
Political Context: The above fatherly epithet denoted the protective, paternalistic role of GW, rather than a biological role. The Cherokee's positive attitude probably derive from GW's honorable intention to support federal treaties (i.e., the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell) in the face of local, frontier violators of peaceable conditions. In doing so, he also softened the Spanish-Cherokee alliance, helping to secure the southwestern frontier.
From Page 5
III. Precedent of the President's Annual "state of the union" Information to Congress: GW delivered eight such speeches to Congress during his two terms (29) in office even though the Constitution (Article II, Section 3) only required that "He [the president] shall, to [my emphasis], give to from time time Congress information concerning the state of the union ... " The pattern of annual speeches was established in Philadelphia beginning in 1790; only the first speech in 1789 was given in New York. The speeches were delivered in Congress Hall. GW also gave written versions of his speech to Congress. I assume the speeches were written at 190 High, although his writing them at Mt. Vernon is a possibility for certain years.
More of the story: Adams continued in GW's tradition, but Jefferson's first state of the union message to Congress was in writing only-no speech.
From Page 12
Establishing the Library of Congress: As part of the proposed move to DC, Adams signed the legislation on April 24, 1800, "that appropriated $5,000 to purchase 'such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.' The first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801 and were stored in the U.S. Capitol, the Library's first home. The collection consisted of 740 volumes and three maps." (70)
INDE Context: "Congress appointed a committee on May 1, 1790, 'to report a Catalogue of Books necessary for the use of Congress.' [However] The committee's report was tabled ... " This unfinished interest in a Congressional reference library resulted in the acquisition of "over two hundred volumes of all sizes and a number of charts and maps" during the 10 years that the federal Congress was seated in Congress Hall. (71)
ENDNOTES
(2) The capitalization protocols used in the U.S. Constitution are followed in this paper. Institutions (e.g., Congress, House, Senate, United States, but not the supreme court) have initial capitals, while specific roles (e.g., senator, president, state of the union) and generic branches of government (e.g., treasury, executive, judicial, and federal, although the latter word is not used in the Constitution) are all lower case. Exceptions include when those words are found in this paper's section titles and also in title-proper name phrases, e.g., President Adams.
(3) Indian affairs were frequently handled by the Secretary of War at this time. As such, Henry Knox or his successor had written to GW several times in 1789, when the federal capital was in New York City, about the Cherokees (Jackson, Helen, A Century of Dishonor, A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings New York, Indian Head Books, with Some of the Indian Tribes, 1993, pp. 264-66); in Philadelphia, he had signed 1792 and 1794 Treaties of Philadelphia, to be explained subsequently in this paper; and in 1794.
(4) After GW warned the treaty-ratifying Senate of the number of Cherokee families affected by the "disgraceful violation[s]," the Senate gave the president
pre-approval of any carte blanche, new treaty to strengthen the 1785 Hopewell Treaty and to rectify the lawlessness on the southwestern frontier (Jackson,
ibid., p. 267). It is not clear if this occurred in NYC or in Philadelphia.
(5) This 1785 treaty "contained thirteen articles. Twelve were articles of friendship, calling for mutual restoration of prisoners, regulation of trade, and respect for laws and boundaries. Article IV described explicitly boundaries between Cherokees and whites and repudiated the treaty signed in June, 1783, on Dumplin Creek ... " (Merritt B. Pound, Benjamin Hawkins, (Athens, The University of Georgia Press, 1951). Indian Agent This treaty was signed by the Cherokees and by Commissioners of the Confederation Congress--during the Articles of Confederation period of American history. North Carolina protested this treaty in the Confederation Congress because of concerns over its state lands that were being dictated by the Confederation Congress at the national level. Relations between Native and Anglo American were embedded in the debate over states' rights and federal power.
(6) Woodward, Grace Steele, The Cherokees (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press 1963), p. 122. The exact text of the Treaty is attached. In general, "The Indians were
being pacified with stipends and annuities [in exchange for giving up native lands]" (Pound, ibid., p. 60).
(7) Washington, George, and Thomas Jefferson, "Proclamation by the President of the United States," dated "Done at the city of Philadelphia, the twelfth day of December in the year of our Lord, one thousand. seven hundred and ninety two, and of the Independence of the United States in the seventeenth." [my emphasis], Philadelphia. Quoted in Ehle, John, Trail of Tears, the Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (New York, Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1988), p. 42. The entire text of the proclamation is appended.
(8) Washington and Jefferson, ibid.
(9) The Chickamauga were a separate tribe that had split off from the larger, more acculturated Cherokee tribe (Joseph A. Romano, personal communication May 6, 2002).
(10) This original, 1791 Treaty of Holston was signed by William Blount on July 2, 1791. See Pound, ibid., p. 60.
(11) This supplemental treaty is referred to as the first (or 1792) Treaty of Philadelphia at http://northerncherokee.net/treaties/ philadelphia-treaty-1792.htm.
(12) Woodward, ibid.
(13) In this second, or 1794, supplement (7 Stat. 43; dated June 26, 1794) to the Treaty of Holston, a new annual sum of $5,000 was to be paid to the Cherokee, and this sum substituted for "goods suitable for their use" (Article III, last sentence of attached Treaty). The original, 1791 Treaty of Holston allowed the Cherokee both "certain valuable goods" with no dollar limit and an annual sum of $1,000 (cf. Article IV of the attached 1791 Holston Treaty). The 1794 supplement increased the annual stipend
to $5,000, but deleted the delivery of "certain valuable goods."
(14) Ibid. , p . 115 .
(15) Wilkins, Thurman, Cherokee Tragedy, The Story of the Ridge Family and of the Decimation of a People (New York, The Macmillian Company, 1970), p. 13.
(16) Wilkins, ibid., p. 35.
(19) Woodward, ibid., p. 110.
(20) Woodward, ibid., p. 122.
(29) The first of these was presented to the Congress seated in New York in 1789, while the remainder were given in Philadelphia. In his first annual message to the New York-seated Congress he enunciated the principle: "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." ("Washington, George," in Malone, ibid., Vol. 19, p. 525.)
(70) "Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress" at http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/loc.html. While seated in Congress Hall during the federal decade, the Congress also may have had use of the books of the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin (Coxey Toogood, personal communication, May 1, 2003).
(71) Gales and Seaton, Annals, Volume II (Washington, DC, 1849) p. 1603. Cited in Staff, Independence National Historical Park, "Furnishing Plan for the Second Floor of Congress Hall" (Philadelphia, October 1963), Part C, Section 2, pp. 59-60.