March 1, 1867
Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the city of Washington, D.C., on the first day of March, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, by Lewis V. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and W.H. Watson, special commissioner on the part of the United States, and William P. Ross, principle chief, Riley Keys and Jesse Bushyhead, legally appointed delegates of the Cherokee nation.
Article I.
Whereas, by the seventeenth article of the treaty made and concluded at the city of Washington on the nineteenth day of July, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, by Dennis N. Cooley and Elijah Sells, commissioners on the part of the United States, and certain delegates representing the Cherokee nation, which treaty was ratified by the Senate, with certain amendments, July twenty-seventh, of the said year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and the amendment accepted on the thirty-first day of said month in the said year, it was agreed that the lands known as the Cherokee neutral lands, lying and being within the limits of the State of Kansas, in the southeast corner of the same, consisting of eight hundred acres, or thereabouts, should be surveyed and sold for the benefit of the Cherokee nation, in manner and form therein provided, and might be sold in a body, by the Secretary of the Interior, for not less than eight hundred thousand dollars in cash, to any company; and whereas the Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company of Missouri, by John C. Frèmont, its president, has offered to the Cherokee nation, through its aforenamed delegates, the sum of one million dollars for said lands, to be paid in manner and form hereinafter specified; and whereas it is necessary, in order to protect the interest of said Cherokee nation, that said lands be promptly disposed of; and whereas the duly authorized representatives of the Cherokee nation are willing that a sale be made on such proposition; therefore it is agreed said Cherokee neutral lands may be sold and conveyed in the manner following, to wit:
The Secretary of the Interior, acting under treaty as the trustee of the Cherokee nation, and holding such lands for sale, may sell and convey the lands known as the Cherokee neutral lands, situated and lying within the geographical limits of the State of Kansas, at the southeast corner of the same, comprising eight hundred thousand acres, or thereabouts, as aforesaid, to the Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company of Missouri, represented by John C.Frèmont, its president, for the sum of one million of dollars ($1,000,000.) to be paid as follows: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000.) to be paid in cash to the Secretary of the Interior upon the execution of the contract herein provided for, and one hundred thousand dollars two years from the date thereof, and the sum of one hundred thousand dollars each year thereafter, until the expiration of ten years from the date of said articles of agreement, when all the portion of said one million dollars remaining due and unpaid shall be paid to the said Secretary by the said Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company; and provided that the said Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company further agrees to pay interest at six per cent. per annum on all portions of the said one million of dollars remaining unpaid, from the date of said certificate of purchase to said company, said interest on all these deferred payments to be made semi-annually to the Secretary of the Interior, at the city of Washington, D.C., said payments of interest due as aforesaid in each six months from the execution of said articles to be made in addition to the payments on the principal of one million of dollars. The cost of surveys and appraisements of said lands to be paid for by said Railway Company, by its proper officers, on the due execution thereof.
Article II.
All rights secured to settlers on said Cherokee neutral lands by the amendments to the treaty of July nineteenth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, as aforesaid, shall be secured in the same manner as provided in said treaty, and shall continue to all intents and purposes, as under said treaty, as they now stand.
Article III.
All moneys received from said settlers, as provided for in said last-mentioned treaty, occurring from sales of portions of the aforesaid tract of land to such settlers, shall be credited on the next payment due by said railway company; and the aforesaid obligations of the said company for the said one million of dollars shall be lessened and discharged to the extent of such payment; and nothing in these articles shall prevent the payment by said railway company, or the proceeds of such sales to settlers from meeting or paying, any or all portions of said one million of dollars and interest thereon, as may remain due at any earlier date than hereinbefore specified.
Article IV.
The title to said Cherokee neutral lands, save so much as may be conveyed to settlers as hereinbefore provided, shall remain where it has heretofore been vested, and be held in trust by the United States government, through the Secretary of the Interior, until the next succeeding payment to the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be paid on the execution of and to secure said contract has been made, in two years, as hereinbefore provided; and upon such second payment there shall be conveyed to the said company forty thousand acres of said lands in one body, extending across the north end of said tract, the said forty thousand acres to be made up and over and above the lands paid for by settlers; and in the same manner, on the payment of each one of the payments due by said company there shall continue to be deeded to them by the said Secretary the amount of forty thousand acres in a body from the north end of the remaining tract for each hundred thousand dollars actually paid by them: Provided, That if said company shall pay the said sum of $250,000 (being the amount of the first two payments) at an earlier date than is required by their contract, the said amount of forty thousand acres may thereupon be conveyed to said company: And provided further, That the company shall not be held entitled to count the moneys paid by settlers in estimating the payments, which entitle said company to patents for the several tracts of forty thousand acres each herein provided for.
Article V.
On the final payment said by railway company of the just and full sum of one million of dollars, with interest thereon, and the expense of survey and appraisement, as herein provided, then the remaining portion of said Cherokee neutral lands shall be conveyed by the Secretary of the Interior to said railway company; and it is agreed that the Secretary of the Interior shall cause to issue patents in fee simple for such tracts of said land as hereinbefore provided to said railway company or to said settlers purchasing under the provisions of said treaty of July nineteenth, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six; and provided, that on such purchase and payment the Cherokee nation relinquishments its right and jurisdiction to the several tracts and parcels of said lands, from the date of such patent when issue, according to the foregoing provisions.
Article VI.
In case said Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company shall fail to make payments of interest or principal as hereinbefore provided, they shall forfeit to the Cherokee nation all right and title to lands not patented previous to such failure, and shall forfeit the purchase, and all payments made thereon, to the Cherokee nation; and on the failure of said company to make such payments of interest at the expiration of each six months from the date of such sale, on all sums still due, or on the principal or any part of the said one million of dollars, then upon giving said party, to wit, the Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company, sixty days' notice thereof, the Secretary of the Interior shall declare an absolute forfeiture of sale, and all payments thereon in behalf of the Cherokee nation, and the certificate of purchase, shall be deemed and considered cancelled.
Article VII.
Should said Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company fail to execute the agreement herein provided for, and to pay the aforesaid sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the ratification thereof, as hereinbefore provided, within thirty days after the ratification of this treaty, then such parts of this treaty as determine in favor of said railway company shall be void, and the Secretary of the Interior may sell to any person or company said Cherokee neutral lands on the same terms and conditions as hereinbefore provided: Provided, That in case of such failure nothing herein shall be construed as preventing the appraisement and sale of the lands in question as provided for in the treaty of July nineteenth, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, if said lands shall not have been sold to any company.
Article VIII.
All sums received in payment of the principal of the aforesaid one million of dollars, including the first payment of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or of the principal of all sums received in payment for said lands, shall be invested immediately on their receipt, as provided for by twenty-third article of the treaty of July nineteenth, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six; and all sums of interest paid thereon shall be paid semi-annually to the Cherokee nation, as is provided for the payment of interest on the invested funds of said nation by said treaty, and shall be considered and paid as the interest due the Cherokee nation on invested funds, and shall be applied by said nation in manner and form as prescribed in said treaty.
In testimony whereof the aforenamed commissioners on behalf of the United States, and principal chief and delegates on behalf of the Cherokee nation, have hereunto set our hands and seals the day and year first above mentioned.
Lewis V. Bogy, [SEAL.]
Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
W. H. Watson, [SEAL.]
Special Commissioner.
Will P. Ross, [SEAL.]
Principal Chief Cherokee Nation.
Riley Keys, [SEAL.]
Delegate Cherokee Nation.
Jesse Bushyhead, [SEAL.]
Delegate Cherokee Nation.
In presence of:
J. W. Wright.
Wm. A. Phillips.
Thos. Murphy.