"It is say'd the Cherrokees claim the Land to the Westward of the Louisa & between Cumberland M and the ohio. If so, and our Government gives it up we loose all the most Valluable part of that Country. The Northern Indians Sold that Land to the English at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744, by the Treaty of Logs Town in 1752 and by that at Fort Stanwix in 1768. At that Time the Cherrokees laid no Claim to that Land & how the[y come to do it now I cannot imagine...", Edited by Stanislaus Murray Hamilton (The Washington Papers, Library of Congress).