Residents of the Southwest Territory initially welcomed federal control, believing the federal government would provide better protection from hostile Indians than North Carolina's distant government to the east. However, the Federal government was already more focused on critical affairs in the old Northwest Territory. Most of the land in the "Old Southwest" was still either Indian territory or had already been claimed by speculators or settlers, and thus there was little money to be made from land sales. President Washington issued a proclamation forbidding the violation of the Treaty of Hopewell (which had set Indian boundaries), and Secretary of War Knox frequently accused settlers of illegally encroaching on Indian lands. Blount was consistently torn between placating angry frontiersmen and appeasing his superiors in the Federal government.