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TREATY
OF BEAUFORT
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"In 1785 South Carolina instituted suit against Georgia before
congress, under the ninth article of the Confederation. On June 1st of
this year Georgia was summoned to appear on the second Monday of May,
1786. . . .The case was adjourned from time to time until September 4,
1786, when both States appeared by their agents. Proceedings were then
instituted and a court was appointed to try the case, which was to sit in
New York, June 4, 1787. No judgment was ever rendered by this court, in
consequence of the compromise of the suit between the parties." (Garrett,
in Confed. Mil. History.)
Both States appointed commissioners
early in 1787, to settle the disputes, and they concluded a convention at
Beaufort, April 28, 1787. The claims of South Carolina were these:
- for lands "lying between the North Carolina line and the line run
due west from the mouth of Tugaloo river to the Mississippi, because the
river Savannah loses its name at the confluence of the Tugaloo and
Keowee rivers, consequently that spot in the head of the
Savannah;"
- for all the lands from the Mississippi River eastward, north of
Florida and south of the south line of the Georgia charter, that is to
say, the line the latitude of Atlanta, Ga., and Grenada, Miss. Georgia
excepted form this claim what had been assigned southward on the coast
to Georgia by royal proclamation in 1763, and would make the westward
limit of Georgia, south of the Atlanta line, a line from that locality
to the head of the St. Marys river.
The commissioners
agreed that the Savannah river boundary line should be continued in the
Tugaloo river and its most northern branch, as the main source of the
Savannah, up to the North Carolina line, if there were any stream to
follow so far north, if not, then South Carolina should own west to the
Mississippi along the northward of a line due west from the ultimate
source of the Tugaloo. As to the other and more important western region,
south and west of the Georgia settlements, South Carolina relinquished all
claim.
On March 8 of the same year, however, the South Carolina
legislature, declaring "this State is willing to adopt every measure which
can tend to promote the honor and dignity of the United States and
strengthen the Federal Union," authorized the cession to the United States
of a part of the northern strip in dispute, namely, all north of a line
due west from the head of the southern branch of the Tugaloo. This cession
was accepted by congress. August 9, 1787, and this Twelve-mile strip was
the first area in what is now Mississippi to become public domain, under
the policy of westward cession. For this reason the first congressional
enactment regarding the Mississippi Territory, refers to the region "south
of the cession made to the United States by South Carolina." |
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Copyright 2000, 2001 Mississippi
State Coordinator,
American Local History Network, Inc., a non-profit public
benefit corporation
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Walker English
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