In Jefferson's 1805 address to Congress, he announced several recent treaties with the Indian tribes of the Chicasaws, Cherokees and the Creeks. As Jefferson put it, "Our Indian neighbors are advancing, many of them with spirit, and others beginning to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and household manufacture". Jefferson's civilization program was working; the Indians were "becoming sensible that the earth yields subsistence with less labor and more certainty than the forest". Thus, the tribes were giving up their "surplus and waste lands" for the tools and commodities needed to sustain their families thorough farming. The United States was quickly taking hold of their land and expanding West. Jefferson continued his address, by providing a list of recent acquisitions".
"Since your last session the Northern tribes have sold to us the lands between the Connecticut Reserve and the former Indian boundary and those on the Ohio from the same boundary to the rapids and for a considerable depth inland. The Chickasaws and Cherokees have sold us the country between and adjacent to the two districts of Tennessee, and the Creeks the residue of their lands in the fork of the Ocmulgee up to the Ulcofauhatche. The three former purchases are important, in as much as they consolidate disjoined parts of our settled country and render their intercourse secure; and the second particularly so, as, with the small point on the river which we expect is by this time ceded by the Piankeshaws, it completes our possession of the whole of both banks of the Ohio from its source to near its mouth, and the navigation of that river is thereby rendered forever safe to our citizens settled and settling on its extensive waters. The purchase from the Creeks, too, has been for some time particularly interesting to the State of Georgia."
The last line, "The purchase from the Creeks, too, has been for some time particularly interesting to the State of Georgia", deserves some further explanation. I believe Jefferson here was referring to article 2 of the Treaty with The Creeks signed at the city of Washington on November 14th 1805. Article 2, stipulated that the Creek nation would grant the United States the right to a horse path through the Creek country from Ocmulgee river in Georgia to the Mobile River in Louisiana. The article along with other treaties signed by the Cherokees at Tellico allowed the United States as directed by the president to clear the path, lay logs over the creeks and pass peaceably through Creek country. The article also allowed the Creek chiefs to have boats kept at the rivers for the "conveyance of men and horses", and "houses of entertainment" set up a long the path to accommodate the travelers. These "houses of entertainment" became stagecoach shops, relay points for postal riders, inns and taverns set apart about 16 miles or an average day's travel on foot. This horse path was actually the start of "The Federal Road project". The path started at Fort Wilkinson near Milledville, Georgia and ended at Fort Stoddert near Mobile Alabama. The Federal Road began in 1806 as a postal road, when Congress appropriated $6,400 to open a road from the Indian frontier near Athens to New Orleans. The path was to be cleared to a width of 4 feet, logs were to be laid across the creeks, and causeways across the swampy bogs were to be made of logs 5 feet long. The total distance of the path was to be 1,152 miles.
Then as war with Great Britain loomed on the horizon, the road was widened into a military road for the movement of troops, supply weapons and ordinances. The road was cleared to 16 feet wide and cut close to the ground for smoothed passage. Swamps and streams were both causewayed and bridged. This greatly upset the Creek Indians and led to the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814, resulting in the removal of the Creeks to the West. Eventually, the road was cleared to 20 feet wide and served as a Pioneer road. By 1820, 200,000 immigrants were living in Alabama and Mississippi raising cotton and building towns, and most of these immigrants had traveled on the Federal Road to get there. Jefferson could not have been more prescient about the importance of the purchase from the Creeks. For the purchase and treaty, was not only particularly interesting to the state of Georgia, but to the Alabama, Mississippi and to all of the United States and it's Indian neighbors.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29447
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/cre0085.htm
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gentutor/Federal.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Road_%28Creek_lands%29
ARTICLE 2 TREATY WITH THE CREEKS, 1805.
It is hereby stipulated and agreed, on the part of the Creek nation that the government of the United States shall forever hereafter have a right to a horse path, through the Creek country, from the Ocmulgee to the Mobile, in such direction as shall, by the President of the United States, be considered most convenient, and to clear out the same, and lay logs over the creeks: And the citizens of said States, shall at all times have a right to pass peaceably on said path, under regulation and such restrictions, as the government of the United States shall from time to time direct; and the Creek chiefs will have boats kept at the several rivers for the conveyance of men and horses, and houses of entertainment established at suitable places on said path for the accommodation of travellers; and the respective ferriages and prices of entertainment for men and horses, shall be regulated by the present agent, Col. Hawkins, or by his successor in office, or as is usual among white people.
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