Title: Gideon Morgan Letter to John C. Calhoun

Date/Date Range :   1820 August 16

Extent: 0.1 linear feet

Abstract:

In a letter dated August 16th, 1820, Gideon Morgan writes to John C. Calhoun regarding the lands he obtained in 1819 around the Citico Creek area of Tennessee.

Call number: MS-2386

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This letter was donated to Special Collections.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Gideon Morgan Letter to John C. Calhoun, MS-2386. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder.

Gideon Morgan was born in 1751. He served with Continental troops during the Revolutionary War. In the early 19th century, he moved to Virginia, then settled in Roane County, Tennessee in 1809. He established a trading post and mercantile business on the Tennessee-Cherokee frontier. Throughout his life, he was involved in U.S-Cherokee relations, serving in the U.S. Army against hostile Cherokee forces and signing various treaties. He died in 1830.

John C. Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782. Throughout his career in the U.S. Government, he served as a state Senator, U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator. Under James Monroe, he was the Secretary of War (1817-25) and Secretary of State under John Tyler (1844-5). He was the Vice President to both John Quincy Adams (1825-28) and Andrew Jackson, starting in 1828 until he resigned in 1832 to fill a Senate seat. He died in 1850 during a fifth term in the U.S. Senate.

The Treaty of 1819, which Gideon Morgan refers to as the "Jackson Treaty" was an agreement in which Cherokee ceded lands around the lower Little Tennessee and Hiwassee rivers. In the process, Overhill Cherokee settlements were transferred to the United States, although the Cherokee retained residences in the area.

In a letter dated August 16th, 1820, Gideon Morgan writes to John C. Calhoun regarding the lands he obtained around the Citico Creek area of Tennessee. Morgan speaks of his living on the land and the various changes over the last year. Towards the end of the letter, he expresses "an anxious solicitude to have Jacksons treaty brought to a final adjustment" and concerns about the money owed him by the Cherokee Nation.

• Cherokee Indians -- Land tenure.
• Land tenure -- Tennessee.
• Morgan, Gideon, 1751-1830.
• Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell), 1782-1850.