---

May it please your Excellency:

The Commissioners of North Carolina and Virginia who held the late Treaty at the Long Island, having made peace with the Over hill Cherokees and fixed a boundary line with them, consider that the extention of the line between the two States is now become

an object worthy the immediate attention of Government. How far the Executive of this State is authorized to go into this business without the concurrence of the Legislature we do not take upon us to determine. But this far we can inform your Excellency, that it would be the means of preventing many great disputes, and of enabling Government to punish all such as infringe on the articles of the Treaty, which otherwise cannot be done with propriety, as it is impossible in some cases to judge in which State the infringement might happen until the line is extended. We are clearly of opinion that this business might be done when the Indian boundary is run at much less expense than at any other time, as the same Commissioners, Surveyors and attendants might answer both purposes. And there appears a great necessity for many reasons that the line with the Overhills should be run out and marked immediately. Our Indian line begins where that of Virginia ends. They are determined to run theirs this fall; the Indians will be uneasy perhaps if ours is delayed; and it may be disadvantageous to have to call on them a second time from the nation. And when the Indian lines are finished, the line between the two States might soon be extended. The Commissioners of Virginia are of opinion with us, and have assured us that they will lay the matter before the Governor of that State.

---