In the troubles between Georgia and the Cherokee Indians, however, he took a different stand.
In March 1 775 Richard Henderson and some North Carolina land speculators met about 1200 Cherokee Indians in council on the Watauga river and concluded a treaty with them for the purchase of all the territory south of the Ohio river and between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers.
He led the unsuccessful opposition to the Indian policy of General Jackson (the removal of the Cherokee and other Indians, without their consent, from lands guaranteed to them by treaty).
The Georgia legislature, however, contended that the United States had not acted in good faith, declared that all land within the boundaries of the state belonged to Georgia, and in 1828 extended the jurisdiction of Georgia law to the Cherokee lands.
Shortly after his first election Georgia passed an act extending over the Cherokee country the civil laws of the state.