He was appointed that year by territorial Governor William Blount to survey the boundary with the Cherokee nation established by the 1791 Treaty of Holston.

Juan Vicente Folch y Jaun, governor of West Florida, feared that filibusterers would try to seize the rest of the province.

[5] Shortly after John McKee reached Washington in January 1811, President James Madison decided to send George Mathews to negotiate the surrender of West Florida with Governor Folch, and to investigate means to detach East Florida from Spain so that it could be annexed by the United States.

[7] Folch had in the meantime rescinded his offer to surrender West Florida to the United States, having received money and orders from Veracruz.

McKee used John Pitchlynn's fort at Plymouth as a base of operations for excursions against Red Sticks who were on the Black Warrior River.

[1] In 1824, McKee was sent to Tallahassee, Florida, to settle the location of the township granted to the Marquis de Lafayette by Congress.

[13] After leaving the House of Representatives in 1829, McKee was one of the men who negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with the Choctaw nation in 1830.