SPECIAL MESSAGES.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, June 2, 1841.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, exhibiting certain transfers of appropriations that have been made in that Department in pursuance of the power vested in the President of the United States by the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1809, entitled "An act further to amend the several acts for the establishment and regulation of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments."
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, June 17, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States
I transmit to the Senate the inclosed communication[1] from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, June 17, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate the inclosed communication from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant.
JOHN TYLER.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, June 15, 1841.
The PRESIDENT.
SIR: In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant, calling for "any orders which may have been issued to the officers of the Army and Navy in relation to political offenses in elections," etc., I inclose a copy of the circular letter addressed, under the direction of the President, by this Department to the heads of the other Departments, and know of no other order to which the resolution can be supposed to have reference.
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
DANIEL WEBSTER.
CIRCULAR.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, March 20, 1841.
SIR: The President is of opinion that it is a great abuse to bring the patronage of the General Government into conflict with the freedom of elections, and that this abuse ought to be corrected wherever it may have been permitted to exist, and to be prevented for the future.
He therefore directs that information be given to all officers and agents in your department of the public service that partisan interference in popular elections, whether of State officers or officers of this Government, and for whomsoever or against whomsoever it may be exercised, or the payment of any contribution or assessment on salaries, or official compensation for party or election purposes, will be regarded by him as cause of removal.
It is not intended that any officer shall be restrained in the free and proper expression and maintenance of his opinions respecting public men or public measures, or in the exercise to the fullest degree of the constitutional right of suffrage. But persons employed under the Government and paid for their services out of the public Treasury are not expected to take an active or officious part in attempts to influence the minds or votes of others, such conduct being deemed inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution and the duties of public agents acting under it; and the President is resolved, so far as depends upon him, that while the exercise of the elective franchise by the people shall be free from undue influences of official station and authority, opinion shall also be free among the officers and agents of the Government.
The President wishes it further to be announced and distinctly understood that from all collecting and disbursing officers promptitude in rendering accounts and entire punctuality in paying balances will be rigorously exacted. In his opinion it is time to return in this respect to the early practice of the Government, and to hold any degree of delinquency on the part of those intrusted with the public money just cause of immediate removal. He deems the severe observance of this rule to be essential to the public service, as every dollar lost to the Treasury by unfaithfulness in office creates a necessity for a new charge upon the people.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
DANIEL WEBSTER.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 18, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying documents,[2] in answer to their resolution of the 12th instant.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, June, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I have the honor to transmit to the Senate the accompanying letter[3] from the Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance of its resolution of the 8th instant.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, June 22, 1841.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I have the honor to submit the accompanying correspondence between myself and the Hon. J. Burnet, J.C. Wright, and others, who arrived some days ago in this city as a committee on behalf of the people of Cincinnati for the purpose, with the assent of the family, of removing the remains of the late President of the United States to North Bend for interment. I have thought it to be my duty thus to apprise Congress of the contemplated proceedings.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON CITY, June 16, 1841.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
DEAR SIR: The undersigned were appointed by the citizens and the city council of Cincinnati and by many of the surviving soldiers of the late war to apply to the widow and family of our distinguished fellow-citizen, the late President of the United States, for permission to remove his remains from the city of Washington to the State of Ohio for interment. They have made the application directed, and have received permission to perform that sacred trust. They have now the honor of reporting to you their arrival in this city, and of asking your approbation of the measure contemplated and your cooperation in carrying it into effect.
We are fully aware of the high estimate you placed on the talents and virtues of our lamented friend and fellow-citizen, the late Chief Magistrate of the Union, whose friendship and confidence you possessed many years. We saw the tear fall from your eye and mingle with the tears of the nation when the inscrutable will of Heaven removed him from us.
Knowing these things, we approach you with confidence, well assured that you will justly appreciate our motive for undertaking the mournful duty we have been deputed to perform, and that the same kind feeling which has marked your course through life will prompt you on this occasion to afford us your countenance, and, if necessary, your cooperation.
If it meet your approbation, the committee will do themselves the honor of waiting upon you at the President's house at any hour you may please to designate.
With high respect, we are, your friends and fellow-citizens,
J. BURNET.
J.C. WRIGHT.
[AND 10 OTHERS.]
WASHINGTON, June 17, 1841.
J. BURNET, J.C. WRIGHT, AND OTHERS OF THE COMMITTEE.
GENTLEMEN: Your letter of the 16th was duly handed me, and I lose no time in responding to the feelings and sentiments which you have expressed for yourselves and those you represent, and which you have correctly ascribed to me in regard to the lamented death of the late President. As a citizen I respected him; as a patriot I honored him; as a friend he was near and dear to me. That the people of Cincinnati should desire to keep watch over his remains by entombing them near their city is both natural and becoming; that the entire West, where so many evidences of his public usefulness are to be found, should unite in the same wish was to have been expected; and that the surviving soldiers of his many battles, led on by him to victory and to glory, should sigh to perform the last melancholy duties to the remains of their old commander is fully in consonance with the promptings of a noble and generous sympathy. I could not, if I was authorized to do so, oppose myself to their wishes. I might find something to urge on behalf of his native State in my knowledge of his continued attachment to her through the whole period of his useful life; in the claims of his relatives there, whose desire it would be that the mortal remains of the illustrious son should sleep under the same turf with those of his distinguished father, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; in the wish of the citizens of his native county to claim all that is now left of him for whom they so lately cast their almost unanimous suffrage; to say nothing of my own feelings, allied as I am by blood to many of his near relatives, and with our names so closely associated in much connected with the late exciting political contest. These considerations might present some reasonable ground for opposing your wishes; but the assent which has been given by his respected widow and nearest relatives to the request of the people of Cincinnati admits of no opposition on my part, neither in my individual nor official character.
I shall feel it to be my duty, however, to submit our correspondence to the two Houses of Congress, now in session, but anticipating no effort from that quarter to thwart the wishes expressed by yourselves in consonance with those of the widow and nearest relatives of the late President. I readily promise you my cooperation toward enabling you to fulfill the sacred trust which brought you to this city.
I tender to each of you, gentlemen, my cordial salutations.
JOHN TYLER.
[NOTE.—The remains of the late President of the United States were removed from Washington to North Bend, Ohio, June 26, 1841.]
WASHINGTON, June 29, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, I have the honor to submit the accompanying reports from the Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, which embrace all the information possessed by the executive department upon that subject.[4]
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, June 30, 1841.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
The accompanying memorial in favor of the passage of a bankrupt law, signed by nearly 3,000 of the inhabitants of the city of New York, has been forwarded to me, attended by a request that I would submit it to the consideration of Congress. I can not waive a compliance with a request urged upon me by so large and respectable a number of my fellow-citizens. That a bankrupt law, carefully guarded against fraudulent practices and embracing as far as practicable all classes of society—the failure to do which has heretofore constituted a prominent objection to the measure—would afford extensive relief I do not doubt. The distress incident to the derangements of some years past has visited large numbers of our fellow-citizens with hopeless insolvency, whose energies, both mental and physical, by reason of the load of debt pressing upon them, are lost to the country. Whether Congress shall deem it proper to enter upon the consideration of this subject at its present extraordinary session it will doubtless wisely determine. I have fulfilled my duty to the memorialists in submitting their petition to your consideration.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, July 1, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I have the honor herewith to submit to the Senate the copy of a letter addressed by myself to Mrs. Harrison in compliance with the resolutions of Congress, and her reply thereto.
JOHN TYLER.
[The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
WASHINGTON, June 13, 1841.
Mrs. ANNA HARRISON.
MY DEAR MADAM: The accompanying resolutions, adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, will convey to you an expression of the deep sympathy felt by the representatives of the States and of the people in the sad bereavement which yourself and the country have sustained in the death of your illustrious husband. It may now be justly considered that the public archives constitute his enduring monument, on which are inscribed in characters not to be effaced the proudest evidences of public gratitude for services rendered and of sorrow for his death. A great and united people shed their tears over the bier of a devoted patriot and distinguished public benefactor.
In conveying to you, my dear madam, the profound respect of the two Houses of Congress for your person and character, and their sincere condolence on the late afflicting dispensation of Providence, permit me to mingle my feelings with theirs and to tender you my fervent wishes for your health, happiness, and long life.
JOHN TYLER.
A RESOLUTION manifesting the sensibility of Congress upon the event of the death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States.
The melancholy event of the death of William Henry Harrison, the late President of the United States, having occurred during the recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief and desiring to manifest their sensibility upon the occasion of that public bereavement: Therefore,
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the chairs of the President of the Senate and of the Speaker of the House of Representatives be shrouded in black during the residue of the session, and that the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the members and officers of both Houses wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.
Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Harrison, and to assure her of the profound respect of the two Houses of Congress for her person and character, and of their sincere condolence on the late afflicting dispensation of Providence.
NORTH BEND, June 24, 1841.
His Excellency JOHN TYLER,
President United States, Washington City, D.C.
DEAR SIR: I have received with sentiments of deep emotion the resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives which you have done me the honor of forwarding, relative to the decease of my lamented husband.
I can not sufficiently express the thanks I owe to the nation and its assembled representatives for their condolence, so feelingly expressed, of my individual calamity and the national bereavement; but, mingling my tears with the sighs of the many patriots of the land, pray to Heaven for the enduring happiness and prosperity of our beloved country.
ANNA HARRISON.
WASHINGTON, July 3, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant [ultimo], I communicate to that body a report from the Secretary of State, conveying copies of the correspondence,[5] which contains all the information called for by said resolution.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, July 9, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, calling for information as to the progress and actual condition of the commission[6] under the convention with the Mexican Republic.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, July, 14, 1841.
To the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 21st ultimo, I have the honor to submit the accompanying communication[7] from the Secretary of State.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1841.
To the House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives, in reply to their resolution of the 21st ultimo, a report[8] from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, July 19, 1841.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
The act of Congress of the 10th of March, 1838, entitled "An act supplementary to an act entitled 'An act in addition to the act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States and to repeal the acts therein mentioned,' approved 20th of April, 1818," expired by its own limitation on the 10th of March, 1840. The object of this act was to make further provision for preventing military expeditions or enterprises against the territory or dominions of any prince or state or of any colony, district, or people conterminous with the United States and with whom they are at peace, contrary to the act of April 20, 1818, entitled "An act in addition to the act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States and to repeal the acts therein mentioned."
The act of Congress of March 10, 1838, appears to have had a very salutary effect, and it is respectfully recommended to Congress that it be now revived or its provisions be reenacted.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, July 27, 1841.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith to Congress a communication from the Secretary of State, on the subject of appropriations required for outfits and salaries of diplomatic agents of the United States.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, August 2, 1841.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
On the 18th of February, 1832, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution in the following words:
Resolved, That the President of the United States be authorized to employ Horatio Greenough, of Massachusetts, to execute in marble a full-length pedestrian statue of Washington, to be placed in the center of the Rotunda of the Capitol; the head to be a copy of Houdon's Washington, and the accessories to be left to the judgment of the artist.
On the 23d of the same month the Secretary of State, by direction of the President, addressed to Mr. Greenough a letter of instructions for carrying into effect the resolution of the House.
On the 14th of July, 1832, an appropriation of the sum of $5,000 was made "to enable the President of the United States to contract with a skillful artist to execute in marble a pedestrian statue of George Washington, to be placed in the center of the Rotunda of the Capitol," and several appropriations were made at the succeeding sessions in furtherance of the same object.
Mr. Greenough, having been employed upon the work for several years at Florence, completed it some months ago.
By a resolution of Congress of the 27th of May, 1840, it was directed "that the Secretary of the Navy be authorized and instructed to take measures for the importation and erection of the statue of Washington by Greenough." In pursuance of this authority the Navy Department held a correspondence with Commodore Hull, commanding on the Mediterranean station, who entered into an agreement with the owners or master of the ship Sea for the transportation of the statue to the United States. This ship, with the statue on board, arrived in this city on the 31st ultimo, and now lies at the navy-yard.
As appropriations have become necessary for the payment of the freight and other expenses, I communicate to Congress such papers as may enable it to judge of the amount required.
JOHN TYLER.
AUGUST 3, 1841.
Hon. JOHN WHITE,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
SIR: I herewith transmit a communication[9] received from the Postmaster-General, to which I would invite the attention of Congress.
JOHN TYLER.
AUGUST 3, 1841.
To the House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom I referred the resolution of the House calling for a communication[10] addressed to him by the French minister.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, August 6, 1841.
To the House of Representatives:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 16th of July, 1841, I communicate reports[11] from the several Executive Departments, containing the information requested by said resolution.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, August 25, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I herewith transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of the 22d ultimo, copies of the several reports of the commissioners appointed in March last to examine into certain matters connected with the public buildings in this city and the conduct of those employed in their erection.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, August 27, 1841.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, bearing date this day, with the accompanying papers, in answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 16th ultimo, relative to removals from office, etc.
These statements should have accompanied those from the other Departments on the same subject transmitted in my message to the House on the 7th ultimo,[12] but which have been delayed for reasons stated in the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury above referred to.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 1, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I submit to the Senate, for its consideration and constitutional action, a treaty concluded at Oeyoowasha, on Minneesota (or St. Peters) River, in the Territory of Iowa, on the 31st day of July last, between James Duane Doty, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the Seeseeahto, Wofpato, and Wofpakoota bands of the Dakota (or Sioux) Nation of Indians.
The accompanying communication from the Secretary of War fully sets forth the considerations which have called for the negotiation of this treaty, and which have induced me to recommend its confirmation, with such exceptions and modifications as the Senate may advise.
JOHN TYLER.
DEPARTMENT OF WAR, August 31, 1841.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
SIR: I transmit herewith a treaty concluded with certain bands of the Dahcota Nation of Indians, commonly called Sioux, which has been received at this Department from His Excellency James D. Doty, governor of Wisconsin, who was appointed a commissioner on the part of the United States for the purpose of negotiating the treaty; and I desire to submit the following facts and opinions inducing me to request its favorable consideration:
It was known on my entering upon the duties of the Department of War that some provision must speedily be made for the Winnebago Indians in the Northwest. By the treaty with those Indians in 1837 it was provided that they should move temporarily upon a narrow strip of country west of the Mississippi River, called the neutral ground, from the object of its purchase in 1830. That strip of country is only 40 miles in width, 20 miles of it having been purchased from the Sac and Fox Indians and 20 miles from the Sioux, the object of the purchase having been to place a barrier between those tribes, which had been for many years at war and parties of which were continually meeting and destroying each other upon or adjacent to the country purchased.
When the delegation of Winnebago chiefs was in Washington negotiating a sale of all their lands east of the Mississippi River, in 1837, a permanent location for those Indians was not fixed upon, and a temporary expedient was adopted, and acceded to by the Indians, by which they agreed, within eight months from the ratification of the treaty, to move upon and occupy a portion of the neutral ground until they should select a permanent home.
Owing to the small extent of country thus temporarily assigned to the Winnebagoes, utterly destitute of all preparation for the reception of them, slenderly supplied with game, and, above all, the circumstance that the Sac and Fox Indians were continually at war with the Sioux, the object of the purchase having utterly failed, the neutral ground, so called, proving literally the fighting ground of the hostile tribes—owing to all these circumstances the Winnebagoes were extremely reluctant to comply with the treaty. It was in part a dictate of humanity to give them more time for removal than that allotted in the treaty, in the hope of effecting their permanent removal beyond the Missouri or elsewhere; but as no steps were taken to select their future home, and as the white settlers in Wisconsin were fast crowding upon the Indians, overrunning the country, as usual, in search of town sites, water privileges, and farming districts, it became absolutely necessary to make some efforts toward carrying the treaty into effect. Owing to the excited state of the Indians and the apprehension of disturbance, the Eighth Regiment of Infantry, in 1840, more than two years, instead of eight months, after the ratification of the treaty, was ordered upon the Winnebago frontier, the greater part of the Fifth Regiment being already there, and in the presence of that force the Indians were required to comply with the treaty. They reluctantly removed from the banks of the Wisconsin River and crossed the Mississippi, but did not go to that portion of the neutral ground agreed upon, which commenced 20 miles from the river, but instead of it they spread themselves along the bank of the Mississippi, some of them recrossing that river and ascending the Chippewa and Black rivers. Only a small portion of the tribe has yet removed to the portion of the neutral ground assigned to them, and it is perhaps fortunate that local attachments have not been formed, since, from the position of the country, it was not and never could have been intended as their permanent home.
After a careful examination of the country in the Northwest the importance of providing for the Winnebago Indians, though immediate, became secondary in a more national and wider prospect of benefits in future years by arrangements which presented themselves to my mind as not only practicable, but of easy accomplishment.
A glance at the map and at the efforts hitherto made in emigration will show an extensive body of Indians accumulated upon the Southwestern frontier, and, looking to the numbers yet to be emigrated from within the circle of territory soon to become States of the American Union, it will appear upon very many considerations to be of the utmost importance to separate the Indians and to interpose a barrier between the masses which are destined to be placed upon the western frontier, instead of accumulating them within limits enabling them to unite and in concert spread desolation over the States of Missouri and Arkansas to, perhaps, the banks of the Mississippi.
Entertaining these views, it was determined to open negotiations with the Sioux Indians north and northwest of the purchase of 1830, the neutral ground, so called, with the purpose of purchasing sufficient territory beyond the reasonable limits of Iowa to provide a resting place for the Winnebagoes, intending to treat also with the Sac and Fox Indians and with the Potawatamies north of the State of Missouri, and thus enable our citizens to expand west of the Missouri River north of the State.
It is difficult to state in a condensed report all the reasons now imperatively urging the adoption of these measures. Besides the absolute necessity of providing a home for the Winnebagoes, the citizens of Iowa and of Missouri are crowding upon the territory of the Sac and Fox Indians and already producing those irritations which in former times have led to bloody wars. It is not to be for a moment concealed that our enterprising and hardy population must and will occupy the territory adjacent to that purchased in 1837 from the Sacs and Foxes, and the only possible mode of its being done in peace is by another purchase from those Indians. But the position of the Potawatamies will then become relatively what that of the Sac and Fox Indians now is, with the difference that access to their country by the Missouri River will hasten its occupancy by our people. The only mode of guarding against future collision, near at hand if not provided against, is by emigrating not only the Sac and Fox Indians, but also the Potawatamies.
Great efforts have been made to induce those Indians, as also the Winnebagoes, to move south of the Missouri, but without effect, their opposition to it being apparently insurmountable, the Potawatamies expressing the most decided aversion to it on being urged to join other bands of Potawatamies on the Marais de Cygne, declaring that they would rather at once go to California, being determined not to unite with those bands, but to maintain an independence of them. By the purchase from the Sioux no doubt is entertained that their prejudices may be advantageously accommodated, for among the objects in contemplation before adverted to it is to my mind of primary importance so to dispose of those Indians as to enable this Government to interpose a State between the Northern and Southern Indians along the Missouri River, and thus, by dividing the Indians on the frontier and separating the divisions, prevent a combination and concert of action which future progress in civilization might otherwise enable them to effect in the prosecution of revenge for real or imagined grievances.
Great importance is attached to this view of the subject, but scarcely less to the means provided by the treaty for inducing the remnants of other Northern tribes to remove to a climate congenial to their habits and disposition.
From the earliest efforts at emigration certain Northern Indians have strenuously objected to a removal south of the Missouri on account of the climate; and where tribes have been induced to dispose of all right to live east of the Mississippi within the United States, many individuals, dreading their southern destination, have wandered to the north and are now living in Canada, annually in the receipt of presents from the British Government, and will be ready without doubt to side with that power in any future conflict with this Government. In this manner considerable numbers of the Delawares and Shawnees and other Indians have disappeared from our settlements—a fact of great importance, and which I apprehend has not been heretofore sufficiently considered. There are many Potawatamies and Ottawas, as also Winnebagoes and Menomonees, who may be easily induced to move into Canada by seductive bribes, in the use of which the British Government has always displayed a remarkable foresight.
Of the Chippewas and Ottawas now in the northern part of Michigan it is believed there are over 5,000 under treaty obligations to remove to the Southwest, the greater portion of whom openly declared their determination to cross the line into Canada and put themselves under the protection of the British Government in preference to a removal to that country. These Indians may be accommodated by the arrangements in contemplation, not only to their own satisfaction, but under circumstances promising the greatest permanent advantages to the United States, and separating them from all inducements and even the possibility of entering the British service. I am not without hope, also, that through this treaty some suitable and acceptable arrangement may be made with the New York Indians by which they may be removed with safety to themselves and benefit to the people of that State. The very peculiar situation of these Indians is well known; that while they are under treaty obligation to remove, the treaty being by the Constitution the supreme law of the land and perfecting in this instance the title of the land they occupy in a private land company, there is yet every reason to sympathize with them and the highest moral inducements for extending every possible relief to them within the legitimate powers of the Government. I have been assured from sources entitled to my fullest confidence that although these Indians have hitherto expressed the most decided aversion to a removal south of the Missouri, there will probably be no difficulty in persuading them to occupy a more northern region in the West. I have every reason for believing that a benevolent interest in their behalf among a portion of our own people, which, it is supposed, has heretofore presented an obstacle to their emigration, will be exerted to effect their removal if a portion of the Sioux country can be appropriated to them.
It will be perceived, therefore, that a multitude of objects thus rest upon the success of this one treaty, now submitted for examination and approbation.
Of the Sioux Indians I will but remark that they occupy an immense country spreading from the Mississippi north of the neutral ground west and northwest, crossing the Missouri River more than 1,200 miles above the city of St. Louis. They are divided into bands, which have various names, the generic name for the whole being the Dahcota Nation. These bands, though speaking a common language, are independent in their occupancy of portions of country, and separate treaties may be made with them. Treaties are already subsisting with some of the bands both on the Mississippi and Missouri. The treaty now submitted is believed to be advantageous, and from its provisions contemplates the reduction of those wandering Indians from their nomadic habits to those of an agricultural people.
If some of the provisions seem not such as might be desired, it will be recollected that many interests have to be accommodated in framing an Indian treaty which can only be fully known to the commissioner, who derives his information directly from the Indians in the country which is the object of the purchase.
It is proper to add that I had instructed the commissioner expressly not to take into consideration what are called traders' claims, in the hope of correcting a practice which, it is believed, has been attended with mischievous consequences; but the commissioner has by a letter of explanations fully satisfied me that in this instance it was absolutely necessary to accommodate those claims as an indispensable means of obtaining the assent of the Indians to the treaty. This results, doubtless, from their dependence upon the traders for articles, in a measure necessaries, which are for the most part furnished without competition, and of the proper value of which the Indians are ignorant.
To compensate in some degree for the article in this treaty providing for the payment of traders' claims, very judicious guards are introduced into the treaty, calculated effectually to exclude that source of interest adverse to the Government in all future time within the purchase under this treaty.
There are other articles in the treaty which I have not been able fully to realize as judicious or necessary, but for reasons already stated they deserve respectful consideration.
Notwithstanding the article stipulating that a rejection of any of the provisions of the treaty should render the whole null and void, I would respectfully recommend such modified acceptance of the treaty as in the wisdom of the Senate may seem just and proper, conditioned upon the assent of the Indians subsequently to be obtained, the Senate making provision for its reference back to the Indians if necessary.
It will be seen that the treaty provides for a power of regulation in the Indian Territory by the United States Government under circumstances not hitherto attempted, presenting an opportunity for an experiment well worthy of mature consideration.
I ought not to dismiss this subject without adverting to one other important consideration connected with the integrity of our Northwest Indians and Territory. The Sioux treaty will effectually withdraw from British influence all those who are a party to it by making them stipendiaries of the United States and by operating a change in their wandering habits and establishing them at known and fixed points under the observation of Government agents, and as the British can only have access to that region by the way of Fond du Lac, one or two small military posts in a direction west and south from that point, it is believed, will completely control all intercourse with the Indians in that section of country.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JNO. BELL.
WASHINGTON, September 6, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
I have the honor, in compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 8th June, to communicate a letter[13] from the Secretary of the Treasury and the correspondence accompanying it.
JOHN TYLER.
WASHINGTON, September 13, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 14th July last, I communicate to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by copies of the correspondence[14] called for by said resolution.
JOHN TYLER.