its own supplies, were dispirited, and their exertions paralyzed by the insecurity of their situation, and by the atrocious scenes of which they were the daily witnesses. Under these circumstances, it can excite no surprise to learn that every article of life was dearer than in any other section of the United States. The most extravagant prices were asked and given. I take the liberty of enclosing, herewith, a schedule of the prices, made out in 1815, while Governor Harrison, General McArthur, and Mr. Graham, commissioners for treating with the Indians, were at Detroit. The original was formed in the presence of Mr. Graham, and transmitted by him to the War Department. During the three years I have specified, Detroit was, emphatically, the Indian head-quarters. The eyes of all the Indians north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, together with many of those west of that river, were fixed upon that place. Either as actors or as anxious spectators, their attention was directed to Detroit and to Malden. All who could come-men, women, and children-remained as near there as the circumstances of the times permitted. During a part of that time we had no agent at Michilimackinac, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, St. Peter's, Rocky river, Chicago, Fort Wayne, and Upper Sandusky; and, during the whole of it, we had agents but at two or three of those places. The Governors of Territories are ex officio superintendents of Indian affairs within their respective local jurisdictions. But almost the whole duties of Indian agent for that immense extent of country, and for those numerous tribes of Indians, devolved upon me. Three-fourths of them were not within my local jurisdiction, and, consequently, I was not bound to discharge the duties of agent without compensation. In an estimate submitted to the War Department in 1816, it was computed that the average daily number of Indians in the town of Detroit was 400. My family has been driven from one extremity of the house to the other by them. * EXHIBIT 228. Governor Lewis Cass to the Secretary of War.1 WASHINGTON, October 29, 1821. Hon. JOHN C. CALHOUN, Secretary of War. SIR: In the letter which I had the honor to address you a few days since, I stated the nature of the claim which I had to compensation for the execution of duties connected with Indian affairs, and which I was not required by law to execute. In addition to the facts and principles therein stated, I take the liberty of presenting the following view of the subject. I am ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs within the Territory of Michigan. As such, it is my duty to superintend the agencies therein. Further than this, the law does not require me to go. Whenever, therefore, other duties are executed, they are to be paid out of the general fund appropriated for Indian affairs. Since 1813, and including part of that year, I have been the superintendent of Indian affairs upon the northwestern frontier of the United States. The agency of Michilimackinac is the only agency that was originally within the Territory of Michigan. That of Green Bay was attached to the Territory at the close of 1818, or the commencement of 1819. All the others under my superintendency are without the Territory, and the supervising power exercised by me over them is consequently not within the pale of my official duties. I have, then, superintended the following agencies, for which I have a just claim to compensation: the agency of Green Bay, till 1819; the agency at Chicago, Fort Wayne, Piqua, and the sub-agencies at Upper Sandusky and Blanchard's Fork, since their establishment. But for eight years I have executed the duty of Indian agent at Detroit. There was no agent "to oversee and overlook." I came directly in contact with the Indians, and every question and every application respecting them came directly to me. In fact, I have been surrounded by them. Some conception of their number may be formed, when it is recollected that the great 1American State Papers Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 315. body of the Indians north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi annually visit Malden, and pass through, or in the vicinity of, Detroit, on their journeys. That place has, for more than a century, been the headquarters of Indian affairs, under the French, British, and American Governments. The Ottawas, Chippewas, and a large portion of the Pattawatamies, belong to that agency, considered as such; and of these tribes I am in fact the agent. All the provisions and presents are issued by me: the annuities are paid by me. Applications with respect to losses sustained, either by the Indians or by our own citizens, are made to me, heard, determined, and satisfied or rejected, or forwarded to the Second Auditor of the Treasury. Licenses both to our own citizens in the ordinary manner, and also under the act of 1816, are granted by me; and the latter is a troublesome and laborious duty, for the discharge of which Major Puthuff considered himself entitled to $3,000 in one year; in short, the daily and hourly duties devolving upon an ordinary Indian agent, and resulting from the visits and applications of an importunate, hungry, wretched, and generally drunken people, are performed by me, not only for the Indians living within the peninsula, and considered as belonging to the Detroit agency, and computed at 8,000, but also for every Indian without those limits who is brought to Malden and Detroit by business, interest, or poverty. Considered with reference to its business and importance, and taking into view its relation to the British and Indians, there is certainly no agency in the Union which can compare with that of Detroit; none which is visited by the same number of Indians, none which is importuned with the same number of applications, none which requires the same ceaseless attention, and none which renders necessary the same caution and vigilance to secure the Indians from the effect of British presents and promises. The duties of this agency I have performed for upwards of eight years, without any legal obligation, without one cent of compensation, and with as much zeal and fidelity as in my power. * * * * * EXHIBIT 229. Extract from Communication to House of Representatives.' EXTINGUISHMENT OF INDIAN TITLE TO LANDS IN FAVOR OF CERTAIN STATES. Communicated to the House of Representatives, Mr. RANKIN, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred a message of the President of the United States, in relation to the extinguishment of the Indian title to lands in any State where the right of soil is claimed by any individual State, &c., (vide No. 184,) reported: * * * * * The States of New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee are the only States where the Indian title has been extinguished, so far as known to your committee, by the United States, without the consideration having been paid by the State within which the lands have been acquired, except within the State of Georgia, where the United States are bound by compact to extinguish the Indian title. After the formation of the constitution of the United States, the first article of the tenth section was supposed to have prohibited any State from holding a treaty with the Indians; and the twelfth section of the act of 30th March, 1802, expressly prohibited them. After the latter period, and in some instances previously, when any State desired a treaty for lands within its limits, commissioners were appointed by the United States, who held the treaty in presence of an agent of the State, and the payment of the purchase money was promised to be made by the State for whose benefit the treaty was made. All these treaties have undergone the usual formalities of ratification directed by the constitution of the United States. The committee find that, on the 9th day of January, 1789, a treaty was held at Fort Harmar, recognising the treaty held at Fort Stanwix on the 22d of October, 1784, with the Six Nations of Indians, by which New York procured an extinguishment of Indian title. The consideration to be paid by the United States was three thousand dollars, in goods. 'American State Papers, Indian Affa.is, Vol. II, p. 397. On the 11th of November, 1794, by treaty held at Canandaigua, a further extinguishment of Indian title was procured in the State of New York. The consideration for that purchase was the sum of three thousand dollars, which had been promised the Six Nations of Indians by a treaty of the 23d of April, 1792, and the additional sum of fifteen hundred dollars, to be expended annually in purchasing clothing, domestic animals, and implements of husbandry, and in encouraging useful artificers to reside in their villages. Your committee do not know that the United States were bound to make these expenditures, or that they have ever been reimbursed. |