dent Government. So the ports which formerly belonged to Colombia were to be considered as still belonging to it, until some new Government arose, and was publicly recognised. [H. OF R. stand what inference gentlemen would draw from such declarations. Sir, such a claim as this, supported like this is, I will sustain in the best manner I can, no matter what quarter it comes from; and who, in this assembly, Mr. CAMBRELENG stated what would be the practi- is disposed to be more economical than myself? None; cal effect of the treaty upon our commerce, which he de- no, not one. Let it be remembered that I will, on all occlared to be highly advantageous. Let gentlemen consi- casions, support a policy that upholds the credit of the der the difference in the number of ships. Where was the Government, and does justice to the citizen. Humble as Colombian flag to be seen, while ours covered the sea? I am, my claim to popular support shall be built on this Instead, therefore, of giving every thing, and getting no-basis only. Here, on this floor, we must silence the pasthing, we were, in fact, to give little or nothing, and to sions that would mislead us. Justice will govern, and get every thing. The House was in possession of no offi- harmony and order follow in the train of our legislation. cal information as to the dissolution of the Colombian re- Yes, sir, this claim is just, it appeals to your magnanimity, public, and, until it was, it should hold to the old treaty. your patriotism, and justice for support; and the appeal Mr. REED contended that the House needed further will not be in vain. If you will but listen to the statement information before it passed so important a bill. He was of facts I will now make, (plain and unvarnished as I hope satisfied, from the result of recent inquiries, that the pro-it shall be,) you will be satisfied of the truth of the above posed Government of New Grenada would not possess a declaration. single port; no, not even Carthagena; and he therefore moved to lay the bill on the table, but withdrew his motion at the request of During the revolutionary war, David Dardin lived in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, a county then and now celebrated for raising fine horses-yes, the best suited for Mr. EVERETT, who stated it to be his impression that the turf, the saddle, and for war. He had possessed himthe Government of New Grenada would possess a seacoast self, though a man of very moderate fortune, of the celeequal in extent to that of the United States from Maine brated horse Romulus. This horse was considered among to Georgia. If the Colombian Government was a mere the most valuable of his species. At the time of which we imaginary being, and possessed no ports, then the treaty are speaking, the army of General Green had retreated would have no effect, and would do no hurt. If the Go- from the Southern extremity of the Union to the very borvernment had no ports, it could send us no ships. The ders of Virginia. The want of horses in the army, for date of the decree of that Government was the 21st of No- Lee's and Washington's legions, was very great--so great, vember, 1831, and there was no information of a more that General Green sent an officer into Mecklenburg, Virrecent date. ginia, to impress a supply for the public service. This Mr. MERCER said, in a word, if the new Governments officer went to Dardin's, and impressed the horse Romuwanted the advantage secured by the treaty, they must lus. On being sent to head quarters, Romulus attracted pay the price, by granting us the same. the eye of the commanding general. His great value inMr. ARCHER said that, if the bill were to be stopped,duced the general to order that he should be restored to the Government of the United States ought in justice to Dardin; and he was restored accordingly. Had the matpay for the advantages which they had already received ter ended here, this case would never have been heard of; under the late decree. but the wants of the army were not yet supplied; a formidable enemy were advancing on General Green, who was now on the eve of that battle which afterwards gave him such celebrity for military tactics. Under those circumstances, he sent a second time into Virginia an officer, with The question was then put, and the bill was passed by a large majority. Mr. POLK moved to suspend the rule which appropriates Friday and Saturday to the consideration of private bills; but the motion, requiring two-thirds, failed of suc-orders to impress more horses. This officer again went cess. AMY DARDIN'S HORSE. to Dardin's, and impressed Romulus a second time. Romulus was forthwith sent to head quarters, and assigned over to a gallant dragoon. He was kept in the public service The House then took up the bill for the relief of the two years, when he was traded away by persons attached legal representatives of David Dardin, deceased, (to make to the service, as the testimony proves, and the price had compensation for a horse called Romulus, impressed for for him applied to the public use. It is established that the public service during the revolutionary war.) [The he was broken down by hardships before he was sold out bill allowed $1,500 in payment of it. It contained, as re- of the public service. It is in proof that the man who ported from the committee, a clause allowing interest | bought him of the public agents, sold him in Georgia af upon the sum from the time of the impressment of this terwards for the sum of three hundred pounds sterling, steed; but that provision was stricken out in a Committee the very sum we now propose to pay Dardin's children, of the Whole House, on the motion of Mr. WHITTLESEY, without interest. of Ohio. The claim having been originally preferred by Mrs. Amy Dardin, has been known as the "claim for Amy Dardin's horse;" and having been so long and repeatedly before Congress, as to become quite celebrated, the following speech, explanatory and defensive of the claim, is inserted.] All admit that Dardin has never received any pay for this horse; and no man has ever denied the equity of the claim. The objections to its payment are based on other grounds, which I shall hereafter mention, and show to be utterly untenable. Sir, while the war lasted, Dardin submitted to the wrongs done him in silence. He is said to have been poor; The question being on the third reading of the bill, but, sir, he was a patriot, and well he might be. The atMr. CLAIBORNE, of Virginia, said he felt a moral mosphere in that part of the country was so pure that a obligation, considering the manner that opposition had tory did not breathe within it; but when the war was evibeen made to this claim, to say a few words in its favor. dently drawing to a close, when your victorious eagle He should be brief, for he intended to confine himself spread, in proud security, his balmy wings over every part strictly to the subject. He was convinced that it was as of these States, Dardin remembered the undue proportion just a claim as was ever submitted to the adjudication of of property he had advanced in the great and glorious mortal man. If gentlemen would only read over the tes- struggle for independence. timony, they would be satisfied, and the bill would then Yes, Dardin was poor, but he was a man; he was conpass by acclamation. Why have gentlemen called this a nected to society by the noblest and most honorable of Virginia claim? Why remind us that the Virginia delega- ties. He was a husband, and he was a father; he had a tion have uniformly supported it? I am at a loss to under-wife, and he had children, near to his heart, and dear to H. or R.] Amy Dardin's Horse. [JAN. 27, 1832. him as existence. He felt that they, if they survived him, law, are obligatory on us? No, sir, the people have equiwere entitled to the fruits of his industry, and the profits ty jurisdiction-they are sovereign--we represent them of his prudence. Hence, sir, he exhibited his claim. He here we will take chancery jurisdiction, then, and pay applied to the court of the county for redress. There was this debt. Sir, I have been astonished at the tone employno power there to relieve him. He appealed to the Ex-ed in speaking of the horse Romulus. Sir, if I had been ecutive of Virginia; but, sir, the Executive saw, at once, utterly ignorant of the facts in this case, and had to deit was not Virginia, but the United States, that must pay rive my knowledge of them from the speeches I have the debt. Before Dardin could seek redress elsewhere, heard by the opponents of this bill, I should have conthe grave closed on him and all his sorrows." Sir, his wife cluded he was the descendant of some worthless Canadisurvived him; and, having administered on his estate, the an tackey. But, let me tell you he was a full-blooded claim descended to her. Arabian, exact in form, and beautiful in color; his step gay and lively. His eye bespoke spirit and docilitywhite nostrils, breathing fire, made him a war horse, of whom the gallant trooper might well be proud, when, bore, he charged on the enemy at the great battle of Guilford, and carried that flag to the highest pinnacle of military glory. Yes, he was a horse whom Bonaparte himself would have been proud to have rode at the battle of Jena, when the French army humbled the Russian monarchy. And shall we take from a man, in humble circumstances, such a horse, for the purposes of war, and What, said Mr. C., is Congress now called on to do? then refuse to pay for him? I hope not. But we are Sir, to take advantage of their own wrong to the preju- told that if we pass this bill, we may be called on to pass dice of orphans. Mrs. Dardin lived four hundred miles many similar claims. I have no fears of that sort. Such from the then seat of the General Government; she was another case, perhaps, does not exist. But what school poor, perhaps illiterate, and, in all human probability, teaches us to defer the payment of a just debt, lest we never heard of this act of limitation, now so manfully insist- may be compelled to pay another debt equally just? Let ed on. Sir, I regret, yes, I deeply regret, that I differ on us wipe off the debts of the revolution. It is time to do this occasion so widely from a gentleman whose public so. Let the Government adopt the course of a prudent and private worth, whose talents and patriotism, I so individual, who pays, as fast as he can, all just claims much admire, and with whom I so frequently agree in against him. Sir, the correct rule is to examine every opinion; but, sir, I cannot consent to take shelter behind claim; sift the matter well; having ascertained that it is the provisions of the act of the 12th of February, 1793-just, pay; if unjust, reject it, and keep manfully to your an act of limitation, an act that never operates to the in- resolves. jury of the rich and the wise, but to which the ignorant Sir, we believe this claim would long since have been and the poor and destitute, the widow and the orphan, paid, but for the circumstance I shall now mention. The alone fall victims. Sir, we are told by a Greek historian House of Representatives many, very many, years ago, dethat when the Romans erected their hall of justice, they cided, as the record proves, that the claim was just; but, threw into it fruits, and vegetables, and food, every thing before a bill had got through both Houses, and received good by use, or good by necessity, to inculcate on the all the sanctions of the constitution, Mrs. Dardin also judges this invaluable lesson, that equity and justice, the died. Alas! how fleeting is life. We are here to-day, legitimate foundations of all laws, should forever be ob- and to-morrow sink, like a wave, in the ocean of eterserved to all men, thereby binding the affections of the nity. The claim has now descended to Dardin's children, people to Government by ties that cannot be broken. and, unless it be soon discharged, they too may pass to The American confederation, this noble capitol, has been the grave, and the winds of heaven nightly sing a melanbuilt up by our fathers, by sacrifices and offerings of choly requiem over the ashes of the whole family. In higher interest--by hardships and dangers, by suffer- looking back on the legislation here for many years, I ings and misfortunes, by blood and treasure, by victory cannot account for the efforts made to defeat this bill. and glory. When they were struggling for life and in- It is true that a long, very long, period has intervened dependence, think you they ever dreamed that the ser- between the death of Mrs. Dardin and the presentation of vices they were rendering, and the valuable property this petition; but what of that? If the claim was just they were giving up, to advance the great, the good, the when held by Dardin, was it not equally just when it denoble cause they had engaged in, was to be paid off by an scended to the wife, as administratrix? and is it now taintact of limitation? Think you they could have anticipated ed by the accidents which have prevented its payment that an American Congress, in this Hall, would, in after- heretofore? I hope not. I have looked into this case, as times, resort to such a plea to get clear of paying for a was my duty, to enable me to judge of, and decide on it, horse taken during the war from a poor man, to mount not, sir, to speak to it; nor should I have offered my una trooper at the battle of Guilford? Let not this plea be premeditated remarks, had it not seemed to me that the recorded--dash the pen over it--blot it out forever. subject was misunderstood by gentlemen who have so veBut, sir, the circumstances attending this case fortunately hemently opposed it. take it out of the act. The petition of Mrs. Dardin was presented in due time to Congress. Had they done their duty, and referred it to the Treasury Department, it would have been settled. They held it up until it was barred, and it is their fault, more than Mrs. Dardin's, that the claim was not settled long ago. If you sit here as common law judges, perhaps you are not at liberty to overlook the statute; but if you have equity jurisdiction, you may and you should relieve. And is there a man here who supposes that all the worm-eaten and ridiculous to hitherto much injured individuals. dicta of common law judges, which have descended to us through the broad and muddy channel of the common In a reasonable time, Mrs. Amy Dardin applied to Congress for the payment of the debt. This application was made in February, 1794; her petition was laid on the table. Had it been sent by Congress, as it should have cheered by marshal music, and inspirited by the flag he been, to the Treasury Department, her certificate, given at the time of the impressment, would have been funded according to the provisions of the act of Congress of the 12th February, 1793, and the debt paid; but her petition was laid on the table, and suffered to remain there till the bar to it, created by the act of the 12th February, 1793, was complete. But, sir, I spoke of your recent legislation. You have paid the sufferers for the property destroyed on the Niagara frontier; you have paid the owners of all the horses lost during the late war between Great Britain and the United States; and I again ask, how can you now refuse payment for this horse? Sir, I shall detain you no longer. I think I may anticipate the passage of this bill. I shall always rejoice, if I can flatter myself that my humble ef forts have contributed to obtain justice, so long delayed, The bill, after a few remarks from Mr. ROOT, of New York, in opposition to the claim, was then ordered for en JAN. 30, 31, 1832.] Free People of Color.--Apportionment Bill. A desultory debate arose. A motion was made by Mr. WARD, of New York, that Mr. JENIFER was in favor of the postponement. Mr. MITCHELL moved that the consideration of it be indefinitely post poned: but, finding that that question would not have precedence, he did not press it. Mr. WILDE, of Georgia, moved its reference to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union: but the motion was negatived; as was also the motion to send it to the Committee of Ways and Means. Mr. CLAY, of Alabama, moved its reference to a select committee of twenty-four members, one from each State: but he afterwards withdrew his motion, and the memorial was referred to a select committee of seven. The CHAIR had some difficulty in preventing the merits of the general subject from being drawn into discussion on the question of reference. Mr. SPEIGHT complained that gentlemen from nonslaveholding States were continually bringing into that House exciting subjects, in which those States had no immediate interest. APPORTIONMENT BILL, [H. OF R. Mr. WICKLIFFE explained the grounds on which he had made his motion, on Thursday, for a committee of twenty-four, one from each State; the principal one being that such a committee might be able to agree on a number more generally acceptable than any other, and recommend it to the House. Mr. POLK was willing to submit, but thought it would occasion a needless consumption of time. Mr. ROOT supported the motion, and offered at large the arguments he urged in Committee of the Whole, and which need not be again reported. Mr. SPEIGHT made explanations in reference to a phrase he had used in committee, when speaking of a very numerous House resembling a mob. Mr. McDUFFIE remonstrated against renewing debate, as experience had shown that on a matter of this kind it was wholly without effect. He hoped the House would go to voting. There could be no need of a committee of twenty-four to report a bill in blank. Mr. DANIEL urged the probability that such committee would be able to agree on some number generally acceptable, and thus the necessity of debate be precluded. Mr. HUBBARD thought that no fair opportunity had been offered to try the merits of his amendment for striking out forty-eight, and inserting forty-four. The question was now put on Mr. WICKLIFFE's motion for a committee of twenty-four, and decided in the negative, by yeas and nays--yeas 76, nays 116. After some conversation between Mr. HUBBARD and Mr. WICKLIFFE, the latter moved to amend the bill by striking therefrom the words "forty-eight," where they occur. But before either speech or vote upon the motion, On motion of Mr. BURGES, The House adjourned. TUESDAY, JANUARY 31. FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR. The resolution of Mr. JENIFER, proposing an inquiry on the subject of removing the free people of color from the United States, and colonizing them in Africa, or elsewhere, came up for consideration; and the question being, on the motion of Mr. BOON, to postpone the consideration of that resolution to the second Monday in December next, Mr. CRAIG, of Virginia, said: After the occurrences of yesterday, it would seem to be hardly necessary to continue the discussion of this resolution further. I understand the subject, in extenso, to have been referred to a select committee by the order of yesterday; yet, as I was the other day interrupted in an attempt to offer some Mr. JENIFER showed that the subject of the memorial brief considerations in opposition to the pending motion (though not this memorial itself) had come into the House to postpone the further consideration of this most imfrom the slave States themselves--especially from Mary- portant subject until some day in December next, I will land, who had the deepest interest in it. avail myself of the opportunity now afforded to offer Mr. COKE thought the subject ought not to be discuss-them. ed at all; while Mr. MERCER, on the contrary, contended that it was a legitimate subject for the action of Congress, had been before it every year for twelve years past, and had frequently been reported on by committees of the House. The first memorial on the subject had come from Virginia. As to excitement, the whole discussion had been caused, not by the friends, but the opponents of the memorial. Mr. ELLSWORTH supported the motion for a select committee. The object of the motion is manifestly to give to the subject the go-by-to deny it that investigation which its merits seem to me so imperiously to demand. The subject ought not to be postponed, because the evil, the removal, or, at least, the diminution of which is contemplated by the measure under consideration, is less now, and consequently more easy of remedy, than it will ever be at any future time, unless it be made to feel the influence of some corrective. The evil is already of such appalling magnitude, that we can scarcely summon up moral courage enough to look it in the face. It is not only now thus appalling, by reason of its magnitude, but, sir, we know it to be of daily, even of hourly growth; and why, if it be intended that any thing shall ever be done The House having proceeded again in Committee of toward lessening or eradicating the mischief, should there the Whole to the Mr. TAYLOR suggested that it consist of nine members, one from each of the slaveholding States; but Mr. CONDICT preferred seven, and the memorial ultimately was so referred. be any delay? Delay, it is clear, can have no better ef H. or R.] Chickasaw Treaty. [JAN. 31, 1832. fect than to increase the difficulty of effecting the object. [ment jurisdiction over this purely domestic subject, but And in reference to the pecuniary means of the Govern- arrogates to it an authority paramount to the right of priment, could any more auspicious time be selected? No, vate property, a right which lies at the foundation of our sir. We are in some perplexity at this very moment social relations and political institutions. My constituents about the means of reducing an overflowing treasury to feel a lively sensibility on every question connected with the diminished wants of the Government. their colored population. Circumstances have made it وو Mr. BOON now consented to withdraw his motion for postponement. Mr. KERR wished to offer an amendment, which was declared out of order, there being already two amendments before the House. The question was then put on the reference, and car What is there in the prospect before us to indicate a my duty to devote to this subject the most intense conchange of this prosperous condition? There is nothing. sideration. At a proper time, if I deem it necessary to There is not the slightest speck of war in our horizon. the great interests which they have staked in this quesEvery circumstance around us seems to indicate a long tion, I shall present my views more at large; but, at precontinuance of our present unexampled national pros-sent, I hope the gentleman from Indiana will withdraw his perity, and to announce, emphatically to announce, this motion, and permit the resolution and amendments, with"the accepted time" for beginning the great work. Sir, out decision or discussion, to be referred at once to the we shall find in the future no "more convenient season. same committee which is charged with the memorial from Let the present occasion pass by unimproved, and it may New Jersey. be seriously doubted whether one so auspicious will ever offer again. The means of the country are now ample, and public sentiment is on the onward march to meet and conquer this worst of national curses. Deny your countenance to the object, and the seal of silence may be reaffixed by the morbid sensibilities of that part of our community who are most interested in, and most endangered ried. by, the species of population referred to by the resolution, Mr. ARCHER submitted the following, which was read, which cannot be again broken by a cause less powerful and also referred to the committee on the memorial of than that which lately had the effect to free the public the Rahway Colonization Society, viz. mind from its obligations to a deadly silence upon this Resolved, That a select committee be instructed to insubject. quire into the expediency of recommending for adoption Gentlemen who, like myself, represent a slaveholding an amendment of the constitution of the United States, by population, seem to dread encroachments upon the rights which Congress shall have power to appropriate the reveof property. I do not understand it to be the object of nue accruing or derivable from the proceeds of the sales any of the friends of this measure to disturb such rights of the public lands, in aid of the construction of such in any other degree than in that which will be merely con- works of internal improvement as may be authorized, sequential. I do not contemplate to take from any master commenced, or patronized, by the States, respectively, his slave, without a fair equivalent, at any time; certainly, within which the same are to be executed; and shall, in at this time, there is no allusion to the slave whatsoever. like manner, have power to appropriate the same fund of But, sir, if it were the intention to look beyond the free revenue in aid of the removal of such portions of the copeople of color, I would say, in answer to the objection lored population of the States as they may respectively founded on the rights of property, that the rights of per- ask aid in removing, on such condition and to such place sons are superior to the rights of property. I will con- as may be mutually agreed on; for which purpose, Conclude, Mr. Speaker, by saying that we who are cursed gress shall be authorized to acquire the territory it may with a slave population, are in the situation of an individual who feels himself within the draught of an awful cataract. Shall we fold our arms, and quietly descend upon our fate? or shall we make a vigorous and noble effort to rescue ourselves from impending destruction? consider the best adapted to the object, and to govern such territory in the manner in which the Territories of the United States are now governed, for such time as the occasion for which it shall have been obtained may require; after which, the said territory shall be established into a State, which shall be declared, or into several States, which shall be successively declared, independent of the United States, neither of which States shall, in any event, or at any time, be admitted into the Union of the United CHICKASAW TREATY. Mr. JENIFER moved that the resolution, with the amendments, be referred to the select committee raised on the memorial from New Jersey upon the same subject. Mr. MASON, of Virginia, said: I rise, Mr. Speaker, to request the honorable gentleman who moved the post-States. ponement of the resolution and proposed amendments now under consideration, to some day in December next, to withdraw his motion. After the reference of the me- The House resumed the consideration of the resolution morial from New Jersey, it must be obvious to us all that submitted by Mr. EDWARD EVERETT on the 25th instant. any attempt to prevent the agitation of the various and Mr. EVERETT then rose, and said: When this subject delicate questions arising out of this resolution in this was up last week, I stated some of the considerations House will be vain. I am aware that it would be neither which had induced me to move this call, to which I will proper nor respectful to the House now to discuss the now revert. It will be remembered that in May, 1830, propriety of adopting the resolution or the propositions the law passed for the removal of the Indians. The pubsuggested in the amendments. I will, however, say, that lic papers apprised us, in the course of the following su I have been uniformly opposed to the discussion even of mer, of the steps taken by the Executive Government to this exciting topic in this Hall. I do not believe that we carry the law into effect. The President of the United have any constitutional power over the subject; and, if we States, in person, and the late Secretary of War, repaired had, it seems to me that every consideration of prudence to Franklin, in Tennessee, where they were met by a dewould imperiously require that it should rather be left to putation of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, with whom the the management of the States, than entrusted to a body Secretary of War and General John Coffee were commiswhose members have no common interest in the subject, sioned to negotiate a treaty. The same gentlemen, with and who owe no responsibility to those who are to be a similar commission, repaired to the Choctaw country. most deeply affected by our legislation. Permit me, sir, At the commencement of the next session of Congress, it to add the expression of my profound regret at the course was officially announced to the two Houses, both by the which my colleague, who has just taken his seat, intimates Secretary of War and the President of the United States, his purpose to pursue, at the assertion, on his part, of a that treaties had been negotiated with the Choctaws and principle, which not only draws to the Federal Govern-Chickasaws, under the provisions of the law of May, 1830, sum JAN. 31, 1832.] Chickasaw Treaty. [H. OF R. which, it was promised, should, in due time, be commu-made to me that there were matters of a private character nicated; they being, according to the expression of the connected with the Chickasaw treaty, which required to Secretary of War, ready for submission. The Choctaw be looked into, and made the subject of investigation here. treaty was submitted to the Senate, and, after the pream- Having satisfied myself, beyond the possibility of doubt, ole had been stricken out, was confirmed. An appropria- I do not say of the truth of these suggestions, but of the tion was then asked to carry it into effect; and, pending existence of facts which it was the duty of this House to he appropriation bill, the treaty was, on a call of this inquire into, I did, on the first opportunity which presented House, communicated to us. Of the Chickasaw treaty itself, ask for a copy of the treaty, not supposing it could, nothing was said; nor did it appear, by any subsequent by any gentleman, be thought unseasonable to desire to doings, whether it had been communicated to the Senate; see a treaty which was declared to be ready for submission and, if not, why it was withheld. I confess, sir, I thought a year ago, and, at the opening of this session, said to be at the time that this was a state of things which required in "a course of execution." It has been objected, howexplanation. ever, that this treaty is not ratified, and that for this House At the opening of the present session of Congress, these to ask to see it, is to invade the prerogatives of the Senate. treaties were again alluded to by the President of the I do not attach much force to these objections; but I have, United States. In his annual message, he tells the two after mature consideration and opportunity of examining Houses that "at the last session he had the happiness to the subject, deemed it expedient to waive, for the present, announce that the Chickasaws and Choctaws had accepted a call for those parts of the treaty which are confined to the generous offer of the Government, and agreed to re- the only proper object of the negotiation, the removal of move beyond the Mississippi river, by which the whole of the Indians; at the same time, I am free to confess that the State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama I perceive no evil to the public service, which could will be freed from Indian occupancy, and opened to a result from their communication. I feel it my duty also civilized population. The treaties with these tribes are to state that circumstances will very probably occur, in in a course of execution, and their removal, it is hoped, the course of the session, which will make it my duty to will be completed in 1832." renew the call. It is unnecessary to state that this was a language not I confess, sir, that not the smallest motive which has calculated to throw much light on the subject. The gen-led me to waive a call, which would have opened to us a deman from Tennessee, [Mr. ISACKS,] who spoke the discussion on the whole merits of the policy of removing other day, expressed the opinion that the Secretary of the Indians, has been a consciousness that that is a subWar had used a loose and unguarded language the year ject which divides the House. Whereas, in confining the before, in speaking of the Chickasaw treaty as ready for inquiry to the private transaction, to which I shall immesubmission. In what light would he view the language of diately advert, I hope to carry with me, I had almost said, the President, who speaks of it as in a course of execu- the unanimous concurrence of those whom I have the tion; a treaty never, as it seems, submitted to the Senate? honor to address. If in this expectation I am too sanguine, The uncertainty as to the real state of the case was in- I may at least flatter myself that no one who hears me creased by what is said on the subject, in the letter of the and knows me will suspect me of the smallest portion of Superintendent of the Indian Bureau, communicated to personal ill-will toward the individuals whose conduct I Congress among the documents from the Department of call in question. War, at the opening of the session. It is there stated that To understand this affair, then, sir, it is necessary to the Chickasaw Indians, who are disposed to follow their go back to the date of the Chickasaw treaty of 1818, by friends and neighbors the Choctaws, and to reside near which the western district of Tennessee was ceded to them, have not yet been provided with suitable lands. For the purpose of procuring such for their accommodation, it became necessary to effect an arrangement with the Choctaws for a cession of a part of their country west. Major John H. Eaton and General John Coffee have accordingly been constituted commissioners to treat with the Choctaws for this object." not be encroached on. the United States. By that treaty, the title of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians was extinguished to all the land in the States of Tennessee and Kentucky, lying west of the Tennessee river, a tract, I take it, at least of 10,000 square miles, which has within twelve years become the abode of 150,000 or 200,000 citizens, and will unquestionably, in the next Congress, be represented by three, if not four members. Now, sir, gentlemen will remember that two years ago a very prominent argument in favor of this policy of re- In making this cession, sundry reservations, as is usual moval was, that the new territory granted to the Indians in Indian treaties, were made. Among these is one of a should be inalienably secured to them. They were, west of most peculiar character, which forms the subject of the the Mississippi, to be placed beyond the grasp of our inquiry which I propose to institute. It becomes necestreaties and our laws. The President, in speaking of the sary accordingly to recite the fourth article of the treaty treaties negotiated with the Choctaws and Chickasaws in in question: 1830, says, that as they are probably the last that will "The commissioners agree, on the further and particuever be negotiated with them, the terms are liberal. It lar application of the chiefs, and for the benefit of the Was also stipulated by the law of 1830 that they should poor and warriors of the said nation, that a tract of land It will be equally well remem- containing four miles square, to include a salt lick or bered that it was urged against the policy by those of us springs, on or near the river Sandy, a branch of the who opposed it, that there was not the least hope nor Tennessee river, and within the land hereby ceded, be possibility of redeeming these pledges. Now, what is the reserved, and to be laid off in a square or oblong, so as fact? Eighteen months have not passed away, and com- to include the best timber, at the option of their beloved missioners are already at work with the Choctaws to pro- chiefs, Levi Colbert and Major James Brown, or either cure from them a cession of land, enough to receive the of them, who are hereby made agents and trustees for entire Chickasaw tribe of Indians. No one can doubt, the nation, to lease the said salt lick or springs, on the whatever appearance this cession may assume, it will, in reality, be compulsory. Putting all these things together, sir, they did seem to bound to lease the said reservation to some citizen or me to form a proper subject of inquiry; and such an in- citizens of the United States, for a reasonable quantity of quiry it has been my purpose, for some time, to attempt, salt, to be paid annually to the said nation, for the use with the leave of this House, to institute. While employ thereof; and that, from and after two years from the ed in seeking information on this subject, suggestions were ratification of this treaty, no salt made at the works to be following express conditions, viz. For the benefit of this reservation, as before recited, the trustees or agents are |