ment of the same against the claims and assaults of all and every other people whatever.”
An additional permanent annuity of one thousand dollars is promised; forty horses, “and the use of six wagons and ox-teams to assist in removing heavy articles,” provisions for the journey, and one year’s subsistence after they reach their new home; also the erection of a grist and saw mill within two years.
In 1833 the Secretary of War congratulated the country on the fact that “the country north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, inclading the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the Territory of Michigan as far as the Fox and Wisconsin rivers,” has been practically “cleared of the embarrassments of Indian relations,” as there are not more than five thousand Indians, all told, left in this whole region.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the same year says that it is “grateful to notice” how much the Indians’ condition is “ameliorated under the policy of removal.” He says that they, “protected by the strong arm of the Government, and dwelling on lands distinctly and permanently established as their own, enjoying a delightful climate and a fertile soil, turn their attention to the cultivation of the earth, and abandon the chase for the surer supply of domestic animals.”
This commissioner apparently does not remember, perhaps never read, the records of the great fields of corn which the Delawares had on the Miami River in 1795, and how they returned twice that summer and replanted them, after General Wayne had cut down and burnt the young crops. They had “turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil” forty years ago, and that was what came of it. We shall see how much better worth while it may be for them to plant corn in their new “permanent home,” than it was in their last one.
The printed records of Indian Affairs for the first forty years of this century are meagre and unsatisfactory. Had the
