114 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



editorial in your paper, though being published "by re- 

 quest." The "statement" or supposed narrative of facts 

 leads me to suppose that it might have been furnished for 

 publication by those who may have an object in mislead- 

 ing the public. I acquit you, in advance, of any such de- 

 sign, for our pleasant and agreeable acquaintance (tome) 

 precludes all idea that you would misstate or misjudge 

 any matter of public concern. 



The article to which I allude presupposes that the Trus- 

 tees are acting and design to act, in bad faith towards the 

 purchasers of these lands, and that the reappraisement 

 is to be set aside, and the lands be held at the original 

 price, tvithout reduction. This is not the fact. The trus- 

 tees mean to carry out every requirement of the State 

 Debt act in good faith, but they must be allowed time to 

 do so, and to do it too in a manner both legal in reference 

 to the law, and justly towards the creditors of the State 

 and individual purchasers. — That act never contemplated 

 a wholesale reduction, by which gross injustice might be 

 done to individuals, but an appraisement of each parcel 

 separately, which has not been done, so far as the Trus- 

 tees are at present advised. 



There seems to be but one question involved in this 

 matter, and that is a question of ti7ne, which no settler on 

 the State lands should permit himself to misjudge. The 

 operations of the Trust are numerous, and it would be 

 strange, indeed, if some delay was not unavoidable in 

 managing property which the State has passed off to her 

 creditors for one-half her entire debt, or upwards of 

 seven millions of dollars. "The world was not made in a 

 day" is an old saying, nor can the confusion and misman- 

 agement of the Canal and Canal lands be brought out of 

 chaos in a single year. — Much has already been accom- 

 plished, and the next few months will be sufficient to sat- 

 isfy every piirchasor of these lands that the Trustees 

 will do them ample justice. 



I would say to the holders of Canal certificates that 

 speculators should not induce them (by raising the hue 



