On the Senem Indian Lands. 133 



remainder, including a majority of the chiefs, were determinedly op- 

 posed to leaving their homes. 



It appeared that Mr. Gillet had informed the Indians that, under 

 the amended treaty of 1838, he thought that if they should reject it 

 they could none the less be compelled to go to the West. Gen. Dear- 

 born, however, speaking in the name of the Governor of Massachusetts, 

 assured them that they would not be compelled to go.* 



But on the point of the necessity of securing the consent of the 

 chiefs in open council, after the treaty had once been submitted to 

 them tliere, and had been debated, it appears that the suggestion had 

 proceeded from Gen. Dearborn himself to Mr. Gillet, that he would do 

 well to call the chiefs, individually, to his room and confer with them 

 there. The reason for his making this suggestion was, that he was 

 persuaded that nearly all the violent opposition to the treaty proceeded 

 from interested whites, who wished to have the Indians retained on 

 their reservations, for the sake of mill privileges and lumber privileges 

 for which they paid very little ; or for some other motive of no greater 

 significance, such as that the Indians were pecuniarily indebted to 

 them. Gsn. Dearborn observes in his journal, that if the same offers 

 were made to any laboring whites which were made by the United 

 States Government to these Indians, they were so liberal that men 

 would abandon any homes to avail themselves of them. 



He writes thus upon this branch of the subject : 



**To reason with the ignorant, and attempt to do good to the 

 prejudiced, suspicious and most debased of the human species, is to 

 labor without results either gratifying to us or beneficial to them. 

 Here has been a boon offered which would depopulate any country 

 town in New England, and hurry them to the West with glad and 

 grateful hearts ; but the miserable savages are incapable of appreciat- 

 ing the generous humanity of the Government." 



As evidence that the Indians were most bountifully dealt with by 

 the United States, the following figures are presented by Gen. Dear- 

 born as the money value of what was offered in exchange for the 

 119,000 acres of land by the parties interested. They were offered 

 1,824,000 acres of land at Green Bay, which, at $1.26 an acre, was 

 worth $2,280,000. The amount to be given them in money was 

 8433,500; the amount to be paid them by the Ogden Company was 

 $211,000 ; the amount for exploration of the new territory was 

 $16,000. This made a total sum of about $3,000,000 to the two 

 tribes. \ 



* Dearborn MSS. II, 97, 98, «9. + Dearborn MSS., 112, 126. 



