134 



Tlie Dearborn Manuscripts 



On January 14, 1840, President Van Burt n sent the treaty thus 

 tainted with allegations of fraud, with a special message of six pages 

 on the subject, to the Senate. (It will not be found in the collection of 

 his messages in Williams' Statesman's Manual, but must be sought for 

 in the journals of the Senate.) He speaks in lavor of the general 

 proposition of the removal of the Indians, but declares that in his 

 opinion the signatures had been fraudulently obtained, and that there- 

 fore the treaty ought not to be ratified. The question was debated on 

 eleven different days in the Senate; and finally, after the failure of 

 many proposed resolutions from Tallmadge, Clay, Preston, Porter and 

 others, the vote stood nineteen to nineteen, and the treaty was only 

 ratified by the casting vote of R. M. Johnson, the Vice-President, in 

 the affirmative. The New York Senators, Messrs. Tallmadge and 

 Wright, voted in the affirmative. The differences of opinion were not 

 on party lines, though Mr. Clay voted in the negative. Mr. Sevier in 

 1840 presented a memorial of sixty-seven chiefs of the Senecas, beg- 

 ging that no appropriation be made to carry out the treaty, as they 

 did not intend to leave their homes in New York. In 1841 six or 

 seven petitions were presented in Congress that the Indians in New 

 York be forcibly removed. In a few days the committee was dis- 

 charged from further consideration of the petitions. 



In Massachusetts, Governor Everett, in his message in 1839, ex- 

 pressed the opinion that if the State had known all that it had since 

 learned, it would not have consented to the request of the Ogden 

 Company. A committee of the Senate reported in the same spirit, 

 but expressed the opinion that it was too late to attempt to reverse 

 the action which had taken place. 



The testimony of W. H. Seward, at the time G-overnor of New York, 

 corroborates the declarations of President Van Buren that the treaty 

 was obtained by corruption. Gov. Seward, in a long private letter on 

 the subject, dated Albany, June 15, 1841, writes: 



" I am fully satisfied that the consent of the Senecas was obtained 

 by fraud, corruption and violence, and it is therefore false, and ought 

 be held void. The removal of the Indians, under a treaty thus 

 made, would be a great crime against an unoffending and injured 

 people ; and I earnestly hope that before any further proceedings are 

 taken to accomplish that object, the whole subject maybe reconsidered 

 by the United States."* He also said that the treaty of the United 



* Quoted from "A Further Illustration of the Case of the Seneca Indians ;'| Phila,, 1841, 

 9, p. 80. 



