DEAR SIR, - In compliance with your request, I will state such
facts as I recollect touching the subjects mentioned in your
letter of 28th ult. I may be mistaken respecting dates and
details, and will only relate general facts, which I well
remember.
In conformity with the treaty of 1794 with Great Britain, the
citizens and subjects of each country were permitted to trade
with the Indians residing in the territories of the other party.
The reciprocity was altogether nominal. Since the conquest of
Canada, the British had inherited from the French the whole fur
trade, through the great lakes and their communications, with all
the western Indians, whether residing in the British dominions or
the United States. They kept the important western posts on those
lakes till about the year 1797. And the defensive Indian war,
which the United States had to sustain from 1776 to 1795, had
still more alienated the Indians, and secured to the British
their exclusive trade, carried through the lakes, wherever the
Indians in that quarter lived. No American could, without
imminent danger of property and life, carry on that trade, even
within the United States, by the way of either Michilimackinac or
St. Mary's. And independent of the loss of commerce, Great
Britain was enabled to preserve a most dangerous influence over
our Indians.
It was under these circumstances that you communicated to our
government the prospect you had to be able, and your intention,
to purchase one half of the interest of the Canadian Fur Company,
engaged in trade by the way of Michilimackinac with our own
Indians. You wished to know whether the plan met with the
approbation of government, and how far you could rely on its
protection and encouragement. This overture was received with
great satisfaction by the administration, and Mr. Jefferson, then
President, wrote you to that effect. I was also directed, as
Secretary of the Treasury, to write to you an official letter to
the same purpose. On investigating the subject, it was found that
the Executive had no authority to give you any direct aid; and I
believe you received nothing more than an entire approbation of
your plan, and general assurances of the protection due to every
citizen engaged in lawful and useful pursuits.
You did effect the contemplated purchase, but in what year I do
not recollect. Immediately before the war, you represented that a
large quantity of merchandise, intended for the Indian trade, and
including arms and munitions of war, belonging to that concern of
which you owned one half, was deposited at a post on Lake Huron,
within the British dominions; that, in order to prevent their
ultimately falling into the hands of Indians who might prove
hostile, you were desirous to try to have them conveyed into the
United States; but that you were prevented by the then existing
law of non-intercourse with the British dominions.
The Executive could not annul the provisions of that law.
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