HISTORICAL NOTES.



you say you would give to us, annually, over and above this
very large sum of money; and, we are persuaded, they would
most readily accept of it, in lieu of the lands you sold them.
If you add, also, the great sums you must expend in raising
and paying armies, with a view to force us to yield you our
country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the
purposes of re-paying these settlers for all their labor and their
improvements.
  "Brothers: You have talked to us about concessions. It
appears strange that you should expect any from us, who have
only been defending our just rights against your invasions.
We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be
enemies no longer.
  " Brothers: You make one concession to us by offering us
your money; and another by having agreed to do us justice,
after having long, and injuriously withheld it: we mean in the
acknowledgment you have now made, that the King of Eng-
land never did, nor ever had a right to give you our country,
by the treaty of peace. And you want to make this act of
common justice a great part of your concessions; and seem to
expect that, because you have at last acknowledged our inde-
pendence, we should, for such a favor, surrender to you our
country.
  "Brothers: You have talked, also, a great deal about pre-
emption, and your exclusive right to purchase Indian lands, as
ceded to you by the King, at the treaty of peace.
  ",Brothers: We never made any agreement with the King,
nor with any other nation, that we would give to either the
exclusive right of purchasing our lands: and wve declare to you
that we consider ourselves free to make any bargain or cession
of lands, whenever and to whomsoever we please. If the white
people, as you say, made a treaty that none of them but the
King should purchase of us, and that lie has given that right to
the United States, it is an affair which concerns you and him,
and not us. We have never parted with such a power.
  "Brothers: At our general council held at the Glaize last
fall, we agreed to meet commissioners from the United States,
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