Some applications for removal aroused considerable controversy. The application of Thomas Hardeman, Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee of Georgia, generated letters, affidavits, and petitions. 18.33 Various select committees that considered private claims are represented in the records. In February 1852, the Senate established a select committee to consider the various memorials that had been received from persons dissatisfied with decisions of the Board of Commissioners on the claims against Mexico. The committee records include depositions, transcripts of hearings, ledgers, exhibits, correspondence, petitions, memorials, and the committee journal.
Some documents are in Spanish.
18.35 Records of select committees on Indian depredations also include documents on individual cases, most notably that of Amanda M. Fletcher Cook, who had been captured by Indians in Wyoming Territory. During this period, the Senate established some select committees to investigate charges of impropriety on the part of Federal contractors, officials, or others. The select committee undertook each of these investigations in response to charges that certain persons had profited improperly from Government activities. The select committee to investigate charges against J. R. Bartlett, U.S. Commissioner to run and mark the boundary between the United States and Mexico, was established on August 17, 1852. Bartlett was charged with using Government transportation for private purposes and with mismanagement of the public interest and funds.