Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1828-1831, 1830-08-18
SPEECH OF Mr.. sTORRs OF N. Y
,CoNTlNUCD.'

The Administration appear to have conceded &c
Gsssgia the right Of sovsregn,y and soil which she
their lands, under the impression that such wns
Incorporation Of the treaty Of i783 The Secretary
Of War has placed il on thai ground, and assumed,
in that rcspoct, the principles Of the Georgia Report
We have never Considered the treaty ss any thing
moro than the acknowledgment Of our Independence,
and We took the rights Of the Crown by accession.
Tho King admitted that he treated with US "a q now
or already independent. He granted us ns'hng Of
our sovereignty. He merely renquished for himself
and his successors his claim to the government pro-
priety, and territorial rights over the country We
do not claim these from his gift. The treaty took
no such form. We became independent, in fact in
l776, and national capacity came into existence
81 that time. We were then al liberty, an indie
pendent power. to adopt any policy assume any
principles believed TO be just IN regard to the In.
dsm nations 1t is too late to inqu whether we
might have begun differently We must be
bound now by the system which We IN fact adopted
and our inquiry should be know TO what principles
of public law pledged before the world ard in
good faith, TO abide by in conduct In
dian nations. What doctrines. then, have been as
sumcd-ackn wledged-afir and
acted upon for almost half century our part and
trusted to by those We have dealt wi'hf Before you
made the treaty Of 1893. you had acknowledged the
qualified sovereignty of some of those nations. In
1910 guaranteed to the Delawar nation all their
territorial rights, in the fullest and most ample man.
it had been bounded by former treaties. The
treaty states that the article inserted obviate
the false suggestion, which our enemies had by ev.
cry artifice in their power. ncucated upon all the
Indians that the United States intended to
them and take possession Of their country. In the
treaty of 1904 they were ackno wlcdged be the or
ginal propreors, and you then admitted them to be
the rightful owners of the lands there referred to
An arrangement was provided IN SOM of your
treaties, for allowing the Bella wares and Cherokees
deputies to the Old Congress I could refer you to
numerous treaties before and since the treaty of 1913
which conclusvey repel the notion that the Indians
were transferred to us as serfs of the Crown I,
~ Il IL
them fitch part of them. They include almost
every Indian nation within the States. The OLD
Congress acted throughout on the principles which
have stated. The Constitution has put TO rest g
question which arose out Of the power Of Congress:
under the Confederation and shows how largely II
was intended I" vest the management of the Indiar
affairs in the new governmn mt. The articles of con-
federation had narrowed the power Of Regulating
trade and managing all affairs with the Indians by
combining IL to such were not members of any o,
the States, and providing that the Legislative right oil
any State within its own limits should be inrin
ged volnted. The Constitution omitted these res
trictions Mr. Madison, in the Federalist, speaking
on this point. says:
"The regulation Of commerce with the Indian
tribes is very properly unfettered from two lmita-
tons in the articles Of confederation which render tho
provisions obscure and contradictory. The power is
there restrained to Indians not members or any of
the States, and not to violate the legislative right
OF any State within its own limits What descrip-
ton of Indians are to be deemed members of State
Is not yet settled, and has been ques Of frequent
Perplexity and contention in the Federal councils
And how the trade with Indians. not members of a
State yet residing within its legislative jurisdiction
can be regulated by external authority with
out far ntruding the internal rights Of iepisla-
ton, is absolutely incomprehen-ible. This is not
the only in which the articles Of confederation
have inconsiderately underworld to accomplish i'm
possibilities; tn reconcile q partial sovereignty in
the Union, with complete sovereignty in the
States; to subvert a mathematical axiom by taking
away part and letting the whole remain"
All which cas be sal IN any sense, to have passed
to the United States from the Crown. was a naked
right OF presumption TO what called the Crown
Lands. Ispeak advisedly when say. that the u
States have solemny and deliberately admitted it
This question was fully examined by tn govern
ment almost forty years ago, and we stand pledged
In such express terms To the Indian nations on this
point, that our lips scaled They can show Won
case on their part that defes all cav and all crit
measured my words. know well the extent OF
what say, and what pledge myself to show in
saying what do. 1t lie q thoughtless pledge, g.
1t shal be redeemed by proof from the archives of
your own government, which all the subtleties of IN
genuity evade, and which will annihilate the,
learned and labored hypothesis which the right OF
the Indians have been denied by this adDnis
and in these halls. invite the attention of gentle
men TO the papers which can be produced on this
subject, and should b. gratifed to hear what au-
swer 10 TO be made 10 them.
- Before Gen Wayne moved with the army in 1893
Gen. Washington determined to make one more Of
CUpfPdS
rated against u.s. The Cabinet was convened and
the whole subject of a negotiation was laid befor,
then The question as to he rights of the Indian
nations was there deliberately examined and the o.
pInions of the Cabinet required by the Presr.
dent In the first place. Mr.. Jefrsen has furn,she,
US fully with his own opinion in the late publicatio,
of his papers.
February &c, 1893
First question We were all Of opinion tina
the treaty should proceed merely to crafty public
opinion, and not from ex pectatlon OF success"
"Second question ] considered Our right OF pre-
emption of the Indian lands not rs amounting to a
ny DOMINION orJurlsdlotion, or paraDoun,siip what
ever, but merely in the nature Of remainder sfte
the extinguishment ofa present right. which gave nj
no present right whatever, but Of preventing othe
nations from taking possession aud defeating our ex
ded sovereignty as long they chose to keep it. ant
that thus might he forever; that fast we exten
our rights by purchase from them, so fast we extern
the limits OF our society; and as soon as q new Dor
ton becnme oncircled within line ii became fIx