Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-08-11
Letter from Gov Reeder to seo'y Marcy,
SHAWNEE Nilsson, X. r, Jcle 2G, IS.


18th inst, from New York ! avail myself of
The first opportunity to reply to your letter of
the 18th. That letter mentions as cause Of
complaint against me in opinion Of TIE Presi-
dent, purchases of K kansas half-brccd rcserya-
tions made by ne in the Territory of Kansas"
and also other specuIatiOnS in lands of the
Territory of Kansas, apparently in violations
Of Acts of Congress and Of regulations of the
Departments :" and at the same time invite
any explanation which may desire to give III
regard to the character and extent of the tran
sactionS above referred to, and particularly the
matters referred to in the letter of q. w Clark,
Indian Agent dated May 8, 1880.
l am thus put upon my defence to two Sepa-
rate charges: first, the purchase of half-breed
Kansas lands and secondly, other speculations
in lands of the Territory, apparently in viola
tions of acts of Congress and regulations of the
Departments, The very general manner in
which the charges are stated, the entire alb
sence of any specification on which to make
point or raise an issue, and the omission to
state in what particular the President sees any
wrong to have peen committed, and what act
of Congress or regulation of the Department
have been violated, are matters of regret and
embarrassment to me, because they preclude
confidence in the pertinence of my reply.
| need not inform SO eminent jurist as your
self how impossible it is on matters of crimina-
ton and defence to attain justice and truth
without distinct and equivocal specific alton
of the charge on the one side and a direct
full and pointed answer to it on the other. In
the absence of these, parties may wander in side
Issues, departures, eVasionS and uncertainties,
without ever reaching a conclusion ; and |
therefore, with the highest respect, take the
Mjerty of calling your attention to this feature
Of your letter, as full apology for myself in
case | shall engage in the discussion Of matters
which the President may not consider in issue,
or shall not be sufficiently full and certain in
speaking of the point in which he secs the
wrong.
In relation to the first charge, Of purchase Of
halfbreed Kansas lands, have to say that
have purchased 10 such lands at all. With
others, | have agreed to purchase them in case
the contemplated purchase shall receive the
sanction and appreciation Of the President !;
and this, in my opinion, is a material and sub
stantial difference. Until the President, by
his appreciation, and the venders by the eXecu-
tion Of their deeds, conSummate the contract
it precludes US from any interest in the land,
and even the privilege Of entering upon or pos
sessing it. Vendors and vcndees until then
preserve all their rights unchanged and unaf
fected and if the President shall not assent
to the contracts, it will be the same as though
they had never been made If there is any
thing wrong in the matter it is not a wrong
committed, but at most only wrong attemp-
ted, and in the face of all probability wrong
which we expected to be sanctioned by the
President
The papers were submitted BY us to the Pre-
sdent on the - day of January last for his ap-
proval, and as the Government has been for
years in the habit of approving similar con-
tracts, we did not apprehend any difficulty
whatever. They were referred to the Indian
Bureau and the Commissioner reported adj
versely to the confirmation, alleging that the
venders had 40 right to sell, that there wasno
evidence of their competence to manage their
own affairs, that there was no evidence pro
duced by Us Of the value Of the land, that the
transaction had not been brought to the no
tce of the Indian Agent, that no certificate
was presented to the President to prove the
official character Of an officer whom the Pre-
sident had appointed and that the purchase
money (Which was to be paid in cash when the
decd was made) had not been sufficiently Sc
cured, and that in the opinion of the Commits
sioner the contract was demoralizing and dis
graceful.
Whether this last reason was based upon
the assumption Of actual fraud in the contract,
or on the Commissioners idea that public OIL
GERS had no right to purchase, | confess have
never been able, after careful examination of
the report to discover. On receiving this re-
port the President on the - day Of January
without rejection or approval ordered the pa
pers to be returned, doubtless with a view to
enable us to supply the formal DEFICIENCIES de-
manded by the business regulations Of the De
partmentS of which We had been ignorant
We inferred, of course, that the last reason
above was not COncurred in by the PreSi-
dent, or he would at once have dsapprOVed
the contracts and terminated the whole pro-
Ceedings.
We proceeded to supply the formal defcen-
cies, and in the beginning of May last, again
laid the papers before the President with an
argument and brief from myself, to prove by
the opinions Of Attomeys-G General and the de-
cisions of the Supreme Court, that the yenderS
had right to -depOsitiOns proving their
ldentlty-thelr competency to manage their
own affairs, and the value of the land-prOof
that the matter had been brought to the no
tice of the Indian Agent, and that he had
made no objections, to which | add now my
own assertion, that | distinctly stated to him
that we had agreed to purchase one tract, and
would cndeavor to contract for others and al
tho Mr.. Clark denies, in a general way, that
the matter was brought before him, he is CON
tradcted by my allegation and the deposition
of diSintereSted witness
These papers were not acted on by the Pre-
sident up to the 25th of May, and | have no
knowledge that they have been acted on up to
this time To the matters contained in their
and my letters of April l, 1855, to Commits
soner Manypenny, which the President inform
ed me had read have but little to add, unless
my attention shall be called to some particular
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