Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-11-08
BILE party for cash. would be held by you to

BILE party for cash. would be held by you to
authorize sale on credit. is'urG -r..-.
You give as a reason for your sale to the
Connecticut company that they were not
allowed by their charter to convey lands
except to actual settlers, and that you,
therefore, thought sale to them would be
specially advantageous to the people ol
Kansas. 1t appears, too, from your letter,
that from five to seven thousand OF the
people of Kansas were bona fde settlers on
the neutral lands, Yet tue provision you
forced into the treaty, as you drew 1t, pro-
vded for the sale of all the neutral lands In
one body with no reservation III favor oi
present occupants, such as was contained
In the provision for sales in parcels; and II
it had been ratified by the Senate as you
prepared it, these thousands of settlers
would have had no right to bid for the sew
eral tracts ON which they live, but would
have been at the mercy Of the company
buying the whole tract. Ii you Thought as
little of the Kansas people when you sold 70
the Connecticut company as when you
forced that clause into the treaty, a con-
sideration of their interests had but little
weight in determining the sale. F'
When the treaty was made and came to
be executed, you say you sent an officer, in
whose Judgment you coniided, " to eX-
anime these lands and report in person at
Washington the quality Of the soil, timber,
water, &c, aud especially the relative
quantity of timber and prairie, the loca-
| ton of timber, and the number OF inhabi-
tants." And that after he had made his ex-
animation and report in person, you
"sought diligently tor purchaser, and
ate 1aiLing IN all other quarters, ultimately
effected sale to the Connecticut COM
pany." r.... ...r .,..,....-..,
The treaty was proclaimed August 1lth
| 1866. Your resignation was to take effect
| twenty days thereafter. If the officer you
sent travelled hence day and night, he
could not have gone to the southern boun-
| dary of those lands and returned in less
than fourteen days. With no surveys to
guide him, he could not have made even
the most hasty examination OF the tract
which is about fifty miles long by thirty
wide in the six days left of the twenty
| Who was this officer, who in twenty days
made so swift a journey and so careful an
eXamination-who reported just eighty Sec
tions of average timber; from five to seven
thousand settlers; fifteen hundred qualified
preemptors; reported all the streams but
Spring river dry for three months each
year, or containing water only in stagnant
pools, and sweet water difficult of access
on account of y an underlying strata o.
limestone; who failed To see anything O1
the veins of lead and coal which are known
to abound in the tract--and who was back
with his report so quickly that you had
enough of the twenty days left to seek
"diligently for purchaser, and, after fail
ing in all other quarters, to ultimately etfec
a sale to the American EmigranG Company
of Connecticut" on the last day OF the
twenty?
But did you really make such searcI
for purchaser? Were not three out
seven of the company residents of De
Moines, Iowa, aud among the most active
of your political friends and supporters
Was not the company n purchaser of large
quantities of ''swamp lands in Iowa. anC
as such purchaser, in constant intercourse
with your Department, while the treaty
was being negotiated? Did not one O.
more of the company indicate to you thei
desire to buy these lands in body while
the treaty was being made! and was moi
your perseverance in insisting on the pro-
vision authorizing the sale in body due tt
a suggestion from one of them that they
would like to purchase? II have reason Il
believe, and do believe" that these inter
rogatories, except the first, would be truly
answered in the affirmative. But, shOult
be mistaken in this, my error will lead Il
no breach of official trust, nor to the injury
of any for whom am legal guardian.
/. You say that, in order to avoid scandal
you requested the company to let the con
tract lie over one day tor the consideration
and action of your successor; but they OBJ
jected that "they were on expense; did no
consider the transaction of enough conse
uuence to justify the delay, or the incOn
Venience OF returning to the city, and tina
it must be closed tuen or neverP AS thC
treaty had then been made public but few
days, there seems hardly good reason fol
your despair offa sale in case the O0nnecti
cut company were driven off by delay
The fact that the agent of that company
who made the contract, did not consider i
of enough consequence to justify days.
delay, or another trip from New York tt
Washington-though calculated to give thu
public high opihiOn of the value of hi
time-wlll probably not impress it strong
ly with belief in his business tact in thu
preferring to pay $25,000 down on con
tested title rather than wait day, or max,
another trip, to get title settled bya de-
cision of your successor, by whom the con
tract was to be carried out. .f .....r.T
But whatever opinion of the ability o
the agent of the public may form iron
your letter, they will at least be strucl
okees which you displayed in preparing an(
forcing into the treaty, against their wishes
the clause authorizing u sale of the whole
tract in body "tO any responsible party
for cash"---the acumenwhich discovered il
that clausea power to sell Ion nine years
credit at per cent. .interest-the prOmtnes
which enabled you ito send an officer tC
thoroughly inspect, classify, and report OF
the land, its timber, water, and Inhabitants
and after his report to search diligently ant
find purchaser at the minimum price-al
within twenty days; the vigor with which
the sale on credit was perfected on the las
day of your secretaryship, against the Ian
guage of the treaty, oyer the protest Of the
Cherokees, who were your wards and who
owned the land, and that, too, to a eompa
my whose transactions are so vast that they
regarded this $S00000 purchase as an affair
too trivial to justify their agent IN waiting
day for clear title. Hng3 -ev u.tair.
-au Very respectfully, yours, w .lsie
IIsa in,1a. aH7 io THOMAS EWING, JR.
Ir1i ArteTmus Ward i'm London.