Territory of Michigan.

their rights are extremely strong. The British
Government granted few titles, and these were
generally mere permissions of military officers to
use or occupy certain pieces of land, often unac-
companied with any written evidences, but as-
suming, from long continued possession, an ap-
pearance of right. Under the American Govern-
ment no titles of any kind have been granted.
From this state of things some consequences
have resulted, which are not indeed difficult to
foresee, but which it is difficult to remedy. One
of these consequences, and perhaps not the least
important, is the effect it had on the destiny and
moral character of the progeny of the original
colonists. When it is remembered, that the
troops of Louis the Fourteenth, came without
women, the description of persons constituting
the second generation will not be difficult to con-
ceive. When it is considered at the same time,
that destitute of titles to land, they were precluded
from the means of acquiring them, it will be ob-
vious that an entrance into the savage societies,
or at most employments in the commerce carried
on with them, were their only resources. While
therefore, the American colonizations of the same,
and of subsequent date, have grown into regular,
agricultural, and opulent States, these countries
have been destined to anarchy, to ignorance, to
poverty. The emigrant, whom curiosity, or en-
terprise, at any time brought into the country,
was either atracted to the British side of it, or
disappeared in some mode less easy to account
for. Accession by foreign population, and by
natural increase, being thus, at once cut off, the
fate of this fine region has necessarily been
that insignificance which still belongs to it. The
British Government, in recent periods, have con-
firmed original proprietors, made a donation of a
quantity equal to the original grant, termed a
continuation; and have granted lands to settlers
without any other price than common fees of
office attending the acquisition of the grant. Such,
however, is the inestimable value of liberty to
man, that notwithstanding these, and, if possible,
greater inducements to the settlers, the under-
signed venture to predict a marked superiority to
the American side, even at the prices at present
required by the American Government, or at a
slight variation of them, if the old claims are at
once adjusted, and the country laid open to the
acquisition of new title.

From the state of the country which has been represented, another consequence has resulted. Encroachments, in some instances, grafted on original title, and in others without a semblance of title, have been made on lands which are or ought to be, the property of the United States. Individuals have proceeded to extinguish the native right, contrary to the regulations of all the governments; and in some instances extensive setlements have been made on titles thus acquired. What arrangements the United States will make on this head it belongs not to us to anticipate; we shall only recommend a liberal and merciful disposition to the people of this country; of whom it may be safely asserted they are less to be

charged with depravity of character, than their governments have been with cruel neglect and indifference.

The claims of the present inhabitants require to be considered under one more aspect, novel indeed. but not the less founded in truth. When the Ameri can comes into contact with the aboriginal, if he is not considered as an enemy, he is at least regarded as a character with whom they are to struggle, and if in no other, certainly in a pecuniary view. But the Canadian, allied by blood, by long established intercourse, by a countless reciprocity of services, their native claims having long, as to time, been extinguished, and their honor and good faith having been repeatedly pledged for his protection. is uniformly regarded as their brother, and with him they are disposed to make a common cause. Hence justice, and liberal justice, to the Canadian inhabitant is an important point of policy in the conduct of the American Government towards the aboriginal inhabitants.

The extent of the Canadian extinguishment of Indian title, though in itself indefinite, appears first to have received limits in the treaty of Fert McIntosh, in 1785. We there first find a written dereliction of Indian claim for a breadth of six miles, from La Riviere aux Raisins, now called Rosine, on Lake Erie, to the Lake St. Clair. In the subsequent treaty of Fort Harmar in 1789 the same dereliction is confirmed. In the ulterior Treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the confirmation is repeated, and additions made.

The Treaty with Great Britain, of 1783, and the subsequent one of 1794, were made for the atcomplishment of great national objects, having very little connexion with Canadian and Indian claims. The Treaties of Fort McIntosh, Fort Harmar, and of Greenville, were all formed on other far more important points; and the quantity of extinguished Indian title in Michigan recog nised by them is less to be considered as an acquisi tion of new title, than a definition of the old. The expense of those negotiations therefore can scarcely be said, in any sense, to attach to this country; and perhaps it may be truly said that all the Indian title at present extinguished within the Territory of Michigan has not cost the United States a single dollar; but is entirely a recognition of a previous, but indefinite title, extinguished by the Canadiaus. Hence, a question will arise whether it is more than barely justice to the inhabitants to allow them the whole of this part, or otherwise to permit the proceeds of it to be applied to their benefit in the education of their youth, in the erection of public buildings, such as court-houses and jails, which the late conflagration has entirely deprived them of, and in laying out roads, and other improvements in their country. Next to the ad justment of the old titles comes the acquisition of new. It is believed that at this period, and in a particular mode, a very large portion of Indian title may be shortly extinguished; but as this part of the subject may hereafter be deemed confidertial, it is made the subject of a distinct report. On an occasion like the present it may not be

Territory of Orleans.

advisable to revise some of the regulations re-finite. Though in the present maps of the Unitive to the territory.

On all the subjects requiring legislation the prent Government act with difficulty, and on many nnot act at all. All laws will be found to operate particular places, times, and persons, and in no ate which enters into the composition of the nerican Union, will an abstract code of princies be discovered free from a connexion, and that very close one, with the places, times, and peris affected by them. Hence, the strict adoption apy code, or even of any one law, becomes imssible. To make it applicable it must be adaptto the geography of the country, to its tempoy circumstances and exigencies, and to the parular character of the persons over whom it is operate. Hitherto, it has been religiously the obt to follow what has been deemed the substance the law, whatever modifications the form of it is obliged to undergo. But different minds will t always correspond in sentiment on what is bstance, and what is form; and in all the lititions which arise under laws, those affecting the lidity of the law itself are the most intricate d difficult. Hence, in a country whose adminration ought to be marked with simplicity, incacy, procrastination, and uncertainty in affairs, sult. To adopt laws from all the original States e laws of all the original States ought to be furshed; and, waiving the difficuly and expense of ocuring them, what body of men, under the essure of immediate business, can acquire a comete acquaintance with them? The possession all the codes, if it were possible, and a comete acquaintance with their contents, would still ove an abortive cure; for in many very simple ses, a strict precedent will be searched for in

ted States, a line of latitude through the southern
bend of Lake Michigan appears to strike Lake
Erie near the mouth of the Miami, yet in the maps
of Arrowsmith and M'Kenzie, such a line of lat-
titude would not strike Lake Erie, but pass entirely
south of it. The anxiety of the southern settlers
of the Territory is great, not to be attached to the
State of Ohio, which would be incommodious to
them, but to Michigan, which is so much more
convenient. The western end of Lake Erie, even
from Sandusky, would feel this convenience.
The case of the Wyandot Indians deserves the
consideration of Government. They live in two
towns, Maguaga and Brown's town, within the
limits of the American title. To the Treaty of
Fort Harmar, a clause was annexed stipulating
that they might remain unmolested. In the Treaty
of Greenville this provision is omitted. They
constantly assert, and there are not wanting repu-
table citizens who join them in this assertion, that
they were solemnly promised by General Wayne
a continuance of the indulgence. It may there-
fore be worthy of serious consideration whether
it may not be advisable in the adjustment of titles,
to recognise their possessions, and invest them
with the character of citizens.

WILLIAM HULL,

Governor of Michigan. A. B. WOODWARD. Presiding Judge of do.

TERRITORY OF ORLEANS.

[Communicated to the House, February 27, 1805.] The committee, to whom were referred the me

tory of Orleans, and also the memorial of the House of Representatives of the same Territory, make the following report:

The object of the memorialists is to obtain from the General Government a grant of lands for the establishment and support of colleges, schools, and other seminaries of education, within the Territory of Orleans.

in. Is the object to establish a ferry, to regu-morial of the Legislative Council of the Terrie the affairs of any district, to erect a courtuse, or to institute a school, however urgent the ll, however obvious the means, it must often be andoned for want of a precedent that will apy; and often, when attempted, may be defeated, om the want of a strict correspondence between e law made and the precedent from which it ofesses to be adopted. The real security for e prevalence of republican principles rests not a provision of this awkward kind; for even in e codes of the States the disciple of aristocracy ay sometimes find a weapon. It rests in the neral probability that the administration of this scription will be conformable to the General dministration. It rests in the parental control Congress. Experience is the best test of the proiety or impropriety of a law; and if a law be made hich gives dissatisfaction, the natural resort is to e authority first making it for its correction, and hen from defect of power or of inclination the vil is found irremediable, by them, to superior uthority.

The requiring a possession of certain quantities f land in various officers is not only impracticale in the present instance; but the policy on which the provision may have originally been rounded has ceased to exist.

The southern boundary of the Territory is inde

Your committee are of opinion, that it ought to be a primary object with the General Government to encourage and promote education in every part of the Union, so far as the same can be done consistent with the general policy of the nation, and so as not to infringe the municipal regulations that are, or may be adopted by the respective State authorities on this subject.

The benefits resulting to society in general from the establishment and support of public institutions for the education of youth, and the general diffusion of science, are too well known to all discerning persons to require any particular investiThe National gation on the present occasion. Legislature has, by several of its acts on former occasions, evinced, in the strongest manner, its disposition to afford the means of establishing and fostering with a liberal hand such public institutions.

Public Lands.

Your committee are of opinion, that it would [Communicated to the House, Feb. 5, 1806.] be sound policy in the General Government, as The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was well as consistent with equal justice, to act on referred a resolution, on the 26th day of March, this occasion with the same liberality towards the directing them to inquire into the expediency of people of the Territory of Orleans that has been all such parts of the several acts, providing for shown in relation to the State of Ohio and the the sales of the lands of the United States, as auMississippi Territory; and to make the like pro-thorize a credit on any part of the purchase money vision for the establishment and support of pub- of said lands, respectfully submit the following lic schools in the one case that has been made in report: the others.

Public Lands.

Expedition of Lewis and Clarke.

By persons who have paid the three first instalments

Making for principal and interest, as above

less injurious than a continuation of the present 35,000 mode.

$229,000

In every case where those arrears will not be paid at the end of five years from the date of the purchase, (which, for the above sum, will be at various dates, but all in the course of this year) the land will, according to law, be sold or revert to the United States; but there is little danger of that contingency taking place in cases where the two or three first instalments have already been paid.

I feel no hesitation in repeating the opinion which was expressed two years ago, to a committee of the House, that sales for cash only would in every respect be preferable to the present mode. Although no symptoms of that kind have yet appeared, the accumulation of a debt of $2,000,000, due by more than two thousand heads of families, and which is every day increasing in amount, and extending to a greater number of persons, may ultimately create in that section of the Union a powerful interest, hostile to the Federal Government, and which would endanger both the outstanding debt and the lands unsold.

The revenue will not be affected by the change; for, although a less quantity of lands will be sold, the actual receipts will continue to be in propor tion to the existing means of payment; for such is the demand for the public lands, that the sales are limited only by the resources of the inhabitants and emigrants.

I will only add, that if credits shall not be allowed hereafter, some indulgence, in point of time, may be given to those former purchasers, whose lands will otherwise be sold during the course of this year, on account of their not having completed the payments within five years of the time of purchase. Should the present system be continued, a more rigid enforcement of the law will be necessary. I have the honor to be, &c. ALBERT GALLATIN.

Hon. ANDREW GREGG, Chairman, &c.

EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE.

[Communicated to Congress, February 19, 1806.] To the Senate and House of

Representatives of the United States: In pursuance of a measure proposed to Congress by a Message of January 18th, one thousand eight hundred and three, and sanctioned by their approbation for carrying it into execution, Cap tain Meriwether Lewis, of the first regiment of infantry, was appointed, with a party of men, to explore the river Missouri, from its mouth to its source, and, crossing the highlands by the shortest portage, to seek the best water communication thence to the Pacific ocean, and Lieutenant Clarke was appointed second in command. They were to enter into conference with the Indian nations on their route, with a view to the establishment of commerce with them. They entered the Missouri May fourteenth, one thousand eight hunNor is it believed that the measure will ulti-dred and four, and on the first of November took mately be injurious to the persons who become up their winter quarters near the Mandan towns, purchasers. Although some may thereby be pre- 1,609 miles above the mouth of the river, in latvented from purchasing, the number of actual tude 47° 21' 47" north, and longitude 99° 24′ 45′′ delinquents shows that the credit allowed often west from Greenwich. On the eighth of April, induces individuals to make purchases beyond one thousand eight hundred and five, they protheir means, and not less prejudicial to themselves ceeded up the river in pursuance of the objects than to the public. It must also be observed, that, prescribed to them. A letter of the preceding though the nominal price on which lands are sold day, April seventh, from Captain Lewis, is hereon credit, be two dollars per acre, the cash price, with communicated. During his stay among the supposing the whole payment to be made at the Mandans, he had been able to lay down the Mistime of the purchase, is only (on account of the souri, according to the courses and distances taken discount of eight per cent. a year on the three last on his passage up it, corrected by frequent obserinstalments, which is allowed for prompt pay-vations of longitude and latitude; and to add to ment,) one dollar and sixty-four cents per acre. A quarter section, containing one hundred and sixty acres, will, therefore, cost only two hundred and sixty-two dollars and forty cents. Prior to the act which authorized the sales of land in quarter sections, no man could become a purchaser, unless he paid, within three months thereafter, three hundred and twenty dollars if he had purchased an entire section, and one hundred and sixty dollars, if his purchase was for a half section. This shows that under the proposed alteration, it will require only one hundred dollars more in hand to become a purchaser, than was necessary under the former system. Should, however, that be considered as a formidable objection, I would think a moderate reduction of the price of lands

the actual survey of this portion of the river, a general map of the country between the Mississippi and Pacific, from the thirty-fourth to the fiftyfourth degrees of latitude. These additions are from information collected from Indians with whom he had opportunities of communicating. during his journey and residence with them. Copies of this map are now presented to both Houses of Congress. With these I communicate also a statistical view, procured and forwarded by him of the Indian nations inhabiting the Territory of Louisiana, and the countries adjacent to its north ern and western borders; of their commerce, and of other interesting circumstances respecting the

In order to render the statement as complete as may be, of the Indians inhabiting the country