Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/75

Rh enables any body to become a purchaser; one thousand acres being frequently given for an indifferent horse or a rifle gun. And as a formal deed is made reciting the grant of the court (made as it is pretended under the authority of the State of Virginia) many ignorant persons have been induced to part with their little all to obtain this ideal property, and they will no doubt endeavor to strengthen their claim, as soon as they have discovered the deception, by an actual settlement. The extent of these speculations was unknown to me until lately. I am now informed that a number of persons are in the habit of repairing to this place, where they purchase two or three hundred thousand acres of this claim, for which they get a deed properly authenticated and recorded, and then disperse themselves over the United States, to cheat the ignorant and credulous. In some measure, to check this practice, I have forbidden the recorder and prothonotary of this county from recording or authenticating any of these papers; being determined that the official seals of the Territory shall not be prostituted to a purpose so base as that of assisting an infamous fraud.

I have the honor to be, with the most perfect respect. 

 , February 19th, 1802 Dawson, Harrison, 12-15

If this measure, is not effected, I apprehend some serious consequences. It has already become a subject of discussion among the people of the territory, whether an Indian is punishable by our laws for a murder committed on their own lands, or on a road leading through their country; the negative of this question is strongly maintained by many; and, should it reach the Indians, it will be no longer safe to pass the roads which connect the several settlements of the Territory. I have taken much pains to find the drift of the talks, which the British agents in Canada so frequently send to the Indians residing within our limits. The report mentioned in the postscript of my letter of the 3d December last,