Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/82

44  I am sure can be had, as well as permission to establish small stations at the distance of 25 or 30 miles apart on the roads most used for the accommodation of travellers. Another object to be provided for is the security of the persons and property of the traders residing in the Indian country. Frequent complaints have been made to me of robberies and personal injuries committed by the Indians on the traders, and I know of no redress for them. In the treaty of Greenville the chiefs promised to take the traders under their protection, but there is no specific mode of redress pointed out. Their treatment of the traders shows that they consider them entirely at their mercy, and they do frequently rob and abuse them. This insecurity to the persons and properties of the traders is the reason that so few decent and respectable men are employed in the Indian trade, which, with a few exceptions, is in the hands of the greatest villains in the world, and the authors of all those falsehoods which so frequently agitate the Indians.

The Sacks or Sackees, a considerable nation who reside between the Illinois river and the Mississippi, were not included in the treaty of Greenville. They sent deputies to agree to a cessation of hostilities the spring previous to the treaty, but by some accident or other, they mistook the time, and did not attend the treaty. They are now extremely desirous to be put on a footing with the other tribes, and receive an annual present, and it appears reasonable that they should. There is another reason for including them in the treaty of Greenville. I have reasons to believe that several of the white persons and negroes who were taken during the wars are still in the possession of those people, particularly the son of a Mr. Tanner of Kentucky who is extremely desirous to recover him.

To accomplish those objects I beg leave, Sir, respectfully to recommend to the President, that a deputation from each of the neighboring tribes, viz: the Delawares, Potawatamies, Miamis, Eel river Indians, Weas, Kickapoos, Sacks, and Kaskaskias should be assembled early in the ensuing summer, and that some person on the part of the United States be empowered to agree with them on the permanent boundaries between theirs and the lands of the United States at this place and the Illinois, country. To obtain their consent to open the following roads, viz: one from the Ohio at or near