Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/85

Rh  March 25, 1802 Dawson, Harrison, 29

With respect to the salt spring [in Saline county, Ill.] which the chiefs who were at the seat of government lately expressed a wish to lease, my opinion is, that it would be altogether improper to comply with their request, considering both the present advantage of the Indians and the interests of the white settlers, now and in time to come. The spring alluded to, is perhaps the very best in the whole extent of country from the Alleghany mountains to the Mississippi, and may, if the preservation of the wood in the neighborhood be properly attended to, give so large a supply of salt as very considerably to reduce the price of that indispensable article in all the settlements of the Ohio and the navigable branches of that river. Should the proposed lease take place, the tenant would endeavor to make as much present advantage as possible—the young trees and the branches of the older would alone be made use of, while the heavy trunks would be left to rot on the ground, and in a few years would be effected the destruction of as much timber as would be sufficient, under proper management to last for a century. The leasing of this spring would probably produce a disagreement among the Indians themselves. Every tribe in the country would expect to partake in the benefits of the lease, and the proportion which would fall to the lot of each would be so small, as to disgust those who really have a right to the land: the Delawares and Shawnese have none. The better plan appears to be to extinguish the title altogether to the spring and a small tract around it: the United States could very well afford to give each of the tribes a sum equal to one year's annuity for the spring and 10,000 acres around it. It might then be put under such management as completely to indemnify the public for the expense of the purchase, and produce a sufficiency of salt at a moderate price for the present inhabitants and those who are to follow. 