Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 7.djvu/151

 A TREATY OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP Made and concluded between William Clark, Ninian Edwards, May 13, 1g1g_ and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners plenqwtentiary of the if United States of America, on the part and behay of the said Didcaliflidilsli states, if the one part, and the undersigned chiefs and warriors ry' the Sacs of Rock river and the adjacent country, of the other part. Wnsmzxs by the ninth article of the treaty of peace, which was con- Preamble. cluded on the twenty-fourth day of December, eighteen hundred and fourteen, between the United States and Great Britain, at Ghent, and which was ratified by the president, with the advice and consent of the senate, on the seventeenth day of February, eighteen hundred and fifteen, it was stipulated that the said parties should severally put an end to all hostilities with the Indian tribes, with whom they might be at war, at the time of the ratification of said treaty; and to place the said tribes inhabiting their respective territories, on the same footing upon which they stood before the war: Provided, they should agree to desist from all hostilities against the said parties, their citizens or subjects respectively, upon the ratification of the said treaty being notified to them, and should so desist accordingly. And whereas the United States being determined to execute every article of the treaty with perfect good faith, and wishing to be particularly exact in the execution of the article above alluded to, relating to the Indian tribes: The president, in consequence thereof; for that purpose, on the eleventh day of March, eighteen hundred and fifteen, appointed the undersigned William Clark, governor of Missouri territory, N inian Edwards, governor of Illinois territory, and Auguste Chouteau, esq. of the Missouri territory, commissioners, with full power to conclude a treaty of peace and amity with all those tribes of Indians, conformably to the stipulations contained in the said article, on the part of the United States, in relation to such tribes. And whereas the commissioners, in conformity with their instructions in the early part of last year, notified the Sacs of Rock river, and the adjacent country, of the time of the ratification of said treaty; of the stipulations it contained in relation to them; of the disposition of the American government to fulfil those stipulations, by entering into a treaty with them, conformably thereto; and invited the said Sacs of Rock river, and the adjacent country, to send forward a deputation of their chiefs to meet the said commissioners at Portage des Sioux, for the purpose of concluding such a treaty as aforesaid, between the United States and the said Indians, and the said Sacs of Rock river, and the adjacent country, having not only declined that friendly overture, but having continued their hostilities, and committed many depredations thereafter, which would have justified the iniiiction of the severest chastisement upon them; but having earnestly repented of their conduct, now imploring mercy, and being anxious to return to the habits of peace and friendship with the United States; and the latter being always disposed to pursue the most liberal and humane policy towards the Indian tribes within their territory, preferring their reclamation by peaceful measures, to their punishment, by the application of the militarv force of the nation—Now, therefore, (141)