You will see that compliance with this direction is strictly enforced in your agency: a violation of it will be considered just cause for the revocation of the license of the offending trader; and you are required to make report of such violation.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. W. MANY PENNY,

Commissioner.

APPENDIX

To the documents accompanying the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, containing papers relating to certain transactions with the Menomonee Indians.

A.

My friends, the Chiefs, Headmen, and Warriors

of the Menomonee nation of Indians:

I have not forgotten you, but have thought of you very often, and hope that you are well, and that your women and children are well. I thought that I should come to see you all before now, and sent you word that I should do so. I was so certain that I should come, that I got ready to start, and had me a good thick coat made to keep me warm up in your cold climate; but I have had a good deal to do for you since your delegation came here last fall with Osh-kosh. I have been trying all the time to get you more money for your land, and to get you pay for what Col. Medill cheated you out of when he made the treaty of 1848. I am still at work at it, and shall not stop till I get it. I find that if I were to leave your business now and turn my back upon it, there would be danger of your not getting anything. But by staying here and watching it I do not doubt but that I shall succeed in getting you some more money, as I did in getting your Great Father, the President, to put off the time of your removal. And this is the reason why I do not come, for if I could do so without neglecting your business, it would be very gratifying to me to take you all by the hand in your own wigwams.

Your Great Father, the President, has appointed me to go up to buy the land of the Sioux west of the Mississippi, and the lauds in the valley of the Red river of the North. I shall go, and expect to see you then, and I shall also see the country where Col. Medill wishes to send you; and then I shall be able to tell your Great Father what sort of a country it is. Your Great Father has not decided yet what he is going to do with your business, but I feel very confident that by the first of March he will do so; when he does I will write you directly. I wish you to sign the paper which I send you, which gives me power to conclude an agreement with your Great Father about how much money you are to have. If you do this, it will save the expense and delay of a new treaty out there. As I told your delegation when they were here, it is very hard to break a treaty; and I do not think I could do it

at all, so as to get anything for you, if I were to go away from here before the matter is decided, for Col. Medill has a great many friends, and they would take advantage of my absence; but by staying here and watching everything closely, I am almost certain that I shall get you more money before spring.

I will get you as much as I can; but you must sign the paper I send, that I may have power to agree how much you are to have. I cannot go away from here before I do it; for I must keep watch all the time, and look all around me, for fear that some bad men who do not care for you, or anybody but themselves, will do you still more harm. I told your delegation, when they employed me to attend to your business, that I would not receive a dollar of money from you unless I could succeed in getting your Great Father to pay you more than Col. Medill has allowed you in the treaty of 1848. I knew that you had been cheated by Col. Medill, and was determined that justice should be done you if it was in my power. This is the way I feel, yet I will not expect you to pay me anything for all that I have done for you if I don't succeed in getting some more money for you. I know that you will thank me for what I do for you, even if I do not get anything. But if I get more money for you, I expect you to pay me for what I do for you, as your delegation promised me when they were here. They talked with me then about it, and I have no doubt that Osh-kosh and all the rest will remember and tell you what was said. I told them that it was not necessary to talk about it then, as I did not know that I could get anything for you; but that when they got home, and I found out whether anything could be done, then it could be talked over by all of the chiefs, and you could determine how much you could give me. I feel so certain now that I shall get you some more money if I stay here and keep my eyes on your business, that I have concluded not to come and see you now, but to write this to you to let you know how I am getting on.

And I wish you to call a council of your chiefs and have this read to them, so that they may know all about their business; and, when it is all explained to the council, I wish you to determine how much you are willing to give me out of the money I get for you. And when you agree to the per cent. you are willing to give me, I wish you would have it put in writing, and signed by as many of you as are present, so that your Great Father may see that it is the act of your nation. I do not say anything about how much you ought to give me; I leave that to you, as I told your delegation I would do. I wish you to talk among yourselves about it, and then do what you think is proper and just. I cannot tell you how much money I shall get for you; if I could do so, 1 I would write you word; but I am very sure I shall get you some. I hope you will attend to this business directly, as Congress will adjourn on the 4th of March, and if you do not get your money before that time you will have to wait more than a year for it. It is for this reason I stand here and send a friend to you, that you may send me word by him as soon as possible. I advise you to lose no time, but attend to this business at once. As I cannot go to see you now, and as my friend, Mr. Ewing, is also here helping me in some business and cannot leave, I have sent this to my friend in Indiana, and requested him

to go up and take it to you, as I am anxious you should have it. I wish him to put it in your hands, and I hope you will be satisfied with the condition of your business. The friend I send this by is Mr. Richard Chute, whom you all know.

I wish you to give my respects to all your people, and tell them I will always be their friend, and that I expect to see them some of these days.

Your friend,

WASHINGTON, January 18, 1851.

R. W. THOMPSON.

FORT WAYNE, February 6, 1851.

To the Chiefs of the Menomonee nation:

MY FRIENDS: I cannot go to see you, as your friend and able attor ney desires; but Judge Ewing will go in my stead. He is in every way worthy of your confidence, and will do all he can to serve you. Your friend,

RICHD. CHUTE.

W. G. EWING, JR.

The foregoing is a true copy of the original. Attest:

B.

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1851.

DEAR SIR: I find it inconvenient for me to visit the Menomonee country as I had expected, and have procured Mr. Chute to go up and see the Indians for me.

I shall pretty certainly succeed in getting them more money, but how much I do not yet know, as the case is not decided; but I feel very confident of success.

It is necessary that the Indians give me power to conclude the agreement with the President. This is the business for which Mr. Chute visits them; and I have written them a letter, explaining all their business as nearly as I could. I hope you will aid Mr. Chute, as it is very important to the Indians that it should be done correctly and immediately.

I wish the Indians also to agree what they are willing to give me out of the money I shall recover. This I wish them to determine without the influence of anybody, as I told them when they were here. I do not wish to take a dollar of their money that they do not willingly give, and I hope they will be told this.

I have heard nothing directly from you all since you left here. As you keep so still, you must be getting quiet up there. I hope so. Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. W. THOMPSON.

W. H. BRUCE, Esq.

C.

WASHINGTON, January 21, 1851.

DEAR SIR: This will be delivered to you by Mr. Richard Chute, our junior partner, who visits Green Bay on business.

Should he call on you on any business connected with you, officially or otherwise, I bespeak for him your kind treatment, and any service you may be pleased to render him will be duly acknowledged by me. I have no news worth relating. Congress is (as you are aware) again in session, but they adjourn on the 4th March proximo, this being the short session. The ordinary appropriation bills are progressing; political excitement is at a very low ebb just now; the compromise measures of last session seem to have silenced for the time being all the gassy and noisy demagogues. They may break out again, as most likely they will, in some new place.

Accept my best regard.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Major W. H. BRUCE,

Green Bay, Wisconsin.

GEO. W. EWING.

FORT WAYNE, February 5, 1851.

DEAR SIR: The foregoing line will be handed you by Judge Wm. G. Ewing, the brother of the Colonel. I should be pleased could I deliver it in person.

You will find Judge E. a gentleman and a warm whig. Although you and I have not in all things been perfectly agreed, I hope it is not improper for me to request your courteous attentions for the bearer. Yours, respectfully,

WM. H. BRUCE, Esq.

R. CHUTE.

D.

Whereas a deputation of the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Menomonee nation of Indians did, on the 9th day of September, 1850, at the city of Washington, make and execute a power of attorney whereby they appointed Richard W. Thompson, of the State of Indiana, the true and lawful attorney of the said Menomonee nation of Indians, and authorized and empowered him to act for and in the name of said nation in the prosecution of the claim of said nation for the recovery of additional compensation from the United States for their lands in Wisconsin, and for the wrong done them by the treaty of the 15th October, 1848, made at Lake Powan-hay-ken-nay:

And whereas the said power of attorney has been fully made known and explained to us: Now, therefore, we, the undersigned, chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the said Menomonee nation, in common council

assembled, at Lake Powan-hay-ken-nay, in the said nation, do hereby, in the name of our said nation, by these presents, ratify, sanction, and confirm the act aforesaid of our said deputation in making the aforesaid power of attorney, and in the employment of the said Richard W. Thompson, and do recognise the same as binding upon us in all respects, and as fully and effectually as if the said power of attorney had been executed in general council of said nation.

And we hereby delegate to our said attorney full and ample power to conclude an agreement with our Great Father, the President of the United States, in relation to the aforesaid claim, and to agree upon, adjust, and settle the amount of money to be paid our said nation in virtue thereof; hereby ratifying and confirming what our said attorney may lawfully do in the premises.

Done in common council of the Menomonee nation on the 15th day of February, 1851, and at Lake Powan-hay-ken-nay, in said nation, in the State of Wisconsin.

The foregoing was interpreted and fully explained to the said chiefs in council before it was signed by them, in our presence.

F. J. BONDUEL,

Superintendent and Missionary.

GEORGE COWN.

JOHN B. JACOBS,

We, the undersigned, Alexander Spalding, register, and Edgar Conklin, receiver of the Green Bay land office, do hereby certify that we were present, and heard the foregoing power of attorney to Richard