FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129  
130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   >>   >|  
of the fraudulent methods. Writing from Columbus, Georgia, on July 15, 1833, Col. John Milton informed the War Department ... "Many of them [the Indians] are almost starved, and suffer immensely for the things necessary to the support of life, and are sinking in moral degradation. They have been much corrupted by white men who live among them, who induce them to sell to as many different individuals as they can, and then cheat them out of the proceeds."... (p. 81.) Luther Blake wrote to the War Department from Fort Mitchell, Alabama, on September 11, 1833 ... "Many, from motives of speculation, have bought Indian reserves fraudulently in this way--take their bonds for trifles, pay them ten or twenty dollars in something they do not want, and take their receipts for five times the amount." (p. 86). On February 1, 1834, J. H. Howard, of Pole-Cat Springs, Creek Nation, sent a communication, by request, to President Jackson in which he said, ... "From my own observation, I am induced to believe that a number of reservations have been paid for at some nominal price, and the principal consideration has been whisky and homespun" ... (p. 104). Gen. J. W. A. Sandford, sent by President Jackson to the Creek country to investigate the charges of fraud, wrote, on March 1, 1834, to the War Department, ... "It is but very recently that the Indian has been invested with an individual interest in land, and the great majority of them appear neither to appreciate its possession, nor to economize the money for which it is sold; the consequence is, that the white man rarely suffers an opportunity to pass by without swindling him out of both".... (p. 110). The records show that the principal beneficiaries of these swindles were some of the most conspicuous planters, mercantile firms and politicians in the South. Frequently, they employed dummies in their operations. [94] Reports of House Committees, Second Session, 26th Congress, 1840-41, Report No. 1. [95] Ibid., 1 and 2. [96] Executive Documents, First Session, 23rd Congress, 1833-34, Doc. No. 132. [97] Senate Documents, First Session, 22nd Congress, 1831-33, Vol. iii, Doc. No. 139. [98] "No inventor," reported the United States Commissioner of Patents in 1858, "probably has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the parlance of the world, with no exaggeration of phrase as 'pirates.' The spoliation of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129  
130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Congress
 

Session

 

Department

 
Documents
 

Jackson

 

President

 

Indian

 

principal

 

mercantile

 

conspicuous


planters

 
swindles
 

records

 
beneficiaries
 
consequence
 

majority

 

interest

 

recently

 

invested

 

individual


possession

 

opportunity

 

suffers

 

swindling

 

rarely

 
economize
 

Patents

 

trampled

 

harassed

 

Commissioner


States

 

inventor

 
reported
 

United

 

plundered

 

exaggeration

 

phrase

 

pirates

 

spoliation

 

parlance


licentious
 
sordid
 

infringers

 

Committees

 

Second

 
Reports
 

Frequently

 
employed
 
dummies
 

operations