To Thomas Jefferson from Henry Champion and Others, 28 February 1805
From Henry Champion and Others
Hartford February 28th: 1805.
The undersigned, directors of the Connecticut Land Company, in behalf of themselves, and Proprietors of said Company, respectfully request of the President, liberty to hold a Treaty with the Indian Tribes, claiming a Native title to that part of the Connecticut reservation, lying between the Cayahoga, and the Sufferers Land (so called) containing about One Million of Acres, and that power and authority may be granted them, to extinguish the native claim and title, to said Tract of Land, and that a Commissioner may be, by the President of the United States, appointed to hold a Treaty, with said Indian Tribes, claiming the native title to those Lands, and vested with power, to accomplish the object prayed for: Various are the reasons that may be urged in favour of this application, which the President will perceive without mention; Amongst which, not the smallest is, that when the sufferers quiet the Indian claims, to their Lands on the Sandusky Lake, the chain of settlement from the Pennsylvania line, to the sufferers Lands, and those of the United States will be interrupted, and Tract of Country, which the Natives have heretofore occupied soleley as hunting ground, will be rendered useless, to them for that purpose, and will be a secure and safe assylum for Rogues and fugatives from Justice, and secure from the reach of the arm of Justice, and will become the pests of Society, and the constant disturbers of the peace of the frontier settlers.—The President will be pleased to receive this application, and request transmitted thro’ the proper organ, accompanied with other necessary documents and information. All which are respectfully submitted to the wise consideration of the President, by
his most obedient, and very humble Servants.—
Henry Champion
Moses Cleaveland
Roger Newberry
Samuel Mather Jur
Directors
RC (PHi: Daniel Parker Papers); in a clerk’s hand, signed by Champion, Cleaveland, Newberry, and Mather; endorsed by TJ as received 8 Mch. and so recorded in SJL with notation “W”; also endorsed by TJ: “refd to Secy. at War Th:J.”; endorsed by Dearborn. Tr (DNA: RG 46, EPIR, 9th Cong., 1st sess.).
Henry Champion (1751-1836) was the namesake son of a prominent Connecticut farmer, militia officer, and politician who served as a deputy commissary general for the Continental Army. During the Revolution, the younger Champion rose to the rank of captain in the first and third Connecticut regiments and was appointed an acting major of a light infantry battalion. After the war, he assumed a leading position in the Colchester area. He frequently represented Colchester in the state assembly and gradually rose in the ranks of the Connecticut state militia, ending up as major general in 1799. A Federalist, he participated in the Hartford Convention in 1814. Champion was a founding director of the Connecticut Land Company, which was incorporated in 1795 to assume control over the Connecticut Western Reserve in the Northwest Territory. Champion’s initial stake was valued at $85,675, second only to that of Oliver Phelps, and he took a commensurately active role in the company’s endeavors. He first broached the subject of acquiring title to the lands lying between the reserve and territory claimed by a different Connecticut company and was his company’s agent in negotiating the treaty with the Indian tribes who ceded the land. Cleaveland, Newberry, and Mather were also major investors in the company and had served as directors since its formation. As the company’s first agent, Cleaveland led the exploring party that surveyed the reserve in 1796 (Francis Bacon Trowbridge, The Champion Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of Henry Champion of Saybrook and Lyme, Connecticut Together with Some Account of Other Families of the Name [New Haven, 1891], 277-82, 440-1; Claude L. Shepard, “The Connecticut Land Company: A Study in the Beginnings of Colonization of the Western Reserve,” The Western Reserve Historical Society Annual Report for 1915-1916 [Cleveland, 1916], 72-5, 89-91, 131-4, 187; Charles J. Hoadly and others, eds., The Public Records of the State of Connecticut, 21 vols. [Hartford, 1894- ], 7:2, 64, 76, 105; 8:2, 22, 128, 184, 188, 227, 305, 320, 431; 9:80, 156, 331; 12:3, 283; , Indian Affairs, 1:696; , Rev. War Ser., 4:333n).
Sufferers Land: see Philip B. Bradley to TJ, 1 Oct. 1804.
transmitted thro’ the proper organ: in a letter of 2 Apr., Dearborn informed Charles Jouett that the president had appointed him a commissioner to conduct a treaty between several Native American tribes, including the Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chippewas, and two Connecticut land companies. Jouett was to arrange the conference and “use your influence to induce the Indians, to make a cession of the lands claimed” by the companies on terms that they “will or ought to be satisfied with.” Dearborn noted that the United States usually paid one cent per acre for land cessions from Indians and rarely went above the rate of two cents per acre, but that Jouett should not object if the agents of the companies agreed to pay more than this. He also informed Jouett that a deputation of the Six Nations would likely attend the treaty and assert a claim to part of the land. If the claim was deemed valid and recognized by the other tribes, Jouett was to determine how to allocate the purchase money among the nations. Jouett was also authorized to negotiate any additional cessions the Indians might be willing to make from the territory between the companies’ claims and the boundary established by the Treaty of Greenville (DNA: RG 75, LSIA; printed in , Indian Affairs, 1:702-3).