To James Madison from Daniel D. Tompkins, 23 January 1817
From Daniel D. Tompkins
Albany Jany 23d. 1817
Sir,
Jasper Parish Esquire, agent for the six nations of Indians, proceeds to Washington on business interesting to those indians. Mr. Parish is well acquainted with the present wants of the Indians & with the reasons for the measure of removing more westwardly which you were pleased to sanction last winter.1 I beg leave to introduce Mr. Parish as a respectable & intelligent gentleman whose communications may be confided in. With the highest regard I have the honor to be Sir, Your most Obt St
Daniel D Tompkins
RC (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, P-22:10). Docketed as received in the War Department in February 1817.
1. For the business JM had sanctioned the previous winter, see Tompkins to JM, 27 Dec. 1815, 10:126–27 and n. 2. Filed with the RC above is a 20 Jan. 1817 letter (2 pp.) from Erastus Granger to George Graham, stating that Jasper Parish was coming to Washington to settle Granger’s accounts for 1816. Granger described the “deplorable” state of “starvation” to which the Six Nations had been reduced by the recent failure of their crops, the decline of their hunting grounds, and the depletion of their annuities. He requested that the agents to the Six Nations be allowed a sum from contingent funds to enable the Indians to “subsist untill Next corn harvest.” Granger reminded Graham that during the War of 1812 the Six Nations were “to a Man friendley—they fought our Battles &c.—they draw No provisions from the Contractors” (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, P-22:10).