To James Madison from Jonathan Jennings, 12 December 1816
From Jonathan Jennings
Corydon Indiana Dec: 12th. 1816
Sir.
The result of the late negociation with the Indians of the Wabash, for the extinquishment of Indian title has produced no little regret among the citizens of this State.1
It is stated to me from scources entitled to respect, that the Deleware Indians would exchange their lands on the White rivers, for lands west of the Mississippi river, near where a part of the same tribe at present claim title, provided they could obtain some consideration in annuities for the exchange. It is believed that if some person or persons were authorised by the Government, to proceed with those Indians west of the Mississippi, to explore the country they would be induced to make the exchange without exciting in their minds any distrust whatever, though it is hardly to be expected that they would sell on any terms.
Such is the geographical situation of that portion of this State, over which the Indian title has been extinguished, that the intercourse between the North Eastern and North Western portions of the country is rendered very circuitous, inasmuch as the Indian title reaches within fifty miles from the Grand Rapids of the Ohio river. The seat of government, intended to be permant [sic] for the state, cannot be located until an extinguishment of Indian title can be obtained.
Such however is the situation and the local interest of many of those individuals who are licensed to trade with the indians, that the utmost secrecy is indispensible to a successful attempt to extinguish Indian title.
Should the Executive government, be disposed to make an attempt to negociate an exchange for the White-river lands, it would very much gratify the citizens of the State, and would in my opinion be attended with success.2
For the execution of such a purpose, I know of no persons better qualified to conduct the Indians to the exploring of the Country west of the Mississippi river, than John and William Conner,3 the former of whom is at present an Interpreter and resident among the Delaware Indians.
Unacquainted with the person who may be Acting Secretary for the Department of War, I beg to be excused for troubling you with this epistle, in the subject matter of which, with the citizens of the State generally, I feel much solicitude. With sentiments of unfeigned respect, I am yours very obediently
Jonathan Jennings
RC (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, J-259:9).
1. Jennings referred to the treaty with “the Wyandot, Delaware, Seneca, Shawanee, Miami, Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pattawatamie tribes of Indians, residing within the limits of the State of Ohio and the Territories of Indiana and Michigan,” signed on 8 Sept. 1815 and submitted to the Senate by JM on 6 Dec. 1815. For the tribes residing in Indiana Territory, the treaty confirmed their rights as these had been defined in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville (, Indian Affairs, 2:12).
2. This proposal was realized in the 3 Oct. 1818 treaty, signed at St. Marys, Ohio, with the Delaware Indians, whereby the Delaware ceded all their lands in Indiana to the United States and agreed to move west of the Mississippi River. The treaty was negotiated by Jennings, Lewis Cass, and Benjamin Parke (ibid., 169).
3. John Conner (1775–1826) and William Conner (ca. 1773–1855) were the sons of Richard and Margaret Boyer Connor. The brothers had extensive and lengthy dealings with the Indian nations in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana resulting from their father’s contacts through the Moravian missions. The brothers settled in Indiana Territory after 1800, intermarried and traded with the Indians, and served as interpreters for William Henry Harrison and other agents of the U.S. government. It was also said that William Conner had identified the body of Tecumseh on the battlefield at the Thames River in 1813. Both brothers, however, chose to remain in Indiana when the Indian inhabitants left the state to move west of the Mississippi River (Charles N. Thompson, Sons of the Wilderness: John and William Conner [Indianapolis, 1937], 8–189 passim; John Lauritz Larson and David G. Vanderstel, “Agent of Empire: William Conner on the Indiana Frontier, 1800–1855,” Indiana Magazine of History 80 [1984]: 301–28).