To Thomas Jefferson from Philip B. Bradley, 1 October 1804
From Philip B. Bradley
Ridgefield in Connecticut 1st. October 1804
Sir,
The Directors of the Company incorporated by the State of Ohio by the name of “The Proprietors of the half Million Acres of Land lying South of Lake Erie, called Sufferers’ land” by their vote have requested me to make application of the President, reqesting that a Commissioner be appointed to hold a Treaty with the Indians for the purpose of enabling the Directors to extinguish the Indian title to said lands—
From the information which the Directors have been able to obtain relative to the Indian title, they have reason to believe, that it may now be obtained. Such is the situation of the proprietors, that it has become extremely interesting to them, that the same should now be effected. It will be unnecessary for me to detail the considerations which now influence them to this measure, relying with confidence that the goodness of the President, and his knowledge of the unfortunate circumstances which led to the original grant of these lands, will be a sufficient inducement with him, to take all proper measures to make the property valuable to the sufferers.
Therefore permit me in their behalf, to request the President that a Commissioner may be appointed for this purpose.
If this measure should meet the approbation of the President, we hope to be able to effect the Treaty early in the coming spring
I am, Sir, Your most obedient & humble Servant,
(Signed) Philip B. Bradley,
Chairman of sd. Directors.
Tr (DNA: RG 46, EPIR, 9th Cong., 1st sess.); at head of text: “To the President of the United States” and “Copy.” Recorded in SJL as received 27 Oct. with notation “W.”
Sufferers’ land: in 1792, the state of Connecticut set aside 500,000 acres of land on the western boundary of the Western Reserve to compensate residents of nine towns burned by the British during the American Revolution. In April 1803, the Ohio legislature incorporated the proprietors of the “sufferers’ land,” or “Firelands,” to enable them to purchase and extinguish title once it had been obtained by the United States. Native American title was ceded by the treaty of Fort Industry, signed 4 July 1805 (Salmon P. Chase, ed., The Statutes of Ohio and of the Northwestern Territory, Adopted or Enacted from 1788 to 1833 Inclusive, 3 vols. [Cincinnati, 1833-35], 1:372-4; David Curtis Skaggs and Larry L. Nelson, eds., The Sixty Years’ War for the Great Lakes, 1754-1814 [East Lansing, Mich., 2001], 304-5; , Indian Affairs, 1:695-6; Dearborn to TJ, 29 July 1805).