Power of Attorney for John Armstrong, 1 July 1814

Power of Attorney for John Armstrong

[1 July 1814]

Know all men by these presents, that I James Madison, President of the United States do make, constitute and appoint John Armstrong Secretary of War and his successors in Office, for the time being my true and lawful attorney, for me and in my name to receive the dividends which are or shall be payable according to Law, on all the Stock standing in the name of the President of the United States in trust for the Seneca Nation of Indians in the books of the Treasury of the United States,1 with power also an attorney or attornies under him for that purpose to make and Substitute2 and to all lawful acts requisite for effecting the premises hereby ratifying and confirming that my said attorney or his substitute, shall lawfully do, by virtue hereof.

In Witness whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the City of Washington, the first day of July A.D. One thousand Eight hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States the thirty-eighth.

[SEAL] James Madison

Tr (DNA: RG 75, LRIA).

1. JM referred to $100,000 worth of stock purchased from the Bank of the United States by Revolutionary War financier Robert Morris, to pay the Seneca Nation for title to most of their lands in Western New York State as specified by a treaty of 15 Sept. 1797. Following the expiration of the Bank’s charter in 1811, almost all of the Seneca funds, then amounting to $77,440, were invested in the U.S. loan of 1812 at the Bank of Pennsylvania (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, 1832–61). description ends , Indian Affairs, 1:627–28; PJM-PS, description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (8 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends 3:184–85 and n. 1; Callender Irvine to William Eustis, 2 Nov. 1812, DNA: RG 75, LRIA). In 1814 JM authorized their transfer to the U.S. Treasury (Power of Attorney for Callender Irvine, 1 July 1814).

2. Filed with this power of attorney is John Armstrong’s of 23 July 1814, appointing Daniel Parker his attorney to receive payment of dividends and interest on the Seneca stock.

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: Power of Attorney for John Armstrong, 1 July 1814
Author: Madison, James
Date: 1 July 1814

Reference

Cite as: “Power of Attorney for John Armstrong, 1 July 1814,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-08-02-0004. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 8, July 1814–18 February 1815 and supplement December 1779–18 April 1814, ed. Angela Kreider, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, Anne Mandeville Colony, and Katherine E. Harbury. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, p. 4.]