To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 18 April 1805
From Albert Gallatin
Treasury Department 18th April 1805
Sir
I have the honor to enclose a letter received from Mr Granger in behalf of the owners of the “Connecticut reserve,” and a copy of instructions previously given on that subject to the Surveyor General.
The principle assumed in the instructions is that if the land adjacent to the reserve shall be purchased by the United States, the boundary line or lines dividing the reserve from the lands of the United States shall be surveyed altogether at the expence of Government; but that the indian boundary lines dividing the reserve from lands not purchased by the United States shall be surveyed at the expence of the owners of that reserve; Government in the last case, defraying only the expence of a proper agent who is to attend for the purpose of ensuring correctness in running the line.
That principle appears consistent both with equity & with the existing laws which authorise the surveying of lands purchased from the Indians for the United States and of no other lands. As the company who own the lands seem to entertain a different idea & to suppose that the boundary lines ought, at all events, to be surveyed at the expence of the United States, I beg leave to submit the subject to your decision.
I have the honor to be with the highest respect Sir Your obedt. Sert.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 19 Apr. and “Connecticut reserve” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Gallatin to Jared Mansfield, 4 Apr.; reminding Mansfield of prior instructions to send an assistant surveyor to attend the running of boundary lines of the Connecticut reserve, Gallatin informs the surveyor general of U.S. plans to purchase the tract lying between the reserve and the northern boundary of the “military tract”; if that land is obtained, the United States can assume the expense of surveying the southern boundary of the reserve, but if not, the company owning the reserve must defray the expense of running the line; no matter what, surveying the western boundary of the reserve is the company’s responsibility (, 10:790). Other enclosure not found.
For negotiations between the United States, several Native American tribes, and directors of the Connecticut reserve, see Henry Champion and Others to TJ, 28 Feb.