These several duties required care and involved responsibilities of no
ordinary character. They have been shared by Major H. Whiting, the
Paymaster of the Northern Department, by whom the funds were exclusively
paid, and John W. Edwards, Esq., of New York, who divided the half-breed
fund, to both of whom I am indebted for the diligence with which they
addressed themselves to the duty, and the kindness and urbanity of
their manners.
So large an assemblage of red and white men probably never assembled
here before, and a greater degree of joy and satisfaction was never
evinced by the same number. The Indians went away with their canoes
literally loaded with all an Indian wants, from silver to a steel trap,
and a practical demonstration was given which will shut their mouths
forever with regard to the oft-repeated scandal of the stinginess and
injustice of the American government.
Not a man was left, of any caste or shade of nativity, to utter a word
to gainsay or cavil with the noble and high public manner in which
these proceedings were done.
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