I paid it myself on the 5th of June, 1848, in silver. Yet
the rumor of gross injustice to the Indians only gained force as it
spread. The Grand River memorialists made "nuts" of it, and General Jim
Wilson wielded it for my benefit, in his classical stump speeches in New
Hampshire. I had carefully shielded my Indians from a cent's loss, yet
my name was pitched into the general condemnation, like the thirteenth
biscuit in a baker's dozen. Nothing rolls up so fast as a lie, when once
afloat.[86]
[Footnote 86: Harris felt disobliged by my independence of action
respecting the "goods offer." He had, in fact, been overreached by a
noted commercial house, who dealt heavily in Indian goods in New York,
who sold him the goods on credit; but who actually collected the
_specie_ from the western land offices, on public drafts, before the
year expired. He vented this pique officially, by suspending my report
of Oct. 18th, 1837, on the debt claims against the Indians, finally
_assumed_ powers in relation to them, directly subversive of the
principles of the treaty of March 28th, 1836, which had been negotiated
by me, and referred them for revision to a more supple agent of his
wishes at New York, who had been one of the efficient actors in the
"goods offer" at Green Bay, Wisconsin, as above detailed.
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