.MTA2NA.NzIyNTQ

that such an investigation would lead to astounding disclosures. It would therefore be of the first importance that some person or persons should be selected for the duty, of high standing and character. If a person in my situation were to undertake it & fail from any cause- want of ability or because there was nothing incorrect to discover -- it would result in censure to Mr. Bell and condemnation of the individual. Such a failure in my case would lead to the belief on the part of many, that having served under a former administration, I felt an attachment to it and a regard for its character, which had led to an inclination to smother rather than bring to light, anything which would cast censure upon it; and Mr. Bell would be much blamed for assigning to the duty a person from whom nothing better could have been expected; a person at best but an obscure and subordinate clerk, whose ability, if he had any, and his character, were too little known to justify any confidence as to the result. Ap: 20th 1841 Jno T. Cochrane. Statement respecting the transactions of the Commissioners under the 17th article of the Cherokee Treaty, the state of their books & papers , and the difficulty, in their present condition, of obtaining specific information from them to any extent. In the present condition of the books and papers of the Commissioners appointed, under the 17th article of the Cherokee Treaty of 1835, to examine and adjudicate the various