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obligations to individuals - first branch - commission under the 17th article

original papers, in the most important parts of them, have disappeared, as some assert. At any rate, it would be of consequence to ascertain whether this last circumstance has occurred at all, and, if so, how & to what extent. If it has, it discloses an obliquity which renders investigation doubly imperative, however disagreeable.

I will close that portion of my subject which relates to the commission under the Seventeenth article of the treaty, by suggesting various measures which an investigation seems to require and the various points of inquiry on which it out to elicit information.

Before any effective move can be made, the consequences of the carelessness of the commissioners will require to be repaired, by classifying and examining the books & papers as far as possible, and by drawing up a report, embodying the following particulars:

1st: The general nature of the instructions to the Cherokee Commissioners under the Seventeenth Article of the Treaty of 1835. 2d: The rule of evidence required from every description of claimants before them under that Treaty. 3d:The cases, if any, where that rule was

relaxed