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

given to Major Armstrong, then west of Arkansas, to pay "individual claims awarded by the Cherokee Commissioners for Improvements, Spoliations?, Reservations & Debts", - and which he will "continue to pay." - Now the Commission in question commenced in September, 1836, and closed on the 5th of March, 1839; - if any of the claims in question, therefore, were awarded early, the money appropriated for them must have been kept back nearly four years; but even if awarded at the latest hour, the rightful owners of it must have been already without it at the date of the letter, some fifteen months, and how much longer it is impossible to say, - or even whether all the awards have yet been paid. Ought not this to be looked into, as a possible source of future complaint and appeal for damages? - There is another point connected with this last subject, which may give inconvenience hereafter. Although by the law the Indians were entitled to their payment in specie, or in treasury notes, it has been asserted that these procrastinated payments were made in United States' Bank Bills, of the condition of which persons so distant, and especially so uninformed on such matters as Indians must have been, could not have been aware, and that consequently the