Conquest by Law

On the forty-second page of “Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands” author Lindsay G. Robertson wrote (hyperlinks & emphasis added):

There was no time. The Philadelphia shareholders were anxious not to miss the present opportunity, and Harper and Etting accommodated them by simply instructing their Baltmire publisher to reprint the 1810 memorial, appending a 1775 opinion by a London lawyer recognizing the validity of individual purchases of Indian lands together with the endorsements of the opinion by London lawyer John Glynn, Philadelphia patriot Benjamin Franklin, and Virginia revolutionary firebrand Patrick Henry.⁴⁸ The 1816 memorial closed with an extract from the Companies' 1797 memorial, "presented," it was noted, "by [Supreme Court] Judge [James] Wilson," affirming the validity of an unlicensed seventeenth-century transfer of Mohegan Indian lands in Connecticut to Major John Mason. One other change was made, presumably to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest: Harper's name, which had appeared prominently at the close of the 1810 memorial, was deleted from the 1816 version.

The First Session of the Fourteenth Congress convened on December 4, 1815. On January 25, 1816, Jeremiah Morrow of Ohio presented the memorial to the Senate; the memorial was read and referred to committee.⁴⁹ Two days later, as noted, Maryland elected Harper a senator. When he arrived at the Capitol on February 5, Harper immediately went to work on his new colleagues. As the month progressed, his efforts appeared to be bearing fruit; on February 28, Brinton, Simon Gratz, and Callender Irvine wrote from Philadelphia that they had been "most gratified by the latest accounts from Washington" stating "that there is a greater disposition prevailing to do justice to the claims of the Illinois and Wabash Companies than heretofore and that there is every reason to believe we shall have a favorable Report in the Senate."⁵⁰

Only eight weeks remained in the session, however. The Companies began fearing that "the business w[ould] not be taken up" before Congress recessed for the summer, "owing to the press of business of a public nature." Congress, they knew, was always "disinclined ... towards the conclusion [of a session] to enter on matters that they take little Interest in."⁵¹ In the end, despite the best efforts of Harper and his agents, this is precisely what happened. Congress adjourned on April 30 with no action having been taken by the Senate committee.⁵²

Ironically, however, the same Congress did finally break the logjam on

More information about “Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands” (and the book itself) is available from:

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(Oxford University Press, USA, 20050727. Hardback, 272 pages. ISBN: 019514869X; EAN: 9780195148695.)