immediately following the Revolution, produced a profound sensation in
Congress. That body passed an act providing for the negotiation of a
treaty or treaties, and making an appropriation for the purchase and
extinguishment of the Indian claim to certain lands. These preparations
and appropriations resulted in two treaties made at Fort Harmar, January
9, 1789, one with the Six Nations, and the other with the Wiandot,
Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Pottawatima, and Sac Nations, wherein the
Indian title of occupancy is clearly acknowledged. That the government
so understood and recognized this principle as entering into the text of
those treaties is evidenced by a communication bearing date June 15,
1789, from General Knox, then Secretary of War, to President Washington,
and which was communicated by the latter on the same day to Congress, in
which it is declared that--

The Indians, being the prior occupants, possess the right of soil.
It cannot be taken from them, unless by their free consent, or by
right of conquest in case of a just war. To dispossess them on any
other principle would be a gross violation of the fundamental laws
of nature, and of that distributive justice which is the glory of a
nation.

The principle thus outlined and approved by the administration of
President Washington, although more than once questioned by interested
parties, has almost, if not quite, invariably been sustained by the
legal tribunals of the country, at least by the courts of final resort;
and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States bear
consistent testimony to its legal soundness. Several times has this
question in different forms appeared before the latter tribunal for
adjudication, and in each case has the Indian right been recognized and
protected. In 1823, 1831, and 1832, Chief Justice Marshall successively