Southard voluntarily and ably advocated the claim of the Delawares ; and at the conclusion of his speech remarked "That it was a proud fact in the history of New Jersey, that every foot of her soil had been obtained from the Indians by fair and voluntary purchase and trans :
no other state in the union, not even the land which bears the
fer,
a fact that
name of Penn, can boast of."
The com
mittee reported in favor of an appropria tion of $2,000, which the legislature at
once confirmed.
This was the crowning
act of a series in which justice and kind
ness to the Indians had been kept steadily
and was thus acknowledged by the veteran chief in a letter to the legis lature dated "Trenton, March 12, 1832: " Bartholomew S. Calvin (his English in view ;
name), takes this method to return his thanks to both houses of the state legis lature, and especially to their committees, for their very respectful attention to, and candid examination of, the Indian claims
which he was delegated to present. " The final act of official intercourse between the state of New Jersey and the Delaware Indians, who once owned nearly the whole of its territory, has now been consummated, and in a manner which must redound to the honor of this grow ing state, and, in
all
probability, to the
the
commonwealth
councils of this
in
dealing with the aboriginal inhabitants. " Not a drop of our blood have you in