MF1323.1197_Reel_37_0163

California G520 Hon Wm M Gwin San Francisco, May 20/59

Enclosed letters of Supt Henly, M B Lewis & Eugene Kelly & Co. and calls attention to Indian affairs in Cal.

Respectfully referred to the Comm of Indian Affairs for his information.

Interior June 14/59

Moses Kelly Ch CLK

Rec'd 14 June '59

File

Rec'd 14 June '59 Wm. Bailey

San Francisco May 20th '59

Hon Jacob Thompson Secretary of the Interior

Sir I respectfully call your attention to the enclosed letters. Since my arrival at home I have been often approached with complaints of the delay in making payment for purchases made for the Indian Department. These complaints are so universal that I brought the subject to the notice of Col Henley by sending the Enclosed letters which with his reply accompany this letter.

I cannot too strongly impress upon you the necessity of promptly transmitting the funds to the amount indicated in the Superintendents letter. From Siskyou to San Diego purchases have been made under the certain expectation of early payment and many of the parties are seriously injured by the delay. Each of the Agents & Sub Agents have given bonds, and can make

the disbursement as well as the Superintendent. In fact the whole amount would be disbursed within ten days. The sum of $200,000 having been appropriated for the service of the Indian Department in this state for this fiscal year and none of it having been disbursed it will cause a great clamor, if these accounts are not speedily paid

Indian affairs are in a deplorable condition in this state. The Indians are stealing & burning houses, and the white men killing them in revenge. The Governor is ordering out volunteers and the Indian War debt for this year will largely exceed the amount appropriated by Congress. The extermination of the Indians is inevitable unless the reserves are kept up as a protection and the Indians made to labor on them or some other system devised to support them without depredating upon the property of our citizens

With great respect Your obt sert Wm M Gwin

Office Supt Indian Affairs San Francisco Cala. May 19 1859

Hon Wm M. Gwin

Sir: In answer to your inquiries of this morning referring to the letters of Sub Agent Lewis and Eugene Kelly & Co., I have to say that the appropriation for Indian Service in Cala. for the fiscal year ending 30th June next, is $202, 000— no part of which has yet been permitted for expenditure.

The service has been conducted upon credit based upon the good character for promptfulness which the Department has hitherto bourn in Cala., and the individual credit of the agents.

In addition to this I have made some purchases myself, for which I have been compelled to give my individual note. (see letter of Eugene Kelly & Co.) It was expected that Mr McDuffie the newly appointed Superintendent would on his arrival here (have

have been provided with funds for the settlement of these claims but no arrangement of that kind having been made, and that fact being now generally known to the creditors of the Agents suits are threatened against them and I have no doubt will be instituted in numerous cases. A larger amount of the claims are now hypothecated at 5 per cent per month, which if there is much longer delay will absorb the largest portion of them, and many honest Citizens will be utterly ruined. The creditors of the Department are mostly laborers and men of small means, and the disastrous effect this delay is having upon them cannot be adequately described.

It is probable that the course intended to be pursued is to await the filing of the official bond of Mr. McDuffie and then require of him an estimate of the amount of funds required. But it is uncertain when Mr. McDuffie will be ready to file his bond, and after that it would be necessary for him to wait for reports from the Agents before his estimates