2

Office of Indian Affairs
San Francisco, Cal.a
July 19th 1864

Sir,
Yours of June 23rd, notifiying me of my appointment, as the associate of Supt Huntington to make a treaty with the Modoc and Klamath Lake Indians is at hand.

While I fully appreciate the importance of this mission. I regret to be compelled to inform the Department that it will be utterly impossible for me to discharge that duty at this time.

You must know that the Indian Department of this State is in a wretched condition; I have the law before me which proposes a consolidation of the Districts and radical changes in the administration of affairs, and I am instructed, rather indefinitely on many points to inaugurate the new system. To this, I am lending my best, and, although my labors are attended with serious annoyances in consequence of not having a single dollar. I am doing my best to carry out the