David Davis

“ It had been, for a long time prior to the Wyandotte treaty of 1842, the well-defined policy of Congress to remove the Indians from organized States, and in execution of this policy, territory supposed at the time to be too remote for white settlement, was set apart exclusively for the use of Indian tribes. It was this policy that dictated the removal of the Shawnees from Missouri and Ohio, in 1825 and 1831, to a tract of country in Kansas of large area, ceded to them by the United States, and embracing the lands in controversy. ”

“ This experience had given them no ground to apprehend interference from the Indians on account of the direct control exercised by the government over the affairs of all the Indian tribes.
If, however, the government had been able, without difficulty, to protect them against their own race, it had not, with every effort, been always able to hold in restraint the ceaseless activity of the white race. It was therefore natural that on this occasion the Shawnees should want, although wholly unnecessary, a positive stipulation against the unlawful intrusion upon their rights by our own citizens. ”

“ If the land in controversy was subject to the location of the Wyandotte float before it was proclaimed open to pre-emption and settlement, the title of the plaintiffs cannot be divested by any supposed equity growing out of the pre-emption of the defendants. ”