- Collection:
- Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842
- Title:
- [Letter] 1860 Jan. 19, Qualla Town [i.e., Quallatown], N[orth] C[arolina to] W[illiam] H[olland] Thomas / James W[harey] Terrell
- Creator:
- Terrell, James Wharey, 1829-1908
- Publisher:
- Manuscript held by the Cherokee Museum, Cherokee, NC, William Holland Thomas, box 1.
- Date of Original:
- 1860-01-19
- Subject:
- Cherokee Indians--Government relations
Cherokee Indians--Claims - Location:
- United States, North Carolina, 35.50069, -80.00032
- Medium:
- business letters
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- text/html
image/jpeg - Description:
- This document is a letter written by James W. Terrell to William Holland Thomas on January 19, 1860. Terrell mentions that he has received drafts for disbursing funds to the Cherokees, but due to miscommunication, he does not have the adequate funds nor appropriate rolls of names to carry out his duty. He requests that Thomas remedy the situation by getting the remaining rolls to him. Terrell also tells Thomas that he has enclosed two letters (no longer attached) directed to the Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, and asks Thomas to deliver the one that he deems most appropriate.
Digital image and encoded transcription of an original manuscript, scanned, transcribed and encoded by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries in 2001, as part of GALILEO, funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. - Local Identifier:
- cm144
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_cm144
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_cm144#item
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_cm144/presentation/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [title of item], William Holland Thomas, Cherokee Museum, Cherokee, NC, presented in the Digital Library of Georgia
- Extent:
- 4 pages/leaves
- Holding Institution:
- Museum of the Cherokee Indian
- Rights:
-
Page: [1]
Qualla Town N.C. [North Carolina]
Jan. [January] 19th 1860
Dear sir
Your letters of the
9th and
10th inst. [instant] came to hand by the last mail and at the same time I received the roll of the dead Indians and drafts to the amount of [text omitted] thousand dollars the whole amount due is [added text (appears to be different ink): nineteen ] thousand six hundred and ninety three dollars and fifty four cents. The drafts are accompanied by a letter of instructions in which the secretary alludes to the roll of the living Indians as being now in my possession and presumes that I will in a short time be ready to make my return of payments to living Indians when the remainder due the dead ones [deleted text: may ] [added text: will ] be sent to me But says that in view of my present indebtedness on the books of the treasury this cannot be done till that payment is made [added text: as the penalty of my bond is only twenty five thousand $ ] I have only to say that the roll of the living Indians has never been [deleted text: sent ] [added text: received by ] me. I have a roll on which I could pay them if I had a list of such Indians as do not
Page: [2]
appear to have been paid on the roll last sent up by me, but the roll I have does not designate such. I would want a list of their names and the amount due each then I could place the amount opposite their names on the roll I have, and proceed to paying as I could easily make out the amounts due such as I paid
You will remember I received the remittance due the living Indians last
March and I am ashamed at this late day to ask for a roll [deleted text: and ] But for your advice I should have written to the secretary for the roll [added text: last spring ] I must [added text: therefore ] put the task of getting me out of this difficulty on you. If a roll was ever sent me it was doubtless accompanied by a letter from the secretary and I ought to have a copy of it, If it was thought that I had a roll of my own making, all that I would require would be the list of such as I did not pay on my last roll with the amounts due each as [deleted text: I could ] above mentioned
In closed [Inclosed] you will find two letters to Mr. Cobb both unsealed you will please read both and then hand over to him the one you think most appropriate both tell precisely the truth but I
Page: [3]
do not wish to send him one in this case [deleted text: that ] [added text: till ] you have [deleted text: not ] [added text: first ] seen [added text: it ] . I hope all will be right as I am conscious of having done what I thought was right and that only.
With all defference [deference] to your better judgement I think the plan of getting specie propsed [proposed] by you is attended with considerable hazzard [hazard] as the mails at this time of year are uncertain at best and there being no direct line from here to Charleston there is no telling whose hands a draft might fall in and a scoundrel could, should he get hold of it, easily forge the signature of the firm to which it is assigned, I will [deleted text: hand over ] send as you direct, [added text: send ] twenty five hundred to Gourdin Mathison & Co. and keep back the other twenty five hundred till I get another letter from you or hear at least of the safe arrival of the first draft, I presume this can all be done in time to answer all our purposes, or would it not be better for me to meet you in Charleston with the remaining drafts, which I could easily do.
[ Note: This paragraph is struck through with an X. ]
Without letting any one [anyone] know the amount I have received or the purposes for which
Page: [4]
it is intended I shall get Mr Watts and Scroop Enloe to see me mail the draft for twenty five hundred in the morning for fear of an accident for I know that the mail is sometimes examined for such things.
This leaves us all well, Since my last your mother has been sick but has recovered.
Dick got off to Athens two days ago. I sent seventy-five dollars to Grady Nicholson & co. [company] to pay freight &c [et cetera] and gave Dick twenty seven dollars to pay expences [expenses] and pay to G. [Grady] N. [Nicholson] & co [company] what of that he could spare, he hauled corn to do him there & back
I send this to Washington and a copy of it and also of the inclosed letters to Raleigh so as to be sure to hit you with one or the other,
Yours truly
[Signed] Jas. [James] W. Terrell
WH [William Holland] Thomas Esq. [Esquire]