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RECORD OF LETTERS

               vol . 1

                                             pg. 3 [handwritten]

                            Secretary of State's office
                            Portland, September 27, 1820

Alden Bradford, Esquire, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston. Sir,

                                                                                       I have

the honor to inform you that your communication to the Gover-­ nor relative to the arrangements to be made with the Penobscot Indians in pursuance of the terms of the Act of Separation, has been duly received. From the order of the Council enclosed the Governor infers it to be the opinion of the Executive of Massachusetts that this State has not only assumed the obli-­ gations of Massachusetts to the Indians, and prepared eventually to discharge her from them, but is to proceed forthwith to satis­- fy all the claims of the Indians accruing since the last payment of the annuity. You will see by the copy of the treaty concluded with the chiefs by Colonel Lewis, which is enclosed, that a dif­- ferent construction of the fifth article of the terms of the separation is adopted by the Executive of this State. By this document it will be seen that this State takes on itself the obli­- gations of Massachusetts, and binds itself to the payment of a stipulated annuity, as a substitute for the Indian claim on that Commonwealth, when Massachusetts has fulfilled the stipulation required on her part, by the terms of the separation. In conseq­- uence of our assuming these obligations our Commissioner had