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Copy 1 Secretary of State 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 Governor 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 obligations of Massachusetts to the Indians, and prepared eventually to discharge her from them, but is to proceed forthwith to satisfy all the claims of the Indians accruing, since the last payment of the annuity. You will see by the copy of the treaty concluding with the Chiefs by Colonel Lewis, which is enclosed, that a different construction of the fifth article of the terms of the act of separation is adopted by the Executive of this State. By this document it will be seen that this State takes on itself the obligations 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 stipulations required on her part, by the terms of