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Gerrit Smith Broadside and Pamphlet Collection

To the persons who derive title from myself or my late father to land in Charlotte River and Byrne's Tracts, in the Counties of Delaware, Otsego, and Schoharie.

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.

Digital Edition.

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Call number: Smith 429

To the persons who derive title from myself or my late father to land in Charlotte River and Byrne's Tracts, in the Counties of Delaware, Otsego, and Schoharie:

FELLOW-CITIZENS:

You have recently been informed, that your above title is bad. But, if Indians are your only informants, you surely need not be uneasy. Indians are unfit to investigate land titles, and to expound the laws of civilized communities. I am, however, aware that it is strongly suspected that these, who call themselves, and dress themselves, and arm themselves, like Indians, are disguised white persons. But, whilst the fact that they are white persons, would not prove that they are competent to instruct you in matters which require extensive law-learning; the fact of their disguise is, of itself, sufficient reason why you should not confide in them. They who assume a false character, do, by such assumption, disentitle themselves to our confidence. Honest men, seeking honest ends by honest means, are open and frank, not dissembling and masked. From your Indian advisers therefore, be their Indianism genuine or pretended, it is manifestly your duty to turn away.

Perhaps, however, you are concerned about the title to your lands, and do, therefore, wish me to give you my opinion of it. Now, to tell you the truth - though to tell it may but increase your uneasiness - I have never made any, not even the slightest examination of the title which my father acquired to the lands in question. The great reason I have for supposing it to be good, and I have not the least doubt that it is perfectly good, is that, notwithstanding some fifty years have passed away since my father purchased and paid for these lands, I never heard from him nor from any other person, that his title was at all question able. Even the Indians, who are so busy in enlightening you, have never so much as hinted to me that this title is bad, or in any wise suspicious. And I would here say, that it would have been but civil in them to have communicated with me on the subject of the title, before they took up arms against it. Perhaps, however, they will plead that Indians are not to be governed by the laws and customs of civility.

I cheerfully admit that, whenever I shall have reason to doubt the title which my father obtained, it will be my duty to investigate it. I do not mean that it will be my duty to investigate it myself - for I am not a lawyer. It will not be my duty to get Indians to investigate it - for Indians are not lawyers. But it will be my duty to assign the task to men who are learned in the law. And I add, that if they shall find the title to be bad, I will, without the delay and cost of litigation, abandon it, and do all in my power to repair the losses which you shall suffer from such failure of title. Do you ask when, in my judgment, "I shall have reason to doubt the title?" I answer, that I shall have reason to doubt it whenever either yourselves, or your Indian advisers, or any other persons, shall lay before me the written opinion of a lawyer of known ability and integrity, that the title is not good. To expect that I shall put myself to the pains and expense of inquiring into my land titles, whenever A, B, or C, Tom, Dick, or Harry, shall clamor against them; or whenever these titles shall encounter the violence of a mob, is most unreasonable. For it is certainly not every individual who is competent to pass upon the merits of a land-title; and as to mobs, they prove nothing else than the lawlessness and wickedness of those who compose them. This is the best that can be said of any mob - be it a mob against abolitionists or against land - owners.

I trust that you will all admit that the condition on which I propose to go to the pains and expense of examining the title in question, is perfectly reasonable. I will add to what I have said, that I shall not be displeased to hear that you are getting it examined. I go farther, and invite such examinations; and I assure you, that the more searching and speedy they are, the more I shall like them. If there are defects, remediable or irremediable, in any of my father's or my own land titles, I wish them discovered - and is covered now, rather than hereafter - during my life, rather than after it. I beg that the debts, which some of you owe me, may not be suffered to restrain the proposed examinations. Nay, I beg that none of you will, because they are indebted to me, feel the least hesitancy in speaking against either my title or myself and in speaking against them, too, as unjustly as it may be in their hearts to do. For I hope that no measure of injustice, which I should receive at the hands of those who owe me money, would hinder me from being just and kind towards them.

And now, that I have referred to the debts which some of you owe me, I would say, that whoever of you is my debtor, and has a doubt of the sufficiency of the title in question, may have six months in which to investigate the title, and to confirm, or get rid of, his doubt. During this time, he need pay me nothing; and of course he will pay me nothing after its expiration, if he shall have come to believe that the title is bad.

I learn that the Indians, who, offering themselves as your legal advisers, should at least be law-abiding men, are in fact so lawless as to enter upon my wood-lands, and destroy and carry away my timber. This is a crime which I have no right to overlook; and which, I may add, you have no right to overlook. It is your duty, and I trust you will admit it, to assist me in detecting, and in visiting with the utmost penalties of the law, those who are guilty of this crime. I care not to know who they are that impeach my land titles, or conspire against me. For such impeachment and such conspiracy I shall never trouble them. But I do strongly desire to know who they are that, coveting the timber on my lands, deny my title to them, and then claim the timber as their reward for the bravery of this denial. It is certainly a short way to riches which they have discovered, who claim as their own whatever property they may choose to deny the right of others to. But, so far from its being an honest way, never was there a scheme of robbery more profligate and indecent. Your Indian advisers profess to be actuated by a regard for yourselves. But the liberty which they take with my timber - timber which, if not mine, is certainly not theirs - enables you to judge of the sincerity and disinterestedness of that regard.

With warm and unabated desire for your prosperity, I remain your friend,

GERRIT SMITH.

PETERBOR0, May 24, 1844.