This assumption is
understood to be founded upon the circumstances that the fact that
only sixteen of the chiefs had given their assent in that form had
been distinctly communicated to the Senate before the passage of the
resolution of the 2d of March, and that instead of being a majority that
number constituted scarcely one-fifth of the whole number of chiefs, and
it is hence insisted that unless the Senate had so intended there would
have been no use in sending the amended treaty to the President with the
advice contained in that resolution. This has not appeared to me to be
a necessary deduction from the foregoing facts, as the Senate may have
contemplated that the assent of the tribe in the form first required
should be thereafter obtained, and before the treaty was executed, and
the phraseology of the resolution, viz, "that whenever the President
shall be satisfied," etc., goes far to sustain this construction. The
interpretation of the acts of the Senate set up by the advocates for the
treaty is, moreover, in direct opposition to the disclaimer contained in
the report of the committee which has been adverted to.
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