"In the year 1804 the President of the United States gave his promise to a number of Osage chiefs, then on a visit at Washington, to establish for them a trading-house on the plan authorized by a law of { 110} congress. In 1806 the President repeated the same promise to another deputation of Osage chiefs then here. In 1808 the President ordered the establishment to be made, and accordingly in October of that year it was made. So far this was a gratuitous act of the government; but in the following month it assumed a very different character. On the 8th November 1808 Peter Choateau (the U. S. agent for the Osages), arrived at Fort Clark.[127] On the 10th he assembled the chiefs and warriors of the Great and Little Osages in council, and proceeded to state to them the substance of a treaty, which he said Governor Lewis had deputed him to offer the Osages, and to execute with them. Having briefly explained to them the purport of the treaty, he addressed them to this effect (in my hearing) and very nearly in the following words: 'You have heard this treaty explained to you; those who now come forward and sign it shall be considered the friends of the United States, and treated accordingly; those who refuse to come forward and sign it shall be considered enemies of the United States, and treated accordingly.' The Osages replied in substance, 'that if their Great American Father wanted a part of their land, he must have it; that he was strong and powerful, they were poor and pitiful. What could they do? He had demanded their land, and had thought proper to offer them something in return for it. They had no choice; they must either sign the treaty, or be declared the enemies of the United States.'
"The treaty was accordingly signed on the same day; and so much were the Osages awed by the threat of Mr. Choateau, that a very unusual number of them touched the pen; many of whom knew no more the purport of the act than if they had been an hundred miles off; and I here assert it to be a fact, that to this day the treaty is not fairly understood by a single Osage.
"Thus, the trading-house which had been established gratuitously, in conformity with the earnest { 111} solicitations of the Osage chief, and repeated promises of the President, was made a part of the price of the lands acquired under that treaty of the United States. In April 1810 this treaty was ratified and confirmed by the Senate, and was duly proclaimed by the President of the United States to be a law of the land. The Osages complained of the delay which took place between its signature (from which time it was binding on them) and the payment of the first and second annuities, which were not made till September 1811. The trading-house was kept up and well supplied until early in June 1813, at which time the establishment was by order broken up, and has been discontinued ever since, contrary to the expectations and entirely against the consent of the Osages, who considered the trading-house as the only benefit they had acquired by the treaty.