Annual Report of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1831-32
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433088715044&seq=17
Governor Reynolds to General Clark
Belleville, 26th May, 1831
“The object of the Government of the State is to protect those citizens by removing said Indians peaceably if they can, but forcibly if they must. Those Indians are now, and so I have considered them, in a state of actual invasion of the State.
As you act as the general agent of the United States in relation to these Indians, I considered it my duty to inform you of the above call on the militia, and that, in or about fifteen days, a sufficient force will appear before said Indians to remove them, dead or alive, over to the west side of the Mississippi…There is no disposition on the part of the people of this State to injure these unfortunate and deluded savages, if they will let us alone; but a government that does not protect its citizens deserves not the name of a government…. Your obd’t servant, JOHN REYNOLDS” (page 181)

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