far are we from meditating the particular establishment
so boldly charged in this letter, that we know not what place is meant
by the _Ecores Amargas_. This charge then is false also.

4. Giving medals and marks of distinction to the Indian Chiefs. This is
but blindly hinted at in this letter, but was more pointedly complained
of in the former. This has been an ancient custom from time immemorial.
The medals are considered as complimentary things, as marks of
friendship to those who come to see us, or who do us good offices,
conciliatory of their good-will towards us, and not designed to produce
a contrary disposition towards others. They confer no power, and seem
to have taken their origin in the European practice of giving medals
or other marks of friendship to the negotiators of treaties and
other diplomatic characters, or visitors of distinction. The British
government, while it prevailed here, practised the giving medals,
gorgets, and bracelets to the savages, invariably. We have continued it,
and we did imagine, without pretending to know, that Spain also did it.

5. We meddle with the affairs of Indians in alliance with Spain. We are
perfectly at a loss to know what this means. The Indians on our frontier
have treaties both with Spain and us. We have endeavored to cultivate
their friendship, to merit it by presents, charities, and exhortations
to peace with their neighbors, and particularly with the subjects of
Spain. We have carried on some little commerce with them, merely to
supply their wants. Spain too has made them presents, traded with
them, kept agents among them, though their country is within the limits
established as ours at the general peace. However, Spain has chosen
to have it understood that she has some claim to some parts of that
country, and that it must be one of the subjects of our present
negotiations. Out of respect for her, then, we have considered her
pretensions to the country, though it was impossible to believe them
serious, as coloring pretensions to a concern with those Indians on the
same ground with our own, and we were willing to let them go on till a
treaty should set things to rights between us.

6. Another article of complaint is, that we have not used efficacious
means to suppress these practices. But if the charge is false, or the
practice justifiable, no suppression is necessary.

And lastly, these gentlemen say, that, on a view of these proceedings of
the United States wi