PART IV.

INDIAN ADDRESSES.

I.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, June 1781.

_To Brother John Baptist de Coigne_:--

BROTHER JOHN BAPTIST DE COIGNE,--I am very much pleased with the visit you have made us, and particularly that it has happened when the wise men from all parts of our country were assembled together in council, and had an opportunity of hearing the friendly discourse you held to me. We are all sensible of your friendship, and of the services you have rendered, and I now, for my countrymen, return you thanks, and, most particularly, for your assistance to the garrison which was besieged by the hostile Indians. I hope it will please the great being above to continue you long in life, in health and in friendship to us; and that your son will afterwards succeed you in wisdom, in good disposition, and in power over your people. I consider the name you have given as particularly honorable to me, but I value it the more as it proves your attachment to my country. We, like you, are Americans, born in the same land, and having the same interests. I have carefully attended to the figures represented on the skins, and to their explanation, and shall always keep them hanging on the walls in remembrance of you and your nation. I have joined with you sincerely in smoking the pipe of peace; it is a good old custom handed down by your ancestors, and as such I respect and join in it with reverence. I hope we shall long continue to smoke in friendship together. You find us, brother, engaged in war with a powerful nation. Our forefathers were Englishmen, inhabitants of a little island beyond the great water, and, being distressed for land, they came and settled here. As long as we were young and weak, the English whom we had left behind, made us carry all our wealth to their country, to enrich them; and, not satisfied with this, they at length began to say we were their slaves, and should do whatever they ordered us. We were now grown up and felt ourselves strong, we knew we were free as they were, that we came here of our own accord and not at their biddance, and were determined to be free as long as we should exist. For this reason they made war on us. They have now waged that war six years, and have not yet won more land from us than will serve to bury the warriors they have lost. Your old father, the king of France, has joined us in the war, and done many good things for us. We are bound forever to love him, and wish you to love him, brother, because he is a good and true friend to us. The Spaniards have also joined us, and other powerful nations are now entering into the war to punish the robberies and violences the English have committed on them. The English stand alone, without a friend to support them, hated by all mankind because they are proud and unjust. This quarrel, when it first began, was a family quarrel between us and the English, who were then our brothers. We, therefore, did not wish you to engage in it at all. We are strong enough of ourselves without wasting your blood in fighting our battles. The English, knowing this, have been always suing to the Indians to help them fight. We do not wish you to take up the hatchet. We love and esteem you. We wish you to multiply and be strong. The English, on the other hand, wish to set you and us to cutting one another's throats, that when we are dead they may take all our land. It is better for you not to join in this quarrel, unless the English have killed any of your warriors or done you any other injury. If they have, you have a right to go to war with them, and revenge the injury, and we have none to restrain you. Any free nation has a right to punish those who have done them an injury. I say the same, brother, as to the Indians who treat you ill. While I advise you, like an affectionate friend, to avoid unnecessary war, I do not assume the right of restraining you from punishing your enemies. If the English have injured you, as they have injured the French and Spaniards, do like them and join us in the war. General Clarke will receive you and show you the way to their towns. But if they have not injured you, it is better for you to lie still and be quiet. This is the advice which has been always given by the great council of the Americans. We must give the same, because we are but one of thirteen nations, who have agreed to act and speak together. These nations keep a council of wise men always sitting together, and each of us separately follow their advice. They have the care of all the people and the lands between the Ohio and Mississippi, and will see that no wrong be committed on them. The French settled at Kaskaskias, St. Vincennes, and the Cohos, are subject to that council, and they will punish them if they do you any injury. If you will make known to me any just cause of complaint against them, I will represent it to the great council at Philadelphia, and have justice done you.

Our good friend, your father, the King of France, does not lay any claim to them. Their misconduct should not be imputed to him. He gave them up to the English the last war, and we have taken them from the English. The Americans alone have a right to maintain justice in all the lands on this side the Mississippi,--on the other side the Spaniards rule. You complain, brother, of the want of goods for the use of your people. We know that your wants are great, notwithstanding we have done everything in our power to supply them, and have often grieved for you. The path from hence to Kaskaskias is long and dangerous; goods cannot be carried to you in that way. New Orleans has been the only place from which we could get goods for you. We have bought a great deal there; but I am afraid not so much of them have come to you as we intended. Some of them have been sold of necessity to buy provisions for our posts. Some have been embezzled by our own drunken and roguish people. Some have been taken by the Indians and many by the English.

The Spaniards, having now taken all the English posts on the Mississippi, have opened that channel free for our commerce, and we are in hopes of getting goods for you from them. I will not boast to you, brother, as the English do, nor promise more than we shall be able to fulfil. I will tell you honestly, what indeed your own good sense will tell you, that a nation at war cannot buy so many goods as when in peace. We do not make so many things to send over the great waters to buy goods, as we made and shall make again in time of peace. When we buy those goods, the English take many of them, as they are coming to us over the great water. What we get in safe, are to be divided among many, because we have a great many soldiers, whom we must clothe. The remainder we send to our brothers the Indians, and in going, a great deal of it is stolen or lost. These are the plain reasons why you cannot get so much from us in war as in peace. But peace is not far off. The English cannot hold out long, because all the world is against them. When that takes place, brother, there will not be an Englishman left on this side the great water. What will those foolish nations then do, who have made us their enemies, sided with the English, and laughed at you for not being as wicked as themselves? They are clothed for a day, and will be naked forever after; while you, who have submitted to short inconvenience, will be well supplied through the rest of your lives. Their friends will be gone and their enemies left behind; but your friends will be here, and will make you strong against all your enemies. For the present you shall have a share of what little goods we can get. We will order some immediately up the Mississippi for you and for us. If they be little, you will submit to suffer a little as your brothers do for a short time. And when we shall have beaten our enemies and forced them to make peace, we will share more plentifully. General Clarke will furnish you with ammunition to serve till we can get some from New Orleans. I must recommend to you particular attention to him. He is our great, good, and trusty warrior; and we have put everything under his care beyond the Alleghanies. He will advise you in all difficulties, and redress your wrongs. Do what he tells you, and you will be sure to do right. You ask us to send schoolmasters to educate your son and the sons of your people. We desire above all things, brother, to instruct you in whatever we know ourselves. We wish to learn you all our arts and to make you wise and wealthy. As soon as there is peace we shall be able to send you the best of schoolmasters; but while the war is raging, I am afraid it will not be practicable. It shall be done, however, before your son is of an age to receive instruction.

This, brother, is what I had to say to you. Repeat it from me to all your people, and to our friends, the Kickapous, Piorias, Piankeshaws and Wyattanons. I will give you a commission to show them how much we esteem you. Hold fast the chain of friendship which binds us together, keep it bright as the sun, and let them, you and us, live together in perpetual love.

II.

_Speeches of John Baptist de Coigne, Chief of the Wabash and Illinois Indians, and other Indian Chiefs._

Thomas Jefferson has the honor to send to the President the speech of De Coigne, written at length from his notes very exactly. He thinks he can assure the President that not a sentiment delivered by the French interpreter is omitted, nor a single one inserted which was not expressed. It differs often from what the English interpreter delivered, because he varied much from the other, who alone was regarded by Thomas Jefferson.

February 1, 1793. The President having addressed the chiefs of the Wabash and Illinois Indians, John Baptist De Coigne, chief of Kaskaskia, spoke as follows:--

FATHER,--I am about to open to you my heart. I salute first the Great Spirit, the Master of life, and then you.

I present you a black pipe on the death of chiefs who have come here and died in your bed. It is the calumet of the dead--take it and smoke it in remembrance of them. The dead pray you to listen to the living, and to be their friends. They are gone, we cannot recall them. Let us then be contented; for, as you have said, to-morrow, perhaps, it may be our turn. Take then their pipe, and as I have spoken for the dead, let me now address you for the living. [He delivered the black pipe.]

[Here Three-Legs, a Piankeshaw chief, came forward and carried round a white pipe, from which every one smoked.]

John Baptist De Coigne spoke again:

_Father_,--The sky is now cleared. I am about to open my heart to you again. I do it in the presence of the Great Spirit, and I pray you to attend.

You have heard the words of our father, General Putnam. We opened our hearts to him, we made peace with him, and he has told you what we said.

This pipe is white, I pray you to consider it as of the Wyattanons, Piankeshaws, and the people of Eel river. The English at Detroit are very jealous of our father. I have used my best endeavors to keep all the red men in friendship with you, but they have drawn over the one-half, while I have kept the other. Be friendly then to those I have kept.

I have long known you, General Washington, the Congress, Jefferson, Sinclair. I have labored constantly for you to preserve peace.

You see your children on this side, [pointing to the friends of the dead chief,] they are now orphans. Take care, then, of the orphans of our dead friends.

_Father_,--Your people of Kentucky are like mosquitos, and try to destroy the red men. The red men are like mosquitos also, and try to injure the people of Kentucky. But I look to you as to a good being. Order your people to be just. They are always trying to get our lands. They come on our lands, they hunt on them; kill our game, and kill us. Keep them then on one side of the line, and us on the other. Listen, father, to what we say, and protect the nations of the Wabash and Mississippi in their lands.

The English have often spoken to me, but I shut my ears to them. I despise their money, it is nothing to me. I am attached to my lands. I love to eat in tranquillity, and not like a bird on a bough.

The Piankeshaws, Wyattanons, Wiaws, and all the Indians of the Mississippi and Wabash, pray you to open your heart and ears to them, and as you befriend them, to give them Captain Prior for their father. We love him, men, women, and children of us. He has always been friendly to us, always taken care of us, and you cannot give us a better proof of your friendship than in leaving him with us.

[Here Three-Legs handed round the white pipe to be smoked.] De Coigne, then, taking a third pipe, proceeded:

This pipe, my father, is sent you by the great chief of all the Wiaws, called Crooked-Legs. He is old, infirm, and cannot walk, therefore is not come. But he prays you to be his friend, and to take care of his people. He tells you there are many red people jealous of you, but you need not fear them. If he could have walked he would have come; but he is old and sick, and cannot walk. The English have a sugar mouth, but Crooked-Legs would never listen to them. They threatened us to send the red men to cut off him and his people, and they sent the red men who threatened to do it, unless he would join the English. But he would not join them.

The chiefs of the Wabash, father, pray you to listen. They send you this pipe from afar. Keep your children quiet at the Falls of Ohio. We know you are the head of all. We appeal to you. Keep the Americans on one side of the Ohio, from the falls downwards, and us on the other; that we may have something to live on according to your agreement in the treaty which you have. And do not take from the French the lands we have given them.

Old Crooked-Legs sends you this pipe, [here he presented it,] and he prays you to send him Captain Prior for his father, for he is old, and you ought to do this for him.

_Father_,--I pray you to listen. So far I have spoken for others, and now will speak for myself. I am of Kaskaskia, and have always been a good American from my youth upwards. Yet the Kentuckians take my lands, eat my stock, steal my horses, kill my game, and abuse our persons. I come far with all these people. My nation is not numerous. No people can fight against you father, but the Great God himself. All the red men together cannot do it; but have pity on us. I am now old. Do not let the Kentuckians take my lands nor injure me, but give me a line to them to let me alone.

_Father_,--The Wyattanons, Piankeshaws, Piorias, Powtewatamies, Mosquitoes, Kaskaskias, have now made a road to you. It is broad and white. Take care of it then, and keep it open.

_Father_,--You are powerful. You said you would wipe away our tears. We thank you for this. Be firm, and take care of your children.

The hatchet has been long buried. I have been always for peace. I have done what I could, given all the money I had to procure it.

The half of my heart, father, is black. I brought the Piorias to you. Half of them are dead. I fear they will say it was my fault; but, father, I look upon you, my heart is white again, and I smile.

The Shawanese, the Delawares, and the English, are always persuading us to take up the hatchet against you, but I have been always deaf to their words. [Here he gave a belt.]

Great Joseph who came with us is dead. Have compassion on his niece, his son-in-law, and his chiefs, [pointing to them.] It is a dead man who speaks to you, father; accept, therefore, these black beads. [Here he presented several strands of dark colored beads.] I have now seen General Washington, I salute and regard him next after the Great Spirit.

Como, a Powtewatamy chief, then said, that as the President had already been long detained, and the hour was advanced, he would resume what he had to say at another day.

Shawas, the Little Doe, a Kickapou chief, though very sick, had attended the conference, and now carried the pipe round to be smoked. He then addressed the President.

_Father_,--I am still very ill, and unable to speak. I am a Kickapou, and drink of the waters of the Wabash and Mississippi. I have been to the Wabash and treatied with General Putnam, and I came not to do ill, but to make peace. Send to us Captain Prior to be our father, and no other. He possesses all our love.

_Father_,--I am too ill to speak. You will not forget what the others have said.

_February 2._--The day being cloudy, the Indians did not choose to meet.

_February 4._--The morning was cloudy, they gave notice that if it should clear up they would attend at the President's at 2 o'clock. Accordingly, the clouds having broke away about noon, they attended a little after 2, except Shawas and another, who were sick, and one woman.

Como, a Powtewatamy chief, spoke.

_Father_,--I am opening my heart to speak to you, open yours to receive my words. I first address you from a dead chief, who when he was about to die, called us up to him and charged us never to part with our lands. So I have done for you, my children, and so do you for yours. For what have we come so far? Not to ruin our nation, nor yet that we might carry goods home to our women and children; but to procure them lasting good, to open a road between them and the whites, solicit our father to send Captain Prior to us. He has taken good care of us, and we all love him.

Now, Father, I address you for our young people, but there remains not much to say, for I spoke to you through General Putnam, and you have what I said on paper. I have buried the hatchet forever, so must your children. I speak the truth, and you must believe me. We all pray you to send Captain Prior to us, because he has been so very kind to us all. [Here he delivered strands of dark colored beads.]

_Father_,--Hear me and believe me. I speak the truth, and from my heart; receive my words then into yours. I am come from afar for the good of my women and children, for their present and future good. When I was at home in the midst of them, my heart sunk within me, I saw no hope for them. The heavens were gloomy and lowering, and I could not tell why. But General Putnam spoke to us, and called us together. I rejoiced to hear him, and determined immediately to come and see my father. Father, I am happy to see you. The heavens have cleared away, the day is bright, and I rejoice to hear your voice. These beads [holding up a bundle of white strands] are a road between us. Take you hold at one end, I will at the other, and hold it fast. I will visit this road every day, and sweep it clean. If any blood be on it, I will cover it up; if stumps, I will cut them out. Should your children and mine meet in this road they shall shake hands and be good friends. Some of the Indians who belong to the English will be trying to sow harm between us, but we must be on our guard and prevent it.

_Father_,--I love the land on which I was born, the trees which cover it, and the grass growing on it. It feeds us well. I am not come here to ask gifts. I am young, and by hunting on my own land, can kill what I want and feed my women and children in plenty. I come not to beg. But if any of your traders would wish to come among us, let them come. For who will hurt them? Nobody, I will be there before them.

_Father_,--I take you by the hand with all my heart. I will never forget you; do not you forget me.

[Here he delivered the bundle of white strands.]

The Little Beaver, a Wyattanon, on the behalf of Crooked-Legs, handed round the pipe, and then spoke.

_Father_,--Listen now to me as you have done to others. I am not a very great chief; I am a chief of war, and leader of the young people.

_Father_,--I wished much to hear you; you have spoken comfort to us, and I am happy to have heard it. The sun has shone out, and all is well. This makes us think it was the Great Spirit speaking truth through you. Do then what you have said, restrain your people if they do wrong, as we will ours if they do wrong.

_Father_,--We gave to our friend (Prior) who came with us, our name of Wyattanon, and he gave us his name of American. We are now Americans, give him then unto us as a father. He has loved us and taken care of us. He had pity on our women and children, and fed them. Do not forget to grant us this request. You told us to live in quiet, and to do right. We will do what you desire, and let Prior come to us.

Now that we have come so far to hear you, write a line to your people to keep the river open between us, that we may go down in safety, and that our women and children may work in peace. When I go back, I will bear to them good tidings, and our young men will no longer hunt in fear for the support of our women and children.

_Father_,--All of us who have heard you are made happy, all are in the same sentiment with me, all are satisfied. Be assured that, when we return, the Indians and Americans will be one people, will hunt, and play, and laugh together. For me, I never will depart one step from Prior. We are come from afar to make a stable peace, to look forward to our future good. Do not refuse what we solicit, we will never forget you.

Here I will cease. The father of life might otherwise think I babbled too much, and so might you. I finish then, in giving you this pipe. It is my own, and from myself alone. I am but a warrior. I give it to you to smoke in. Let its fumes ascend to the Great Spirit in heaven.

[He delivered the pipe to the President.]

The wife of the soldier, a Wyattanon, speaks:

_Father_,--I take you by the hand with all my heart because you have spoken comfort to us. I am but a woman, yet you must listen.

The village chiefs, and chiefs of war, have opened their bodies and laid naked their hearts to you. Let them too see your heart and listen to them.

We have come, men and women, from afar to beseech you to let no one take our lands. That is one of our children, [pointing to General Putnam.] It was he who persuaded us to come. We thought he spoke the truth, we came, and we hope that good will come of it.

_Father_,--We know you are strong, have pity on us. Be firm in your words. They have given us courage. The father of life has opened our hearts on both sides for good.

He who was to have spoken to you is dead, Great Joseph. If he had lived you would have heard a good man, and good words flowing from his mouth. He was my uncle, and it has fallen to me to speak for him. But I am ignorant. Excuse, then, these words, it is but a woman who speaks.

[She delivers white strands.]

Three-Legs, a Piankeshaw spoke.

I speak for a young chief whom I have lost here. He came to speak to you, father, but he had not that happiness. He died. I am not a village chief, but only a chief of war.

We are come to seek all our good, and to be firm in it. If our father is firm, we will be so. It was a dark and gloomy day in which I lost my young chief. The master of life saw that he was good, and called him to himself. We must submit to his will. [He gave a black strand.] I pray you all who are present to say, as one man, that our peace is firm, and to let it be firm. Listen to us if you love us. We live on the river on one side, and shall be happy to see Captain Prior on the other, and to have a lasting peace. Here is our father Putnam. He heard me speak at Au Porte. If I am false let him say so.

My land is but small. If any more be taken from us, I will come again to you and complain, for we shall not be able to live. Have pity on us father. You have many red children there, and they have little whereon to live. Leave them land enough to labor, to hunt, and to live on, and the lands which we have given to the French, let them be to them forever.

_Father_,--We are very poor, we have traders among us, but they will sell too dear. We have not the means of supplying our wants at such prices. Encourage your traders then to come, and to bring us guns, powder, and other necessaries, and send Captain Prior also to us.

[He gave a string of white beads.] De Coigne spoke:

Jefferson, I have seen you before, and we have spoken together. Sinclair, we have opened our hearts to one another. Putnam, we did the same at Au Porte.

_Father_,--You have heard these three speak of me, and you know my character. The times are gloomy in my town. We have no commander, no soldier, no priest. Have you no concern for us, father? If you have, put a magistrate with us to keep the peace. I cannot live so. I am of French blood. When there are no priests among us we think that all is not well. When I was small we had priests, now that I am old we have none; am I to forget, then, how to pray? Have pity on me and grant what I ask. I have spoken on your behalf to all the nations. I am a friend to all, and hurt none. For what are we on this earth? But as a small and tender plant of corn; even as nothing. God has made this earth for you as well as for us; we are then but as one family, and if any one strikes you, it is as if he had struck us. If any nation strikes you, father, we will let you know what nation it is.

_Father_,--We fear the Kentuckians. They are headstrong, and do us great wrong. They are not content to come on our lands, to hunt on them, to steal and destroy our stocks, as the Shawanese and Delawares do, but they go further, and abuse our persons. Forbid them to do so. Sinclair, you know that the Shawanese and Delawares came from the Spanish side of the river, destroyed our corn, and killed our cattle. We cannot live if things go so.

_Father_,--You are rich, you have all things at command, you want for nothing, you promised to wipe away our tears. I commend our women and children to your care.

[He gave strands of white beads.]

The President then assured them that he would take in consideration what they had said, and would give them an answer on another day; whereupon the conference ended for the present.

III.

January 7, 1802.

_Brothers and friends of the Miamis, Powtewatamies, and Weeauks:--_

I receive with great satisfaction the visit you have been so kind as to make us at this place, and I thank the Great Spirit who has conducted you to us in health and safety. It is well that friends should sometimes meet, open their minds mutually, and renew the chain of affection. Made by the same Great Spirit, and living in the same land with our brothers, the red men, we consider ourselves as of the same family; we wish to live with them as one people, and to cherish their interests as our own. The evils which of necessity encompass the life of man are sufficiently numerous. Why should we add to them by voluntarily distressing and destroying one another? Peace, brothers, is better than war. In a long and bloody war, we lose many friends, and gain nothing. Let us then live in peace and friendship together, doing to each other all the good we can. The wise and good on both sides desire this, and we must take care that the foolish and wicked among us shall not prevent it. On our part, we shall endeavor in all things to be just and generous towards you, and to aid you in meeting those difficulties which a change of circumstances is bringing on. We shall, with great pleasure, see your people become disposed to cultivate the earth, to raise herds of the useful animals, and to spin and weave, for their food and clothing. These resources are certain; they will never disappoint you: while those of hunting may fail, and expose your women and children to the miseries of hunger and cold. We will with pleasure furnish you with implements for the most necessary arts, and with persons who may instruct you how to make and use them.

I consider it as fortunate that you have made your visit at this time, when our wise men from the sixteen States are collected together in council, who being equally disposed to befriend you, can strengthen our hands in the good we all wish to render you.

The several matters you opened to us in your speech the other day, and those on which you have since conversed with the Secretary of War, have been duly considered by us. He will now deliver answers, and you are to consider what he says, as if said by myself, and that what we promise we shall faithfully perform.

IV.

February 10, 1802.

_Brothers of the Delaware and Shawanee nations_:--

I thank the Great Spirit that he has conducted you hither in health and safety, and that we have an opportunity of renewing our amity, and of holding friendly conference together. It is a circumstance of great satisfaction to us that we are in peace and good understanding with all our red brethren, and that we discover in them the same disposition to continue so which we feel ourselves. It is our earnest desire to merit, and possess their affections, by rendering them strict justice, prohibiting injury from others, aiding their endeavors to learn the culture of the earth, and to raise useful animals, and befriending them as good neighbors, and in every other way in our power. By mutual endeavors to do good to each other, the happiness of both will be better promoted than by efforts of mutual destruction. We are all created by the same Great Spirit; children of the same family. Why should we not live then as brothers ought to do?

I am peculiarly gratified by receiving the visit of some of your most ancient and greatest warriors, of whom I have heard much good. It is a long journey which they have taken at their age, and in this season, and I consider it as a proof that their affections for us are sincere and strong. I hope that the young men, who have come with them, to make acquaintance with us, judging our dispositions towards them by what they see themselves, and not what they may hear from others, will go hand in hand with us, through life, in the cultivation of mutual peace, friendship, and good offices.

The speech which the Blackhoof delivered us, in behalf of your nation, has been duly considered. The answer to all its particulars will now be delivered you by the Secretary of War. Whatever he shall say, you may consider as if said by myself, and that what he promises our nation will perform.

V.

WASHINGTON, November 3, 1802.

_To Brother Handsome Lake_:--

I have received the message in writing which you sent me through Captain Irvine, our confidential agent, placed near you for the purpose of communicating and transacting between us, whatever may be useful for both nations. I am happy to learn you have been so far favored by the Divine spirit as to be made sensible of those things which are for your good and that of your people, and of those which are hurtful to you; and particularly that you and they see the ruinous effects which the abuse of spirituous liquors have produced upon them. It has weakened their bodies, enervated their minds, exposed them to hunger, cold, nakedness, and poverty, kept them in perpetual broils, and reduced their population. I do not wonder then, brother, at your censures, not only on your own people, who have voluntarily gone into these fatal habits, but on all the nations of white people who have supplied their calls for this article. But these nations have done to you only what they do among themselves. They have sold what individuals wish to buy, leaving to every one to be the guardian of his own health and happiness. Spirituous liquors are not in themselves bad, they are often found to be an excellent medicine for the sick; it is the improper and intemperate use of them, by those in health, which makes them injurious. But as you find that your people cannot refrain from an ill use of them, I greatly applaud your resolution not to use them at all. We have too affectionate a concern for your happiness to place the paltry gain on the sale of these articles in competition with the injury they do you. And as it is the desire of your nation, that no spirits should be sent among them, I am authorized by the great council of the United States to prohibit them. I will sincerely coöperate with your wise men in any proper measures for this purpose, which shall be agreeable to them.

You remind me, brother, of what I said to you, when you visited me the last winter, that the lands you then held would remain yours, and shall never go from you but when you should be disposed to sell. This I now repeat, and will ever abide by. We, indeed, are always ready to buy land; but we will never ask but when you wish to sell; and our laws, in order to protect you against imposition, have forbidden individuals to purchase lands from you; and have rendered it necessary, when you desire to sell, even to a State, that an agent from the United States should attend the sale, see that your consent is freely given, a satisfactory price paid, and report to us what has been done, for our approbation. This was done in the late case of which you complain. The deputies of your nation came forward, in all the forms which we have been used to consider as evidence of the will of your nation. They proposed to sell to the State of New York certain parcels of land, of small extent, and detached from the body of your other lands; the State of New York was desirous to buy. I sent an agent, in whom we could trust, to see that your consent was free, and the sale fair. All was reported to be free and fair. The lands were your property. The right to sell is one of the rights of property. To forbid you the exercise of that right would be a wrong to your nation. Nor do I think, brother, that the sale of lands is, under all circumstances, injurious to your people. While they depended on hunting, the more extensive the forest around them, the more game they would yield. But going into a state of agriculture, it may be as advantageous to a society, as it is to an individual, who has more land than he can improve, to sell a part, and lay out the money in stocks and implements of agriculture, for the better improvement of the residue. A little land well stocked and improved, will yield more than a great deal without stock or improvement. I hope, therefore, that on further reflection, you will see this transaction in a more favorable light, both as it concerns the interest of your nation, and the exercise of that superintending care which I am sincerely anxious to employ for their subsistence and happiness. Go on then, brother, in the great reformation you have undertaken. Persuade our red brethren then to be sober, and to cultivate their lands; and their women to spin and weave for their families. You will soon see your women and children well fed and clothed, your men living happily in peace and plenty, and your numbers increasing from year to year. It will be a great glory to you to have been the instrument of so happy a change, and your children's children, from generation to generation, will repeat your name with love and gratitude forever. In all your enterprises for the good of your people, you may count with confidence on the aid and protection of the United States, and on the sincerity and zeal with which I am myself animated in the furthering of this humane work. You are our brethren of the same land; we wish your prosperity as brethren should do. Farewell.

VI.

January 8, 1803.

_Brothers Miamis and Delawares_:--

I am happy to see you here, to take you by the hand, and to renew the assurances of our friendship. The journey which you have taken is long; but it leads to a right understanding of what either of us may have misunderstood; it will be useful for all. For, living in the same land, it is best for us all that we should live together in peace, friendship, and good neighborhood.

I have taken into serious consideration the several subjects on which you spoke to me the other day, and will now proceed to answer them severally.

You know, brothers, that, in ancient times, your former fathers the French settled at Vincennes, and lived and traded with your ancestors, and that those ancestors ceded to the French a tract of country, on the Wabash river, seventy leagues broad, and extending in length from Point Coupee to the mouth of White river. The French, at the close of a war between them and the English, ceded this country to the English; who, at the close of a war between them and us, ceded it to us. The remembrance of these transactions is well preserved among the white people; they have been acknowledged in a deed signed by your fathers; and you also, we suppose, must have heard it from them. Sincerely desirous to live in peace and brotherhood with you, and that the hatchet of war may never again be lifted, we thought it prudent to remove from between us whatever might at any time produce misunderstanding. The unmarked state of our boundaries, and mutual trespasses on each others' lands, for want of their being known to all our people, have at times threatened our peace. We therefore instructed Governor Harrison to call a meeting of the chiefs of all the Indian nations around Vincennes, and to propose that we should settle and mark the boundary between us. The chiefs of these nations met. They appeared to think hard that we should claim the whole of what their ancestors had ceded and sold to the white men, and proposed to mark off for us from Point Coupee to the mouth of White river, a breadth of twenty-four leagues only, instead of seventy. His offer was a little more than a third of our right. But the desire of being in peace and friendship with you, and of doing nothing which should distress you, prevailed in our minds, and we agreed to it. This was the act of the several nations, original owners of the soil, and by men duly authorized by the body of those nations. You, brothers, seem not to have been satisfied with it. But it is a rule in all countries that what is done by the body of a nation must be submitted to by all its members. We have no right to alter, on a partial deputation, what we have settled by treaty with the body of the nations concerned. The lines too, which are agreed on, are to be run and marked in the presence of your chiefs, who will see that they are fairly run. Your nations were so sensible of the moderation of our conduct towards them, that they voluntarily offered to lend us forever the salt springs, and four miles square of land near the mouth of the Wabash, without price. But we wish nothing without price. And we propose to make a reasonable addition to the annuity we pay to the owners.

You complain that our people buy your lands individually, and settle and hunt on them without leave. To convince you of the care we have taken to guard you against the injuries and arts of interested individuals, I now will give you a copy of a law, of our great council the Congress, forbidding individuals to buy lands from you, or to settle or hunt on your lands; and making them liable to severe punishment. And if you will at any time seize such individuals, and deliver them to any officer of the United States, they will be punished according to law.

We have long been sensible, brothers, of the great injury you receive from an immoderate use of spirituous liquors; and although it be profitable to us to make and sell these liquors, yet we value more the preservation of your health and happiness. Heretofore we apprehended you would be displeased, were we to withhold them from you. But leaving it to be your desire, we have taken measures to prevent their being carried into your country; and we sincerely rejoice at this proof of your wisdom. Instead of spending the produce of your hunting in purchasing this pernicious drink, which produces poverty, broils and murders, it will now be employed in procuring food and clothing for your families, and increasing instead of diminishing your numbers.

You have proposed, brothers, that we should deduct from your next year's annuity, the expenses of your journey here; but this would be an exactness we do not practise with our red brethren. We will bear with satisfaction the expenses of your journey, and of whatever is necessary for your personal comfort; and will not, by deducting them, lessen the amount of the necessaries which your women and children are to receive the next year.

From the same good will towards you, we shall be pleased to see you making progress in raising stock and grain, and making clothes for yourselves. A little labor in this way, performed at home and at ease, will go further towards feeding and clothing you, than a great deal of labor in hunting wild beasts.

In answer to your request of a smith to be stationed in some place convenient to you, I can inform you that Mr. Wells, our agent, is authorized to make such establishments, and also to furnish you with implements of husbandry and manufacture, whenever you shall be determined to use them. The particulars on this subject, as well as of some others mentioned in your speech, and in the written speech you brought me from Buckangalah and others, will be communicated and settled with you by the Secretary at War. And I shall pray you in your return, to be the bearers to your countrymen and friends of assurances of my sincere friendship, and that our nation wishes to befriend them in everything useful, and to protect them against all injuries committed by lawless persons from among our citizens, either on their lands, their lives or their property.

VII.

December 17, 1803.

_Brothers of the Choctaw nation_:--

We have long heard of your nation as a numerous, peaceable, and friendly people; but this is the first visit we have had from its great men at the seat of our government. I welcome you here; am glad to take you by the hand, and to assure you, for your nation, that we are their friends. Born in the same land, we ought to live as brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening to wicked men, who may endeavor to make us enemies. By living in peace, we can help and prosper one another; by waging war, we can kill and destroy many on both sides; but those who survive will not be the happier for that. Then, brothers, let it forever be peace and good neighborhood between us. Our seventeen States compose a great and growing nation. Their children are as the leaves of the trees, which the winds are spreading over the forest. But we are just also. We take from no nation what belongs to it. Our growing numbers make us always willing to buy lands from our red brethren, when they are willing to sell. But be assured we never mean to disturb them in their possessions. On the contrary, the lines established between us by mutual consent, shall be sacredly preserved, and will protect your lands from all encroachments by our own people or any others. We will give you a copy of the law, made by our great Council, for punishing our people, who may encroach on your lands, or injure you otherwise. Carry it with you to your homes, and preserve it, as the shield which we spread over you, to protect your land, your property and persons.

It is at the request which you sent me in September, signed by Puckshanublee and other chiefs, and which you now repeat, that I listen to your proposition, to sell us lands. You say you owe a great debt to your merchants, that you have nothing to pay it with but lands, and you pray us to take lands, and pay your debt. The sum you have occasion for, brothers, is a very great one. We have never yet paid as much to any of our red brethren for the purchase of lands. You propose to us some on the Tombigbee, and some on the Mississippi. Those on the Mississippi suit us well. We wish to have establishments on that river, as resting places for our boats, to furnish them provisions, and to receive our people who fall sick on the way to or from New Orleans, which is now ours. In that quarter, therefore, we are willing to purchase as much as you will spare. But as to the manner in which the line shall be run, we are not judges of it here, nor qualified to make any bargain. But we will appoint persons hereafter to treat with you on the spot, who, knowing the country and quality of the lands, will be better able to agree with you on a line which will give us a just equivalent for the sum of money you want paid.

You have spoken, brothers, of the lands which your fathers formerly sold and marked off to the English, and which they ceded to us with the rest of the country they held here; and you say that, though you do not know whether your fathers were paid for them, you have marked the line over again for us, and do not ask repayment. It has always been the custom, brothers, when lands were bought of the red men, to pay for them immediately, and none of us have ever seen an example of such a debt remaining unpaid. It is to satisfy their immediate wants that the red men have usually sold lands; and in such a case, they would not let the debt be unpaid. The presumption from custom then is strong; so it is also from the great length of time since your fathers sold these lands. But we have, moreover, been informed by persons now living, and who assisted the English in making the purchase, that the price was paid at the time. Were it otherwise, as it was their contract, it would be their debt, not ours.

I rejoice, brothers, to hear you propose to become cultivators of the earth for the maintenance of your families. Be assured you will support them better and with less labor, by raising stock and bread, and by spinning and weaving clothes, than by hunting. A little land cultivated, and a little labor, will procure more provisions than the most successful hunt; and a woman will clothe more by spinning and weaving, than a man by hunting. Compared with you, we are but as of yesterday in this land. Yet see how much more we have multiplied by industry, and the exercise of that reason which you possess in common with us. Follow then our example, brethren, and we will aid you with great pleasure.

The clothes and other necessaries which we sent you the last year, were, as you supposed, a present from us. We never meant to ask land or any other payment for them; and the store which we sent on, was at your request also; and to accommodate you with necessaries at a reasonable price, you wished of course to have it on your land; but the land would continue yours, not ours.

As to the removal of the store, the interpreter, and the agent, and any other matters you may wish to speak about, the Secretary at War will enter into explanations with you, and whatever he says, you may consider as said by myself, and what he promises you will be faithfully performed.

I am glad, brothers, you are willing to go and visit some other parts of our country. Carriages shall be ready to convey you, and you shall be taken care of on your journey; and when you shall have returned here and rested yourselves to your own mind, you shall be sent home by land. We had provided for your coming by land, and were sorry for the mistake which carried you to Savannah instead of Augusta, and exposed you to the risks of a voyage by sea. Had any accident happened to you, though we could not help it, it would have been a cause of great mourning to us. But we thank the Great Spirit who took care of you on the ocean, and brought you safe and in good health to the seat of our great Council; and we hope His care will accompany and protect you, on your journey and return home; and that He will preserve and prosper your nation in all its just pursuits.

VIII.

_My Children, White-hairs, Chiefs, and Warriors of the Osage Nation_:--

I repeat to you assurances of the satisfaction it gives me to receive you here. Besides the labor of such a journey, the confidence you have shown in the honor and friendship of my countrymen is peculiarly gratifying, and I hope you have seen that your confidence was justly placed, that you have found yourselves, since you crossed the Mississippi, among brothers and friends, with whom you were as safe as at home.

_My Children_,--I sincerely weep with you over the graves of your chiefs and friends, who fell by the hands of their enemies lately descending the Osage river. Had they been prisoners, and living, we would have recovered them. But no voice can awake the dead; no power undo what is done. On this side the Mississippi, where our government has been long established, and our authority organized, our friends visiting us are safe. We hope it will not be long before our voice will be heard and our arm respected, by those who meditate to injure our friends on the other side of that river. In the meantime, Governor Harrison will be directed to take proper measures to inquire into the circumstances of the transaction, to report them to us for consideration, and for the further measures they may require.

_My Children_,--By late arrangements with France and Spain, we now take their place as your neighbors, friends, and fathers; and we hope you will have no cause to regret the change. It is so long since our forefathers came from beyond the great water, that we have lost the memory of it, and seem to have grown out of this land, as you have done. Never more will you have occasion to change your fathers. We are all now of one family, born in the same land, and bound to live as brothers; and the strangers from beyond the great water are gone from among us. The Great Spirit has given you strength, and has given us strength; not that we might hurt one another, but to do each other all the good in our power. Our dwellings, indeed, are very far apart, but not too far to carry on commerce and useful intercourse. You have furs and peltries which we want, and we have clothes and other useful things which you want. Let us employ ourselves, then, in mutually accommodating each other. To begin this on our part, it was necessary to know what nations inhabited the great country called Louisiana, which embraces all the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri, what number of peltries they could furnish, what quantities and kind of merchandize they would require, where would be the deposits most convenient for them, and to make an exact map of all those waters. For this purpose I sent a beloved man, Captain Lewis, one of my own household, to learn something of the people with whom we are now united, to let you know we were your friends, to invite you to come and see us, and to tell us how we can be useful to you. I thank you for the readiness with which you have listened to his voice, and for the favor you have showed him in his passage up the Missouri. I hope your countrymen will favor and protect him as far as they extend. On his return we shall hear what he has seen and learnt, and proceed to establish trading houses where our red brethren shall think best, and to exchange commodities with them on terms with which they will be satisfied.

With the same views I had prepared another party to go up the Red River to its source, thence to the source of the Arkansas, and down it to its mouth. But I will now give orders that they shall only go a small distance up the Red River this season, and return to tell us what they have seen, and that they shall not set out for the head of that river till the ensuing spring, when you will be at home, and will, I hope, guide and guard them in their journey. I also propose the next year to send another small party up the river of the Kansas to its source, thence to the head of the river of the Panis, and down to its mouth; and others up the rivers on the north side of the Missouri. For guides along these rivers, we must make arrangements with the nations inhabiting them.

_My Children_,--I was sorry to learn that a schism had taken place in your nation, and that a part of your people had withdrawn with the Great-Track to the Arkansas river. We will send an agent to them, and will use our best offices to induce them to return, and to live in union with you. We wish to make them also our friends, and to make that friendship, and the weight it may give us with them, useful to you and them.

We propose, my children, immediately to establish an agent to reside with you, who will speak to you our words, and convey yours to us, who will be the guardian of our peace and friendship, convey truths from one to the other, dissipate all falsehoods which might tend to alienate and divide us, and maintain a good understanding and friendship between us. As the distance is too great for you to come often and tell us your wants, you will tell them to him on the spot, and he will convey them to us in writing, so that we shall be sure that they come from you. Through the intervention of such an agent we shall hope that our friendship will forever be preserved. No wrong will ever be done you by our nation, and we trust that yours will do none to us. And should ungovernable individuals commit unauthorized outrage on either side, let them be duly punished; or if they escape, let us make to each other the best satisfaction the case admits, and not let our peace be broken by bad men. For all people have some bad men among them, whom no laws can restrain.

As you have taken so long a journey to see your father, we wish you not to return till you shall have visited our country and towns toward the sea coast. This will be new and satisfactory to you, and it will give you the same knowledge of the country on this side the Mississippi, which we are endeavoring to acquire of that on the other side, by sending trusty persons to explore them. We propose to do in your country only what we are desirous you should do in ours. We will provide accommodations for your journey, for your comfort while engaged in it, and for your return in safety to your own country, carrying with you those proofs of esteem with which we distinguish our friends, and shall particularly distinguish you. On your return tell your people that I take them all by the hand; that I become their father hereafter; that they shall know our nation only as friends and benefactors; that we have no views upon them but to carry on a commerce useful to them and us; to keep them in peace with their neighbors, that their children may multiply, may grow up and live to a good old age, and their women no more fear the tomahawk of any enemy.

My children, these are my words, carry them to your nation, keep them in your memories, and our friendship in your hearts, and may the Great Spirit look down upon us and cover us with the mantle of his love.

IX.

March 7, 1805.

_My Children, Chiefs of the Chickasaw nation, Minghey, Mataha, and Tishohotana_:--

I am happy to receive you at the seat of the government of the twenty-two nations, and to take you by the hand. Your friendship to the Americans has long been known to me. Our fathers have told us that your nation never spilled the blood of an American, and we have seen you fighting by our side and cementing our friendship by mixing our blood in battle against the same enemies. I rejoice, therefore, that the Great Spirit has covered you with his protection through so long a journey and so inclement a season, and brought you safe to the dwelling of a father who wishes well to all his red children, and to you especially. It would have been also pleasing to have received the other chiefs who had proposed to come with you, and to have known and become known to them, had it been convenient for them to come. I have long wished to see the beloved men of your nation, to renew the friendly conferences of former times, to assure them that we remain constant in our attachment to them, and to prove it by our good offices.

Your country, like all those on this side the Mississippi, has no longer game sufficient to maintain yourselves, your women and children, comfortably by hunting. We, therefore, wish to see you undertake the cultivation of the earth, to raise cattle, corn, and cotton, to feed and clothe your people. A little labor in the earth will produce more food than the best hunts you can now make, and the women will spin and weave more clothing than the men can procure by hunting. We shall very willingly assist you in this course by furnishing you with the necessary tools and implements, and with persons to instruct you in the use of them.

We have been told that you have contracted a great debt to some British traders, which gives you uneasiness, and which you honestly wish to pay by the sale of some of your lands. Whenever you raise food from the earth, and make your own clothing, you will find that you have a great deal of land more than you can cultivate or make useful, and that it will be better for you to sell some of that, to pay your debts, and to have something over to be paid to you annually to aid you in feeding and clothing yourselves. Your lands are your own, my children, they shall never be taken from you by our people or any others. You will be free to keep or to sell as yourselves shall think most for your own good. If at this time you think it will be better for you to dispose of some of them to pay your debts, and to help your people to improve the rest, we are willing to buy on reasonable terms. Our people multiply so fast that it will suit us to buy as much as you wish to sell, but only according to your good will. We have lately obtained from the French and Spaniards all the country beyond the Mississippi called Louisiana, in which there is a great deal of land unoccupied by any red men. But it is very far off, and we would prefer giving you lands there, or money and goods as you like best, for such parts of your land on this side the Mississippi as you are disposed to part with. Should you have anything to say on this subject now, or at any future time, we shall be always ready to listen to you.

I am obliged, within a few days, to set out on a long journey; but I wish you to stay and rest yourselves according to your own convenience. The Secretary at War will take care of you, will have you supplied with whatever you may have occasion for, and will provide for your return at your own pleasure. And I hope you will carry to your countrymen assurances of the sincere friendship of the United States to them, and that we shall always be disposed to render them all the service in our power. This, my children, is all I had proposed to say at this time.

X.

_To the Wolf and people of the Mandar nation._

WASHINGTON, December 30, 1806.

_My Children, the Wolf and people of the Mandar nation._--I take you by the hand of friendship and give you a hearty welcome to the seat of the government of the United States. The journey which you have taken to visit your fathers on this side of our island is a long one, and your having undertaken it is a proof that you desired to become acquainted with us. I thank the Great Spirit that he has protected you through the journey and brought you safely to the residence of your friends, and I hope He will have you constantly in his safe keeping, and restore you in good health to your nations and families.

My friends and children, we are descended from the old nations which live beyond the great water, but we and our forefathers have been so long here that we seem like you to have grown out of this land. We consider ourselves no longer of the old nations beyond the great water, but as united in one family with our red brethren here. The French, the English, the Spaniards, have now agreed with us to retire from all the country which you and we hold between Canada and Mexico, and never more to return to it. And remember the words I now speak to you, my children, they are never to return again. We are now your fathers; and you shall not lose by the change. As soon as Spain had agreed to withdraw from all the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, I felt the desire of becoming acquainted with all my red children beyond the Mississippi, and of uniting them with us as we have those on this side of that river, in the bonds of peace and friendship. I wished to learn what we could do to benefit them by furnishing them the necessaries they want in exchange for their furs and peltries. I therefore sent our beloved man, Captain Lewis, one of my own family, to go up the Missouri river to get acquainted with all the Indian nations in its neighborhood, to take them by the hand, deliver my talks to them, and to inform us in what way we could be useful to them. Your nation received him kindly, you have taken him by the hand and been friendly to him. My children, I thank you for the services you rendered him, and for your attention to his words. He will now tell us where we should establish trading houses to be convenient to you all, and what we must send to them.

My friends and children, I have now an important advice to give you. I have already told you that you and all the red men are my children, and I wish you to live in peace and friendship with one another as brethren of the same family ought to do. How much better is it for neighbors to help than to hurt one another; how much happier must it make them. If you will cease to make war on one another, if you will live in friendship with all mankind, you can employ all your time in providing food and clothing for yourselves and your families. Your men will not be destroyed in war, and your women and children will lie down to sleep in their cabins without fear of being surprised by their enemies and killed or carried away. Your numbers will be increased instead of diminishing, and you will live in plenty and in quiet. My children, I have given this advice to all your red brethren on this side of the Mississippi; they are following it, they are increasing in their numbers, are learning to clothe and provide for their families as we do. Remember then my advice, my children, carry it home to your people, and tell them that from the day that they have become all of the same family, from the day that we became father to them all, we wish, as a true father should do, that we may all live together as one household, and that before they strike one another, they should go to their father and let him endeavor to make up the quarrel.

My children, you are come from the other side of our great island, from where the sun sets, to see your new friends at the sun rising. You have now arrived where the waters are constantly rising and falling every day, but you are still distant from the sea. I very much desire that you should not stop here, but go and see your brethren as far as the edge of the great water. I am persuaded you have so far seen that every man by the way has received you as his brothers, and has been ready to do you all the kindness in his power. You will see the same thing quite to the sea shore; and I wish you, therefore, to go and visit our great cities in that quarter, and see how many friends and brothers you have here. You will then have travelled a long line from west to east, and if you had time to go from north to south, from Canada to Florida, you would find it as long in that direction, and all the people as sincerely your friends. I wish you, my children, to see all you can, and to tell your people all you see; because I am sure the more they know of us, the more they will be our hearty friends. I invite you, therefore, to pay a visit to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and the cities still beyond that, if you are willing to go further. We will provide carriages to convey you and a person to go with you to see that you want for nothing. By the time you come back the snows will be melted on the mountains, the ice in the rivers broken up, and you will be wishing to set out on your return home.

My children, I have long desired to see you; I have now opened my heart to you, let my words sink into your hearts and never be forgotten. If ever lying people or bad spirits should raise up clouds between us, call to mind what I have said, and what you have seen yourselves. Be sure there are some lying spirits between us; let us come together as friends and explain to each other what is misrepresented or misunderstood, the clouds will fly away like morning fog, and the sun of friendship appear and shine forever bright and clear between us.

My children, it may happen that while you are here occasion may arise to talk about many things which I do not now particularly mention. The Secretary at War will always be ready to talk with you, and you are to consider whatever he says as said by myself. He will also take care of you and see that you are furnished with all comforts here.

XI.

WASHINGTON, December 31, 1806.

_To the Chiefs of the Osage nation_:--

_My Children, Chiefs of the Osage nation_,--I welcome you sincerely to the seat of the government of the United States. The journey you have taken is long and fatiguing, and proved your desire to become acquainted with your new brothers of this country. I thank the master of life, who has preserved you by the way and brought you safely here. I hope you have found yourselves, through the whole journey, among brothers and friends, who have used you kindly, and convinced you they wish to live always in peace and harmony with you.

My children, your forefathers have doubtless handed it down to you that in ancient times the French were the fathers of all the red men in the country called Louisiana, that is to say, all the country on the Mississippi and on all its western waters. In the days of your fathers France ceded that country to the Spaniards and they became your fathers; but six years ago they restored it to France and France ceded it to us, and we are now become your fathers and brothers; and be assured you will have no cause to regret the change. It is so long since our forefathers came from beyond the great water, that we have lost the memory of it, and seem to have grown out of this land as you have done. Never more will you have occasion to change your fathers. We are all now of one family, born in the same land, and bound to live as brothers, and to have nothing more to do with the strangers who live beyond the great water. The Great Spirit has given you strength and has given us strength, not that we should hurt one another, but to do each other all the good in our power. Our dwellings indeed are very far apart, but not too far to carry on commerce and useful intercourse. You have furs and peltries which we want, and we have clothes and other useful things which you want. Let us employ ourselves, then, in making exchanges of these articles useful to both. In order to prepare ourselves for this commerce with our new children, we have found it necessary to send some of our trusty men up the different rivers of Louisiana, to see what nations live upon them, what number of peltries they can furnish, what quantities and kinds of merchandize they want, and where are the places most convenient to establish trading houses with them. With this view we sent a party to the head of the Missouri and the great water beyond that, who are just returned. We sent another party up the Red river, and we propose, the ensuing spring, to send one up the Arkansas as far as its head. This party will consist, like the others, of between twenty and thirty persons. I shall instruct them to call and see you at your towns, to talk with my son the Big Track, who, as well as yourselves and your people, will I hope receive them kindly, protect them and give them all the information they can as to the people on the same river above you. When they return they will be able to tell us how we can best establish a trade with you, and how otherwise we can be useful to them.

My children, I was sorry to learn that a difference had arisen among the people of your nation, and that a part of them had separated and removed to a great distance on the Arkansa. This is a family quarrel with which I do not pretend to intermeddle. Both parties are my children, and I wish equally well to both. But it would give me great pleasure if they could again reunite, because a nation, while it holds together, is strong against its enemies, but, breaking into parts, it is easily destroyed. However I hope you will at least make friends again, and cherish peace and brotherly love with one another. If I can be useful in restoring friendship between you, I shall do it with great pleasure. It is my wish that all my red children live together as one family, that when differences arise among them, their old men should meet together and settle them with justice and in peace. In this way your women and children will live in safety, your nation will increase and be strong.

As you have taken so long a journey to see your fathers, we wish you not to return till you have visited our country and towns towards the sea coast. This will be new and satisfactory to you, and it will give you the same knowledge of the country on this side of the Mississippi, which we are endeavoring to acquire of that on the other side, by sending trusty persons to explore them. We propose to do in your country only what we are desirous you should do in ours. We will provide accommodations for your journey, for your comfort while engaged in it, and for your return in safety to your own country, carrying with you those proofs of esteem with which we distinguish our friends, and shall particularly distinguish you. On your return, tell your chief, the Big Track, and all your people, that I take them by the hand, that I become their father hereafter, that they shall know our nation only as friends and benefactors, that we have no views upon them but to carry on a commerce useful to them and us, to keep them in peace with their neighbors, that their children may multiply, may grow up and live to a good old age, and their women no longer fear the tomahawk of any enemy.

My children, these are my words, carry them to your nation, keep them in your memories and our friendship in your hearts, and may the Great Spirit look down upon us and cover us with the mantle of his love.

XII.

February 19, 1807.

_To the Chiefs of the Shawanee Nation_:--

_My children, Chiefs of the Shawanee nation_,--I have listened to the speeches of the Blackhoof, Blackbeard, and the other head chiefs of the Shawanese, and have considered them well. As all these speeches relate to the public affairs of your nation, I will answer them together.

You express a wish to have your lands laid off separately to yourselves, that you may know what is your own, may have a fixed place to live on, of which you may not be deprived after you shall have built on it, and improved it; you would rather that this should be towards Fort Wayne, and to include the three reserves; you ask a strong writing from us, declaring your right, and observe that the writing you had was taken from you by the Delawares.

After the close of our war with the English, we wished to establish peace and friendship with our Indian neighbors also. In order to do this, the first thing necessary was to fix a firm boundary between them and us, that there might be no trespasses across that by either party. Not knowing then what parts on our border belonged to each Indian nation particularly, we thought it safest to get all those in the north to join in one treaty, and to settle a general boundary line between them and us. We did not intermeddle as to the lines dividing them one from another, because this was their concern, not ours. We therefore met the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese, Ottaways, Chippeways, Powtewatamies, Miamis, Eel-Rivers, Weaks, Kickapoos, Pianteshaws, and Kaskaskies, at Greeneville, and agreed on a general boundary which was to divide their lands from those of the whites, making only some particular reserves, for the establishment of trade and intercourse with them. This treaty was eleven years ago, as Blackbeard has said. Since that, some of them have thought it for their advantage to sell us portions of their lands, which has changed the boundaries in some parts; but their rights in the residue remain as they were, and must always be settled among themselves. If the Shawanese and Delawares, and their other neighbors, choose to settle the boundaries between their respective tribes, and to have them marked and recorded in our books, we will mark them as they shall agree among themselves, and will give them strong writings declaring the separate right of each. After which, we will protect each tribe in its respective lands, as well as against other tribes who might attempt to take them from them, as against our own people. The writing which you say the Delawares took from you, must have been the copy of the treaty of Greeneville. We will give you another copy to be kept by your nation.

With respect to the reserves, you know they were made for the purpose of establishing convenient stations for trade and intercourse with the tribes within whose boundaries they are. And as circumstances shall render it expedient to make these establishments, it is for your interest, as well as ours, that the possession of these stations should enable us to make them.

You complain that Blue-jacket, and a part of your people at Greeneville, cheat you in the distribution of your annuity, and take more of it than their just share. It will be difficult to remedy this evil while your nation is living in different settlements. We will, however, direct our agent to enquire, and inform us what are your numbers in each of your settlements, and will then divide the annuities between the settlements justly, according to their numbers. And if we can be of any service in bringing you all together into one place, we will willingly assist you for that purpose. Perhaps your visit to the settlement of your people on the Mississippi under the Flute may assist towards gathering them all into one place from which they may never again remove.

You say that you like our mode of living, that you wish to live as we do, to raise a plenty of food for your children, and to bring them up in good principles; that you adopt our mode of living, and ourselves as your brothers. My children, I rejoice to hear this; it is the wisest resolution you have ever formed, to raise corn and domestic animals, by the culture of the earth, and to let your women spin and weave clothes for you all, instead of depending for these on hunting. Be assured that half the labor and hardships you go through to provide your families by hunting, with food and clothing, if employed in a farm would feed and clothe them better. When the white people first came to this land, they were few, and you were many: now we are many, and you few; and why? because, by cultivating the earth, we produce plenty to raise our children, while yours, during a part of every year, suffer for want of food, are forced to eat unwholesome things, are exposed to the weather in your hunting camps, get diseases and die. Hence it is that your numbers lessen.

You ask for instruction in our manner of living, for carpenters and blacksmiths. My children, you shall have them. We will do everything in our power to teach you to take care of your wives and children, that you may multiply and be strong. We are sincerely your friends and brothers, we are as unwilling to see your blood spilt in war, as our own. Therefore, we encourage you to live in peace with all nations, that your women and children may live without danger, and without fear. The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them. We have placed Mr. Kirk among you, who will have other persons under him to teach you how to manage farms, and to make clothes for yourselves; and we expect you will put some of your young people to work with the carpenters and smiths we place among you, that they may learn the trades. In this way only can you have a number of tradesmen sufficient for all your people.

You wish me to name to you the person authorized to speak to you in our name, that you may know whom to believe, and not be deceived by impostors. My children, Governor Harrison is the person we authorize to talk to you in our name. You may depend on his advice, and that it comes from us. He stands between you and us, to convey with truth whatever either of us wishes to say to the other.

My children, I wish you a safe return to your friends and families, that you may retain your resolution of learning to live in our way, that it may give health and comfort to your families, and add members to your nation. In me you will always find a sincere and true friend.

XIII.

WASHINGTON, February 27, 1808.

_To Kitchao Geboway_:--

_My son Kitchao Geboway_,--I have received the speech which you sent me through General Gansevoort from Albany on the 13th of this month, and now return you my answer. It would have given me great pleasure to have been able to converse with and understand you, when you visited me at Washington; but the want of an interpreter rendered that impossible.

My son, tell your nation, the Chippewas, that I take them by the hand, and consider them as a part of the great family of the United States, which extends to the great Lakes and the Lake of the Woods, northwardly, and from the rising to the setting sun; that the United States wish to live in peace with them, to consider them as a part of themselves, to establish a commerce with them, as advantageous to the Chippewas as they can make it, and in all cases to render them every service in our power. We shall never ask them to enter into our quarrels, nor to spill their blood in fighting our enemies. My son, in visiting this quarter of the United States, you have seen a part of our country, and some of our people from East to West. If you had travelled also from North to South, you would have seen it the same. You see that we are as numerous as the leaves of the trees, that we are strong enough to fight our own battles, and too strong to fear any enemy. When, therefore, we wish you to live in peace with all people, red and white, we wish it because it is for your good, and because it is our desire that your women and children shall live in safety, not fearing the tomahawk of any enemy, that they may learn to raise food enough to support their families, and that your nation may multiply and be strong. If any white men advise you to go to war for them, it is a proof they are too weak to defend themselves, that they are in truth your enemies, wishing to sacrifice you to save themselves; and when they shall be driven away, my son, what is to become of the red men who may join in their battles? Take the advice then of a father, and meddle not in the quarrels of the white people, should any war take place between them; but stay at home in peace, taking care of your wives and children. In that case not a hair of your heads shall be touched. Never will we do you an injury unprovoked, or disturb you in your towns or lands by any violence.

My son, I confirm everything which your father, Governor Hall, said to you at Detroit on my part: and in all your difficulties and dangers apply to him, and take his advice. If some of your principal chiefs will pay me a visit at Washington, I shall be very happy to receive them, to smoke the pipe of friendship with them, to take them by the hand and never to let go their friendship. They shall see that I want nothing from them but their good will, and to do them all the good in my power.

My son, the Secretary at War will comply with your request in giving you a chief's coat with epaulettes, and a stand of the colors of the United States, to plant in your town, to let all the world see that you are a part of the family of the United States.

My son, I wish you a pleasant journey, and a safe return to your family and friends.

XIV.

WASHINGTON, April 22, 1808.

_To the Chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Powtewattamies, Wyandots, and Senecas of Sandusky_:--

_My Children_,--I received your message of July last, and I am glad of the opportunity it gives me of explaining to you the sentiments of the government of the United States towards you.

Many among you must remember the time when we were governed by the British nation, and the war by which we separated ourselves from them. Your old men must remember also that while we were under that government we were constantly kept at war with the red men our neighbors. Many of these took side in the English war against us; so that after we had made peace with the English, ill blood remained between us for some time; and it was not till the treaty of Greeneville that we could come to a solid peace and perfect good understanding with all our Indian neighbors. This being once done and fixed lines drawn between them and us, laying off their lands to themselves, and ours to ourselves, so that each might know their own, and nothing disturb our future peace, we have from that moment, my children, looked upon you heartily as our brothers, and as a part of ourselves. We saw that your game was becoming too scarce to support you, and that unless we could persuade you to cultivate the earth, to raise the tame animals, and to spin and weave clothes for yourselves as we do, you would disappear from the earth. To encourage you, therefore, to save yourselves has been our constant object; and we have hoped that the day would come when every man among you would have his own farm laid off to himself as we have, would maintain his family by labor as we do, and would make one people with us. But in all these things you have been free to do as you please; your lands are your own; your right to them shall never be violated by us; they are yours to keep or to sell as you please. Whenever you find it your interest to dispose of a part to enable you to improve the rest, and to support your families in the meantime, we are willing to buy, because our people increase fast. When a want of land in a particular place induces us to ask you to sell, still you are always free to say "No," and it will never disturb our friendship for you. We will never be angry with others for exercising their own rights according to what they think their own interests. You say you were told at Swan's Creek, that if you would not let us have lands, we should be angry with you, and would force you. Those, my children, who told you so, said what was false, and what never had been said or thought of by us. We never meant to control your free will; we never will do it. I will explain to you the ground of our late application to you for lands. You know that the posts of Detroit and Macinac have very little lands belonging to them. It is for your interest as well as ours that these posts should be maintained for the purposes of our trade with one another. We were desirous therefore to purchase as much land around them as would enable us to have sufficient settlements there to support the posts; and that this might be so laid off as to join with our possessions on Lake Erie. But we expressly instructed our beloved man, Governor Hall, not to press you beyond your own convenience, nor to buy more than you would spare with good will. He accordingly left you to your own inclinations, using no threats whatever, as you tell me in your message. You agreed to let us have a part of what we wished to buy. We are contented with it my children. We find no fault with you for what you did not do, but thank you for what you did.

You complain, my children, that your annuities are not regularly paid, that the goods delivered you are often bad in kind, that they sometimes arrive damaged, and are dear, and that you would rather receive them in money. You shall have them in money. We had no interest in laying out your money in goods for you.

It cost us considerable trouble in the purchase and transportation, and as we could not be everywhere with them to take care of them ourselves, we could not prevent their being injured sometimes by accident, sometimes by carelessness. To pay money therefore, is more convenient to us, and as it will please you better, it shall be done.

I am now, my children, to address you on a very serious subject, one which greatly concerns your happiness. Open your ears, therefore, let my words sink deeply into your bosoms, and never forget them. For be assured that I will not, and that I will fulfil them to their uttermost import. We have for sometime had a misunderstanding with the English, and we do not yet know whether it will end in peace or in war. But in either case, my children, do you remain quiet at home, taking no part in these quarrels. We do not wish you to shed your blood in our battles. We are able to fight them ourselves. And if others press you to take part against us, it is because they are weak, not able to protect themselves nor you. Consider well then what you do. Since we have freed ourselves from the English government, and made our peace with our Indian neighbors, we have cultivated that peace with sincerity and affection. We have done them such favors as were in our power, and promoted their interest and peace wherever we could. We consider them now as a part of ourselves, and we look to their welfare as our own. But if there be among you any nation whom no benefits can attach, no good offices on our part can convert into faithful friends, if relinquishing their permanent connection with us for the fugitive presents or promises of others, they shall prefer our enmity to our friendship, and engage in war against us, that nation must abandon forever the land of their fathers. No nation rejecting our friendship, and commencing wanton and unprovoked war against us, shall ever after remain within our reach; it shall never be in their power to strike us a second time. These words, my children, may appear harsh; but they are spoken in kindness; they are intended to warn you beforehand of the ruin into which those will rush, who shall once break the chain of friendship with us. You know they are not spoken from fear. We fear no nation. We love yours. We wish you to live forever in peace with all men, and in brotherly affection with us; to be with us as one family; to take care of your women and children, feed and clothe them well, multiply and be strong with your friends and your enemies.

My children, I salute you with fatherly concern for your welfare.

XV.

May 4, 1808.

_To the Chiefs of the Upper Cherokees_:--

_My Children, Chiefs of the Upper Cherokees_,--I am glad to see you at the seat of government, to take you by the hand, and to assure you in person of the friendship of the United States towards all their red children, and of their desire to extend, to them all, their protection of good offices. The journey you have come is a long one, and the object expressed in our conference of the other day is important. I have listened to it with attention, and given it the consideration it deserves. You complain that you do not receive your just proportion of the annuities we pay your nation; that the chiefs of the lower towns take for them more than their share. My children, this distribution is made by the authority of the Cherokee nation, and according to their own rules over which we have no control. We do our duty in delivering the annuities to the head men of the nation, and we pretend to no authority over them, to no right of directing how they are to be distributed. But we will instruct our agent, Colonel Meigs, to exhort the chiefs to do justice to all the parts of their nation in the distribution of these annuities, and to endeavor that every town shall have its due share. We would willingly pay these annuities in money, which could be more equally divided, if the nation would prefer that, and if we can be assured that the money will not be laid out in strong drink instead of necessaries for your wives and children. We wish to do whatever will best secure your people from suffering for want of clothes or food. It is these wants which bring sickness and death into your families, and prevent you from multiplying as we do. In answer to your question relating to the lands we have purchased from your nation at different times, I inform you that the payments have for the most part been made in money, which has been left, as the annuities are, to the discharge of your debts, and to distribute according to the rules of the nation.

You propose, my children, that your nation shall be divided into two, and that your part, the upper Cherokees, shall be separated from the lower by a fixed boundary, shall be placed under the government of the United States, become citizens thereof, and be ruled by our laws; in fine, to be our brothers instead of our children. My children, I shall rejoice to see the day when the red men, our neighbors, become truly one people with us, enjoying all the rights and privileges we do, and living in peace and plenty as we do, without any one to make them afraid, to injure their persons, or to take their property without being punished for it according to fixed laws. But are you prepared for this? Have you the resolution to leave off hunting for your living, to lay off a farm for each family to itself, to live by industry, the men working that farm with their hands, raising stock, or learning trades as we do, and the women spinning and weaving clothes for their husbands and children? All this is necessary before our laws can suit you or be of any use to you. However, let your people take this matter into consideration. If they think themselves prepared for becoming citizens of the United States, for living in subjection to laws and under their protection as we do, let them consult the lower towns, come with them to an agreement of separation by a fixed boundary, and send to this place a few of the chiefs they have most confidence in, with powers to arrange with us regulations concerning the protection of their persons, punishment of crimes, assigning to each family their separate farms, directing how these shall go to the family as they die one after another, in what manner they shall be governed, and all other particulars necessary for their happiness in their new condition. On our part I will ask the assistance of our great council, the Congress, whose authority is necessary to give validity to these arrangements, and who wish nothing more sincerely than to render your condition secure and happy. Should the principal part of your people determine to adopt this alteration, and a smaller part still choose to continue the hunter's life, it may facilitate the settlement among yourselves to be told that we will give to those leave to go, if they choose it, and settle on our lands beyond the Mississippi, where some Cherokees are already settled, and where game is plenty, and we will take measures for establishing a store there among them, where they may obtain necessaries in exchange for their peltries, and we will still continue to be their friends there as much as here.

My children, carry these words to your people, advise with Colonel Meigs in your proceedings, ask him to inform me from time to time how you go on, and I will further advise you in what may be necessary. Tell your people I take them all by the hand; that I leave them free to do as they choose, and that whatever choice they make, I will still be their friend and father.

XVI.

May 5, 1808.

_To Colonel Louis Cook and Jacob Francis of the St. Regis Indians_:--

_My Children_,--I take you by the hand, and all the people of St. Regis within the limits of the United States, and I desire to speak to them through you. A great misunderstanding has taken place between the English and the United States, and although we desire to live in peace with all the world and unmolested, yet it is not quite certain whether this difference will end in peace or war. Should war take place, do you, my children, remain at home in peace, taking care of your wives and children. You have no concern in our quarrel, take therefore no part in it. We do not wish you to spill your blood in our battles. We can fight them ourselves. Say the same to your red brethren everywhere, let them remain neutral and quiet, and we will never disturb them. Should the English insist on their taking up the hatchet against us, if they choose rather to break up their settlements and come over to live in peace with us, we will find other settlements for them, and they shall become our children. The red nations who shall remain in peace with the United States, shall forever find them true friends and fathers. Those who commence against them an unprovoked war, must expect their lasting enmity.

My children, I wish you well, and a safe return to your own country.

XVII.

WASHINGTON, December 2, 1808.

_To the Delaware Chief, Captain Armstrong_:--

I have received your letter of October 20th, wherein you express a wish to obtain a deed for the thirteen sections of lands reserved for the Delawares in the State of Ohio, by an act of Congress. I accordingly now send you an authentic deed designating the thirteen sections, and signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, who was authorized for this purpose by the act of Congress. Under this you are free to settle on the lands when you please, and to occupy them according to your own rules. You cannot, indeed, sell them to the white citizens of the United States. Knowing how liable you would be to be cheated and deceived, were we to permit our citizens to purchase your lands, our government acting as your friends and patrons, and desirous of guarding your interests against the frauds that would surround you, does not permit white persons to purchase your lands from you. In every other way they are yours, free to be used as you please; and their possession will be protected and guaranteed to you by the United States. I salute you and my children, the Delawares, with friendship.

XVIII.

December 21, 1808.

_To the Miamis, Powtewatamies, Delawares and Chippeways._

_My Children_:--Some of you are old enough to remember, and the youngest have heard from their fathers, that the country was formerly governed by the English. While they governed it there were constant wars between the white and the red people. To such a height was the hatred of both parties carried that they thought it no crime to kill one another in cold blood whenever they had an opportunity. This spirit led many of the Indians to take side against us in the war; and at the close of it the English made peace for themselves, and left the Indians to get out of it as well as they could. It was not till twelve years after that we were able by the treaty of Greeneville to close our wars with all our red neighbors. From that moment, my children, the policy of this country towards you has been entirely changed. General Washington, our first President, began a line of just and friendly conduct towards you. Mr. Adams, the second, continued it; and from the moment I came into the administration I have looked upon you with the same good will as my own fellow citizens, have considered your interests as our interests, and peace and friendship as a blessing to us all. Seeing with sincere regret that your people were wasting away, believing that this proceeded from your frequent wars, and the destructive use of spirituous liquors, and scanty supplies of food, I have inculcated peace with all your neighbors, have endeavored to prevent the introduction of spirituous liquors among you, and pressed on you to rely for food on the culture of the earth more than on hunting. On the contrary, my children, the English persuade you to hunt, they supply you with spirituous liquors, and are now endeavoring to engage you to join them in the war against us, should a war take place. You possess reason, my children, as we do, and you will judge for yourselves which of us advise you as friends. The course they advise has worn you down to your present numbers, but temperance, peace and agriculture will raise you up to be what your forefathers were, will prepare you to possess property, to wish to live under regular laws, to join us in our government, to mix with us in society, and your blood and ours united will spread again over the great island.

My children, this is the last time I shall speak to you as your father, it is the last counsel I shall give. I am now too old to watch over the extensive concerns of the seventeen States and their territories. I have, therefore, requested my fellow citizens to permit me to retire, to live with my family and to choose another chief and another father for you, and in a short time I shall retire and resign into his hands the care of your and our concerns. Be assured, my children, that he will have the same friendly disposition towards you which I have had, and that you will find in him a true and affectionate father. Entertain, therefore, no uneasiness on account of this change, for there will be no change as to you. Indeed, my children, this is now the disposition towards you of all our people. They look upon you as brethren, born in the same land, and having the same interests. In your journey to this place you have seen many of them. I am certain they have received you as brothers and been ready to show you every kindness. You will see the same on the road by which you will return; and were you to pass from north to south, or east to west in any part of the United States, you would find yourselves always among friends. Tell this, therefore, to your people on your return home, assure them that no change will ever take place in our dispositions towards them; deliver to them my adieux and my prayers to the Great Spirit for their happiness, tell them that during my administration I have held their hand fast in mine, that I will put it into the hand of their new father, who will hold it as I have done.

XIX.

_To Little Turtle, Chief of the Miamis_:--

_My Son_,--It is always with pleasure that I receive you here and take you by the hand, and that to the assurances of friendship to your nation I can add those of my personal respect and esteem for you. Our confidence in your friendship has been the stronger, as your enlarged understanding could not fail to see the advantages resulting to your nation as well as to us from a mutual good understanding. We ask nothing from them but their peace and good will, and it is a sincere solicitude for their welfare which has induced us, from time to time, to warn them of the decay of their nation by continuing to rely on the chase for food, after the deer and buffalo are become too scanty to subsist them, and to press them before they are reduced too low, to begin the culture of the earth and the raising of domestic animals. A little of their land in corn and cattle will feed them much better than the whole of it in deer and buffalo, in their present scarce state, and they will be scarcer every year. I have, therefore, always believed it an act of friendship to our red brethren whenever they wished to sell a portion of their lands, to be ready to buy whether we wanted them or not, because the price enables them to improve the lands they retain, and turning their industry from hunting to agriculture, the same exertions will support them more plentifully.

You inform me, my son, that your nation claims all the land on the Wabash and the Miami of the Lake and their waters, and that a small portion of that which was sold to us by the Ottaways, Wyandots, and other tribes of Michigan belonged to you. My son, it is difficult for us to know the exact boundaries which divide the lands of the several Indian tribes, and indeed it appears often that they do not know themselves, or cannot agree about them. I have long thought it desirable that they should settle their boundaries with one another, and let them be written on paper and preserved by them and by us, to prevent disputes among themselves. The tribes who made that sale certainly claim the lands on both sides of the Miami, some distance up from the mouth, as they have since granted us two roads from the rapids to the Miami, the one eastwardly to the line of the treaty of Fort Industry, and the other south eastwardly to the line of the treaty of Greeneville. I observe, moreover, that in the late conveyance of lands on the White River branch of the Wabash, to the Delawares, the Powtewatamies join you in the conveyance, which is an acknowledgment that all the lands on the waters of the Wabash do not belong to the Miamis alone. If, however, the Ottaways and others who sold to us had no right themselves, they could convey none to us, and we acknowledge we cannot acquire lands by buying them of those who have no title themselves. This question cannot be determined here, where we have no means of inquiring from those who have knowledge of the facts. We will instruct Governor Hull to collect the evidence from both parties, and from others, and to report it to us. And if it shall appear that the lands belonged to you and not to those who sold them, be assured we will do you full justice. We ask your friendship and confidence no longer than we shall merit it by our justice. On this subject, therefore, my son, your mind may be tranquil. You have an opportunity of producing before Governor Hull all the evidences of your right, and they shall be fairly weighed against the opposite claims.

My son, I salute your nation with constant friendship, and assure you of my particular esteem.

XX.

_To Manchol, the great War Chief of the Powtewatamies_:--

_My Son_,--I am happy to receive you at the seat of Government of the United States, to take you and your nation by the hand, and to welcome you to this place. It has long been my desire to see the distinguished men of the Powtewatamies, and to give them the same assurances of friendship and good will which I have given to all my other red children. I wish to see them living in plenty and prosperity, beginning to cultivate the earth and raise domestic animals for their comfortable subsistence. In this way they will raise up young people in abundance to succeed to the old, and to keep their nation strong. For this reason I recommend to them to live in peace with all men, and not, by destroying one another, to make the whole race of red men disappear from the land.

You say, my son, that you have engaged in a war with the Osages, and that the war club is now in your hand for that purpose; but you do not tell me for what cause you are waging war with the Osages. I have never heard that they have crossed the Mississippi and attacked your villages, killed your women and children, or destroyed the game on your lands. What is the injury then which they have done you and for which you wish to cross the Mississippi and to destroy them? If they have done you no wrong, have you a right to make war upon innocent and unoffending people? Be assured that the Great Spirit will not approve of this,--He did not make men strong that they might destroy all other men. If your young people think that in this way they will acquire honor as great warriors, they are mistaken. Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.

You say, my son, that it is not the wish of my red children to meddle in the wars between the whites, nor that we should meddle in the wars among our red children. If your wars in no wise affect our rights, or our relations with those on whom you make war, we do not meddle with them but by way of advice, as your father and friend submitting it to your own consideration. But my son, your war parties cannot pass from your towns to the country of the Osages, nor can the Osages come to revenge themselves on your towns without traversing extensively a country which is ours. They must cross the Mississippi which is always covered with our boats, our people and property. All the produce of the western parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Louisiana, goes down the river Mississippi to New Orleans. It cannot be indifferent to us that this should be exposed to danger from unruly young men going to war. Our interests require that the Mississippi shall be a river of peace, not to be crossed by men seeking to shed blood. We have a right then to say that no war parties shall cross our river or our country without our consent. The Sacs and Foxes, besides the country from the Illinois to the Wisconsin on the east side of the Mississippi, ceded to us the country on the west side of the Mississippi, between that river and the Missouri, for about one hundred miles up each. The Osages have ceded to us all the country from the south side of the Missouri to the Arkansas, more than two hundred miles up each river. Surely, my son, we are justifiable in so far meddling with your wars as to say that, in carrying them on neither the Osages nor you must cross that country which is ours, to get at one another, and in doing so to endanger our people and our property, and to stain our land with blood; and friendship requires that we should give you this warning.

My son, I wish you to consider this subject maturely, and to tell your nation that I request them to consider it also. I am ready to do them every favor in my power, and to give them every aid, but not aids to carry war across our territory. Do not suppose that in refusing this I am not your friend. If I were your enemy, what could I do better than to encourage you in tomahawking one another till not a man should be left. Neither must you suppose this to proceed from partiality to the Osages. You are nearer to me than the Osages, and on that account I should be more ready to do you good offices. But my desire to keep you in peace arises from my sincere wish to see you happy and prosperous, increasing in numbers, supplying your families plentifully with food and clothing, and relieving them from the constant chance of being destroyed by their enemies.

My son, the Secretary at War will give to you those tokens of our good will by which we manifest our friendship to the distinguished men among our red children who visit us. Be assured that I shall set a great value on your friendship; and convey for me to your nation assurances that I wish nothing more than their welfare. You shall return by the way of Baltimore and Philadelphia as you desire. I wish you to see as many of your brothers of the United States as you can. You will find them all to be your friends, and that they will receive you hospitably.

XXI.

December 21, 1808.

_To Beaver, the head warrior of the Delawares_:--

_My Son_,--I am glad to see you here to take you by the hand. I am the friend of your nation, and sincerely wish them well. I shall now speak to them as their friend, and advise them for their good.

I have read your speech to the Secretary at War, and considered it maturely. You therein say that after the conclusion of the treaty of Greenville, the Wapanakies and other tribes of Indians mutually agreed to maintain peace among themselves and with the United States. This, my son, was wise, and I entirely approve of it. And I equally commend you for what you further say, that yours and the other tribes have constantly maintained the articles of peace with us, and have ceased to listen to bad advice. I hope, my son, that you will continue in this good line of conduct, and I assure you the United States will forever religiously observe the treaty on their part, not only because they have agreed to it, but because they esteem you; they wish you well, and would endeavor to promote your welfare even if there were no treaty; and rejoicing that you have ceased to listen to bad advice, they hope you will listen to that which is good.

My son, you say that the Osage nation has refused to be at peace with your nation or any others; that they have refused the offers of peace, and extended their aggressions to all people. This is all new to me. I never heard of an Osage coming to war on this side of the Mississippi. Have they attacked your towns, killed your people, or destroyed your game? Tell me in what year they did this? or what is the aggression they have committed on yours and the other tribes on this side the Mississippi? But if they have defended themselves and their country, when your tribes have gone over to destroy them, they have only done what brave men ought to do, and what just men ought never to have forced them to do. Your having committed one wrong on them gives you no right to commit a second; and be assured, my son, that the Almighty Spirit which is above will not look down with indifference on your going to war against his children on the other side the Mississippi, who have never come to attack you. He is their father as well as your father, and He did not make the Osages to be destroyed by you. I tell you that if you make war unjustly on the Osages, He will punish your nation for it. He will send upon your nation famine, sickness, or the tomahawk of a stronger nation, who will cut you off from the land. Consider this thing well, then, before it is too late, and before you strike. His hand is uplifted over your heads, and His stroke will follow yours. My son, I tell you these things because I wish your nation well. I wish them to become a peaceable, prosperous, and happy nation; and if this war against the Osages concerned yourselves alone, I would confine myself to giving you advice, and leave it to yourselves to profit by it. But this war deeply concerns the United States. Between you and the Osages is a country of many hundred miles extent belonging to the United States. Between you also is the Mississippi, the river of peace. On this river are floating the boats, the people, and all the produce of the western States of the Union. This commerce must not be exposed to the alarm of war parties crossing the river, nor must a path of blood be made across our country. What we say to you, my son, we say also to the Osages. We tell them that armed bands of warriors, entering on the lands or waters of the United States without our consent, are the enemies of the United States. If, therefore, considerations of your own welfare are not sufficient to restrain you from this unauthorized war, let me warn you on the part of the United States to respect their rights, not to violate their territory.

You request, my son, to be informed of our warfares, that you may be enabled to inform your nation on your return. We are yet at peace, and shall continue so, if the injustice of the other nations will permit us. The war beyond the water is universal. We wish to keep it out of our island. But should we go to war, we wish our red children to take no part in it. We are able to fight our own battles, and we know that our red children cannot afford to spill their blood in our quarrels. Therefore, we do not ask it, but wish them to remain home in quiet, taking care of themselves and their families.

You complain that the white people in your neighborhood have stolen a number of your horses. My son, the Secretary of War will take measures for inquiring into the truth of this, and if it so appears, justice shall be done you.

The two swords which you ask shall be given to you; and we shall be happy to give you every other proof that we esteem you personally, my son, and shall always be ready to do anything which may advance your comfort and happiness. I hope you will deliver to your nation the words I have spoken to you, and assure them that in everything which can promote their welfare and prosperity they shall ever find me their true and faithful friend and father, that I hold them fast by the hand of friendship, which I hope they will not force me to let go.

XXII.

_To Captain Hendrick, the Delawares, Mohiccons, and Munries_:--

_My Son and my Children_,--I am glad to see you here to receive your salutations, and to return them by taking you by the hand, and renewing to you the assurances of my friendship. I learn with pleasure that the Miamis and Powtawatamies have given you some of their lands on the White River to live on, and that you propose to gather there your scattered tribes, and to dwell on it all your days.

The picture which you have drawn, my son, of the increase of our numbers and the decrease of yours is just, the causes are very plain, and the remedy depends on yourselves alone. You have lived by hunting the deer and buffalo--all these have been driven westward; you have sold out on the sea-board and moved westwardly in pursuit of them. As they became scarce there, your food has failed you; you have been a part of every year without food, except the roots and other unwholesome things you could find in the forest. Scanty and unwholesome food produce diseases and death among your children, and hence you have raised few and your numbers have decreased. Frequent wars, too, and the abuse of spirituous liquors, have assisted in lessening your numbers. The whites, on the other hand, are in the habit of cultivating the earth, of raising stocks of cattle, hogs, and other domestic animals, in much greater numbers than they could kill of deer and buffalo. Having always a plenty of food and clothing they raise abundance of children, they double their numbers every twenty years, the new swarms are continually advancing upon the country like flocks of pigeons, and so they will continue to do. Now, my children, if we wanted to diminish our numbers, we would give up the culture of the earth, pursue the deer and buffalo, and be always at war; this would soon reduce us to be as few as you are, and if you wish to increase your numbers you must give up the deer and buffalo, live in peace, and cultivate the earth. You see then, my children, that it depends on yourselves alone to become a numerous and great people. Let me entreat you, therefore, on the lands now given you to begin to give every man a farm; let him enclose it, cultivate it, build a warm house on it, and when he dies, let it belong to his wife and children after him. Nothing is so easy as to learn to cultivate the earth; all your women understand it, and to make it easier, we are always ready to teach you how to make ploughs, hoes, and necessary utensils. If the men will take the labor of the earth from the women they will learn to spin and weave and to clothe their families. In this way you will also raise many children, you will double your numbers every twenty years, and soon fill the land your friends have given you, and your children will never be tempted to sell the spot on which they have been born, raised, have labored and called their own. When once you have property, you will want laws and magistrates to protect your property and persons, and to punish those among you who commit crimes. You will find that our laws are good for this purpose; you will wish to live under them, you will unite yourselves with us, join in our great councils and form one people with us, and we shall all be Americans; you will mix with us by marriage, your blood will run in our veins, and will spread with us over this great island. Instead, then, my children, of the gloomy prospect you have drawn of your total disappearance from the face of the earth, which is true, if you continue to hunt the deer and buffalo and go to war, you see what a brilliant aspect is offered to your future history, if you give up war and hunting. Adopt the culture of the earth and raise domestic animals; you see how from a small family you may become a great nation by adopting the course which from the small beginning you describe has made us a great nation.

My children, I will give you a paper declaring your right to hold, against all persons, the lands given you by the Miamis and Powtewatamies, and that you never can sell them without their consent. But I must tell you that if ever they and you agree to sell, no paper which I can give you can prevent your doing what you please with your own. The only way to prevent this is to give to every one of your people a farm, which shall belong to him and his family, and which the nation shall have no right to take from them and sell; in this way alone can you ensure the lands to your descendants through all generations, and that it shall never be sold from under their feet. It is not the keeping your lands which will keep your people alive on them after the deer and buffalo shall have left them; it is the cultivating them alone which can do that. The hundredth part in corn and cattle will support you better than the whole in deer and buffalo.

My son Hendrick, deliver these words to your people. I have spoken to them plainly, that they may see what is before them, and that it is in their own power to go on dwindling to nothing, or to become again a great people. It is for this reason I wish them to live in peace with all people, to teach their young men to love agriculture, rather than war and hunting. Let these words sink deep in their hearts, and let them often repeat them and consider them. Tell them that I hold them fast by the hand, and that I will ever be their friend to advise and to assist them in following the true path to their future happiness.

XXIII.

_To Kitchao Geboway_:--

_My Son_,--I am happy to receive your visit at the seat of our government, and to repeat to you the assurances of my friendly dispositions towards your nation. I am the more pleased to see you again, as at your last visit we could not converse together for want of an interpreter. This difficulty is now removed by the presence of Mr. Ryley. I approve of your disposition, my son, to live at peace with all the world. It is what we wish all our red children to do, and to consider themselves as brethren of the same family, and forming with us but one nation. The Great Spirit did not make men that they might destroy one another, but doing to each other all the good in their power, and thus filling the land with happiness instead of misery and murder. This is the way in which we wish all our red children to live with one another, and with us; and this is what I wish you to say to your nation from me, when you deliver to them what I said to you the last winter. I am sorry you have not been able to carry it to them; they would have seen by that, that you came here as the friend of your own nation, and of all your red brethren. My son, I take by the hand the young man, the son of your friend, whom you brought with you. He is now young, and I hope will live to be old, and through his life will be steadfast in encouraging his nation to live in peace and friendship with their white brethren of the United States.

The Secretary at War will provide for your journey back, and your father Governor Hull will be glad to see you on your way. He will always give good advice to your nation in my name, and will guide them in the paths of peace and friendship with all men.

XXIV.

January 9, 1809.

_To the Deputies of the Cherokee Upper Towns_:--

_My Children_,--I have maturely considered the speeches you have delivered me, and will now give you answers to the several matters they contain.

You inform me of your anxious desires to engage in the industrious pursuits of agriculture and civilized life. That finding it impracticable to induce the nation at large to join in this, you wish a line of separation to be established between the upper and lower towns, so as to include all the waters of the Hiwassee in your part, and that having thus contracted your society within narrower limits, you propose within these to begin the establishment of fixed laws and of regular government. You say that the lower towns are satisfied with the division you propose; and on these several matters you ask my advice and aid.

With respect to the line of division between yourselves and the lower towns, it must rest on the joint consent of both parties. The one you propose seems moderate, reasonable, and well defined. We are willing to recognize those on each side of that line as distinct societies, and if our aid shall be necessary to mark it more plainly than nature has done, you shall have it. I think with you, that on this reduced scale it will be more easy for you to introduce the regular administration of laws.

In proceeding to the establishment of laws, you wish to adopt them from ours, and such only for the present as suit your present condition; chiefly, indeed, those for the punishment of crimes, and the protection of property. But who is to determine which of our laws suit your condition, and shall be in force with you? All of you being equally free, no one has a right to say what shall be law for the others. Our way is to put these questions to the vote, and to consider that as law for which the majority votes. The fool has as great a right to express his opinion by vote as the wise, because he is equally free, and equally master of himself. But as it would be inconvenient for all your men to meet in one place, would it not be better for every town to do as we do, that is to say, choose by the vote of the majority of the town and of the country people nearer to that than to any other town, one, two, three, or more, according to the size of the town, of those whom each voter thinks the wisest and honestest men of their place, and let these meet together and agree which of our laws suit them. But these men know nothing of our laws; how then can they know which to adopt. Let them associate in their council our beloved man living with them, Colonel Meigs, and he will tell them what our law is on any point they desire. He will inform them, also, of our methods of doing business in our councils, so as to preserve order, and to obtain the vote of every member fairly. This council can make a law for giving to every head of a family a separate parcel of land, which, when he has built upon and improved, it shall belong to him and his descendants forever, and which the nation itself shall have no right to sell from under his feet; they will determine, too, what punishment shall be inflicted for every crime. In our States, generally, we punish murder only by death, and all other crimes by solitary confinement in a prison.

But when you shall have adopted laws, who are to execute them? Perhaps it may be best to permit every town and the settlers in its neighborhood attached to it, to select some of their best men, by a majority of its votes, to be judges in all differences, and to execute the law according to their own judgment. Your council of representatives will decide on this or such other mode as may best suit you. I suggest these things, my children, for the consideration of the upper towns of your nation, to be decided on as they think best; and I sincerely wish you may succeed in your laudable endeavors to save the remains of your nation by adopting industrious occupations and a government of regular law. In this you may always rely on the counsel and assistance of the government of the United States. Deliver these words to your people in my name, and assure them of my friendship.

XXV.

January 9, 1809.

_To the Deputies of the Cherokees of the Upper and Lower Towns_:--

_My Children_,--I understand from the speeches which you have delivered me, that there is a difference of disposition among the people of both parts of your nation, some of them desiring to remain on their lands, to betake themselves to agriculture, and the industrious occupations of civilized life, while others, retaining their attachment to the hunter life, and having little game on their present lands, are desirous to remove across the Mississippi, to some of the vacant lands of the United States, where game is abundant. I am pleased to find so many disposed to ensure, by the cultivation of the earth, a plentiful subsistence for their families, and to improve their minds by education; but I do not blame those who, having been brought up from their infancy to the pursuit of game, desire still to follow it to distant countries. I know how difficult it is for men to change the habits in which they have been raised. The United States, my children, are the friends of both parties, and as far as can reasonably be asked, they will be willing to satisfy the wishes of both. Those who remain may be assured of our patronage, our aid, and good neighborhood; those who wish to remove, are permitted to send an exploring party to reconnoitre the country on the waters of the Arkansas and White rivers, and the higher up the better, as they will be the longer unapproached by our settlements, which will begin at the mouths of those rivers. The regular districts of the government of St. Louis are already laid off to the St. Francis. When this party shall have found a tract of country suiting the emigrants, and not claimed by other Indians, we will arrange with them and you the exchange of that for a just portion of the country they leave, and to a part of which proportioned to their numbers they have a right. Every aid towards their removal, and what will be necessary for them there, will then be freely administered to them, and when established in their new settlements, we shall still consider them as our children, give them the benefit of exchanging their peltries for what they want at our factories, and always hold them firmly by the hand.

I will now, my children, proceed to answer your kind address on my retiring from the government. Sensible that I am become too old to watch over the extensive concerns of the seventeen States and their territories, I requested my fellow citizens to permit me to retire, to live with my family, and to choose another President for themselves and father for you. They have done so; and in a short time I shall retire, and resign into his hands the care of your and our concerns. Be assured, my children, that he will have the same friendly dispositions towards you which I have had, and that you will find in him a true and affectionate father. Indeed, this is now the disposition of all our people towards you; they look upon you as brethren, born in the same land, and having the same interests. Tell your people, therefore, to entertain no uneasiness on account of this change, for there will be no change as to them. Deliver to them my adieux, and my prayers to the Great Spirit for their happiness. Tell them that during my administration I have held their hand fast in mine, and that I will put it into the hand of their new father, who will hold it as I have done.

XXVI.

January 10, 1809.

_To the Chiefs of the Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Powtewatamies and Shawanese_:--

_My Children_,--This is the first time I have had the pleasure of seeing the distinguished men of our neighbors the Wyandots, Ottawas and Chippewas, at the seat of our government. I welcome you to it as well as the Powtewatamies and Shawanese, and thank the Great Spirit for having conducted you hither in safety and health. I take you and your people by the hand and salute you as my children; I consider all my red children as forming one family with the whites, born in the same land with them, and bound to live like brethren, in peace, friendship and good neighborhood. In former times, my children, we were not our own masters, but were governed by the English. Then we were often at war with our neighbors. Ill blood was raised and kept up between us, and in the war in which we threw off the English government, many of the red people, mistaking their brothers and real friends, took sides with the English government against us; and it was not till many years after we made peace with the English, that the treaty of Grenville closed our last wars with our Indian neighbors. From that time, my children, we have looked on you as a part of ourselves, and have cherished your prosperity as our own. We saw that these things were wasting away your numbers to nothing; that the intemperate use of ardent spirits produced poverty, trouble and murders among you; your wars with one another were lessening your numbers, and attachment to the hunter life, after game had nearly left you, produced famine, sickness and deaths among you in the scarce season of every year. It has been our endeavor, therefore, like true fathers and brothers, to withhold strong liquors from you, to keep you in peace with one another, and to encourage and aid you in the culture of the earth, and raising domestic animals, to take the place of the wild ones. This we have done, my children, because we are your friends, and wish you well. If we feared you, if we were your enemies, we should have furnished you plentifully with whiskey, let the men destroy one another in perpetual wars, and the women and children waste away for want of food, and remain insensible that they could raise it out of the earth. We have been told, my children, that some of you have been doubting whether we or the English were your truest friends. What do the English do for you? They furnish you with plenty of whiskey, to keep you in idleness, drunkenness and poverty; and they are now exciting you to join them in war against us, if war should take place between them and us. But we tell you to stay at home in quiet, to take no part in quarrels which do not concern you. The English are now at war with all the world but us, and it is not yet known whether they will not force us also into it. They are strong on the water, but weak on the land. We live on the land and we fear them not. We are able to fight our own battles; therefore we do not ask you to spill your blood in our quarrels, much less do we wish to be forced to spill it with our own hands. You have travelled through our country from the lakes to the tide waters. You have seen our numbers in that direction, and were you to pass along the sea shore you would find them much greater. You know the English numbers, their scattered forts and string of people, along the borders of the lakes and the St. Lawrence, how long do you think it will take us to sweep them out of the country? and when they are swept away, what is to become of those who join them in their war against us? My children, if you love the land in which you were born, if you wish to inhabit the earth which covers the bones of your fathers, take no part in the war between the English and us, if we should have war. Never will we do an unjust act towards you. On the contrary, we wish to befriend you in every possible way; but the tribe which shall begin an unprovoked war against us, we will extirpate from the earth, or drive to such a distance as that they shall never again be able to strike us. I tell you these things my children, not to make you afraid. I know you are brave men and therefore cannot fear. But you are also wise men and prudent men. I say it, therefore, that, in your wisdom and prudence, you may look forward. That you may go to the graves of your fathers and say, "fathers, shall we abandon you?" That you may look in the faces of your wives and children and ask, "shall we expose these our own flesh and blood to perish from want in a distant country and have our race and name extinguished from the face of the earth?" Think of these things, my children, as wise men, and as men loving their fathers, their wives and children, and the name and memory of their nation. I repeat, that we will never do an unjust act towards you. On the contrary, we wish you to live in peace, to increase in numbers, to learn to labor as we do, and furnish food for your increasing numbers, when the game shall have left you. We wish to see you possessed of property, and protecting it by regular laws. In time, you will be as we are; you will become one people with us. Your blood will mix with ours; and will spread, with ours, over this great island. Hold fast then, my children, the chain of friendship which binds us together, and join us in keeping it forever bright and unbroken.

I invite you to come here, my children, that you might hear with your own ears, the words of your father; that you might see with your own eyes, the sincere disposition of the United States towards you. In your journey to this place you have seen great numbers of your white brothers; you have been received by them as brothers, have been treated kindly and hospitably, and you have seen and can tell your people that their hearts are now sincerely with you. This is the first time I have ever addressed your chiefs, in person, at the seat of Government,--it will also be the last. Sensible that I am become too old to watch over the extensive concerns of the seventeen States and their territories, I requested my fellow citizens to permit me to retire to live with my family, and to choose another President for themselves, and father for you. They have done so; and in a short time I shall retire and resign into his hands the care of your and our concerns. Be assured, my children, that he will have the same friendly dispositions towards you which I have had, and that you will find in him a true and affectionate father. Indeed this is now the disposition of all our people towards you; they look upon you as brethren, born in the same land, and having the same interests. Tell your people, therefore, to entertain no uneasiness on account of this change, for there will be no change as to them. Deliver to them my adieus, and my prayers to the Great Spirit for their happiness. Tell them that during my administration, I have held their hand fast in mine; and that I will put it into the hand of their new father, who will hold it as I have done.

XXVII.

January 18, 1809.

_To the Chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Powtewatamies, Shawanese and Wyandots_:--

_My Children_,--I have considered the speech you have delivered me, and will now make answer to it. You have gone back to ancient times, and given a true history of the uses made of you by the French, who first inhabited your country, and afterwards by the English; and how they used you as dogs to set upon those whom they wanted to destroy. They kept the hatchet always in your hand, exposing you to be killed in their quarrels, and then gave you whiskey that you might quarrel and kill one another. I am glad you understand these things, and are determined no more to fight their battles. We shall never wish you to fight ours, but to stay at home in peace and take care of yourselves. You still wish, however, to keep up a correspondence with the English, because you say your young people find an advantage in it. The less you have to do with them the better, because all their endeavors will be, as you know, to persuade you to go to war for them. If they owe you for lands, they ought to pay you once for all and be done with it. With respect to your people on the English side of the water, should we have war with the English, let them remain neutral and we shall not disturb them; but if the English should endeavor to force them into the war, you would do well to receive them and let them live with you till we can clear the way for them to go back again, which will not take long.

You ask me what passed between this Government and the Little Turtle, the chiefs of the Chippewas, Powtewatamies, Shawanese, Ottawas, Isaac Williams, the Crane and the Delawares, at their visits to the seat of this Government many years ago. Those visits were in the time of my predecessors, so that I did not hear their speeches, and they did not leave them in writing. It is not in my power, therefore, to tell you what they were. But I can assure you that when the Little Turtle visited me, and in like manner when the chiefs of other tribes have visited me, not one word was ever said to the prejudice of the other Indians. I have no reason to believe they wished to speak to me in that way, but if they did, they knew I would not listen to them, and therefore did not do it. My advice to them all has been constantly to live in peace and friendship with one another, to begin to cultivate the earth, to raise domestic animals, and leave off the use of ardent spirits: in short, precisely what I have said to yourselves.

You ask whether the treaties at Swan's creek, and those of the last fall, and the fall before, were made by my desire. I will explain the subject to you. We consider your lands as belonging fully to yourselves, and that we have no right to purchase them but with your own free consent. Whenever you wish to sell, we are willing to buy, although it may be lands which we do not immediately want. We believe it to be for your benefit to sell a part of your lands for annuities, which may enable you to improve farms, and in the meantime to support yourselves. While you keep such large tracts of country, the few deer which remain tempt you to continue hunters, and are yet not enough to maintain you plentifully through the year. A small part of the land cultivated in corn, with the cattle, hogs, and sheep it would enable you to raise, would maintain you better through the year, than the whole does in game. A thorough persuasion, therefore, that it is better for you to turn your surplus lands from time to time into money, induces us to buy when you desire to sell. On this principle, at the treaty of Swan's creek we purchased the slip of land which laid between what you sold to the Connecticut company and our former lines. We had no particular desire to buy it, but were told that it would be convenient to you to sell that parcel, and therefore we bought it.

The lands which were purchased of you near Detroit the last fall and the fall before, we did wish to purchase, provided you were willing freely to sell. At Detroit, you know, we keep a garrison to watch the English, and to protect the factory we establish there, to carry on trade with you. It is very desirable for us, therefore, to obtain so much land in the neighborhood as would receive settlers sufficient to raise provisions for the garrison, and to strengthen the garrison if attacked by the English. But still we instructed Governor Hull, however much we wished to get some land there, not to press it on you if you were not entirely willing to accommodate us. The settlement of our people there will be a great advantage to you if you become cultivators of the earth. You saw the Cherokees who were here when you arrived, my children. These were wealthy men, and became wealthy merely by living near our settlements. Their mother towns of Chota and Chilowee, are but twelve miles from our principal town of Knoxville. The Cherokees there have good farms, good houses, and abundance of cattle and horses. If a family raises more cattle or corn than they want for their own use, instead of letting it be eaten by their own lazy people who will not work, they carry it to Knoxville, sell it to our people, and purchase with the money clothes and other comforts for themselves. Our settlements around Detroit will give you the same advantages. If you become farmers and raise cattle, hogs, sheep, fowls, and such things to spare, you can immediately exchange them for clothing and other necessaries. I am satisfied, therefore, my children, that the accommodating us with that land was as beneficial to you as to us. But, notwithstanding, I believe it to be better for you to sell your surplus lands from time to time; yet I repeat to you the assurances that although we may go so far, sometimes, as to say we would be willing to buy such a piece of land, yet we will never press you to sell, until you shall desire yourselves to sell it.

I have thus, my children, answered the particulars of your speech. I have done it with truth and an open heart, and I hope it will be satisfactory to you.

XXVIII.

January 31, 1809.

_To the Chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Powtewatamies, Wyandots, and Shawanese_:--

_My Children_,--I have considered the speech you have delivered me, and I will now give you an answer to it.

You have told us on former occasions of certain promises made to you at the treaty of Grenville, by General Wayne, respecting certain lands whereon you and your friends live. But when we looked into the treaty of Grenville, we found no such promises there; and as it is our custom to put all our agreements into writing, that they may never be forgotten or mistaken, we concluded no such promises had been made. But you now explain that the chiefs of the Wyandots near Detroit did not arrive at Grenville till after the treaty was signed--that they then convinced General Wayne that provision ought to be made for securing to them possession of the lands they lived on, so long as they and their descendants shall choose to live on them, and that he agreed to it. Of this, besides other evidence, you now produce the belt of wampum reserved by you, in memory of it, the counter-belt given us having probably been destroyed in the fire which consumed our war office in the year 1800. Such evidence, therefore, being now produced as induces a belief of the agreement, it shall be committed to writing, according to what has passed between the Secretary at War and yourselves; and we will also put into writing what has passed respecting the reserves for the Indians, and you shall have a copy of these writings which shall be firm and good to you forever.

You complain that white people go on your lands and settle without your consent. This is entirely against our will, and I earnestly desire you, my children, as soon as any intruder of the whites sets down on your lands, that you will not delay a moment to inform our agent, who will always be instructed in the measures to be taken for their immediate removal; and I desire you to do this, on your return, as to the intruders you now complain of.

The Secretary at War has explained to you the circumstances which attended the running the boundary line near Sandusky, under the treaty at Swan's creek, so as to satisfy you that no variation of it was intended; and you may be assured that when we proceed to run the lines for the roads granted us the last fall, you shall have notice, in order that your chiefs may attend and see it fairly done.

For these roads, with which your nations have been so friendly as to accommodate us, and which you wished us to accept as a present, I return you my thanks, and I accept them; and I request you, on our part, to accept as a token of our good will, the sum of a thousand dollars, of which five hundred dollars will be paid you here. And we shall be happy if you can employ this sum to your benefit or comfort in any way. Our settlements are now extending so much in every direction, that we shall be obliged to ask roads from our Indian brethren, that we may pass conveniently from one settlement to another, for which we will always gladly pay them the full value.

You have been informed, as you desired, of the exact amount of your annuities.

I have thus, my children, answered all the parts of your speech, and I have done it sincerely and with good will to you. I have not filled you with whiskey, as the English do, to make you promise, or give up what is against your interest, when out of your senses. I have listened to your complaints and proposals, I have found them reasonable, and I have given you the answers which a just and a reasonable nation ought to do. And this you may be assured is the way in which we shall always do business with you, because we do not consider you as another nation, but as a part of us, living indeed under your own laws, but having the same interests with us. I hope you will tell these things to your people, and that they will sink deep into their minds.

APPENDIX TO PART II, OF BOOK III.

CONFIDENTIAL MESSAGE RECOMMENDING A WESTERN EXPLORING EXPEDITION--JANUARY 18, 1803.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:--

As the continuance of the act for establishing trading-houses with the Indian tribes, will be under the consideration of the legislature at its present session, I think it my duty to communicate the views which have guided me in the execution of that act, in order that you may decide on the policy of continuing it, in the present or any other form, or discontinue it altogether, if that shall, on the whole, seem most for the public good.

The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States, have, for a considerable time, been growing more and more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy, although effected by their own voluntary sales; and the policy has long been gaining strength with them, of refusing absolutely all further sale, on any conditions; insomuch that, at this time, it hazards their friendship, and excites dangerous jealousies and perturbations in their minds to make any overture for the purchase of the smallest portions of their land. A very few tribes only are not yet obstinately in these dispositions. In order peaceably to counteract this policy of theirs, and to provide an extension of territory which the rapid increase of our numbers will call for, two measures are deemed expedient. First: to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to the raising stock, to agriculture and domestic manufactures, and thereby prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this, better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life will then become useless, and they will see advantage in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms and of increasing their domestic comforts. Secondly: to multiply trading-houses among them, and place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort than the possession of extensive but uncultivated wilds. Experience and reflection will develop to them the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare and we want, for what we can spare and they want. In leading them thus to agriculture, to manufactures, and civilization; in bringing together their and our settlements, and in preparing them ultimately to participate in the benefits of our government, I trust and believe we are acting for their greatest good. At these trading-houses we have pursued the principles of the act of Congress, which directs that the commerce shall be carried on liberally, and requires only that the capital stock shall not be diminished. We consequently undersell private traders, foreign and domestic; drive them from the competition; and thus, with the good will of the Indians, rid ourselves of a description of men who are constantly endeavoring to excite in the Indian mind suspicions, fears, and irritations toward us. A letter now enclosed, shows the effect of our competition on the operations of the traders, while the Indians, perceiving the advantage of purchasing from us, are soliciting generally our establishment of trading houses among them. In one quarter this is particularly interesting. The legislature, reflecting on the late occurrences on the Mississippi, must be sensible how desirable it is to possess a respectable breadth of country on that river, from our southern limit to the Illinois at least, so that we may present as firm a front on that as on our eastern border. We possess what is below the Yazoo, and can probably acquire a certain breadth from the Illinois and Wabash to the Ohio; but between the Ohio and Yazoo, the country all belongs to the Chickasaws, the most friendly tribe within our limits, but the most decided against the alienation of lands. The portion of their country most important for us is exactly that which they do not inhabit. Their settlements are not on the Mississippi, but in the interior country. They have lately shown a desire to become agricultural, and this leads to the desire of buying implements and comforts. In the strengthening and gratifying of these wants, I see the only prospect of planting on the Mississippi itself, the means of its own safety. Duty has required me to submit these views to the judgment of the legislature; but as their disclosure might embarrass and defeat their effect, they are committed to the special confidence of the two houses.

While the extension of the public commerce among the Indian tribes, may deprive of that source of profit such of our citizens as are engaged in it, it might be worthy the attention of Congress, in their care of individual as well as of the general interest, to point in another direction the enterprize of these citizens, as profitably for themselves, and more usefully for the public. The river Missouri, and the Indians inhabiting it, are not as well known as is rendered desirable by their connection with the Mississippi, and consequently with us. It is, however, understood, that the country on that river is inhabited by numerous tribes, who furnish great supplies of furs and peltry to the trade of another nation, carried on in a high latitude, through an infinite number of portages and lakes, shut up by ice through a long season. The commerce on that line could bear no competition with that of the Missouri, traversing a moderate climate, offering, according to the best accounts, a continued navigation from its source, and possibly with a single portage, from the western ocean, and finding to the Atlantic a choice of channels through the Illinois or Wabash, the lakes and Hudson, through the Ohio and Susquehanna, or Potomac or James rivers, and through the Tennessee and Savannah rivers. An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men, fit for the enterprize, and willing to undertake it, taken from our posts, where they may be spared without inconvenience, might explore the whole line, even to the western ocean; have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse; get admission among them for our traders, as others are admitted; agree on convenient deposits for an interchange of articles; and return with the information acquired, in the course of two summers. Their arms and accoutrements, some instruments of observation, and light and cheap presents for the Indians, would be all the apparatus they could carry, and with an expectation of a soldier's portion of land on their return, would constitute the whole expense. Their pay would be going on, whether here or there. While other civilized nations have encountered great expense to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, by undertaking voyages of discovery, and for other literary purposes, in various parts and directions, our nation seems to owe to the same object, as well as to its own interests, to explore this, the only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it. The interests of commerce place the principal object within the constitutional powers and care of Congress, and that it should incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of our own continent, can not but be an additional gratification. The nation claiming the territory, regarding this as a literary pursuit, which it is in the habit of permitting within its own dominions, would not be disposed to view it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its interests there did not render it a matter of indifference. The appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars, "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States," while understood and considered by the executive as giving the legislative sanction, would cover the undertaking from notice, and prevent the obstructions which interested individuals might otherwise previously prepare in its way.