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INDIAN ADDRESSES
_To Brother John Baptist de Coigne_
Charlottesville, June 1781
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.
_To Brother Handsome Lake_
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 cooperate 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.
_To the Brothers of the Choctaw Nation_
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.
_To the Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation_
Washington, January 10, 1806
MY FRIENDS AND CHILDREN, CHIEFLY OF THE CHEROKEE NATION, --
Having now finished our business an to mutual satisfaction, I cannot
take leave of you without expressing the satisfaction I have received
from your visit. I see with my own eyes that the endeavors we have
been making to encourage and lead you in the way of improving your
situation have not been unsuccessful; it has been like grain sown in
good ground, producing abundantly. You are becoming farmers,
learning the use of the plough and the hoe, enclosing your grounds
and employing that labor in their cultivation which you formerly
employed in hunting and in war; and I see handsome specimens of
cotton cloth raised, spun and wove by yourselves. You are also
raising cattle and hogs for your food, and horses to assist your
labors. Go on, my children, in the same way and be assured the
further you advance in it the happier and more respectable you will
be.
Our brethren, whom you have happened to meet here from the West
and Northwest, have enabled you to compare your situation now with
what it was formerly. They also make the comparison, and they see
how far you are ahead of them, and seeing what you are they are
encouraged to do as you have done. You will find your next want to
be mills to grind your corn, which by relieving your women from the
loss of time in beating it into meal, will enable them to spin and
weave more. When a man has enclosed and improved his farm, builds a
good house on it and raised plentiful stocks of animals, he will wish
when he dies that these things shall go to his wife and children,
whom he loves more than he does his other relations, and for whom he
will work with pleasure during his life. You will, therefore, find
it necessary to establish laws for this. When a man has property,
earned by his own labor, he will not like to see another come and
take it from him because he happens to be stronger, or else to defend
it by spilling blood. You will find it necessary then to appoint
good men, as judges, to decide contests between man and man,
according to reason and to the rules you shall establish. If you
wish to be aided by our counsel and experience in these things we
shall always be ready to assist you with our advice.
My children, it is unnecessary for me to advise you against
spending all your time and labor in warring with and destroying your
fellow-men, and wasting your own members. You already see the folly
and iniquity of it. Your young men, however, are not yet
sufficiently sensible of it. Some of them cross the Mississippi to
go and destroy people who have never done them an injury. My
children, this is wrong and must not be; if we permit them to cross
the Mississippi to war with the Indians on the other side of that
river, we must let those Indians cross the river to take revenge on
you. I say again, this must not be. The Mississippi now belongs to
us. It must not be a river of blood. It is now the water-path along
which all our people of Natchez, St. Louis, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee,
Kentucky and the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia are
constantly passing with their property, to and from New Orleans.
Young men going to war are not easily restrained. Finding our people
on the river they will rob them, perhaps kill them. This would bring
on a war between us and you. It is better to stop this in time by
forbidding your young men to go across the river to make war. If
they go to visit or to live with the Cherokees on the other side of
the river we shall not object to that. That country is ours. We
will permit them to live in it.
My children, this is what I wished to say to you. To go on in
learning to cultivate the earth and to avoid war. If any of your
neighbors injure you, our beloved men whom we place with you will
endeavor to obtain justice for you and we will support them in it.
If any of your bad people injure your neighbors, be ready to
acknowledge it and to do them justice. It is more honorable to
repair a wrong than to persist in it. Tell all your chiefs, your
men, women and children, that I take them by the hand and hold it
fast. That I am their father, wish their happiness and well-being,
and am always ready to promote their good.
My children, I thank you for your visit and pray to the Great
Spirit who made us all and planted us all in this land to live
together like brothers that He will conduct you safely to your homes,
and grant you to find your families and your friends in good health.
_To the Wolf and People of the Mandan Nation_
Washington, December 30, 1806
MY CHILDREN, THE WOLF AND PEOPLE OF THE MANDAN NATION: -- I
take you by the hand of friendship 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.