9120. WHISKY, Indians and.—
I am
happy to hear that you have been so 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 has 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.—
To Brother Handsome Lake. Washington ed. viii, 187.
(1802)
