V. V
PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S SECRET MESSAGE TO
CONGRESS, 1803
V. [From Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897 (Washington, 1896–99),
i, pp. 352–354.]
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 peaceable
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 manufacture,
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 sentiments, 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 judgement
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 enterprise 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 enterprise 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 accouterments, 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 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 $2,500 "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.
