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Transcript: Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress
Jan. 18th, 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 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 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 governments,
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 towards 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 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 connexion 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 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, cannot be but an additional gratification.
The nation claiming the territory, regarding this as a literary
pursuit, which 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 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.
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