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Manuscript Document - Signed

Thomas Jefferson

AN EXCEPTIONAL SIGNED THOMAS JEFFERSON ADDRESS TO THE CHEROKEE: “MY CHILDREN, THIS IS WHAT I WISHED TO SAY TO YOU. TO GO ON IN LEARNING TO CULTIVATE THE EARTH, AND TO AVOID WAR… TELL ALL YOUR CHIEFS, YOUNG MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN THAT I TAKE THEM BY THE HAND & HOLD IT FAST, THAT I AM THEIR FATHER, WISH THEIR HAPPINESS & WELL BEING, & AM ALWAYS WILLING TO PROMOTE THEIR GOOD”

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Manuscript Document Signed, Address to "My Friends & Children Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation." Washington: January 10, 1806. Four manuscript pages on one bifolium of wove paper, 16 by 10 inches, neatly laid into a slightly larger sheet; signed "Th: Jefferson" with one additional word "inclosed" added to the text in Jefferson's hand on page 2. $0.

This extraordinary manuscript, signed by President Thomas Jefferson, is his address, in the presidential role as “The Great White Father” of the Indian Nations, to his “Children,” the Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation. At the time of writing, the Cherokees had visited Washington to make a treaty defining their boundaries. The purchase of Louisiana and the control of the Mississippi River opened vast territories in the West, and the Native Americans, forced by the advance of the white pioneers, were crossing the rivers to new hunting grounds. Some of the Cherokees had migrated to the West, but others had remained in Georgia and Tennessee. This is a sterling example of Jefferson’s great eloquence, on this occasion following successful treaty negotiations. Boldly signed at the end "Th: Jefferson," with one additional word "inclosed" added to the text in Jefferson's hand.

Jefferson's message reads in full: “My Friends & Children Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation. Having now finished our business, & finished it I hope 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 & lead you on 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 & the hoe, enclosing your grounds & employing that labour in their cultivation which you formerly employed in hunting & in war; & I see handsome specimens of cotton cloth, raised, spun & wove by yourselves. You are also raising cattle & hogs for your food & horses to assist your labours; go on, my Children, in the same way, & be assured the further you advance in it the happier & more respectable you will be. Our brethren whom you have happened to meet here from the west & the north west, have enabled you to compare your situation now with what it was formerly. They also make the comparison. They see how far you are ahead of them, & by 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 if time in beating it into meal, will enable them to spin & weave more. When a man has inclosed & improved his farm, built a good house on it, & raised plentiful stocks of animals, he will wish when he dies that these things should go to his wife & children, whom he loves more than he does his other relations, & 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 labour he will not like to see another come & 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 & man, according to reason, & to the rules you shall establish. If you wish to be aided by our council & 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 & labor in warring with & destroying your fellow men, & wasting your own numbers. You already see the folly & the inequity if it. Your young men however are not yet sufficiently sensible of it. Some of them cross the Mississippi to go & destroy people who never did them an injury. My Children this is wrong, & 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, & the western parts of Pennsylvania & Virginia are constantly passing, with their property to & from N 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 people to go across the river to make war. lf 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 & we will support them in it. If any of your bad people injure your neighbors, be ready to acknowledge it & to do them justice. It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it. Tell all your chiefs, young men women & children that I take them by the hand & hold it fast, that I am their father, wish their happiness & well being, & am always ready to promote their good.

"My Children, I thank you for your visit, & pray to the Great Spirit who made us all & planted us all in this land to live together like brothers, that he will conduct you safely to your homes & grant you to find your families & your friends in good health."

“It was as President of the United States that Thomas Jefferson had the greatest impact on the Indian nations of North America. He pursued an Indian policy that had two main ends. First, Jefferson wanted to guarantee the security of the United States and so sought to bind Indian nations to the United States through treaties. The aim of these treaties was to acquire land and facilitate trade, but most importantly to keep them allied with the United States and not with European powers, namely England in Canada and Spain in the regions of Florida, the Gulf Coast and lands west of the Mississippi River. Secondly, Jefferson used the networks created by the treaties to further the program of gradual ‘civilization.’ His Federalist predecessors had begun this program, but it was completely in keeping with Jefferson's Enlightenment thinking. Through treaties and commerce, Jefferson hoped to continue to get American Indians to adopt European agricultural practices, shift to a sedentary way of life, and free up hunting grounds for further white settlement. The desire for land raised the stakes of the ‘civilization program.’ Jefferson told his agents never to coerce Indian nations to sell lands. The lands were theirs as long as they wished, but he hoped to accelerate the process” (Leonard Sadosky and Gaye Wilson). The original manuscript of this address is in the Library of Congress. From the Collection of Philip D. Sang, sold at Sotheby’s, New York 30 January 1979, lot 98.

Expected folds, else very fine condition, signature bold. An extraordinary signed Jefferson address.

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