Date: 1806-01-10
President: Thomas Jefferson

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. 