January 10 1806 Address Chiefs Cherokee Nation

### About this speech Thomas Jefferson January 10, 1806 Source National Archives Jefferson praises the efforts of the Cherokee Nation to begin to farm and develop laws, offering the expertise of Americans to help further modernize their society. At the same time, the President condemns the attacks on Indians on the other side of the Mississippi River and calls on the Cherokees to bring peace in the newly-acquired American land. [Presidential Speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches) | Thomas Jefferson Presidency ## January 10, 1806: Address to the Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation ### Transcript 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 ow
n 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. Previous [December 6, 1805: Special Message to Congress on Foreign Policy](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-6-1805-special-message-congress-foreign-policy) Next [November 27, 1806: Proclamation on Spanish Territory](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/november-27-1806-proclamation-spanish-territory) ### More Thomas Jefferson speeches [View all Thomas Jefferson speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches?field_president_target_id\[3\]=3) [November 27, 1806: Proclamation on Spanish Territory](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/november-27-1806-proclamation-spanish-territory) transcript icon [December 2, 1806: Sixth Annual Message](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-2-1806-sixth-annual-message) transcript icon [December 30, 1806: Address to the Wolf and the People of the Mandan Nation](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-30-1806-address-wolf-and-people-mandan-natio
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