the French Minister.' The utility of ascertaining the character of the interior of Louisiana at this juncture, was pressed by far weightier considerations than the mere extension of science. He, therefore, in a confidential message to the House, on the 18th of January, recommended sending an exploring party to trace the Missouri to its source, cross the mountains, and follow the best water communication which offered itself from thence to the Pacific. Congress approved the recommendation, and made an appropriation to defray the expense.

2

Leib, of Pennsylvania, moved, January 3d, to submit to the State Legislatures an amendment of the Constitution, which had passed the House the preceding session, but been rejected in the Senate, to the effect that in all future elections of President and Vice-President, the office for which each was intended should be designated on the ballot. Huger, of South Carolina, subsequently moved an additional amendment, requiring the electors to be uniformly chosen by the single district system. The House took no definite action on either proposition.

Ohio was admitted this session as a State into the Union, with a population (by the last preceding census) of 45,365.

A law passed (February 28th) prohibiting the importation of "any negro, mulatto, or other person of color," not a native or inhabitant, into any State "where by the laws thereof their admission was prohibited," under the penalty of one thousand dollars for every person thus imported, and forfeiture of the vessel.

The President was authorized (February 28th) to cause to be built or purchased four vessels of war of not exceeding sixteen guns each, for the Mediterranean service, and fifteen gunboats for the Mississippi.

One of the most important questions of the session arose on what was termed the "Yazoo Claims"-the claims of a com

1 Sketch of Merriwether Lewis, Jefferson's Works, Cong. Ed., vol. viii., p. 484. This was the origin of the well-known Expedition of Lewis and Clarke. Captain Merriwether Lewis was the private secretary of the President. For the President's high estimate of his character and abilities, see "Biographical Sketch of Merriwether Lewis," Jefferson's Works, Cong. Ed., vol. viii., pp. 480-494. With him was associated William Clarke, brother of George Rogers Clarke, the Hannibal of the West." Professor Tucker says William Clarke partook of his brother's "capacity to endure hardship and encounter danger, as well as his practical good sense." In April, 1803. the President communicated his instructions to Captain Lewis. (See Jefferson's Works, Cong. Ed., vol. viii., pp. 485-491.) Delays occurred, and it was not until the 14th of May, 1804, that the party left the banks of the Mississippi and commenced ascending the Missouri. Capt. Lewis and his companion Clarke reached Washington on their return, February, 1807. The results of the Exploration have been published.

pany to lands which the United States had received from Georgia with a stipulation to respect certain enumerated classes of private claims. Nothing important resulting from the present action of Congress on the subject, we have, on second thought, cast aside as irrelevant a somewhat detailed account we had prepared of one of the most enormous swindling operations recorded in American, or perhaps any other history. It was claimed that, notwithstanding the fraud, equitable rights had inured to innocent third persons, pending the operations, which the United States ought, in the display of a liberal justice, to recognize; and on this point arose a contest in Congress which continued many years. It was not made a party question, but was conducted with all the acerbity of partisan violence in and out of Congress. Our older citizens retain vivid recollections of the heat exhibited in the newspapers on this exciting topic. Those desiring an account of the affair will find it in the Annals of Congress, and in nearly all the detailed histories of the period. The subject occupies considerable space in Garland's Life of Randolph. The latter, unsparing towards even an equity which sprouted from corruption, was one of the strongest opponents of the claims; and as sourness and misanthropy gradually deepened their shadows over his mind, his hostility rose to the vengefulness of personal hate. His philippics on this subject against the actors in the transactions, and against others whom he accused (in many instances no doubt erroneously) of being actors, rival in acrimony the celebrated productions from which the term philippic is derived.

We are not aware that the President ever took any avowed side in the controversy. Both of his sons-in-law, however, were members of Congress before it was disposed of, and voted with the opponents of the claims.

During this session, the President was strongly pressed by the Georgia authorities to obtain the cession of certain Indian lands within the limits of that State, which the United States had stipulated to obtain as soon as they could do so peaceably and for a reasonable price. The Georgians also claimed that Colonel Hawkins, the United States Indian Agent, dissuaded the Indians from selling. The President's reply to General Jackson, of Georgia, a letter from him to Hawkins, two others not long afterwards to Governors Harrison and Claiborne, and his various

addresses to Indian deputations, fully develop his views of Indian policy. He acted fully and fairly on the hypothesis, in all cases, that the Indians were as much the real owners of not only their sparsedly inhabited territories, but of the vast huntinggrounds over which they were accustomed to rove, as were white men holding legal title-deeds of their land-with the only difference that territories belonging to Indians (and there could be no more beneficent provision for them) could only be alienated to or by consent of the United States. The President was firmly opposed to procuring any cessions of their territory excepting peaceably and for a fair equivalent-in other words, for what was considered at the time fully equal in value, by the Indians, to their unused lands.' The agents the President instrusted with these negotiations were such men as Hawkins (accused by some of the impatient Georgians of being "more attached to the interests of the Indians than of the United States"), Harrison," Claiborne, and others of equal character. And he required that all cessions of Indian territory should be not only nominally, but in point of fact voluntary. He made the following declarations (November 3d, 1802), to "Handsome Lake," an Indian chief, who came to complain of certain sales made by his nation to the State of New York:

"You remind me, brother, of what I have said to you, when you visited me the last winter, that the lands you then held would remain yours, and should never go from you but when you should be disposed to sell. This I now repeat, and will ever abide by. We, indeed, are always ready to buy land; but we will never ask but when you wish to sell; and our laws, in order to protect you against imposition, have forbidden individuals to purchase lands from you; and have rendered it necessary, when you desire to sell, even to a State, that an agent from the United States should attend the sale, see that your consent is freely given, a satisfactory price paid, and report to us what has been done, for our approbation. This was done in the late case of which you complain.

"Nor do I think, brother, that the sale of lands is, under all circumstances, injurious to your people. While they depended on hunting, the more extensive the forest around them, the more game they would yield. But going into a state of agri

The apparent equivalent, would now, in many cases, perhaps, appear but little more than nominal. But we believe we have fairly represented the intention of the President. In many cases, the lands sold by them were of no use to them whatever, and were not even used for hunting. And the President believed that if the arts of civilized industry could be introduced among them-a constant end of all his Indian policiesthey would be better off without these vast unoccupied possessions to seduce them back into the habits of savage life. But his views will speak better for themselves in some quotations we propose to make from his addresses to the Indian tribes.

William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the United States.

culture, it may be as advantageous to a society, as it is to an individual, who has more land than he can improve, to sell a part, and lay out the money in stock and implements of agriculture, for the better improvement of the residue. A little land well stocked and improved, will yield more than a great deal without stock or improvement. I hope, therefore, that on further reflection, you will see this transaction in a more favorable light, both as it concerns the interest of your nation, and the exercise of that superintending care which I am sincerely anxious to employ for their subsistence and happiness. Go on then, brother, in the great reformation you have undertaken. Persuade our red brethren then to be sober, and to cultivate their lands; and their women to spin and weave for their families. You will soon see your women and children well fed and clothed, your men living happily in peace and plenty, and your numbers increasing from year to year. It will be a great glory to you to have been the instrument of so happy a change, and your children's children, from generation to generation, will repeat your name with love and gratitude forever. In all your enterprises for the good of your people, you may count with confidence on the aid and protection of the United States, and on the sincerity and zeal with which I am myself animated in the furthering of this humane work. You are our brethren of the same land; we wish your prosperity as brethren should do. Farewell."

To a delegation of the Miamis and Delawares, he declared (January 8th, 1803), that Governor Harrison had, by his directions, agreed to accept a breadth of twenty-four leagues, extending from Point Coupee to the mouth of White River, where a breadth of seventy leagues had been bought of the tribes occupying it, and paid for; and this had been done from "the desire of peace and friendship" with the Indians, "and of doing nothing which should distress" them. He continued:

"You complain that our people buy your lands individually, and settle and hunt on them without leave. To convince you of the care we have taken to guard you against the injuries and arts of interested individuals, I now will give you a copy of a law, of our great council the Congress, forbidding individuals to buy lands from you, or to settle or hunt on your lands; and making them liable to severe punishAnd if you will at any time seize such individuals, and deliver them to any officer of the United States, they will be punished according to law.

ment.

"We have long been sensible, brothers, of the great injury you receive from an immoderate use of spirituous liquors; and although it be profitable to us to make and sell these liquors, yet we value more the preservation of your health and happiness. Heretofore we apprehended you would be displeased, were we to withhold them from you. But believing it to be your desire, we have taken measures to prevent their being carried into your country; and we sincerely rejoice at this proof of your wisdom. Instead of spending the produce of your hunting in purchasing this pernicious drink, which produces poverty, broils and murders, it will now be employed in procuring food and clothing for your families, and increasing instead of diminishing your numbers.

"You have proposed, brothers, that we should deduct from your next year's annuity, the expenses of your journey here; but this would be an exactness we do not

practise with our red brethren. We will bear with satisfaction the expenses of your journey, and of whatever is necessary for your personal comfort; and will not, by deducting them, lessen the amount of the necessaries which your women and children are to receive the next year."

He informed them also that, at their request, smiths had been provided them; and that the United States agent would furnish them implements of husbandry and manufacture whenever they would use them.

The President's favorite plan in regard to the ultimate disposition of the Indian race is sketched in a letter to Hawkins; and it will now sound to most persons more like a dream of philanthropy than a serious proposition. He wrote:

"I consider the business of hunting as already become insufficient to furnish clothing and subsistence to the Indians. The promotion of agriculture, therefore, and household manufacture, are essential in their preservation, and I am disposed to aid and encourage it liberally. This will enable them to live on much smaller portions of land, and indeed will render their vast forests useless but for the range of cattle; for which purpose, also, as they become better farmers, they will be found useless, and even disadvantageous. While they are learning to do better on less land, our increasing numbers will be calling for more land, and thus a coincidence of interests will be produced between those who have lands to spare, and want other necessaries, and those who have such necessaries to spare, and want lands. This commerce, then, will be for the good of both, and those who are friends to both ought to encourage it. You are in the station peculiarly charged with this interchange, and who have it peculiarly in your power to promote among the Indians a sense of the superior value of a little land, well cultivated, over a great deal, unimproved, and to encourage them to make this estimate truly. The wisdom of the animal which amputates and abandons to the hunter the parts for which he is pursued should be theirs, with this difference, that the former sacrifices what is useful, the latter what is not. In truth, the ultimate point of rest and happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs meet and blend together, to intermix and become one people. Incorporating themselves with us as citizens of the United States, this is what the natural progress of things will of course bring on, and it will be better to promote than to retard it. Surely it will be better for them to be identified with us, and preserved in the occupation of their lands, than be exposed to the many casualties which may endanger them while a separate people."

If the Indians did not come into this view, the President's next choice was to induce them all to emigrate beyond the Mississippi, supplying them with everything essential to their comfort and happiness-and give them a home where the conflicting interests of white settlers would not pursue them. His present anxiety was to secure a belt of territory of the Indians on the east bank of the Mississippi throughout its whole length, for the