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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

DRAFT OF MESSAGE ON SOUTHERN INDIANS 1 - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 7 (Correspondence 1792-1793) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 7

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

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DRAFT OF MESSAGE ON SOUTHERN INDIANS1

[Dec. 7, 1792]

Gentlemen of the Senate & H. of Representatives,—

I now lay before you, for your further information, some additional advices lately received, on the subject of the hostilities committed by the Chuckamogga Towns, or under their name and guidance.

The importance of preventing this hostile spirit from spreading to other tribes, or other parts of the same tribe of Indians, a considerable military force actually embodied in their neighborhood, and the advanced state of the season, are circumstances which render it interesting that this subject should obtain your earliest attention.

The Question of War, being placed by the Constitution with the legislature alone, respect to that made it my duty to restrain the operations of our militia to those merely defensive: & considerations involving the public satisfaction, & peculiarly my own, require that the decision of that Question, whichever way it be, should be pronounced definitively by the legislature themselves.

[1 ]This is not dated, but was probably written in December, 1792. The message sent was entirely different. See Journal of the Senate, I., 462.