The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
My friends and children, I have now an important advice to
give you. I have already told you that you and all the red men
are my children, and I wish you to live in peace and friendship
with one another as brethren of the same family ought to
do. How much better is it for neighbors to help than to
hurt one another; how much happier must it make them. If you
will cease to make war on one another, if you will live in friendship
with all mankind, you can employ all your time in providing
food and clothing for yourselves and your families. Your men
will not be destroyed in war, and your women and children will
lie down to sleep in their cabins without fear of being surprised
by their enemies and killed or carried away. Your numbers will
be increased instead of diminishing, and you will live in plenty
and in quiet. My children, I have given this advice to all your
red brethren on this side of the Mississippi; they are following
it, they are increasing in their numbers, are learning to clothe and
provide for their families as we do. Remember then my advice,
my children, carry it home to your people, and tell them that
from the day that they have become all of the same family, from
the day that we became father to them all, we wish, as a true
father should do, that we may all live together as one household,
and that before they strike one another, they should go to their
father and let him endeavor to make up the quarrel.
My children, you are come from the other side of our great
island, from where the sun sets, to see your new friends at the
sun rising. You have now arrived where the waters are constantly
rising and falling every day, but you are still distant from
the sea. I very much desire that you should not stop here, but
go and see your brethren as far as the edge of the great water.
I am persuaded you have so far seen that every man by the way
has received you as his brothers, and has been ready to do you
all the kindness in his power. You will see the same thing quite
to the sea shore; and I wish you, therefore, to go and visit our
great cities in that quarter, and see how many friends and brothers
you have here. You will then have travelled a long line
from west to east, and if you had time to go from north to south,
from Canada to Florida, you would find it as long in that direction,
and all the people as sincerely your friends. I wish you,
my children, to see all you can, and to tell your people all you
see; because I am sure the more they know of us, the more
they will be our hearty friends. I invite you, therefore, to pay
a visit to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and the cities still
beyond that, if you are willing to go further. We will provide
carriages to convey you and a person to go with you to see that
you want for nothing. By the time you come back the snows
will be melted on the mountains, the ice in the rivers broken up,
and you will be wishing to set out on your return home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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