The location contemplated in the instructions to the commissioners was
on the Mississippi. That in the treaty being entirely different, I was
at that time disinclined to its ratification, and I have suffered it to
lie unacted on. But progressive difficulties in our foreign relations
have brought into view considerations other than those which then
prevailed. It is now, perhaps, as interesting to obtain footing for a
strong settlement of militia along our southern frontier eastward of the
Mississippi as on the west of that river, and more so than higher up the
river itself. The consolidation of the Mississippi Territory and the
establishment of a barrier of separation between the Indians and our
Southern neighbors are also important objects; and the Choctaws and
their creditors being still anxious that the sale should be made, I
submitted the treaty to the Senate, who have advised and consented to
its ratification. I therefore now lay it before both Houses of Congress
for the exercise of their constitutional powers as to the means of
fulfilling it.
TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 30, 1808.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
The posts of Detroit and Mackinac having been originally intended by the
Governments which established and held them as mere depots for commerce
with the Indians, very small cessions of land around them were obtained
or asked from the native proprietors, and these posts depended for
protection on the strength of their garrisons.
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