Washington, George, and Henry Knox | Federal Indian Policy on the Western Frontier

Washington, George, and Henry Knox

United States. December 30th, 1794. Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. I lay before you a report made to me by the secretary of war respecting the frontiers of the United States. … Go. Washington. [Philadelphia: Printed by Childs and Swaine?, 1794]

8vo (225 x 135 mm, uncut). Some light browning. Stitched in original blue wrappers; lightly foxed, stained. Half green morocco slipcase gilt, chemise.

A very scarce War Department policy report on the Western Frontier, issued by Secretary Knox and unusual for his sympathetic understanding of the encroachment of settlers onto the ancestral land of Native Americans: "The desires of too many frontier White people to seize by force or fraud upon the neighbouring Indian lands has been, and still continues to be, an unceasing cause of jealousy and hatred on the part of the Indians, and it would appear upon a calm investigation that until the Indians can be quieted upon this point and rely with confidence upon the protection of their lands by the United States, no well grounded hope of tranquility can be entertained. … It is a melancholy reflection that our modes of population have been more destructive to the Indian natives than the conduct of the Conquerors of Mexico and Peru. The evidence of this is the utter extirpation of nearly all the Indians in most populous parts of the Union."

Rare: NAIP locates only three copies, at the Library of Congress, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Boston Athenaeum; ESTC also locates a copy at the Huntington. This copy belonged to Stephen Row Bradley (1754–1830), a graduate of Yale, Continental Army veteran, and the first United States Senator from Vermont.

PROVENANCE

Stephen Row Bradley (signature and address on front wrapper)

REFERENCE

ESTC W27116; Evans 29776