Virginia Argus

WASHINGTON CITY, OCTOBER 3.

The following is the ADDRESS lately delivered by the PRESIDENT of the United States, to the chiefs of the Osage Nation. We offer it to the public, with a confidence that the sentiments of good will it breathes towards the aborigines of the soil, will afford as much pleasure to the reader, as they confer honor on the government.

My Children, White Hairs, Chiefs and Warriors of the Osage Nation.

I repeat to you assurances of the satisfaction it has given me to receive you here. Besides the labor of such a journey, the confidence you have shewn in the honor and friendship of my countrymen is peculiarly gratifying, and I hope you have seen that your confidence was justly placed, that you have found yourselves, since you crossed the Mississippi, among brothers and friends with whom you were as safe as at home.

My Children: I sincerely weep with you over the graves of your chiefs and friends, who fell by the hands of their enemies lately descending the Osage river. Had they been prisoners, and living we would have recovered them: but no voice can awake the dead, no power undo what is done; on this side of the Mississippi where our government has been long established, and our authority organized our friends visiting us are safe. We hope it will not be long before our voice will be heard and our arm respected, by those who meditate to injure our friends, on the other side of the river; in the mean time Governor Harrison will be directed to take proper measures to enquire into the circumstances of the transaction, to report them to us for consideration and for the further measures they may require.

My Children: By late arrangements with France and Spain, we now take their place as your neighbors, friends and fathers; and we hope you will have no cause to regret the change. It is so long since our forefathers came from beyond the great water, that we have lost the memory of it, and seem to have grown out of this land, as you have done; never more will you have occasion to change your fathers. We are all now of one family, born in the same land, and bound to live as brothers, and the strangers from beyond the great water are gone from among us, the great Spirit has given you strength, and has given us strength; not that we might hurt one another, but to do each other all the good in our power.

Our dwellings indeed are very far apart: but not too far to carry on commerce and useful intercourse. You have furs and peltries which we want, and we have clothes and other useful things that you want; let us employ ourselves then in mutually accommodating each other. To begin this on our part, it was necessary to know what nations inhabited the great country called Louisiana, which embraces all the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri, what number of peltries they could furnish, what quantities and kinds of merchandise they would require, where would be the deposits most convenient for them, and to make an exact map of all these waters. For this purpose I sent a beloved man, Capt. Lewis, one of my own household, to learn something of the people with whom we are now united, to let you know we are your friends, to invite you to come and see us, and to tell us how we can be useful to you. I thank you for the readiness with which you have listened to his voice, and for the favor you shewed him in his passage up the Missouri. I hope your countrymen may favor and protect him as far as they extend. On his return we shall hear what he has seen and learnt, and proceed to establish trading houses where our red brethren shall think best, and to exchange commodities with them on terms with which they will be satisfied.

With the same views I had prepared another party to go up the Red river to its source, thence to the source of the Arkansas, and down to its mouth, but I will now give orders that they will only go a small distance up the Red river this season, and return to tell us what they have seen, and that they shall not set out for the head of that river till the ensuing spring, when you will be at home, and will I hope, guide and guard them on their journey. I also propose the next year to send another small party up the river Kansas to its source, thence to the head of the river of the Panis, and down to its mouth, and other up the river on the north side of the Missouri. For guides along these rivers we must make arrangements with the nations inhabiting them.

My Children: I was sorry to learn that a schism had taken place in your nation, and that a part of your people had withdrawn with a great tract to the Arkansas river, we will send an agent to them and will use our best offices to prevail on them to return, and to live in union with you. We wish to make them also our friends, and to make that friendship, and the weight it may give us with them, useful to you and them.

We propose, my children, immediately to establish an agent to reside with you, who will speak to you our words, and convey yours to us; who will be the guardian of our peace and friendship, convey truths from one to the other, dissipate all falsehoods which might tend to alienate and divide us, and maintain a good understanding and friendship between us; as the distance is too great for you to come often and tell us your wants, you will tell them to him on the spot, and he will convey them to us in writing, so that we shall be sure that they come from you; through the intervention of such an agent, we shall hope that our friendship will forever be preserved, no wrong will ever be done you by our nation, and we trust that yours will do none to us; and should ungovernable individuals commit unauthorised outrage on either side, let them be duly punished; or if they escape, let us make to each other the best satisfaction the case admits, and not let our peace be broken by bad men, for all people have some bad men among them whom no laws can restrain. As you have taken so long a journey to see your fathers, we wish you not to return till you shall have visited our country and towns towards the sea coast. This will be new and satisfactory to you, and it will give you the same knowledge of the country on this side of the Mississippi, which we are endeavoring to acquire of that on the other side, by sending trusty persons to explore them.

We propose to do in your country only what we are desirous you should do in ours we will provide accommodations for your journey, for your comfort while engaged in it, and for your return in safety to your own country, carrying with you those proofs of esteem with which we distinguish our friends, and shall particularly distinguish you. On your return tell your people that I take them all by the hand, that I become their father hereafter, that they shall know our nation only as friends and benefactors; that we have no views upon them but to carry on a commerce useful to them and us; to keep them in peace with their neighbors, that their children may multiply, may grow up and live to a good old age, and their women no longer fear the tomahawk of any enemy.

My children these are my words, carry them to your nation, keep them in your memories, and our friendship in your hearts and may the Great Spirit look down upon us, and cover us with the mantle of his love.

TH: JEFFERSON.

At the time the foregoing address was delivered, the Chiefs were presented with the following instrument of writing on parchment.

Chiefs and Warriors of the Osage nation of Indians!

The president of the United States takes you by the hand and invites you and all the nations of Red people within the territory of the United States to look up to him as their father and friend, and to rely in full confidence upon his unwavering disposition to lead and protect them in the paths of peace and harmony, and to cultivate friendship with their brothers of the same color, and with the citizens of the United States.

We have now made the chain of friendship bright between us, binding us altogether. For your and our sakes, and for the sake of your and our children we must prevent it from becoming rusty. So long as the mountains in our land shall endure, and our rivers flow, so long may the red and white people dwelling in it, live in the bonds of brotherhood and friendship.

In order that this friendship may be perpetual, and to prevent as far as possible every cause which might interrupt it. It is hereby announced and declared by the authority of the United States, that all Lands belonging to you lying within the territory of the United States, shall be and remain the property of your nation, unless you shall voluntarily relinquish or dispose of the same—and all persons, citizens of the United States, are hereby strictly forbidden to disturb you or your nation, in the quiet possession of said lands.

The president of the United States sends you by your beloved Cluely now present, a chain ; it is made of pure gold, which will never rust—and may the Great Spirit assist us in keeping the chain of friendship, of which this golden chain is an emblem, bright for a long succession of ages.

Given under my hand and the seal of the War Office of the United States, at the City of Washington, this eighteenth day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and four, and of the independence of said states the twenty ninth.

(Signed)

H DEARBORN.

This has an allusion to a golden chain with which the instrument was embellished.