of Grenville, than we lost by the
six
years war before; it is all owning to the in-
troduction
of this liquor amongst us.—
Brothers, how to remove this
evil from our
country we do not know; if we had known
that it
would have been a proper subject to
have mentioned to you in our
council yes-
terday, we should surely have done it.
This
subject, brothers, composes a part of
what we intend to make known
to the great
council of our white brethren. On our
arrival
there, we shall endeavor to explain
to our great father, the
president, a great
many evils that have arisen in our
country
from the introduction of this liquor by the
white
traders.
Brothers and Friends,
In addition to what I have before
ob-
served of this great evil in the country of
your red
brethren, I will say further, that
it has made us poor. It is this
liquor that
causes our young men to go without
clothes, our
women and children to go
without any thing to eat; and sorry am
I
to mention now to you, brothers, that the
evil is increasing
every day, as the white
settlers come nearer to us, and bring
those
kettles they boil that stuff in they call whis-
key, of
which our young men are so ex-
tremely fond. Brothers, when our
young
men have been out hunting, and are return-
ing home loaded
with skins and furs, on
their way if it happens that they
come
along where some of this whiskey is depo-
sited, the white
man who sells it tells them
to take a little drink; some of them
will
say, No, I do not want it—they go on till
they come to
another house, where they
find more of the same kind of drink; it
is
there again offered, they refuse, and again
the third time,
but finally the fourth or
fifth time one accepts of it and takes
a
drink, and getting one he wants another,
and then a third and
a fourth till his senses
have left him. After his reason
comes
back again to him, he asks for his peltry:
The answer is,
you have drank them.
Where is my gun? It is gone. Where is
my
shirt? You have sold it for whiskey!! Now,
brothers, figure
to yourselves what a con-
dition this man must be in; he has a
fami-
ly at home, a wife and children that stand
in need of the
profits of his hunting: what
must their wants be when he himself is
even
without a shirt?
This, Brothers, I can assure you, is a
fact that often happens among
us; as I
have before observed, we have no means
to prevent it.
If you, Brothers, have it
in your power to render us any
assistance,
we hope the Great Spirit will aid you—
we shall lay
these evils before our great
and good father; we hope he will
remove
them from amongst us; we shall assure
him that if he does
not, there will not be
many of his red children living long in
our
country. The Great Spirit, Brothers, has
made you see as we
see; we hope, Bro-
thers, and expect, that if you have any
in-
fluence with the great council of the Unit-
ed States, that
you will make use of it in
behalf of your red brethren.
My Brothers and Friends,
The talks that you delivered to us
when
we were in council yesterday, were cerain-
ly highly
pleasing to myself as well as to
my brother chiefs; we rejoiced to
hear
you speak such words to us; but we all
plainly saw that
there was a great difficulty
in the way that ought to be removed
be-
fore your good intentions towards us could
be carried into
effect: we agree with you,
Brothers, that this great evil amongst
us,
spirituous liquors, must first be removed;
after this is
done, we hope you will find
an easy access to us, much earlier than
you
can have at present.
My Brothers and Friends,
I hope that if we all try to prevent
the
introduction of spiritous liquors in the
country of your red
brethren, that the
Great Spirit will aid us in it, and that
we
shall meet with no difficulty in doing it;
after this is
done, we hope that the great
services you have designed to do for
us, the
great things mentioned by you in our
council yesterday,
may take place and
have that success you so much desire.
My Brothers and Friends,
You have asked us our opinion on
the
subject of the introduction of spiritous li-
quors into our
country. I have now given
it to you. If I have given it to you in
such
a manner that you do not understand me,
I would wish to be
make known to
every body. We have our enemies in our
own country
as all other persons have in
theirs; it is no unusual thing,
Brothers,
to hear some people amongst us, (you
will perceive,
Brothers, that these are
people that are interested in keeping
us
ignorant,) when they hear talks that have
been delivered by
our chiefs to people that
are capable of rendering us services,
they
say to our people, do you not hear?
your chiefs have
sold you—your chiefs
have sold your lands. They put
bad
stories in the mouths of our young men:
for this reason,
Brothers, all that I have
said I wish to be made public; I
wish
every body to know it. I only mention
this to you,
Brothers; if it is improper,
I have no objection to your keeping
it
amongst yourselves, but if it could be
made public I would
wish it—I have nothing
further to say. Sits down.
My Brothers and Friends,
I have nothing to say on the subject,
we
have now been talking over. My friend
the Little Turtle
swer to those things you have mentioned to
us; we are but one people and have but
one voice.
Brothers and Friends,
We have never had it in our power to
hold
such talks with you at this place be-
fore. We have frequently had
talks of
this kind with our brothers, the Quakers
of Philadelphia
very glad to see us, and we find you the
same. We hope brothers, that your
friendship and ours will never be broken.
Sits down.
The friend who delivered the second
communication, then again
addressed them
as follows:
Friends and Brothers,
What you have communicated to us at
this
time, has been clearly understood—
and we are glad to find that you
see things
in the same light that we see them. The
several
matters you have mentioned, and
the difficulties you have stated,
claim our
sympathy and solid consideration, and we
shall, I
trust, take the subject up, and if
way should open for us to move
forward,
in aiding you in your application to the
general
government, we shall be willing,
either on this occasion, or any
other, to
render every service in our power.
To the Congress of the United States.
The memoral of the committee appointed
for Indian affairs by the
yearly meeting
of Friends, held in Baltimore
Respectfully represents—
THAT a concern to introduce among
some of the Indian tribes
north-west of the
river Ohio
of civil life, being several years since laid
before our yearly meeting, a committee
was appointed by that body to visit them,
to examine their situation, and endeavor
to ascertain in what manner so desirable a
purpose could be both effected—A part of
that committee after having obtained the
approbation of the president of the United
States, proceeded to perform the service
assigned them, and the result of their
enquiries and observations, as reported to
the yearly meeting, was, that the quantity
of spirituous liquors with which those
people are supplied by traders and frontier
settlers, must counteract the effect of every
measure, however wise of salutary, which
can be devised to improve their situation.
The truth of this being abundantly
confirmed by a speech recently
made before
us by the Miami
which we herewith offer to your considera-
tion, and believe the evil to be of such
magnitude, that unless it can be altogether
removed, or greatly restrained, no ration-
al hope of success in the proposed under-
taking can be entertained, we are induced
to solicit the attention of the national le-
gislature to this interesting and important
subject, a subject which we believe involves
not only their future welfare, but even
their very existence as a people.
Signed on behalf of the committee by
Evan Thomas,