Printed Document

Indian policy in Georgia

Letter to the Governor of Georgia; spends much of the letter discussing Indian policy. Hamilton reassures the Governor - who has been complaining of "Indian depredations" - that "the obligation upon the United States to afford adequate protection to the inhabitants of the frontiers, is no doubt of the highest and most sacred kind." Hamilton then scolds some of the violent frontiersmen, adding that "there is a duty no less strong upon those inhabitants to avoid giving occasion to hostilities." Hamilton states that there has certainly been a "spirit of animosity and revenge" among the Indians, but that a "candid and impartial survey" of historical events clearly show that "there is much to blame in the conduct of the frontier inhabitants." Praises the Governor for sending in General Elijah Clarke in order to remove the settlers from Indian lands. Calls the illegal white settlement "unjustifiable," "dangerous in its principle," and "essentially hostile to our Republican systems of Government."

1794

09

25

War Department

LC, RG 107, War Office Letter Book, 1791-1794, National Archives; copy RG 233, Messages from the President, Third Congress, National Archives.

George Mathews

Alexander Hamilton

Henry Knox

officer

doctor

Henry Gaither

Indians

William Blount

John Ish

Elijah Clarke

John Habersham

militia

Cherokees

Creeks

War Department

Treasury

Southwest Territory

South Carolina

Georgia

boundary

horse

frontier

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