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President Thomas Jefferson twice signed ALS re: Indian Land at Sag Harbor
President Thomas Jefferson twice signed ALS re: Indian Land at Sag Harbor
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Jefferson Thomas 1743 - 1826 President Thomas Jefferson beautiful twice signed ALS discussing Indian Land at Sag Harbor
Clean, stunning ALS scripted entirely in the hand of Thomas Jefferson as President, 8" x 6.5", dated and signed twice. Dated "July 17. 06". Signed to the top of the page as "Th Jefferson", and additionally signed at the bottom as "Th Jefferson". Single center fold with professional repair to tiny separations along outer fold. Pin hole along fold, with tiny chipping to outer edges of page. Else near fine condition.


A superb example of a clean President Thomas Jefferson ALS written to Mr. Gallatin, the Secretary Of Treasury (and who has the honor of being the longest tenured Secretary in American history). This letter addresses the highly charged period of our history between the Native American Indians who were being continually compromised and marginalized, and the settlers of Sag Harbor a thriving hot bed for Whaling.

Sag Harbor's earliest inhabitants were the Algonquin Indians, specifically the Montauketts, a tribe of Algonquian. They called this place Weg-wag-onuch which was derived from the Algonquin word ":Weg-quae-and-auke" meaning "the land or place at the end of the hill". In the late 1600's Sag Harbor was made up of hills, streams, meadows and swamps located what is now called Southampton and East Hampton. Sag Harbor prospered as a prominent Whaling community and was tied to the fortunes of her whaling ships which effected the economies and architecture of the surrounding agrarian communities. However before this rapid rise, and between 1653 and 1742, three different groups of white East Hampton settlers purchased Native American land, each expanding East Hampton rights further east. Tensions grew between the Montauketts and East Hampton whites. Through the 1650s as the white settlement was expanding, the Montaukett population was in decline. Military attacks and European diseases decimated the population. The English asserted their sovereignty over the Montauketts by negotiating unfair land transactions and threatening their subsistence with unattended livestock that damaged hunting grounds and planting fields.

The complex land agreements between the Whites and Indians continued and the town purchased the remaining Native lands east of Fort Pond for one hundred pounds, and granted the Montauketts residency rights in perpetuity. This was the "foot in the door" for the English settlers who used this position to slowly make the Montaukett land more and more uninhabitable for the Natives. The Montauketts agreed to accept two pounds per year instead of the lump sum of one hundred pounds (in addition to amounts that they already received yearly for grazing access). But the relationship between the Montauketts and the town grew tense as Montauketts complained of damages by grazing animals and missed annuity payments. Dissatisfied with their treatment by the town, the Montauketts negotiated a more lucrative sale of the same lands east of Fort Pond to two wealthy men from New York. This deal, however, violated a previous agreement between the Montauketts and the town which permitted the Town Trustees exclusive rights to the purchase of Montauk lands. The town challenged the Montaukett sale to the New York men, and moved quickly to establish a new agreement with the Montauketts, detailing transactions and rights between the two parties.

As one can see, Indian land was a source of contention with much financially at stake. Throughout the 1700's the English Whites purposefully marginalized the Native Americans with the ultimate agenda of hoping the population of the Montaukett would just disappear- resorting to any threats of their expansion by immediately sequestering them, and even prohibiting Montaukett marriages with non-Montauketts.

Fast forward to the date of this letter, 1806 and we see Thomas Jefferson has now been thrown into the middle of this on-going struggle between the English Whites and the Native Americans at Sag Harbor, which is now in it boon phase as one of the Whaling capitals of the world. Jefferson pens to Gallatin "the claims of the parties (the English inhabitants of Sag Harbor) depend on the Indian right of soil, on the legal effect of the Indian conveyance & contracts & the degree of patronage or guardianship exercised over them by the government of New York". A hundred years of contesting land ownership with the Native American Indians, now with a long and questionable history, still unresolved, still heated, and still with attempts to write them out of local history by the settlers.

Jefferson believed Native American peoples to be a noble race who were "in body and mind equal to the whiteman" and believed they were endowed with an innate moral sense and a marked capacity for reason. However, Jefferson developed plans for Indian Removal to lands West of the Mississippi, including forced removal such as that carried out by later presidents in the Trail of Tears. Before and during his presidency, Jefferson discussed the need for respect, brotherhood, and trade with the Native Americans, and he initially believed that causing them to adopt European-style agriculture and modes of living would allow them to quickly "progress" from "savagery" to :civilization". Yet beginning in 1803, Jefferson's private letters show increasing support for a policy of removal. In his letter to Mr. Gallatin, although he acknowledged the need to review the "lex loci'" and the "conveyance and contracts", he also emphasized that the petitioners of the inhabitants of Sag Harbar could "appeal" to the laws of the land.

The fascinating important letter, richly entrenched in history is shown in full below:

"Th. Jefferson to Mr. Gallatin

I return you the petitions of the inhabitants of Sag harbor and of the keeper of the Light house there. The claims of the parties depend on the Indian right of soil, on the legal effect of the Indian conveyance & contracts & the degree of patronage of guardianship exercised over them by the government of N. York. The rule of decision being the lex loci, the science & authority of the state tribunals ought to be appealed to. There might be cases indeed where the acts even of a civil officer of the US might be to outrageous & dissocial as that we might remove him at that short hand from infesting the neighborhood but that is not the character of the present case; and I do not see that the keeper has done anything which should deprive him of the right of an appeal to the laws of the land. Affectionate salutation.

Th Jefferson

July 17 06"

A superb scarce letter signed twice by Jefferson, allowing the reader to contemplate the rise of the English settlers, over the demise of the Native Americans in a hot spot of American commerce. Jefferson's long term expectation was that by assimilating the natives into a market-based, agricultural society and stripping them of their self suffiency, they would become economically heavily dependent on trade with white Americans, and would thereby be willing to give up land that they would otherwise not part with, in exchange for trade goods or to resolve unpaid debts.

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