Jefferson abolished the internal revenue system of liquor taxes and
licenses in 1801, so in this sense he was no advocate of the regulation of
alcoholic beverages.  Yet he did approve of prohibition regulation in
Native American communities;  in 1801 Chief Little Turtle of the Miami
Indians traveled to Washington to ask Jefferson to prohibit the sale of
alcoholic beverages among his people and Jefferson thought this a good
idea.  Here is the message to Congress advocating prohibition among the
Indians:

January 27, 1802

Gentlemen of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

I lay before you the accounts of our Indian trading houses, as rendered up
to the 1st day of January, 1801, with a report of the Secretary of War
thereon, explaining the effects and the situation of that commerce and the
reasons in favor of its further extension.  But it is believed that the
act authorizing this trade expired so long ago as the 3d of March, 1799.
Its revival, therefore, as well as its extension, is submitted to the
consideration of the Legislature.

The act regulating trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes will also
expire on the 3d day of March next.  While on the subject of its
continuance it will be worthy the consideration of the Legislature whether
the provisions of the law inflicting on Indians, in certain cases, the
punishment of death by hanging might not permit its commutation into death
by military execution, the form of the punishment in the former way being
peculiarly repugnant to their ideas and increasing the obstacles to the
surrender of the criminal.

These people are becoming very sensible of the baneful effects produced on
their morals, their health, and existence by the abuse of ardent spirits,
and some of them earnestly desire a prohibition of that article from being
carried among them.  The Legislature will consider whether the
effectuating [of] that desire would not be in the spirit of benevolence
and liberality which they have hitherto practiced toward these our
neighbors, and which has had so happy an effect toward conciliating their
friendship.  It has been found, too, in experience that the same abuse
gives frequent rise to incidents tending much to commit our peace with the
Indians.

It is now become necessary to run and mark the boundaries between them and
us in various parts.  The law last mentioned has authorized this to be
done, but no existing appropriation meets the expense.

Certain papers explanatory of the grounds of this communication are
herewith inclosed.

TH: JEFFERSON.

I don't know where Conor Cruise O'Brien read that Jefferson opposed the
federal regulation of alcoholic beverages among Native Americans.  His
comments strike me as anachronistic; he seems to attribute a social
Darwinism to Jefferson that does not characterize him or any other early
American political figure.  In the epilogue to his excellent study *Deadly
Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America*, Peter Mancall attributes
the failure of Native American prohibition efforts to the interests of
drinking Indians and colonists who supported the trade.  Jefferson clearly
supported the expansion of commercial and cultural contact but he was
prepared to regulate that contact in the interest of preserving America's
"friendship" with Native peoples.

Jon

P.S.  Here is the citation for the Jefferson message:

James B. Richardson ed., *A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the
Presidents, 1789-1908*, vol. 1 (1897; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National
Literature and Art, 1909), 334-335.


--------------------------------------
Jon Stephen Miller
Managing Editor
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Department of English
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa  52242-1492
[log in to unmask]  (319) 335-0592
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