From: Rod Phillips, History, Carleton University, Ottawa [log in to unmask] Regarding Robin Room's query on Jefferson's policies on alcohol and Indians, and the suggestion in a recent review that Jefferson advocated using alcohol to destroy the Indian population: The policies attributed to Jefferson the review are at odds with those reported by William Unrau in _White Man's Wicked Water_ (University of Kansas Press, 1996). On p. 17 Unrau quotes a speech by an Indian leader pleading for Jefferson to help stop the flow of alcohol that was devastatinng his people. Unrau suggests that this plea influenced Jefferson's policies and that he decried the effects of alcohol on the "morals, health, and existence" of Indians. Jefferson recommended that Congress should consider prohibiting the availability of "ardent spirits" to Indians, and Unrau describes this as breaking new ground because no previous legislation dealing with the Indian trade covered alcohol. The Act that emerged from Congress did not provide for prohibition, however, although it gave the President power to limit the distribution of spirits to Indians. Clearly there was no determined effort to restrict the alcohol trade to Indians, but Unrau's research (and there's more on Jefferson in this book) certainly does not suggest that Jefferson wanted to use alcohol to eliminate Indians. It would indeed be interesting to know the basis for the statement. Rod Phillips Roderick Phillips Editor, Journal of Family History/ Professor, Department of History ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6 Tel: (613) 520-2600 ext 2824; fax: (613) 520-2819 Email address: [log in to unmask] ----------------------------------------------------------------------