In his essay, Jefferson Philanthropy and the American Indians, Bernard Sheehan asserts that from the time period after the American Revolution to the 1820s, the government of the United States pursued a policy of assimilation with regard to the Native American tribes along the western frontier. This policy, which he calls Jeffersonian Philanthropy, more or less dominated the approach taken until it became clear in the 1820s that the process would either take too long, for western movement of the white man was moving faster than the Native Americans were assimilating into white culture, or certain tribes would just not give up their native culture.
Sheehan makes it clear that this was just not Jefferson’s own private feelings but instead the consensus thought of enlightened men of the new emerging nation. The thought was that as the Native American tribes continued to be in contact with white civilization, eventually they would see the benefits of being civilized and their savagery would disappear. Native Americans would become part of the expanding nation. As pointed out in the document Thomas Jefferson on Indians and Blacks, 1787, this was the pattern of history that they understood. Rome brought civilization to Northern Europe. Native Americans were no different than the people of Northern Europe had been before Rome showed them the benefits of civilization. Jefferson in fact extolls the virtues of the Native Americans in this document. The politicians directing policy from the East firmly believed that given time the Native Americans would voluntarily give up their “savage” ways and settle down to farming and commerce.
Important to this policy was the belief that the new Americans had toward their own destiny. After defeating the most powerful nation in the world to gain their independence, the new nation felt that nothing would impede their civilization of the new continent. Their belief in their own destiny and the righteousness of their cause led them to overlook the fact that the Native Americans felt that their own culture was superior to the white man’s. This is captured in the document A Shawnee Parable of Resistance, 1803, in which an old Shawnee chief explains that they were once the masters of the continent, by their misconduct the Master of Light took away their knowledge and gave it to the white man, but soon the Shawnee will once again rule the continent.
In actual practice, the United Sates government did show signs of the Jeffersonian Philanthropy in dealing with Native Americans. The two documents which explain the theory and a resulting treaty, President Jefferson Displays Machiavellian Benevolence Toward the Indians, 1803 and The Practice of Jeffersonian Benevolence: William Henry Harrison’s Treaty with the Delaware Indians, 1804, show how then President Jefferson wished for the treaty to be fair (and even protect the Native Americans from frontiersmen) and encourage assimilation. The eventual treaty did provide for not only money but for men to teach the Delaware the ways of civilization and also provide domesticated farming animals.
Sheehan does a good job of convincing the reader that this was
the actual intention of the government at the time but what he does neglect
to take into account is the actual implementation of the treaties entered
into during this period. James H. Merrell brings this topic up in
his essay, Indian-White Relations in the New Nation, relating the relatively
low priority given to fulfilling the treaties by the government in all
areas, enforcement, money, education, and outright abandonment of duties.
In this regard he falls short in stating that there was no ill will intended.
For if they truly wanted only what was best for the Native Americans, then
they would have honored the treaties entered into.
Questions
1. Had the government of the United States honored their treaties with Native American tribes to the letter, what would have been the effects?
2. What reasons, given Sheehan wrote his essay in 1973, would there be for the “feel good” tone of his approach to assimilation?
3. Was the Jeffersonian Philanthropy too removed from the situation,
the frontier, to adequately assess the problem? What situation seems
similar?