From Thomas Jefferson to the Senate and the House of Representatives, 16 February 1804
To the Senate and the House of Representatives
To the Senate and
House of Representatives of the US.
Information having been recieved some time ago, that the public lands in the neighborhood of Detroit required particular attention, the Agent appointed to transact business with the Indians in that quarter was instructed to enquire into, and report the situation of the titles and occupation of the lands private and public in the neighboring settlements. his report is now communicated, that the legislature may judge how far it’s interposition is necessary to quiet legal titles, confirm the equitable, to remove the past, and prevent future, intrusions, which have neither law nor justice for their basis.
Th: Jefferson
Feb. 16. 04.
RC (DNA: RG 46, LPPM, 8th Cong., 1st sess.); endorsed by a Senate clerk. PrC (DLC). RC (DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 1st sess.); endorsed by a House clerk. Recorded in SJL with notation “lands at Detroit.” Enclosure: Charles Jouett to Henry Dearborn, Detroit, 25 July 1803, enclosing a report on the settlements at Detroit and its vicinity, which includes concisely “all those facts concerning which I imagined the Government would wish to be informed”; for each settlement, Jouett provides details on its location, geography, population, economic activities (or lack thereof), and land tenure; the population is overwhelmingly Canadian; claims to land titles largely originate from Indian grants as early as the 1770s, as well as a handful of French grants from the 1740s and 1750s; some residents are squatters; almost no titles were confirmed by the French or British; although legal title to most of the occupied lands is questionable, Jouett found that most of the inhabitants consider themselves and their neighbors to be freeholders (MS in DNA: RG 233, PM, endorsed by a House clerk; printed in , Public Lands, 1:190-3); see also Notes on Charles Jouett’s Report on Detroit, [ca. 17 Feb. 1804].
For the information received previously regarding public lands in the vicinity of Detroit, see Vol. 36:24, 500, 607.
the agent: in 1802, the War Department appointed Charles Jouett agent for Indian affairs in the Northwest and Indiana Territories and agent for examining and managing claims at Detroit and its environs (Dearborn to Jouett, 27 July, 7 Sep. 1802, in DNA: RG 75, LSIA; Vol. 39:258n).
TJ received Jouett’s report under cover of a letter from Dearborn dated 17 Feb.: “I have the honor herewith to enclose Two copies of a Report made by Charles Jouett Esqr. Indian Agent at Detroit, in relation to the Titles of land at Detroit & its vicinity, the periods at Which they were settled &Ca. &Ca.” (RC in DLC, in a clerk’s hand, signed by Dearborn, at foot of text: “The President of the United States,” endorsed by TJ as received from the War Department on 17 Feb. and “Jouett’s report on Detroit” and so recorded in SJL; FC in Lb in DNA: RG 107, LSP). Lewis Harvie delivered TJ’s message and its accompanying papers to the Senate and House of Representatives on 17 Feb. The Senate ordered them to lie for consideration, while the House referred them to a committee formed in Nov. 1803 to consider amending acts for the sale of public lands (, 3:359; , 4:453, 456-7, 584). The message and report were printed on the order of the House as Message from the President of the United States, Transmitting a Letter and Report from the Agent Appointed to Transact Business with the Indians … 17th February 1804 (Washington, 1804).