To Thomas Jefferson from Henry Dearborn, with Jefferson’s Notes and Calculations, 12 January 1805
From Henry Dearborn,
with Jefferson’s Notes and Calculations
War Department January 12th. 1805
Sir,
I have the honor of transmitting herewith, a general view of the subject of our purchases from the several Indian nations, in the course of the last four years. It may not be strictly correct as to the respective quantities of land. But I presume the quantity is not in any case overrated. There may also be some small inaccuracies as to the sums paid by way of presents &c. but I am satisfied that the whole is sufficiently correct to answer the purpose intended.
I take the liberty of observing, that I had not considered the Chactaw and Vincennes bargains, in any other light than that of recognitions of the boundaries of former cessions, if so, it may be improper to take those cases into the present calculation. It will be found after leaving them out of the account, that the average price we have paid and engaged to pay for Indian cessions, does not amount to quite one quarter of a cent per acre; and that, exclusive of the purchase from the Sacs and Foxes, the remainder will fall a little short of one cent per acre, taking into the account all the expenses of Treaties: The amount of the several cessions and the sums paid and to be paid, being estimated as follows.
| Creek Cession in 1802 | |||||
| Acres. | Dollars | ||||
| cent | |||||
| Part of Tallasee County | 2.500.000 |  |
Sums paid & to be paid | 87.000 | 2½ |
| On the Oconee | 1.000.000 | ||||
| 3.500.000 | |||||
| cent | |||||
| Kaskaskias Cession | 8.000.000 | 1. Dollar pr. thousand | 8.000 | 1/10 | |
| cent | |||||
| Piankashaw & Delaware Cession | 2.000.0001 | 6. Dollars pr. thousand | 12.000 | ⅗ | |
| Sacs and Foxes | 50.000.0002 | 44. cents pr thousand | 22.000 | ||
| 63.000.000 | 129.000 | ||||
| Choctaw recognition was of | 1,955.020. | Expenses of treating estimated at | 13.000 | ||
| Vincennes do. | 1,912,320 | 142.000 | |||
Accept, Sir, the Assurances of my high respect & consideration.
H. Dearborn
| Louisiana. 30.° to 49.° = | 19.° lat. × | 69 = 1311 miles | × = 1,209,397 | |
| 22½° long. × | 41 = 922½ miles | |||
| 201,566 | to wit ⅙ deducted from the square | |||
| 1,007,831. | sq. miles × 640 = 645,011,840. as. ÷ 15. Ms. D. = 2 cents pr. ac |
| Florida E. of Perdido about | 1.° lat. × | 69 miles | × = 24,633 sq. miles × 640 = 15,765,120. as. |
| 6.° long. × | 59½ miles |
| the Choctaws. | from Petits prairies to 31.° is | 224. miles | |||
| all the waters of Misipi wd be in breadth | 84. miles | × = 18816. sq. mi. × 640 = | 12,042,240 | ||
| deduct | 1,955,020. | ours by recognition | |||
| 10,087,220 |
RC (DLC); in a clerk’s hand, signed by Dearborn; text and figures in italics are in TJ’s hand; at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 11 Jan. received from the War Department on 12 Jan. and “price of Indian purchases” and so recorded in SJL. PrC (PHi: Daniel Parker Papers); lacks TJ’s notations. FC (Lb in RG 107, LSP); lacks TJ’s notations.
The U.S. treaty of 17 Dec. 1801 with the Choctaw (Chactaw) Indians, as well as a “Provisional Convention” of 17 Oct. 1802, reinforced territorial limits established by earlier agreements between the Choctaws and the British (, 7:66-8, 73-4; Vol. 37:51; Vol. 39:279-80). More precise limits for the Vincennes tract, initially obtained by the United States as part of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, were established under the first article of the treaty of 7 June 1803 between the United States and several nations living north of the Ohio River (, 7:74-6; Vol. 41:642-3).
For the Treaties that factored into Dearborn’s estimates, see Vol. 39:223-4; Vol. 41:642-3; TJ to the Senate, 15 Nov. 1804; TJ to the Senate, 31 Dec. 1804.
1. Above this figure TJ wrote “2,130,000.”
2. Above this figure TJ wrote “51.”