Letter to the Quarterly Meeting of Friends at Hopewell

To the Quarty Meeting of Frds at Hopewell
Dear Friends
Having been lately religiously engaged in the exercise of relgious Endeavours to promote a Business of vey interest-
ing & extensive import both to our Society & the Inhabitants of this Continent at large;
in the Course of our Attention where to divers particular Matter have presented
& weightily impressed our Minds as Objects claiming the close & deep Attention of Friends
agreeable to the equitable & peaceable Testimonies we profess to maintain & adhere to;
and among others one material Concern peculiarly affecting our christian Community
throughout the United States we apprehend maybe especially worthy of your
very serious & important Consideration, which we are free & desirous, under a sense of Duty & the
Influence of an affectionate brotherly Freedom to communicate.
We believe it proper to premise that our yearly Meeting in 1792, sensibly
affected with the Calamities of War prevailing on the western Frontiers of these
States, appointed a large Committee to deliberate on & pursue such means as
under best direction might be instrumental to promote Peace & prevent the
further Effusion of human Blood; in Consequence whereof an Address was
prepared & presented to the President, Senate & House of Representatives of the
United States, setting forth that,
as it is consistent with our religious Principles,
so it has been our uniforn Care to admonish & caution our Members against
settling on Lands which have not been fairly purchased of the original Owners;
and as far as our Influence extends we mean to maintain this our ansient
Testimony inviolate, which from Experince has been found effectual to
to the Preservation of Peace with the Natives, who with great Hospitality cherished
& assisted our fore Fathers in their early Settlement of this Country.
and that,
being
interested in the Welfare of this Country, & convinced of the Expediency of further
Endeavours being used to encourage the Indians to come forward with a full
Representation & Statement of their Grievances, and that every just Cause of
Uneasiness in their Minds may be fully investigated & removed, we apprehend
it our Duty again to address you on this affecting & important Occasion; under
a Belief that nothing short of stict Jusitce will ever be a Basis of solid and
lasting Peace.
This Address, of which the foregoing is an Extract was duly presented,
after which, Confederacy being had with divers Indian Chiefs from different parts of
the Continent, it appeared the People they represented were solicous that some Frds
might attend the Treaty intended to be held in the year 1793; the Concern of our yearly
Meeting for the exercise of christian Care in a matter so interesting as improving
all Opportunities of cultivating Friendship with & promoting a disposition for Peace
in & towards the Indians, claiming the attentive Consideration of Friends both collect-
ively & individually, six Friends in the 4th:mo:1793 gave up their Names as resigned to
the arduous Service of visiting the Natives in their own Country at the Time & Place of holding
the aforesaid Treaty, which, whith the Approbation of the President, they performed; and
another Treaty being agreed to be held in the last Summer Autumn, Friends were informed that
some of our Members Attendance would be acceptable both to Government & the Indians,
and we the Subscribers two of us being of the number at [...] and impressed with a degree of the weight of the Concern, giving up
thereto attended accordingly; and frequent Interviews & Conferences with the Sachems and Chiefs
or the Six Nations, of whom upwards of 1600 were collected, in which great Confidence was
by them expressed, in Friends as a People religiously bound to the exercise of Justice &
promotion of Peace, declaring that ‘if we deceived them they could no more place Con-
fidence in Mankind’ -- and now Dear Friends, we affectionately request your
impartial Attention to the peculiar Occasion & Design of this Communication, which we wish
you to consider as proceeding from a sincere brotherly Regard & a Desire to be found in an
upright discharge of Duty--Soon after the Indians were collected some of their principal
Chiefs visited us & revived the Subject of Enquiry in Time past made respecting the original
Owner of the Lands about Hopewell in Virginia, expressing their Gladness that Friends [Page]
were willing to do Justice;divers Conferences were held amongst themselves & with us
relative to that Business, the Issue of which was that we were all of Opinion the Tuscaroras
were the People who formerly owned that Country; they are now the sixth Nation in the
Confederacy, and some of their Chief [...] Men appeared so confident of the Rectitude of their
Claim as to have entertained an Expectation that we came prepared to make them
full Compensation for their land in the Premises.General Chapin Superintendant of the six
Nation gave us his Judgement in writing in Confirmation of the Right of the
Tuscaroras, which with the Account of that People given by T. Jefferson leaves
apprehended, no Room to doubt of the reality of the Matter a copy of which is
herewith Sent.
2.
And now frnds having laid ye Subject before you not as Dictators
but as brethren Concerned in the Same Common Couse of Pro-
moting Truth & Righteousness, we trust you will take it into
Serious & Solid Consideration & if anything appears to remain Due from you
to these greatly Injured people (which no doubt Some of you
once thought) we hope you will chearfully Unite with us in
Contributing a Small part of your Substance for their Relief
& Comfort.The Nation who Now asserts their Right to the
Lands which you have been a Long time in Possessing of
in a peculiar manner Claims our Sympathy being the most
Destitute of all the Six Nations, and only Live & hunt on the Lands
of the Senecas Nation by their Indulgence; but are not considerd
as having any Rights in the Soil, & we believe the Testimony
of truth will suffer if someCompensation is not made
them from our Religious Society,
With Desires that Bro-
therly Love may Continue & abound among us we re-
main your Affectionate frds