Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison/Proclamation Selling liquor to Indians in and around Vincennes
Proclamation: Forbidding Traders from Selling Liquor to Indians in and around Vincennes
July 20, 1801
Executive Journal, 4
This day the Governor Issued a proclamation expressly forbidding any Trader from selling or giving any Spirituous Liquors to any Indian or Indians in the Town of Vincennes and ordering that the Traders in future when the sold Liquor to the Indians should deliver it to them at the distance of at least a mile from the village or on the other side of the Wabash River. And Whereas certain evil disposed persons have made a practice of purchasing from the Indians (and giveing them Whiskey in exchange) articles of Cloathing, Cooking, and such other articles as are used in hunting, viz; Guns powder, Ball &c. he has thought proper to publish an Extract from the Laws of the United States, that the persons offending against the Law may know the penalties to which they are subject, he also extorts [exhorts] and requires all Magistrates and other Civil officers vigilantly to discharge their duties, by punishing, as the Law directs, all persons who are found drunk, or rioting in the streets or public houses; and requests and advises, the good Citizens of the Territory to aid and assist the Magistrates, in the execution of the Laws by Lodgeing information against, and by assisting to apprehend the disorderly and rioutuos persons, who constantly infest the streets of Vincennes and to inform against all those who violate the Sabbath by selling or Bartering Spirituous Liquors or who pursue any other unlawful business on the day set apart for the service of God.[1] [Abstract]
- ↑ For a description of the lawlessness in Vincennes 1796, see C. F. Volney, View.