Aside from the territorial purchase of New Orleans, Jefferson’s time in office saw the growth of the nation in economic and demographic terms. The growing number of settlers to the west would often clash with the local Indian population. In the Southeast the territorial and state governments forced out several tribes out of their ancestral homes. As President, Jefferson accorded with Georgia’s state government, that if the state were to abandon its claims on the lands to its west, the Federal military would help expel the Cherokee Nation from Georgia. This fully violated an existing treaty between the United States government and the Cherokee Nation and marked the first forced “Indian removal” by the Federal government. Many Indians were forced to flee to Spanish Florida where the lack of authority gave them much wanted freedom.
"If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi.” - President Jefferson to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn [1]
Meanwhile, in the Northwest, the Shawnee continuously laid raids into white settlements as their leaders attempted to form a Confederacy of Indian Tribes in the area. Relationships between Great Britain and the United States strained as it became clear the British were supplying the Shawnee and other tribes in the area with guns. For the most part, the Jefferson administration kept a cool head, following Washington’s Neutrality Act. But Britain’s incursions into Spanish Florida, and their unofficial support of Aaron Burr’s expedition into Louisiana and Tejas did not help ease the tensions. Halfway through Jefferson’s second term it became clear that the only way to avoid Britain from taking over Louisiana would be for the US to take it for itself.
Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, architect of the Indian Exodus.
[1] This is an actual quote BTW.
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