Jefferson Indian Peace Medal
Prior to the American Revolution, the British, French, and Spanish
had presented American Indian leaders with silver medals, as tokens
of distinction and allegiance. Because of the symbolic importance
of these medals in maintaining peaceful relations with Indian
tribes, the new United States government continued the practice.
Thomas Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, described the policy in 1793 as "an ancient custom from time immemorial." "The medals," he wrote,"are considered as complimentary things, as marks of friendship to those who come to see us, or who do us good offices, conciliatory of their good will towards us, and not designed to produce a contrary disposition towards others. They confer no power, and seem to have taken their origin in the European practice of giving medals or other marks of friendship to the negotiators of treaties and other diplomatic characters, or visitors of distinction."[1]
Medals were presented to Indian chiefs on their visits to the
national capital and on important occasions such as the signing
of a treaty. Federal officials distributed medals when traveling
through Indian territories. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
carried a large supply of t
he
Jefferson Indian peace medal on their expedition to the Pacific
Ocean from 1804 to 1806. Lewis and Clark called upon the Missouri
chiefs to send back "all the flags and medals which you may have
received from your old fathers the French and Spaniards. . . .
It is not proper since you have become the children of the great
chief of the Seventeen great nations of America, that you should
wear or keep those emblems of attachment to any other great father
but himself." [2] Missouri chiefs who visited
the city of Washington in the winter of 1805-1806 wore their Jefferson
peace medals on their chests, and were given silver chains to
suspend them by the governor of Massachusetts.
The
Jefferson peace medal, designed and engraved by John Reich [3],
was the first to bear the image of an American president. Jefferson
was depicted in profile on the obverse of the medal, with the
inscription: "TH. JEFFERSON PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. A.D. 1801."
The inscription on the reverse, "PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP," was symbolized
by the image of clasped hands and a crossed tomahawk and peace
pipe.
The Jefferson medal was struck in three sizes, from two to four inches in diameter. The two sides of the medal were struck separately, on thin sheets of silver, and then united by a silver band. The peace medals of succeeding administrations were struck from solid silver.
The Monticello Museum Shops sell reproductions of the Jefferson Indian peace medal. For information, please call (434) 984-9840.
--Lucia C. Stanton, Monticello Research Department, September
1993
Sources
Francis Paul Prucha, Indian Peace Medals in American History (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1971)
Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., The Image of Thomas Jefferson in the Public Eye (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1981), pp. 73-8
Pictured: Young Chief of Sack Nation (perhaps Wa Pawni Ha) by
unknown artist; Front (obverse) and Back (reverse) of Jefferson
Peace Medal by John Reich