An Extraordinary Autograph Letter dated 22 November, 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson to Governor John Milledge of Georgia proposing that all Native Americans east of the Mississippi might move into the new Louisiana Purchase, umber ink on single sheet of wove paper, with holograph header, greeting, text, and recipient, and autograph signature lower right (blank reverse), 10 in. x 8 15-16 in. originally folded twice in each direction), in modern archival presentation folder of blue buckram with gilt-stamped cover imprint, reading "THOMAS JEFFERSON /./ To Governor John Milledge of Georgia Outlining the / Consequences to the Indian Population as a Result of / THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE" [Estimate available upon request This quite extraordinary letter was enclosed by the President in a separate autograph envelope (now in a private collection), inscribed-with its franking privilege uppermost-"Free / Th: Jefferson Pr. US / His Excellency / Governor Milledge / Augusta Georgia"; it bears the postal cancellation "Wash. City Nov 22 / FREE". Milledge had dated his August 5th letter from the then state capital at Louisville GA, and was technically resident there; but he owned a plantation near Augusta ( which also had been the capital), and Mr. Jefferson may have instructed his courier to call at both places. Provenance: Parke- Bernet, New York, March 2, 1959, Lot 198 Note: On August 5, 1803, John Milledge, Governor of Georgia (1802-1806) had written a letter directly to President Jefferson (now among the Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress), complaining that a previous letter of his, of May 19th to the Secretary of War, requesting Federal approval of delegates to treat with the Creek Nation for the recovery of Georgian slaves, prisoners, and property, had been answered only with a stalling letter of October 13th, impugning his State's right to involve itself in those matters. In a masterly response to Milledge's four-page grievance, Jefferson in one short paragraph reminds him that more comprehensive Indian negotiations (including a new Creek boundary with Georgia itself) had preempted mere property claims, which however had now been implemented; the President then goes on to mention more general results from those cessions, in long-range routes for new Federal post-roads. In a surprising "bombshell", though, Mr. Jefferson also suggests that his recent Louisiana Purchase may soon have the effect of "inducing" the eastern Indian Nations to "transplant themselves" beyond the Mississippi. The portentous three-way tug of war reflected in this diplomatic correspondence-between Federal and States' rights, and the relations of both to the Indian Nations-would continue to have momentous implications for decades to come.