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Jesup defended the use of northern Indians in a memorable letter to the Secretary of War dated December 20, 1837:

"I perceive in the papers a great deal of censure cast upon the department for employing Indians in the service of the United States. As I permit no one to be lashed over my shoulders, it is proper that I set the matter right. I am responsible for bringing Indian warriors into the service. I raised and employed a brigade of them in Alabama, and a regiment in the last campaign in Florida; and I not only recommended, but urged, as a reference to my correspondence will show, the employment of northern Indians in this campaign; and to save American blood, I would employ the dogs of Cuba, if I could obtain them, regardless alike of the cant of hypocrites or the bluster of demagogues. There are men, I perceive, and those occupying high stations, too, who seem to consider Indian atrocities, when exercised upon the people of the frontier, as so much matters of course as not to excite the slightest emotion. Their constant theme is the wrongs of the poor Indians, without a thought for the slaughtered wives and children, and conflagrated dwellings, of their own countrymen. I envy not that man his feelings whose sympathies are all reserved for the ruthless savage."

In June he had likewise defended his decision to offer plunder to the Indian troops:

"There is no obligation to spare the property of the Indians; they have not spared that of the citizens. Their negroes, cattle and horses, as well as other property which they possess, will belong to the corps by which they are captured."