To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 8 July 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State July 8. 1796.
Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 1st and 4th instant. On the appointment of a superintendant of Indian Affairs in the room of Governor Blount—and on the running & marking the Cherokee boundary, I expect to be able to report to you on Monday next the opinion of the Heads of Departments.1
The Secretary of the treasury informs me that he directed the Comptroller to transmit to the Collectors of the Customs the act of Congress requiring their aid in the execution of the health laws of states relative to quarantine, with an injunction to render all the aid in their power to the State-Officers.2
The Secretary of War has furnished me with a copy of the orders issued from his office, on the subject of quarantine, which I have the honor to inclose.3 The date, I observe, is three days earlier than Governor Mifflin’s first letter requesting the aid which had been ordered.4 To prevent the crews or passengers of vessels from landing on the Jersey shore is impossible, unless the garrison of Mud Island were so numerous as to admit of placing a guard in each vessel. I am with the highest respect, sir, your most obt servant
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State. GW received this letter on 13 July (see his letter to Pickering, 18 July).
1. Pickering subsequently wrote GW on Tuesday, 12 July: “I have consulted the Secretaries of the Treasury & of War on the subject of running the Cherokee boundary, and the appointment of a Superintendant of Indian affairs for the southern department, and of agents for conducting a trade with the Indians; & now respectfully submit to you our joint opinions.
“The Secretary of War having informed us that some of the principal Cherokee Chiefs are to visit philadelphia the ensuing autumn, we think it will be best to postpone any decision until their arrival. The measure may then be taken up; and the time & place for commencing the running of the line be agreed on. We are the more inclined to advise this course, because the Cherokees are extremely desirous, according to Mr Dinsmoor’s information, that General Pickens, who is now engaged in the Georgia treaty, should be one of the Commissioners on the part of the United States; and because the winter would arrest the progress of the business soon after it should be commenced, seeing the distance of the parties & persons to be appointed is so great and that some months must be occupied in the previous arrangements. Mr Dinsmoor thinks also that a military guard must accompany the Commissioners.
“We are all of opinion that the appointment of agents for conducting a trade with the Indians, under the last act of Congress, should also be postponed: seeing there are no funds with which the goods necessary for that trade can at present be procured.
“With respect to a superintendant of Indian Affairs, in the room of Governor Blount, it would seem that no appointment can be made. By the act of Congress for the government of the territory south of the river Ohio, passed the 26th of May 1790, the office of superintendant was united with that of governor of the territory: but the territory being merged in the new state of Tennessee, and the territorial governor extinct, there remains no official character to which by law the office of superintendant can be annexed. It appears however that such an appointment is not of immediate necessity. Mr Dinsmoor, the Agent appointed to reside in the Cherokee nation, has manifested a judgement and discretion which will enable him very well to perform any services which may be required relative to the Cherokees; and Colo. Henley may be instructed as to the general conduct to be observed towards them and the Chickasaws & Choctaws; until Congress shall make provision for the office of superintendant—if such an office should by them be deemed necessary.
“Your letter of the 8th of July was received yesterday: I have communicated the same to the Secretaries of the Treasury and of War” (ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State). In this letter, Pickering referenced “An Act to regulate Trade and Intercourse with the Indian Tribes, and to preserve Peace on the Frontiers,” 19 May 1796, and “An Act for the Government of the Territory of the United States, south of the river Ohio,” 26 May 1790 ( 469–74, 123). GW replied to Pickering on 20 July.
2. Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr., wrote Pickering to this effect on this date (CtHi: Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Papers). The letter of instruction to the collectors has not been identified.
3. Secretary of War James McHenry sent a circular letter dated 22 June to officers at Governors Island, N.Y.; Mud Island, Pa.; Baltimore; Charleston, S.C.; and Norfolk, Va.: “I am directed by the president in conformity with a law of the United States to instruct you to aid and assist, as far as may comport with the nature of your Command ‘in the execution of Quarantine and also in the execution of the health laws’ of the State in which you are stationed” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
4. Pickering is referring to Thomas Mifflin to GW, 25 June (see also Wolcott to GW, 11 July, and n.4 to that document).