Tobias Lear to Henry Knox, 25 November 1792
Tobias Lear to Henry Knox
United States [Philadelphia] Novr 25th 1792
By the President’s Command T. Lear has the honor to return to the Secretary of War General Sevier’s letter, which the President has refused,1 and to inform the Secretary that the President observes, that the Secretary will in his answer to Genl Sevier let him know that by accounts from the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to the Southward, the disposition of the Creek nation is very different from what it is represented to be in General Sevier’s letter, and that as to his acting offensively the Secretary will give him such reply as is proper.2
Tobias Lear.
Secretary to the president of the United States
ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
1. The letter-book copy reads “perused.”
2. Knox enclosed John Sevier’s letter to him of 25 Oct. for GW’s review in a brief note to Lear written earlier on this date (DLC:GW). Neither that letter nor Knox’s reply to Sevier has been identified. On 26 Nov. 1792 Knox wrote William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory: “I have received a letter from Brigadier General Sevier dated the 25th of October, by which it would appear that he was in actual service at that period; and his letter seems to indicate an apprehension of a general Southern Indian War. The direct reverse of this picture is presented by Mr Seagrove as it relates to the Creeks; and your information of all the Cherokees, excepting the lower Towns, corroborates the general peaceable dispositions of that Tribe” ( 4:224). For the latest information available to Knox and GW from Indian agent James Seagrove, see Lear to Knox, 14 Nov. 1792, n.1.