George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0352

Tobias Lear to Henry Knox, 29 December 1792

Tobias Lear to Henry Knox

U.S. [Philadelphia] Decr 29th 1792.

By the President’s command T. Lear has the honor to return to the Secy of War the Speechs of Hendricks wh. have been submittd1—likewise a letter from Mr Hoge to the Secy of War & the Secy’s answer, wh. expresses in its conclusion the President’s idea on the subject.2

T.L.
S.P.U.S.

ADfS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.

1Knox, in his letter to Lear of 28 Dec., enclosed “speeches from Hendricks, to which I confess I beleive but very little regard ought to be paid” (DLC:GW). For background on Stockbridge chief Hendrick Aupaumut’s unsuccessful peace mission to the Indians in the Northwest Territory, see Knox to GW, 16 Aug., n.4. For Knox’s earlier report on the failure of Aupaumut’s mission, and of the American peace effort in general, see Knox to GW, 6 Dec. 1792. The enclosed speeches have not been identified.

2Neither of the enclosed letters to and from Knox has been identified. Knox’s correspondent may have been John Hoge (1760–1824), who currently was a senator in the Pennsylvania general assembly representing the western counties of Washington and Fayette (1790–94). John Hoge, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and his younger brother William Hoge (1762–1814) moved to western Pennsylvania in 1782, and together they founded the town of Washington. John Hoge was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society on 21 Jan. 1791, the same day as Alexander Hamilton and Edmund Randolph. He was elected to Congress in 1804 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of his brother and served until 1805. William Hoge was a member of the state house of representatives 1796–97 and served in Congress 1801–4 and 1807–9.

The subject of the letters may have been similar to that of Knox’s earlier correspondence with Pennsylvania governor Thomas Mifflin concerning federal protection from Indian attacks for the state’s western counties (see Knox to GW, 8 Sept. [second letter], n.6).

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