To George Washington from James McHenry, 8 August 1796
From James McHenry
War office 8 Augt 1796.
Sir.
I have received your letters of the 1st and 3d instant.1
The inclosed packet No. 1. contains the opinion of the Attorney General on the power of the President to pardon military offences previous to the late act of Congress; and the form of a pardon for Lt Geddis for your signature.2
No. 2. contains the last dispatches from General Wayne, and copy of a letter which I have sent to General Wilkinson relative to his correspondence with Col. England, which as appeared to me, I could not with propriety have omitted to write.3
No. 3. Is the draught of a letter to Lt Col. Gaither, which if approved of you will be pleased to transmit as soon as convenient.4
No. 4. Is a letter from Gen. Pickens respecting the agent of Indian affairs in Georgia.5 With the greatest respect, I have the honour to be Sir your most obt St
James McHenry
ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. GW replied to McHenry on 12 August.
1. See GW’s second letter to McHenry on 1 August. For GW’s letter to McHenry dated 3 Aug., see his letter to McHenry on 25 July, n.3.
2. For an examination of the legalities complicating the case of Lt. Simon Geddes, see McHenry to GW, 26 July, and notes 6 and 7. Charles Lee had written McHenry on 4 Aug.: “The Attorney General is of opinion that the President of the United States has power to Pardon Lieutenant Geddes for the offence of which he has been found guilty, though the sentence of the court martial has neither been rejected or approved. The enclosed form may be used” (DLC:GW).
GW’s pardon for Geddis, dated 12 Aug. at Mount Vernon with McHenry’s countersignature, overturned the sentence of dismissal from the service given at a court-martial held on 12 May “in consideration of the youth and inexperience of Lieutenant Geddes and for divers other good causes” and directed that he “be reinstated in his command in the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers” (DS, PHi: Dreer Collection; GW filled in blanks for day, month, and year on an otherwise prepared document).
3. McHenry presumably enclosed copies of Gen. Anthony Wayne’s letters to him dated 8 and 11 July, which he acknowledged when he wrote Wayne on 5 Aug. (see 495–99, 508). In his letter written on 8 July, Wayne reported the activities of Victor Collot and indicated a possible connection with Gen. James Wilkinson. He also related his inquiries into the Spanish complaint about Capt. Zebulon Pike’s insult to their flag (see GW to Timothy Pickering, 10 June, and n.3 to that document). Wayne wrote on 11 July “that the Troops of the United States are by this period in peaceable possession of the posts of Detroit & Miamis, & that the polite & friendly manner, in which the Evacuation has taken place … is truly worthy of British Officers & does honor to them & the Nation to which they belong.”
McHenry’s letter to Wilkinson has not been identified, but it evidently concerned the publication of Wilkinson’s letter written on 27 May to Richard G. England, the British officer commanding at Detroit, and England’s reply dated 10 June (see The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser, 30 July).
4. The draft for McHenry’s letter to Lt. Col. Henry Gaither has not been identified. In the final version dated 23 Aug., McHenry warned about a possible increase in hostilities between settlers and Creek Indians in Georgia arising from the recently negotiated treaty at Colerain. He directed in GW’s name that Gaither “give such an arrangement to the military force within the Indian line, as may on the one hand, prevent the Indians from carrying into effect thieving or hostile incursions on the frontier Inhabitants of Georgia, and on the other hand the Citizens of the United States from intruding on the Indian land contrary to treaty and law.” (DLC: James McHenry Papers).
5. The letter from Andrew Pickens about Creek agent James Seagrove has not been identified.