1Cabinet Opinion on Foreign Vessels and Consulting the Supreme Court, 12 July 1793 (Washington Papers)
At a meeting of the heads of the departments at the President’s on summons from him, and on consideration of various representations from the Ministers Plenipotentiary of France & Great Britain on the subject of vessels arming & arriving in our ports, and of prizes it is their opinion that letters be written to the said Ministers informing them that the Executive of the U.S., desirous of...
2Cabinet Opinion on Relations with Spain and Great Britain, 20 June 1793 (Washington Papers)
At a meeting this day of the heads of departments at the President’s on summons from him, a letter from Messrs Viar & Jaudenes dated June 18. & addressed to the Secretary of state, was read: whereupon it is the opinion that a full detail of the proceedings of the U.S. with respect to the Southern Indians, & the Spaniards be prepared, and a notification as to the particular matters charged in...
3Cabinet Opinion on the Rules of Neutrality, 3 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
August 3. 1793 The foregoing rules having been considered by us at several meetings, and being now unanimously approved, they are submitted to the President of the United States. DS , in George Taylor, Jr.’s writing, DLC:GW ; copy (letterpress copy), DLC : Jefferson Papers; LB , DLC:GW ; Df , in Alexander Hamilton’s writing, DLC : Jefferson Papers; copy, DNA : RG 46, Third Congress, 1793–1795,...
4Henry Knox’s Report on Military Preparations, with Cabinet Opinion, 6 September 1793 (Washington Papers)
The Secretary of War humbly reports to the President of the United States That the following measures appear necessary to be taken in order in some degree to place the United States in a situation to guard themselves from injury by any of the belligerent powers of Europe. 1st To have all the small arms of the United States put in order for immediate use. 2dly To have all the cannon in...
5Cabinet Opinion on French Privateers and Prizes, 5 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
At a meeting of the heads of departments & the Attorney general at the Secretary of state’s office Aug. 5. 1793. The case of the Swallow letter of marque at New York, desired to be sent out of our ports, as being a privateer. it is the opinion that there is no ground to make any new order on the subject. The Polly or Republican, in the hands of the Marshal at New York, on a charge of having...
6Cabinet Opinion on the Little Sarah [Petite Démocrate], 8 July 1793 (Washington Papers)
At a meeting at the State house of the city of Philadelphia July 8. 1793. Present the Secretary of state, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary at War. It appears that a brigantine called the Little Sarah has been fitted out at the port of Philadelphia, with fourteen cannon, & all other equipments indicating that she is intended as a Privateer to cruise under the authority of France, &...
7Cabinet Opinion on the Recall of Edmond Genet, 23 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
At meetings of the heads of departments & the Attorney General at the President’s on the 1st & 2d of Aug. 1793. On a review of the whole of mister Genet’s correspondence & conduct, it was unanimously agreed that a letter should be written to the Minister of the U.S. at Paris, stating the same to him, resuming the points of difference which had arisen between the government of the U.S. & mister...
8Cabinet Opinion on French Privateers, 17 June 1793 (Washington Papers)
At a meeting of the heads of departments at the President’s this day, on summons from him, a letter from mister Genet of the 15th inst. addressed to the Secretary of state on the subject of the seizure of a vessel by the Govr. of New York as having been armed, equipped & manned in that port with a design to cruize on the enemies of France, was recd as also the draught of an answer prepared by...
9Cabinet Opinion on Sending an Agent to the Choctaws, 1–5 June 1793 (Washington Papers)
That an Agent be sent to the Choctaw nation to endeavor secretly to engage them to support the Chickasaws in their present war with the Creeks, giving them for that purpose arms and ammunition sufficient: and that it be kept in view that if we settle our differences amicably with the Creeks, we at the same time mediate effectually the peace of the Chickasaws & Choctaws, so as to rescue the...
10Cabinet Opinion on the Polly (Republican) and the Catherine, 12 June 1793 (Washington Papers)
The President having required the opinions of the heads of the three departments on a letter from Governor Clinton of the 9th inst. stating that he had taken possession of the sloop Polly, now called the Republican, which was arming, equipping & manning by French & other citizens to cruize against some of the belligerent powers, and desiring to know what further was to be done, and they having...
11Cabinet Opinion on French Privateers, 3 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
That The Minister of the French Republic be informed that the President considers the U. States as bound pursuant to positive assurances, given in conformity to the laws of neutrality, to effectuate the restoration of, or to make compensation for, prizes which shall have been made of any of the parties at war with France subsequent to the fifth day of June last by privateers fitted out of...
12Cabinet Opinions on the Roland and Relations with Great Britain, France, and the Creek Indians, 31 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
At a meeting of the Heads of departments & Attorney General at the President’s on the 31st day of Aug. 1793. A letter from mister Gore to mister Lear, dated Boston Aug. 24. was read, stating that the Roland, a privateer fitted out at Boston & furnished with a commission under the government of France, had sent a prize into that port, which being arrested by the Marshal of the district by...
13Enclosure: Opinions of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, 22 June 1794 (Washington Papers)
I am not willing to give a pretext for not doing us justice by the appearance of carelessness or indifference as to the fulfilment of our engagements. I continue to think that the idea of a special instruction to Mr Jay is proper, because it is an evidence of our being in earnest, because as Mr. Jay’s mission was produced by circumstances subsequent to the communication to Congress, that...
14To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, 5 August 1794 (Washington Papers)
The draft of a proclamation and that of an instruction to the Commissioners being both prepared, we take the liberty to suggest that we think a meeting tomorrow morning at such hour as may be convenient to the President, may be adviseable. The Secretary of State & Attorney General being out of town we cannot consult them, but we will engage the attendance of the Attorney General provisionally...
15To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, 2 May 1793 (Washington Papers)
A conformity of opinion, and upon the same grounds, enables us to submit to you a joint Answer to the third of the Questions, which you were pleased to propose on the 19th of April to the Heads of Departments and the Attorney General. We have concluded that this mode would be more agreeable to you than a repetition of the same ideas and arguments in seperate answers. With perfect respect & the...
16Memorandum from Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, 8 July 1793 (Washington Papers)
Reasons for the opinion of The Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of War respecting the Brigantine Little Sarah. Because there can be no doubt, either upon principle or authority that the permitting or suffering or what is equivalent the not taking effectual measures to prevent, when known, the fitting out of privateers , in our ports, by one of the belligerent powers, to cruise...
17To George Washington from Henry Knox, 8 September 1790 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to transmit to you, a letter from Governor Telfair of the 20th of July, containing enclosures relative to the murder of a Creek Indian. The measures which he has taken to discover the murderer and his abettor and bring them to punishment, seem to be satisfactory and to preclude the necessity of any thing further being done on the part of the general government. As to the...
18To George Washington from Henry Knox, 7 November 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to you, the pleasing information of a treaty with the Wabash indians; and which appears to have been a general one. After you shall have perused them, they shall be copied, to be laid before the two houses. Mr Bradshaw says, there were upwards of seven hundred indians present —He came by the way of Kentucky, and says that he understood that about twenty people had...
19To George Washington from Henry Knox, 18 February 1792 (Washington Papers)
I propose to send a duplicate of McGillivrays letter to Seagrove, and conform his instructions thereto. I submit you a motions of Colo. Guns. The division to day was 15 for inserting the additional regiments to 13 against it. Colo. Burr, voted for it under some restrictions. The bill is recommitted to Mr Elsworth Mr Read[,] Hawkins, Mr Burr, and Mr Gun. The object of the amendment is not...
20To George Washington from Henry Knox, 21 October 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to transmit you, enclosed, the copy of another letter just received from Colonel Pickering, dated the 8th instant. I am, with the highest respect, Sir, Your most obt Servt LS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW .
21To George Washington from Henry Knox, 27 March 1791 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to enclose a representation received from the Cornplanter. The fact of murdering the friendly indians by Capt. Samuel Brady, formerly of the Pensylvania Line, is mentioned in several letters from Fort Pitt, and that the people along the upper parts of the ohio are exceedingly alarmed on that account. The enclosed from Colo. Neville to General Butler, and from Major Craig to...
22To George Washington from Henry Knox, 17 August 1789 (Washington Papers)
I beg leave to submit to your view a loose sketch of the general ideas which have occurred to me on the subject of instructions to the Commission[er]s. If any part of them should meet your approbation, they could, together with such additions as you may judge proper be drawn up in form. I will wait on you tomorrow to receive your further orders on this subject. I am Sir respectfully and...
23To George Washington from Henry Knox, 22 December 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to you a letter from the Governor of Georgia dated the 5 instant with the deposition of Owen Bowen relatively to the murder of eight white persons. I have the honor to be with the highest respect Your most obed. servant LS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . On 24 Dec. 1792 Bartholomew Dandridge, at GW’s direction, wrote John Stagg, Jr., chief clerk of the War Department, that...
24To George Washington from Henry Knox, 16 July 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit a letter of the 9th Instant from General Chapin, just received by express, and enclosing a Copy of the proceedings at Buffaloe Creek on the 4th Instant. The Secretary of State Attorney General and myself met this morning upon this business, and the Secretary of State was to draft a letter to the Governor conformably to our opinion, to be submitted for your correction...
25To George Washington from Henry Knox, 17 March 1792 (Washington Papers)
[Philadelphia] 17 Mar. 1792. Communicates a letter from Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney that Ralph Izard had just delivered to the War Department. ALS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . The enclosed letter from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who had been brevetted a brigadier general at the close of the Revolutionary War, has not been identified.
26To George Washington from Henry Knox, 19 February 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to your consideration the copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury enclosing a letter from Mr Habersham Collector of Savannah in Georgia, and an Agent for the Treasury department in that State, relatively to the supply of Rations there on account of the United States. As the number of Militia in Georgia have very far exceeded the number permitted by you on...
27To George Washington from Henry Knox, 20 June 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to your consideration a letter to Andrew Moore Esq. upon the appointment of some Ensigns in the Rifle Companies raising in the South Western parts of Virginia, and also a conditional appointment to Richard Chandler as an Ensign. This Gentleman is well recommended to Mr Jefferson, and also in a letter from Captain Ballard Smith to me—He is stated to Mr Jefferson as a...
28To George Washington from Henry Knox, 14 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
I submit to your consideration a draft of a letter to Major General Wayne—and also his letters to which the said draft is intended as an answer. I have the honor to be with the highest respect Your obed. humble servt LS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . For Knox’s previous submission of Anthony Wayne’s letters of 20 June, 2 July, and 10 July, with their several enclosures, see Knox to GW, 9 Aug. 1793 ,...
29To George Washington from Henry Knox, 2 January 1794 (Washington Papers)
Most of the principal Chiefs of the Wabash Indians who visited this City having died with the smallpox, it would have been improper & nugatory to have attempted with the remainder any explanation of the fourth article of the treaty of Post Vincennes the 7th day of Septr 1792. It was presumed that at the intended treaty to be held with the North Western Indians that the Wabash tribes would have...
30To George Washington from Henry Knox, 29 January 1793 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit the inclosed list of names, which have occurred to me as most suitable as Commissioners for the proposed treaty. I am sir With perfect respect and attachment Your humble Servant ALS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . The enclosed list contained the names of potential commissioners for a proposed council at Lower Sandusky with the hostile Indians of the Northwest Territory (see...
31To George Washington from Henry Knox, 14 October 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor with great diffidence to submit hints of points in the War department which appear necessary to be mentioned to the Legislature at their approaching session. Arsenals are exceedingly wanted in the middle and southern states for the well ordering of the military stores—But as this is a ticklish subject it is omitted for the present. I have also the honor to submit a letter from...
32To George Washington from Henry Knox, 16 June 1791 (Washington Papers)
I write this Letter with the hopes of its meeting you at Mount-Vernon in good health, after your long and fatiguing journey. By information from Fort Pitt of the 9th Inst., the tranquility of the frontiers is very great. About Eight hundred of the troops have arrived at Fort Pitt, from the 16th of May to the 5th instant—Major General Butler had distributed these troops in such a manner, as to...
33To George Washington from Henry Knox, 15 September 1793 (Washington Papers)
On the 13th I received a letter from General Wayne dated the 8th ultimo. He acknowledges to have received mine of the 20th of July, written in consequence of an express from the Commissioners forbidding him from encreasing his force at the head of the line. He complains of these orders and says that “our greatest difficulty will result from the want of timely supplies of provisions at the head...
34To George Washington from Henry Knox, 29 December 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit a draft of a letter to Governor Blount. The situation of Mero district seems to demand an instant provision for its protection. Governor Blount thought proper to send an express with the last information who is now waiting for an answer. I have the honor to be with the highest respect Your obed. Servant LS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . The draft has not been identified....
35To George Washington from Henry Knox, 21 July 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to your consideration, the draft of an answer to the letter from the Governor of this State, dated the 18th instant; and also a draft of Instructions to Col. Pickering —The Secretary of State and the Attorney General concur in the approbation of these papers—If the outlines of the instructions should receive your approbation, arrangements and instructions, in...
36To George Washington from Henry Knox, 17 July 1793 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to you a letter from Major General Wayne of the 27th May last. The Secretary of the Treasury and myself have conceived it essential to the œconomical administration of the public interests as connected with this department that an Agent therefrom should be sent both to Georgia and to the South western territory for the objects specified in the instructions to Captain...
37To George Washington from Henry Knox, 30 March 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit you, an order of a committee, to inquire into the failure of the late expedition. As I do not conceive myself authorized to deliver these papers of myself, I beg your permission, that they may be laid before the committee, if you should see no impropriety therein, together with major general St Clair’s letters; or such others, as the committee may request. I have the...
38To George Washington from Henry Knox, 14 March 1793 (Washington Papers)
I submit to your consideration a letter received from an Indian by the name of David Fowler who resides at Brotherton, near Oneida, who is at present in this City with his Son. This man has been introduced to me by Colonel Pickering and his request for the support of a School seems to deserve a favorable consideration. I beg leave therefore to submit the idea that fifty dollars ⅌ Year be...
39To George Washington from Henry Knox, 18 November 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to You the draft of letter to the Governor of New York, the purport of which has been agreed upon with the secretary of State. I am Sir respectfully your humble Servant ALS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . The enclosed draft has not been identified.
40To George Washington from Henry Knox, 26 December 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit two letters from Brigr Genl Wilkinson with their enclosures. These were received by express, who left Fort Washington the 1st of Decr. I have the honor to be respectfully Your obedient Servant ALS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . The letters from James Wilkinson have not been identified, but they are probably those mentioned by Knox in his letter to Gen. Anthony Wayne of 28...
41To George Washington from Henry Knox, 5 January 1791 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit to you three reports upon the following subjects. No: 1. Is a report upon the address of the representatives of the counties of Kentuckey and the other counties of Virginia bordering upon and contiguous to the Ohio as transmitted by general Charles Scott, in his letter of the fourth of December last. No. 2. Is a report upon the letter of his excellency the governor...
42To George Washington from Henry Knox, 8 May 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit, a letter just received, from Constant Freeman, dated the 18th of April 1794, by which it appears that the information respecting the expedition from Georgia, against the Floridas, is confirmed. I have also the honor to enclose a letter from the Governor of Georgia of the 23d ultimo. I am sir, Most respectfully, Your obedient Servt LS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . The...
43To George Washington from Henry Knox, 6 October 1794 (Washington Papers)
I arrived here the last Evening. It has been a circumstance of inexpressible regret to me, tha[t] an extraordinary course of contrary winds detained me longer than I expected. Permit me to request the favor by the return of the express, that I may wait upon you at Carlile or elsewhere, until the painful task upon which you are shall be adjusted. I am with perfect respect and affection Your...
44To George Washington from Henry Knox, 27 August 1793 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to submit, the draft of a letter to his Excellency the Governor of the State of Delaware; and also, a letter just received from James Brice, President of the Council of Maryland, dated August 23d 1793. I am, Sir, Most respectfully, Your very humble Servt LS , DLC:GW ; LB , DLC:GW . In his letter to Joshua Clayton of 27 Aug., Knox acknowledged Clayton’s letter to GW of 23 Aug....
45To George Washington from Henry Knox, 4 August 1794 (Washington Papers)
In obedience to your directions that the heads of the department<s,> and the Attorney General should give, in Writing, their opinion on the measure<s> proper to be pursued by the Executive, in consequence of the resistance which has been manifested in the Western Counties of Pennsylvania to the law imposing a duty on spirits distilled within the United States, I have the honor to submit to...
46To George Washington from Henry Knox, 25 October 1789 (Washington Papers)
No further intelligence has been received from Georgia since the arrival of Mr Kean. This silence, and the powers with which the commissioners were invested to render the treaty advantages to the Creeks generally, and to their cheif particularly are sufficient to arrest the beleif of the report. The report itself originated perhaps in the apprehension or misrepresentations of some of the White...
47To George Washington from Henry Knox, 3 December 1794 (Washington Papers)
In examining General Wilkinsons papers in order to answer them, I find a letter written by him on the 30 June and received during my absence on the 23 of Augt —It contains matter of such serious import as requires to be submitted to your consideration and some order taken thereon—It ought to have been submitted by Major Stagg during my absence. I submit also my last letter to him. I have the...
48To George Washington from Henry Knox, 7 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
The Cherokees. This Nation of Indians consisting of separate Towns or villages are seated principally on the head waters of the Tennessee which runs into the Ohio. Their hunting grounds extend from Cumberland River along the frontiers of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and part of Georgia. The frequent Wars they have had with the frontier people of the said States have greatly diminished...
49To George Washington from Henry Knox, 18 May 1794 (Washington Papers)
In pursuance of the desire of the Secretary of State, I have the honor to submit to your consideration the following names, out of which it might be proper to nominate a character as Minister to the republic of France. Mr Pinckney provided he should not be deemed essential to Mr Jays negociations, and also provided, it should be judged the measure would not be disagreable to him. But in either...
50To George Washington from Henry Knox, 16 September 1791 (Washington Papers)
General Irwin has received a letter from Mr Brown of Kentuckey, via Richmond which renders General Wilkinsons success and return indisputable. The following is the extract “Danville 22d Augt 1791. An express from Genl Wilkinson has this moment reached this place informing of his success. He has destroyed a large indian Town, situated on the forks of the Wabash, also a kickapoo Town containing...