From George Washington to James McHenry, 28 February 1797
To James McHenry
Tuesday Morning 28th Feb. [1797]1
Dear Sir
Let me entreat you to attend early this morning to a fit character as a Comsr to attend the proposed Treaty with the Indians, by Mr Morris;2 and on this head, and on the message proper to accompany the nomination, I wish you would advise with Colo. Pickering; who has had more to do in Indian Affairs than any other Officer now in the Government, and perhaps may more readily think of a proper person to be entrusted.3
As it is several days since the application was made, I wish to make the nomination without further delay.4 If a Gentleman from New Jersey, Delaware, or Maryland could be obtained it wd be desirable; or from Connecticut; and I believe Mr Learned is in Town—so is Mr Dexter both good characters5—Something must also be done with the Military Bill, this day.6 Yours always
Go: Washington
ALS, NhD: George Washington Collection.
1. The appointment of a commissioner to hold a treaty with the Seneca Indians took place in early March 1797 and thus dates the present document to that year, in which 28 Feb. fell on a Tuesday.
2. For Robert Morris’s request that GW appoint a commissioner to hold a treaty with the Seneca Indians, see Morris to GW, 23 Dec. 1796.
3. For Pickering’s numerous negotiations with Indian tribes, see GW to Pickering, 4 Sept. 1790; see also Pickering to GW, 21 March 1792; Henry Knox to Tobias Lear, 11 June 1793; and Knox to GW, 21 July 1794 (second letter).
4. The application has not been identified.
5. On 2 March, GW nominated New Jersey congressman Isaac Smith as a commissioner to treat with the Seneca Indians (see Morris to GW, 23 Dec. 1796, n.4). Amasa Learned of Connecticut and Samuel Dexter of Massachusetts both were former members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
6. On this date, GW sent Congress a list of his objections to the House’s proposed bill to amend the 1796 “Act to ascertain and fix the Military Establishment of the United States” (see GW to the U.S. House of Representatives, this date, and notes 2 and 3 to that document).