Adams Papers

From Henry Knox to John Adams, 22 January 1794

From Henry Knox

War Department, January 22, 1794.

Sir:

Communications relative to the Southwestern frontiers having been laid before Congress, the President of the United States has directed me to submit to the Senate, further information just received from James Seagrove, of his having restored peace between the United States and the Creek nation of Indians.1

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

H. Knox, Secretary of War.

MS not found. Printed from Amer. State Papers description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832–1861; 38 vols. description ends , Indian Affairs, 4:471; internal address: “The Vice President of the United States.”

1Irish-born James Seagrove (ca. 1747–1812), a New York City merchant, had acted as a U.S. agent to the Creeks since 1791. Knox sent Seagrove’s Nov. 1793 report on his goals, which originally included stemming southwestern tribal support for the Miami and Shawnee campaigns in Ohio. Seagrove’s 1793 mission to the Creek stronghold of Tuckaubatchee (now Elmore County, Ala.) was complex. Native peoples in the southwestern region had splintered into three factions—pro-British, pro-Spanish, and pro-American—and conducted violent raids against each other. At first, Seagrove earned little aid from Georgia state officials, who distrusted the federal implementation and enforcement of previous treaties made with the Creeks in 1783, 1785, and 1786. During the negotiations, Seagrove persuaded Creek chiefs to uphold the 1790 Treaty of New York, to end American depredations, and to make reparations to the state of Georgia. The U.S. agent stayed in Tuckaubatchee until April 1794 to supervise the implementation of the agreement (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, Jennifer Stertzer and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987– . description ends , 3:307; Daniel M. Smith, “James Seagrove and the Mission to Tuckaubatchee, 1793,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 44:48, 49, 53, 54 [March 1960]).

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