To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [12 August 1794]
From George Washington
[Germantown, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1794]
The Secretary of the Treasury (acting for the Secy. of War).1
Your letter of the 12. did not get to my hands until my return from Philada. about an hour ago.
The Letters from Majors Butler2 and Baif,3 make it necessary, in my opinion, to vest discretionary orders with the former, to reinforce the Garrison at Pittsburgh with as many men from Fort Franklin, as can be drawn from it without hazarding that post too much; provided the hazard (on account of the Insurgents) may not be too great for the proposed advantage of the measure.
I sent you through the Secry. of State, two letters (of the 14 & 16 ulto.) with enclosures from Govr. Blount, which you will consider & report on.4
Go: Washington
Tuesday 4 o’Clock
LC, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
1. In the summer of 1794, Secretary of War Henry Knox decided that it was necessary for him to go to Maine to look after his land interests there. Because the crisis over the insurrection in western Pennsylvania was reaching a climax, Knox informed Washington that he would delay his journey “or even renounce it altogether if your view of the subject should render my continuing here of public importance, although permanent pecuniary ruin or something very like it attends either the one or the other” (Knox to Washington, August 8, 1794 [ALS, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress]). Washington permitted Knox to go to Maine, and the responsibility for the administration of the War Department fell upon H until Knox’s return to Philadelphia on October 5, 1794.
2. Thomas Butler.
3. Either Washington or the copyist made a mistake, for the letter in question was not from “Baif,” but from Isaac Craig. See H to Washington, August 12, 1794, note 2.
4. William Blount was governor of the Territory South of the Ohio River. His letters of July 14 and 16, 1794, have not been found.