James Madison Papers

Inquiry into General St. Clair’s Defeat, [28 March] 1792

Inquiry into General St. Clair’s Defeat

[28 March 1792]

Mr. Madison moved, “that it be an instruction to the committee of seven, appointed yesterday, to consider the enquiry committed to them, as confined to such circumstances, connected with the late unsuccessful expedition under Major General St. Clair, as may be requisite for the information of the House.”1

Federal Gazette, 30 Mar. 1792 (reprinted in General Advertiser, 30 Mar. 1792, Gazette of the U.S., 31 Mar. 1792, National Gazette, 2 Apr. 1792, and Independent Gazetteer, 7 Apr. 1792).

1The House rejected the motion. St. Clair resigned his military commission on 7 Apr., though he remained governor of the Northwest Territory until 1802. On 8 May 1792 the report of the House committee exonerated him by placing the blame for his defeat on the War Department’s failure to provide logistical support (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, 1832–61). description ends , Military Affairs, I, 36–39).

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