From George Washington to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 27 October 1791
To the United States Senate and House of Representatives
United States [Philadelphia] 27th October 1791.
Gentlemen of the Senate and house of Representatives,
I have directed the secretary of War to lay before you for your information the reports of Brigadier General Scott, and Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Wilkinson, the officers who commanded the two expeditions against the Wabash indians, in the months of June and August last; together with the instructions by virtue of which the said expeditions were undertaken. When the operations now depending shall be terminated, the reports relative thereto shall also be laid before you.
Go: Washington
DS, DNA: RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Records of Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages; copy, DNA: RG 233, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Records of Legislative Proceedings, Journals.
For background to this document, see Henry Knox to GW, 22 Feb. 1791, n.8, 30 May, n.8, 27 June, n.2, 16 Sept., 19 Sept., n.1, 22 Sept. (second letter), and Hamilton to GW, 16 Sept., source note and note 1. Knox sent GW on 6 Aug. a copy of his instructions of 9 Mar. authorizing Brig. Gen. Charles Scott to move against the Ouiatanon (Wea) villages on the Wabash River with a force of Kentucky militia. Scott’s instructions and report of 28 June on the expedition appear in 1:129–33. James Wilkinson’s Kentucky cavalry assault against the Indian villages at the junction of the L’Anguille (Eel) and Wabash rivers in present-day Indiana was authorized by instructions of Arthur St. Clair on 31 July, which appear in , 2:222–23, 227–29. Wilkinson’s report of 24 Aug. on his mission, which Knox transmitted to GW on 22 Sept., is printed in 1:133–35.