Henry Knox to Tobias Lear, 29 January 1793
Henry Knox to Tobias Lear
[Philadelphia] January 29. 1793.
Dear Sir.
Please to submit to the President of the United States the enclosed draft of a speech for the Wabash indians.1 Yours sincerely—
H. Knox
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
1. Neither the enclosed draft nor the final version of GW’s address to the Wabash and Illinois Indians of 1 Feb. has been found. These Indians sent a delegation to Philadelphia following a council with Gen. Rufus Putnam in September 1792. After a peace treaty was signed, Putnam informed the Indians that “Our great Chieff General Washington is very desirous to see a Number of Your Chieffs . . . at his Council fire” (“A Journal of the Proceedings at a Council Held with the Indians of the Wabash and Illinois at Post Vincennes, by Brigadier General Putnam,” in 335–67; 1:319–20, 338–40). A delegation of eighteen Indians subsequently arrived in Philadelphia on 26 Dec. 1792, but they apparently did not meet officially with GW until 1 Feb. 1793 (see Knox to U.S. Senate, 8 Nov. 1792, 1:319; Pennsylvania Gazette [Philadelphia], 2 Jan. 1793; 40–41). See also the speeches of the Wabash and Illinois Indians to GW, 1–4 Feb. 1793, which were given in reply to GW’s address of that same date.