Henry Knox to Tobias Lear, 14 May 1793
Henry Knox to Tobias Lear
[Philadelphia] May 14th 1793
Dear Sir.
Please to submit to the President of the United States the enclosed letter, just received from Governor Lee, dated the 7th instant.1
Please to return it as soon as the President is done with it. I am, Your’s sincerely
H. Knox
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
1. Henry Lee, in his letter to Knox of 7 May, described the danger of Indian depredations along Virginia’s southwestern frontier and explained the need for a newly raised militia company to reinforce troops already in the area. He requested that “the President of the United States, give orders to this Company to join the Corps employed on the frontier” (Vi: Executive Letter Book, 1792–94). Lee also enclosed letters from Arthur Campbell to Virginian John Steele of 24 April and to Lee of 25 April, both of which had been forwarded to Lee by Steele on 1 May ( 6:350–51, 358). In his letters, Campbell warned that Cherokee chief John Watts had acted deceptively at his meeting with Gov. William Blount in early April and now led a large force of warriors that threatened the security of settlements in the Southwest Territory (see also Knox to Lear, 9 Feb., n.1, and to GW, 20 Mar., n.2). GW returned these letters to Knox on this date and asked him to lay them before the cabinet ( 137–38).