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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO HENRY KNOX, SECRETARY OF WAR. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII (1790-1794) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. XII (1790-1794).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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TO HENRY KNOX, SECRETARY OF WAR.

Mount Vernon, 7 September, 1792.

Sir,

Your letters of the 31st of August, and the 1st of the present month, have been duly received. The enclosures in the first for Governor Tellfair and Mr. Seagrove have been approved and forwarded. Those of the second I have read, but will give them a second and more attentive consideration before I express any decisive opinion upon General Wayne’s plan for carrying on the war.

My first impression of it however is, that it differs immaterially, if in any thing, from the basis or principal features of the one that has been and now is pursuing; except in the establishing of a post on Big Beaver Creek, and in the two desultory strokes to be aimed at Sandusky and St. Joseph’s. The latter will be right or wrong according to the actual state of things at those places at the time it is proposed to make them (to be ascertained from indubitable information), and by a comparison of the hazards, which must be run, of failure, with the advantages to be gained in case of success. In all other respects, I see little more than the incidents and detail of the original plan; for, if all the pacific overtures are rejected by the hostile Indians, and the troops are neither in force nor discipline to make a forward movement the ensuing fall, it follows of course, that it must be delayed till the spring, and every exertion used, in the establishment of posts, magazines, &c., for as early an expedition as high water and the state of the forage will permit at that period. If General Wayne has any doubt of this, and his power to arrange and effectuate these, you have, I perceive by the copy of your letter to him, very properly removed; and it is my wish and desire, that his exertion to accomplish the objects he has contemplated may be commensurate to the importance of them.

With respect to the proposition for establishing a magazine on Big Beaver, there is but one objection to it in my mind, admitting that it does not look forward to the event contemplated by General Wayne, and provided the position is judiciously chosen, and that is, the multiplication of posts; for it has for a great length of time been my opinion, that a strong post at that place would cover much more effectually the western frontier of Pennsylvania and the northern parts of Virginia, than a post at Pittsburg. But habit, and the deep root the latter has taken, to which may be added its being a convenient deposit, and a place of more safety with a small garrison, (on account of its inhabitants,) than any other, have restrained my mentioning of it before. But in case of a movement towards Sandusky, one there does in that design become important.

If, upon more mature consideration of the ideas submitted by General Wayne, I should find cause to change the sentiments herein expressed, the alterations shall be communicated in my next; if not, you will consider what I have here said as the substance of my opinion thereon. * * *

A caution, both to General Wayne, and through him to General Wilkinson, ought to be given to guard effectually the hay at the outposts. Unless this is done, the Indians will most assuredly set fire to it; and to do it without having the stacks in the range of their defences, or as a cover to the approaches of the enemy, is no easy matter. I am, Sir, &c.1

[1 ]“Your letter of the 8th with its enclosures came duly to hand, and requires but little in reply to it, as your answer to General Wayne’s communications contains every direction, which is necessary for his government at this time. Whatever may be the attorney-general’s opinion with respect to the legality of calling out the militia by the governor of Pennsylvania for supplying the place of the rangers, it is not an easy matter, under the circumstances which now do and have existed during the summer, to discover any necessity for the measure, especially if the order was subsequent to your solution of his queries.

“Captain Brant’s letter, and the speech of the chiefs of the Six Nations to General Chapin are no more than a continuation of the evidence, which long since has established a fact, and left no doubt in my mind of the causes to which all our difficulties with the western Indians are to be ascribed; and I am equally clear, that the period is not very distant, when this business will assume a less disguised appearance.”—Washington to Henry Knox, 16 September, 1792.

Observations of the President on General Wayne’s letter of the 14th November, 1792:

“It is unfortunate, and very extraordinary that he should have suspended an opinion with respect to the disposition of the army for the winter, from a vague report of Mr. H[ammond]’s declaration concerning the Western posts. If this had been founded, he ought to have looked for it from a better source, or to have disregarded it altogether. Now I presume, it is too late to carry what would (had he not been under false impressions) have been his plan into execution. But I think he ought to be charged in strong and explicit terms to run the public to no more expence in the barracks he is about to build, than is indispensably necessary to cover and secure the officers and soldiers from the weather—avoiding all decorations; and as much as possible all conveniences; considering themselves as it were under marching orders, to remove during Winter, or in the Spring, according to events and circumstances.”