Governor Clinton, to } the Secretary at War } New York, 27 August 1791 ( No 1 ) I have received the Letter which you did me the honor to write on the 12 instant, and by the tenor of the communications therein contained I am led to conclude that the President has given you discretionary powers in regard of the objects upon which you have been pleased to confer with me — I [undecipherable] with [undecipherable] regret that the measure of attempting a Convention of the [undecipherable] Six nations had been adopted and acted upon — To [undecipherable] me [undecipherable] to you that these nations are at present disunited by private animosities — That these feuds [undecipherable] ordinary them mutual intercourse and confidence sufficient to lead to a general combination as [undecipherable] (without the interposition of the agents of the United States) a general Congress of these Nations even for the purpose of deliberation — That their disunion [undecipherable] drives impotency and ensures exaction, and that if we should receive their importance by listening their union we may give power and vigor which we cannot with certainty direct and over which we shall with much trouble and expence have an uncertain control — But having heretofore [undecipherable] communicated to the President my Sentiments upon the policy of that measure I shall not now further intrude them upon you, and I entreat you to be apprised that time much [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to the means I will with the utmost cheerfulness and readiness concur with you in endeavours to attain the ends which you justly conceive as momentous and interesting to this Union — I have communicated to Col[undecipherable] Hallet your confidence in his talents and desire for the interposition, his influence with Brant, and have it not in my Power to inform you of its apparent [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] as to [undecipherable] Application might be made to him directly [undecipherable] as his [undecipherable] in the opinion of the importance of [undecipherable] proper [undecipherable] exertions on the [undecipherable] — I had in [undecipherable: June] last appointed an interview with Brant contemplating the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] appear to divert [undecipherable] from his address and his influence with [undecipherable] of the Indian Nations, which I am reputed a very respectable and from different letters I have received from him [undecipherable] to hope he will give me the opportunity of a frequent commerce with him at [undecipherable] since the beginning of the ensuing [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the proposed [undecipherable] to which [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to [undecipherable] it I should not predominate over any transient disgust that the [undecipherable] of the [undecipherable] may have [undecipherable] created [undecipherable] and enable me to procure an interview with [undecipherable] at any time and place not particularly inconvenient — To accomplish this however with certainty it may require the personal application of some one properly [undecipherable] and in whom he will confide — As your instructions [undecipherable] to be confined to Col [undecipherable: Willett], I shall not without your further [undecipherable] undertake to exercise a discretion in this Subject — Your knowledge of the views of Government enable you to determine the importance of this measure, I am only told that the most perfect reliance may be had in my exertions to carry those views into effect when the particular mode of cooperation shall be [undecipherable] and [undecipherable] with competent authority — With Sentiments &c —