[Endorsed: [undecipherable] letters — May 29^th 1793] War Department, 28 May 1793 Sir/ I am directed by the President of the United States to write to your Excellency on the following subject. — A case has lately occurred in this vicinity which required the interposition of the general Government, and as similar cases may arise in other places, it is necessary that some uniform, adequate and prompt remedy should be provided, and operate throughout the United States — An armed vessel of the Powers engaged in the present war, having captured a Ship of another, lying in the Bay of Delaware, and consequently under the protection of the United States. Both duty and honor required that the Government should cause the captured vessel to be restored, which the Minister of the Nation of the power who had committed the aggression has accordingly undertaken to have done. But this remedy may not be adequate to every case, and especially to distant ones, and therefore it is to be resorted to of more universal application — The capture of vessels being generally the consequence of an attack or [undecipherable], and foreign force [undecipherable], if committed within our territory, a military aggression and to be repressed by the military force of the Nation — The standing power of the union is its Militia, and this is everywhere found to meet every exertion of the national protection. — To your Excellency therefore, as the head of the Militia of the State of Virginia, the President of the United States confides the charge of interposing in all cases of hostility committed between the belligerent parties within the protection of your State, desiring that you would be pleased, with the aid of your Militia, to detain the parties first aggressing until you could communicate the case to the President with the evidence in writing which may establish the facts for his ultimate decision thereon. This you may be assured of receiving with all the dispatch circumstances may admit. — I have the honor to be with special Respect Your Excellencys Most Obedient Servant. [signature] His Excellency The Governor of Virginia Sec'y of War