[From Major General Knox to Sec^y of War] War department July 20^th 1793 Sir Your letter of the 27^th of May has been received and submitted to the President of the United States You will perceive by the letter of the same date to you which accompanies this a copy of which is sent to the Commissioners that a great alarm has [strikethrough: been] excited by Col. Strongs movement which you must remedy instantly. If in consequence of this or other similar movements the Commissioners should be sacrificed or the treaty frustrated the consequences would be awful indeed. You say you may probably be censured for having acted without positive although implied orders. It is conceived that your orders of the 20^th April will be considered as sufficiently justificatory for efficient preparations in case the event of the treaty should prove unsuccessful. The letters you received on in the 29^th or 30. of the same month but rove any doubts by possibility to remain in your mind as to your authority they must have been entirely dissipated on the receipt of the letter of the 1^st May by Brigadier General Posey which it is to be expected you may have received by the 7^th of June at furthest. It is conceived that the letter from the Quarter Master to [undecipherable]oice of the 4 May relatively to his estimates is neither correct nor candid he says "you will perceive by the enclosed extracts that 18000 Dollars intended for the purpose of purchasing pack-horses and twelve thousand dollars for the pay of my department to the 1^st of July has not been admitted in my last requisition and that the Secretary of War has indirectly ordered that the horses shall not be purchased without your particular orders; however disagreeable the consequence of rejecting this demand for twenty five thousand dollars may be in my future arrangements I am now prepared to furnish such means of carriage as you will please to order." On the 26 March he transmitted his requisition for forms required for his department until the 1^st July following— On the 26^th of April I wrote him "In pursuance of your requisition the Secretary of the Treasury has issued his warrant in favor of your Agent for 40,000 Dollars which he will forward immediately, the remaining 22,000 will be issued in due season. On the 28^th April he writes me "I am favored with yours of the 26^th instant and with pleasure acknowledge the particular attention you have paid to my requisition for [underline: the present year]." In fact the entire sum required was issued from the Treasury prior to the 1^st July as will appear by letter to him of the 29^th Ultimo a copy of which is enclosed for your information. It is presumed that all the articles furnished by M^r Belli and Major Craig were embraced in his original estimate of the 26^th March last the