[21^st July 1794 The Secretary at War to The Governor —] [Compared] War Department July 28. 1794. Sir your Excellency's letter of the 18 instant to the President of the United States has been duly received. It certainly was not his intention that any personal embarrassment should be produced to you from the suppression of the establishment at Presqu'isle. It has been uniformly presented to your Excellency to be tried with that it should be suspended until efforts should be made for removing the temporary obstacles. The expression of this wish was a duty; in as much, as an harmonious cooperation of the State Government with the general Government must always be necessary upon subjects in which the movements of the former may effectually counteract those of the latter. Still the President does not mean to press upon your Excellency the slightest infringement of your constitutional or legal powers, for while he himself pursues the constitution and laws of the United States he shall always observe respect to those of individual States. Whatsoever responsibility therefore is attached to the communication of his desire to your Excellency, he readily assumes and he deems it a fortunate circumstance that you have thought yourself hitherto at liberty to comply with it. How long the temporary obstacles to this settlement will continue it is impossible to determine. They will certainly last until the campaign against the Western Indians is ended and the disposition of the Six Nations should be materially changed. Neither your Excellency nor the Attorney General have defined the period to which the suspension under the circumstances, stated by him be legally continued. But as the enlistments of the Troops do not expire before the first of December and may be continued longer and as the period for allowing bounties for actual settlement does not close before the first of May, it is evident, that there is sufficient time for holding a treaty with the Six Nations, if begun about the middle of September. A Commissioner will attend for that purpose in behalf of the United States at Canandarqua on the fifteenth day of September next, and their chiefs will be invited thither: as the object will be not only to prevent them from engaging in hostility against us, but also to produce an acquiesence in the settlement proposed; it may be naturally expected that the objections to the purchase will stand very forward. It might prove beneficial if a Commissioner could be sent from Pennsylvania. But it appears from your Excellency's last letter that this cannot be done our Commissioner therefore will take charge of the documents, which you have promised and will use his best endeavours to quiet the discontents. He will not be authorized to make any concessions injurious to the Title nor to give expectation of any further compensation from your State. If he cannot accommodate the dispute under the influence of the United States by proper explanations he will report the result as the basis of ulterior measures. I have the honor to be with great respect Your Excellency's obedient Servant Henry Knox Secretary of War. His Excellency Governor Mifflin