War Office 13 February 1798 Gentlemen I received yesterday your letter dated the 12 containing your opinions of the terms on which it may be adviseable to hold the proposed treaty with the Cherokee Nation of Indians for the purchase of a tract of Country from them, and also relative to an application made to the President requesting that he would take measures to obtain the consent of the said Indians or their Chiefs, to the return of certain Citizens to the lands they have been removed from if not immediately, yet in season to cultivate [strikethrough: to rape] the ensuing spring and summer. In answer the President desires me to inform you that the Commissioners appointed to hold the treaty with the Cherokee nation of Indians have been duly notified of their appointment and that as soon as their acceptance of the commission is made known to him measures will be taken to hold the same at as early a period as possible. I am also directed to inform you that the Commissioners will be instructed to use their earliest endeavours in the negotiation, to obtain as a first stipulation from the Indians their consent to the immediate return of such settlers as have been removed from the lands they [strikethrough: were] occupied on the ground of its being a decisive proof on the part of the said Indians of their willingness to treat for the sale thereof or any other parcel of their lands — I have the honor to be with great Respect Gentlemen Your obedient Servant James McHenry Joseph Anderson Andrew Jacksons and William Charles Cole Claiborne, Esq^rs