[Docket: No 5703 / [undecipherable] May 1800] [No. 73] [Address: Samuel Hodgdon Esqr / Philadelphia] [Received stamp, partially legible: Received / [undecipherable] / [undecipherable] / R.C. 401810] Philad.ᵃ 13^th May 1800. Hearing that arrangements are soon to be made, by the Government of the United States, for holding a Treaty with the Indian tribes, I have have made known to the Secretary of State my desire to be appointed one of the Commissioners, on the part of our Government, for that purpose. The Treaty in contemplation, I am informed, is for the purpose of adjusting [the] boundary line, between the Chero[kee] and the Citizens of Tennessee which agreed upon, by the late Treaty with [that] tribe, in the fall of 1798, at which Treaty, I was present, the whole time, in the Character of Secretary to the Commissioners. As the [undecipherable] of the Treaty now in contemplation, formed the object of the Treaty made in 1798, at which I was officially present, and as the duty, which I did [undecipherable], in that [undecipherable], [undecipherable] as it was unexpected, I feel myself supported in the present application, to the President of the united States, thro' the Secretary of State. The particular difficulties, and the manner of conducting the former Treaty, in the relation I had the honor of bearing to it, was a subject of public observation, and therefore not requiring [to be] detailed here. It may, however, be worthy of remarks, that to [undecipherable] the characters of those with whom [undecipherable] is to be holden, and also those who [na-]turally connected, in different [undecipherable] therewith, is an object of [undecipherable] in negotiations with Indians. Your support to me in this application I will thank you for. I have the honor to be with great respect your most obt. Servt Elisha I. [undecipherable: probable reading Hale] [Address notation: Address to me at Winchester [undecipherable: probable reading Frederick] County Virginia]