1

Knoxville 19 April 1797

Gentlemen

Your very polite favor of the 16 ins, is
now before me, and to which Ireply particularly and
at large - you have laid me under obligations
for the promptitude with which you acknowledged
the receipt of my first communication, and I must
beg leave to be excused for the delay of this my answer -

Iam free to declare, that it was far, very far
from my intention, that my my letter of the13th
April should ^have been the ground of uneasiness to
the commissioners; The title of that communic
ation flowed from a warm solicitude for the
safety of the Citizens, and went in unison with
their feelings, for sirs Ifeel a certainty
that the assembling of a large body of Indians
on the frontiers would have created general
Alarm & disquietude. The information
received from the principal agent for Indian
Affairs south of the ohio, that the disposition
of the indians was friendly, (so far as came
within his knowledge) Ifully confided in,
for besides my personal esteem for that character