I would have it observed forcibly that a war with the Wabash Indians ought to be avoided by all means consistently with the security of the frontier inhabitants, the security of the troops, and the national dignity.  In the exercise of the present indiscriminate hostilities it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to say that a war without further measures would be just on the part of the United States.

But if, after manifesting clearly to the Indians the dispositions of the General Government for the preservation of peace and the extension of a just protection to the said Indians, they should continue their incursions, the United States will be constrained to punish them with severity.

You will also proceed, as soon as you can with safety, to execute the orders of the late Congress respecting the inhabitants at St. Vincennes and at the Kaskaskias and the other villages on the Mississippi.  It is a circumstance of some importance that the said inhabitants should as soon as possible possess the lands to which they are entitled by some known and fixed principles.

I have directed a number of copies of the treaty made by you at Fort Harmar with the Wyandots, etc., on the 9th of January last to be printed and forwarded to you, together with the ratification and my proclamation enjoining the observance thereof.

As it may be of high importance to obtain a precise and accurate knowledge of the several waters which empty into the Ohio on the northwest and of those which discharge themselves in the Lakes Erie and Michigan, the length of the portages between, and nature of the ground, an early and pointed attention thereto is earnestly recommended.

Given under my hand, in the city of New York, this 6th day of October, A.D. 1789, and in the thirteenth year of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States.

Go.  WASHINGTON.

[From The Freeman’s Journal; or, The North American Intelligencer, Philadelphia, October 21, 1789.]

  CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

  AN ACT providing for the payment of the invalid pensioners of the United
  States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the military pensions which have been granted and paid by the States, respectively, in pursuance of the acts of the United States in Congress assembled, to the invalids who were wounded and disabled during the late war shall be continued and paid by the United States from the 4th day of March last for the space of one year under such regulations as the President of the United States may direct.

  FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG,
    Speaker of the House of Representatives.

  JOHN ADAMS,
    Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate.

  Approved, September 29, 1789.