Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER XCV.—­TO MR. HAMMOND, February 2, 1792

TO MR. HAMMOND.

Philadelphia, February 2, 1792.

Sir,

On the receipt of your letter of the 14th of December, I communicated it to the President of the United States, and under the sanction of his authority, the principal members of the executive department made it their duty to make known in conversations generally, the explicit disclaimer, in the name of your court, which you had been pleased to give us, that the government of Canada had supported or encouraged the hostilities of our Indian neighbors in the western country.  Your favor of January the 30th, to the same purpose, has been, in like manner, communicated to the President, and I am authorized to assure you, that he is duly sensible of this additional proof of the disposition of the court of London to confine the proceedings of their officers in our vicinage within the limits of friendship and good neighborhood, and that a conduct so friendly and just will furnish us a motive the more for those duties and good offices which neighbor nations owe each other.

You have seen too much, Sir, of the conduct of the press in countries where it is free, to consider the gazettes as evidence of the sentiments of any part of the government:  you have seen them bestow on the government itself, in all its parts, its full share of inculpation.  Of the sentiments of our government on the subject of your letter, I cannot give you better evidence than the statement of the causes of the Indian war, made by the Secretary of War on the 26th of the last month, by order of the President, and inserted in the public papers.  No interference on the part of your nation is therein stated among the causes of the war.  I am happy however in the hope, that a due execution of the treaty will shortly silence those expressions of public feeling, by removing their cause.

I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER XCVI.—­TO MR. HAMMOND, February 25, 1792

TO MR. HAMMOND.

Philadelphia, February 25, 1792.

Sir,

I have now the honor to enclose you the answer of the Attorney General to a letter I wrote him on the subject of yours of the 18th instant.

It appears that the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States are open to the application of Mr. Pagan for a writ of error to revise his case.  This writ is to be granted, indeed, or refused, at the discretion of the judge; but the discretion of the judge is governed by the rules of law:  if these be in favor of Mr. Pagan’s application, his case will be reviewed in the Supreme Court, and the decision against him corrected, if wrong, if these be against his application, he will then be at the