TO MESSRS.  CARMICHAEL AND SHORT.

Philadelphia, May 31, 1793.

Gentlemen,

In my letters of October the 14th and November the 3rd, 1792, I communicated to you papers and observations on the conduct of the Spanish officers on our southwestern frontier, and particularly of the Baron de Carondelet, the Governor of New Orleans.  These made it evident that he had industriously excited the southern Indians to war against us, and had furnished them with arms and ammunition in abundance, for that express purpose.  We placed this under the view of the commissioners of Spain here, who undertook to communicate it to their court, and also to write on the subject to the Baron de Carondelet.  They have lately made us communications from both these quarters; the aspect of which, however, is by no means such as to remove the causes of our dissatisfaction.  I send you these commmunications, consisting of treaties between Spain, the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees, handed us by express order from their court, a speech of Jiaron de Carondelet to the Cherokees, and a letter from Messrs. de Viar and Jaudenes, covering that speech, and containing in itself very serious matter.

I will first observe to you, that the question stated in that letter to have been proposed to the Cherokees, What part they would take, in the event of a war between the United States and Spain was never proposed by authority from this government.  Its instructions to its agents have, on the contrary, been explicitly to cultivate, with good faith, the peace between Spain and the Indians:  and from the known prudence and good conduct of Governor Blount, to whom it is imputed, it is not believed to have been proposed by him.  This proposition then, you are authorized to disavow to the court of Madrid, in the most unequivocal terms.  With respect to the treaties, the speech, and the letter, you will see that they undertake to espouse the concerns of Indians within our limits; to be mediators of boundary between them and us; to guaranty that boundary to them; to support them with their whole power; and hazard to us intimations of acquiescence to avoid disagreeable results.  They even propose to extend their intermeddlings to the northern Indians.  These are pretensions so totally inconsistent with the usages established among the white nations with respect to Indians living within their several limits, that it is believed no example of them can be produced, in times of peace; and they are presented to us in a manner which we cannot deem friendly.  The consequence is, that the Indians, and particularly the Creeks, finding themselves so encouraged, have passed, without the least provocation on our part, from a state of peace, which appeared to be well settled, to that of serious hostility.  Their murders and depredations, which, for some months, we were willing to hope were only individual aggressions, now assume the appearance of unequivocal war.  Yet such is our desire of