This Overture Was Received With
Great Satisfaction By The Administration, And Mr. Jefferson, Then
President, Wrote You To That Effect.
I was also directed, as
Secretary of the Treasury, to write to you an official letter to
the same purpose.
On investigating the subject, it was found that
the Executive had no authority to give you any direct aid; and I
believe you received nothing more than an entire approbation of
your plan, and general assurances of the protection due to every
citizen engaged in lawful and useful pursuits.
You did effect the contemplated purchase, but in what year I do
not recollect. Immediately before the war, you represented that a
large quantity of merchandise, intended for the Indian trade, and
including arms and munitions of war, belonging to that concern of
which you owned one half, was deposited at a post on Lake Huron,
within the British dominions; that, in order to prevent their
ultimately falling into the hands of Indians who might prove
hostile, you were desirous to try to have them conveyed into the
United States; but that you were prevented by the then existing
law of non-intercourse with the British dominions.
The Executive could not annul the provisions of that law. But I
was directed to instruct the collectors on the lakes, in case you
and your agents should voluntarily bring in and deliver to them
any part of the goods above mentioned, to receive and keep them
in their guard, and not to commence prosecutions until further
instructions:
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