the Senate_:

His Excellency John Jay, esq., governor of New York, has informed me
that the Oneida tribe of Indians have proposed to sell a part of their
land to the said State, and that the legislature at their late session
authorized the purchase, and to accomplish this object the governor has
desired that a commissioner may be appointed to hold a treaty with the
Oneida tribe of Indians, at which the agents of the State of New York
may agree with them on the terms of the purchase. I therefore nominate
Joseph Hopkinson, esq., of Pennsylvania, to be the commissioner to hold
a treaty with the said Oneida tribe of Indians for the purpose above
mentioned.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, _June 21, 1798_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

While I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall, one of our
late envoys extraordinary to the French Republic, at a place of safety,
where he is justly held in honor, I think it my duty to communicate to
you a letter received by him from Mr. Gerry, the only one of the three
who has not received his conge. This letter, together with another from
the minister of foreign relations to him of the 3d of April, and his
answer of the 4th, will shew the situation in which he remains--his
intentions and prospects.

I presume that before this time he has received fresh instructions (a
copy of which accompanies this message) to consent to no loans, and
therefore the negotiation may be considered at an end.

I will never send another minister to France without assurances that he
will be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a
great, free, powerful, and independent nation.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, _June 27, 1798_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

I have received a letter from His Excellency Thomas Mifflin, governor of
Pennsylvania, inclosing some documents which I judge it my duty to lay
before Congress without loss of time.

As my opinion coincides entirely with that of his excellency the
governor, I recommend the subject to the consideration of both Houses of
Congress, whose authority alone appears to me adequate to the occasion.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, _July 2, 1798_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

I nominate George Washington, of Mount Vernon, to be Lieutenant-General
and Commander in Chief of all the armies raised or to be raised in the
United States