of the nation for peace has led to strenuous efforts
through various channels to accomplish these desirable purposes; in
making which efforts I consulted less my own anticipations of the event,
or the scruples which some considerations were calculated to inspire,
than the wish to find the object attainable, or if not attainable,
to ascertain unequivocally that such is the case.

A detail of the measures which have been pursued and of their
consequences, which will be laid before you, while it will confirm to
you the want of success thus far, will, I trust, evince that means as
proper and as efficacious as could have been devised have been employed.
The issue of some of them, indeed, is still depending, but a favorable
one, though not to be despaired of, is not promised by anything that has
yet happened.

In the course of the attempts which have been made some valuable
citizens have fallen victims to their zeal for the public service. A
sanction commonly respected even among savages has been found in this
instance insufficient to protect from massacre the emissaries of peace.
It will, I presume, be duly considered whether the occasion does not
call for an exercise of liberality toward the families of the deceased.

It must add to your concern to be informed that, besides the
continuation of hostile appearances among the tribes north of the Ohio,
some threatening symptoms have of late been revived among some of those
south of it.

A part of the Cherokees, known by the name of Chickamaugas, inhabiting
five villages on the Tennessee River, have long been in the practice of
committing depredations on the neighboring settlements.

It was hoped that the treaty of Holston, made with the Cherokee Nation
in July, 1791, would have prevented a repetition of such depredations;
but the event has not answered this hope. The Chickamaugas, aided
by some banditti of another tribe in their vicinity, have recently
perpetrated wanton and unprovoked hostilities upon the citizens of the
United States in that quarter. The information which has been received
on this subject will be laid before you. Hitherto defensive precautions
only have been strictly enjoined and observed.

It is not understood that any breach of treaty or aggression whatsoever
on the part of the United States or their citizens is even alleged as a
pretext for the spirit of hostility in this quarter.

I have reason to believe that every practicable exertion has been m