Part 12

I request that they may be considered in confidence until the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the consequences of their publication, after which time I submit them to your wisdom.

JOHN ADAMS

UNITED STATES, April 12, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

A treaty with the Mohawk Nation of Indians has by accident lain long neglected. It was executed under the authority of the Honorable Isaac Smith, a commissioner of the United States. I now submit it to the Senate for their consideration.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, May 3, 1798.

Gentlemen of 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 congé. 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.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, July 13, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

A resolution of both Houses of Congress authorizing an adjournment on Monday, the 16th of this month, has been laid before me. Sensible of the severity of the service in so long a session, it is with great reluctance that I find myself obliged to offer any consideration which may operate against the inclinations of the members; but certain measures of Executive authority which will require the consideration of the Senate, and which can not be matured, in all probability, before Monday or Tuesday, oblige me to request of the Senate that they would continue their session until Wednesday or Thursday.