Letter by Henry Dearborn to Captain Callender Irvine, August 14, 1802

Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) was an American politician and military leader. He served in the House of Representatives from 1793 to 1797 and was appointed Secretary of War by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801. During the War of 1812 he was appointed Senior Major General of the United States Army. He had some success at York and Fort George in 1813 but his failure to reinforce General William Hull at Detroit affected his military career and he was recalled from the field on July 6, 1813.A letter by Henry Dearborn, Secretary of the War Department, to Captain Callender Irvine, Indian agent to the Six Nations. The letter is 1 ½ pages and is dated War Department, August 14, 1802. The letter concerns tensions between the Seneca Indians and those living in the vicinity of the Canadian border. Dearborn writes that “It appears that uneasiness exists among the Seneca Indians and the white people in their neighborhood, a white man has been lately killed and another wounded by one of the Senecas—you will immediately visit the Senecas after calling on Major Porter Commanding Officer at Niagara, who I have requested to give you all the aid and advice in his power and who I wish may accompany you on your visit to the principal men of the Seneca Nation near Buffalo Creek—you will by all mild & friendly means in your power endeavor to satisfy the Indians, of the friendly intentions of the General Government towards them, and impress on their minds the absolute necessity of their rigid attention to the stipulations of the treaty existing between them and the United States and especially the restraining this young men and others from any hostile or unfriendly acts against the citizens of the United States—you will also endeavor to convince them of the necessity of…such punishment as the law may inflict on the Indian who has been guilty of the late outrageous murder.