occasioned the loss of so much innocent blood and the scenes of so much human misery on the Western frontiers. In order to effect so desirable an end, it is conceived that Maj. Gen. Wayne's force ought to be augmented to such a degree as to enable him not only to seize without risk the posts intended to be occupied at the Miami villages and the Auglaize, but after garrisoning the same, to have a force remaining for offensive operations superior to any probable combination of the Indians. It is demonstrated by experience that such a force will not be obtained in due season by the ordinary course of enlistments for the Legion. The only resource, therefore, seems to be in the mounted volunteers from Kentucky. It has been an event much desired by the hardy and brave inhabitants of that State, that they should have an opportunity afforded them upon an ample scale of evincing their prowess in Indian warfare. This is now presented. Major General Scott in concert with Major General Wayne, is authorized by the President of the United States to enrol for four months the number of fifteen hundred or even two thousand such volunteers, upon the liberal pay allowed by the laws for this object. If it should so happen that any volunteers may have joined General Wayne, the amount of their number is to be deducted from the number herein mentioned.

"The President confiding in the patriotism and good disposition of your Excellency, requests that you would afford all the facilities, countenance, and aid in your power to the proposed expedition, from which, if successful, the State of Kentucky will reap the most abundant advantages.

"The idea of a board to nominate the officers as transmitted by you, has been adopted; and the President of the United States hereby requests that you would please to act as President of the said Board for the nomination of the field and company officers, specified in Maj. Gen. Scott's instructions, which he will exhibit, and which is to regulate the detail of this object. The other members will be Major General Scott, Brigadier General Robert Todd and Thomas Barbee, provided they accept their provisional appointment; but if either of the said Brigadiers should decline, then your Excellency and Major General Scott and the one accepting, are to form a Board to nominate their successor; and if both should decline, then you and Gen. Scott to nominate their successors."

"I have conceived it to be my duty to make this communication, and at the same time, in the name and authority of the President of the United States, to confide to your judgment, whether the said posts shall be established, and if so, whether it would not be better to have three instead of two, and to consist of one Subaltern, one Sergeant, one Corporal, and fifteen privates. It would be proper to devise some mode to muster and inspect the garrisons and to mulct as a deserter, any absentee, unless upon some necessary occasion, as connected with the objects of his duty.

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• Major General Wayne has been written to not to interfere in the defensive protection of Kentucky, which is hereby in the name of the President of the United States confided to your Excellency under the following general principles."

Letter from Governor Shelby to Gen. M. D. Hardin.

July 1st, 1812. DEAR SIR,-Your two letters of the 17th and 26th ult. came duly to hand-both which I omitted to answer until I should see a declaration of war officially made known, as upon that event, my determination of becoming a candidate for the Government was predicated: and now that information has just been received by the publication of the President's proclamation in the "Statesman-extra.

I had intended to come out in the next Globe, which is published in Danville on Tuesday. It seems from other publications (" French plot, developed, &c.") that my country is to be thrown into great commotion, which of all things I should regret to see. You will observe by that publication, that my letter to General Wayne, in answer to his of the 6th of January, 1794, is entirely overlooked by the deputy Secretary, who has certified copies of that transaction. That letter of mine to General Wayne, was deposited with the others in the Secretary's office, and my fears are, that he has been careless, and suffered my enemy H. Marshall or one of his tools to slip it out of his hands, for the publication of that letter would shew at once the fallacy of his remarks upon all the rest. I wish you to examine those papers to the end, that if my letter to Wayne is now missing, the young man who gave the copies, may be able while the transaction is yet new, to determine in what way it may have been slipped out of his hands; for base as I believe the author of this "developement, &c." to be, I cannot suppose he would dare to publish the statement he has made without having by some means purloined my letter to General Wayne, from amongst the other papers. Mr. Winlock will yet remember, who has had those papers in hand, at any time since I deposited them in the Secretary's office.

I enclose you a copy of Wayne's letter to me, and my answer to him, and my son will deliver you sundry other letters from James Brown to me of about the same date, which are answers to what I had written him on that subject, and will go to prove what was my opinion of that intended enterprize at the time I wrote to General Wayne.

Pray sir, does any one intend to unmask this prince of slanderers? I cannot suppose his aim is so much at myself, for he must know 1 care but little as to the event of the election: but if he can establish in the minds of his countrymen, that such a conspiracy as that of Lachaise existed at all, he will perhaps make great use of it in his defence for slandering poor Mr. Innes, in the case which is shortly to be tried.

There is to be sure some inconsistency in my two letters to the Secretary of State of the United States, and I saw it at the time, but at the date of the last, I saw evidently that the whole scheme of Lachaise would fall to the ground without any interference, and that the present moment was a favorable one, while the apprehensions of the President were greatly excited, to express to him what I knew to be the general sentiments of the Kentucky people, relative to the navigation of the Mississippi and the Spanish Government; those sentiments had often to my knowledge been expressed by way of petition and memorial to the general Government, and to which no assurance nor any

kind of answer had been received, and I feel an entire confidence that my letter of the 13th of January, 1794, was the sole cause that produced an explanation by the special commissioner, Colonel James Innes, of the measures that had been pursued by our Government, towards obtaining for us the navigation of the Mississippi; and although I felt some regret, that I had for a moment kept the President uneasy, I was truly gratified to find that our right to the navigation of that river had been well asserted by the President in the negotiations carried on at Madrid. Indeed the mind of every Kentuckian then settled down in quietness on a subject, that had long caused great solicitude, after the attempt of Jay to cede away the navigation of that river for twenty-five or thirty years.

For my own part I cannot attempt to combat this mammoth of slander, but he may be asked if there was any thing like conspiracy in all this affair, why he did not make it known sooner. The whole correspondence laid before the Legislature on the 15th of November, 1794, upon a resolution introduced by himself on the 12th of that month; but perhaps it was he himself that prevented any order being then taken upon them, lest it should have turned out to my advantage, for the Legislature, I understood, were well pleased with the part I

had acted.

You will see by the latter part of J. Brown's letter of the 16th of February, 1794, that Wayne had, at that date, ordered back the Cavalry, which had been posted near Georgetown, to suppress the enterprize; he did it either from my letter, or from other information, that the expedition was abandoned.

I have written you a long and hasty letter, which I have not time And remain your obedient friend,

to correct.

ISAAC SHELBY.

Extract of a Letter from Col. James Innes to Gov. Shelby.*
February 15, 1795.

"I mean to do myself the honor of waiting upon you before I depart, from which I anticipate much satisfaction-having ever been induced to hold your reputation, both as a soldier and as a citizen, in perfect esteem.

"With every sentiment of personal respect, and with warm wishes for the continuance of that prosperity which so conspicuously marks the flourishing State over which you have the honor to preside."

TO THE FREEMEN OF KENTUCKY.

Fellow Citizens,-Having been announced a candidate for the Government of the State, it was to be expected that my conduct, while heretofore discharging the duties of that station, would be before the public. From a candid and impartial scrutiny into it, I had nothing to fear, and under such a one, I should have remained silent. But a publication has appeared in the American Statesman of the 27th June, under the signature of WARREN, accompanied by a garbled statement of official documents, and such a misrepresentation of my conduct, as makes it my duty to place that transaction in its proper light.

I shall not stop to inquire into the motives of the writer in the Communicated by Mr. Meehan, the distinguished Librarian of Congress.

course he has taken, but proceed to the explanations I deem materi Those who were the early settlers of the District, now State of Kentucky, must well recollect the early solicitude in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, and the embarrassments which existed in the exportation of the little produce that could be saved from the savages. Repeated, but unavailing were the remonstrances made to the General Government on the subject, and it was ascertained that a proposition had been made to barter away that navigation for twenty-five or thirty years; whilst on the other hand, the measures taken to secure it, were kept profoundly secret. These things excited a considerable degree of uneasiness in the public mind. While the people of the western country were in this state of anxiety, the correspondence took place between the executive of this State, and the Secretary of State of the United States, in relation to the project of Lachaise and others, and the navigation of the Mississippi, a part of which is contained in the publication to which I allude. During the sitting of the Legislature of 1794, I made a communication to that body, covering that correspondence, General Wayne's letter to me of the 6th of January, 1794, with its enclosure and my answer. I subjoin hereto that communication, also the letter of the Secretary of State of the United States, of August the 13th, 1794, and the resolution it covered in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi.

These documents, when before the public, in addition to those published in the Statesman, will give the public a full view of the subjeet. My communication to the Legislature in 1794, shews the view I then had of it. That communication, and the documents accompanying it, were I believe, published in the Kentucky Gazette. My whole conduct was laid open to my country, when the transactions were recent; when a judgment could be formed from a full view of the subject. I believe my country was then satisfied with my conduct, I flatter myself it is still so.

I had pledged myself to the General Government, that whatever might be my private opinion, I should at all times hold it my duty to perform whatever might be constitutionally required of me by the President of the United States.

I had my eye upon the preparation for the enterprize, and was prepared to stop it if force was requisite. But under the full belief that the project would die a natural death, and that in the situation in which the public mind then was, it was important to abstain from harsh means if possible—that at the period when the preparations were said to be in the greatest forwardness, I had a full belief that the expedition would fail. I refer to my letter of the 10th Feb. 1794, to General Wayne, for the correctness of this opinion. I was not mistaken in my calculations; it eventuated as I expected; and I hesitate not to say, had I interfered by having any of the persons concerned arrested under the civil authority upon suspicion, as the law then stood, that it would have excited heat and animosities, and in all probability it would have proved abortive; and if so, it would have promoted instead of retarding the preparations. The doubts which I then entertained of the sufficiency of the laws to reach the case, was the result of candid reflection, and the best advice I was able to procure, only tended to confirm the opinion, that until the passage of the law of

Congress of the 5th June, 1794, the civil authority could not interfere to arrest the preparations made with an intention of commencing an enterprize against a neighboring territory-that law was introduced and passed in consequence of my letter on that subject; it was immediately communicated to me by the Secretary of State of the U. S.besides, the want of an Attorney in the Federal Court, as well as I recollect, put it out of my power to adopt the peaceable measures recommended in the letter of the Secretary.

"The attention of the General Government being thus drawn to the Western country, I deemed it a favorable time to make an impression on their minds of the importance of the navigation of the Mississippi, and of the necessity of attending to that subject. On that account and with that object, my letter of the 13th January, 1794, was calculated rather to increase than to diminish the apprehensions of the General Government as to the Western country. This letter had the effect desired, it drew from the Secretary of State information in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, and satisfied us that the General Government was, in good faith, pursuing this object of first importance to the people of Kentucky. The information thus drawn forth quieted the public mind and restored harmony to the country."

I have deemed it a duty to myself to make this statement, although the transactions were then as public as any of a similar nature could be. Such changes have eighteen years made in the population of our State, that few people, comparatively speaking, can be fully informed on the subject, and when correctly informed, I can have no apprehensions as to the result of their reflections.

NOTE.-The above documents referred to by Col. Todd, are open to the public inspec tion, at my residence in Louisville.-AUTHOR.

JUDGE INNES' IMPEACHMENT.

The following extract from the Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, shews the whole action of that body on this subject.

Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the United States in regard to Judge Innes.

Tuesday, April 19, 1808. Mr. Rowan from the Committee appointed on the thirty-first ult. to inquire into the official conduct of Harry Innes, district Judge of the United States for the district of Kentucky, made a report thereon, which was read and ordered to lie on the table.

The report was on the 20th April committed to a committee of the whole House, and not further acted on.

April 18th, 1808. Mr. Rowan from the Committee appointed on the 31st March last, to inquire into the conduct of Harry Innes, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Kentucky, made the following Report:

The Committee to whom was referred a resolution to inquire into the conduct of Harry Innes, District Judge of the United States for