Today in Chickamauga History - February 9
1793, February 9: Letter from Henry Knox to Tobias Lear - In the draft of his letter to William Blount, dated 8 Feb., Knox requested that the governor of the Southwest Territory convince “John Watts & other influential Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation” to come to Philadelphia for a meeting on 17 April (JPP, 46). On 9 Feb. Lear returned to Knox
Knox included GW’s recommendation in his final letter to Blount, which, in part, reads: “The President of the United States is highly desirous that John Watts, the Little Turkey, and as many others of the real chiefs of the Cherokees as you may judge proper to form a real representation of the tribes
On 23 Mar., Blount wrote to Knox, telling him that he had “no hope” that the Cherokee chiefs would go to Philadelphia (Carter, Territorial Papers, 4:248). Blount sent Knox another letter on 28 Mar., in which he informed the secretary that efforts to induce “the Chiefs of the war party of the Cherokees to accompany me to Philadelphia” had failed (ibid., 248–49). Nevertheless, in early April at Henry’s Station, a small fort just east of Knoxville at the mouth of Dumplin Creek on the French Broad River, Blount met for two days with John Watts, Doublehead, and other Cherokee chiefs and put forward GW’s offer of a meeting in Philadelphia (Blount to Knox, 9 April 1793, ibid., 249–51). The chiefs announced that “a full council of the nation was to be held on the 27th instant, when the President’s request should be taken into consideration, and an answer given” to Blount (Blount to James Robertson, 14 April 1793, ASP, Indian Affairs, 1:452). - https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0082