gbee. A treaty to this effect was accordingly signed at
Pooshapekanuk on the 16th of November, 1805; but this being against
express instructions, and not according with the object then in view,
I was disinclined to its ratification, and therefore did not at the last
session of Congress lay it before the Senate for their advice, but have
suffered it to lie unacted on.

Progressive difficulties, however, in our foreign relations have brought
into view considerations other than those which then prevailed. It is
now, perhaps, become as interesting to obtain footing for a strong
settlement of militia along our southern frontier eastward of the
Mississippi as on the west of that river, and more so than higher up
the river itself. The consolidation of the Mississippi Territory and
the establishing a barrier of separation between the Indians and our
Southern neighbors are also important objects. The cession is supposed
to contain about 5,000,000 acres, of which the greater part is said to
be fit for cultivation, and no inconsiderable proportion of the first
quality, on the various waters it includes; and the Choctaws and their
creditors are still anxious for the sale.

I therefore now transmit the treaty for the consideration of the Senate,
and I ask their advice and consent as to its ratification. I communicate
at the same time such papers as bear any material relation to the
subject, together with a map on which is sketched the northern limit of
the cession, rather to give a general idea than with any pretension to
exactness, which our present knowledge of the country would not warrant.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 20, 1808.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

Some days previous to your resolutions of the 13th instant a court of
inquiry had been instituted at the request of General Wilkinson, charged
to make the inquiry into his conduct which the first resolution desires,
and had commenced their proceedings. To the judge-advocate of that court
the papers and information on that subject transmitted to me by the
House of Representatives have been delivered, to be used according to
the rules and powers of that court.

The request of a communication of any information which may have been
received at any time since the establishment of the present Government
touching combinations with foreign agents for dismembering the Union
or the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of the United States
from the