FUNDAMENTAL
DOCUMENTS

ARCHIVES/
LIBRARY

ONLINE
RESEARCH
TOOLS

ONLINE
DOCUMENTS

ONLINE
SERVICES

OSL WINGATE TO MEIGS

Hamilton the 14th. May 1812

Sir,

After due respects to your honr it becomes incumbent on me through the influence and solicitations of a very respectable number of citizens who Live adjacent to our frontier settlements to address you on the subject of their dangerous and unfavourable situation and I as the organ of those Inhabitants communicate to Your Excellency through this channel their precarious situation and their wishes to be protected by some arr- angement of Government and as the savages appear to be Engaged in every quarter in commiting depredations on the Lives and property of the frontier settlers those west of us are become exceedingly alarmed and from the hostile appearances of their Indian neighbours they feel and consider themselves very unsafe both in persons and property and as they have not means to place them in a situation of defence they have no alternative for the security of their Lives but to move off and Leave their farms and property to the will of fate which appears to be distressing and as they Claim a right to protection from Government they are completely of the impressions that some arangement ought to be made from that source for their security, and from the best information I can collect relative to the movements and dispositions of their Indian neighbours their fear and apprehension are far from being Groundless. therefore require the Inter- position of the Executive authority to render them in safety and secure ther from the ravage of such Barbarous and cruel Enemies the frontiers are daily Crouding into the settlements a few miles from this place and where- as they must suffer very miterally in their property I Beg Leave to suggest that it is highly important and necessary that government should Lend their aid in placeing the inhabitants on our Western frontiers in a situation of defence by furnishing the militia of our frontier Counties with arms and Equipments necessary which would have a tendency to put them in a situation to defend their Lives families and properties against those ruthless and unfeeling savages otherwise authorise the organization of a part of the militia who should be furnished with arms amunition and Equiptments and paid at the Expence of the United States whose duty it Should be to reconnitre the country between the frontier and that of the supposed Enemy and to watch the movements of the Indians and [in] case of danger give such information to the Inhabitants as would Enable them to be prepard. to meet the Exertion and repell the efforts of the savages and prevent the massacre of men women and Children which is the uniform pratice of those savages which infect our frontiers and as it is alto- gether uncertain when the strike the horrid blow it is therefore all important that we should be prepard. to defend and protect those places in this disagreeable Situation. I am confident something should be done and if the mode which I have suggested should not meet Your approbation some other which Your Wisdom and Experience might devise is highly ne- cessary for to Ensure their safety and alay these fears and apprehensions and that without a moments delay, as I am Informed by a Gentleman ,who is well acquainted with the movements and dispositions of the Indians and in whom I place the most Explicit confidence that the Indians are determined to go to war immediately and as a proof of the charictness of his state- ment and from the advice of some friendly Indians he has moved his family