One page, folio, to Mr. (Tobias) Lear, Washington’s personal secretary. In full: “I enclose some papers from the Muskingham containing disagreeable information from the frontiers. I will take the liberty of waiting upon the President this evening.”

Knox, who served as an officer in the American Revolution, is most likely referring to the deteriorating situation between white settlers and Indians in the Ohio region following the failure of the 1788 Treaty of Fort Harmer. The treaty signed by Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory and chiefs of the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa and other tribes did nothing to stop the bloodshed between the Americans and the Indians. Many tribes refused to honor the treaty, including the Shawnee. They claimed that the tribes represented at the treaty negotiations did not speak for the Shawnees. Native attacks on white settlers in the Northwest Territory worsened following the treaty. St. Clair had failed to attain peace and beginning in 1790, the American military determined to force the Indians from the Ohio Country.