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War Department
June 23. 1842
Sir,
The letter of your Excellency to the President dated the 10th ulto. [ultimo] was referred to this Department on the 18th of the same month. On perusing it I did not perceive that it contained any matter requiring an answer. A copy of it was laid before the House of Representatives by the Hon [Honorable] Mark A. Cooper on the same day on which it reached this Department and was printed by order of the House, with a letter from yourself to Mr Cooper, in which you seemed to invoke the action of Congress upon the subject of the defense of the Southern frontier of your State. Hence any answer to your communication by the Executive Department of the government, seemed at least superfluous. The officer commanding in Florida had been actively engaged in guarding the Swamps in Florida, and particularly those in the Northern part of the Territory and to give him fresh orders on the chief object of his employment, was deemed supererogatory. But I have had the honor of an interview this morning with the Hon [Honorable] Mr Gamble one of the delegation from Georgia, in which he stated that


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you had expected an answer to your letter of the 10th ult [ultimo], and was disappointed in not having received one; and he states it to be your desire that instructions should be given to the officer commanding in Florida, to guard the passages in that Territory by which Indians pressed by our troops there, may escape into Georgia.
I therefore beg leave to assure your Excellency that the omission heretofore to answer your letter of the 10th ult [ultimo] proceeded from the causes above mentioned, and not from any want of respect to you, or from indifference to the subject. The instructions which you desire as communicated by the Hon [Honorable] Mr Gamble will be immediately given, and the officer in command of the troops in Florida, will be urged to use all the means within his power to prevent the escape of any Indians from Florida into Georgia.
[added text (appears to be different hand and ink): X ] It gives me pleasure to be able to assure your Excellency, that from recent communications of Col [Colonel] Worth, there is every reason to believe that the Creeks or Tallahassee Indians hovering in the Northern part of Florida, will in a few days surrender to the United States.
Determined as I am to avoid unnecessary controversy I forbear all comment on the portions of your letter to the President of the 10th ulto [ultimo], which relate to my views and conduct on the subject of defending and protecting the inhabitants of Georgia, except to say that your Excellency has misunderstood the import


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of my remark to your delegation which you suppose was "that I would yield my own opinion of the necessity of such a force to that of the delegation in Congress". The remark is not correctly quoted in your letter, as you will perceive by recurring to the printed copy. It was that in a doubtful case the high consideration entertained for the opinions and wishes of the delegation, would induce the Department to yield its own opinion, to that of such a body, but that, for the reason stated, no step could be taken towards calling out a militia force. And I beg to assure your Excellency that the same deference to your opinion and wishes, as Governor of Georgia, as was expressed to the delegation of your State in reference to their opinions and wishes, is felt and will be shown in similar cases.

I have the honor to be Sir Your obed Servt [obedient Servant]
[Signed] J. [John] C. Spencer
His Excellency Charles J. Macdonald Governor of Georgia





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Letter
J. [John] C. Spencer
Secretary of war

1842
copyed [copied]
[ Note: Miscellaneous mathematical calculations appear on this page. ]