A letter has been lately received from you by the President of Congress, accompanied by a bundle of papers produced from the Cherokees by Colonel Campbell. (1) As it appears that these papers were transmitted at the request of the late President, it is proper to apprize you that it was made without any written or verbal sanction, and even without the knowledge of Congress; and not improbably with a view of fishing for discoveries which may be subservient to the aggressions meditated on the territorial rights of Virginia. It would have been unnecessary to trouble you with this, had it not appeared that Colonel Campbell has given a promise of other papers, which if he should fulfil, and the papers contain any thing which the adversaries of Virginia may make an ill use of, you will not suffer any respect for the acts of Congress to induce you to forward hither.
1 For Jefferson's letter to Thomas McKean of December 20, 1781, and the "bundle of papers" that Col. Arthur Campbell had taken from the Cherokee Indians during his expedition in January 1781, see Jefferson, Papers (Boyd), 6:141; and PCC, item 71, 2:137-222. For the original request for the "Cherokee Archives," see these Letters, 17 188. On March 22 Jefferson's reply and its enclosures were referred to a committee of three which apparently issued no report. PCC, item 186, fol. 18.