You will therefore inform the said Indians of the dispositions of the General Government on this subject and of their reasonable desire that there should be a cessation of hostilities as a prelude to a treaty. If, however, notwithstanding your intimations to them, they should continue their hostilities or meditate any incursions against the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania or against any of the troops or posts of the United States, and it should appear to you that the time of execution would be so near as to forbid your transmitting the information to me and receiving my further orders thereon, then you are hereby authorized and empowered in my name to call on the lieutenants of the nearest counties of Virginia and Pennsylvania for such detachments of militia as you may judge proper, not exceeding, however, 1,000 from Virginia and 500 from Pennsylvania. I have directed letters to be written to the executives of Virginia and Pennsylvania informing them of the before-recited act of Congress and that I have given you these conditional directions, so that there may not be any obstructions to such measures as shall be necessary to be taken by you for calling forth the militia agreeably to the instructions herein contained. The said militia to act in conjunction with the Federal troops in such operations, offensive or defensive, as you and the commanding officer of the troops conjointly shall judge necessary for the public service and the protection of the inhabitants and the posts. The said militia while in actual service to be on the continental establishment of pay and rations. They are to arm and equip themselves, but to be furnished with public ammunition if necessary; and no charge for the pay of said militia will be valid unless supported by regular musters, made by a field or other officer of the Federal troops, to be appointed by the commanding officer of the troops. I would have it observed forcibly that a war with the Wabash Indians ought to be avoided by all means consistently with the security of the frontier inhabitants, the security of the troops, and the national dignity. In the exercise of the present indiscriminate hostilities it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to say that a war without further measures would be just on the part of the United States. But if, after manifesting clearly to the Indians the dispositions of the General Government for the preservation of peace and the extension of a just protection to the said Indians, they should continue their incursions, the United States will be constrained to punish them with severity. You will also proceed, as soon as you can with safety, to execute the orders of the late Congress respecting the inhabitants at St. Vincennes and at the Kaskaskias and the other villages on the Mississippi. It is a circumstance of some importance that the said inhabitants should as soon as possible possess the lands to which they are entitled by some known and fixed principles.