for this, I should have appropriated sooner, one of the six days I am now about to borrow, for the following communications.

I have perused with attention your Instructions to General Hamilton, and can readily conceive from the purport of them what the tenor of those are, which you have issued to General Pinckney. These Instructions appear to me to be well digested, and are appropriate to the ends contemplated.

I once thought, it being more regular, that the old Troops under the command of General Wilkinson had better have remained subordinate to the orders of Gen. Hamilton, to whom, through the Department of War, (for the reasons alleged in the Instructions) all reports and returns ought to be made. But, on more mature consideration of the multiplied, extensive, and checkered position of those troops, I am disposed to believe that your plan is preferable.

In my last, I gave what I conceived to be the reason why you were uninformed of the intentions of so many of the appointed Officers, and took the liberty of suggesting a mode by which their acceptance, or refusal, might speedily be ascertained. This suggestion and your Circular, (which now appears in all the Gazettes) renders it unnecessary for me to say anything more on that head. And if the obstacles, which were opposed to the preparatory measures for Recruiting, were such as not to be overcome, like many other things, most desirable, but unattainable, we may regret the loss, though we submit to the disappointment.

Until your Circular appeared, I do not believe that it was the expectation of the newly appointed officers, (who had not received their Commissions,) that they were to draw pay from the date of their Acceptances; and to this uncertainty, after having thrown themselves out of other business, was their discontents to be ascribed. Your circular communication, and a just arrangement of Rank hereafter, will, no doubt, put all matters to rights. But if these officers are not speedily employed in the Recruiting Service, a clamor will soon arise in another quarter; for it will be asked why are they in actual pay & unemployed.

Care will be taken, I presume, in settling relative Rank, not to be governed by the date of the acceptances, for that would give to the Officers of those States, who are most contiguous to the seat of Government, advantages which would be as unjust as they are great.1

1

I do not recollect with precision the circumstances you allude to, as having taken place in the year 1792

1" From an observation of yours, in answer to my letter of the 23d. ulto., I perceive my meaning with respect to relative rank has been misunderstood; or, if taken properly, I must adhere to the opinion I gave of the injustice, which would be inflicted upon the officers of States remote from the seat of government, if those in the vicinity of it are to rank before them, because they were on the spot to announce their acceptance of their appointments at an earlier day.

"Rank and pay are distinct things. The officer, who may have received the latter to-day sustains no injury from him who received it yesterday; but if the commencement of rank in the same grades is to be regulated (under the circumstances I have mentioned) from the dates of their acceptances, it will have injustice stamped on the face of it. For, in that case, those who are most remote, not by any act avoidable in themselves, but from the nature of things, become in almost every instance juniors; when perhaps many of them, in consideration of former services, or other weighty pretensions, might justly be entitled to seniority."- Washington to McHenry, 5 May, 1799.

under the auspices of one of your Predecessors. But however anxious Officers are to be possessed of their Commissions, I have no hesitation in declaring it as my opinion, that I see no cause they would have to complain of their being withheld, for the reasons you have mentioned, when the matter is explained to them, & they are in receipt of emoluments. With respect to Connecticut and the States South of Virginia, I was at no loss to account for the delays, which had taken place in them, not only as it respected the Recruiting Service, but as it related to the appointment of the Officers also.

General Hamilton having communicated to me his arrangement of the State of Virginia into districts & subdivisions, with the places of rendezvous in each, I have suggested a few (un) important alterations in the sub-districts with which I am best acquainted.

In the revised printed Instructions for Recruiting, which you have been pleased to send to me, there are several blanks, which I presume will be filled up before they are finally issued. These are to be found in the 2d. 5th & 28th Articles.

The quotation of the answer given to your representation respecting the suspension of the arrangement, and consequent delay in Recruiting betrays a manifest want of knowledge of the subject. There is a "tide, it is said, in all things," and there was a combination of circumstances at the passing of the act, among which resentment was not the least, which produced an uncommon enthusiasm ; & which, until it began to slacken & ebb, might have been improved

to great advantage. But, taking the matter up, upon the principle of the answer, could there have been a stronger reason assigned agt. delay, than the difficulty of obtaining men?1

If the enumerated obstacles were such as would retard the Recruiting Service, it ought to have commenced with redoubled ardor. The voice of the People, as expressed by their representatives, adjudged this Force necessary. The law was positive. Where then lay a Power to dispense with or suspend it? I will go no farther, however, on this point. Perhaps I have gone too far already; but, as you have not only authorized, but requested, that I would communicate my sentiments to you with freedom and candor, I could not restrain this effusion, while I acknowledge & have declared upon all proper occasions, that you were not responsible for the delay in organizing the army; as you have been informed in my last letter. In the case of Major Gibbs, I shall make but two short remarks. Ist: that it was not from any pre

1 Among other obstacles, that interposed to retard the recruiting service, the Secretary of War mentioned the ground taken by the President, as affording less encouragement than he expected.

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"When I spoke of the time we had lost," said he, after all my proposals for augmenting the army had been rejected or procrastinated, what was the reply of the President on the 28th of October? He observed: As to the recruiting service, I wonder whether there has been any enthusiasm, which would induce men of common sense to enlist for five dollars a month, who could have fifteen when they pleased by sea, or for common work at land? There has been no rational plan, that I have seen as yet, formed for the maintenance of the army. One thing I know, that regiments are costly articles everywhere, and more so in this country than in any other under the sun. If this nation sees a great army to maintain, without an enemy to fight, there may arise an enthusiasm that seems to be little foreseen.'"-March 31st.

dilection for the man, that he was brought forward by the Board of Gen. Officers; and 2d, that I should have thought, that the testimony of Generals Lincoln, Knox, Brooks, Jackson, & others, added to the weight of that board, would be a counterpoise to the objectioners, unless something injurious to his character was adduced. But, with respect to young Mercer's promotion, I cannot but express my regrets; notwithstanding the high opinion I have of his merit, and the sincere regard I entertained for his deceased father. This promotion, you may rely on it, is radically wrong, & will be felt sorely. Although no one is less disposed than I am to call in question the right of the President to make appointments (with the participation of the Senate) yet I must be permitted to add, that, if there is not a good deal of circumspection observed in the exercise of it, as it respects the regulation of the army, he will find it much easier to plunge into, than to extricate himself from, embarassments occasioned by injudicious arrangements. Of this, I can speak from the experience I have had.

In the arrangement of Mr. Mercer at Philadelphia, his comparative pretensions were duly considered, & a lieutenancy was considered a handsome appointment for him. Many applications for Captaincies of Dragoons from meritorious characters, who had had commands in the horse on the Western Expedition in 1794, could not, from the smallness of that Corps, be accommodated; & on that acct. only were turned

I The Secretary of War wrote afterwards, that Mr. Mercer did not accept the appointment, but without stating on what grounds he declined.