Till you have a deputy, it appears to me regular that your communications ought to be with this description of persons.

When you have or shall have a deputy, it is and will be proper for you to communicate with him, and he with the officers in question. I may add, that wherever a particular officer receives money from your department for which he is accountable, you or your deputy may, with propriety, hold a direct communication with him, whatever be his station.

But it is proper that correspondence and communication between your office and the military should be restricted to the purposes of this description, except when for any special reason you find occasion to communicate with the commanding-general or other commander of an army, or within a great military district.

The pointing out at an early period this course of proceed ing, is dictated by a love of regularity, to which nothing is more conducive than great strictness in the modes of communication between officers. With great consideration, &c.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

DEAR SIR:

NEW-YORK, Sept. 23d, 1799.

I had the pleasure of receiving in due time your letter of the 15th instant. The suggestions it contains will be maturely weighed. I postpone any thing definitive until the return of General Wilkinson, which is momentarily expected. The other documents besides No. 8, which accompanied his letter, were not material to the consideration of its contents, or they would have been forwarded. Even No. 1 does nothing more than exhibit in the form of a table, the propositions which are found in the letter. I was afraid of burthening you with papers which did not necessarily require your attention, being matters of mere detail.

Inclosed is a letter of this date to Colonel Parker about winter quarters, for the eighth, ninth, and tenth regiments. It is late to begin, but you will perceive in it the cause of the delay.

It is extremely desirable that you would be pleased to take the direction of this matter, and to have the business done in such manner as you shall deem eligible. Not having a right to presume that you would choose to take the charge of it, I have adopted the expedient of addressing myself to Colonel Parker. But perhaps you may think of some preferable agent, in which case you will be so good as to retain the letter, and give complete directions to such other agent. Compensation and the defraying of his expenses need not be obstacles.

At any rate, I hope you will not find it inconvenient to instruct Colonel Parker to conclude a bargain for such place as upon his reports to you shall be in your opinion eligible. It is very necessary that these young troops should be early covered. Collateral ideas with regard to Harper's Ferry as a place for arsenals and magazines, may perhaps be combined. These will more readily occur to you than to me.

With true respect and attachment, &c.

P. S. Scotch Plains, near Bound Brook, will be fixed upon for the 11th, 12th, and 13th regiments. A very eligible spot of about ninety acres is offered there at fifty dollars per acre for the fee simple. It affords the advantage of a good summer encampment also, with a prospect of a supply for years of fuel and straw at cheap rates; and the convenience of a pleasant and plentiful surrounding country.

Search has been for some time past making for a suitable position for the three most northern regiments, in the vicinity of Uxbridge or Massachusetts.

DEAR SIR:

WASHINGTON TO HAMILTON.

MOUNT VERNON, 29th Sept., 1799.

Your letter of the 23d instant was received the 27th, and this day will proceed in the mail to Winchester, the nearest post town to Col. Parker's residence; if he should be at his own house, the letter is inclosed for him. There being no person in my view more eligible than Col. Parker to carry your instructions into effect, unless Col. Carrington had been in office as Quartermaster-General, I had no hesitation in forwarding your letter to him, with such sentiments as occurred to me on the subject, which differed in no essential point from those you had given.

I confined him more pointedly than you had done to the site near Harper's Ferry for his winter cantonment, because very cogent reasons, in my opinion, required it; for, besides possess ing all the advantages enumerated in your letter to him (so far as my recollection of the spot and information goes), being in a fertile and most abounding country, and one of the strongest positions by nature perhaps in America, it appeared to me that the encampment and arsenal which is established at that place might mutually assist and benefit each other. If the States are wise enough to keep united, I have no doubt of this arsenal being their principal place of arms and best foundry, as it is in the midst of furnaces and forges of the best iron, can receive at and transport from it by inland navigation all its wants and manufactures in every direction, and is indubitably, supposing the advantage of water transportation out of the question, altogether, the great highway to the country on the river Ohio.

For the reasons I have assigned, I did not hesitate a moment in giving the vicinity of Harper's Ferry (at the confluence of the rivers Potomac and Shenandoah) a decided preference; but, if I am not mistaken, another strong inducement is afforded, namely, that there is a sufficiency of land purchased for the purpose of the arsenal to accommodate both objects. Of this I have informed Col. Parker, but, as Mr. Lear is from home (who was

the agent for the War Department in the purchase), I could not inform him with certainty. If the fact, however, should be as I suspect, it will prove a most fortunate circumstance, as well in the article of expense as in the time that will be gained in completing the huts. If it should be otherwise, I have advised Col. Parker to hold out to view and examine many places, while he, by some agent, is endeavoring to possess himself by purchase of the site near Harper's Ferry, without which he might be imposed on in the price of the land.

With very great esteem and regard, &c.

HAMILTON TO COL. MOORE.

NEW-YORK, Sept. 30, 1799.

SIR:

and Capt.

I have received your letter of the 28th instant, and shall make but one inquiry more with respect to the unfortunate affair between Lieut. You will be so good as to inform me of the particular subject on which the political dispute turned, and of the principles that were maintained by the respective parties. The information I am anxious to receive.

I am pleased with the pains you have taken to discourage a repetition of such instances. If examples were wanting to illustrate the pernicious effects of drinking to intoxication, the present unfortunate affair would be a very instructive one. How necessary is it, as well by the means which affect the pride and delicacy of officers as by those which are furnished by the principles of discipline, to discountenance so ungentlemanly a propensity. You have the leave of absence which you request.

SIR:

HAMILTON TO MCHENRY.

NEW-YORK, October 3, 1799.

The following arrangement as to huts, appears to me expedient. Each hut to be fourteen by sixteen feet for all but the field officers. One hut for twelve privates or eight non-commissioned officers. One hut for each captain, and each of the regimental staff. One hut for every two subalterns. A hut for a lieutenant-colonel, of fourteen by twenty-four feet; and for each major, of fourteen feet by twenty-two feet. One hut as a kitchen to every mess of officers, and to each field officer.

It is contemplated that the huts be roofed with boards, unless where slabs can be had very cheap. The Albany board being always fourteen feet in length, and this being from convenience a pretty common length of other boards, it has had some influence in determining the size of the huts. Boards will also be wanted for bunks. Such of the boards as can be preserved entire, may be afterwards sold for nearly their cost. The slabs would be worth little more than mere fuel.

I send you an estimate of carpenters' tools, requisite, in the opinion of General Stevens, (who is a professional judge,) for hutting a regiment.

It is important that your sense of the matter should be received without delay, as time begins to press.

In the execution of the plan, slight deviations may be expedient (with reference to the kind of material, &c.) to fulfil the general views of the plan.

As soon as your sense shall be signified, I shall proceed to order provision to be made, except of such articles as you shall inform me are already procured, or to be procured elsewhere.

I presume carpenters sufficient will be found in each regiment to conduct the roofing, &c., but the service being irrelative to their established duty, there must be some extra compensation. It may, however, in some cases be necessary to engage a