HAMILTON TO SWAN.

SIR:

CAMP, SCOTCH PLAINS, May 26, 1800.

I send you the copy of a letter of the 14th instant, from Captain Ellery, with the documents to which it refers.

If my recollection be right, there lies an appeal from the accountant to the Comptroller of the Treasury. If so, I request that you will, without delay, on behalf of Captain Ellery, make an appeal.

After much reflection, I do not perceive any sound distinction between special compensations to persons not of the army and similar compensations to officers of the army for services, which do not appertain to the nature of their offices.

Their established compensations cannot be presumed to embrace such services; as to these they are mere strangers, with the sole difference, that being already in the employ and pay of the government, it is reasonable they should receive less allowances.

If, as the practice admits, it is within Executive discretion to allow special compensations to strangers, payable out of the fund for contingencies, it must be on the principle, that such services being casually necessary, and not provided for by law, it is requi site to the progress of the service, and agreeable to an implied license in the appropriation of the fund, that they should be called forth, and recompensed by Executive authority. And the same principle would extend to allowances to particular officers for services which the laws did not contemplate that they were to perform, and consequently did not provide for. The interest of the service will manifestly be promoted by this extension. In numerous instances officers may be made use of for such purposes without interfering with the parts of the service. for which they were destined; and in all such instances, as their allowances will be less than would be made to strangers, there will be economy in employing them; besides that in many cases they are best qualified, and in some situations other qualified persons could not be found at all.

To say that special compensations for special services is in no case within Executive discretion, would be contrary to uniform usage, and would arrest the wheels of every branch of the government. In the military service, especially, innumerable casualties occur in which the exercise of that discretion is indispensable.

What is to be done? A person is appointed lieutenant of a regiment; there is a certain routine of duties incident to the station. These are foreign to the clerical and peculiar duties attached to different branches of the staff. These, besides demanding particular qualifications, frequently involve close application and constant drudgery.

Suppose an officer is called to exchange the one station for the other, without an equivalent for the additional labor and skill; may he not reasonably decline it, and say, this service is not within the terms of my undertaking with the public? Suppose even, that the disposition of military subordination would not tolerate a refusal; could a service proceed with harmony and satisfaction, and advantage, in which such a despotism was exercised?

Will it be said that the future justice of the legislature is to be relied upon? Will officers cheerfully undertake or assiduously perform on such precarious ground? Is it right to compromise a commanding general, by laying him under the necessity of giving expectations which may not be realized?

There can be no doubt on this question where justice and expediency point; and though first appearances may countenance the distinction which has been made, a more thorough view of the subject shows it to be too nice and subtle for practice.

I trust that the Comptroller, on mature consideration, will regret the distinction. You will please to communicate to him this letter, that he may see the reasoning on which I gave my sanction to Captain Ellery for the expenditure which he has made. It may be depended upon that the business of the department absolutely required it.

With great consideration, &c.

THE PAYMASTER-GENERAL.

SIR:

HAMILTON TO

HEAD-QUARTERS, Union Brigade, May 27th, 1800.

It is very important in tactics to ascertain the proper length and speed of the step. For this purpose I am causing experiments to be made in various quarters, and I have drawn up the inclosed paper to serve as a guide in making them. I request that you will have experiments made in all the varieties indicated, and report the result.

SIR:

HAMILTON TO RIVARDI.

CAMP, SCOTCH PLAINS, May 31st, 1800.

I have received your letter of the 15th instant.

As we live in a jealous country, and in jealous times, a visit from Governor Hunter and the Duke of Kent is not to be courted.

If, however, circumstances should occur in which the thing cannot be avoided without a breach of politeness or liberality, it must be met with a good grace. With this caution, I leave the matter to your prudence and delicacy.

If a visit shall take place, the same ceremonies are to be ob served towards the Governor, as would be observed towards a similar character in our own country. That is, he will be received by the garrison with presented arms-officers and colors saluting, and music playing. In the reception of the Duke of Kent, there will be the additional ceremonies of a discharge of artillery, and the honors of the flag.

Under the circumstances stated, I consent to your taking an additional servant from the garrison.

SIR:

ADAMS TO HAMILTON.

PHILADELPHIA, June 20th, 1800.

The itinerant life I have led has prevented me from acknowledging the receipt of your favor of May 24th until this time. Your sentiments are very satisfactory to me, and will be duly attended to.

I anticipate criticism in every thing which relates to Colonel Smith. But criticism, now criticised so long, I regard no more than "Great George, a Birth-day Song." Colonel Smith served through the war with high applause of his superiors. He has served abroad in the diplomatic corps, at home as marshal and supervisor, and now as commandant of a brigade. These are services of his own, not mine. His claims are his own. I see no reason or justice in excluding him from all service while his comrades are all ambassadors or generals, merely because he married my daughter.

I am, Sir, with much regard,

Your most obedient and humble servant,

MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

SIR:

HAMILTON TO M'HENRY.

JOHN ADAMS.

NEW-YORK, June 28th, 1800.

An extraordinary pressure of business since the receipt of your letter of the 10th inst., has delayed a reply to that part of it which respects the rule of promotion.

This rule was not adopted on my recommendation singly, but on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief, supported by the opinion of General Pinckney and myself.

Of its expediency with regard to the corps of artillerists and engineers, I have always had some doubt.

The smallness of that corps in point of number avoids the inconvenience of a lineal promotion of captains. The nature of its service, almost always by detachments, causes the reason for a different mode to be inapplicable to it, and the scientific nature of the corps strengthens the inducements to a strict succession according to seniority.

But a uniform rule was thought most eligible; and I have not the least doubt that the rule of promotion, regimentally to the rank of majority, inclusively, is the best with regard to the infantry and cavalry.

In corps which act collectively, there is an advantage in keeping the men as much as possible with the officers to whom they have been accustomed. As often as you bring an officer from another regiment the advantage is lost.

But more justice is done by a regimental promotion than by any other mode. Corps in active service are, in various ways, subject to losses in a much greater degree than those in a state of repose. It is justly congenial with the natural feelings of the human heart, and an incentive to exertion, that promotion should keep pace with danger and suffering.

If, when a regiment had been half destroyed by a bloody action, the advancement of all the remaining officers was impeded by bringing captains from garrisons perhaps a thousand miles off, the effect upon those officers would be very discouraging, and the influence upon the service very inauspicious.

It may be asked, Why not apply this reasoning to the field officers? The answer is, that when the grade becomes of this importance it carries with it a tenaciousness of the principle of promotion by seniority; and the whole number not being very considerable, the delay of lineal promotion is less sensibly felt and the effect less extensive.

Balancing the opposite considerations, it is judged the least inconvenient to regulate the higher grades by a lineal promotion. You have herewith a report of Major Hoops concerning the late disturbance at West Point.

North has since set on foot criminal prosecutions against Captain Stille and several of his men for riot and theft. A hot