New Windsor, April 27th, 1781.

"Dear Sir: Your letter of this date has not a little embarrassed me. You must remember the ferment in the Pennsylvania line the last campaign, occasioned by the appointment of Major McPherson, and you know the uneasiness which at this moment exists among the Eastern officers, on account of the commands conferred upon Colonel Gimat and Major Galvan, although it was the result of absolute necessity.

"Should circumstances admit of the formation of another advanced corps, of which I see very little prospect from present appearances, it can be but small, and must be composed almost entirely of Eastern troops; and to add to the discontents of the officers of those lines, by the farther appointment of an officer of your rank to the command of it, or in it, would, I am certain, involve me in a difficulty of a very disagreeable and delicate nature, and inight, perhaps, lead to consequences more serious than it is easy to imagine. While I adhere firmly to the right of making such appointments as you request, I am, at the same time, obliged to reflect, that it will not do to push that right too far, more especially in a service like ours, and at a time so critical as the present.

"I am convinced that no officer can, with justice, dispute your merit or abilities. The opposition heretofore made had not been for the want of those qualifications in the gentlemen who are, and have been, the objects of discontent. The officers of the line contend, without having reference to particular persons, that it is a hardship and reflection upon them, to introduce brevet officers into commands, (of some permanency,) in which there are more opportunities of distinguishing themselves than in the line of the army at large, and with the men they have had the trouble to discipline and to prepare for the field. VOL. II.-13

My principal concern arises from an apprehension that you will impute my refusal of your request to other motives than those I have expressed, but I beg you to be assured, I am only influenced by the reasons which I have mentioned.

"I am, dear sir,

"Your obedient and humble servant,

"GEO. WASHINGTON.”

Hamilton, deeming his case one which ought to be distinguished from those which Washington had adduced as precedents, wrote him a farther letter, on the second of May.

"Sir: I am extremely sorry to have embarrassed you by my late application, and that you should think there are insuperable obstacles to a compliance with it. Having renounced my expectations, I have no other inducement for troubling your excellency with a second letter, than to obviate the appearance of having desired a thing inconsistent with the good of the service, while I was acquainted with the circumstances that made it so.

"I was too interested a spectator of what happened in the case of Major McPherson, not to have remarked, and not to recollect, all the circumstances. The opposi tion turned, ostensibly, on his being a brevet officer, yet having a command in a corps formed entirely from one line; the propriety of his being employed in a detachment from the army at large, so far as I remember, was not disputed. In delicacy to Major McPherson, no personal objections were formally made, but in reality they existed and contributed to the discontent. It was thought a peculiar hardship, that a gentleman who had, for a long time, fought against us, and had not taken part with us till a late period, and when our affairs had assumed a more

prosperous aspect, should be preferred in one of the most honorary commands of the service. Your excellency must be convinced, that I mention this in no other view than to show the sentiments of the officers at the time, and the whole grounds of the opposition. My esteem for Major McPherson, and other reasons, make it impossible I can have a different intention.

"I know less of the motives of dissatisfaction in the cases of Colonel Gimat and Major Galvan; but I have understood, that it is founded on their being appointed in the light corps for two successive campaigns.

"It would be uncandid in me not to acknowledge, that I believe a disposition to exclude brevet officers in general from command, has a great share in the opposition, in every instance, and that so far it affects my case. But, at the same time, it appears to me, this principle alone, can never be productive of more than momentary murmurs, where it is not seconded by some plausible pretext. I also am convinced, that the Pennsylvania officers, for their own sakes, repented the rash steps they had taken, and on cool reflection, were happy in an opportunity to relinquish their menaces of quitting a service to which they were attached by habit, inclination, and interest, as well as by patriotism. I believe, too, we shall never have a similar instance in the army, unless the practice should be carried to excess. Major Galvan, I am told, will probably be relieved. Colonel Gimat will be then the only brevet officer remaining in command. Your excellency is the best judge of the proper limits; and there can be no doubt, that the rights of particular officers ought to give place to the general good and tranquillity of the

service.

"I cannot forbear repeating, that my case is peculiar, and dissimilar to all the former;-it is distinguished by

the circumstances I have before intimated,-my early entrance into the service,-my having made the campaign of '76, the most disagreeable of the war, at the head of a company of artillery, and having been entitled, in that corps, to a rank, equal in degree, more ancient in date, than I now possess, my having made all the subsequent campaigns in the family of the commander-in-chief, in a constant course of important and laborious service. These are my pretensions, at this advanced period of the war, to being employed in the only way which my situation admits; and I imagine they would have their weight in the minds of the officers in general. I only urge them a second time, as reasons which will not suffer me to view the matter in the same light with your excellency, or to regard as impracticable my appointment in a light corps, should there be one formed. I entreat they may be understood in this sense only. I am incapable of wishing to obtain any object by importunity.

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"I assure your excellency, that I am too well persuaded of your candor, to attribute your refusal to any other cause than an apprehension of inconveniences that may attend the appointment.

"I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, sir,

"Your most obedient and humble servant,

"A. HAMILTON.

"P. S. I have used the term brevet in the sense your excellency appears to have understood it, as signifying, in general, all officers not attached to any established corps. Congress, however, seem to have made a distinction; they give only a kind of warrant to those whom they designate as brevet officers; mine is a regular commission."

CHAPTER XXVI.

HAMILTON'S attention is seen to have been, for some time past, chiefly directed to the fiscal interests of the country. Subjugation was a remote possibility. The questions were the duration and the character of the contest; and these depended, apparently, on the power of Congress to command the national resources as the basis of a solid and adequate system of public credit.

Though extreme and impracticable projects were obtruded from time to time, wiser opinions as to the policy which ought to govern were gaining ground. New York having resolved to be represented in the convention called to meet at Hartford, two delegates, John Sloss Hobart, the chief justice of the State, and Egbert Benson, a distinguished patriot, were commissioned. Their instructions were," to propose and agree to all such measures as shall appear calculated to give a vigor to the governing powers equal to the crisis," the Legislature to approve or disapprove. With these were present seven other delegates representing the four New England States. Upon much deliberation, a paper was addressed by this body to Congress, and to the States they represented. After calling upon the Eastern States to raise their quotas of troops; to furnish the requisite detachments of militia;