Francis De Masson (b. ca. 1774), a native of France whose family had moved to Saint Domingue, immigrated to the United States by 1792. He settled first in New York and then relocated to New Jersey. TJ selected Masson to teach French at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1803, an appointment which was submitted to and confirmed by the United States Senate the following year. During his tenure he also taught drawing and the art of fortification, wrote a number of articles, and was the recording secretary of the United States Military Philosophical Society. Masson returned to Europe on furlough in 1810 and resigned his post two years later. His bid for an American consulship failed, but he served as master of fortification at England’s Royal Military College at Sandhurst, 1815–34 (George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., 3d ed. [1891], 3:494–5, 516, 520, 529; Heitman, U.S. Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1903, 2 vols. description ends , 1:696; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 1:467, 468 [24, 26 Mar. 1804]; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 37 vols. description ends , 24:267–8; Madison, Papers, Pres. Ser., 2:177; Arthur P. Wade, “A Military Offspring of the American Philosophical Society,” Military Affairs 38 [1974]: 105; Roswell Park, A Sketch of the History and Topography of West Point and the U. S. Military Academy [1840], 54; Royal Military College Staff Register [Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, U.K.: Sandhurst Collection]).

Masson’s essay on the military constitution of nations was published anonymously both in the National Intelligencer & Washington Advertiser on 18 Nov. 1808 and, shortly thereafter, as a stand-alone monograph. After discussing the dangers of relying on either a professional standing army or a poorly trained militia, he proposed a compromise: “All the young men from eighteen to twenty-five years of age, with a few peculiar exceptions, should be divided into four classes, each of which would by turns spend three months dispersed in the different camps of instruction. Each class during its stay in the camps would form the standing army of the country, and as such receive the stated pay of the line. So that the permanent standing army would never amount to more than one-fourth of the youth between eighteen and twenty-five years of age, and every young man during the three-fourths of the year, would be enabled to follow his own particular avocations.” Men over the age of twenty-five were to be discharged from the service and embodied into the militia.

The letter of introduction, recommendation and credit by Malesherbes was dated 30 July 1792 and miscarried seven years ago on its way to TJ (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 37 vols. description ends , 24:267–8; Jonathan Williams to TJ, 20 Sept. 1808, and TJ to Williams, 28 Oct. 1808 [both DLC]).