PrC (DLC). Recorded in SJL with notation “court martial v. Lyman.” Enclosures not found, but see below.

The Senate RESOLUTION of 2 Apr. requesting the proceedings of the court-martial against CORNELIUS LYMAN was sent to TJ by Samuel A. Otis, the secretary of the Senate (RC in DLC, endorsed by TJ with the notation “proceedings agt. Lyman”; Dft in DNA: RG 46, EPOR). Lyman was a captain in the Second Regiment of Infantry. On 26 Sep. 1801, at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, a courtmartial was convened against him on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and neglect of duty. The court found Lyman guilty and ordered him dismissed from the service. On 4 Nov., the War Department sent TJ a communication regarding the court martial, which is recorded in SJL as received the same day but has not been found. Two days later, on 6 Nov., TJ ordered that the court’s sentence not be carried out, deeming the evidence against Lyman to be of a “contradictory aspect considering that in cases rendered doubtful by opposing testimony, it would be hard to credit that which accuses, rather than that which exculpates” (FC in Lb in DNA: RG 94, James Wilkinson Order Book; FC in Lb in DNA: RG 98, Orderly Books of the Adjutant at Fort Adams; Vol. 35:756). On 25 Mch. 1802, TJ nominated Lyman for appointment as captain in the First Regiment of Infantry, but the Senate postponed its decision on the nomination and requested the proceedings of the court-martial. Portions of the proceedings were read on 3 and 7 Apr., and the Senate finally consented to Lyman’s nomination on 12 Apr. by a vote of 17 to 5 (JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States … to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 1:412, 416–17, 419–20; TJ to the Senate, 25 Mch. 1802).