Relying on the Undeviating justice of your Excellencies charecter, and induced by the confidence which it inspires—I beg leave to solicit your Attention to a representation of facts, which I am persuaded will incline your Excellency to direct an enquiry into the causes of my present Application.

Ever since the 2d February 1778 I have served in Col. Armands legion in which the regular Course of promotion has made me the eldest Captain But to my great surprise a Commission to fill up the Majority which had been long Vacant Arrived at the Corps and was Conferr’d on another Officer—I Applied to Col. Armand (as there was no superior Officer on the spot) to Appoint a military tribunal to try me upon the charges of mis-conduct which I supposed could alone have induced him thus to deny me my Military rights, but I found, that far from having even this pretence for his injustice, Col. Armand on the Contrary was ready to Acknowledge the propriety of my Conduct on every occasion and at that very moment granted me a Certificate of which I inclose a Copy, tho’ still refusing upon pretences of another nature to invest me with the Majority.

Thus denied by my Colonels partiality, [the] succession of rank, which was due to my Commission and which the constitution of the Amarican Army Assures to seniority of service—I could not continue to Act in a subordinate capacity to an Officer who I had always been accustomed to consider as my Junior, & who had heretofore been regarded as Such by the Corps—I therefore left the Legion, and repaired to Philadelphia when upon representing the cruel Considerations which Occasioned my resignation, I was advised by the Minister at war to lay the matter before your Excellency, & defer my resignation untill I Obtained your decision—This I do in the most implicit confidence that the redress, which is due to an injured soldier, will be granted to one whose best boast is that he always served with honor. with the greatest respect I am your Excellency’s most Obedient and Hume servt