I have this moment received your letter of the 18th.1 By the newspapers which go hence this morning, you will see your wishes respecting Colo. Hamilton gratified.2 At the head of the appointments, he is Inspector General with the rank of Major General. This was intended to place him next in command to Genl. Washington:3 yet I feel some solicitude about the effect. Under circumstances not dissimilar, in the American War, I believe some staff officers, not taken from the line, were resisted in their claims to command officers of inferior rank in the line. I wish therefore that the act of Congress authorizing the appointment of an “Inspector General with the rank of major general,” had been explicit— that the Inspector General might be appointed from among those who should be major generals; or that some mode had been devised to remove all doubt of Colo. Hamilton’s right to command all the major generals; under the law as it stands.

I take very kindly the communication of your sentiments in this matter; & shall feel my obligations increase with the future communication of your ideas and opinions on every subject involving the safety, the interest & the happiness of our country. But altho’ I deem so lowly of my own discernment in such weighty concerns as to render such communications from you and other eminent citizens peculiarly grateful, yet on the present occasion I cannot withhold the pleasure of showing you the perfect coincidence of our thoughts, by presenting you with a copy of my letter of the 6th instant to General Washington.4 Colo. Hamilton arrived here the next morning, and in the freedom and confidence with which we conversed I handed ^it^ to him to peruse.— General Washington’s answer of the 11th.5 I received the 16th. and sent to Colo. Hamilton extracts6 to show the current of the General’s reasoning; concluding with an expression of my hopes, that as he (Colo. Hamilton) had, in the war for our independence, had devoted his talents to enhance another’s glory, so he would not withhold them now that the preservation of that independence demanded their fullest exertion. After that, Mr. Mc.Henry returned, and informed me that Genl. W. was some time balancing between the priority of Colo. Hamilton and General Pinckney; weighing the high respectability and importance of the latter in the three southern states, against the superior talents of the former: the latter finally preponderating. Perhaps the observations in my letter of the 6th (which I perceive Genl. Washington did not communicate to Mc.Henry) might have turned the scale. I send you herein the General’s answer, which I will thank you to return.7

I was rejoiced that the Senate had the fortitude to put a decided negative on the President’s nomination of his son-in-law William S. Smith to be adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier.8 When I saw that the President was invincibly bent on the nomination, I did not hesitate to inform a number of senators of it, and to urge their negative, for the honor and even for the safety of the army. The President did not know, that Colo. S. was as bankrupt in fame as well as fortune;9 and that he had totally mistaken his military talents.— I spoke to so many, and with so little reserve, that I thought it not improbable that my interference would eventually be known to the President: but I chose to hazard his displeasure rather than the approbation of that nomination. Unfortunately General Washington had arranged the name of Colo. Smith among the candidates for the office of a brigadier.— I am aware the step I took was a delicate one; and even its propriety may perhaps be questioned:— if the candidate in question had not been so nearly connected with the President—and if the latter had not so peremptorily pronounced the eulogium of the former as a great military character, and in a tone to forbid any reply—10 it would have become me to have frankly stated my opinion of his true character, and total unworthiness and unfitness to fill that important place. If in taking the other course I have done wrong, my motives I hope will make my apology with you and some others whose good opinions are peculiarly dear to me. With true respect, I am, Dr. Sir, your obt. servant