To George Washington from James McHenry, 14 September 1796
From James McHenry
War Office 14 Septr 1796
Sir
If you have a few minutes to spare I could wish you to examine the within conditions for a new contract for cannon. The old contract was too defective to serve as a model or guide in any one respect. The public must be a considerable looser by it; and the cannon which we shall be obliged to recive by no means to be relied on.1 With the greatest respect I have the honour to be Sir your most ob. st
James McHenry
The mail to Pittsburg is altered. Letters must be in the office on friday before sun down.2
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; ADf, PWacD: Sol Feinstone Collection, on deposit at PPAmP. The postscript appears only on the ALS.
1. McHenry presumably enclosed a copy of the twelve conditions he listed when he wrote Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr., on 13 Sept. regarding cannon for “the frigate destined for the Mediterranean” (see GW to the Dey of Algiers, 13 June, and n.4). The first condition reads: “That the guns be cast in the solid, and bored.” The second and third conditions specify that the smaller guns should “conform exactly in weight, bore, caliber and length, to British ship guns of the same dimensions now in use” and that the larger guns “be formed agreeably to the dimensions laid down” in instructions. Conditions four through eleven detail procedures for proving the quality of the cannon in an examination “by one or two persons, to be appointed by the President of the United States, in the presence of such other persons as shall be named by the owner of the works.” The twelfth condition reads: “That the weight of each cannon received, shall be marked on the left trunnion” (DNA: RG 107, Secretary of War Letters, Procurement).
GW replied to McHenry the same day: “The enclosed Conditions appear proper—but as there are certain principles I practice that govern in such cases—it would be too hazardous to Give an opinion without consulting them—and it is impossible for me to go into such detail” (ALS [photocopy], DLC: James McHenry Papers).
2. The following Friday was 16 September.