To Alexander Hamilton from James McHenry, 25 July 1799
From James McHenry
War Department
25th July 1799
Sir,
I enclose a Warrant, under the signature of the President, and the seal of the War office of the United States, for the execution of Richard Hunt, a Serjeant in a Company of the Second regiment of Artillerists, and Engineers, commanded by Captain James Stille, who was tried on a charge of desertion, and also of carrying away the money for their pay entrusted to him, by the men of his company, and sentenced to suffer death, by a General Court Martial, held at the City Hall, of the City of New York on the 16t day of April last, by your order.1
The President in his letter2 enclosing the Warrant to me, expresses a wish “that Courts Martial may be advised, to be as cautious, and as regular as possible, in all their proceedings, especially in cases of life, because the discipline of the army, will depend much on this habit,” and adds “Yet if you and General Hamilton, think that one example, may suffice, for the purposes of public justice, the execution of Hunt or Perkins,3 may yet be respited.”
You will issue such orders, as in your judgment may be proper, and return the Warrant for deposit in this office.
I am with great respect your obedt. servent
James McHenry
Major Genl Hamilton
LS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Hunt had been convicted of desertion. For information on this case, see H to McHenry, April 20, note 2, May 27, first letter of June 12, 1799; H to Washington Morton, April 23, 1799. On May 27, 1799, McHenry sent the court-martial proceedings to John Adams for his approval (ALS, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston). Adams, who was reluctant to approve the death penalty in a case of desertion, also questioned whether Hunt’s trial had been legal in that none of the members of the board trying him had at that time received their commissions in the Army. He was, moreover, displeased by the fact that the court-martial board had not attempted to dissuade Hunt from pleading guilty (Adams to McHenry, June 5, 19, July 19, 1799 [LC, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston]). At Adams’s request McHenry submitted the proceedings of the court-martial to the other members of the cabinet (McHenry to Timothy Pickering, Benjamin Stoddert, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr., June 29, 1799 [LS, RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters, January 1, 1799–December 27, 1800, National Archives; LS, letterpress copy, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston], enclosed in McHenry to Adams, July 12, 1799 [ALS, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts HistoricalSociety, Boston]). McHenry’s fellow cabinet members unanimously approved the sentence (Wolcott to McHenry, July 3, 1799; Stoddert to McHenry, July 6, 1799; Pickering to McHenry, July 6, 1799 [copies, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston], enclosed in McHenry to Adams, July 12, 1799 [ALS, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston]).
2. Adams to McHenry, July 19, 1799 (LC, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston).
3. Joseph Perkins. See McHenry to H, May 29, note 2, May 30, 1799; H to McHenry, July 3, 1799; “General Orders,” July 20, 1799.