To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, [ca. 18 July 1814]
From an Unidentified Correspondent
[ca. 18 July 1814]
Sir
Happening to be at a printing office the Editor shewed me a piece sent him for publication (a Copy of which is inclosed)1 on the subject of the contemplated detachment of the Militia.
Being a friend to your administration & an advocate & supporter of the war & unwilling that anything should opperate to retard its rigorous opperation or in any degree countenance & encourage our internal enemies, I prevaled on the Editor to defer the publication of it for the present & give me a copy, with a determination to send it to your Exellency, that you might make such use of it as prudence might direct. Am your Excellencies Obedt. Huml. Servt. & friend
An Advocate for the War.
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 107, LRUS, A-1814). RC undated; conjectural date assigned based on the date of the enclosure. For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. The enclosure was a copy of a letter dated 18 July 1814 in Ulster County, New York (2 pp.), addressed “To the officers of the Militia of the State of New York” by “A Friend to the Militia.” The writer warned militia officers facing prospective U.S. service that John Armstrong had, contrary to law, refused to authorize reimbursement of baggage transportation expenses incurred by New York militia officers during the previous fall’s campaign. Armstrong may have done this, the writer speculated, “because Mr. Simmons the Accounting officer would not allow his account to be charged to the public for mahogany furniture.”