To James Madison from Benjamin Grayson Orr, 7 November 1816
From Benjamin Grayson Orr
Washington 7th. Novr. 1816.
Sir!
A distrust, which existed during my Contract for the eighth military district, and by which I suffered very much, I flattered myself had been entirely extinguished, by the thorough investigations that Subject had undergone & by the regular & peaceable execution of two Subsequent contracts which had been granted to me. I flatter myself it exists now no where, but in the breasts of those, who have not had an opportunity to understand the true grounds of the difficulties which gave rise to it & I pray you Sir, in taking into veiw, the Collateral considerations which present themselves in deciding & distributing the contract for the ensuing year to be referred to the late & present Secretaries of the Department of War, who are intimately, acquainted with my conduct in the contract first noticed, for information of my merits or demerits, in that respect. With great esteem Sir I have the honor to be Yr. mo Obt Servt.
Benj G. Orr1
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, O-12:9). Enclosure (1 p.) is a list of the “weight of metal,” [ordnance] deposited at Norfolk and its dependencies, Baltimore and its dependencies, Fort Washington, and Annapolis, 30 June 1815.
1. Benjamin Grayson Orr (1762–1822) settled permanently in Washington in 1812 and was elected as an alderman. During the War of 1812 he became a supplier to the U.S. Army in the Northwest and in 1817 was elected mayor of Washington, D.C. Orr continued to receive army contracts, though his management of them was subject to disputes, which continued against his estate after his death (Allen C. Clark, “Colonel Benjamin G. Orr, Mayor,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 28 [1926]: 1–22; , Military Affairs, 2:73).