To James Madison from George Stevenson, 1 February 1810 (Abstract)
§ From George Stevenson1
1 February 1810, Pittsburgh. Encloses vouchers for medical services he rendered that were disallowed by War Department. Although he admits that “public services should be rendered through regular channels, and by those duly authorized to perform the same,” he believes an exception “has been justified by necessity.” Precedents for such cases “are to be found in the Annals of our own Government.” Under similar circumstances in 1801 his accounts were rejected by Secretary Dearborn, but President Jefferson “with a degree of promptness, highly honorable … directed immediate payment.”
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, S-121:5). RC 3 pp. Docketed by a War Department clerk as received 25 May 1810. Enclosures, marked no. 1 and no. 2, are vouchers for $30 and $20, signed by Lt. Francis W. Small at Fort Fayette, and receipts for both amounts signed by Stevenson. Both enclosures are marked “Disallowed by order of the sect of War.”
1. Probably George Stevenson, a veteran of the Revolution who settled in Pittsburgh in 1794. He also served as a major in the Tenth Infantry, 1799–1800 (Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 22:145, 146, 24:211 and n. 23).