James Madison Papers

To James Madison from Henry J. Knox, 18 February 1811 (Abstract)

§ From Henry J. Knox1

18 February 1811, Windsor, Connecticut. Seeks reappointment to the navy. Received a midshipman’s warrant in April 1798 and was promoted to lieutenant in June 1799, but the nomination was rejected in Senate “in consequence of a fracas, in which I was concerned at Boston.” He then left the service. These circumstances are well known to the secretary of war, who will present this letter. Wishes to serve his country again and “would immediately accept of a Commission as after the first of September next, I shall be at perfect liberty to act, wherever I may be ordered.”

RC (DNA: RG 45, Misc. Letters Received). 2 pp.

1. Henry Jackson Knox (1780?–1832) was the son of the former secretary of war, Henry Knox. He apparently had problems with gambling and dissipation and in 1809 was reported to be in debtors’ prison in Boston (North Callahan, Henry Knox: General Washington’s General [New York, 1958], pp. 375, 377, 381–82).

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    Madison Papers
    Title
    To James Madison from Henry J. Knox, 18 February 1811 (Abstract)
    Author
    Knox, Henry J.
    Recipient
    Madison, James
    Date
    18 February 1811

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To James Madison from Henry J. Knox, 18 February 1811 (Abstract),” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-03-02-0223. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 3, 3 November 1810–4 November 1811, ed. J. C. A. Stagg, Jeanne Kerr Cross, and Susan Holbrook Perdue. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996, p. 170.]