To George Washington from Colonel Moses Hazen, 1 March 1781
From Colonel Moses Hazen
[Fishkill, N.Y., 1 March 1781]. In a long “Memorial” petition, Hazen details his services and those of the 2d Canadian Regiment from the start of the war as prelude to asking for delinquent pay and an answer as to why so few soldiers have been incorporated into the regiment as called for by the congressional “Resolution of the 3rd of October last.”1 Hazen also questions why he has not been promoted, “seeing a Number of younger Colonels than himself promoted to General Officers.” To address his concerns, Hazen appeals to GW “to take ⟨h⟩is Case, and that of the Regiment, into Consideration, and recommend to the Grand Council and Guardians of American Liberty, a full Settlement with the Canadian Officers and Men, and the immediate Payment of such Advances and Arrears of Pay as their present respective Necessities may require.
“That your Excellency will please to point out, and recommend to the Grand Senate of America some Mode to recruit the Regiment to its proper Establishment.
“That your Excellency will please to recommend your Memorialist for the Rank of Brigadier, either by Brevet or otherwise to command his own Corps only, or such as your Excellency may please to appoint him to, and that such other Promotions in the Regiment which are just and reasonable may take Place: And that your Excellency will in all other Cases patronize this Regiment until it can be taken up, owned and provided for by a Fourteenth American State, to which it properly belongs.”2
DS, enclosed in GW to Samuel Huntington, this date (first letter), DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169.
1. For this resolution on the new arrangement of the army, see , 18:893–97; see also General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780.
2. For congressional action on Hazen’s memorial, see GW to Huntington, this date (first letter), n.2.