Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO J. McHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO J. McHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 8.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO J. McHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR.

Quincy, 13 September, 1798.

Sir,—

I have received your favor of the 6th, and approve of your determination to make out the commissions in the order of Knox on the first day, Pinckney on the second, and Hamilton on the third. This being done, you may call Generals Knox and Hamilton into service as soon as you please.

Your request, to be informed whether I attach any portion of the intrigues, which I alluded to, if any have been employed, to you, is reasonable; and I have no scruple to acknowledge that your conduct through the whole towards me has been candid. I have suspected, however, that extraordinary pains were taken with you to impress upon your mind that the public opinion and the unanimous wish of the federalists was, that General Hamilton might be first, and even Commander-in-chief; that you might express this opinion to General Washington more forcibly than I should have done; and that this determined him to make the arrangement as he did.1 If this suspicion was well founded, I doubt not you made the representation with integrity. I am not and never was of the opinion that the public opinion demanded General Hamilton for the first, and I am now clear that it never expected nor desired any such thing.

The question being now settled, the responsibility for which I take upon myself, I have no hard thoughts concerning your conduct in this business, and I hope you will make your mind easy concerning it.

I have the honor, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]A striking confirmation of this suspicion is found in Mr. Pickering’s letter to Mr. Jay, in which he gives Mr. McHenry’s report to him of the visit to Mount Vernon. It seems that McHenry admitted that “General Washington was some time balancing between the priority of Colonel Hamilton and General Pinckney; weighing the high respectability and importance of the latter in the three southern States, against the superior talents of the former; the latter finally preponderating.” The fact is fully established by Washington’s own letters since printed. Hamilton’s Works, vol. vi. p. 330.

Mr. Pickering goes on to claim the decision as the result of his letter of the 6th, sent in advance of Mr. McHenry, which he says General Washingtondid not mention to that gentleman. But he did not probably know of the secret letter sent by Mr. Hamilton, through McHenry himself—a letter, the objects of which McHenry must have understood, and which his desire for Hamilton’s success undoubtedly fortified through his conversation. Hence the probability is that the position finally taken by General Washington was the result of all three influences combined. Hamilton’s Works, vol. vi. pp. 352, 355.