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

TO J. McHENRY, SECRETARY AT 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.

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TO J. McHENRY, SECRETARY AT WAR.

Sir,

I have received your letter of the 18th, and have read Count Rumford’s letter to Mr. King. For five or six years past I have been attentive to the character of this gentleman, and have read some of his essays. From these I have formed an esteem for his genius, talents, enterprise, and benevolence, which will secure him from me, in case of his return to his native country, a reception as kind and civil as it may be in my power to give him. But you know the difficulties those gentlemen have, who left the country as he did, either to give or receive entire satisfaction. I should not scruple, however, to give him any of the appointments you mention,1 and leave it with you to make such proposals to him, through Mr. King, within the limits you have drawn in your letter, as you should think fit. I return Mr. King’s letter, and inclose one from Mr. William Williams, a very respectable personage, recommending Rufus Tyler to be an officer in the army.

[1 ]Mr. McHenry proposed to offer to Count Rumford a vacant commission of Lieutenant-Colonel and Inspector of Artillery, or to make him an Engineer and Superintendent of the proposed Military School.