Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

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. 9.

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 S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR.

I received last night, and read with great pleasure, your letter of the 16th of July. I am very much pleased with your plan for executing the existing laws for the instruction of the artillerists and engineers. I am very ready to appoint the whole number of cadets provided for by law, namely, two for each company, or sixty-four in all, as soon as proper candidates present themselves; and the whole of the four teachers and two engineers, if you are prepared to recommend suitable persons. It is my desire that you take the earliest measures for providing all the necessary books, instruments, and apparatus, authorized by law, for the use and benefit of the artillerists and engineers. I think with you that it will be prudent to begin by appointing two teachers and an engineer, and I pray you to make inquiry for proper characters, and to take measures to induce young men to enter the service as cadets, collect them together, and form a regular school, and cause the battalions to be instructed in rotation at some regular stations. You may assure the cadets, that, in future, officers will be taken from the most deserving of their members, if any should be found fit for an appointment.

I agree with the Secretary of the Navy, that it would be highly useful to the navy, that midshipmen be admitted into the school by courtesy. Yet there ought to be a school on board every frigate. Thirty persons have been taught navigation, and other sciences connected with the naval service, on board the Boston during her first cruise.

I wish you may easily find teachers. What think you of Captain Barron for one? Every one speaks well of Mr. Bureau de Pusy. But I have an invincible aversion to the appointment of foreigners, if it can be avoided. It mortifies the honest pride of our officers, and damps their ardor and ambition. I had rather appoint the teachers, and form the schools, and take time to consider of an engineer.1

[1 ]This is the foundation of the military academy at West Point.