My principal concern arises from an apprehension that you will impute my refusal of your request to other motives than those I have expressed, but I beg you to be assured, I am only influenced by the reasons which I have mentioned. "Your obedient and humble servant, "GEO. WASHINGTON." Hamilton, deeming his case one which ought to be distinguished from those which Washington had adduced as precedents, wrote him a farther letter, on the second of May. "Sir: I am extremely sorry to have embarrassed you by my late application, and that you should think there are insuperable obstacles to a compliance with it. Having renounced my expectations, I have no other inducement for troubling your excellency with a second letter, than to obviate the appearance of having desired a thing inconsistent with the good of the service, while I was acquainted with the circumstances that made it so. 66 "I was too interested a spectator of what happened in the case of Major McPherson, not to have remarked, and not to recollect, all the circumstances. The opposi tion turned, ostensibly, on his being a brevet officer, yet having a command in a corps formed entirely from one line; the propriety of his being employed in a detachment from the army at large, so far as I remember, was not disputed. In delicacy to Major McPherson, no personal objections were formally made, but in reality they existed and contributed to the discontent. It was thought a peculiar hardship, that a gentleman who had, for a long time, fought against us, and had not taken part with us till a late period, and when our affairs had assumed a more prosperous aspect, should be preferred in one of the most honorary commands of the service. Your excellency must be convinced, that I mention this in no other view than to show the sentiments of the officers at the time, and the whole grounds of the opposition. My esteem for Major McPherson, and other reasons, make it impossible I can have a different intention. "I know less of the motives of dissatisfaction in the cases of Colonel Gimat and Major Galvan; but I have understood, that it is founded on their being appointed in the light corps for two successive campaigns. "It would be uncandid in me not to acknowledge, that I believe a disposition to exclude brevet officers in general from command, has a great share in the opposition, in every instance, and that so far it affects my case. But, at the same time, it appears to me, this principle alone, can never be productive of more than momentary murmurs, where it is not seconded by some plausible pretext. I also am convinced, that the Pennsylvania officers, for their own sakes, repented the rash steps they had taken, and on cool reflection, were happy in an opportunity to relinquish their menaces of quitting a service to which they were attached by habit, inclination, and interest, as well as by patriotism. I believe, too, we shall never have a similar instance in the army, unless the practice should be carried to excess. Major Galvan, I am told, will probably be relieved. Colonel Gimat will be then the only brevet officer remaining in command. Your excellency is the best judge of the proper limits; and there can be no doubt, that the rights of particular officers ought to give place to the general good and tranquillity of the service. "I cannot forbear repeating, that my case is peculiar, and dissimilar to all the former;-it is distinguished by the circumstances I have before intimated,-my early entrance into the service,-my having made the campaign of '76, the most disagreeable of the war, at the head of a company of artillery, and having been entitled, in that corps, to a rank, equal in degree, more ancient in date, than I now possess,-my having made all the subsequent campaigns in the family of the commander-in-chief, in a constant course of important and laborious service. These are my pretensions, at this advanced period of the war, to being employed in the only way which my situation admits; and I imagine they would have their weight in the minds of the officers in general. I only urge them a second time, as reasons which will not suffer me to view the matter in the same light with your excellency, or to regard as impracticable my appointment in a light corps, should there be one formed. I entreat they may be understood in this sense only. I am incapable of wishing to obtain any object by importunity. "I assure your excellency, that I am too well persuaded of your candor, to attribute your refusal to any other cause than an apprehension of inconveniences that may attend the appointment. 66 66 "A. HAMILTON. "P. S. I have used the term brevet in the sense your excellency appears to have understood it, as signifying, in general, all officers not attached to any established corps. Congress, however, seem to have made a distinction; they give only a kind of warrant to those whom they designate as brevet officers; mine is a regular commission." CHAPTER XXVI. HAMILTON'S attention is seen to have been, for some time past, chiefly directed to the fiscal interests of the country. Subjugation was a remote possibility. The questions were the duration and the character of the contest; and these depended, apparently, on the power of Congress to command the national resources as the basis of a solid and adequate system of public credit. Though extreme and impracticable projects were obtruded from time to time, wiser opinions as to the policy which ought to govern were gaining ground. New York having resolved to be represented in the convention called to meet at Hartford, two delegates, John Sloss Hobart, the chief justice of the State, and Egbert Benson, a distinguished patriot, were commissioned. Their instructions were," to propose and agree to all such measures as shall appear calculated to give a vigor to the governing powers equal to the crisis," the Legislature to approve or disapprove. With these were present seven other delegates representing the four New England States. Upon much deliberation, a paper was addressed by this body to Congress, and to the States they represented. After calling upon the Eastern States to raise their quotas of troops; to furnish the requisite detachments of militia; to comply with the requisitions of Congress, who were requested to empower the commander-in-chief to take such measures as he shall think proper to induce the States to a punctual compliance with these requisitions for supplies, and recommending measures to clothe the army, it proceeded to the great object in view. The convention called upon Congress, "to propose certain taxes on specific articles, or duties on imports, on all or any of them, to operate among the several States; the net product to be applied to discharge the interest on the loan office certificates, and all other debts due from the continental purchasing officers, and which could be conveniently funded." With this intent, it was proposed, "that the several States should thereupon make the necessary provisions by law, to enable Congress to levy and collect such taxes, duties and imposts within them respectively; and that the delegates thereto should be authorized to pledge the faith of their respective States that they will pass the requisite laws for the purpose," with a restriction, that the delegates shall not have authority to bind their respective States unless the delegates of all the States not in the power of the enemy, should have similar powers. The States were called upon to take effectual measures, to sink their full quotas of the continental bills. Congress were to call "for a return of the number of persons, blacks as well as whites in each State," as the basis of contribution. 66 These resolutions were followed by a circular letter to the States, in which this strong passage is seen. Our present embarrassments we imagine to arise in a great measure from a defect in the present government of the United States. All government supposes the power of coercion. This power, however, in the general government of the continent never did exist, or, which has pro |