Washington, George, first President

Autograph manuscript signed in text ("General Washington"), 2 1/2 pages (9 1/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 231 x 188 mm) on a bifolium (watermarked george washington, [Mount Vernon, ca. 20 October 1798], being a copy of President John Adams's 9 October 1798 letter to him, pages numbered 197–199, evidently by James McHenry, docketed on verso of second leaf; leaves separated at central fold with light discoloration at inner margins.

James McHenry (Secretary of War in the Washington and Adams administrations; "The James McHenry Papers ... Sold by Order of the Heirs," Parke-Bernet, 2 May 1944, lot 220) — Mrs. Philip D. Sang (Sotheby's, 27 March 1985, lot 282)

The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, eds. Abbot and Lengel, 3:87–88, cites a "copy, in GW's hand, privately owned," but does not note that it was made for Secretary of War James McHenry.

George Washington's last great victory: his holograph copy of the conciliatory letter he received from John Adams, in which the President tacitly conceded to the Commander in Chief the right of establishing precedent of rank among the Major Generals of the Army.

On 13 July 1798, George Washington reluctantly accepted President John Adams's appointment as "Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of all the Armies raised or to be raised for the service of the United States" (see previous lot), thus consenting, as he explained to Alexander Hamilton the next day, "to embark once more on a boundless field of responsibility & trouble" (Papers, Retirement Series 2:407). Washington had explicitly told Adams that his acceptance was predicated on the caveat that he need not be called into the field until his presence was indispensable. But through back channels he had expressed a second reservation to the President, which he also shared with Hamilton: "that the principal Officers in the line, and of the Staff, shall be such as I can place confidence in. ..."

The act of 16 July authorizing the raising of a new army called for the appointment of three major generals. Washington's choices for these commissions were, in order of precedence, Hamilton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Henry Knox. In this order of rank, the nominations were approved by the Senate. But factions within New England, perhaps encouraged by Knox himself, agitated for the elevation of Henry Knox to second in command, based on his seniority at the end of the Revolutionary War. In a confidential letter of 1 September, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering alerted Washington that Adams seemed prepared to flip the positions of Knox and Hamilton.

Secretary Of War James McHenry kept Washington fully apprised of developments at Philadelphia, even sending to Mount Vernon copies of letters on the topic sent to him by Adams. Adams's letter of 29 August—which McHenry asked Washington to return after reading and "duly respect this confidence"—must have particularly rankled. In it, Adams told his Secretary of War "I am willing to settle all decisively at present (and have no fear of the consequences) by dating the commissions Knox, on the first day, Pinckney on the 2nd. Hamilton on the third. ... General Washington has through the whole, conducted with perfect honor and consistency. I said and I say now, if I could resign to him the office of President, I would do it immediately and with the highest pleasure, but I never said I would hold the office & be responsible for its exercise, while he should execute it. He has always said in all his letters that these points must ultimately depend upon the President" (quoted in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Syrett, 22:8–9).

With McHenry's clandestine assistance, Washington crafted a letter, 25 September 1798, to Adams on a subject he described as "not less delicate in its nature, than it is interesting to my feelings. It is the change you have directed to be made in the relative rank of the Major Generals, which I had the honor of presenting to you by the Secretary of War. ... In the arrangement made by me, with the Secretary of War, the three Major Generals stood—Hamilton, Pinckney, Knox, and in this order I expected their Commissions would have been dated. ... But you have been pleased to order the last to be first, and the first to be last." Washington asks if Adams's decision in this matter is final, and while he does not explicitly threaten to resign, he does imply that the answer will be of interest "to the Commander in Chief of the Armies (be him whom he may) ..." (Papers, Retirement Series 3:36–43).

Adams could see that the end game was at hand, and with his secretaries of War and State both conspiring to promote the agendas of Washington and Hamilton, he had little choice but to graciously, albeit cleverly, concede, giving the three commissions all the the same date and leaving any resulting misunderstanding to be sorted out by Washington. The copy of the letter that Washington wrote out for James McHenry conforms almost exactly to the original:

"You request to be informed, whether my determination to reverse the order of the three Major Generals, is final – – – and whether I mean to appoint another Adjutant General without your concurrence, – – – I presume, that before this day you have received Information, from the Secretary at War, that I sometime ago signed the three Commissions and dated them on the same day, in hopes similar to yours that an amicable adjustment or acquiesence might take place among themselves. But, if these hopes shall be disappointed, and controversies should arise, they will of course be submitted to you as Commander in Chief, and if after all any one should be so obstinate as to appeal to me from the judgmt of the Commander in Chief I was determined to confirm that judgment. Because, whatever construction may be put upon the Resolutions of the antient Congress which have been applied in this case, and whether they are at all applicable to it or not, there is no doubt to be made, that by the present Constitution of the United States, the President has authority to determine the Rank of Officers.

"I have been for sometime prepared in my own Mind to nominate Mr. Dayton to Adjutant General, in case of the refusal of Mr. North. Several others have occurred and been suggested to me, but none who in point of science and literature, political and military merit or energy of character, appear to be equal to him. I have no exclusive attachment to him or any other. If you have any other in contemplation, I pray you to mention him to the Secretary of War who may fill up his Commission immediately in case Mr. North declines.

"I hope your own health and that of Mrs. Washingtons are perfect. Mine is very indifferent and Mrs. Adams's is extremely low—confined to the bed of sickness for two Months her Destiny is still very precarious and mine in consequence of it."

Harold Syrett wrote that this "unseemly squabble ... in one way or another damaged the reputation of most of those who were directly involved." Washington may have intended to repair his own character with his well-mannered reply to Adams, 21 October, which dwells at length on Mrs. Adams's health and never mentions the topic of priority of rank. But, on the same day he wrote that polite letter to Adams, Washington sent the present copy to McHenry, together with instructions that the Secretary of War should burn it as soon as it was read "& no more said respecting the contents than might be proper for the [President] to hear repeated again; Otherwise, a knowledge that the contents of my letters to, and from him, are in possession of others, may induce him to believe, in good earnest, that intriegues are carrying on, in which I am an Actor—than which, nothing is more foreign from my heart" (Papers, Retirement Series 3:124). McHenry not only did not burn the letter, he had another copy of it made for Alexander Hamilton.