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Washington, D. C, February 6, 1851. 

 7'o Aw Excellency the President of the United States : 



Sir : I have the honor to state that, on the 8th ultimo, an order was 

 received at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in the following words and 

 figures, to wit : 



War Department, 



Adjutant GcncraPs Office. 

 General Orders — No. 47. 



Brevet Col. J. Plympton, Lieutenant Colonel 7th Infiintry, is nssigncd 

 to duty according to his brevet rank while stationed at Jefferson Barracks, 

 and will assume the command of the post. 



By Order 

 L. THOMAS. 



Assistant Adj. General. 



At the time of its reception by Brevet Colonel Plympton, Lieutenant 

 Colonel, 7th infantry, the undersigned was in command, and had been so, 

 from the 21st day of November 1850, being the Colonel of the 1st Regi- 

 ment of Dragoons, and senior to the above mentioned, officer in the line of 

 tlie army. \\y this order it wijl be perceived that I was superceded in 

 commanrl of the post, and compelled to be commanded in turn by my ju- 

 nior. This the undersigned begs leave most respectfully to say, hi Ids 

 opinion, is illegal and uiijust, and agauist it he desires to be allowed to re- 

 monstrate. 



Deeming the order, as I am l»ou,nd to do, as c-oming from the President 

 of the United States, I am brought face to face as it were with this high 

 functionary, in an attitude of complaint against ^•!n act of his own. Tiiis 

 cannot but subject me to much difficulty,. Although I shall not be able 

 liowever to divest myself of the embarrassment necessarily arising from that 

 liigh respect which is due from an inferior officer of the government, and in 

 the present instance most certainly entertained towards the Chief Magis- 

 trate and Constitutional Commander in Chief of the Army: I shall pro- 

 ceed, trusting that the degree of jny consideration will be estimated in ex- 

 act j>roportion to the confidence with which I present my case. 



1 object to, the order first, on the ground that it is irregular, as will ap- 

 [H\ir on its face, in omitting the name of the commander by whom it was 

 given, (see par. 908 General Reg. of the Ainiy, 1847.) 



By this paragraph, in the case of the most ordinary order that can come 

 from the Adjutant General's Office in the common routine of every day bu- 

 siness, tiiis fact must l)e made to a])pe'ar on the face of the order, but when 

 we know that this order should and could come alone from the J^resident, 

 ihe rule will not be rendered: less important, as a regulation, but of infi- 

 uitcly <rreater moment to the officer affected, (see 02d Article of War.) 

 'I'.his article is law and not regulation, and invests the senior ofHcer of tlu- 

 line, on duty in garrison, with rights that can only be divested by the Pre- 

 sident himself. The power here given is evidently out of the usual course 

 <->i orders, and when exercised, it f)ecomes of infinitely greater importance 

 that the officer whose interests are involved should be fully advised of the 

 source from wliich it proceeds. The words are used in the article applica- 



