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1 will suppose General G. to be the Lieutenant Colonel of the corps of En^ 

 gineers, with his present rank of Major General hy brevet, August 15, 1814, 

 General Macomb is the actual Colonel of that corps, with the brevet rank 

 of Major General, September 11, 1814. His name would therefore be 

 printed above that of General G., the older Major General in the array by 

 nearly a month. Let us farther suppose that these officers are serving to- 

 gether in that corps, and without achnixture or junction of other regiments 

 or corps ; and that General G. should claim the command as being appoint- 

 ed over or set over General Macomb in the army. The latter would im- 

 mediately refer to the 61st Article, in which the case is expressly excepted 

 and provided for, and reduce General G. to obedience within the corps." 

 How, I respectfully ask, can this be law, and it certainly is law, and yet 

 brevet rank be considered full, complete and unlimited, and effectual for all 

 military purposes in the army at large ? 



I have, I humbly conceive thus far shown that this order was irregular 

 in form in not giving the name of the commander ; and that the assignment 

 should be by the President himself. If it was made by the President him- 

 self, then my objections as far as I have gone, go only to matters of form ; 

 and if not by that high functionary, then to the substance of the order and 

 it was wholly illegal. Taking it for granted however, " that that was done 

 which ought to have been done," and therefore the order was made by the 

 President himself, there yet remains a stronger and quite as palpable an ob- 

 jection to it, in either point of view, going to its entire substance, on the 

 score of its illegal and oppressive character. 



It may be said I should not argue matters of form — matters of form are 

 often as important to the grossest offender, as matters of substance. A 

 nuin may justly deserve to be hanged, but no one will deny that he is enti- 

 tled to be hung properly and according to law. It is just here that the 

 line runs between well regulated and well administered law, and what is 

 vulgarly called lynch law ; and thus it is not very difScult to account why 

 very many well disposed persons are betrayed into a resort to this violent 

 ■remedy in extreme cases, from a" too little regard paid to form. 



But to the last and most important objection mentioned, and to which 1 

 most respectfully and most earnestly claim the Executive consideration. 

 This order divests me of my legitimate command illegally and oppressiveh\ 

 and in a manner I feel perfectly confident was not intended by the Presi- 

 dent. Dill I for a moment feel otherwise, the last thing I would think of 

 would be to present myself before him as I now do. This high and exalt- 

 ed functionary I am fully persuaded, in time of profound peace, without 

 any public exigency and where troops were stationed at a post not even on 

 a hostile frontier, deliberately do an act not called for by any considera- 

 tions of the ])ul)lic interest, and not justified under any, a single instance of 

 military precedence, which voluntarily and gratuitously degrades an officer 

 of the army, wdiatever might be the general low estimate he might be in- 

 duced to make of him, by any evidence whatever short of the imputation 

 of possible guilt. Thus when this order first reached my post, I hastened 

 with all possible despatch to the seat of government, not doubting for one 

 moment that definite charges had been filed against me at the War Depart- 

 ment, or through some unknown channel, a mass of accusative information 

 had been collected there, which had thrown upon me the blight of unques- 

 tionable crime and atrocity ; I was in some degree saved in my private 

 character and feelings, when I found no such information had preceded me 



