I received, yesterday the Letter you did me the Honor to write me on the 25th of September.
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 some time ago Signed the three Commissions and dated them on the Same day, in hopes Similar to yours that an amicable Adjustment or Acquiescence might take place among the Gentlemen themselves.1 But, if these hopes should 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 Judgment of the Commander in Chief, I was determined to confirm that Judgment. Because, whatever Construction may be put upon the Resolutions of the ancient Congress which have been applied to 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.
ALS, DLC:GW; LB, MHi: Adams Papers; copy, in GW’s hand, privately owned; copy, in the hand of a clerk, DLC: Hamilton Papers.
2. For references to the dispute regarding Jonathan Dayton and William North, see James McHenry to GW, 19 Sept., and notes 4 and 8 of that document.