I rest my claim solely on the sacrifice I have made; because I have no reason to believe that my services have appeared of any value to Congress; as they declined giving them any marks of their notice, on an occasion which appeared to my friends to entitle me to it, as well by the common practice of sovereigns, as by the particular practice of this country in repeated instances.
Your Excellency will recollect, that it was my lot at York Town to command, as senior officer, a successful attack upon one of the enemy’s redoubts; that the officer who acted in a similar capacity in another attack, made at the same time by the French troops, has been handsomely distinguished, in consequence of it, by the government to which he belongs; and that there are several examples among us, where Congress have bestowed honors upon actions, perhaps not more useful nor, apparently, more hazardous.
These observations are inapplicable to the present Congress, further than as they may possibly furnish an additional motive to a compliance with my wish.
The only thing I ask of your Excellency, is, that my application may come into view in the course of the consultations on the peace establishment.
I have the honor to be,
With sincere esteem,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient servant,
A. Hamilton.
To His Excellency General Washington.
HAMILTON TO GOVERNOR CLINTON.
Albany, October 3, 1783.
Sir:
I have lately received from Messrs. Duane and L’Hommedieu, an extract of a letter from your Excellency to the delegates, of the twenty-third of August last, requesting “a particular detail of the motives which influenced the determination of Congress,” respecting the application of the Legislature to have their State troops released from Continental pay, for the purpose of garrisoning the frontier posts. In my letters to your Excellency, of the first of June and twenty-seventh of July, which were intended to be official, I summarily informed you, that Congress had made temporary provision for garrisoning the frontier posts, and that a plan was under deliberation relative to a peace establishment, which would, of course, embrace that object permanently; that such temporary provision being made at the common expense, and a general plan being under consideration for the future, I had declined pressing a compliance with the application of the Legislature; conceiving it to be more for the interest of the State, that the expense should be jointly borne, than that it should fall exclusively upon itself.