[endorsement: [undecipherable]amson Esqr. / [undecipherable] 1784 —] [endorsement verso, partially legible: undecipherable] West Point Jany 15. 1784 — Sir I yesterday had the Honor to recieve your letter of the first Instant — I am much Obliged for your attention to my Interest and hope my services may merit a continuance of your friendship. — I have settled the accounts of most of the foreign Officers who were in the Service of the end of the War, and have allowed them the five years pay in lieu of Half Pay for life, without enquiring whether they had taken the Oath of [strikethrough: allegiance] fidelity or not, the resolve granting the half Pay for life, and the resolve granting the Commutation designate the Characters entitled by their being in service and their continuance to the end of the War. I supposed the resolve of Feby 3.1778 was so pointed & its penalties so particularly noted, that there could not be an Officer in the Service at the end of the war who had not taken the oath expressed in that resolution; indeed if any had neglected it, I supposed that his continuance for so long a term, subject to the haggards & inconveniences attending our service, must be a sufficient evidence of his fidelity — and every reason for [undecipherable] granting the Commutation to our natural born subjects appears to me to exist for granting it to the foreign [undecipherable] — these considerations, I concluded [undecipherable] Congress in the resolve of Octr 21. 1780 not to insert the restricting clause of that of May 15.1778 which last resolve was then necessarily repeated. I was lead into this reasoning from my knowledge that the Military & civil Officers under Congress have never made a distinction between the domestic & foreign Officers, every resolve having been construed as extending equally to both. I beg leave to suggest that the foreign Officers have received every [undecipherable] in common with the rest of the Army, and that their Petition for present pay if granted will not [undecipherable] place them in a better situation than the Army in general. I must request, Sir, that you will be pleased to give me such information on this question as may direct my future conduct & as my situation is extremely delicate, that you will support me where I am right. I cannot ask Congress on every Occasion for a construction of their own Resolves in this instance I have acted from a decided conviction & hope for their concurrence [undecipherable] I am d[ea]r [signature]