[undecipherable] Sir, I am informed by Cap^t. [undecipherable], your opinion [undecipherable] for promotion, I requested to maintain— my company, a [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Harrises, my then Situation as an old [undecipherable] [undecipherable] superscedes to a Major affair, and then, I was [undecipherable] [undecipherable]ke my fixed determination, and Judge, as I [undecipherable] I had been robbed by some extraordinary accident of the [undecipherable] commission, on the [undecipherable] Line of Mass^ts, allow, I have have composed myself, & this generous occasion, than [undecipherable] as then, and many Issues on the Issue as Major, by [undecipherable] [undecipherable] necessary [undecipherable] in a particular Corps, I had [undecipherable] not have been the Case my Promotion would [undecipherable] means, put on an equal footing, on the other line as Major, and I should have been justly [undecipherable] by by Congress in my original inquiry, which they by the [undecipherable] between refusing me, intended hardly to hear — I am being then acquainted with the distinction between [undecipherable] commission, and a [undecipherable], requested [undecipherable] Lincoln to depute the pay, and Emoluments [undecipherable] Months would entitle me to — See his Closure — have placed our reasons for Rejection [undecipherable] as Major — is it possible, tell me — Than my commission can [undecipherable] entitle me to [undecipherable] a delay of being either [undecipherable] I as a Major in Service, than I was in the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] being transferred from a provincial Regiment, the claim of Mass^ts as Captain, to an American [undecipherable] plan, invalidate, even the least appointed on my [undecipherable] as Major, a voluntary gift of Congress? are not those Men— [undecipherable] command the same I the [undecipherable] I [undecipherable] then [undecipherable] general, without my [undecipherable] even been a moment since October 1792 in which are not been in free Command? I have not Congress, my Congress in the late arrangement continued our Major, without any agency in me, knowing me the only in the Command of Captain? the present [undecipherable] new Army, but [undecipherable] now of the above one — [undecipherable] consequently is not every Officer so continuing, [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the same Pay & Substance as formerly, equally to Commission, who acts in the same Grade, or [undecipherable] without variation? can the [undecipherable] 4,000 Men with their Officers reduce the Army or them, who remain on the same footing, and act accordingly? one Congress by any late expressed discharged our [undecipherable] of Major? [undecipherable] a [undecipherable] of Experiments in the same Army destroy'd Commission? then my Major[undecipherable] would incontestably have declared since, since I hold it, as then has been his Reduction, or [undecipherable] the [undecipherable] in its date, in either of which had I have been in Inferior Regiment, I should have been liable [undecipherable] Government, with a new Commission as Captain [undecipherable] such Cap^t and my Comⁿ as Cap^t. of the date, & [undecipherable] on which a Claim to my Promotion was founded would have been destroy'd some three or four times, for [undecipherable] is as many new Commissions as their time, as Captain [undecipherable] of this Massachusetts — Congress for a [undecipherable] They will not be displeased with the Major too — myself at large alters not my Situation Cap^t Commission — the [undecipherable] Army Cap^t [undecipherable] were entitled to new Com[undecipherable], agreeable to Custom, they are now again I suppose. This Company [undecipherable] infringe — any they already done, I am on the same Service. Truly, I have not so often as [undecipherable] of Major, my Commission and is however the same, the present [undecipherable] has not more, than Majority Commission consequently, I have accuse that Commission, [undecipherable] only — May inform me when all the great [undecipherable] respectively refer, and at the same time you will be pleased to remember that I possess the Commission of Major, which upon principles of service, must [undecipherable] entitle me to the same Pay & Emoluments with any other Major at this Command only as a Captain, where concerning I do deserve the Substance of Major; by being a Capt. in this Regiment or Person, Than [undecipherable] of The Massachusetts, must distinguish most recently indeed — If this was a new Army — my Principles [undecipherable] [undecipherable] would be some Reason in the objection, but I [undecipherable] [undecipherable] essaying, that I have made no new Contract, that [undecipherable] — continued solely under the [undecipherable] of being [undecipherable] to the same subject, Pay, & Emoluments, on [undecipherable] particular as formerly, and affect them, and [undecipherable] me money very much Mistaken, [undecipherable] [undecipherable] and not write so much for I believe in the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] probably conceive is founded in Error, & [undecipherable] may be rested by you, if not, [undecipherable] to signify, upon [undecipherable] that I may make a seasonable appeal [undecipherable] the Secretary — to the Commanding Officer, to M^r Morris, as to reply — I am with real Esteem your most faithful Jhimmer Major in the Service — New York Feb^y 14^th 1784 M^r. O'Brien — NB. a Commission at Major, cannot accrue there upon a certain order for the purpose in peace. Was more Cap. May, when the commission as a Colonel, or how by that poor Officer, a Communication of Commissions for the [undecipherable] that [undecipherable] at least, or they at a law only, has too frequently been experienced serving the War, it attests with the May. It may be fair enough, they had no more men to Command