Boston 27 Ap^l 1791 I was very much honoured with the receipt of your favour of the 19^th by the last post. I am very happy that Balch is provided for, although, as I remarked before, he has been a wild citizen, yet I think he has many qualifications which will recommend him as an officer. He very well knows that he cannot sport with his character and hold any rank in the army — You say "we want a capital character as a surgeon you would perfectly embrace the wish" should D^r Eustis accept the appointment, [strikethrough: I think two] which I have no doubt he would have done, for I think he has a predilection for the army, could he make [strikethrough: the appointment] have [strikethrough: found] that he should have [strikethrough: been] that rank to afford him protection, his expenses, & [strikethrough: proper] rank and reputation in life give him an undoubted claim — [strikethrough: and] for on no hope of this whilst [strikethrough: he had] for one of the [strikethrough: paid] Regiments, but the embassy, he is too much the fellow not to know that there would probably be instances in which he ought patient to be come and before the pay of a surgeon of a regiment, though handsome for a young Gentleman [strikethrough: whose] who wishes to introduce himself into life, is no temptation to a [strikethrough: Gentleman] man [strikethrough: who] [strikethrough: gives up his ground] and an [strikethrough: extensive] [undecipherable] & [strikethrough: lucrative] practice, and [strikethrough: a] claims to the [strikethrough: pol] esteem of the com- [strikethrough: thinks] Not that pay is by any means the most mighty objection, in his mind, money is not a primary object with him — it is the [strikethrough: insigni] attention to rank. He feels however a [strikethrough: respectability] to his own respect at the least, that he aught not [strikethrough: to be] [strikethrough: offered] place himself in a [strikethrough: Situation] in which he must be the most [strikethrough: col] subaltern officer. His kind of [strikethrough: forces] [undecipherable] are much more important than those they would be accompanied by the [strikethrough: merely] pay [strikethrough: or] [undecipherable], but let me be convinced that by [strikethrough: raising] the army [strikethrough: increases] there would be a field opened, for the exercise of [strikethrough: those] abilities for the public good and that [strikethrough: of] [strikethrough: his] [undecipherable] would not be left by the influence of others he would not hesitate one moment to accept it, and would leave the arms of his family, [strikethrough: on] which he is [strikethrough: impressed] with [strikethrough: the utmost] kindness and affection, in hopes of having one [strikethrough: extensive] effort, for the [strikethrough: public] [undecipherable] [strikethrough: of] [strikethrough: conquest] as a [strikethrough: citizen] [strikethrough: and] he would [strikethrough: be] yours [undecipherable] [General Knox Ap^l 27^th 1791]