Boston 27 Apr 1791 I was my dear Sir 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 citiren yet I think he has many qualification 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 of character as a surgeon, you would have perfectly embraced the very desirable object had D^r. [undecipherable: Eustis?] accepted the appointment, Offered him which I have no doubt he would have done for I think he has a predilection for the army, could he under the appointment been [undecipherable] that he should hold [strikethrough: in consequence there] that rank to which, former pretentions, long experience, & present [strikethrough: rank] Standing, and [undecipherable] in life gave him an undoubted claim— and I saw no hope of this while posted Surgeon of the [undecipherable] Regiment, but the contrary; he is too much the fellow not to know that there would probably be instances in which he must submit to be commanded besides the pay of a surgeon of a regiment, though handsom for a young Gentleman [undecipherable] to place himself into life, is no temptation to a Gentleman [undecipherable] to leave the City, give up his friends and an extensive & lucrative practice and submit to the fatigues of the camp— [I think] But these are by no means the most weighty objections in his mind, money is not a primary object with him or is he inordinately attached to rank. He feels however a responsibility to his own mind, at the least, that he doth not by any act of his [strikethrough: undecipherable] place himself in a situation where he would not be the most extensively useful — his time & services here are much more important than now they would be circumscribed by the limits of a regiment. Could he once be convinced that by joining the army forward there would be a field opened for the exercise of his full abilities for the public good and that his services would not be left by the entrance of others he would not hesitate one moment to accept it and would have the arms of his friends here with which he is embraced with the utmost kindness and affection, in hopes of becoming more extensively useful, for the peculiar hardships consequent on a war which must be conducted by our [undecipherable] [Gen Knox / Apr 27 1791]