[Dupliciste] [Imitate] Winthrop Sargent — Fort Washington June the 1^st 1792 My Dear Sir I have been honoured with your favour of the 12^th ulto: this day and shall most cheer-fully attend the Experiments agreeably to your Desire and forward attested [strikethrough: Certificates] Copies thereof — provided Genl Wilkinson will permit them to be separated — They have once been made and Records of them I suppose are before you, but these were not under my Observation — Upon this Occasion give me Leave to assure you that from personal as well as publick Considerations I have at all Times and believe I shall continue to have the most ardent Disposition to do you Service — you can most gratify me more than by giving me Occasion to contribute to the Fulfilment of your wishes. My Letters to you by the 16^th ulto: must have declared my [underline: Acceptance] of the Army Appointment and explained D[undecipherable] my motives — It is impo- stant to my Happiness that they should appear satisfactory to your Judgement for in all my Determinations I am most anxiously ambitious of your Approbation. The Office of Adj^t Genl will probably be filled before this Letter can reach you — Conscious I am that I have not discharged the Duties in Honour and Fidelity with-out the Aid of Rank and therefore I was [underline: constrained] to Do violence to my Inclinations and Decline it — Military Fame is dear to me, but I ought not to be a Soldier beyond the Continuance of the present War — I had flattered myself that by endeavouring to merit well in an exact and impartial Execution of the multiplied Duties I performed last Campaign I should have been honoured with some Distinction from Government dearer to a Soldier than his Pay — I may I hope Sir take the Liberty of suggesting to you that I should now think the Rank of [undecipherable] sufficient for the Adj^t and Inspector Genl of the Army — I speak not now for myself, for the Appointment has passed me — I am however in some Degree pre-stiged in having read the Offer of it for, from the Circumstances of my being [underline: very unpopular], and [undecipherable] the Testimony that the President and surely Deemed me fully adequate — I am in presumed to predict my Dear Sir that before this Day is over you will be induced to believe the Office should be adorned with high military Rank — there are in my Opinion, but I as profess with due Deference, many strong Reasons for it — The Adj^t Genl doing the Duty of an Inspector to the Army Detached as they will sometimes be in the remote Parts of this extensive Continent, where bad Habots and Dispositions will probably prevail must seldom countenance or take the Hazard of being obeyed unless he has an Discretion which has decidedly give him a Right to Dictate and places him classes a Dread of the Corps. I hope my Dear Sir I shall have the Pleasure of seeing you soon — If the Governor does not come in — I cannot leave the Territory without Permission from the President And I am necessitated to request you would ask him for this Indulgence, for all my little Property is involved amongst the Bankrupts in New York and consequently in present Jeopardy — by my Presence I might save something from the Wreck; I have however right and even [undecipherable] every thing rather than presume to act for you until you write me — I shall transmit the Commission of Adj^t Genl by this Conveyance — With highest Respect and Esteem I am your Affectionate W Sargent morning of June the 2^d. I have called on General Wilkinson — He has received your Instructions he told me to order my Attendance upon the Experiments alluded to in the first Part of this Letter, but declines the repeating them because in his view some Trouble and that they have already been made in a manner that must be satisfactory to you and the Public — [Honble Genl Knox Secretary at War]