[Copy] [S^t. 2^d II] Mount Vernon 29. July 1798 [5 2] Dear Sir Your letter of the 25 instant came to Alexandria yesterday evening and was put into my hands this morn. For the rules and regulations accompanying it I thank you and will read them attentively if I am allowed time; but this is questionable as I am assailed from all quarters and by all descriptions of people for Commissions Introductions, recommendations &c. to [underline: all] of which common civility makes some sort of reply necessary while among them there are a few to whom more more particular answers must be given. This leads me to ask whether a Secretary previous to the contingencies on which my taking the field is placed will be allowed? The pay I mean, Without which the moments which are employed in my usual necessary avocations and which at all leisure hours I have been devoting to the arrangement and overhaul of my voluminous public papers- civil and military- that they may go into secure deposits, and hereafter into hands that may be able to separate the grain from the chaff. I say without this aid my time (and in truth I has from a variety of causes which it is needless to enumerate little enough of before) will be entirely taken up by [underline: personal] visits and written applications for Office and such other matters as are incidental to my late appointments. The motives to this question are explained;- the necessity I conceive is apparent but as I have placed my own services pay and emoluments upon contingencies which may happen sooner or later, or never, you are to decide and will accordingly advise whether a Secretary can be appointed previously to this event, with the pay and forage allowance annexed to the Office or not. You will not have transmitted you the half- perhaps not a tenth part of the applications which are made to me. It may be taken for granted therefore that all who appeals to you under my auspices are such as I am either personally acquainted with- know their families- or am satisfied with the recommendations they bring. Your answers to Mr. Eaton and Judge Chase were judicious and proper- Of the propriety of remaining perfectly free from all engagements respecting my aids, I am more and more convinced as the applications encrease and the little knowledge displayed of the qualifications which the aids of the Commander in Chief on the Commander of a separate Army [above line: out fit of [undecipherable]] is discovered by the applicants. The variegated and important duties of the Aids to the Commander in Chief of Commander of a separate Army require experienced Officers- men of Judgment- and men of business- ready pens to execute them properly and with dispatch. A great deal more is required of them than attending him at a parade or delivering verbal orders here and there or copying a written one. They ought if I may be allowed to use the expression to possess the soul of the General, and from a single idea given to them to convey his meaning in the clearest and fullest manner. This young men unacquainted with service and diffident would not do be their abilities what they may. One or two of the latter as extra might be received but the choice must depend upon circumstances. Why do you not say some thing about the Quarter Master General and Adjutant General? I am thrown entirely into the field of conjecture to account for the cause of your silence on these interesting points- nor am I relieved in either by the Gazettes except by a blind account in Bache's that Col. Smith as Brigadⁱⁿ did not obtain Will Col. Hamilton accept? Have you heard from the other General Officers. My paper is done. & I am always y^rs. G. Washington The Secretary of War