[undecipherable] G[undecipherable] to Joh[n] Adams [undecipherable] [The] [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] 2[d] [undecipherable] [undecipherable]. Sep[tembe]r 25 1798 [undecipherable: Extract] of a Letter from General Washington to the President of the United States, dated Mount [Ve]rnon 25 of Sept[embe]r 179[8]. — Reasons in [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] to Knox. It is an invidious Part, at all times, [undecipherable] comparisons and I shall avoid it as much as [undecipherable] but I have no hesitation in declaring [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the service of [Col.?] Hamilton in the Military line; that the [undecipherable] he is to fill will not be easily [undecipherable], and that this is [undecipherable] of the Public, I think I can venture to [undecipherable]. [undecipherable] has [undecipherable] in [undecipherable] [undecipherable] of a General Officer, yet his [undecipherable]ities a[undecipherable] [undecipherable]fidential [undecipherable] of the Commander in Chief, afforded him the means of [undecipherable] every thing on a larger scale than those who had only Divisions & Brigades to attend to, — who knew nothing [undecipherable] the correspondence of the Commander in Chief — nor the various orders or transactions with the General Staff of the Army — These advantages and his having served with usefulness in the old Congress — in the General Convention — and having filled one of the most must, in some degree, be commensurate. By Some he is considered as an ambitious man, and therefore a dangerous one. — That he is amb[undecipherable], I shall readily grant, but it is of that laudable kind which prompts a man to excel in whatever [undecipherable] in hand. — He is enterprising, quick in his [undecipherable]ceptions, — and his judgment intuitively [undecipherable] qualities essential to a great Military [undecipherable] & therefore [undecipherable] think, that his loss will be irreparable. taken from the Original [undecipherable] New York May 23. 1818 — The above extract of a letter from General Washington to the President of the United States was copied from the original[s], by myself, at the desire of General Hamilton — [undecipherable]