[Page 1 is a repository placeholder notice, not document text. Transcription begins with the document.] [Docket/address panel:] 5 May 1799. Gen^l. A. Hamilton --- [undecipherable] [undecipherable] 1799. [undecipherable] I have received your [undecipherable] and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] relating to [undecipherable] Captain I [undecipherable] to have [undecipherable] to him I observe, that the [undecipherable] appointment, you have inserted in Captain [undecipherable] instruc tions, is [underline: three years]; that the [undecipherable] questions and the [undecipherable] you, had full [undecipherable] ence en[undecipherable] whatev[er] [undecipherable] the intention of [undecipherable] [undecipherable] suppose in [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to you, [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] for the first [undecipherable] of which [undecipherable] [undecipherable] if is. I feel now to observe to you, that by for [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] is [undecipherable] [undecipherable] ment of the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] under construction, from the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] I shall defer sending him [undecipherable] and instru [undecipherable] to Captain [undecipherable] until [undecipherable] your pinion. An Act to raise, Arm and fix the Peace & War Establishment of the United [undecipherable]," passed the 30^th May. 1796, provides a [undecipherable] [undecipherable] mili tary establishment of the United States from and after the last day of October next. [undecipherable] all of the Corps of Artillery and [undecipherable] and engineers, [undecipherable] [undecipherable] by the Act &c — Sect 5^th That the corps of enlistments, and engineers be [undecipherable] con formably to the Act of 3^d day of may, 1794, esta blishing the same and prescribing the number and term of enlistments, and the method of or ganization. — [Art] 6. Prescribes the compensation to commissioned officers for enlistments. — [Art] 7^th. That there shall be allowed and paid each soldier, now in the service of the United States, [undecipherable] discharged therefrom, [undecipherable] the 3^d day of March 1794, who shall [enlist] to the term of five years, unto [undecipherable] a [undecipherable] bounty [undecipherable] of [sixteen] dollars; and to each person not now in the army of the United States, or dis charged [undecipherable], who shall hereafter enlist, to the term aforesaid a bounty of fourteen dollars, and the [payment] of [four] dollars, of the bounty of each, and every man so enlisting, shall be [deferred], until he shall have joined the corps in which he is to serve. [undecipherable] and [undecipherable], that I ground [undecipherable] my opi [undecipherable] that [enlistment] for the first regiment of [undecipherable] to be made for the term of [undecipherable] years, entirely on the seventh section, of the [Act] of the 30^th May 1796. I shall be anxious to [undecipherable] now, whether [their] [opinion] coincide with me, in [opi] nion. I am Sir with [great respect?] your [obedient] servant James McHenry [Address:] to General Alexander Hamilton