[Docket: G. Hamilton / 26 June 1799] [Private & Confidential.] 15 June 1799 My dear Sir. I find from frequent and repeated conversations that we have not been able to remove any one of the prejudices entertained by the Secy of the Treasury against the augmentation of the army; that he thinks, or seems to [strikethrough: believe] that the means or resources without annual loans, of the U.S. which can be called forth, are inadequate to the [strikethrough: expenditures] support of the required for the army & navy; con-:quently that [strikethrough: from] part of the one or the other must be suspended or dropped[;] [that he even] contemplates a statement of facts relative to our means to the President. I regret all this from the bottom of my [undecipherable], [strikethrough: how much our peace] feeling as I do [strikethrough: undecipherable] [however] and [undecipherable] at home and [strikethrough: undecipherable] abroad depend[s] upon the permanency [undecipherable] and the degree of [undecipherable] of our [undecipherable] [strikethrough: by foreign] nations, and the permanency of the [strikethrough: better army decided to be believed.] I I continue on the course which I had prescribed to myself, determined to intermit or suspend indispensible measures only when officially informed of its being no longer in the [strikethrough: competency] means [power] of the Treasury to support them, or answer the requisite demands. The Secretary tells me that notwithstanding his opinion, [above: about the army] he will not do any thing to prejudice his friends or the public against [it,] [strikethrough: the army.] I reason in all the forms I can think of, and I have thought it proper to keep throwing into Forms, paragraphs [strikethrough: shewing the necessity of the present establishment] tending to the necessity of an army: I know not how all this is to end: [strikethrough: undecipherable] [strikethrough: retrograde,] [strikethrough: until under an act of Congress;] to apprise [undecipherable] of the state of [strikethrough: things] opinion and to request your aid [strikethrough: undecipherable] [undecipherable] to the Eastward [strikethrough: undecipherable] to keep up a due sense of the measure. Among our friends in that quarter, [strikethrough: the body of State minds right, at least there are] no indication[s of the contrary;] Mr. Goodrich has the following paragraph in a letter I reed from [him] this morning: "The recruiting service is proceeding successfully in this State; the sooner the troops can be withdrawn from the Towns, embodied disciplined and employed, the less speculation will be excited about the army." I think the [undecipherable] recommended ought to be attended to. I mean to hasten the recruits to their respective regiment[al] rendezvouses. yours affectionate MH