[Private] 2 Augt. 1799 Gen. Hamilton Aug. 2 1799. I always receive from my friend his instructions, with at least a disposition to benefit [strikethrough: repass] by them. your private note of the 31^st ulto. recd. yesterday morning with the proceedings of the [undecipherable] Court martial on Capⁿ Frye [strikethrough: suggests to] [undecipherable] me, either, that the court ought not to have suffered, my letter of the 10^th of Jany. to have [strikethrough: had any weight in] [undecipherable] their decision, or if it ought to have had influence that they should have required from my office, the circumstances which occasioned it. Could the court have been ignorant, that I have nothing to do with receiving muster + pay rolls; that these are received and acknowledged by the accountant, and always without my [strikethrough: knowledge] [undecipherable: privity] or participation, unless when through ignorance in the officer sending them, they are [undecipherable: addressed] to me, in which case they are immediately and without examination as to who had [undecipherable], referred to the accountant, or when some peculiarity accompanies them, requiring their communication from the accountant; that I act upon the accountants report only, issue warrants for the money and cause the same to be transmitted. If they knew all this, why not have inquired before suffering it to influence an opinion, into the circumstances which produced the letter in question. Why suppose, what was not the fact, that a correspondence existed between Cap^t Frye and the Secy. of war, after the appointment of Major Hoops to the Command? It is not pleasant to have such ideas entertained or countenanced especially when no such correspondence [strikethrough: undecipherable] had taken place. But the letter in question is not even any answer to a letter from Cap^t Frye, and its object merely to transmit, discharges for certain [strikethrough: Cap^t Frye's] men of his company, resulting from the muster roll. If any error has been fallen into, it was in directing these discharges [strikethrough: to be forwarded to them] by their captain instead of passing them through Major Hoops to the Captain. I cannot at this moment recollect the circumstances which induced to this mode of transmitting the discharges. I rather think it was at the instance of the accountant, or from information that Major Hoops was or would be absent from the garrison, or it might be from mere inattention. Be this however as it may, certainly infinitely more importance has been attached to this little [strikethrough: letter] than it merits, and this has given me some pain. I find upon enquiring, that the muster + pay role acted upon by the accountant, was that made by Cap^t Frye, and for this reason. The muster + pay role made out by Col^t Stevens was for a part of the month of Febry. only vz. from the 1^st to the 18^th, and not for [strikethrough: the] whole month, which is required. This the accountant could not act upon, in consequence [above: of the same] that sent by Frye for the whole month, was adopted. You observe in your [undecipherable] orders upon Cap^t Frye's having exercised these powers. "The exercise of it, after such information, was consequently irregular and dis-orderly, nor can the seeming countenance which was subsequently given to his [underline: acts] by the Department of war very [undecipherable: alter] their real nature. The circumstances which had intervened were probably unknown and a disposition to give facility to the service must be presumed to have caused the Secretary to have overlooked the incompatibility of the proceedings with his instructions." The last [undecipherable: part] of this stricture does not appear to me to have been necessary, and therefore ought to have been avoided, as implicating misconduct or want of consistency in the Secretary. ... As to a correspondence with Frye. I informed Cap^t Frye on the 4^th of Oct^r. 1798 as follows. Sir. On the 10^th of last. Major Hoops was directed to repair to New York and assume the command of the Troops in Garrison in that Harbour, and the general superintendence of the works and repairs to the fortifications ordered by the United States for the Defence of that City. He is therefore to be considered as commandant of the Harbour and of course your reports &c to me must be made through him". This letter [strikethrough: when Cap^t Frye] [undecipherable] and the [undecipherable] are the only letters which I find on record since the appointment of Major Hoops to [strikethrough: the] my command. Is this a correspondence between the Secretary of war and Cap^t Frye? These points, perhaps ought to have been more inquired into, than to me they appear to have been. At any rate it strikes me, that my supposed correspondence with an inferior officer, his superior being [underline: presumed] present has been too slightly examined and admitted. I make these observations more freely to you, because I think the head of the department of war ought not to be held up [underline: in a general order] as having been ignorant of or having been inattentive to his duties; and because I perceive you entertain an opinion, that I have [strikethrough: wantonly] or [undecipherable] [strikethrough: undecipherable] [undecipherable] [strikethrough: undecipherable] given orders to inferior officers within this command. This is not the case, whatever many have been insinuated to you to the contrary — [strikethrough: undecipherable] yours truely and affy James McHenry [M^r Maj^t Gen. Alex^r Hamilton &]