[Docket notation, lower right of wrapper:] Aple 1^st 1800 / Gen Armstrong [Confidential] Philad. 1 Apl. 1800 Dear Sir. you have well and strongly [undecipherable: probable reading "express'd"] my opinion relative to the^th circum- :stances under which the President may with propriety exercise his power military to dismiss officers from the service [undecipherable] Innocent but one [undecipherable: probable reading "instance"] in which this power was exercised by us in this instance its propriety was really questioned [undecipherable] because and I am persuaded [undecipherable] at [a] dangerous [undecipherable] long established military [undecipherable] a [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to it lay [on] ought and [undecipherable] of the tempt of a [undecipherable] assured [undecipherable] military tribunal when it was thought in the first instance but ought alone to take cognizance of [undecipherable] the fate of those offenders military offences. I am persuaded that if this power is frequently resorted to by the executive it will the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] on be denied and break down the military spirit [undecipherable] would be productive of and bring the army into a state of debasement. I have suggested to you in my former letter how little certainty there is of the present new army being of long duration. This suggestion rests upon the indisposition discovered among a great many of the federal members of Congress [undecipherable] meet the expense for its support, and a [undecipherable] policy influenced by considerations of popularity. If we make [undecipherable] is probable [undecipherable] the army and she a treaty with France [undecipherable] to be [undecipherable] break it [undecipherable] we [undecipherable] have the army kept in to [undecipherable] they honored breaks and if she should not break it, the giving the body and if they do not [undecipherable] necessary it may be [undecipherable] to keep another [undecipherable] [undecipherable] or oppose [undecipherable] hostility. Yours truly & affily. W H [undecipherable] I send you a letter from M'King just rec'd, that our commissioners for France sailed [undecipherable] on 21 Jany. for L'Orient and [that] no account had been rec'd at London on the 3 Feb^y of their arrival.