Knox, Henry (1750-1806) to William Hull

Writes to Hull about a dispute with Major [Sebastian] Bauman regarding officers of the infantry and artillery appearing in the same roster. Knox says he consulted with Washington and other general officers before making the decision. States that "[m]y principles are precisely this, that the artillery officers should do an equal [portion] of duty with the officers of the Infantry..." Knox also discusses the recent trial of soldiers accused of committing an "audacious robbery" on Mr. Lunds, and questions whether the crime called for a civil, not a military, trial. "Certainly they deserve the punishment inflicted by the Court," Knox states. "But I find myself restricted from giving [just?] approbation to the sentence of these to suffer death...from a consideration that the articles of war upon which they are condemned are rather implicatory than direct..." He notes that other such military trials have taken place when it was difficult or impossible to have a trial by a civil authority. "But the case is now widely different and therefore I would have you deliver the culprits to the civil authority to be by them tried and adjudged....In a case of the importance of Life & death the principals should be clear and evident." Knox closes by stating that "the observations of joy" observed on February 6th (likely celebrating the anniversary of the Franco-American alliance) were, in his opinon, proper, and that he hopes the [financier] (probably a reference to Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris) does not object to the fact that the dinner was at the public's expense. Watermarked.