Proposal for an American Military Academy
LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR, TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE, APPOINTED ON THE 9th OF DECEMBER LAST, ON SO MUCH OF THE SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT, AS RELATES TO "A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL DEFENCE, COMMENSURATE WITH OUR RESOURCES, AND THE SITUATION OF OUR COUNTRY.".
Washington: 1800.
Price: $750.00
About the item
13pp. Dbd. Near fine, uncut and untrimmed.
Item #354272
Dated "War Department, January 31st, 1800." Secretary of War James McHenry writes to Harrison Gray Otis, chairman of the House Committee of Defense, on the subject of the construction of military schools, and on the importance of fortifying harbors and the frontier. McHenry writes that the school would be an essential means "to prepare for, and perpetuate to the United States, at a very moderate expence [sic], a body of scientific officers and engineers, adequate to any future exigency...." Included is a calculation of the cost of the school. In May of 1800, President John Adams, frustrated over McHenry's disloyalty, would ask for and receive the secretary's resignation. Thomas Jefferson signed legislation to establish a national military academy in 1802. Not in Evans or Sabin. OCLC locates only six copies. Rare.
