525. ARMY, Seniority in.—
We received
from Colonel R. H. Lee a resolution of Convention,
recommending us to endeavor that
the promotions of the officers be according to
seniority without regard to regiments or companies.
In one instance, indeed, the Congress
reserved to themselves a right of departing
from seniority; that is where a person either
out of the line of command, or in an inferior
part of it, has displayed eminent talents. Most
of the general officers have been promoted in
this way. Without this reservation, the whole
continent must have been supplied with general
officers from the Eastern Colonies, where
a large army was formed and officered before
any other colony had occasion to raise troops
at all, and a number of experienced, able and
valuable officers must have been lost to the
public merely from the locality of their situation.—
To Governor Patrick Henry.
Ford ed., ii, 67.
(Pa.,
1776)
