625. AUTHORITY, Civil and Military.—[further continued]
Not a single fact has appeared,
which occasions me to doubt that I
could have made a fitter appointment than
General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle
I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union
of the civil and military authority. You remember
that when I went into office * * * he
was pressed on me to be made Governor of
the Mississippi Territory, and that I refused
it on that very principle. When, therefore,
the House of Representatives took that
ground, I was not insensible to its having
some weight. But in the appointment to
Louisiana, I did not think myself departing
from my own principle, because I consider
it not as a civil government, but merely a
military station. The Legislature had sanctioned
that idea by the establishment of the
office of the Commandant, in which were
completely blended the civil and military
powers. It seemed therefore, that the Governor
should be in suit with them. I observed,
too, that the House of Representatives,
on the very day they passed the stricture
on this union of authorities, passed a bill
making the Governor of Michigan com
mander of the regular troops which should
at any time be within his government.—
To Samuel Smith. Washington ed. v, 13.
Ford ed., viii, 450.
(W.
May. 1806)
