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From Genl Wilkinson Aug.28.1800.-

My Dear Williams I have seen your letter to our friend Barrows, & as in duty bound I obey my inclinations and say to you in brief, / for I have truly changed the character of general to that of Clerk, that not knowing you had even squinted at the Majority, however I did & do believe your merits & your qualifications, give you a title to higher? views, my Interests? have been engaged for a Major Beale the late Adjutant General of Gen. Pinkney, who to me bespoke Him as of transcendent merits -- but that when Mr. Dixton? did mention you to me, I had no hesitation to declare that I believed you a man of superior ?, in strict application to the profession, to any one who has a Commission in the Corps -- you will have me to ? any consistency