From Thomas Jefferson to the Senate, 31 March 1802
To the Senate
Gentlemen of the Senate
Since nominating to the Senate on the 25th. instant the officers who are to be transferred or promoted under the act fixing the military peace establishment of the US. I have recieved information which renders it proper that I should revoke the nominations then made of Richard Greaton and Campbell Smith captains, and of Thomas Blackburne Lieutenant. And I now nominate
John Whistler heretofore captain in the 1st. regiment of infantry to be a captain in the 1st. regiment instead of Greaton:
Aaron Gregg heretofore a captain in the 3rd. regiment of infantry to be a captain in the 2nd. regiment instead of Smith: and
John Haines, heretofore 1st. Lieutenant in the 4th. regiment of infantry to be a 1st. Lieutenant in the 2nd. regiment instead of Blackburne.
Captain Smith’s nomination is revoked at his own earnest request; and those of the other two for causes, which, had they been known in time, would have prevented their nomination.
I also nominate Alexander A. Peters to be Surgeon’s mate at Fort Johnson in North Carolina: and
Thomas J. Vandyke to be Surgeon’s mate at South West point in Tennissee instead of Al. A. Peters who had been nominated for South West Point.
Th: Jefferson
RC (DNA: RG 46, EPEN, 7th Cong., 1st sess.); with blanks for number of Whistler’s proposed regiment and for numbers of Gregg’s and Haines’s current and proposed regiments filled by Meriwether Lewis, who also interlined “1st.” in front of Haines’s current and proposed rank; endorsed by a Senate clerk. PrC (DLC); with blank for number of Whistler’s proposed regiment unfilled; blanks for numbers of Gregg’s and Haines’s current and proposed regiments filled by TJ in ink; TJ also interlined in ink “1st” in front of Haines’s current and proposed rank. Recorded in SJL with notation “nominations military.”
Meriwether Lewis delivered this message on 31 Mch. The Senate had already approved, five days earlier, the majority of the military NOMINATIONS included in TJ’s message of the 25th. On 1 Apr., the Senate revoked its previous consent to the nominations of Greaton, Smith, and Blackburn, approved the substitutions, and agreed to the appointments of Peters and Vandyke (, 1:415–16).