To James Madison from John Van Ness Yates, 14 September 1815
From John Van Ness Yates
Albany Septr. 14. 1815.
Sir.
I have the honor of submitting to the consideration of the President of the United States the enclosed document.1 It will be seen, that it relates to certain Soldiers who have been unable to obtain honorable discharges from their officers, and that Copies of the Opinions of several Gentlemen of the law accompany this document.
Aware of the delicacy of calling the Attention of the Executive to a subject of this kind, I have only to offer as an apology that the Case of these Soldiers had previously been submitted to the War department and an unfavorable answer returned to their application.
The object now is, of requesting the interposition of the Executive in their behalf under circumstances of peculiar hardship, and under a firm Conviction that the tardy and expensive course of applying to Congress for redress (the Course suggested by the Honble. Secretary at War) is not necessary. I have the honor to be with sentiments of the highest respect and Consideration Your mo: ob: and very humble serv.
John. V. N. Yates.2
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 94, Letters Received, filed under “War of 1812”). Docketed as received in the War Department in September 1815.
1. Yates enclosed a list (1 p.) of twenty-three soldiers enlisted in 1813 and 1814 for the duration of the war, showing by whom and on what dates they had been enlisted, the amount of bounties they received, and the dates through which they had been paid, on what rolls, and by whom. The enclosed opinions have not been found, but filed with the RC is the following note by George Graham, dated 29 Sept. 1815: “The enclosed papers have been referred by the President to the attorney Genl. of the U.S. who coincides in the opinion that the men enlisted, ‘for during the War’ could not be legally retained in service, after the expiration of the period of enlistment. The Adt. Genl. will therefore take the necessary measures for granting such discharge to the within mentioned Soldiers, as they would have been entitled to, had they not left Plattsburgh, provided the facts are accurately stated. Other cases that are similar (of which I believe there are some), will take the same course.” Bears Daniel Parker’s note: “Sent to the comdg. officer at Greenbush Sept. 26th. 1815 With orders to discharge.”
2. John Van Ness Yates (1779–1839), the son of New York chief justice Robert Yates, was born in Albany. He studied law and established a successful practice in his native city, where he also served as recorder, 1808–9 and 1811–16. In 1808 Yates became involved in a notable dispute with the chancellor of New York, John Lansing Jr., stemming from Yates’s unauthorized use of another attorney’s name to bring a suit in the Court of Chancery. Jailed repeatedly in the course of the ensuing proceedings, Yates finally succeeded in having his arrests and incarcerations declared illegal by the Court for the Correction of Errors, after which he unsuccessfully sued Lansing for false imprisonment. The affair evidently did not compromise Yates’s reputation. He served as New York secretary of state, 1818–26, and, at the request of the legislature, annotated the 1813 revision of the laws of New York (Sing Sing, N.Y., Hudson River Chronicle, 15 Jan. 1839; George R. Howell and Jonathan Tenney, eds., Bi-Centennial History of Albany: History of the County of Albany, N.Y., from 1609 to 1886. … [New York, 1886], 134–35).