ct to the Senate as to place my conduct in the
duty imposed on me by that act in a clear point of view, to make this
communication at this time. The examples under the law of 1815, whereby
officers were reduced and arranged from the old corps to the new in
inferior grades, fully justify all that has been done under the law
of 1821. If the power to arrange under the former law authorized the
removal of one officer from a particular station and the location of
another in it, reducing the latter from a higher to an inferior grade,
with the advice and consent of the Senate, it surely justifies under
the latter law the arrangement of these officers, with a like sanction,
to offices of new creation, from which no one had been removed and to
which no one had a just claim. It is on the authority of these examples,
supported by the construction which I gave to the law, that I have acted
in the discharge of this high trust. I am aware that many officers of
great merit, having the strongest claims on their country, have been
reduced and others dismissed, but under the law that result was
inevitable. It is believed that none have been retained who had not,
likewise, the strongest claims to the appointments which have been
conferred on them. To discriminate between men of acknowledged merit,
especially in a way to affect so sensibly and materially their feelings
and interests, for many of whom I have personal consideration and
regard, has been a most painful duty; yet I am conscious that I have
discharged it with the utmost impartiality. Had I opened the door to
change in any case, even where error might have been committed, against
whom could I afterwards have closed it, and into what consequences might
not such a proceeding have led? The same remarks are applicable to the
subject in its relation to the Senate, to whose calm and enlightened
judgment, with these explanations, I again submit the nominations which
have been rejected.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL 15, 1822.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant,
requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid
before the Senate the original proceedings of the board of general
officers charged with the reduction of the Army under the act of the 2d
of March, 1821, together with all communications to and from said board
on the subject of reducing the Army, including the case submitted to the
Attorney-