Adjutant-General's Office. If incidental cases occurred for which
the written regulations could not provide the rule, although equally
valid, such, nevertheless, may not in every instance have been known at
the War Department until specially represented by the party interested.
The case of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Thayer happened to be one of those
incidental claims, and as soon as it was submitted for consideration its
validity was clearly seen and acknowledged. Had it been submitted to
the Department when the list was made out in June, 1834, it may not be
doubted that this highly meritorious and deserving officer would at the
time have received the brevet of colonel for "having served faithfully
as brevet lieutenant-colonel and performed the appropriate duties of
that grade for ten years," which, it may be seen, was due more than
_a year before the passage of the act repealing the law_.

In presenting now this deferred case for your favorable consideration
justice requires that I should advert to the valuable services
rendered to the Army and the country by Lieutenant-Colonel Thayer as
Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point. In 1817 he found
that institution defective in all its branches, and without order; in
1833 he left it established upon a basis alike honorable to himself and
useful to the nation. These meritorious services constitute _another_
claim which entitles this officer to the notice of the Government, and
as they come fairly within one of the conditions of the law which yet
open the way to brevet promotion, the incentive it provides is fully
realized by the services that have been rendered.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

J.R. POINSETT.

WASHINGTON, _July 2, 1838_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report[36] from
the Secretary of State, together with the documents therein referred to
in answer to their resolution of the 28th of May last.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 36: Transmitting reports of the commissioners appointed under
the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty of Ghent to ascertain and
fix the boundary between the United States and the British possessions
in North America, etc.]

WASHINGTON, _July 3, 1838_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit a report from the War Department, in relation to the
investigations of the allegation