American Historical Ephemera & Photography

A contemporary copy in an unknown hand of Alexander Hamilton’s draft committee report on the military peace establishment which is ascribed the date 18 June 1783. Verso of the document is marked “Massachusetts” in the same hand as the report, with identification then below in Holten’s hand “Report of the commte / on the peace army.” 

With the drafting of the Treaty of Paris in November 1782, plans for adapting the Continental Army for peacetime were expedited. By April 1783 Alexander Hamilton was appointed chairman of a Continental Congress committee "to consider what arrangements it will be proper to adopt in the different departments with reference to peace." Additional committee members included James Madison, Samuel Osgood, James Wilson, and Oliver Ellsworth. Dr. Samuel Holten of Danvers, Massachusetts, replaced Osgood on May 6, 1783, and reported to Congress with his fellow committee members on plans for the future defense of the United States and for demobilization of the existing Continental Army. 

At the request of Hamilton, George Washington submitted his "Sentiments on a Peace Establishment" to the Continental Congress in early May 1783 arguing for the establishment of a “Peacetime Standing Army.” Hamilton and Holten’s committee echoed this sentiment, stating in their report that, “The Committee, are of opinion, if there is a Constitutional power in the US for that purpose, that there are conclusive reasons in favour of a foederal [sic] in preference to state establishments.” The report goes on to recommend “The Military peace establishment of the U.S. to consist of 4 Regiments of Infantry, and one of Artillery incorporated in a Corps of Engineers, with the denomination of the Corps of Engineers. / Each Regiment of Infantry to consist of two Battalions each Battalion of 4 Companies, each Company of 64 Rank and File, with the following commisd & non commisd officers, pay, rations & cloathing [sic] to be however recruited to 128 rank & file in time of war, preserving the proportion of Corporals to Privates.”

RARE. Hindman locates only one other copy of this report at auction, Elias Boudinot’s personal copy auctioned by Henkel’s in 1915. This document was originally part of a larger collection of Holten documents, a portion of which was auctioned in Cowan's Auctions June 2021 Live Sale.

Dr. Samuel Holten served as a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from 1778-1780, and the United States in Congress Assembled 1783-1785, and 1787. During his terms, he signed the Articles of Confederation and was elected to serve as the legislative body's president pro tempore in August 1785. In 1792, Holten was elected to the US House of Representatives for the Third US Congress. At the state level, he was a member of the 1779 Massachusetts constitutional convention; served as a state senator from 1780-1782, and in 1784, 1786, 1789, and 1790; and served on the Governor's Council. In 1796 he was appointed judge in Essex County Probate Court, a position he held until his resignation in 1815.