Memoir Of Alexander Macomb

Shortly after Macomb had entered the encampment beyond the Alleghany, an incident occurred which came near doing him a serious injury.

An officer visited him in his tent, and in the course of conversation, broached the politics of the day, the principal theme of which was the change of administration, Mr. Jefferson having been not long before elected to the Presidency. This officer was very abusive of the new President, in terms not merely indecorous, but punishable by the Articles of War. Disapproving of such intemperance, Macomb begged him not to continue a language, so disrespectful to the head of the Army and the Nation, and which, used any where but in his own tent, he would feel constrained to notice, as a breach of discipline. The expressions were overheard, attributed to Macomb, and reported to Head Quarters, for which he received a severe reprimand. He, however, soon succeeded in satisfying the General of his innocence of the charge, though without exposing the officer guilty of the indecorum.[Source]