This chapter studies John Roy Lynch's appointment as major and Additional Paymaster of Volunteers. President William McKinley stated that the appointment was a temporary one which would last only a few months probably. He had been informed that Commissioner Ross was anxious for his friend Davis, the Collector of Taxes, to remain in office a few months longer. This, he said, would enable him to grant Mr. Ross his request without doing injustice to Lynch. In addition to this, he was ambitious to have a colored man a paymaster in the United States Army. He desired, therefore, as a personal favor to him that Lynch accept the appointment. When the Spanish–American War is ended, which he thought would be soon, the collectorship of taxes would again be taken up and the change made if conditions at that time should render it necessary.
