Pinckney writes is his capacity as third president general of the Society of the Cincinnati to acknowledge Mrs. Hamilton’s return of the Diamond Eagle following her husband’s death. He notes that he is enclosing a copy of the resolution of thanks to her passed by the Society at its most recent meeting. The Diamond Eagle was the gift to Washington from the French Navy. He received it during the Society's first General Meeting in May 1783, and it remained in his possession for the rest of his life. After his death, Mrs. Washington presented it to Alexander Hamilton, who succeeded Washington as president general of the Society. After Hamilton was killed in the duel with Aaron Burr in 1804, Mrs. Hamilton sent the Diamond Eagle to her husband's successor as president general, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. In his report to the Society, Pinckney recommended that the Diamond Eagle be "hereafter considered as appurtenant to the Office of President-General."