To James Madison from William Eustis, 13 October 1812 (Abstract)
§ From William Eustis
13 October 1812, War Department. By an act of 3 Mar. 1809,1 “it is provided that all warrants drawn by the Secretary of war, or the Secretary of the Navy, on the Treasurer shall specify the particular appropriation to which the same should be charged; and that on application of the Secretary of the proper department the President is authorized to direct that a portion of the monies appropriated for one branch of expenditure be applied to another, in the same department.” Informs JM that appropriations to the Quartermaster’s Department are nearly exhausted and requests that JM direct that $500,000 appropriated for the pay of the army be applied to defray expenses in the Quartermaster’s Department.2
RC (DLC); FC (PHi: Daniel Parker Papers); letterbook copy (DNA: RG 107, LSP). RC 2 pp.; docketed by JM. FC is a letterpress copy. A note at the foot of the first page of the RC in Daniel Parker’s hand reads, “This letter was prepared to submit to the President when the order was given by him to transfer from one approp[r]iation to another & is now sent that there may be record of the transaction in the War Office.”
1. See , 2:535–37.
2. In the margin of the letterbook copy is written a letter of the same date from JM to the secretary of the treasury: “In pursuance of an Act of the 3d March 1809—entitled ‘an Act further to amend the several Acts for the establishment of the Treasury War & Navy Depts’—I do hereby direct that the sum $500,000 of the fund appropriated for the pay of the Army, be applied to that of the Qr. M. Dept: signed J M.”