I received your Letter of the thirtieth of July late in the Evening of Friday the second Instant. The Ideas which in Conversation with you I endeavoured to impress were, that I should at all Events fulfil my Part of the Contracts entered into for feeding your Army, That I had constantly attended to the claims of the Contractors. That I should continue to do so, and that I beleived I had in many Instances been in Advance to them. On Saturday Morning I desired the comptroller to make out a State of these Accounts, which State I have received this Morning, and now enclose—Copies. Your Excellency will perceive from the State Number One, of the Accounts of the Contractors for West Point, that I have for a Considerable Part of the Time been Considerably in Advance to them, instead of their being one Month in advance to me. Besides which it is to be observed, that the Amount stated for Provisions, they received out of the public Stores is entirely as they themselves have Stated it, and that the Accounts not being as yet settled I ought not to have paid perhaps so much as I have done, because certainly there is no Way to secure the public Interest, but by with holding Money until Accounts be adjusted. And this Sir leads me to an Observation, which applies fully to the whole of this Business. When I contracted to pay monthly it was well understood, that I should pay what appeared to be due for the preceding Month. Now until the Account be settled at the Treasury, there is in Fact nothing due which I can take Notice of as such. Supposing the Accounts & Vouchers to be all kept and delivered with that Accuracy and Simplicity which they ought, it is probable that they would get settled in the Course of a Week. Supposing then the greatest Dispatch which can reasonably be expected in transmitting & settling the Accts paying and remitting the Money, &ca the Contractors could not have expected any thing else than to have been two Months in Advance. And if they do not keep and transmit their Accounts and Vouchers with due Regularity they ought to have expected a Still longer Detention, especially if I were disposed to comply only with the Letter of my agreements, But tho’ I neither have done, nor will do any Thing, which could be construed into taking an undue advantage, I think myself not only justifiable, but I think and will contend, that it is my duty to take Care, that there be always such an arrearage, as will make the Public perfectly Safe. I do not examine Accounts, and therefore if I would take the meer assertion of any Man, or Set of Men, the Consequences might be most pernicious. With Respect to the Contractors for the Moving Army whose account is contained in the Enclosure number two, I confess that I was deficient, one Hundred Dollars, in the Payments for April & May, but when it is recollected, that the Advances stipulated for were under the Ideas then entertained, that the whole Army would take the Field on the first day of may, and expend (at the rate of only eighteen Thousand Rations per Day) sixty Thousand Dollars Monthly, and when it is further recollected, that nothing like this has happened, it will then appear, that I have more than complied with what they had any Right to expect, and that if they had prepared as they ought to have done, Funds equal to the Supply of between two and three Months Pay, nay, if they had prepared Funds equal to the expected Supply of only one Month, they have never yet been in a Situation when the Deficiences of the Public (had the Public been defective) could have injured the Army. And now Sir, if you examine the Account number two, you will see, that they have received quite as much, as they had any Right to expect previous to a Settlement of their Accounts, And indeed you will see by the enclosed note from Mr Swanwick, that they have received even more than is Stated in that account. But as these Various contractors have as I am informed lately joined Stocks & Contracts, I have made a Short State in the Paper Number three, of the Issues according to their Accounts, and of the Payments made from which it will appear, that there are not four thousand Dollars due for the Month of June and that if a Credit is given for Provisions, purchased of the State of Connecticut, the Public are at least four thousand Dollars in Advance. They say that there are forty thousand Dollars due for the Issues in July, but the Accounts are not yet even presented, notwithstanding which, I shall pay them a considerable Sum this Week.

I should not however do Justice, were I not to Observe that the Contractors for West Point have made considerable Advances for the Purpose of Cloathing the Officers, which Cloathing they were paid for in Notes of the Pay Master General due on the first of August—I owe them yet on those Notes between nineteen and twenty thousand Dollars—If I had asked Indulgence in the Situation to which the Demand for those Notes, and the Delays of the States had reduced me, I might, I think, have expected it, but I have asked none, & I am thoroughly perswaded, that the Contractors were intimidated by the Apprehension, that those Notes would break me, and thereby prevented from applying as they ought to have done, their own Money and Credit—I do myself the Honor to enclose Sir, the Copy of a Letter to me from the Comptroller, to which I will pray that your Excellency will enable me to make the proper Answer. With sincere Friendship & Esteem I am my Dear Sir Your most obedient & humble Servant