Pay Office New York, January 24, 1785. Gentlemen A Remonstrance Colo [Blodgett?] is entering the accounts of the Army, has received charges against many persons to whom money has been paid, either for pay, [subsistence], bounties, [on some] account — and I find in the course of my settle- ments brought as many of the Officers to account on those principles as lay in my power, and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] their accounts must stand in the Books of this Office — but I have yet remaining numerous accounts [undecipherable] that cannot [be] settled, unless [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] I give you this [idea] of my office [undecipherable] — on which [undecipherable] suggest [my] opinions on which, according to the nature of the several accounts, I take the liberty to submit to your honor- able Board, [that every] [remedy &] direction, and indeed proceed on the most expeditious and regular plan in the closing of so [intricate] a business — [undecipherable] accounts [undecipherable] books arose from [undecipherable] found [undecipherable] the accounts were added at [that] time, I presume [most] by [balancing] [abetting] the [unpaid] accounts to which such accounts belong — or [the] [persons] [to] that it is necessary to make a [person] [produce] vouchers twice [—] [this] [does] [never] or to be [delivered] by them and [stand] the [witnesses] at the time, must be now within [undecipherable] can be [produced] [The] Advances which were [paid] on [orders] for monies received on account, [to] be [now] paid to others, or for recruiting, & which are [entered], I propose to [work] out by States, [&] some general account [of the] States, that of the [owners], [may] if it is found [expedient], be [furnished] to the [executive] [officers] [to direct] [or appointed] for the purpose for the proper persons [that] returns may be brought for the [bringing] of the money [& it] appears [& arranging] [their accounts] only longer [open] in the United States Office, where [unless] this [entitled] [has] [been] or [being] attended with no [sufficient] — a [necessary] part of [these] accounts are likewise charges against [Militia] Officers and the [Militia] in the Army, who received their [payments] & [pay] [prior] to the [appointment] [general] & [reorganizing] in 1778, [1780] and the beginning of [1783] — [these] persons being now out of service from the [loss] of [receiving] the money and scattered throughout the States, [if] [alone], will [but] [few] of them [being any] to [be] brought to account — they [attended the money] or [replenish] vouchers under [direction] of the Army [of] the standing [persons] [enough] in the nature of the duty of the Board and to account, especially to the [object] of the Board and to [those] who are no other [spot] to [possess] the money — as they [Officers] had another duty of [convenience] to [perform] this [and] [only] from [necessity] [omitted] in the situation which they found themselves [—] many [every] [preparation] for their accounts as an [incident] of [being] [at the] State or [requiring] claims to account with the [parties], and as they [had] taken up the [false] from foreign service, that they [had] been in the great concern [producing] [sufficient] vouchers to satisfy the * I beg leave also to suggest, that the [act] of Congress of Nov. 3^d 1783, having directed [meetings] [at] lower [cost] to the regimental agents [their] certificates, for the monies due to the army, that I did [take] the agents & notify in the following words [viz.] "Ro of [J.P.] — certificates amounting to — [numbered] from — to — : all which certificates I do hereby promise to deliver to the individuals to whom they respectively belong, or "[deposit] them for their [benefit] at the [expiration] [& stated] of the 1783 [copies] of which receipts or obligations I have been [entitled] to the respective [executives], [unless] [—] [that] the States have only [called] on the agents to deliver up their remain- ing certificates, without obliging them to account [&] [see] [that] they [had given] [taken] [proper] vouchers from the individuals [that] when they [had] delivered them over, we [but] [proceedings] the agents at liberty to [retire] the certificates [established], & has originated either from a [resolution] of [mention] & it this [resolution] and of [the] one of May [4] 1785, so it [ought] not to be the duty of [some] [Officer] to call [their] agents to account, for which reason, I [beg to] request the attention of [Congress] to this [subject], [that] the duty of the States or the Officers [of Congress] may be [clearly] [—] after [this] — and I beg leave [also] to suggest the [propriety of] [public], that the money was due, they were in the several cases only accountable to the [men] [—] [at] payment as they [had] generally never taken any vouchers [&] [also] in many instances they were [taken] from, lost or [miss-]laid them from the incidents of the service — and as but a small part [amount] of the money [and] probably "remains in the [books of] [these] [Officers], [I] [suppose] [persons] that [calling] [them] [taking] for their [—] to call [their offices] to account will be attended with more expense to the United States than any advantage that may probably arise and therefore [believe] submit to the consideration of the Board, the propriety of [balancing] [their accounts], [by] [charging] [the same] to the [grant of] the [real amount] of the pay of the Army; [—] to [—] [just rule] of the settlement [made] by the [States] — [—] [would] [&] make it [necessary] that I [produce] [an] account of the [charges] which [ought] to be [made] on the [part] of the United States for the [payments] [required] in the old [conditions] — but the States [having] taken no [preparatory] [step] for the [proposed] [—] them [having] [along] the [disbursements] [occurred], & I [suppose] [—] only [estimated] to the [continents] of the [balances] they have [actually] paid for [depreciation]. [undecipherable] [I presume] that [any] [to the commissions] as a [basis] [tried balance in] accounts now rendered will be of little [service], and that the accounts as they have been kept by the States, cannot without [great] labor [to be] [stated] in the [manner] [—] I have mentioned — I [take for] [undecipherable] [—] [and will] [be] [worked] [properly] [—] [—], [to] beg leave to submit the same [to the] [consideration] of the Board [—] [—] that I may [take immediate steps] [thoroughly] [take] as early measures as possible to [remove] liability. [Board of Treasury]