State credit for it in my general Certificate for the advances and also a stating of the Species, which would be the same to other Officers to whom the State made no advances, has not the same been included in their Settlement with me, and had they not received the same in Certificates. I enclose also a stating of the Settlement made with the line, shewing the advances in made by the State at different periods, and some Observations thereon which will give you some Idea of the difficulty which you wished to have explained in their Accounts and also a Copy of my report to Congress on the Subject Sam [signature] Honorable M Few Sir Office of Army Accounts Oct 3^d 1786 In Consequence of Col. Irvine's letter which you did me the Honor to hand to me a few days since, I have Attended to his Accounts and I find those in 1777 have some Objections which may be proper to have removed previous to their being passed, the State of which are as follows The Hands Charged with the sum of 11,500 Dollars received in that year he produces receipts for 14,368.90 paid, for that year, the allowances for recruiting of his Regt are as follows and made on a fabrication taken from the whole Number of Men that served in the Regiment Bounty of 313 Men . . . . . 10,060 Pay'd of P^r to the Officers . . . . . 624 Some incidental expenses in w^ch were probably Amount to the Balance . . . 536 11,500 now Col. Irvine has exhibited his Accounts since the Settlement with the Line and demands the sum of 2,968.60 dollars a balance of advances made by him to his recruiting Officers, which sum is not only beyond what the Public advanced him, but above the probable recruiting expenses of the Regiment and therefore unless the same can be recovered must be a loss either to him or the United States in support of his claim for this balance he says that he instructed this as early as was the duty of the Commanding Officers of a Regiment, to his Officers for the Public Service, and for whose Conduct he cannot be answerable, as they were not of his appointment, but the full force of this reasoning be granted and that he was perfectly justifiable in making these advances in the first instances was it not his duty to give some of the Public Officers a knowledge of these advances to enable them to make the Stoppages was not his duty to pay such Attention to the expenditures for the recruiting Service as to prevent to Consider able a loss on the recruiting Account of his Regiment the Officer to whom he paid the money may be Considered as under several Views, such as died in the Service such as resigned and such as had depreciation due to them or Continued to the end of the War: the may say in respect to the Just that he had no Opportunity to Call them to Account which reasoning undoubtedly Ought to have weight, but did we know the sums they had received and the Number of Men enlisted by them, it appears no more than reasonable that he should have secured the balance to the Public before their decease, or from the Pay that was due them at their deaths or that he should make it appear it was not in his power, in respect to such as [strikethrough: edit] assigned the Commander in Chief directed that no Officers should be permitted to assign, unless he brought a Certificate from the Commanding Officer of his Regiment that he had settled his recruiting Accounts and therefore a resignation could not take place without his having had an Opportunity to Obtain repayment of his advances, and those Officers who Continued to the time of depreciation or to the end of the War, would have been Obliged to Account in their Settlement With the state or with me, had the Col. not neglected to make known that he had any advances against them, I should have been more satisfied in respect to such Uses for Payments made to Officers who probably might have left the Service without his Knowledge (had this was seldom the Case in other Regiments whose Commanders were more Attentive to their own and the Public Interest) had he not suffered every Officer which might have been embraced by the Public to secure the money to escape him, and now declines giving himself any trouble to Oblige such Officers