[268] Gentlemen New York Sep 3^d 1787. I feel the most Sensible Pain from the perusal of the Letter from your Honorable Board of the 22^d ulto which missing me in Virginia did not come to hand untill Yesterday, and I presume that when the information which I now do myself the honor to Communicate is considered, that I shall be deemed as rather meriting approbation for the Steps I have taken to secure the money referred to in that Letter than as incurring any displeasure for misconduct in it, and I hope I shall not be found liable in consequence of my duty or Interest as Paymaster General to take any further Steps to recover it. I am willing however to pursue every measure and undergo any difficulties which the board Shall be pleased to direct in any other view of my duty. I beg Leave therefore in the first place to excuse myself for not assisting the Man who is it Surmized was selling this money at Richmond: Because a Considerable time ago the Loan Office there informed me it would be prejudicial to the Interest of the United States to make any Noise respecting the Paper Money, and who therefore at my Solicitation wrote to your Honorable Board [299] Board requesting to know if it was your Wish to assist any one on whom the least Suspicions fell or not: but as no Answer having been received we were left at a loss how to Act in Cases where the report of an [undecipherable] for this purpose fonded on mere Conjecture, would be more disadvantageous than the Public could be benefited by it in this Situation I found the Man who sold this money, who gave me one satisfa[ctory] and Landed an Account of his Coming at it, that I was Convinced that tho' it was most probably the Public's yet that he might have come honestly by it. M^r Hopkins however as he was the only Confidential Officer of Congress there, I consulted who was of Opinion as well as myself, that no benefit would arise by taking him up by the Authority of the State as there was no Evidence what ever against him that would him to bail, and as the inconveniences already hinted it as ought not to be sustained without the Approbation of the Board, unless it was with more probability from success with Success in detecting the fraud. I considered M^r Alexander or Refuse in disposing of the Money as guilty only of a breach of trust and not as Criminal in the Legal Sense of the Word, that the money which the Purchaser received, was as much money as the Acts of Congress the Legislature can make it and that therefore he could not be considered as receiving Stolen Goods, but as Actually in Possession of paper money that was not, identified as any more than [300] than gold or Silver he would not therefore I suppose in Law be Obliged to be Answerable for it to the Public in any way, unless it appeared that he had Stole it from Refuse of which there was not even a Suspicion. impressed therefore with the certainty that there was no prospect from or propriety in Apprehending this Man, I wrote to the Loan Offices at Charleston by different Conveyances took the Liberty to Address the Board, requesting that the Loan Offices at Carolina & Georgia might be also instructed to take immediate measures for securing those persons on whom a legal hold might have been taken, but I did not write to the Board for orders on this Particular Occasion, as I was in a Situation in which I could have seen to their execution. In the next place I take the liberty to State that I do not consider myself as bound by any Precedents or Resolutions of Congress or Conduct of mine, to be Answerable for this money to the Public, for which Purpose I shall endeavor to prove, that the Deputy Paymasters Acting prior to Aprile 8, 1782, are responsible only to the Public Affairs for their Conduct, and in no way to me, because 1^st That when the Accounts of my immediate predecessor in Office were closed, he was not Considered as anyway accountable for the Monies he placed in the hands of the Deputies but received his formal discharge for the same without resorting to the States [305] State of their Accounts which being deemed reasonable in his Case, must also be so in mine, on which principle ended my Accounts have long since been Closed. 2^d That they were Appointed by Congress & removable only by that Body, and it is reasonable that the responsibility should rest where the Appointment was made and depend and was Placed. 3^d They were Accountable to the Comptroller of the Treasury, under the Act of Sep 11, 1781 whose duty it was then made expressly to see to the Punctual return of the Public monies and who has always Considered it as his immediate business to call on the Deputy Paymasters to Account, if therefore it was this it cannot be considered as my Duty unless an express resolution of Congress had directed it in Consideration of the Particular Circumstances in which this Money has been involved. I presume also it will be found that I have exerted my duty which could not possibly incumbent on me in Consequence of my Office, for in the first Place this Money was Committed to me my hands by Congress for the express Purpose of forwarding to the different departments, I therefore did my duty & disavow the Obligation as far as it rested on me, by Acting agreeably to their Directions, 2^d that my Consigny is to Joseph Clay as the only Step I could take, as he was the only Confidential Officer, whom the public had appointed as the proper person to receive it. 3^d that its being Committed into the hands of the Quarter Master of the Army instead of M^r Clay [312] M^r Clay's was done by no Ask or Knowledge of mine, but by the direction of the General commanding in the Department, and was known soon after by M^r Clay, as well as that it was for his use; his neglect to give it for the benefit of the Public was not a fault of mine, but his to whom it was directed. 4^th That the Tenor of the receipt made M^r Alexander be Accountable to M^r Clay on his order and not to me & therefore it may be doubted whether it even was in my power by Virtue of my Office to have got the money out of his hands had I surmised that M^r Clay had not received it. 5^th That in the Month of January 1782 I lodged all my Accounts which are with the Comptroller of the Treasury, in August following were finally examined and passed thro' the different Offices, and the Amount of the Money in M^r Alexander's hands Carried to my Credit as must Appear by the Register Certificate here with, as this Settlement was made. I flatter myself at a more early period than almost any other Public Accountant, as it exhibited to the Comptroller a full information of the monies which the Deputies were Accountable for, as it was his duty and not mine, to Call them to Account, and as I am by this finally discharged from the Treasury Books, I presume this Good Sense & Justice of the Board, will Acquiesce in my Opinion, that I am altogether excused in Point of Interest from being any further Accountable for these Payments. [303] 6^th That not long After the Close of those Accounts, I was appointed to an Extra duty at Camp, which however I took up my [undecipherable] attention from that time until the principal Army Settlements were Concluded, on my return from Georgia in June 1785, of therefore my inclination and regard for the Public &, having Occasioned me to watch over such Public Accounts as might have been Expected to have had Public Monies in their hands, when my mind was not altogether employed in my Office. Yet during this Period, I have an expectation that I shall be excused for attending solely to my own duty & neglecting in some measure that of others. 7^th That when I was in Georgia I called on M^r Clay, and received his Accounts to present to the Comptroller, for Settlement and then was I first informed of the large sum he had neglected to draw from Stiff in M^r Alexander's hands; my immediate information to the board and the different steps taken since that time, there is no necessity for enumerating. It is sufficient to say that I believe the Board has received no information of this money, but from me, and that at this time your Board would have been otherwise altogether ignorant of it. I do not however wish to have it understood that I claim any merit for this Conduct, it is my inclination only to discharge my duty to the public, my gratitude to that Public for what I am and my expectation for future Support are Sufficient inducements to cause in me the most Ardent Attention to