[316] gave of the [undecipherable] upon the form correspondent on the [undecipherable] of the — [undecipherable] Members of [undecipherable] it has Covered by the Claim cannot be [Refer'd] to your [undecipherable] enable Settlement of [undecipherable] Accounts, take Place and the form [undecipherable] by him — In case I [undecipherable] of your having Closed your Accounts as Paymaster in my Office — I am Sir Your Ob'd Serv't [signature] Cap^t. Moses White New York Sep^tr 27 1787 Gentlemen Congress having decided the final examination and adjustment of such part of the General Accounts as [undecipherable] the pay, depreciation, and the [undecipherable] of the Army to be submitted to my Office, I take the liberty to represent to your Honorable [undecipherable] that this examination cannot be done with any [Precision] or certainty without a [recourse] being had in every Individual Payment to the Original Muster of the Army, which process must require a great expence of time as well as be Attended with a considerable degree of Confusion by overturning the many Musters of the Army which have — Generally been taken Monthly and the Men by [undecipherable] — arrangements and Transfers from one Company and [undecipherable] to another very often being [undecipherable] to remedy this Inconvenience, through the [undecipherable] I am led to propose that I be permitted to form an Alphabetical — [undecipherable] each Officer and private of every Reg^t or Line that has been in Service from the [undecipherable] of such Officer or Soldier entering the Regiment to the time of his discharge, which shall also show the different Casualties and events that have taken Place in [undecipherable] to him as Notes on the Muster, the [undecipherable] that will not from such an History or Record of the Army [undecipherable] every Considerable [undecipherable] by it no Man can be esti[mated] — this altogether [undecipherable] any assurance by which to have [undecipherable] his pay [undecipherable] and from which [undecipherable] General System of [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] an Unequivocal [undecipherable] to Innumerable [undecipherable] and Figures) the aggregate sum that each State had a right to pay and which perhaps it would be [equal] and just for the Union to [undecipherable]. Besides which advantages I believe no other certain Standard can be fallen on, by which the Officers and Soldiers that are Entitled to Land can be Known, and their Claims clearly distinguished from [undecipherable]. These advantages appear to me so obvious that I should not have [undecipherable] the Board on this occasion were it not [Necessary] that I should employ a Suitable Number of Clerks Immediately for the purpose, that the Alphabetical History of the Lines may be ready in Season for the accounts of [undecipherable] States, and be a [undecipherable] Compilation Assisted by