New York May 19^th 1788 2 Sir, Your letter of the 4^th of April last with Capt Laughrys receipt was handed to me by General Irvine — The two accounts exhibited by you on account of the late Lieut. Archibald Campbell differ so materially in the number of men inlisted I do not think myself justifiable in allowing the charges exhibited without more satisfactory vouchers. The first account which appears in the hand writing of M^r Campbell particularly specifies "for recruiting from the 15^th [undecipherable] to the 4^th of July 1777" and only contains fourteen men. This account I am led to believe to be an original for the following reasons (viz) 1^st. The hand writing appears to be the same with the note made by Lieut Campbell for money received of Capt. McLaughry and which you inform me is the hand writing of your brother — 2^d. The subsistence for recruiting is for the same time as in the last. 3^d. The money received by M^r Campbell of Capt. McLaughry will nearly cover the bounty of those men and their subsistence, which induces me to suppose 4 That if Lieut Campbell had inlisted 34 men as is contained in the second account that he would have retained the whole of the 200 dollars received by him as that sum would not have been more than sufficient to cover the bounty & subsistence of those men & his own subsistence while recruiting, therefore a query arises why M^r Campbell would suffer himself to become a creditor to the United States by paying into the hands of Capt McLaughry 500 Dollars of the 200 received by him