Office of Army Accounts New York Jan^y 16. 1790 Sir a Reference to the Letter of the late Commiss^r of Army Accounts, I find that on the 27^th Decem^r 1786, he wrote to you in respect to a Claim then made by you for a Years [undecipherable: Compensation] pay as a Supernum^y officer. This Claim has since been presented anew by the Honble M^r Goodhue on your behalf, & agreably to his Request I have examined into the Merits of it, the result of this examination is, that the Years pay had been drawn from the Military Chest as by Receipts from the then Paymaster, and on Settlement of his Account with the Auditor for the Eastern Department delivered by him on the 26^th August 1779 — it is not for me to decide [strikethrough: on] the established Rules & Customs of the [strikethrough: Settlement of] Army Account & therefore I am compelled however [strikethrough: disagreeable to] my feelings, to inform you that the States do not suffer the loss of the depreciation of the Money while in the Hands of the Paymaster, consequently the Premiss left by M^r Peirce subject [strikethrough: except] to a halt in a [undecipherable: Specie] dollar, at the time it was [undecipherable: returned] Your Claim for Cash advanced, disbursed & expended for y^r Troopers on their March to Ticonderoga &^c not being supported by Vouchers or any evidence, for what [undecipherable: purposes] a demand cannot be admitted [strikethrough: held] without a Special Act of Congress.