Treasury Department Comptrollers Office 28^th January 1795. Sir, I acknowledge the receipt of your Letter, dated the 21^st instant. — It has been the uniform rule of the Treasury, to consider all [underline: unliquidated] claims upon the United States, except such as were presented to the proper Office by the [underline: claimants or their Agents], within the periods prescribed by Law, as barred and precluded from Settlement; and lately, all [underline: liquidated claims] have been considered as barred, except such [strikethrough: as are] enumerated in the first proviso of the first section of the act of February 12^th 1793, if such claims were not presented to the Auditor of the Treasury, before the 1^st day of May 1794. — This construction, which I have no doubt, is conformable to Law, affords a plain practical rule for your government in all cases. — All [underline: unliquidated claims] are barred, except such as were presented to M^r Pierce, the late Commissioner of Army accounts, on or before the 1^st day of August 1786, and such as were presented to you under the act of March 27^th 1792, for personal services in the late Army or Navy. — The Report, which you lately made to the Treasury of the unliquidated claims, which had been received, and which remained to be adjusted, will, I presume govern you in all subsequent adjustments But in respect to liquidated claims, or in other words, those which have not been [underline: usually] considered as affected by former acts of limitation, it is clear, that no allowance or payment can now be made, if such claims are founded on considerations antecedent to the 4^th of March 1789, and have not been presented to the Auditor of the Treasury, pursuant to the act of February 26^th 1793. — I am, very respectfully Sir, Your Obed^t Servant [undecipherable: Ol. Wolcott?] [Joseph Howell Esq^r —] [Comptrollers Office] [Jan^y 28, 1795 from the Comptroller directing Claimants barred by Limitation acts]