Department of War Feby 7th 1793 Your letter of January 22 was received The pay of the deputies and Assistants or Clerks in your Department should be fixed; tho’ I feel a difficulty in doing it here. The like auxiliaries much have bene necessary to the Contractors who assured as well as purchased provisions; and as private undertakers commonly get their busness done more economically than the public; I should suppose it very safe to allow the issuing Commissary & Clerks pay equal to what they have received from the late Contractors. The deputy at Pittsburg Major Craig, I now see was designated for that busness by General Knox on the 22 of last December and in the letter Genl Knox said this additional pay would be fixed in his next but this does not appear to have been done, I shall speak to the Genl on the subject & [undecipherable] Major Craig by the next Post Your Deputy at Fort Washington should be a respectable Character for Capacity & Integrity, as the principal supplies of the army will pass thro’ his hands. For what compensation suitable persons may be engaged you will be able to Judge on the Spot, where the value of money & Services may be much more duty estimated than they can be here; and having a confidence that in every thing you will consult the best interest of the United States, I chearfully rest the allowance which shall be made to you, where the military service will admit of your having Subalterns & non commissioned officers for assistants, I think they should be preferred, as well on principles of economy, as of benefit to the individuals so employed but no ideas of economy should lead to such a preference, unless the care & Integrity of the Military Characters can be related on . You will favor me as early as possible with the names and Characters of the persons you employ You and your deputies are to receive whisky of this Gentlemen whom the Treasury Department have employed procure that article I am Sir Your no Ob Servant Timothy Pickering Secy of War Major A Kirkpatrick PS Your letter of the 30 January is just received it will be answered by the next past, the mail of this day is on the point of starting