[Caleb Gibbs Esq^r] Sir, W. D. April 17^th 1798. — I have rec^d your letter of the 8^th with your account for a quarters pay, includ commencing the 1^st of January last. This letter contained the first information of your accepting the appointment of Clerk of the Navy yard at Boston; &tho the general rule to make the date of the acceptance the time for commencing the pay. But in your case if you omitted declaring your acceptance till after you entered on the duties of your Office, then your pay may begin with the commencement of your Services.— I observe that you have calculated your pay at 70 dollars a month; the fixed pay is 62½ or 750 dollars a year. This cannot be exceeded. I must therefore wait for your answer before your pay can be remitted. Two points you se remain to be determined. first the day on which your pay ought to commence. the 2^d one whether your acceptance is under the idea of acquiescing in the Sum allowed to every other person in the same Station. 750 dollars a year. — The usual, I may say the universal mode of paying Public Officers in civil departments, is at the end of each quarter of a year. It may not be convenient to make the single exception in your case.— The building of the Frigate being a Temporary employment, I wish it may not prove permanently detrimental that you have thrown aside your private business. Whether an attention to the latter would have been compatible with the former I cannot have but it merited consideration when the question of accepting or declining the appointment was before you. I mention this because I must tell you candidly that representations of hardships or of sacrifices by engaging in this species of public Service cannot be admitted as grounds on which to claim higher compensation than others receive for the same Service.—