[Daniel Strong received N^o 23^d April Ans^r 3 1796] Dist. I. Contractors Agents Office, Chelsea, April [undecipherable], 1796 Sir Yours of the 18^th Ult together with the draft alluded to came in Course, for which I have En closed my Receipts therefor. You will [undecipherable] me largely in our Statements of Commissary due me as Agent for Stores received from the War Department, there [undecipherable] the letter is of collecting my Allowances. I am Guided on my Books which I feel [undecipherable] to be just, and by which I am disposed to be governed. From the Representations I had made and from the complexion of your letter of the 18^th of Sep^t last I was in hopes that my propositions of having my account and [undecipherable] for Commission up to the 30 September last settled at the Secretary [undecipherable] have been acceded to, and that I had no longer any right to expect, as the charging the Net balance due me from the War department to my [undecipherable] Accounts and done under existing Instructions at the time, and to appear as a Remittance. Sir your mode of settling the business places me in an awkward Situation [undecipherable] I am obliged to enclose two Receipts for the Draft now transmitted. One for [undecipherable] Dollars Twenty five Cents to [undecipherable] in will be Commissary for the Quarter Ending 31 Dec^r last as p^r Account transmitted, and another for [undecipherable] of half Three and Two Cents [undecipherable] the balance of the Draft on Account of my Commission for you will see by the [undecipherable] Account that it will not [undecipherable] be added to the Net balance [undecipherable] of my Commissary Account transmitted to the [undecipherable] which I am [undecipherable] obliged to credit the United States with in my Books, as they have been before charged with the Net balance due me as Agent for the War department in my [undecipherable] Securities and [undecipherable]. All this trouble and difficulty might have been spared me, by a compliance with my [undecipherable] [undecipherable] above mentioned, and it is painful to me to discover such an unaccommodating disposition after the Representations I had made. I hope the mode I have now accepted will prove satisfactory, as I had no other way of doing it, without bringing confusion into my accounts, which I am anxious to avoid. — I am Sir Your Most Obed^t Serv^t Daniel Strong C M D W^m Simmons Esq^r Accountant War Department —