[undecipherable] [Comptrollers Office] [William Simmons Esquire Acct of the War Dept] [Treasury Department Comptrollers Office [undecipherable] filed [undecipherable] 19^th] Treasury Department Comptrollers Office 18^th December 1797. — Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 12^th instant. — Before I proceed to state to you my ideas on the subject to [strikethrough: which it refers,] I must be permitted to premise generally, that according to the lights which I possess, those descriptions of Accounts in the Naval Department specified in my predecessors letter to you of the 24 of December 1795, although not made the duty of the Accountant of the War Department by law, to adjust, are nevertheless of a nature which evidently places [strikethrough: them within the spirit and intention of the Act] certaining his duties; and indeed it is manifest, that an opposite course would not fail to produce embarrassments in their liquidation, and might operate inconveniently to the Public service. — On these principles and under such impressions, it doubtless was, that the instructions contained in that letter were communicated. — Taking it to be a proper conclusion, that the accounts for the pay of the Seamen and Marines or generally for the pay of the Crews of the Frigates are to be examined by you in the first instance, and