[undecipherable] The Secretary of War takes the liberty to suggest the following remarks. That to enable him to prepare the general estimate as well as all the [undecipherable] ones, for the Naval Armament he requested from the persons employed in the construction of the Frigates, statements of the Articles and Prices and for [undecipherable] agency to complete them. It is upon these Statements the Estimates have been formed, but he will not pretend to say that the en [undecipherable] for detailed is more correct than very heretofore presented. That the estimate shews a desire to provide against a probable deficiency, in the Appropriations of 1797 for the Quarter Masters departm^t, and on Departm^t defrays the [undecipherable] of the [undecipherable] Counties and the Contingent expences of the War department, There was 13,466 Dollars only in the Treasury of the United States on the 4^th of January 1798 to meet all its demands, there have yet to appear, for expenditure, [and] many [undecipherable] thirteen places on 1797 the amount of which, as that tense, to be ascertained, it thereon becomes expedient to well for Further Appro = priations. James M^cHenry Secretary of War War Office, 29^th January 1798