In Council Chamber 8^th [undecipherable] 179[undecipherable] Annapolis Dear Sir [undecipherable] 2 At the time the Militia was [undecipherable: probable reading preparing] to march against the Insurgents to the westward an application was made to the Executive of this State by the Secretaries at [undecipherable: probable reading War] to supply a considerable portion of them with Arms from [undecipherable] and [undecipherable] Stores. [undecipherable: probable reading Altho] no legal [undecipherable: probable reading authority] vested in them [undecipherable] Governor & Council to comply with this request, yet from the importance & [undecipherable: probable reading urgency] of the occasion they readily [undecipherable] it. Various applications have since been a made to procure a return or payment. I myself while a Senator and Other agents [undecipherable: probable reading expressly] sent by the [undecipherable] State at our [undecipherable: probable reading expense] have repeatedly applied and have always [been] [undecipherable] from some alleged [undecipherable] in the Evidence, [undecipherable]. An intercourse of this importance, between authorities so high & respectable as the [undecipherable] of the General & a State Government, and on an occasion so important & critical, ought not to be adjusted by the close & legal rules for settling the ordinary [undecipherable] [undecipherable] of the Treasury Department. This was a military transaction between the Commander in Chief of the U.S. & the Executive [undecipherable: probable reading Authority] of the State of Maryland, and as soon as the occasion which [undecipherable: probable reading required] the [undecipherable] of the arms [undecipherable] they ought to be an order from the President [to] to have been returned, [undecipherable: probable reading cancelling] the engagement. On the 29^th May 1799. The then [undecipherable] Governor of Maryland made a new representation to the Secretary at [undecipherable: probable reading War] and inclosed the return of the arms that had been delivered by M^r [undecipherable: probable reading Engels] the [undecipherable] at [undecipherable] Town to which was added an account on which the claim of the State of Maryland was founded [against the?] [undecipherable] Government. Copies of the letters of the Secretary at [undecipherable: probable reading War] are now transmitted, by which it will appear that the arms were supplied at the request of the [undecipherable: probable reading Federal] Government, under an assurance that they would be [undecipherable: probable reading fully] [undecipherable] replaced. In the letter of the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] it [undecipherable: probable reading also clearly] appears that the President highly approved of the [undecipherable: probable reading measure] and in the one of the [undecipherable] 1794 [undecipherable] [undecipherable: probable reading pledges] the [undecipherable: probable reading faith] of the [undecipherable: probable reading Executive] of [the?] [U.S.?] for the return of [the?] [arms?]. I now [undecipherable] [undecipherable: probable reading particular] [undecipherable] referring to the letters, that as little trouble as possible may be given to the President. As a [undecipherable: probable reading crisis] seems to be [undecipherable: probable reading hastening] fast upon [undecipherable] [undecipherable] these arms may be [undecipherable: probable reading indespensibly] necessary for the [undecipherable: probable reading protection] & [undecipherable: probable reading safety] of the State; I have thought it [undecipherable] with the advice & Council to renew the application and, as those which have hitherto been made to the subordinate departments have all [undecipherable: probable reading proved] [undecipherable] to [undecipherable] this directly to the President of the United States, under an impression that he will not suffer the [undecipherable] rules of the [undecipherable] departments to become the instrument of violating the [undecipherable: probable reading faith] of the [undecipherable: probable reading Nation]. If there [undecipherable] [undecipherable] doubt of the fact the [undecipherable] & delays in the departments might [undecipherable] [undecipherable: probable reading respectfully] & [undecipherable: probable reading probably] accounted for — but there is not. The papers now in the War office [undecipherable] [undecipherable: probable reading particularly] the [undecipherable] of the letters now [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to [undecipherable: probable reading establish] [undecipherable] and are [undecipherable] to be [undecipherable] here[undecipherable]. It would give much satisfaction to hear that the President had taken [undecipherable] to have this [undecipherable: probable reading matter] adjusted. My [undecipherable: probable reading official] duty having [undecipherable: probable reading laid] me to this correspondence I can not suffer the occasion to pass without [undecipherable: probable reading acknowledging] the entire satisfaction which I & I believe all [undecipherable] feel in the [undecipherable: probable reading measures] of [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] for adjusting our differences with the French Republic. They are so marked with wisdom [undecipherable] & justice that they ought to have [undecipherable: probable reading redounded] to the honor of [undecipherable] Nations. I hope I am [undecipherable] to believe that when the [undecipherable: probable reading Instructions] & the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] be fairly and