[Docket in upper right corner, rotated:] Compt[r]. to [undecipherable] / on [undecipherable] / June 25. 1798 / [undecipherable] / [undecipherable] / [undecipherable] Comptroller's Office William Simmons Esquire Accountant of the War Department Treasury Department Comptroller's Office June 25. 1798 Sir I have received your letter of the 23^d instant, in [strikethrough: undecipherable] — Although it is not made your duty expressly by law to review and adjust the accompts of the Officers of the Navy, it has nevertheless been considered by the Secretary of the Treasury and myself to be within the spirit and intention of the Act making "alterations in the Treasury and War Departments" and it is indispensably necessary that the business should continue in the course heretofore pursued until a different arrangement shall be matured and adopted. Whenever an alteration is adopted in relation to the manner of stating and rendering this or any other description of accompts upon the books of your office, such alteration will be seasonably communicated, through the proper and ordinary channels; but until then it is expected that upon further consideration you will not conceive yourself authorized to decline the performance of a duty which the interest of the public manifestly requires should not be delayed. — By the constitution of this Department taken in conjunction with the 9^th section of the Act establishing your office it is made the duty of the Treasury to superintend the adjustment as well as the manner of keeping and [undecipherable] all public accompts whatsoever. The power of superintending comprises in my opinion among a variety of particulars not necessary to be specified, the right of fixing for the government of those concerned (in cases of doubt) the construction of all laws which relate to the settlement of accompts. This is fairly implied in the force of the terms "to superintend" and is essential to the preservation of uniformity and system. — It is conceived that an officer executes his duty according to law when he conforms his conduct to the instructions which are given by that Officer who by law is constituted his superintendent. The power to superintend must imply a right to judge, and direct, and of course an obligation on the part of those to whom they are addressed to follow the directions which may be at any time officially given. Independent of the justice of these principles and directions I cannot perceive after a careful perusal of the Act establishing the Department of the Navy any provision which can be construed to authorize the conclusion which you have been pleased to draw from it, but even your construction of that law were liable to objection it was to have been expected that a regard to the established order of proceeding would have induced you to act, at least so far as to review the accompts when presented, and afterwards to state your doubts if any occurred to the Treasury for consideration. The interest of the public, and long settled & usage require that accompts should not be transferred (as suggested in your letter) from the books of one Department to those of another, without a more express and formal authority than is to be discovered in the act upon which your opinion is founded; Nor can it be supposed that an Officer so well acquainted with the details of business as you are, could have seriously thought that it was the intention of the Legislature to burden the Secretary of the Navy in addition to the vast weight of more important duties which devolve upon him at the present time with the duties of an accountant for that Department; and unless you suppose this to have been intended I am at a loss to perceive the law, or foundation of your objections. I am not precisely informed of the ideas entertained by that gentleman on this subject; but I am nevertheless persuaded that even if he should concur with you in opinion, which is not at all probable, he will make application to the Treasury to have the accompts on your books transferred to his Office in such way as will correspond most nearly with the forms of business and the ordinary rules of proceeding. — [strikethrough: undecipherable] I [undecipherable] proceed in the examination and adjustment of Lieutenant Mc[undecipherable]'s accompt in the same manner that you would have done if the Act establishing the department of the Navy had not been passed. It is in my opinion your duty to do so, and circumstanced as the case at present is, there can be no reasonable ground to doubt the propriety of the instruction; it proceed from an earnest desire to expedite the public business by cultivating a cordial and harmonious cooperation, and I must be permitted to observe it is essential to this that correct opinions should be mutually entertained. — I am, Sir, very respectfully Your Ob^t Serv^t. [signature] Comp^tr. William Simmons Esquire.