[undecipherable] [undecipherable] 1[undecipherable] To [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: regulations] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: regulations] [undecipherable] 1798 [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Department 7 [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Sir The extra allowance to officers detached on service so as to be obliged to incur [undecipherable] on the road, and at places where there are [undecipherable] [undecipherable] occasions for [undecipherable] references to [undecipherable] [undecipherable], which interferes much, and will [undecipherable] with the want of augmenting the army of the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] with the most important business of [undecipherable] Department. The officers claiming such allowances are of two descriptions. 1^st Those [undecipherable] receive extra compensations for peculiar duties, as inspectors, [undecipherable: Recruiting] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Paymasters &c. and 2^d those who do not. [undecipherable] practice heretofore has been, to allow each a sum, [undecipherable: other allowances]. Those of the latter description as appears reasonable, [undecipherable: increasing] the same, if their grade entitled [undecipherable] to a [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the first description have been in many instances considered barred [undecipherable] any [undecipherable: claim] by their extra compensation, although this [undecipherable] is given on account of greater skill or [undecipherable: trouble] rather rather than [undecipherable] reference to greater expense [undecipherable] the execution of their duties, and it will be [undecipherable: observed] that the latter description of officers without extra allowances may exhaust [undecipherable] those pay on detached service so that it may be difficult to find fit characters to execute [undecipherable: employments] which must expose them to frequent journeys. The practice of allowing reasonable expenses, according to circumstances is subject to abuse and infinitely embarrassing. It is therefore submitted, That it will not be proper, conducive to the ease of the Department and to justice, to establish a fixed rate of compensation in all [undecipherable: these] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: to be pursued in future,] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: contemplated] on this subject are 1. That an Officer, detached [undecipherable] so as to be obliged to incur expenses on [undecipherable] and at places where there are no military [undecipherable] [undecipherable: shall] receive, besides his legal pay and allowance, a dollar and a quarter per [undecipherable: day] for [undecipherable: man] and horse for each day that the [undecipherable: officer] must sleep at a place not a military [undecipherable: post], and when the officer is of a rank to be entitled to a servant, then the addition of [undecipherable: three] quarter dollars [undecipherable] per day for the servant and his horse. 2. That the foregoing rule shall not apply to all places but the seat of government and the principal town in each state, at [undecipherable: those] places the allowance [to] be a dollar and a half for the officer and his horse. 3. That extraordinary cases as when greater allowances may be indispensible, be refered to the special discretion of the [undecipherable: Secretary] of war, to be [undecipherable: adjusted] by a certificate [undecipherable: from] the commanding officer, [undecipherable: to] [undecipherable: whom] the officer claiming was detached on the special service, stating the reasons and circumstances. 4. That half a dollar [undecipherable] expenses [undecipherable: to count], be allowed to [undecipherable: every] officer detached from one military [undecipherable: post] to another [undecipherable] he may reach the same night not [undecipherable: less] than [undecipherable: forty] [undecipherable: miles] distant. In [undecipherable: this] case it is contemplated [undecipherable: that the] servant can without inconvenience take his own provisions [undecipherable] 5. That the daily [undecipherable: allowance] [undecipherable: be governed] by the number of miles [undecipherable: traveled] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: distance over] Forty miles to a day [undecipherable] when distance does not [undecipherable: exceed] [undecipherable: thirty] to a day, for all above [undecipherable] [undecipherable] not exceeding 350; twenty five to a day for all above 350 and not exceeding 600, and twenty [undecipherable] for all above 600. 6. That these rates do not [undecipherable], but [undecipherable: to future] allowances [undecipherable] [undecipherable: and do not affect the intervening] [undecipherable: cases before] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: notice] of the same [undecipherable: is settled on] — [undecipherable] expenses according to circumstances — it being supposed that the [undecipherable: application] of a new rule may produce [undecipherable: hardship or] injustice when the service may have been performed in the expectation that practice on former occasions would prevail. I have the honour to be, with the most perfect respect, Sir Your most [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: James McHenry] [undecipherable: flourish/paraph] John Adams, [undecipherable: Esq] President of the United States