[War Department / 31 Decemb: 1798 / The [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] / on M. M^cKees / Claim for Expences —] [196] William Simmons Esq. Accountant of the War Department War Department 31^st Decem.^r 1798 Sir I have considered your report of the 29^th instant, made in pursuance of my Note of the 28^th instant. I now think it proper to observe that Mr. M^cKee was employed, and sent upon a special con[fidential] [undecipherable: several words obscured by paper damage], which he executed faithfully, and satisfactorily, that the due performance of the business, entrusted to him, required he should keep up a correspondence with the Secretary of War, and when necessary, employ special Messengers to convey his letters to Post Towns, within the United States, that it was often indispensible, he should remain for considerable periods, at places, where he could not avoid much expe[nse] and ran personal risques, that a part of his services cou[ld] not have been performed, unless he had hired, or purchased horses, and that as all the aforesaid causes of expences had been foreseen, he was assured they would be defrayed. — That it was certainly not the intention of the President, by whose orders he was sent on the mission, that any part of the expences attending its execution, should fall upon M^r. McKee — on the contrary, he intended, that every expen[se] necessarily attending its due and faithful execution, should be paid by the Department of War. That as I have no reason to question the probity, or honour of Mr. McKee, if he will establish by his oa[th] the charges he has exhibited, as being the necessary and unavoidable expences, incurred in the execution of his trust, which was entirely of a military nature, included in the appropriation for the incidental expences of this Department, and exclusively connected with the due execution of the duties of the Secretary of War — his oath should be admitted to substantiate the charges in his account, and he accordingly be credited for the amount. That it may be proper to take his obligation, to re-imburse the value of the two horses, he states to have been left at Mobile, when he was arrested by order of the Governor of Louisiana, and transferred to New Orleans, in case they should be recovered, or he be paid for them by the Spanish Government; and that he ought to [be] paid the original cost of the horse that died. This detail is given to relieve you from any possible responsibility, on the score of admitting the charges exhibited in Mr. McKees account. I am Sir your obed.^t Servant James McHenry William Simmons Esq. Accountant War Department.