[Cover endorsement: Extract of a letter from The Comptroller of The Treasury to the Acct directing him to Claimants to be [undecipherable] adjournment [undecipherable] of 1799] [Numerical notations on cover: 31. 30 12 / [undecipherable] / 5 III- 4 / [undecipherable]] Extract of a letter from the Comptroller of the Treasury to the Acct of the War Department dated 30 January 1799. I have received your letter of the 25^th instant and considered its contents. The debt due from Jacob Hoops late a Captain in the Service of the United States is only one I suppose among many others for the recovery [undecipherable] compulsory process will be necessary. It is expected of you, to urge all persons accountable for Monies on the books of your office to a punctual expedition of their accounts but when entitled to give them a Speedy examination; to take Security when offered by the persons accountable, or when directed to require it, and if balances are with held by officers subject to the articles of War it will be your duty to represent such conduct to the head of your Department, and request his cooperation; but you cannot institute Suit without first obtaining special direction of the Comptroller of the Treasury before whom the party appearing to be Delinquent has a right to be heard. This course is rendered necessary by the relation which your office bears to others vested with powers to prosecute and control its proceedings, and by the law which prescribes the manner in which Debts due to the United States for monies advanced shall be authenticated in the Courts of Law. If Suit should be instituted for the recovery of such advances under any other direction than that of the Comptroller even upon a bond, it would be in the power of the Defendant to plead his right to be heard at the Treasury and it is probable this plea would very generally be admitted. It appears to me to be proper that it should. — A prudent and vigilant use of the means which your official situation affords with the occasional aid of the Secretary at War will I hope be found sufficient to supersede in a great proportion of cases the necessity of instituting Suits, and it is believed that the interest of the public like that of individuals entities will be promoted by avoiding it whenever it can be done without giving countenance to unjust pretensions, or submitting to impositions. When Suits however Shall appear proper as they sometimes will notwithstanding your best exertions, you will be pleased to make a report to this Office of the names of the delinquent debtors, the capacities, in which & the periods when, they became accountable, the balances appearing to be due from each, the measures taken by you to obtain payment or accounts shewing a satisfactory application of those balances; a Statement of the claims suspended in your office with the Vouchers (if any,) and the considerations which governed you in refusing their admission. — As often as these reports are rendered such measures will be adopted in relation to the cases comprized in them, as upon consideration at the Treasury shall appear best calculated to promote the public interest consistently with that respect which is always due to the rights and characters of individuals. —