[letter from the Secretary of War, dated July 10^th 1799.] " It may be proper in receiving [undecipherable] to attend to the following circumstances, 1^st That the contract for supplying Cloathing for the last Year failed in Consequence of there not being in the United States a Sufficiency of white Kersey for Vests & Overalls. 2^d. That no person could be found to contract to furnish Cloathing for the present Year to include the Additional Army, from a well founded belief that a sufficiency of White & blue Cloths for the purpose could not be procured within the United States in season to have Enabled them to have completed their contract before late in the Autumn or beginning of Winter. 3^d. That a considerable proportion of Cloth was not obtained till after the arrival of the Spring Vessels, it not being [undecipherable: manufactured] thereto within the United States — and it is [undecipherable: presumed] that these causes [undecipherable: will] account Satisfactorily and without e[xcuse to] others for the seeming delay that has occurred in deliver=ing the Cloathing Required to commence the [undecipherable] Service and must when known to the Officers [spec]ially concerned, as well as the persons who may have ascribed these delays to Neglects, exculpate the [serv]ice that may have been censured; I request these [circum]=stances may be freely communicated to the Officers.