The Secretary of War Accountants Office Sir February 21 1800 I received Yesterday your letter dated the 19 Inst^t and in reply thereto have to state that I have always considered it as indispensibly necessary that a strict correspondence should be maintained with all persons to whom monies have been advanced by the Department of War, (which now amount to near four millions of Dollars,) & have been of opinion that frequent & regular settlements were necessary to the preservation of order, & would conduce to economy in public expenditures — Under this impression my communications to receivers of Public monies have been frequent & I must observe have in many cases proved successfull by receiving the accounts called for & thereby being enabled to effect settlements for the monies received. But there are others on whom my applications have not had the desired effect among the latter I am under the necessity of mentioning the Purveyor of Public Supplies who altho' he should render his accounts quarterly has never rendered but one sett of Vouchers & that along time since, the amount of which bears no comparison to the monies he has received & tho' frequently urged, has not furnished any additional accounts. The Quarter master General after having been called upon, has rendered accounts for his expenditures which have received such examination as the nature of them would admit of. But it is discovered that owing to the irregularity of his payments, not having confined himself to those only which related to his department but having applied monies advanced for that Department to other objects of Expenditures, making appointments of agents & fixing their compensations and allowing additional sums to Officers serving in that as well as other Departments; and generally so far exceeding what in my opinion is the object of the law that I have found it impossible to make a settlement of them without the interference of higher authority — To state each particular objection which exists to prevent a settlement would so far exceed the limits of a letter that it is impracticable to pursue it — I have thought it proper to mention those circumstances that measures might be taken to obviate the objections, so as to enable me to make a Settlement of accounts which are of great magnitude & involve in them the expenditures of Public monies to a vast amount. M^r. O Harra the Contractor for the Western Posts after being called upon has lodged for examination his accounts said to be for issues under the Contracts of 1797, 1798, & those for issues under the [Contract] of 1796, have been referred to this Office from the Treasury Department for settlement, with a statement of deductions & objections which arose on their examination at that Department. These acc^ts from their magnitudes & the difficulty in establishing a correct principle in their settlement as well as the absence of the Contractor from this place has heretofore prevented a settlement. They will however be taken up & examined as early as possible. I withheld my signature to the Warrant for 25000 d^o chargeable to M^r O'Hara, as well as those issued in favour of Tench Francis for D^o 4670 & 893 7/100 until I had informed you of the foregoing circumstances relative to their accounts. Sam H^o [monogram]