[180] Caleb Evans Esqr. Accountants Office F No 5 May 2^th 1800 163 I observe in the accounts rendered by you as Pay Mast General that payments have been made to Brig. Gen. Wilkinson, for double rations as Commandant of the Western Div- On reference to the law allowing double rations to officers commanding separate Posts, it is provided that the Brigadier General while commander in Chief, shall never double the number of Rations to which he would otherwise be entitled. From the construction of this law I am clearly of opinion that when the Brigadier General ceases to be commander in Chief, that he was no longer entitled to receive double rations. Under this impression I conceive it proper that a deduction should take place of the amount of double rations received by Brig. Gen. Wilkinson as Commandant, from the time [he?] [he?] ceased to be Commander in Chief; the amount you will ascertain and cause the same to be deducted from the Pay of the General, as it may become due. It may be proper at the same time to inform you that in conformity with the opinion of the Comptroller of the Treasury, contained in his letter to the Secretary of War dated the 23 [undecipherable] last, on the subject of double rations, that I have applied to the Secretary of War, to state the [undecipherable] when Brig. Gen. Wilkinson ceased to be commander in Chief, & consequently ceased to [be] entitled to double rations, that after the Secretary of War on his letter to me states the [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] has signified to as his private [undecipherable] that the General is entitled to double rations, yet as he has on the same letter enclosed a [undecipherable]. I have therefore concluded it proper to cause the aforementioned deductions to take place on the opinion I before expressed; it will however be understood that this defi[undecipherable]