...un[undecipherable] precise restriction — that the Secretary [undecipherable] orders to restrain the [Issues] of [Rations] at Military Posts, to abstract a [far] unprofitable military command[ant] [from] interference in Indian concerns, and [undecipherable] exclusively if [possible] to have [undecipherable] Territorial Governors an[d] o[ther] [undecipherable] Superintendents of Indian [Affairs]. That the intent of these orders was not only to [lessen] the public expenditure, by curtailing the [Issues] of Rations, and the [presents] of [public] property to Indians, but to obviate the ill consequences and confusion to the peace [from] two distinct Authorities Military Commandants and Indian Superintendants acting at the same time, and without concert on the same subjects — and [undecipherable] to secure a more perfect [undecipherable] Control over the Indians by an uniform system to be acted upon by one and the same authority, to which such concerns [of the] more [nearly] committed that [as] far as these orders have been observed [beneficial] effects have apparently resulted — But certain military officers have notwithstanding suggested [their] impossibility of resisting the [appearance] of Indians for Rations and [presents] and that powerful reasons [exist] why military Commandants should not [be] precluded from their heretofore [usual] connection with the Indians or [from] the power of retaining them in their interests by acts of Bounty That a Question accord[ingly arises] and [requires] to be definitively [settled] — whether military commandants [except] in cases of extraordinary urgency[,] [of] absolute necessity and upon their [strict] and exclusive [responsibility], should be permitted to [issue Rations] or [present] public property to Indians, or actually [undecipherable] upon the [undecipherable]. [The subject] requires [the undecipherable] in [the] Territorial Governor or [other] [Superintendent] of Indian Affairs[.] [undecipherable] whether a satisfactory [definition of the] [general] course [to be pursued] by an examination into [all existing] [circumstances] along the western Frontier, by [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] authorized to make and to report the result of his [inquiry] And [also undecipherable] that it is conceived [indispensable] to [secure undecipherable] [undecipherable] Government should [grant] from time to [time] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] with [actual] [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] and of the [quantities] and [qualities] of the latter through [other] channels [than] the responsible [officers] or [agents] [entrusted] and that to an intimate knowledge in particulars of the manner in which the Indian [undecipherable] in trading [houses] [established] and [other] [Storehouses] and upon the [Occurrences] [undecipherable] as [it] is conducted of the Stock [on] hand [and] of the prospect of [continuing] them [as] [undecipherable] in compact with the [administration] of [Congress] [expressed] in the [acts] for their Establishment[,] that the [supplies therein] provided may [not] be diminished, information [obtained] not otherwise than [thus] the [agents] [undecipherable] themselves is absolutely necessary. It is submitted whether an actual Examination by the [some] intelligent and disinterested person respecting the [undecipherable] objects, authorized to make the same and to report the results of his inquiries would not be extremely beneficial to the public and useful to the succeeding Secretary of the Department of War, [by] furnishing in one view a mass of [Information] more complete than is otherwise attainable[,] and and certainly in a[n] imperfect degree [undecipherable] considerable research and experience in the Department and whether it would not give [undecipherable] the clearest conviction of [Errors] where they have occurred or [faults] where they have been committed in order to their remedy All which is respectfully submitted War Department Signed James McHenry May 2[6]^th 1800 May 26^th 1800 I concur in the opinion [an]d recommendation of the Sec[retary] of War as above [expressed] Signed Oliver Wolcott Sec[retary] of the Treasury M[r] Lee and M[r] Stoddert also concurred