[undecipherable: marginal notation] War Department 22 [undecipherable] 1800— Sir I have letters from you and the Storekeeper at Springfield armory relative to a quantity of Coal furnished [undecipherable] under a Contract made by him for the use of the Armory, the payment for which he is forced to decline by your refusal to give Certificates that the quantity and quality of the Coal agree with the Accounts rendered by the Contractors It is surprizing that I should be required to decide on a subject to which [undecipherable] the Storekeeper ought to be fully competent. [undecipherable] to pay public money [undecipherable] not [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] the Storekeeper [undecipherable] not [undecipherable] — [should] [he] refuse to give a receipt [agreeable] to the quantity [and] quality [of] The article furnished? Can the Storekeeper refuse to pay [the] Contractors unless your certificates [undecipherable] have charged, which in justice to [those] concerned [in] public interest you cannot do, you having examined and measured the Coal carefully [and] found them to be [undecipherable] in quality and quantity. Col. [undecipherable] on the other hand [undecipherable] that the Contractors have complied with the terms of the engagement between him and them as well as respects the quantity as the quality of the Coal. I am assured from a source in which I have great Confidence of there being men of integrity — Col. [undecipherable], also [undecipherable] the Disposition of [the] man, [undecipherable] that the Coal were not accurately measured on the hill at the Armory and the depositions of several others [undecipherable] that in quantity and quality they corresponded with the Contract I regret that two Officers who owe great responsibility to the public should give cause to suspect the propriety of each others Conduct in cases so plain and simple as the one to which you have now called my attention, [and] hope that whilst you both conduct yourselves with a due respect to the public interest you will endeavour to preserve harmony and to do your public duty [undecipherable] without suffering personal feelings to intervene [therewith]. I shall give no [undecipherable] on the present case of dispute but must [undecipherable] that these [undecipherable] altercations [undecipherable] inevitably tend to an [undecipherable] of the Concerns of the [undecipherable] as [the] only means [of] remedy. [undecipherable] [undecipherable]