[Hon^ble M^r Griswold] War Department 28^th December 1800 Sir Agreeably to your request I have the honor of transmitting a Statement of the expenditures for fortifying the ports & harbors of United States. Instructions are yet unfinished in the States of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts & New Hampshire. Those in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York & Rhode Island are in great forwardness & some of them nearly completed. In the other States above mentioned a great part of the business is yet to be done. In Massachusetts, particularly large purchases of Materials were made by my predecessor, but little has been done with them. It is contemplated to begin the fortifications in the Harbor of Boston where nothing more has yet been done than procuring materials as soon as the Season will permit. A considerable sum is yet necessary to complete the Works at Newport in Rhode Island. It is also thought necessary that Norfolk in Virginia should be put in a better state for defence & that a small new fortification should be erected at Portsmouth in New Hampshire & some other ports probably will call for further Expenditures. I have the honor to be Y^r