The former must be adjusted
as soon as proper officers can be found and appointed for the purpose,
and proper principles established so as that they may be liquidated in
an equitable manner. I say, Sir, in an equitable manner, for I am
determined that justice shall be the rule of my conduct, as far as the
measure of abilities, which the Almighty has been pleased to bestow,
shall enable me to distinguish between right and wrong. I shall never
permit a doubt, that the States will do what is right; neither will I
ever believe that any one of them can expect to derive advantage from
doing what is wrong. It is by being just to individuals, to each
other, to the Union, to all; by generous grants of solid revenue, and
by adopting energetic methods to collect that revenue; and not by
complainings, vauntings, or recriminations, that these States must
expect to establish their independence and rise into power,
consequence and grandeur. I speak to your Excellency with freedom,
because it is my duty so to speak, and because I am convinced that the
language of plain sincerity is the only proper language to the first
magistrate of a free community.

The accounts I have mentioned as subsequent to the resolutions of the
18th of March, 1780, admit of an immediate settlement. The several
States have all the necessary materials. One side of this account
consists of demands made by resolutions of Congress, long since
forwarded; the other must consist of the compliances with those
demands. This latter part I am not in a capacity to state, and for
that reason I am to request the earliest information, which the nature
of things will permit, of the moneys, supplies, transportation, &c.
which have been paid, advanced, or furnished, by your State, in order
that I may know what remains due. The sooner full information can be
obtained, the sooner shall we know what to rely on, and how to do
equal justice to those who have contributed, and those who have not,
to those who have contributed at one period, and those who have
contributed at another.

I enclose an account of the specific supplies demanded of your State,
as extracted from the journals of Congress, but without any mention of
what has been done in consequence of those resolutions. Because as I
have already observed, your Excellency will be able to discover the
balance much better than I can.

I am further to entreat, Sir, that I may be favored with copies of the
several acts passed in