your State since the 18th of March, 1780, for
the collection of taxes and the furnishing supplies, or other aids to
the United States; the manner in which such acts have been executed,
the times which may have been necessary for them to operate, and the
consequences of their operation. I must also pray to be informed of so
much of the internal police of your State as relates to the laying,
assessing, levying, and collecting taxes. I beg leave to assure your
Excellency, that I am not prompted either by an idle curiosity, or by
any wish to discover what prudence would dictate to conceal. It is
necessary that I should be informed of these things, and I take the
plain, open, candid method of acquiring information. To palliate or
conceal any evils or disorders in our situation, can answer no good
purpose; they must be known before they can be cured. We must also
know what resources can be brought forth, that we may proportion our
efforts to our means, and our demands to both. It is necessary, that
we should be in condition to prosecute the war with ease, before we
can expect to lay down our arms with security, before we can treat of
peace honorably, and before we can conclude it with advantage. I feel
myself fettered at every movement, and embarrassed in every operation
from my ignorance of our actual state, and of what is reasonably to be
asked or expected. Yet when I consider our real wealth and numbers,
and when I compare them with those of other countries, I feel a
thorough conviction, that we may do much more than we have yet done,
and with more ease to ourselves than we have yet felt, provided we
adopt the proper modes of revenue and expenditure.

Your Excellency's good sense will anticipate my observations on the
necessity of being informed what moneys are in your treasury, and what
sums you expect to have there, as also the times, by which they must
probably be brought in. In addition to this, I must pray you to
communicate the several appropriations.

A misfortune peculiar to America, requires that I entreat your
Excellency to undertake one more task, which perhaps is far from being
the least difficult. It is, Sir, that you will write me very fully as
to the amount of the several paper currencies now circulating in your
State, the probable increase or decrease of each, and the respective
rates of depreciation.

Having now stated the several communications, which are most
indispensable, let me entreat of your Exc