ve them opportunities of defrauding the
public, which considering the natural bent and disposition of many
men, ought to be carefully provided against. A third mode would be, by
turning over the holders of these certificates to their respective
States, and giving credit for them on account of the specific
supplies. This may in some degree become necessary in cases where the
negligence of the States on the one hand, and the necessities of the
army on the other, have compelled to seize by force what ought to have
been collected by law. But in many cases it cannot be done, and it
would be improper in many others where it is practicable.

Among the bad consequences, which attend the present mode of supplying
our armies, or rather leaving them to supply themselves, it is one of
no small magnitude, that the officers who are compelled to the
melancholy duty of plundering their fellow citizens, endeavor by the
sum of their certificates, to compensate for the manner of taking as
well as for the value of the thing taken. Nor is that all; where there
is a disposition for fraud, an ample opportunity is afforded to commit
it. Whatever may be the cause, I am informed, that these certificates
are for sums vastly beyond the value of the services and articles
obtained for them. The respective States would naturally be led to
give to these certificates their specified value, and it cannot be
expected that they will scrutinise them so rigidly as they ought, if
they are to be accepted in discharge of demands existing against the
particular State. To all these modes there are also some further
objections. Among which it is my duty to state the following. The
accounts of the several staff officers still remain unsettled. The
certificates given by them, if they are to be paid by the public,
ought to be carried both to the debit and credit of their cash
accounts, and the articles obtained carried to their debit in the
account of expenditures. Of consequence the amount of these last
debits must depend much upon the amount of the certificates, and
therefore either the certificates given should be known, and the
accounts settled with those charges, or the account should be
settled, and no other certificates allowed but such as are charged in
it.

A further mode of liquidating these certificates would be, by
purchasing them from the holders; but it is needless to state any
other objections to it than the want of money, which is felt through
all