Colonel  Bowen  and  Colonel  Lewis's  accounts  will  accom-
pany this.  Inclosed  you  have  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  the
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  War,  with  sundry  resolutions  of
Congress,  by  which  you  will  see  the  demand.  You  will  there--
fore  give  the  necessary  directions  to  all  the  deputies  west  of  the
North  River  for  obtaining  the  proper  returns.  Agreeably  to
the  resolution  of  Congress,  our  deputies  for  the  future  must
make  their  assistants  send  in  their  accounts  at  the  close  of  every
month.  This  will  enable  them  to  send  us  monthly  returns,
which,  by  the  by,  I  believe  would  be  a  very  pleasing  circum-
stance to  the  Congress,  and  go  a  great  way  towards  reconciling
them  to  the  expense.  The  prejudices  of  n  certain  order  of
people  are  so  deeply  rooted  respecting  the  misapplication  of
public  money,  that  nothing  short  of  occular  demonstration  can
convince  them  to  the  contrary.  I  shall  demand  the  returns  to
the  eastward.
There  have  been  more  applications  for  money  since  you  left
me  than  there  were  all  summer  before.  I  hope  there  is  some
on  the  way,  or  the  Lord  knows  how  I  shall  reconcile  the  peo-
ple to  the  disappointment.  It  is  surprising  to  me  that  the  peo-
ple have  such  an  avidity  for  what  they  seem  to  set  so  little
store  by.
Upon  weighing  the  matter  more  fully,  I  am  of  .opinion  it
will  not  be  for  the  interest  of  the  department  to  put  the  man-
agement of  it  to  the  westward  under  Colonel  Finney.
The  people  to  the  southward  have  high  notions,  and  it  is  not
improbable  but  that  the  same  men  who  would  willingly  hold
the  office  under  the  principal,  would  refuse  it  from  a  deputy.     I


416  APPENDIX.
