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Sir:

I am to inform your Excellency of the arrival of William Winder, Esquire, the Gentleman appointed by Congress Commissioner for settling the accounts subsisting between this State and the United States; and I have also enclosed you the Report of the Committee of Finance with respect to my employing a Clerk or Clerks for expediting the settlement of the said accounts.

Your Excellency may remember that I shewed you this report when I had the pleasure of seeing you at Tarborough and that you then thought the report wanted some amendment, in order to have it ascertained by the Assembly, what the Clerks were to be allowed for their services; this I endeavored to do, but the great hurry of the Members being then about closing the Session, prevented its being done, many of them saying that ’twas altogether needless as you would fix the sum each was to be allowed.

You will be pleased Sir to remark, that this report of my requiring an additional Clerk or Clerks, is a mistake, as it seems to infer that I then had a Clerk, which I had not neither have I now, therefore I take the liberty of informing you, that as this Business of the Commissioner will require great attention and dispatch, together with the business that must be done with individuals in this State, it will be necessary that I should have at least two Clerks to assist me in it, indeed I don’t know that these will be sufficient, however when you are pleased to say how many I may appoint, I hope you will likewise in your directions to me on that head say how much each shall be allowed or at what per Annum, as without this I am very certain

it will be impossible to get that assistance that will be necessary, because no man capable of business will engage with me on an uncertainty, & when it is recollected that the more assistance I have the sooner this business will be at an end, twill be found it can be no loss to the public.

I shall in six or eight days sett off for Hillsborough with the public papers & hope soon after my arrival there to receive your orders with respect to the Clerks, as the business will be very much retarded till I have assistance.

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