Having received an appointment from the Hon’ble, the Treasury Board of the United States, to settle the accounts of the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland with the United States, agreeably to the inclosed copy of an Ordinance of Congress passed the 7th of May last. I have to acquaint Your Excellency and the Hon’ble, the Executive of the State in which you preside, that I have taken the oath required and am ready to enter on the business of my commission. The ordinance having limited the respective States to six months for delivering in their claims, I shall consider this period as commencing at the time this letter shall reach your Excellency and the Council, and therefore beg you will be pleased to acknowledge the receipt of it. It is my intention to be in Philadelphia (or send a clerk properly qualified) about the fifteenth of this month, in order to receive and examine the claims of the State against the Union.

I have the honor to be, Your Excellency’s & the Councils most Ob’t & Humble Serv’t,