To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carleton, with an Estimate of Expenses of the Military Department, 1 February 1784

From Joseph Carleton, with an Estimate of Expenses of the Military Department

War Office [Annapolis], 1 Feb. 1784. Transmitting general estimate “of the expence of the Military Establishment of the United States for the current year amounting to 219.578 dollars.” This estimate was sent in response to orders “of the grand Committee, communicated in your Letter of the 31st. ultimo.” Staff estimates not accurate, but “the best that can be made out of the imperfect materials on which they are formed, being chiefly taken from the papers lately transmitted by Major General Knox.”

Enclosure

General Estimate of the Expences of the Military

Establishments of the United States for the year 1784

Estimate No.	1	Pay and Subsistence of the Army	145.596 60/90
	2	Paymaster Generals department	12.750
	3	Clothier Generals department	29.370
	4	Hospital department	4.33760/
	5	Military Stores department	10.898
	6	Quarter Master’s department	16.62560/
		Dollars	219.578

War Office January 1st. 1784

Jos: Carleton
Secretary

RC and enclosure (DLC: PCC, No. 144); addressed: “The Honl: Thomas Jefferson Esquire in Congress”; endorsed by Thomson: “Letter Feby. 1. 1784 War Office to Grand Comee Estimate of Expence of Military for 1784.”

TJ’s letter to Carleton of 31 Jan., written for the Grand Committee, has not been found. Joseph Carleton, secretary in the war office, passed through Annapolis before 19 Jan. 1784 and expected to return in a few days (Thomson to Richard Peters, 19 Jan. 1784; Burnett, Letters of Members description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress description ends , vii, No. 494). He was no doubt there on 29 Jan. when the report of a committee, of which TJ was a member, on Carleton’s letter of 20 Dec. 1783 concerning his authority to issue brevet commissions, &c., was approved by Congress (report is in DLC: PCC, No. 19, ii, and is in the hand of Arthur Lee; Committee Book, same, No. 186, under date of 22 Jan. 1784; JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, D.C., 1904–37, 34 vols. description ends , xxvi, 44, 51).

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Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carleton, with an Estimate of Expenses of the Military Department, 1 February 1784
Author: Carleton, Joseph
Recipient: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 1 February 1784

Reference

Cite as: “To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carleton, with an Estimate of Expenses of the Military Department, 1 February 1784,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0380. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 6, 21 May 1781–1 March 1784, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952, p. 530.]