From Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, Henry Dearborn, and Robert Smith, 5 May 1802
To Albert Gallatin, Henry Dearborn, and Robert Smith
May 5. 1802.
Th: Jefferson asks the favor of the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary at War & Secretary of the Navy to carry into execution the inclosed resolution of the H. of representatives of May 3. 1802. desiring a statement of expenditures from Jan. 1. 1797. by the Quarter Master Genl. the Navy agents, for the Contingencies of the Naval & Military establishments and the Navy contracts for timber & stores; each so far as the matter lies within their respective department.
RC (Wheaton J. Lane, Princeton, New Jersey, 1951); addressed in Meriwether Lewis’s hand: “Robert Smith esquire. Secretary of the Navy”; endorsed by Smith. PrC (DLC). Enclosure: Resolution of the House of Representatives, 3 May, requesting the president to cause the proper officers to prepare statements, including a detailed account of the expenditures and “application of all public moneys,” which passed through the quartermaster general’s department from 1 Jan. 1797 to 31 Dec. 1801; a similar account of expenditures of the navy agents; an account of the moneys drawn out of the Treasury “for the contingencies of the Military and Naval Establishments” for the same period; and copies of contracts made by the Navy Department for the purchase of timber and stores, and the accounts of moneys paid under the contracts; all to be presented to the House during the first week of the ensuing session of Congress (
, 4:237).Representatives Robert Williams, a Republican from North Carolina, and Thomas Morris, a Federalist from New York, were appointed to present the 3 May resolution to the president. TJ submitted the requested STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES to Congress on 23 Dec. 1802 ( , 4:237, 257).