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To the honorable the General Assembly,

Gentlemen:

I have hitherto delayed calling your attention to some appointments necessary for executive department, lest it might take up that time and attention which was necessary for making provision for the defense and orderly arrangement of the State. As I hope your deliberations on the higher affairs are now near a Conclusion, I beg leave to suggest that a Secretary is necessary for the Governor and

a Clerk or Register for the Council of State, and that it lies with the Assembly to make provisions for such officers.

I am entirely uninformed as to the provision made for the expense attending the office of Governor and the allowance, let it be what it may, being to me no object, I have not spent a thought thereon. I propose causing an account to be kept of all the Incidental Expenses, which from the expensive price of everything I perceive will be very considerable, and causing the same to be laid before the General Assembly. My own private property has suffered so much from the waste made by the armies, and my long absence, that it will not be in my power to derive any aid from it while my whole time shall be engrossed by the public. If the General Assembly disapprove of this mode, I hope they will order their sense to be communicated to me.

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