13th. _Bills of Exchange._ In this you will charge all sums paid on bills of exchange, drawn by order of Congress.
It is not impossible, that in the course of your business, you may find it necessary to raise some other such general accounts, and if so, you will raise them accordingly. You will take care to attend strictly to the propriety of all charges made, and to the validity of the vouchers by which they are supported. You will examine very particularly into the accounts of armed vessels fitted out in Europe on account of the United States, especially of those wherein any individuals shall appear to have been interested. And you will bring those persons to account, into whose hands any prizes, or moneys for the sales of prizes, may have come, so that justice may be done as well to the public as to the captors concerned therein.
Whenever you finally settle an account, you will take care to be possessed of the several vouchers, which together with the account are to be kept in your Consular office, until further orders; but you will transmit quadruplicate copies of the general accounts by safe conveyances as soon as possible.
On the 7th of January last, Congress were pleased to resolve, that it be an instruction to the Superintendent of Finance, to prepare and report to Congress a table of rates, at which the different species of foreign coins, most likely to circulate within the United States, shall be received at the treasury thereof. In consequence of this resolution, I took the liberty to recommend the establishment of a mint, which was agreed to. I have taken many steps to carry that resolution into effect, and hoped by this time to have laid a satisfactory state of it before Congress. Delays, the causes of which need not be enumerated, have hitherto procrastinated this matter beyond my expectations. But there are many reasons why an immediate regulation of foreign coins should now be made. It is not the least among them, that all our dollars are rapidly going to the enemy in exchange for light gold, which must eventually cause a considerable loss and scarcity of silver, which will be severely felt. I take the liberty, therefore, to suggest the following Act.