"_Third._ All claims for the subsistence and services of the levies
and militia, or other troops, composing a part of the continental
army, or destined to join the army, and moving to such places of
destination, or under the command or orders of a continental officer,
and all claims for supplies and services beforehand for such troops,
are considered as proper against the United States only, and are
classed accordingly; the commissioners have been led to a more strict
attention to this distinction by the reasons just before mentioned,
and are warranted by the practice of the continental commissioners for
settling accounts, in declaring that such accounts and demands were
proper against the United States.
"Principles of more limited operation, and other remarks, will appear
in those parts of the report to which they apply.
"Explanatory of particular parts, and of the general form of the
report, it may be proper to observe,
"That where the claim or account appears, upon the face of it, to be
evidently against the United States only, or for other reasons
palpably inadmissible, the commissioners have thought it would have
been superfluous to state the proof, and have therefore, in those
cases only, given such abstracts of the claim or account as suffice to
render the exception apparent.
"In giving their opinion, the commissioners have not detailed all the
reasons which led to it, but have given a summary of such as appeared
to them most conclusive; and, as well in this as in stating the facts,
have aimed at as much brevity as appeared to them to consist with
perspicuity.
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