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1782 without having received a Farthing of Wages or subsistence since Dec. 1776. My advances in France and Charlestown Amount to near 7000 dollars in Specie exclusive of interest the repayment of which, or a part of it might be the happy means of regaining the Farm I have been obliged to give up, and snatch my Family from Misory and Ruin.

And further that in June of 1786 I wrote fully to Congress on the subject requesting a speedy settlement which they forthwith directed and thus was found due to me the sum of Eight Thousand Three Hundred and twenty Dollars which I received in final settlement and from necessity for the support of my Family have since Disposed of the greater part of them at the rate of 2/6 on the pound, where by I realized but one Eight part of what was due to me from the States for my service and expenditures in their Behalf, and am at present out of Business and in no way of supporting myself and Family but by exhausting the small Remainder of my Property, in which case I must be interred destitute in some future period when the Debilities of old age may render me unfit for business, and myself and Family become the Victims of Poverty and Distress.

To prevent which as well as to serve my Country on every occasion I earnestly wish some Appointment in the Naval Department under the new Government of the United States, in which case I doubt not of giving such satisfaction as shall gain the approbation of the Authority under whom I may hold such an appointment. And altho at present I am an Inhabitant of a State who has not as yet acceded to the new Constitution of the States, I consider myself not a citizen of any particular State but as a Citizen of the States at large and Sincerely wish for the Good of the particular State in which I at present reside that they would as speedily as possible Join in Union with the Sister States.

And Altho this State does not at present approve of the present Federal Government, [-->page 11]

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