"We make this communication in the confidence that it will be the means of correcting any honest misapprehensions that may have existed; that it will be gratifying to a body distinguished for its justice to shield honesty from wanton aspersion within its own walls; that it will afford an opportunity to men of honorable feelings, who may be conscious of having cast unmerited reproach on characters, we flatter ourselves, unsullied, to retract them; that more especially, in case the charges be not retracted, it may be lodged among the public archives as evidence as well of their unfounded nature as of the fidelity with which we have discharged duties of a disinterested and elevated nature; and that, if it be deemed expedient, it be printed by your order by such publicity challenging any detection of the slightest departure from truth. We indeed not only hold ourselves amenable to the public, but are ready at any moment to submit our proceedings to the most rigid examination which either House of Congress may see fit to institute. "By order of the Board of Managers: "PETER FORCE, "_Second Vice-President_. "GEORGE WATTERSTON, "_Secretary_." The statement of receipts and _expenditures_ exhibited showed the following collections: Maine, $1,600.00 Vermont, 31.95 Connecticut, 1,438.61 New York, 1,167.21 New Jersey, 1,491.61 Pennsylvania, 2,102.85 Delaware, 361.98 Maryland, 3,057.99 Virginia, 1,500.00 South Carolina, 570.00 Kentucky, 1,610.00 Ohio, 6,391.19 Louisiana, 701.26 Indiana, 340.00 Illinois, 700.00 Mississippi, 2,120.00 District of Columbia, 836.36 Florida, 227.00 Army, 565.89 Navy, 228.25 Interest on stocks, in which net collections were invested, $1,608.73, all of which sums, except $476.67, cash in hand, and the _necessary_ expenses of the Society, amounting to _only_ $465.56, had been invested in productive stocks.