I have the honor of forwarding to your Excellency Mr Dunlap's publication of this day, in which I find, with some degree of surprise, a paragraph levelled at me and my official transactions. I observe that notwithstanding the most explicit and repeated offers I made to you yesterday morning, and through you to the honorable the Supreme Executive Council of this State, of proving that I had not in any shape violated or infringed the laws of Pennsylvania, that I had acted in perfect conformity therewith; notwithstanding I solemnly declared that the flour seized was bought and destined for the sole use of his Majesty's fleet; notwithstanding the many and forcible reasons urged to your Excellency to convince you that more proper and more decent measures might have been pursued, and that the steps I had taken to supply his Majesty's fleet were not only proper, but were dictated by mere necessity; notwithstanding all these circumstances, I am still held up to the public in a suspicious light, and as if I were answerable or accountable for the private and personal transactions of Mr Rumford of Wilmington, transactions totally foreign to me and to the instructions or orders given him by me. My application to you, Sir, in this respect, seems to have been so far ineffectual, as also your just and pointed representation on this subject, which you were pleased to communicate to me by your letter of this day. I am sorry to remark, that though I have acted in concert with his Excellency, our Minister Plenipotentiary, that Congress has always been apprised of the purchases made by my orders; though all the provisions purchased and delivered into the hands of my agents have been at all times at the disposal of Congress in consequence of express stipulations; though I have given with pleasure the widest room for inquiry into the grounds of all suspicions, in order that a thorough investigation might establish public tranquillity and public confidence, which I had the greatest reason to expect, because it is evident, even by the publications, that not a single suspicion was founded on solid ground, but merely on surmise; still his Majesty's representative in this Commonwealth, his Agent General in all the ports of the United States, acknowledged as such by Congress, by yourself, and the board at which you preside, specially charged, in conjunction with the Minister Plenipotentiary, with procuring the necessary supplies for his Majesty's squadron, expressly fitted out for the defence of these States against the common enemy, and for the protection of his dominions in America, acting in the strict line of his office and duty, is most wantonly traduced to the public, branded with the most injurious and unfair imputations in the newspapers published in this very city, where these facts and my public character are most notorious, under your eyes, with your knowledge, and in contradiction to your personal advice and disapprobation.