I have observed by the tenor of several of your letters on the subject of the confederation, that your sentiments coincide entirely with my own. The inefficacy of that instrument is daily felt, and the want of obligatory and coercive clauses on the States will probably be productive of the most fatal consequences. At present they content themselves with the assertion, that each has done most, and that the people are not able to pay taxes. Languor and inexertion are the offspring of this doctrine, and finally the people, who are said to be incapable of bearing taxation, actually pay double the sum, that would be necessary in the first instance. Nothing on my part has been omitted that I could think of, to stimulate them to exertions; and I have given them every encouragement to support my arrangements, that could be derived from regularity, system and economy; but all this does not produce the effect it ought; there are in every Legislature, characters too full of local attachments and views, to permit sufficient attention to the general interest. I am perfectly sensible, and was the day I became Superintendent of Finance, of the difficulties that are to be encountered. I know full well that it requires much time, more patience, and greater abilities than I claim, to bring the finances to the order in which they ought to be in every well governed country. But I apprehend this knowledge ought not to deter either you or me from continuing the struggle with those difficulties. If I had been deterred by their appearance from the acceptance of my appointment, our affairs would probably have been worse than they now are, or if you had declined to oppose the British arms in the Southern States, Virginia might now have formed the boundary line. You, therefore, my Dear Sir, must continue your exertions, with or without men, provisions, clothing, or pay, in hopes that all things will come right at last; and I will continue mine until somebody more competent shall be found to relieve me. The Secretary at War will say everything that is necessary with respect to men, clothing, short enlistments, and future operations.