Letter Transmitting Report of the Adjutant General.

HEADQUARTERS LAND AND NAVAL FORCES OF MARYLAND. ANNAPOLIS, December 30, 1899.

To His Excellency the Governor of Maryland, and to the Honorable the Members of the General Assembly of Maryland,

SIRS:

I have the honor to submit herewith the fiscal reports required by law for the years 1898 and 1899; also report of the expenditures of the "Military Emergency Fund" disbursed by warrants upon the Comptroller of the Treasury, as required by the Act of Assembly of 1898, Chapter 380.

A type-written copy of the fiscal report for 1898 was submitted to the Governor in the beginning of the year, and the reporters of the press were given items for publication. As it was desired that the General Assembly should have information of all matters contained in that report, more particularly the report of expenditures of the "Military Emergency Fund" authorized by the said Act of 1898, it was determined that the printing of the report should be deferred for a year so as to embrace all in the report to the General Assembly.

Only fiscal reports are required of this Department, but there are added a consolidated statement of the claim of the State of Maryland against the United States growing out of the expenditures on account of equipping and preparing our troops for the late war, and a statement of the [condition of that claim at the date the report was placed in the hands of the printer, December 20, 1899.

Since that date there has been received from the United States a further payment of $22,926.39 made on December 27, 1899, leaving the condition of the claim, at this writing, as follows: Balance of claim as amended and filed December

6, 1899........

Payment on December 27, 1899, as above stated...
Unadjusted Clothing Account, arising out of dif-

ferences in valuations made by the State and the U. S. Quartermaster General's Department Total of various items running through entire account, causes of non-payment not yet stated by Auditor......

It is hoped outstanding differences may be adjusted before the close of the current State administration.

There are also submitted copies of the Proclamations of the Governor and of the principal General Orders issued in connection with the late war, a roster of the officers, with the number of men, who served the United States from Maryland in said war, a roster containing the names of the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, the General Staff of the Militia and the aids to the Commander-in-Chief, and the names of the officers, with the number of men, now constituting the Maryland National Guard and the "Veteran Corps," Fifth Regiment Infantry, Maryland National Guard.

This information is followed by reports of the operations of the Quartermaster General's Department and the Inspector General's Department, and by reports of the Commanding Officers of the First Brigade, the First Naval Battalion and the "Veteran Corps."

These additions to the fiscal reports are full and complete, and your attention is respectfully called to them as giving valuable information, especially in regard to Maryland's work in preparing for the late war and to some of the conditions which followed.

In the preparation of the fiscal reports care has been taken, not merely to state a debit and credit account, but to explain the purposes for which the several disbursements were made. The Adjutant General's accounts have been compared with the books of the Comptroller's office, and there is exact agreement so far as warrants issued have been presented to that office.

The claim of the State against the United States was prepared chiefly by John C. Marshall, Clerk to the Acting Quartermaster General, whose services in the Quartermaster General's DepartIment have been invaluable to the State in this and in other work of the Department, notably in the preparation of the property statement appended to the Acting Quartermaster General's report. It would be well if the services of Mr. Marshall, who is a retired army man, could be secured for the State in future work in the Quartermaster General's Department and in other Departments. Some conception of the magnitude of the work in preparing the State's claim against the Government may be had from the statement that over twelve hundred papers, besides letters of information and of inquiry, have been filed with the Auditor for the War Department.

The State is indebted to Senator McComas for his interest in urging the speedy adjustment and settlement of this claim, and action has been accelerated by visits of the Governor to Washington. In this, as in other matters in which he has directed and assisted officers charged with the collection and disbursement of public funds, the Governor has endeavored to protect the financial interests of the State.