"By an act passed the 27th of April, 1784, entitled An act for the settlement of the pay of the levies and militia for their services in the late war, and for other purposes therein mentioned, the mode in which the rolls and abstracts for pay and subsistence are to be made out and settled is particularly pointed out, and competent powers and directions for the liquidation of those accounts are thereby given to the treasurer and auditor."
"By the 14th section of an act passed the 21st of April, 1787, entitled An act for the relief of persons who paid money into the treasury, &c., the aforesaid act of the 27th of April, 1784, is repealed. The commissioners consider this repeal as an exclusion of all further claims for pay and subsistence of the militia and levies. They are constrained to adopt this opinion, not only from the obvious intention of the act, but because, by the absolute repeal of the act of the 27th of April, 1784, there remains no prescribed mode of authenticating these demands; that any rules which the discretion of the commissioners should lead them to adopt would have been unknown to the claimants, who could therefore have had no opportunity of adapting their demands to such rules; and because, if the legislature shall be disposed to direct compensations for such services, it will, in the opinion of the commissioners, be most properly effected by a revival of the said act of the 27th of April, 1784, with such further provisions and checks as may be thought necessary; or by some other general statute, to be passed for those purposes, and which may give equal opportunities to the claimants, and place the liquidation and settlement of such demands in the hands of the ordinary officers of the state.
"Claims for services, supplies, and losses, which, if admissible, can be made against the United States only.
[In the report details follow, and the commissioners remark]—
"The foregoing claims and accounts the commissioners conceive to be proper against the United States only. This is, in their opinion, sufficiently evident in most of the cases from a bare statement of the demands. Some few appear to require a more special report. The resolutions of Congress of the 7th of May, 1787, and 24th of June, 1788, relative to the settlement of accounts between the United States and individual states, will show the extent of the powers of the Continental Commissioners, and will serve to explain the opinions in such of the preceding cases as may appear to require farther illustration."
"Claims for payment of State Agents' Certificates.
"By the 25th section of the act passed the 5th of May, 1786, entitled An act for the payment of certain sums of money, and for other purposes therein mentioned, all persons holding or possessing certificates of Udny Hay or any of his assistants, or of Jacob Cuyler, Morgan Lewis, or Andrew Bostwick, were required to present them, in the manner therein prescribed, to the treasurer, before the 1st of September, 1786; and those who failed therein are thereby declared to be barred and for ever precluded from any compensation, of which the treasurer was directed to give public notice by advertisement, which was accordingly done.
"By another act, passed the 31st of March, 1787, the time for presenting the certificates of Udny Hay and his assistants was extended until the first of May then next, which time has not been further extended by any law of this state: so that all certificates of those denominations which were not presented within the times and in the manner specified in those laws, are expressly barred and for ever precluded from compensation.
"The commissioners have therefore, for the reasons contained in the observations prefixed to this report, conceived that a reference to the aforesaid acts was the most proper discharge of their duty with respect to all claims of compensation for such certificates.
"Claims for grain impressed for the use of the army by virtue of warrants issued by his excellency the governor, pursuant to an act passed 23d June, 1780.