Mr. David Shriver, Jr., Cumberland, Md.
Treasury Department, April 30th, 1811.
Sir: Your letter of the 22d inst. has been received. The President has confirmed the alteration in the first section of the road. It will be proper to have a short endorsement to that effect entered on the contract with Mr. McKinley, and signed by him and yourself.
You are authorized to contract for the bridges and mason work on the terms mentioned in your letter, with the exception of the bridges across Clinton’s Fork of Braddock’s Run, which may perhaps be avoided by the alteration which you contemplate, and which, if necessary, we may, perhaps, considering other expenses, be obliged to contract of cheaper materials. It is left to your discretion to contract for the other mason work as above stated, either with Mr. Kinkead or with the road contractors.
If you shall find it necessary to employ a temporary assistant, you are authorized to do it, provided he shall be employed and paid only when actually necessary. I should think that one dollar and twenty-five, or at most, fifty cents, a day, would in that part of the country be ample compensation.
Respecting side walls no decisive opinion can be given until you shall have matured your ideas on the subject, and formed some estimate of the extent to which they must be adopted and of the expense.
I have the honor to be respectfully, sir,
Your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.