quotas [Table 11], as deducted in advance from the quota, instead of being counted against it. Thus the quota under the call of December 19, 1864, might have been 34,060 [32,902 + 1,158] and the 1,158 surplus of the whole State [as its accounts stood on December 31, 1864] might have been allowed to count against the quota, as it is made to count against the sum of the quotas, by including it in the total credits, and taking the difference of the sums. In that case the balance of apparent deficits and surpluses and the balance of reported deficits and surpluses would be the same number, 5,244 [5,567 - 323], which is also the sum of 4,086 [difference between apparent deficits and surpluses] and 1,158 [the difference of discrepancy columns]. And as 1,158, the difference of the discrepancy columns, is the surplus of the whole State on December 31, 1864, so the numbers corresponding to the districts in the discrepancy columns, from which this difference of 1,158 is derived, are themselves the balances of deficit and surplus of the several districts, the total result arising from offsetting the surpluses of some districts against the deficits of others. These are, in fact, the district balances of December 31, 1864, which were in turn made up from balancing the surpluses and deficits of sub-districts.

The accounts of quotas and credits in this office are kept, in ;the first place, with sub-districts, and totals for districts are obtained generally by aggregating the numbers relating to sub-districts. Except in the monthly return of credits, the surpluses of some sub-districts do not offset the deficits of others; hence there may be a large surplus in the district, taken as a whole, while there are still due sundry qoutas from sub- districts. This will explain further how the Thirteenth District has still due 557, according to my monthly return of May 31, or 619, according to my account with sub-districts, while the district, as a whole, has a large surplus. The quota on the call of December 19, 1864, having been distributed directly from the State quota to sub-districts, 831 men were demanded from the sub- districts in the Thirteenth Districts, which had furnished the smallest proportion of men. Since then the district has furnished 274 men, 212 of which have gone to the credit of the delinquent sub-districts, and the other 62 have gone to increase the surplus of sub-districts owing nothing; hence the real deficiency by sub- districts is 619. The deficiency remaining upon subtracting from the quota of the district all men furnished by it since December 31, 1864, is 557; while it appears by the table that if the total credits were allowed to offset the total quotas directly, the district, as a whole, would have a large surplus, viz, 4,410.

The paramount importance and peculiar intricacy and difficulty attaching to the duties of the department of enrollment quotas and credits have seemed to warrant the foregoing minute and extended account of the manner in which the records have been kept. It is believed that they are as correct and reliable as the nature of the case will admit. Great labor and pains have been bestowed upon these records, and it is believed that scarcely an inquiry can be made relative to the transactions of this department touching any district, sub-district, or the State at large to which these records will not furnish a satisfactory answer. The desk since its first separate establishment has been in charge of Dr. Samuel Willard as chief clerk, who has discharged its difficult and responsible duties with great fidelity and distinguished ability.