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SIGNATURE J.G. Whitney
TITLE Vice President & Secretary
SIGNATURE Maureen A. Jones
TITLE Treasurer
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANTS
-------
To the Board of Directors of
The Adams Express Company:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial
statements and financial highlights of The Adams Express Company for the year
ended December 31, 1995, we considered its internal control structure, including
procedures for safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing
procedures for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements
and financial highlights and to comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not
to provide assurance on the internal control structure.
The management of The Adams Express Company is responsible for
establishing and maintaining an internal control structure. In fulfilling this
responsibility, estimates and judgments by management are required to assess the
expected benefits and related costs of internal control structure policies and
procedures. Two of the objectives of an internal control structure are to
provide management with reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that assets are
safeguarded against loss from unauthorized use or disposition and that
transactions are executed in accordance with management's authorization and
recorded properly to permit preparation of financial statements in conformity
with generally accepted accounting principles.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control
structure, errors or irregularities may occur and not be detected. Also,
projection of any evaluation of the structure to future periods is subject to
the risk that it may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that
the effectiveness of the design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of the internal control structure would not
necessarily disclose all matters in the internal control structure that might be
material weaknesses under standards established by the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the
design or operation of the specific internal control structure elements does not
reduce to a relatively low level the risk that errors or irregularities in
amounts that would be material in relation to the financial statements and
financial highlights being audited may occur and not be detected within a timely
period by employees in the normal course of performing their assigned functions.
However, we noted no matters involving the internal control structure, including
procedures for safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material
weaknesses, as defined above, as of December 31, 1995.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
the Board of Directors and management of The Adams Express Company and the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
COOPERS & LYBRAND L.L.P.
Baltimore, Maryland
January 9, 1996
<PAGE>
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANTS
-------
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
The Adams Express Company:
We have audited the accompanying statement of assets and liabilities of The
Adams Express Company, including the schedule of investments, as of December 31,
1995, and the related statement of operations for the year then ended, the
statement of changes in net assets for each of the two years in the period then
ended, and the financial highlights for each of the five years in the period
then ended. These financial statements and financial highlights are the
responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an
opinion on these financial statements and financial highlights based on our
audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with generally accepted auditing
standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements and financial
highlights are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a
test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. Our procedures included confirmation of investments owned as of
December 31, 1995, by correspondence with the custodian and brokers. An audit
also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates
made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement
presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our
opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements and financial highlights referred to
above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of The
Adams Express Company as of December 31, 1995, and the results of its
operations, the changes in its net assets, and financial highlights for each of
the respective periods stated in the first paragraph, in conformity with
generally accepted accounting principles.
COOPERS & LYBRAND L.L.P.
Baltimore, Maryland
January 9, 1996
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