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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Congress assembled. Present, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Congress proceeded in the Consideration of an Ordinance for the government of the Western territory, reported by Mr. [William Samuel] Johnson, Mr. [Charles] Pinckney, Mr. [Melancton] Smith, Mr. [Nathan] Dane and Mr. [John] Henry:
And the following clause being under debate, to wit:
The governor, judges, legislative council, Secretary, and such other officers as Congress shall at any time think proper to appoint in such district, shall take an Oath of Office, prescribed on the 27 day of January, 1785, to the Secretary at War, mutatis mutandis.
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A motion was made by Mr. [Melancton] Smith, seconded by Mr. [John] Haring, to amend the same, by striking out the latter part of that paragraph, viz.
"An Oath of Office, &c." to the end; and in lieu thereof, inserting, "An Oath of fidelity to the United States, in the words following, viz. I, A. B. appointed to the Office ofdo acknowledge, that I do owe true and faithful allegiance to the United States of America, and I do swear (or affirm) that I will, to the utmost of my power, support, maintain and defend the said United States in their freedom, sovereignty and independence, against all opposition whatsoever." And also, an Oath of Office in the words following, viz. I, A. B. appointed to the Office ofdo swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully, truly and impartially execute the Office ofto which I am so appointed, according to the best of my skill and judgment.
On the question to agree to this amendment, the yeas and nays being required by Mr. [Melancton] Smith,
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So the question was lost.
A motion was then made by Mr. [Melancton] Smith, seconded by Mr. [Timothy] Bloodworth, to strike out the
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paragraph; And on the question, shall the paragraph stand? the yeas and nays being required by Mr. [Melancton] Smith,
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So it was resolved in the affirmative.
The further consideration of the Ordinance being postponed,
War Office, 29 Sept. 1786.
Sir: I have this Inst. receiv'd the Orders of Congress, and shall immediately proceed to the execution. I take the liberty to submit to the consideration of Congress whether, as some other unavoidable expences will arise in the prosecution of this business so that it will not be proper that the Treasury Board should advance me a sum of Money not exceeding one thousand Dollars for which I shall be accountable.
I have the honor etc.,
H. Knox.1
[Note 1: 1 This letter is in No. 150, I, folio 575.]
His Excy.
The President of Congress.
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On motion of Mr. [Charles] Pinckney, seconded by Mr. [John] Henry,
Resolved, That the board of treasury be, and they are hereby directed, to advance to the secretary at War, one thousand dollars; he to be accountable.1
[Note 1: 1 This motion, in the writing of Charles Thomson, is indorsed on Knox's letter of September 29, above.]
The delegates for Georgia, laid before Congress an Act of that state, in pursuance of the recommendation of the 30 April, 1784, passed the 2d of August, 1786, vesting the United States in Congress assembled, for the term of 15 years, commencing on the day Congress shall begin to exercise the powers, with a power to prohibit the importation or exportation of goods, wares or merchandize, in ships belonging to, or navigated by subjects of powers with whom the U. S. shall not have formed treaties of Commerce, and to prohibit the subjects of foreign states, unless authorised by treaty, from importing goods, wares or merchandize which shall not be the produce or manufacture of the dominion of the sovereign whose subjects they are, provided that nine states agree in the exercise of this power, and that it do not extend to prohibit the importation of negroes, and that the Act shall not have force until the other twelve states have substantially complied with the recommendation above mentioned.2
[Note 2: 2 An exemplification of this act of Georgia is in No. 76, folio 282.]
The Commissioner for settling the Accounts of the late Army, to whom was referred the Petition of George Thompson, Executor, to the Estate of the late Genl. Wm. Thompson, begs leave to report that the Petitioner's Demand for rations of the General from the 8th of June, 1776, the time of his being made a Prisoner, to the 3d. of September, 1781, when he died, is attended with some difficulties; the principal of which is that the General Officers of the Army not being confined to one ration daily as was the case of the regimental officers, have drawn from different Commissaries, such quantities of Provisions on Account, as they found necessary for the supply of their respective Tables. That but few if any of those Gentlemen ever kept any regular account of their drafts upon the Commissaries, and that the Accounts of that department (as will appear by Mr. Burrell's Letter to your Commissioner accompanying this report) are in such a situation that they cannot furnish such Information as may
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be relied on, in the case of Genl. Thompson, as there is no Account of his, by which the quantity drawn may be determined, your Commissioner has searched in the Office of Mr. Burrell for the Accounts, and finds that the Genl. received rations at Carlisle from September 1st, 1777, the Account of which is obtained, but whether he drew any before that time and where, is unknown as well as whether he drew after that time from any other Commissary, tho' it is probable he did not as he was for the most of the time a Prisoner and on Parole and lived with his Family at that Post.
Your Commissioner further begs leave to report on the Forage Account, which is for the same Period of time with the rations, that he has not in any Instance undertaken the settlement of such Accounts, because that these allowances have ever been considered as within the Forage Master or Quarter masters department, and the knowledge of the quantity drawn by the Officers and of what has been paid for, can not be come at, so that the Accounts can be checked. Nor is your Commissioner informed of the Price or Quantities of a ration of forage as allowed from time to time in that Department or whether the Exception of the resolve of July 15th, 1780, confining the Allowance to Officers in Camp, and those on public service, has been construed to include the Prisoners.
Your Commissioner further begs Leave to report that the Genl. stands charged in the public Books with the following sums, viz.:
for which no perfect Account of its Payment can be rendered by his Executor; but as the Pay of the Regiment has not been drawn prior to August, 1775, and as the Genl. made Advances for the recruiting and Equipment of the men, it is clear to your Commissioner that the Genl. must have necessarily advanced at least to the Amount of 5,000 dollars charged against him. The two following sums have no Vouchers and the last is considerably deficient but as the Money was received on Accounts settled and for men present at the time it was drawn it is reasonable to conclude that it was paid as soon as received; this Conclusion may also be justified from the Genls. Character, and that the Men have always a Claim on his Estate in Case it was not paid.
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The Petitioner has also produced an Account extracted from sundry memorandums and Papers found since the Genls. decease; they consist of extra personal Expences Monies paid to Indians, for Expresses, Spies, Provisions, Medecine, Camp Furniture, and Advances to Officers, most of which are accompanied with no vouchers for the Payment of the Money excepting the original Accounts and that they the United States yet your Commissioner conceives it to be necessary in Case they are admitted that he should first be honored with the Approbation of Congress.
All which is humbly submitted.
Jno. Pierce.1
[Note 1: 1 This report is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 62, folio 185. According to indorsement it was read September 29. Committee Book No. 190 states that it was referred to Mr. [Arthur] St Clair, Mr. [Melancton] Smith and Mr. [John] Henry, who reported October 2.]
Office of Army Accounts,
Sept. 28th., 1786.
The Committee consisting of [Mr. Arthur St. Clair, Mr. Edward Carrington and Mr. William Samuel Johnson] To whom was referred the memorial of the late General Charles Scott, together with the report of the Treasury board thereupon beg leave to report:
That it appears from the receipt of a certain Job Colcock, that the memorialist paid him five Hundred and fifty pounds sterling, fifty pounds whereof was for a discount in negotiating a Bill of exchange Drawn by the memorialist on Robert Munford and Thos. Parson Esqrs. and the remaining five hundred pounds was for the amount of sundry dealing during the memorialists Confinement as a Prisoner on Hadrels point, in the years 1780 and 1781. It appears from the certificates of a certain Cornelius Baldwin Senior Surgeon, and Sundry Field Officers of the Virginia line, who were prisoners with the memorialist, that he did furnish Hospital Stores for the sick of the said line, while on Hadrels point, to a very considerable amount. It appears by the oath of the memorialist, that in destitute situation of the said Prisoners, of both public and private means of obtaining Hospital Stores, and by the sickness which prevailed amongst them, they were reduced to the most extreme distress. that soon after they had been placed on Hadrels point, the memorialist obtained from his Friends in Virga. such sums in money and letters of Credit, as enabled him to administer some relief to the sufferers who were less fortunate than
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himself. That, in this situation it was impossible for him to withhold from them such things as their comforts, and in many instances lives depended on. That a part of the Funds extended to him consisted in a power to draw upon Robert Mumford and Thomas Parson Esqrs. to the amount of five hundred pounds sterling, if he could negotiate such a draft. That the aforesaid Job Colcock agreed to give him a Credit in such dealings as he might from time to time want for such a draft. That upon this Credit there were obtained from Mr. Colcock during the memorialists confinement such articles as were wanted for the use of his Family, and for the purposes aforesaid. that the things were generally brought to the memorialists quarters and from thence drawn for the use of the sufferers as they were required. That the memorialist directed a certain William Kelly who had for several years lived in his family as an Aid de Camp, and had usually done his public, as well as private business, to keep an Account of the expenditures that should go out of the Family. that the said William Kelly deserted sometime before the memorialist left his confinement to come home on parole, and left none of the Accounts which had come into his hands in these transactions, so that the memorialist is now unable to shew the particulars that were furnished for public use, except as to 160 lb. of Bark at 30/ per. pound, which, being all purchased at once is perfectly within the memorialists remembrance, but the memorialist alledges, that Wine, Sugar, Coffee, Vinegar, and other things of such kind were in the same manner obtained, as the distresses of the Prisoners demanded them. that he was himself in so low a state of health as to require what he used, rather as an invalid, than otherwise, and that he did not remain with the other Prisoners longer than about ten Months.
Your Com. upon considering the foregoing statement, are of opinion that the peculiar situation of General Scott at Hadrels point, was such as to merit a very liberal interposition of Congress to reimburse the expenditures which were really made by him for the relief of the sick Prisoners there, as it is well known that Congress could not, and therefore did not at that time afford what was adequate to that purpose, it is also to be considered that the fatigues of the Siege these unhappy Men had just before sustained, the climate and the season of the year, all conspired to occasion much sickness amongst them and that a man circumstanced as the memorialist was, high in Rank and naturally looked to for relief by the sufferers could not have
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with held from them the supplies which it was in his power to administer.
Your Com. are therefore of opinion that the memorialist ought to be paid for so much of his claim as can with reasonable certainty be adjudged to have been necessarily furnished for public use which in their opinion is sufficiently ascertained as to the Bark, as such an article could not be required for any other than Hospital use but as the other parts of the claim are for articles which are not in their application peculiar to hospital demands, your Com. think it will be proper to refer to those who were at that time charged with the care of the public hospitals for regular information whether the public supplies were adequate to the necessities of the sick to whom it is alledged these were made by the memorialist and upon such information it will be proper for such further decision to be made as may seem just. Your Com. therefore submit the following Resolution.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of Edward Carrington, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 19, V, folio 301. The resolution submitted was adopted October 3 and is there spread verbatim on the Journal.
Also, on September 29, according to indorsement, "The injunction of Secresy" was taken off of the letter of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, of September 25, forwarding letter of John Adams, and the business referred back to the Secretary for report. See ante, September 26,]
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