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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journals of the Continental Congress --TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1776
Resolved, That an order be drawn on the treasurers in favour of James Mease, commissary, the sum of 20,000 dollars, he to be accountable.
A petition from Edmund Custis, and a letter from the committees of Accomac and Northampton, were presented and read:
Resolved, That the same be referred to the committee of the whole.
A letter from sundry inhabitants of Westmoreland, dated the 6th, was read:1
[Note 1: 1 This letter, dated the 8th, is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 69, I, folio 101. It covered a petition dated the 6th.]
Ordered, To lie on the table.
A petition from Dr. Hall Jackson, of the 12 February last, was presented and read.
Ordered, To lie on the table.
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The Congress resumed the consideration of the instructions to the commissioners going to Canada, and after some time spent thereon,
Resolved, That the farther consideration thereof be postponed till to Morrow.
The Committee to whom the letter from Colonel Moses Hazen, and the report of persons appointed to state the account of losses and damages sustained by him in Canada, were referred, brought in their report, which being taken into consideration was agreed to as follows:
It appears to your committee that the loss and damage sustained by Colonel Hazen in Canada, have not been estimated with sufficient accuracy; that some of the articles enumerated in the inventory are presumed to be over rated, the quantities of several others reducible to exactness in number, weight, or measure, are not ascertained, and the reasons for the knowledge or belief of any of them by the witnesses are not explicit enough in their examinations; that, although the grain, grass and hay mentioned in the account are admitted by Colonel Hazen, in his letter, to have been partly destroyed by the ministerial troops, the whole value is extended; that the estimates of the crops are so general, it cannot be discovered by what rule they were formed, or to what standard adjusted; that the damages done to the dwelling house, stone house, out-houses, barn, and farms, are not particularized or specifyed; that a considerable part of what a reimbursement is claimed for, is household furniture, wearing apparel, tools, utensils, cables, and anchors, suggested to have been plundered by the troops of the United Colonies, and the Canadians who joined them; and your committee believe no reparation of the like kind hath yet been made by Congress; and that the profits which might have been made of the mills and houses, if the
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owner had not been deprived of the use of them, being merely contingent and conjectural, are such as have not usually been made good in similar cases: Whereupon,
Resolved, That the commissioners who are going to Canada be desired to appoint proper persons to examine, state and settle an account of the loss and damage Colonel Hazen hath sustained in his property and possessions in Canada, by the forces of the United Colonies, and report the same, with any special matters they may think fit, to Congress; annexing to their report the estimates, examinations of witnesses, and other papers relative thereto.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of George Wythe, is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 19, III, 93. The last paragraph, in the writing of Roger Sherman, is in No. 58, folio 365.]
Resolved, That if any of the gentlemen appointed field officers in the four batallions raising in New York, for the defence of that colony, are provided for in Canada, they be directed to continue there, exercising the offices to which they are appointed, and that others be elected in their room, in the four batallions aforesaid; and that such of them as are not provided for in Canada, be directed immediately to repair to their respective batallions.
The order of the day being renewed,
∥The matters to this day referred, being postponed,∥
Adjourned to 10 o'Clock to Morrow.
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