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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, OCTOBER 7, 1777
A letter, of this day, from Peter Tarlan, deputy quarter master general for Georgia, was read:1
[Note 1: 1 The letter from Peter Taarling is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, IX, folio 121.]
Ordered, That it be referred to the Board of Treasury.
Ordered, That 390 dollars be advanced to R. Peters, Esqr. secretary of the Board of War, for contingent expences, and for which he is to be accountable.
A memorial, from Mons. le Brun, was read:2
[Note 2: 2 This memorial, dated Philadelphia, September 17, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 41, I, folio 438.]
Ordered, That it be referred to the Board of War.
Agreeable to the order of the day, Congress took into consideration the 13th article of the confederation as reported by the committee of the whole, vizt.: "In determining questions each State shall have one vote." To which sundry amendments were moved. After debate, the farther consideration thereof was postponed to the afternoon.
Ordered, That 20,000 dollars be advanced and charged to the Committee of Commerce, by a draught on the loan office in Boston, to be paid to Mr. John Bradford, agent for the committee, he to be accountable to the committee.
Adjourned to 4 o'Clock.
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Four o'Clock, p. m.
Congress resumed the debate on the amendments proposed and the question being put on the first amendment, viz., after "questions" leave out "each State shall have one vote" and insert:
"Rhode Island, Delaware and Georgia shall have one vote, and every other State shall have one vote for every fifty thousand white inhabitants therein, taken and transmitted according to the directions of the 9th article; and when the white inhabitants of Rhode Island, Delaware or Georgia shall exceed fifty thousand, the number of votes to be given by such State shall be increased in the proportion of one vote for every fifty thousand such inhabitants, that an equality in this national assembly may be preserved as nearly as possible, and that those who are bound by measures and are to pay taxes demanded by an assembly, the members of which are elected not by all the people, but by those of a particular district, may have the same proportionable number of votes as they would have if they were personally present. If, in process of time, the people shall so multiply as that the Congress, consisting of one delegate for every fifty thousand white inhabitants, would be too numerous, the proportions shall be again adjusted, wherein the same rule of equality in the representation shall be observed;" and the yeas and nays being required:
{table}
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So it passed in the negative.
It was then moved, instead of the 13 article as expressed to insert, "each State shall have a right to send one delegate to Congress for every thirty thousand of its inhabitants, and in determining questions in Congress each delegate shall have one voice;"
And the question being put, and the yeas and nays required:
{table}
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So it passed in the negative.
It was then moved, "That the quantum of representation for each State shall be computed by numbers proportioned according to its contribution of money or tax levied, agreeable to the 9th article of this confederation, and paid into the public treasury towards the annual expences necessary for the support of the union;"
And the question being put, and the yeas and nays required:
{table}
So it passed in the negative.
The question being put on the article as reported, and the yeas and nays required:
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{table}
So it was resolved, That in determining questions each State shall have one vote.1
[Note 1: 1 This day's proceedings on the confederation, in the writing of Charles Thomson, are in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 47, folio 77.]
The several matters to this day referred, being postponed,
Adjourned to 10 o'Clock to Morrow.
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