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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, DECEMBER 9, 1777
An application from Mrs. Duggan, for a supply of money, was read. Also a bill of exchange drawn at Boston, June 17, 1777, by Abraham Livingston, for himself and William Turnbull, in favour of Captain Pierre de Campe, was laid before Congress:
Ordered, That the application of Mrs. Duggan and the bill be referred to the Board of Treasury.
The Board of War laid before Congress a correspondence that passed between them and the supreme executive council of Pensylvania, relative to supplying the hospital and army with blankets and cloathing; Whereupon,
Resolved, That the legislature of the commonwealth of Pensylvania be informed, that, in the opinion of Congress, the means which have been pursued in consequence of the ordinance of the council of safety, November 8, 1777,
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have by no means been adequate to the laudable designs the council had in view:
That the situation of the army and of the hospitals, for want of blankets and other cloathing, is really deplorable, and, if not speedily remedied, must be attended with the most prejudicial consequences not only to this State but to the general interest:
That Congress, therefore, submit it to the assembly of the State of Pensylvania, whether under these critical, distressing circumstances, it would not be advisable to vest the continental Board of War, or such persons as the said Board may, for that purpose, appoint, with full powers to collect cloathing, and blankets, &c. agreeable to the restrictions in the ordinance of council of the 8 November, 1777.
Ordered, That the Board of War transmit the foregoing resolution to the legislature aforesaid.
A motion being made to recommend it to sundry states to offer pardons and give encouragement to such of the members of their respective states as they judge proper, who having joined the enemy, are willing to return to their allegiance:
Ordered, That it be referred to a committee of four:
The members chosen, Mr. [Francis] Dana, Mr. [Daniel] Roberdeau, Mr. [William] Duer, and Mr. [Eliphalet] Dyer.
The committee to whom were referred the intercepted letters from Owen Jones, Junr. to sundry persons at Lancaster, brought in a partial report, and desired leave to sit again on the business.
Congress took into consideration the report of the committee; Whereupon,
Resolved, That the letters from Owen Jones, Junr. a prisoner of the commonwealth of Pensylvania, confined
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at Winchester in Virginia, to sundry persons at Lancaster, be transmitted by the Board of War to the president of the supreme executive council of the State of Pensylvania; and that it be recommended to the executive authority of the said State, to take such measures on the premises, as they, in their wisdom, shall deem meet.
Ordered, That the committee have leave to sit again:
Resolved, That the president write letters to the several states of Connecticut, New York, Pensylvania, Maryland and South Carolina, representing to them the great and important matters to be transacted in Congress during the winter, and the few members now attending, and that he request them to send forward, without delay, an additional number of members.
That he also write in pressing terms to the states of New Jersey and Delaware, who are unrepresented, to send delegates immediately to Congress.
∥The several matters to this day referred, being postponed,∥
Adjourned to 10 o'Clock to Morrow.
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