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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 --SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1777
Whereas, it is represented to Congress, that a considerable number of the nine first regiments of Virginia forces, in the continental service, whose times of inlistment are near expiring, are willing to re-inlist, and many of them have re-inlisted for three years or during the war, upon condition of receiving the continental bounty of 20 dollars, the suit of cloaths allowed by Congress, and a farther bounty of 20 dollars; and whereas, the State of Virginia have engaged to pay the additional bounty, but the cloathier general has not a sufficiency of cloathing to
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supply the men; and it is represented that the men are willing to take money in lieu of the cloaths that cannot be supplied, and to furnish themselves with necessary cloathing:
Resolved, That the Board of Treasury be directed to settle the accounts of the said men, and to pay or order them to be paid for the articles of cloathing, with which they cannot be supplied by the cloathier general, agreeable to the estimate fixed by Congress.
The Medical Committee, to whom it was referred to enquire into the conduct of the director of the hospitals at Alexandria, reported, "That from the information of several officers in the Virginia and North Carolina regiments, which are annexed, it appears obvious to the committee that Dr. Rickman, director of the said hospitals, has been guilty of great neglect in not giving proper attendance to the officers and soldiers under inoculation at Alexandria:" The said report and the informations being read,
Resolved, That Dr. Rickman be immediately suspended, and that he attend the Medical Committee, to answer the several complaints exhibited against him.
Ordered, That the Medical Committee transmit to Dr. Rickman a copy of the complaints against him, and direct his attendance:
That the said committee write to Dr. Shippen, director general, and direct him to send immediately a skilful physician to take care of the sick and superintend the inoculation of the soldiers at Alexandria.
Application being made by Robert Yancey, to be reimbursed a sum of public money entrusted to him as pay master of Colonel Bland's regiment, and which he lost;
Ordered, That it be referred to the Board of Treasury
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to enquire into the circumstances, and report specially thereon.
Resolved, That Mr. [George] Frost be added to the Marine Committee, in the room of Mr. [Nathaniel] Folsom, who being engaged at the treasury, desires to be excused.
A letter, of the 2, from Brigadier Parsons, with a copy of a letter from him to Major General Tryon, and General Tryon's answer, ∥were read.∥1
[Note 1: 1 This letter is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 161, folio 327.]
Ordered, That Brigadier General Parsons be directed to send to Congress an authentic account of the treatment which John and Philip Vantassel and their families received from the enemy.
A letter, of the 14, from the navy board at Bordentown, in New Jersey, directed to the Marine Committee, was laid before Congress, and read:
Ordered, That it be returned to the Marine Committee, and that they be directed to prepare proper resolutions for supporting the authority of the navy board, and report the same to Congress.
A letter from Flobergue de la Rocatelle, with a memoir annexed, was laid before Congress, ∥and read:∥
Ordered, That it be referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The Committee on the Treasury brought in a report; Whereupon,
Ordered, That a warrant issue on the treasurer in favour of Patrick M'Closkey, for 68 dollars, the price of a horse which belonged to him, and was sent with an express to the eastward in February last, and not returned, as appears by the certificate of Mr. [John] Hancock, and Mr. Abeel, assistant quarter master general:
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That a warrant issue on the treasurer in favour of Mr. A. Clark, for the amount of the expences of himself and others, with the public papers, &c. at Bristol, for 39 65/90 dollars.
That a warrant issue on the treasurer in favour of William Buchanan, Esqr. commissary general of purchases, for 600,000 dollars; 200,000 dollars of which to be sent to Mr. Cuyler, his deputy in the northern department, 200,000 to his deputy, Mr. Colt, in the eastern deparment, and 200,000 to his deputy in the southern department; the said commissary general of purchases to be accountable:
That a warrant issue on John Lawrence, Esqr. commissioner of the continental loan office in the State of Connecticut, in favour of the honble. the governor and council of safety of the said State, for 200,000 dollars, for the purpose of purchasing provisions agreeable to a resolution of Congress; the said governor and council to be accountable:
That a warrant issue on Thomas Smith, Esqr. commissioner of the loan office in the State of Pensylvania in favour of Elias Boudinot, for five thousand dollars, to be paid in continental loan office certificates, to bear date the 21 day of May last, it being in discharge of so much borrowed of the said Elias [Boudinot at that time by William Palfrey, Esqr. pay master general, the said pay master general to be accountable:
That another warrant issue on Thomas Smith, Esqr. commissioner of the loan office in the State of Pensylvania, in favour of Elias Boudinot, for 1,200 dollars, to be paid him in loan office certificates, to be dated the 7th July last, it being so much borrowed of him at that time
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by William Palfrey, Esqr. pay master general, the said pay master general to be accountable:
That the following warrants issue in favour of John Morton, Esqr. for the payment [of] William Palfrey's two receipts amounting to 14,970½ dollars, which sum was borrowed of the said J. Morton by Mr. Palfrey, payable with interest; one receipt dated Morristown, the 27 day of May last, for 4,700 dollars; the other bearing date, the 27 day of May, for 10,270½ dollars, for which sums the said W. Palfrey, pay master general is to be accountable, viz:
One on Thomas Smith, Esqr. commissioner of the loan office in the state of Pensylvania, for 14,900 dollars, to be paid in loan office certificates bearing date 27th of May last; and
One on the treasurer, to be paid to Elias Boudinot, Esqr. for 70½ dollars, with interest thereon from 27 May to 20 December, instant, amounting in the whole to 72 80/90 dollars.
The said committee having represented to Congress, that the warrant drawn in favour of William Buchanan, commissary general of purchases, on the 16 September last, by the president of Congress, on John Lawrence, Esqr. commissioner of the loan office in the State of Connecticut, for 200,000 dollars, is returned for want of payment, and that Mr. Buchanan desires the same may be cancelled; it was, thereupon,
Resolved, That the said warrant be cancelled, and proper entries made accordingly in the public books at the treasury office.1
[Note 1: 1 This report is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, I, folio 521.]
The committee to whom was re-committed the report of the committee on the letters from S. A. Otis, brought
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in their report, which was taken into consideration; Whereupon,
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Resolved, That it be recommended to the respective states to appoint one or more suitable persons to superintend and direct the tradesmen employed to make up the cloaths to be collected as aforesaid, who shall conform themselves to the instructions of the Board of War relative to the form thereof, provided that no delays be suffered to take place from the want of such instructions.
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means of oppression, sharping, and extortion, to accumulate enormous gain to themselves, to the great distress of private families in general, and especially of the poorer and more dependent part of the community, as well as to the great injury of the public service. For the effectual suppression of such nefarious practices it is most seriously recommended to the several legislatures aforesaid, forthwith to enact laws, limiting the number of retailers of goods, wares, and merchandise in their several counties, towns, and districts, and obliging them to take license and enter into bonds for the observance of all laws made for their regulation; to make provision in the said laws that no person be allowed to sell by wholesale except the importer, and he only to persons having such licenses, or the certificates hereafter mentioned; and that such of their inhabitants as are not licensed as aforesaid, be restrained from purchasing a greater quantity of such goods, wares, or merchandise than is requisite for their own private or family's use or consumption. And that it be farther recommended to the several states to prohibit any persons whatever, not citizens of their respective states, to purchase within the same, any articles of cloathing or provision necessary for the use of the army, (unless so much as may be requisite for their own private or family's use or consumption,) excepting only such person or persons as shall produce a certificate, under the seal and sign manual of the supreme executive authority of the respective states, purporting that the said person or persons are employed or permitted to make purchases either on account of the public or for the use or benefit of the inhabitants of the State of which he or they are members; and to inflict such punishment upon all atrocious offenders before described, as shall brand them with indelible infamy.
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The committee having prepared a circular letter to accompany the foregoing resolutions, submitted it to Congress, and the same being read, and approved, is as follows:
Sir: I am directed by Congress to transmit to your honorable body the enclosed resolutions, which the pressing wants of the army, and the arts and avarice of engrossers and extortioners have rendered indispensably necessary to the general welfare.
It is with deep concern that Congress, after having for some time contemplated, in painful silence, the mischiefs which threatened this extended Continent from the growing avarice of the times, feel themselves constrained to recommend measures which the virtue of all classes of men rendered not long since unnecessary, and which a scrupulous regard for security of property to every citizen of these states has hitherto restrained from adopting. But, unhappy the case of America! laws unworthy the character of infant republics are become necessary to supply the defect of public virtue, and to correct the vices of some of her sons; and she is called upon by the grand principle of self preservation, to guard against the parricide of those whom she has fostered in her own bosom.
To minds whose reflections are employed on the importance of the cause in which we are engaged, and which feel for every circumstance which may affect the honour and safety of these states, it must give the most painful sensations to consider that, at a time when the late signal successes we have been blest with, the reduced numbers of the enemy, the difficulties they meet with in procuring foreign levies, and the political complexion of affairs in Europe, have deprived Britain of many of those resources on which she so much depended; when the numbers and improving discipline of our army, the prodigious augmentation of our military stores, the quantity of provisions with which this country abounds, and the large supplies of cloathing which have of late been imported by private persons, afford not only the opportunity but the means, under Divine Providence, of establishing our liberties by a few exertions; this bright prospect should be clouded over, and this great and glorious event endangered by the languor of too many, and by the arts and avarice of designing individuals, who, like the British nabobs of the east, are corrupting the manners of a whole nation, and building vast fortunes on the destruction of the liberties of the western world.
It is to be hoped, however, that the wise and spirited laws of the different states, aided by the influence and exertions of the real patriots,
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will apply effectual remedies to these alarming evils; that the old and hardened offenders will be punished; that those in whose bosoms the sparks of public virtue are not yet extinguished, will be reclaimed, the languid roused from their present apathy; and that all classes of men will unite with their former spirit and virtue against an enemy whose progress is marked with every vestige of barbarity, and whose determined object, is to establish a tyranny of the most dangerous and debasing nature over the inhabitants of a vast Continent.
Congress flatter themselves that the resolutions herewith transmitted will tend to accomplish some of these valuable purposes, and they therefore esteem it their duty to recommend them to the serious consideration of your honorable house, and hope they will be carried into execution as secretly and expeditiously as possible.
By order of Congress.
At a Board of War, 20th December, 1777.
Present, Mr. Lee, Mr. Duer, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Jones.
The Board taking into Consideration the Petitions of Colonels Green and Sumner, and other Officers in the Army who have lost their Horses in actual service,
Beg leave to report to Congress,
That every Officer in the Army of the United States whose Duty requires his being on Horseback in time of Action, be allowed the sum of, as a compensation for any horse he shall have killed by the Enemy in Battle. This Resolution to have retrospect, and the Quarter Master General be authorized to pay the said sum to the respective sufferers on the fact being properly authenticated.
That in the opinion of the Board the expences incurred by Colonel John Green for keeping two Horses during the time his wounds rendered his removal last Campaign out of the Jersies necessary, be allowed him and that the same be referred to the Treasury Board for Settlement.
That the part of General Heath's letter of the 19th ultimo respecting money wanted in the Eastern Department be referred to the Treasury Board.
That Elias Boudinot, Esq., Commissary General of Prisoners be empowered to contract with a proper person or persons for erecting in such part of the State of Connecticut as Governor Trambull shall think proper, Barracks sufficient for the accommodation of fifteen
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hundred Men, having special regard, that the Barracks be constructed in the most oeconomical manner possible, and erected in a place where the Prisoners may be cheaply and securely maintained.1
[Note 1: 1 This report is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, I, folio 421. The members present were Francis Lightfoot Lee, William Duer, John Harvie, and Joseph Jones.]
∥The several matters to this day referred, being postponed,
Adjourned to 10 o'Clock on Monday.∥
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