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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 --WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1778

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1778

The credentials for the delegates of Pennsylvania were read as follows:

In General Assembly of Pennsylvania, Friday, November 20, 1778.

The Order of the Day being Called for and Read, the House Proceeded by Ballot to the Election of Delegates in Congress for the ensuing Year; When the following Gentlemen were Chosen, Viz. Daniel Roberdeau, William Clingan, Edward Biddle, John Armstrong,

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William Shippen the elder, Samuel Atlee, and James Searle, Esqrs.

Extract from the Minutes,

John Morris,Clerk of General Assembly.

In consequence of the above appointment, Mr. Daniel Roberdeau, Mr. [William] Clingan, and Mr. [James] Searle, attended, and took their seats:

Resolved, That Congress meet this afternoon at six o'clock.

Ordered, That William Augustus Atlee, Esq, be summoned to attend Congress at that time, to give evidence on the charge against Brigadier W. Thompson; and that Brigadier Thompson be notified to attend.

A letter, of 13th, from Charles Frederick Bedaulx, and

A letter, of 2, from Major General Sullivan, were read. Also,

A letter, of 18, from General Washington, with sundry papers enclosed, relative to Count Holkauski, [Kolhowsky] and a letter of 9th, from Major General De Kalb, respecting Major Rogers, were read:¹

[Note 1: 1 The letter of Bedaulx is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, III, folio 217. With it is a letter of Pulaski, of the same date, on folio 213; that of Sullivan, in No. 160, folio 211; that of Washington, in No. 152, VI, folio 515; and that of DeKalb, in No. 164, folio 326.]

Ordered, That they be referred to the Board of War.

A letter, of 22, from Mr. President Rodney, was read.

A letter, of 23 October, from Thomas Chittenden, was read.²

[Note 2: 2 Rodney's letter is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 70, folio 687; that of Chittenden, in No. 78, V, folio 245.]

Ordered, To lie on the table.

Mr. [John] Witherspoon, a delegate for the State of New Jersey, attended, and laid before Congress powers to the delegates of that State to ratify the articles of confederation, which were read, as follows:

"(L. S.) By his Excellency, William Livingston, Esq. governor, captain general, and commander in chief, in and over the State of New

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Jersey and territories thereunto belonging, chancellor and ordinary in the same.

"To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: know ye, that among the records in the secretary's office, in the State of New Jersey, there is a certain instrument of writing purporting to be an act of the council and general assembly of the said State, which said act is contained in the words and tenor here following, to wit:

An act to authorize and empower the delegates of the State of New Jersey in Congress, to subscribe and ratify the articles of confederation and perpetual union between the several states.

Whereas, articles of confederation and perpetual union, between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pensylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, signed in the Congress of the said states, by the Hon. Henry Laurens, Esq. their president, have been laid before the legislature of this State, to be ratified by the same if approved: and, whereas, notwithstanding the terms of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union are considered, as in divers respects, unequal and disadvantageous to this State, and the objections to several of the said articles lately stated and sent to the general Congress aforesaid, on the part of this State, are still viewed as just and reasonable, and sundry of them as of the most essential moment to the welfare and happiness of the good people thereof; yet, under the full conviction of the present necessity of acceding to the confederacy proposed, and that every separate and detached state interest ought to be postponed to the general good of the union; and moreover, in firm reliance that the candor and justice of the several states will, in due time, remove, as far as possible, the inequality which now subsists:
• Sect. 1. Be it enacted by the council and general assembly of this State, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the Hon. John Witherspoon, Abraham Clark, Nathaniel Scudder, and Elias Boudinot, Esqrs. delegates, representing this State in the Congress of the United States, or any one or more of them, be, and they hereby are authorized, empowered, and directed, on behalf of this State, to subscribe and ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union between the several states aforesaid.
• Sect. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, so as aforesaid

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  subscribed and ratified, shall thenceforth become conclusive as to this State, and obligatory thereon.

Council Chamber,November 19, 1778.

This bill, having been three times read in council,

Resolved, That the same do pass.

By order of the house,

William Livingston,President.

House of Assembly,November 20, 1778.

This bill, having been three times read in the house of assembly,

Resolved, That the same do pass.

By order of the house,

Caleb Camp,Speaker pro tem.

All which, by the tenor of these presents, I have caused to be exemplified.

In testimony whereof, the great seal of the said State of New Jersey is hereunto affixed, at Trenton, the twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy eight, and in the third year of the independency of the United States of America.

William Livingston.

By his excellency's command,

Bowers Reed,Secretary.

Congress was resolved into a committee of the whole, and after some time the President resumed the chair, and Mr. F[rancis] L[ightfoot] Lee reported, that the committee have had under their farther consideration, the propositions to them referred, and made some farther progress, but not having come to a conclusion, desire leave to sit again:

Resolved, That to morrow at one o'clock, Congress be resolved into a committee of the whole, to consider farther the propositions referred to them.

Six o'Clock, p. m.

A letter, of 15, from Admiral Gambler, was read, relative to an officer of the king his master, shipwrecked, as he says, in carrying a flag:¹

[Note 1: 1 This letter is in the Library of Congress, United States Revolution, IV.]

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Ordered, That it be referred to the committee on the letter of the 30th of October, from Commissary Beatty.

Mr. [George] Frost, a delegate from New Hampshire, attended, and produced a resolution of the general assembly of that State as follows:

State of New Hampshire,
In the House of Representatives,
October 31, 1778.

Voted and resolved, that any one of the Delegates from this State to the honorable Continental Congress be, and hereby is authorized and empowered to represent this State in said Congress, at all tunes, in the Absence of the other Delegates from this State, until the Articles of Confederation of the United States shall be ratified by all the States.

Sent up for concurrence,

John Langdon,Speaker.

In Council, the same Day, read and Concurred,

E. Thompson,Secretary.

A true copy, examined byE. Thompson,Secretary.¹

[Note 1: 1 The original is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, New Hampshire,Credentials of Delegates.]

The Hon. W. A. Atlee, one of the judges in the supreme court, being engaged on the bench on a trial in a capital case, could not attend ∥agreeable to the summons: Whereupon,∥

Adjourned to 10 o'Clock to Morrow.

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