| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journals of the Continental Congress --WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1779
A letter, of 18 December, 1778, from the council of Massachusetts bay, was read, respecting a supply of flour for the inhabitants of the town of Boston.2
[Note 2: 2 The letter of December 18, from the Massachusetts Council, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 65, I, folio 360.]
Ordered, Thai it be referred to the committee appointed to superintend the departments of the quarter master general and commissary general of purchases, and that the committee report thereon.
Page 56 | Page image
Another letter, of 15 December, 1778, from the said council of Massachusetts bay, was read, respecting the fortifying the port of Boston.
Ordered, That it be referred to the Marine Committee.
A letter, without date, from the board of war of Massachusetts bay, with sundry papers, and account enclosed, respecting the snow, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Antonio, and vessels sent for flour:
Ordered, That it be referred to the Board of Treasury.
A letter, of this day, from Colonel Grayson was read, desiring leave to resign his commission:1
[Note 1: 1 This letter is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, X, folio 129.]
Ordered, That it be referred to the committee appointed to confer with General Washington.
A letter, of 18 December, from Lieutenant John Hooghkirk, was read, desiring leave to resign:2
[Note 2: 2 This letter is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XI, folio 385.]
Ordered, That his resignation be accepted.
Sundry reports from the Board of Treasury were read; Whereupon,
Ordered, That upon the application of the committee on the quarter master general's and commissary general's departments, a warrant issue on the treasurer, in favour of Jeremiah Wadsworth, Esq., commissary general of purchases, for one million and five hundred thousand dollars, for which the said commissary general is to be accountable.3
[Note 3: 3 This report, dated January 6, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 13.]
That a warrant issue on the treasurer, in favour of Colonel Isaac Melcher, barrack master general, for fifty thousand dollars, for the use of his department, for which he is to be accountable.4
[Note 4: 4 This report, dated January 12, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 27.]
Page 57 | Page image
Resolved, That the Committee of the Treasury be authorized to contract with proper persons for signing bills of credit, and allow such as shall be approved by Congress and engage for twelve months, a sum not exceeding four dollars per thousand for each signer.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, dated January 11, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 25.]
The Board of War report, that the following French gentlemen having served as volunteers in Colonel Armand's corps with much reputation, as appears by the certificate of Colonel Armand, and the recommendations of the Marquis de la Fayette and others, are now about to return to France, and therefore recommend that brevets be granted to them under the exception in the resolution against granting brevets except to officers in the line, or in cases of merit, viz.
To Mons. le Compt de Zinard, the brevet commission of major.
To Mons. le chevalier de Treusson, the brevet commission of captain: and
To Messrs. Verdie, Allain, de Majastram, Briffault, de Laumon, le Tourneau, le Fièvre, and the chevalier de Fontevieu, the brevet commissions of lieutenant in the service of the United States:
Resolved, That Congress agree to the said report.
Resolved, That the sum of 400 dollars be paid to each of these gentlemen, to enable them to prosecute their voyage to France.2
[Note 2: 2 This report, dated December 31, 1778, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, II, folio 435.]
Another report from the Board of War was read: Whereupon,
Resolved, That Mons. John Bernard de Murnand be appointed a major in the corps of engineers, to take rank as such from the 1st day of March last, and to receive pay
Page 58 | Page image
and subsistence from the 1st day of February last, the latter being the time he was employed by Brigadier du Portail, and the former the time he was directed by the Commander in Chief to act as major.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, dated January 5, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, III, folio 1.]
Another report from the Board of War was read: Whereupon,2
[Note 2: 2 This report, dated December 15, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, II, folio 421.]
Resolved, That the resignation of Colonel Henry B. Livingston, of the fourth New York regiment, be accepted:
Ordered, That the President inform Colonel H. Beekman Livingston that Congress have a high sense of the services he has rendered to his country.
Another report from the Board of War was read: Whereupon,
Resolved, That the resolution of the 16 December, respecting Colonel Hartley's regiment, be re-considered, and that in lieu thereof it be resolved as follows:
Resolved, That the regiment lately commanded by Colonel Patton, (Captain M'Lane, his subalterns and men raised in the Delaware State excepted,) and the independent companies raised in Pensylvania and afterwards annexed to Colonel Malcom's regiment, be incorporated with Colonel Hartley's regiment; the whole to form a complete battalion upon the new establishment, and be added to the Pensylvania line as the eleventh regiment of that State; that the several officers be arranged by the Board of War, and enjoy their rank according to their commissions or appointments respectively.3
[Note 3: 3 This report, dated December 17, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, II, folio 425.]
Congress took into consideration their circular letter to the states reported by the Board of Treasury, which was agreed to as follows:
Page 59 | Page image
We cannot review the progress of the revolution which has given freedom to America, without admiring the goodness, and gratefully acknowledging the interposition of Divine Providence.
Oppressed by the hand which ought to have been stretched forth prince who ought to have exerted himself for our protection, and suddenly called upon to repel his powerful and unprovoked invasion, without arms or ammunition, without military discipline or permanent finances, without an established government, or friends or allies, contending against a prince, whom to that moment we had considered as our rightful sovereign enfeebled by habitual tho' ill grounded attachments to our very enemies, we were precipitated into all the expensive operations incident to a state of war with one of the most formidable nations on earth. Thus surrounded on all sides with wants, difficulties, and dangers; notwithstanding the internal wealth of our country, the prospect of our deliverance was too remote a justify the policy of immediate taxation was impracticable. And for the same reason, and a share of ill success at different periods, we could not hope either at home or abroad to borrow money to supply our exigencies.
Humbly relying on the favour of Heaven in a righteous cause, and confiding in the justice and intrepidity of our injured fellow citizens, we from necessity embraced the expedient of emitting paper money on the faith of the United States, for the expences of the war, an expedient which had often been successfully practised in separate states, while we were subjected to British domination. The implacable vengeance with which we have been pursued has compelled us to the most strenuous and unremitted efforts. Large issues of money were of consequence indispensably necessary, and the paper currency multiplied beyond what was competent for the purposes of a circulating medium. This alone could not fail to discredit it in some degree: the acts of an unprincipled enemy have increased the mischief. In despair of subduing the free spirits of America by the force of arms or the intrigues of negociation, as their last effort they have had recourse to fraud. Their emisaries have been employed in a variety of artifices to debase our money, and to raise the price of commodities. The fears and apprehensions of the people have been alarmed by misrepresentation, and finally they have descended, it is said, under high authority, to the felonious baseness of counterfeiting the Bills of Credit, and dispersing them from their Garrison at New York throughout the United States. while our enemies of the highest rank have not hesitated to counterfeit the bills of credit and disperse them throughout the United States.
Page 60 | Page image
Such being the embarrassments which interrupt a free circulation of our paper money, they loudly call for a remedy; and Congress, from a regard to good faith, to private justice, and to public safety, are bound to apply it. Happily, by a combination of auspicious events, every obstacle is removed, and the means placed within our reach. Those hostile armies which attempted to enslave us, no longer formidable, are wasted and dispersed. Our independence is established on a firm basis. Our respective governments, which compose the union, are settled and in the vigorous exercise of uncontrouled authority. An alliance on terms of perfect equality is formed with one of the greatest nations on earth; and freed in a high degree from external assaults, we have leisure to direct our attention to oeconomy and our resources to support the public credit.
To raise the value of our paper money and to redeem it, will not, we are persuaded, be difficult, nor to check and defeat the pernicious currency of counterfeits impracticable; both require a far less share of public virtue and public vigilance than have distinguished this arduous conflict. Had it been seasonable, an adequate Fund for Redemption ought to have accompanied every Emission. The causes which prevented it no longer exist. The necessity is become more urgent; while the Evil itself, which consists in too great an influx of paper money, will facilitate and reconcile the Remedy.
Without public inconvenience or private distress, the whole of the debt incurred in paper emissions to this day may be cancelled by taxes; it may be cancelled in a period so limited as must leave the possessor of the bills satisfied with his security. Hence will arise another vast advantage to the Public. The monied Interest, satisfied of the sufficiency of the Funds for cancelling the Debt, will cheerfully convert their Property into Loan Office Certificates. Even if this supply should be competent And if by a continuance of the war, the public service should demand further emissions, they too may be cancelled within the same period: it being evident that our ability to sustain a tax must increase in proportion to the quantity of money in circulation.
The danger from counterfeits can only be avoided by calling in and exchanging the emissions, which have chiefly suffered by that species of fraud. To publish the marks of detection and still to leave the true bills current will not be prudent, as it must afford an opportunity for correcting defects and cheating more securely.
Page 61 | Page image
To defend the emission intended for the exchange from counterfeits, the strongest guards will be devised, and it is expected that the marks of authenticity will be so obvious, and the difficulty of successful imitation so great, as to discourage the attempt or elude its effects.
Upon those weighty considerations Congress have agreed to the annexed resolutions, and recommend them to the immediate attention of the respective legislatures of the United States, to the end that laws may be enacted to give them the most speedy, decisive, and effectual operation.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, dated January 6, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 7.]
Ordered, That the Board of Treasury extract from the journals all the resolutions relative to finance, which are proper to be sent to the several states, and commissioners of the continental loan offices, and lay the same before Congress, in order that they may be published.
On motion, Ordered, That the hon. Mr. [Francis] Lewis a member of this House, be requested to reduce to writing and to lay on the table, the conversation between him and the hon. Mr. [Henry] Laurens, on the subject laid before the house in writing by Mr. Laurens on the 11th instant, and also to reduce to writing and lay on the table all he knows respecting the matter which was the subject of that conversation.
Adjourned to 10 oClock to Morrow.
PREVIOUS SECTION .. NEXT SECTION .. NAVIGATOR
| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |