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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 --FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1779
A petition of Walter Bicker, and a petition from Robert Byers, were read:
Ordered, That they be referred to the Board of War.
A letter, of 17, from B. P. Smith, was read:
Ordered, That it be referred to the Board of Treasury.
A letter, of 18, from Major General Arnold, was read,1 informing that for the recovery of his health and wounds, and for the settlement of his public as well as private affairs he has, with the permission of General Washington, resigned his command in the city of Philadelphia to Brigadier General Hogan.
[Note 1: 1 Bicker's memorial, dated March 17, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 42, I, 169; the letter of Arnold is in No. 162, folio 169.]
A letter, of this day, from Thomas Paine, was read, requesting to be "furnished with a copy of his appointment to the office of secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs," and a copy from the journal of "whatever else refers to him from January 5, 1779, to the resolution of Congress for taking the papers of the Committee of Foreign Affairs out of his keeping."
Ordered, That the consideration thereof be postponed.
A letter, of 27 February, from Baron Steuben was read.
A memorial of Monsr. Galvan was read,2 praying to be appointed colonel in the service of the United States, and to be permitted on terms proposed to raise an independent corps, or in case this cannot be obtained, to be appointed sub-inspector with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
[Note 2: 2 Steuben's letter is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 164, folio 169; the memorial of Galvan, dated March 17, is in No. 41, III, folio 436.]
Resolved, That the President inform Mr. Galvan that Congress cannot comply with his request for leave to raise an independent corps.
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Ordered, That so much of the said memorial as prays for the appointment of inspector be referred to the Board of War.
The Committee on the Treasury brought in a report; Whereupon,
Ordered, That a warrant issue on the treasury in favour of Major General Baron de Kalb, for six hundred and forty dollars in full for the extra expences of himself and aids, to and from Albany, in February, 1778.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, dated March 6, and based upon a letter of De Kalb, of March 4, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 147.]
Ordered, That a warrant issue on the treasurer in favour of Joseph Carleton, paymaster to the Board of War and Ordnance, for one million dollars, to be by him transmitted to John Lewis Jervais, deputy paymaster general in South Carolina, for the use of his department, and for which the said deputy paymaster general is to be accountable.
Whereas Captain Green was made prisoner at the Cedars in Canada, in 1776, and remained a hostage for the capitulation entered into by General Arnold, and was afterwards permitted to return to these states on his parole:
Resolved, That the Commander in Chief be directed to take such measures as shall appear to him to be proper for the exchange or release of the said Captain Green, in the cartel which he is authorized to settle with the commander in chief of his Britannic majesty's forces; and that a copy of the paragraph of General Schuyler's letter of 12 January, respecting Captain Green, be transmitted to the Commander in Chief.2
[Note 2: 2 This report, dated March 16, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 173.]
Congress resumed the consideration of the report of the Board of Treasury, recommending that a warrant issue
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on J. Borden, Esq. commissioner of the continental loan office in the State of New Jersey, in favour of Elias Boudinot, for two thousand dollars in loan office certificates bearing date, July 1, 1777:1
[Note 1: 1 The report of the Treasury, dated March 17, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 175. The preamble was a follows:
"Whereas by a receipt of Wm. Palfrey, Esqr. Pay Master General dated the 1st July 1777, and other evidence it appears that Elias Boudinot Esqr. supplied him with two thousand dollars in bills of credit intended to have been placed in the Continental funds, that in consequence of a refusal of Joseph Borden Esqr. Comr. Contl. Loan Office in New Jersey in part of a warrant drawn on him by the President of Congress in favor of Wm. Palfrey Esqr, the matter has been suspended."]
On the question put, passed in the negative.
The commissioners report,
That there is due to the estate of Lieutenant George Weft, deceased, for his pay and rations during his captivity, from the 1 June, 1777, to the 14 of November, 1778, when he died, a balance of four hundred and fifty two dollars, to be paid to his widow, Mary Wert.
That there is due to Robert Jewell, for his own pay as keeper of the State's prison in Philadelphia, and the pay of his two assistants, door keeper and occasional clerk, up to the 6 instant, inclusive, four thousand two hundred and ninety six dollars; also for cash advanced for candies, sawing wood, &c. four hundred and forty six dollars, and 24/90, the whole amounting to 4,742 24/90 dollars.2
[Note 2: 2 This report, dated March 17, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, III, folio 177.]
Ordered, That the said accounts be paid.
Congress took into consideration the report of the committee of the whole, and after some time spent thereon,
Congress took into consideration the report of the committee of the whole, and agreed to the following ultimata:
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angle of Nova Scotia, along the high lands which divide those rivers which empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut river; thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; thence due west in the latitude forty-five degrees north from the equator, to the north-westernmost side of the river St. Lawrence, or Cadaraqui; thence strait to the south end of lake Nepissing; and thence strait to the source of the river Mississippi: west, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi from its source to where the said line shall intersect the latitude of thirty-one degrees north: south, by a line to be drawn due east from the termination of the line last mentioned in the latitude thirty-one degrees north from the equator to the middle of the river Apalachicola, or Catahouchie; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint river; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river; thence down along the middle of St. Mary's river to the Atlantic ocean: and east, by a line to be drawn along the middle of St. John's from its source to its mouth in the bay of Fundy, or by a line to be settled and adjusted between that part of the State of Massachusetts Bay, formerly called the province of Maine, and the colony of Nova Scotia, agreeably to their respective rights, comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one
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part, and East Florida on the other part, shall respectively touch the bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean. Provided, that if the line to be drawn from the mouth of Lake Nepissing to the head of the Mississippi cannot be obtained without continuing the war for that purpose, then, that a line or lines may be drawn more southerly, so as not to be southward of a line in latitude forty-five degrees north.
[Note 1: 1 These two paragraphs were entered only in the manuscript Secret Journal, Foreign Affairs.
In the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 36, III, folio 519, is the following paper in the writing of Gouverneur Morris. It is without date, and endorsed, "Relative to Committee of the Whole."
"Beginning at the mouth of St Mary's river and running along the middle of the said River to the source, thence a line drawn to that part of the River Apalachicola where the River Catahouchee and Flint River meet, thence along the middle of the said River to the latitude of thirty one degrees North, thence due west to the River Mississippi thence up the River Mississippi along the middle thereof to the River Illinois, thence up along the middle thereof to the source thereof, thence to the southwestermost part of Lake Michigan or Illinois thence due north to the northern shore of the waters of the Lakes Superior and Huron, thence along the said shore eastwardly up the River called the Rivière des François to the mouth of Lake Nipissing, thence a Line drawn to that part of the River St. Lawrence which lies in the latitude of forty five degrees north, thence East to Connecticut River, thence along the middle of the said River to the source thereof, and so along the lands height which divides the waters falling into the River St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean to the northwestermost corner of Nova Scotia, and thence southerly by a Line to be adjusted as the Western Boundary of Nova Scotia."]
Adjourned to 10 o Clock to Morrow.
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