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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, APRIL 7, 1781

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1781

A letter, of 5, from the governor of New Jersey; and

A letter, of 28 March, from the governor of Virginia, with sundry papers enclosed; and

A memorial of Colonel Febiger; and

A letter, of 24 March, from Brigadier General Morgan, were read:²

[Note 2: 2 The New Jersey letter is in thePapers of the Continental Congress No. 68, folio 577; the Virginia letter is in No. 72, II, folio 79; Febiger's memorial, dated April 5, 1781, is in No. 41, III, folio 248; Morgan's letter is in No. 78, XVI, folio 147.]

Ordered, That copies of the letter from the governor of New Jersey be immediately transmitted to the president and supreme executive council of Pensylvania, to the president of Delaware, and to the governors of Maryland and Virginia:

That the letter from the governor of Virginia and the memorial of Colonel Febiger be referred to the Board of War, and that the letter from Brigadier General Morgan be referred to the Board of Treasury.

A letter, of 6, from the Board of War, was read:³

[Note 3: 3 This letter is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, VI, folio 387.]

Ordered, That it be referred to a committee of three, and that the committee confer with the president and supreme executive council of Pensylvania on the subject matter thereof:

The members, Mr. [Thomas] McKean, Mr. [John] Mathews, Mr. [Jesse] Root.

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A letter, of 28 March, from Peter Deveaux, was read:¹

[Note 1: 1 This letter is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, VII, folio 375.]

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

A report from the Board of War was read; Whereupon;

Ordered, That the resignation of Lieutenant Patterson; of Colonel Proctor's regiment of artillery, be accepted.²

[Note 2: 2 This report is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 147, VI, folio 391.]

A report from the Board of Treasury on the memorial of Nathaniel Rochester was read; Whereupon,

Ordered, That the following warrants issue on Thomas Harwood, commissioner of the continental loan office for the State of Maryland: one in favour of Ephraim Blaine, commissary general of purchases, for one thousand six hundred and two dollars and 88/90 in bills of the new emission, to enable the said commissary general of purchases to pay that sum to Colonel Thomas Hart for provisions furnished by the said Thomas Hart for the southern army, as appears by the certificates of the officer then commanding in that department, and the certificates of William Pendergast, deputy commissary general of purchases for the southern army, and for which sum the said E. Blaine, commissary general, is to be accountable; and another warrant in favour of Charles Pettit, assistant quartermaster general, on account of Colonel T. Pickering, quartermaster general, for one hundred and ninety-seven dollars and 45/90 of a dollar in the new emissions, to enable the said Charles Pettit to pay that sum to the said Thomas Hart for forage furnished to the southern army, as appears by the certificates of Major General Gates and Edward Dyer, deputy commissary of forage, and for which sum the said quartermaster general is to be accountable.³

[Note 3: 3 This report is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 136, V, folio 221.]

The committee to whom was re-committed the report on the rules for conducting business delivered in a report.

The report of the committee, ∥consisting of Mr. Varnum, Mr. Bee, and Mr. Vandyke,∥ on the draft of instructions to

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the captains of private armed vessels, was taken into consideration; and thereupon,

Be it ordained, and it is hereby ordained, by the United States in Congress assembled, that the following instructions be observed by the captains or commanders of private armed vessels commissioned by letters of marque or general reprisals, or otherwise, by the authority of the United States in Congress assembled:

• I. You may by force of arms attack, subdue, and seize all ships, vessels and goods, belonging to the King or Crown of Great Britain, or to his subjects, or others inhabiting within any of the territories or possessions of the aforesaid King of Great Britain, on the high seas, or between high-water and low-water marks. And you may also annoy the enemy by all means in your power, by land as well as by water, taking care not to infringe or violate the laws of nations, or laws of neutrality.
• II. You are to pay a sacred regard to the rights of neutral powers, and the usage and customs of civilized nations; and on no pretence whatever, presume to take or seize any ships or vessels belonging to the subjects of princes or powers in alliance with these United States; except they are employed in carrying contraband goods or soldiers to our enemies; and in such case you are to conform to the stipulations contained in the treaties subsisting between such princes or powers and these states: and you are not to capture, seize or plunder any ships or vessels of our enemies, being under the protection of neutral coasts, nations, or princes, under the pains and penalties expressed in a proclamation issued by the Congress of the United States, the 9th day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight.
• III. You shall permit all neutral vessels freely to navigate on the high seas, or coasts of America, except such as are employed in carrying contraband goods or soldiers to the enemies of these United States.

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• IV. You shall not seize or capture any effects belonging to the subjects of the belligerent powers on board neutral vessels, excepting contraband goods; and you are carefully to observe, that the term contraband is confined to those articles which are expressly declared to be such in the treaty of amity and commerce, of the sixth day of February, 1778, between these United States and his Most Christian Majesty, namely: arms, great guns, bombs, with their fuses and other things belonging to them; cannon-ball, gun-powder, matches, pikes, swords, lances, spears, halberts, mortars, petards, grenadoes, salt-petre, muskets, musket-ball, bucklers, helmets, breast-plates, coats of mail, and the like kind of arms proper for arming soldiers, musket-rests, belts, horses with their furniture, and all other warlike instruments whatever.
• V. You shall bring all such ships and vessels as you shall seize or capture, with their guns, rigging, tackle, apparel and furniture, and ladings, to judgment in any of the courts of admiralty that now are or hereafter may be established in any of these United States, in any court authorized by his Most Christian Majesty, or any other power in alliance with these United States, to take cognizance of captures and seizures made by the private armed vessels of these states, and to judicially hear and determine thereon.
• VI. You shall send the master or pilot and one or more principal person or persons of the company of every ship or vessel by you taken, in such ship or vessel, as soon after the capture as may be, to be by the judge or judges of such court as aforesaid examined upon oath, and make answer to such interrogatories as may be propounded, touching the interest or property of the ship or vessel and her lading; and at the same time you shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the judge or judges, all passes, sea briefs, charter parties, bills of lading, cockers, letters, and other documents and writings found on board, proving the said papers by the affidavit of yourself, or of some other person present at the

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  capture, to be produced as they were received, without fraud, addition, subduction or embezzlement.

• VII. You shall keep and preserve every ship or vessel and cargo by you taken, until they shall, by sentence of a court properly authorized, be adjudged lawful prize, or acquitted; not selling, spoiling, wasting or diminishing the same, or breaking the bulk thereof, nor suffering any such thing to be done.
• VIII. If you or any of your officers or crew shall, in cold blood, kill or maim, or by torture or otherwise, cruelly, inhumanly, and contrary to common usage, and the practice of civilized nations in war, treat any person or persons surprized in the ship or vessel you shall take, the offender shall be severely punished.
• IX. You shall, by all convenient opportunities, send to the Board of Admiralty, or Secretary of Marine, written accounts of the captures you shall make, with the number and names of the captives, and intelligence of what may occur, or be discovered, concerning the designs of the enemy, and the destinations, motions and operations of their fleets and armies.
• X. One-third at least of your whole company shall be landmen.
• XI. You shall not ransom or discharge any prisoners or captives, but you are to take the utmost care to bring them into port; and if from necessity you shall be obliged to dismiss any prisoners at sea, you shall, on your return from your cruize, make report thereof on oath to the judge of the admiralty of the State to which you belong, or in which you arrive, within twenty days after your arrival, with your reasons for such dismission; and you are to deliver, at your expense or at the expense of your owners, the prisoners you shall bring into port, to a commissary of prisoners nearest the place of their landing, or into the nearest county goal.

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• XII. You shall observe all such further instructions as shall hereafter be given by the United States in Congress assembled, when you shall have notice thereof.
• XIII. If you shall do any thing contrary to these instructions, or to others hereafter to be given, or willingly suffer such thing to be done, you shall not only forfeit your commission, and be liable to an action for breach of the condition of your bond, but be responsible to the party grieved for damages sustained by such malversation.

The Committee to whom were referred instructions for the masters of letters of marque &c. beg liberty to report, that altho' said instructions are very imperfect in many particulars, yet they are as extensive as the ordinances already existing, respecting the Marine, and as new instructions are immediately necessary for carrying into execution the Ordinance of theof March last, the Committee are of opinion that said instructions be adopted as they are. The Committee further report the following resolution:

Ordered, That the Board of Admiralty report, as soon as may be, proper regulations for the conducting and governing the vessels of war of the United States and other armed vessels.¹

[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of James Mitchell Varnum. is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 31, folio 231.]

The House was resolved into a Committee of the Whole, and after some time the President resumed the chair and Mr. [John] Mathews reported that the committee have had under consideration the matter to them referred, and have made some progress.

[In]Committee of the whole.

Mr. Mathews in the chair.

Resolved, That there ought to be one general currency in bills of credit in these United States, in aid of the circulating medium in specie, to enable the United States

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in Congress assembled effectually to prosecute the present war.¹

[Note 1: 1 This resolution was entered only in the manuscript Secret Journal, No. 8.
A letter from David Forman, dated April 2, was read this day, according to the indorsement. It is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, IX, folio 447.]

Adjourned to 5 o'Clock to Morrow P.M.²

[Note 2: 2 At this point George Bond makes the entries.]

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