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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 --MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1782
On a report from the Secretary at War, to whom was referred a plan of the paymaster general, for the better regulation of the pay of the army:
War Office March 30th. 1782.
Sir,
On the plan referred to me by Congress, for the better regulation of the pay of the Army, I beg leave to observe that if it shall be the opinion of Congress that all warrants for the pay and rations of the Army shall issue from the war office, as there all returns are lodged necessary to check the accounts of pay and rations, and to afford full information of public issues of clothing and stores to be deducted from such accounts, it appears to me, if the Secretary at War is to be held accountable for the justness of the warrants he shall issue, that an examination of the pay and ration accounts should be more immediately under his eye and controul than the plan proposed will place them.
If it is meant to place the responsibility in the clerk of musters, should he not be appointed by Congress, and be Independent of the Secretary at War farther than to make returns to him? If this latter is the idea of Congress, the enclosed plan laid before them by the Paymaster General will, with an alteration of the mode of appointment, answer the purposes intended.
Should Congress be of opinion that the examination of the pay and ration accounts ought to be more immediately under the inspection of the Secretary at War, I submit to their consideration the plan for the better regulation of the pay of the Army as taken into a new draught.
Resolved, That as all returns necessary to check the accounts of pay and rations, and to give full information of public issues of cloathing and stores, are lodged at the war office,
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the Secretary at War is hereby empowered and directed to issue his warrants on the paymaster general, in favour of each regimental paymaster, for the pay and rations which shall appear on adjustment of their accounts to be due to the regiments respectively, and to the head of each department for the pay and rations due to such department: that the accounts for the pay and rations of each regiment, and of each department in the army, from January 1st, 1782, shall be made out at the end of every month, and be transmitted to the war office for examination and warrants:
That the manner of making the payments, of keeping the accounts, and the returns of the regimental paymasters, be regulated by the Secretary at War:
That the paymaster general shall pay on the warrants of the Secretary at War, from such monies as shall be put into his hands for the pay and rations of the troops, and to the orders of the Commander in Chief, or officer commanding in a separate Department the southern army, from such monies as shall be placed in his disposal for contingencies.
[Resolved, That all resolutions heretofore passed, empowering general officers to draw warrants on the paymaster general, except that empowering the officer commanding the southern army, be, and the same are hereby repealed.]
That there shall be no more thanDeputies one Deputy paymaster allowed to the Paymaster General for the Southern army who shall each receivepay whose pay shall beandrations per month.
Resolved, That there be one deputy paymaster for the southern army:
That there shall be one assistant allowed to the paymaster general, who shall do the duties of a clerk:
That the paymaster general be, and he is hereby authorised to appoint hereafter his deputies deputy and his assistant:
That the paymaster general immediately give bonds with two sureties to the Superintendant of finance, in the sum of
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fifteen thousand dollars, for the faithful performance of his office.
That the deputy and assistant give bonds to the paymaster general with two sureties for the sum ofdollars for the faithful performance of his office.1
[Note 1: 1 This report is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 149, I, folio 211--215, except the paragraph in brackets, which is in the writing of Ezekiel Cornell, undated, and on folio 209.]
Ordered, That the committee to whom was referred a report from the Secretary at War, on the quartermaster's department, and who were instructed to confer with the Secretary at War on the general arrangement of the staff departments, report the salaries which they judge proper to be allowed to the officers in the said departments, including those of the paymaster general and his deputy and assistant.
Ordered, That a letter, of 3, from E. Blaine, and so much of a letter, of 29 March, from the Governor of Virginia, as relates to the inability of the State to comply with the requisition of 13 February, be referred to the Superintendent of finance.2
[Note 2: 2 This order was entered only in the journal kept by the Secretary of Congress for the Superintendent of Finance: Morris Papers, Congressional Proceedings.
On this day, according to the indorsement, was read a letter of March 29 from the Governor of Virginia. The portion referring to the inability of the state to comply with the resolution of February 13 was referred to the Superintendent of finance. The letter is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 71, II, folio 357.
Also, a letter of the same date, from Adjutant General Edward Hand. It is in No. 78, XII, folio 205.]
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