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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 --THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1782
Mr. J[oseph] Jones, a delegate for Virginia, attended, and took his seat.
The committee, consisting of Mr. [John Taylor] Gilman, Mr. [David] Ramsay, Mr. [Silas] Condict, Mr. [Thomas] Smith, and Mr. [Eliphalet] Dyer, appointed pursuant to the resolution of the 17 June, 1782, to enquire fully into the department of the Post Office, and to report the result of their enquiries, report as follows:
"That Mr. Hazard has held the office of Postmaster General for six months previous to the first day of August last, in which time he has received eight hundred dollars by order of the Superintendant of Finance to defray extraordinary expences of printing Post Office books, procuring portmanteaus, &c. which he found to be wanting when he came into office. That he has drawn out his accounts quarterly and informs that the one ending the first day of May last was delivered to the Comptroller of Accounts on the second day of that month, and as he understands has been passed upon and is now lodged with the Register; that as the printing was not finished there remained a balance upon that account due to the United States, which Mr. Hazard has transferred to their credit in his account ending the first day of August last. That upon examining this account the committee find that a balance appears to be due to the United
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States upon the transactions of the last six months, of 202 39/90 dollars, which the Postmaster General thinks will remain after defraying all the charges of the Department, exclusive of the extraordinary expences of printing Post Office books, &c. since his appointment, including the officers' salaries, but as several of his deputies' accounts have not yet come in, this cannot be exactly ascertained; that there is a further sum of 1941/3 continental paper dollars of the old emissions and 44 dollars emitted pursuant to the resolution of March 18, 1780, in the hands of the Postmaster General, which he has received for balances due upon accounts prior to his appointment." The committee farther report that "from the information given them by Mr. Hazard it appears that he has reduced the expence of post-riding so as to save at the rate of three hundred and fifty pounds Pensylvania currency per annum; and that he has directed the establishment of posts from Petersburgh in Virginia to Edenton in North Carolina upon a plan which will prevent any expence to the United States for those posts at least for one year, and he expects soon to set posts a going from thence to Newbern upon a similar plan."1
[Note 1: 1 A copy of this report is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, Reports of Committees, No. 188, folio 2. The report, in the writing of John Taylor Gilman, is in No. 61, 517.]
The Committee [Mr. Daniel Carroll, Mr. John Witherspoon and Mr. James Duane] appointed to confer with the Committees of the Supreme Executive and the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, Report,
That your Committee on the said conferrence were informed that the British and savages have lately made frequent irruptions on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, and committed most barbarous murders, and other outrages on the inhabitants and their property, and that to prevent further desolation it is necessary that active and vigorous measures for checking and chastising the Enemy be formed without loss of time. And that they have for this purpose sent a deputation of their own body to confer with the Commander in Chief. That there are a number of recruits for the battalions of the said State in
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the Continental lines under orders to join the Southern army. That the joint Committees submitted to your Committee whether under the prospect of a speedy evacuation of Charles Town, it would be essential to the public service to march the said recruits to the southward especially as they might be advantageously and immediately employed to oppose the operations of the savages. Lastly they represented that if it should be conceived by the Commander in Chief that the said recruits might be employed more advantageously on the service before mentioned, and that it would be inexpedient to march them to the southward at this juncture, he is nevertheless restrained from exercising his discretion by the acts of Congress of the 20th Feby. and 19th March 1781, and they therefore further submitted it whether Congress under these circumstances would not think it advisable to repeal the said resolution, that the Commander in Chief might be at liberty to employ the said recruits in such manner as he should think most conducive to the public good.
Whereupon your Committee submit the following resolve--
Resolved, That the Commander in Chief be authorised to employ the said recruits in such manner as he shall judge to be most conducive to the public service.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of Daniel Carroll, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 20, II, folio 139. According to the indorsement, it was delivered September 3, and "Thursday next assigned."]
On motion of Mr. [Thomas] Smith, seconded by Mr. [Samuel John] Atlee,
Resolved, That the Commander in Chief be authorised to employ that part of the Pensylvania line now in that State, in such manner as he shall judge most conducive to the public good, the resolutions of the 20 February and 19 March, 1781, notwithstanding.2
[Note 2: 2 This motion, in the writing of Thomas Smith, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 36, I, folio 369.]
On motion of Mr. [John] Rutledge, seconded by Mr. [John] Witherspoon,
Ordered, That copies of the estimates of the domestic debt of the United States, laid before Congress by the Superintendant of finance, and an extract of his letter on that subject, be transmitted to the several states with the requisition of yesterday.
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The order of the day being called for, to take into farther consideration the report of the grand committee, and the following proposition, part of the report, being under debate, viz.
"That it is their opinion that the western lands, if ceded to the United States, might contribute towards a fund for paying the debt of these states."
A motion was made by Mr. [Theodorick] Bland, seconded by Mr. [Arthur] Lee, to add, "and therefore resolved, that Congress do accept the cession of territory made to them, by the State of Virginia, by their act bearing date 2 January, 1781, by the State of New York on the 1 March, 1781, and by the State of Connecticut in October, 1780, with the conditions therein named."
This amendment being objected to as out of order, and the debate turning on a question of order:
A motion was made by Mr. [James] Duane, seconded by Mr. [Thomas] McKean, that the farther consideration of the report of the grand committee be postponed till tomorrow, to make way for the report of a committee on a letter from General Washington.
And on the question for postponing, the yeas and nays being required by Mr. [Arthur] Lee,
{table}
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So it was resolved in the affirmative.
The report of a committee, consisting of Mr. [Theodorick] Bland, Mr. [James] Duane and Mr. [Ezekiel] Cornell, to whom was referred a letter of the 26 of August, from the Secretary at War, and also a letter from General Washington, relative to a cartel, was taken into consideration and some progress made therein.1
[Note 1: 1 The Secretary at War's letter is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 149, I, folio 611.
On this day, according to the indorsement, was presented a petition, dated Philadelphia, September 5, 1782, of sundry workmen at the musket laboratory in the Department of the Commissary General of Military Stores. It is in No. 42, IV, folio 290.]
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