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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, NOVEMBER 1, 1782
The committee, consisting of Mr. [Theodorick] Bland, Mr. [Jonathan] Jackson and Mr. [David] Howell, appointed to make enquiry into the causes of the detention of goods purchased in Holland, having brought in a report:
The Committee to whom was refer'd the letters and reports of Lt. Col. Laurens to Congress, concerning his Mission to the Court of France, &c.--On the motion of Mr. Bland, together with the letter of Mr. Jackson of the 25th day of July, 1782, and an extract of a letter from Dr. Franklin of theday of1782,
Beg leave to report,
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That they have made strict Inquiry concerning the Loan and Donations obtained from the Court of France of that part of the Specie which was directed to be brought over, as also of the detention of the Clothing and other Stores purchased by Col. Laurens or his order, and the causes of a non-compliance with certain contracts entered into by the said Lt. Col. Laurens for the above purposes. Upon which Investigation and Enquiry it appears to the Comee. that prior to the arrival of Lt. Col. Laurens in France and in consequence of duplicate Instructions and Commission which had been sent to our Minister Plenipo: at the Court of France to act in the absence of Lt. Col. Laurens who was appointed special Minister, The said Min: plenipo: had obtained from that Court a promise of a donation of six Million of Livres tournois which Sum was to have issued from the royal Treasury of France for the Use of the United States from time to time as it might be drawn for by Gen. Washington at distant periods. That on the arrival of Lt. Col. Laurens, it appears that special Minister took up the matter in a different view, and by repeated, strong and well timed memorials presented to the most Xian King our August Ally and each of his principal Ministers of State accompanied with a pathetic picture of our distresses, he obtained a promise from that Court that 4,000,000 of the 6,000,000 should be shipped in Specie for America in pursuance of the direction and wish of Congress; that two million should be retained to pay for the military Stores he was commissioned to apply for; that 4,000,000 more should be granted from the royal Treasury of France to pay the Bills of Exchange drawn on Dr. Franklin as they might become due; and that a Loan should be opened in Holland on Accot. of the United States for Ten Million, which should be guaranteed by his most Christian Majesty, making in the whole 20,000,000 of Livres, which was all to issue from his royal Treasury for the use of the United States as will appear by the papers alluded to in the margin, which your comee. beg leave may be read as far as they relate to this subject and considered as part of their report.
Notwithstanding the above arrangements and most prudent precautions taken by your special Minister Lt. Col. Laurens for carrying them into immediate Execution guarded by him with positive Instructions and accompanied with precise orders from the Director General of the Finances of France, yr. Comee. find the measures taken for the shipment of one and a half of Livres were defeated by a positive Order from the Minister Plenipo: from the United States at the Court of Versailles in despite of every argument and effort and against
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such a proceeding by Capt. Jackson acting under the above Orders of your special Minister without any other reason for so doing, but that it was money obtained thro' his the said Minister Plenipo's application, and that it was necessary he should have the disposal of it for supporting the credit of the United States in Europe, in paying the Bills which had been or might be drawn on him and complying with the contracts or debts which had been or would be incurred in France and Holland on Account of the United States altho' it appears from the settlement already referred to that there was a balance of four million two hundred fourteen thousand, eight hundred and ninety-one Livres exclusive of the one million and an half sent to Amsterdam to be ship'd and afterwards remitted to the said minister, or at his disposal.
How far Contracts or Engagements entered into by any of your Ministers in Europe will justify the application of Monies belonging to the United States to different purposes than those to which Congress have thot. proper to appropriate them, your Comee. do not undertake to determine, altho' it does not appear to your Comee. from an account or papers they have had access to that any such Contracts or Engagements subsisted at the Time the Money was remanded back to Paris, as could justify such a proceeding in the Minister plenipo: at the Court of Versailles in direct contravention of Arrangements taken between their special Minister Lt. Col. Laurens and the French Ministry as will appear by the papers already referred to, by which it appears the money was to be delivered to the Order of Col: Laurens, to be ship'd to America.
With respect to the Goods purchased in Holland by Col: Laurens's Order, your Comee. beg leave to observe that your said special Minr. appears from the Preamble and Tenor of a Contract entd. into between him and Commodore Gillon of South Carolina, to have been induced by the said Commodore Gillon to believe that the Vessel of which he had the Command in Holland was of sufficient Capacity to contain and bring over, and of force to defend a considerable quantity of Clothing and Stores for the use of the Army of the United States at the same time that it afforded a safe opportunity for importing the Money above mentioned. To accomplish these desireable purposes your special Minister aforesaid dispatched to Holland Capt. Wm. Jackson of the South Carolina line, with positive and direct Instructions, to superintend the purchases of the said Goods, to inspect their quality, to inform himself on the spot of the capacity of the Frigate South Carolina, to select the Goods stipulated to be delivered for use
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of the United States by Commodore Gillon, which were to make a part of near fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling worth, which Col: Laurens appears by an Estimate delivered to Mr. de Neufville to have had an Intention of purchasing in Holland, provided the said frigate's capacity and ability to stow them was sufficient, with an Injunction not to purchase more Goods than the frigate above mentioned shd. be found capable of containing.
Your Comee. find however that notwithstanding these precautions taken and Injunctions given by your special Minister, and notwithstanding the delusive representations made to him of the capacity of the said frigate by Commodore Gillon, she was on further Examination found incapable of containing the whole purchases, whereby it became in the opinion of those concerned necessary that Transports shod. be freighted to carry the Surplus. It does not appear that any strict Scrutiny had been made relative to the Capacity of the said frigate until all or the greatest part of the Goods were purchased and ready to be shipt. Your Comee. have not been able to procure direct proof by whom the said Ships were taken up, but are inclined to believe from an Indemnification offered by Capt. Jackson, in which he was joined by a certain Mr. Searle, and from some arrangements made by the said Capt. Jackson, that the Goods were ship'd on board them at least with his (Capt. Jackson's) concurrence. Be this as it may, your Comee. find that the Goods were on board the said freighted Ships and arrangements taken for the ships sailing under convoy of the said South Carolina Frigate when Commodore Gillon demanded a Completion on the part of Capt. Jackson, with that part of his Contract which entitled him to receive Bills of Exchange drawn by Mr. J. Adams on Wm. Franklin Minr. Plenipo: to the Amount of Ten Thousand Pounds Sterling in Consideration of Goods to that amount which it appears had been delivered to him by the said Commodore Gillon as specified in the Contract; which demand being refused, the said Commodore found it necessary to sail out of the port to avoid being stop'd by his Creditors on whose account, as the Contract sets forth, he had among other considerations entered into the said Contract. It also appears to your Comee. from sundry papers that the said Commodore Gillon remained twelve days standing off and on at the Mouth of the Texel in Expectation that the agreement respecting the Bills wod. be complied with, and that the vessels freighted, as above mentioned, wod. come out to go under his convoy. In both which Expectations he was disappointed, until every prudential consideration rendered it expedient to save his vessel that he should
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proceed on his voyage, which he did accordingly on the 19th of August. Nor does it appear to your Comee. that the said Commodore received the Bills as specified in the Contract until about that time, altho' the Goods had been delivered over by him and were in the possession of Capt. Jackson or at his order from the 14th of May until the ship left the Texel, subsequent to which it appears that the Balance of the ten Thousand Pounds Sterlg. in Bills of Exchange drawn on the Minr. Plenipo: at the Court of Versailles, by Capt. Jackson, was delivered to the said Commodore Gillon, not as appears in compliance with the Terms of the original Contract, but as an inducement for the said Commodore to sign the Charter partys of the Vessels taken up as Transports above mentioned, which appears to have been rendered necessary and an indispensable requisite to the departure of the said Vessels, for those concerned in them, absolutely refusing to let them sail without such signatures;--for the proof this your Comee. beg leave to refer Congress to Mr. De Neufvilles as in the Margin.
Your Comee. are of opinion that in his Exertions to procure the Shipment of the Specie and in hastening and expediting the purchase of the Goods, and disposing them to be brought to America, no person cod. have acted with greater Zeal and Activity than Capt. Jackson as appears by several papers already referr'd to, and the Testimony of our Minrs. Plenipo: at Versailles and the Hague and your special Minr., but they cannt. refrain from saying that in their opinion some ill founded suggestions (which he acknowledges to have received in Paris, and which by a Letter of his dated Corunna, Sept. 26, 1781, appear to have come from the Minr. Plenipo: to the Court of Versailles from these States) had caused a want of confidence in Commodore Gillon's honor as well as honest Intentions and occasioned the said Capt. Jackson to conceive it to be his duty to withhold from him the stipulated Sum in the Contract and of course may with reason and propriety be assigned as the remote cause of the detention of the Money and Goods which wod. otherwise have come out to America--the Goods if not in the Ship South Carolina at least under the convoy of that Ship.
Your Comee. are of Opinion that Commodore Gillon has on his part been wanting in a fair and candid representation to Col. Laurens of the State and Cases of his Ship prior to the signing of the Contract, and altho' they do not conceive him guilty of any specific Breach of the said Contract, which wod. subject him to damages, yet they cannot acquit him of having (in their opinion) given a delusive account of the said Vessel to the aforesaid special Minr. for the purpose, as it appears
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to your Comee., of Obtaining Money to extricate himself from the difficulties in which he was involved.
Should Congress approve the report of their Comee., In Order that future Appropriations of the Monies of the United States may be prevented, other than such as are constitutionally directed by Congress, the Comee. beg leave to propose the following Resolution:
Whereas, one Million and an half of Livres tournois, part of Monies obtained from the Cot. of France for the United States by the Hon.ble. Col: Laurens, their special Mint to that Court, having been by him directed to be Ship'd from Amsterdam in compliance with Orders he had received from Congress;
And Whereas, in express contravention of the said Direction, the said Specie after being sent to Amsterdam to be ship'd, was without the orders or Sanction of Congress (for so doing) remanded by the Minr. Plenipo: at the Court of Versailles, back to Paris for the purpose, as he alledges, of applying it to other Uses;
Therefore, resolved, That the said Minr. be informed that Congress highly disapprove his Conduct in so doing, as well on account of the Embarrassment, into which such a Proceeding must throw the finances of these States, if practised by any person whatsoever, without a proper authority derived from Congress for so doing, as on Account of such a Measure being an unconstitutional Appropriation of the Money of these United States, which can be made only by at least nine States in Congress assembled.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of a clerk, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 19, III, folio 449.]
On motion of the delegates of South Carolina,
Resolved, That so much of the report as respects Commodore Gillon be dismissed: that the several papers mentioned therein be referred to the Superintendant of finance, and if it shall appear to him that the United States have good cause of action against Commodore Gillon, in behalf of the State of South Carolina for damages on the subject matter of the report, that the Superintendant of finance take measures for having such dispute between the United States and the said State settled according to equity and good conscience, by arbitrators to be appointed by the governor of the said State and the Superintendant of finance, the delegates of the
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said State engaging that it will submit to such a mode of determination.1
[Note 1: 1 This motion, in the writing of John Rutledge, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 36, I, folio 417.]
On a report from the Secretary at War,
Whereas several paymasters of the Virginia line are now prisoners of war, and from their dispersed situations are incapable of attending to settle the accounts of their respective regiments; and Lieutenant Charles Stackly having been appointed by a meeting of the Virginia officers to receive their warrants for the moneys advanced on account of pay and subsistance:
Resolved, That the Secretary at War is empowered to issue his warrants, on account of the officers of the Virginia line, for pay and rations, in favour of the said Lieutenant Charles Stackly, as paymaster to the line, until the commanding officer thereof shall report that it is organized into regiments, and that the several paymasters are acting.2
[Note 2: 2 This report is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 149, II, folio 133.]
Ordered, That a report of a Committee on a letter of August 2d from the Superintendent of Finance respecting the 4th Class of the United States Lottery be referred to the Superintendent of Finance to report.3
[Note 3: 3 This order was entered only in the journal kept by the Secretary of Congress for the Superintendent of Finance: Morris Papers, Congressional Proceedings.
According to Committee Book No. 186, a "report of the Grand Committee on a memorial of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, relative to payment of interest, &c.", was on this day referred to Mr. [Daniel] Carroll, Mr. [Thomas] McKean and Mr. [David] Howell. See ante, August 30, and post, November 12.]
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