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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, JANUARY 10, 1783
The committee, consisting of Mr. [John] Rutledge Mr. [Samuel] Osgood and Mr. [James] Madison, to whom was referred a letter of January 9, 1783, from the Superintendant of finance, to confer with him thereon, report,
That they have conferred with the Superintendant, who communicated to them under on injunction of secrecy the subject referred to in his letter, (under their promise of secrecy) [until Congress shall direct them to communicate the same to them; and request the sense of Congress whether the committee shall now make such communication:] Whereupon,
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Ordered, that the committee make the communication.
The committee made the communication and it was by an unanimous vote ordered to be kept secret.
The committee then informed Congress, that he has been under the necessity of drawing bills to an amount beyond the known funds procured in Europe, owing to sundry large sums which were not known to him, or not taken into his estimates, having been paid out of the sums obtained:
That the loans come in so slow that he cannot comply with his contracts and obligations nor provide for the maintenance of the army without continuing to draw.
Whereupon,
Resolved unanimously, That the superintendant of finance be and he is hereby authorised to draw bills of exchange, from time to time, according to his discretion upon the credit of the loans which the ministers of the United States have been instructed to procure in Europe, for such sums, not exceeding the amount of the money directed to be borrowed, as the publick service may require.1
[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of Charles Thomson, except the part in parenthesis which is in the writing of John Rutledge and the part in brackets which is in that of James Madison, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 31, folio 339. The letter of the Superintendent of finance is in No. 137, II, folio 107.]
Resolved unanimously, That the whole of this matter be kept secret.2
[Note 2: 2 The proceedings for January 10 were entered only in the manuscript Secret (Domestic) Journal, and in Secret Journal No. 8. In No. 8, the entry appears after that for February 20.]
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