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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, MARCH 30, 1786.
Congress assembled. Present the same as yesterday; and from the State of Pennsylvania, Mr. [John Bubenheim] Bayard.2
[Note 2: 2 March 30: The following committee was appointed: Mr. [Rufus] King, Mr. [William Samuel] Johnson and Mr. [Zephaniah] Platt, on "Three acts of the State of Rhode Island
1: An Act vesting Congress with power to regulate trade.
2: An Act respectg. Invalids.
3: An Act granting impost. to report how far they are conformable to the recommendations of Congress." This committee was the same as that of May 27 on South Carolina acts; it was renewed May 12. Copies of the acts are in No. 75, folios 13--54.
Committee Book No. 190.]
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The Committee consisting of Mr [Arthur] St. Clair, Mr [Henry] Lee and Mr [John] Lawrence to whom was referred a report of the Secy. at War on the Articles of War and Courts Martial report as follows:
Whereas crimes may be committed by officers and soldiers, serving with small detachments of the forces of the United States, and where there may not be a sufficient number of officers to hold a general court martial according to the rules and articles of war, in consequence of which criminals may escape punishment, to the great injury of the discipline of the troops and the public service. Whereupon,
Resolved, That the fourteenth section of the rules and articles for the better government of the troops of the United States, and such other articles as relate to the holding of courts martial, and the confirmation of the sentences thereof, be and they hereby are repealed.
Resolved, That the following rules and articles for the administration of justice, and the holding of courts martial and the confirmation of the sentences thereof, be duly observed, and exactly obeyed by all officers and soldiers, who are or shall be in the armies of the United States.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
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hereby directed that the courts martial shall be equally composed of officers belonging to the corps in which the parties in question do then serve; and that the presidents shall be taken by turns, beginning with the corps which shall be eldest in rank. [For this reason the Army ought to be considered as one family the Interests of every part of which are the Interests of the whole, and contrariwise, the holding up the suspicion of a different way of thinking is the ready way to introduce it.]
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[Note 1: 1 The ms. of this report is in the writing of Samuel Shaw, with the committee personnel heading added by Charles Thomson. It is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 27, folio 291, and, according to Thomson's indorsement, it was read March 30 and made the "Order of the day for Thursday April 13, 1786." It was submitted to Congress, as a collateral document, with Knox's report on courts martial, read October 27, 1785, and was used by the Committee of March 9, 1786, as the basis of its report. As it survives it is the complete ms. in Shaw's writing, but with various scraps pasted to it and certain elisions indicated. The combination makes it, with some slight variations, the same as the printed report on folio 303. Only the variations from the report as adopted are given above; the omitted portions, designated by asterisks, being identical with the report adopted and spread on the Journal of May 31, 1786. On folio 303 is a printed copy (4 pp. fo.) of this report, which varies from the ms. on folio 291 precisely as does the adopted report of May 31. It is marked by Thomson as to verbal changes which bring it into accord with the May 31 text. It seems, therefore, that this printed copy was struck off from the press in April and that Thomson's ms. changes thereon note the action of Congress either on May 19 or May 31. The principal changes noted on the printed report (folio 303) are in Article 9, the elimination of the latter half of Article 10, as to distances of witnesses and of the indecent language sentence in Article 12; all other changes are minor ones of phraseology.
The resolves recommended at the end of the report are the same in the ms., the printed report and the Journal.]
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