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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, APRIL 5, 1787.
Congress assembled present as before.
[Report of Board of Treasury on memorial of W. Mumford and J. Dawson1]
[Note 1: 1 Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 138, II, pp. 185--186, read and passed April 5, 1787. The covering letter of the Board, also read, is in Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 140, I, p. 345. See April 2 and 3, 1787.]
The Board of Treasury to whom was referred the Memorial of William Mumford and Joshua Dawson, Clerks to Benjamin Stelle late Commissioners for Settling Accounts against the United States in the State of Pennsylvania,
Beg leave to Report,
That the said Clerks state, that they entered upon the duties of their Station, under the idea that the Office would be permanent and fixed in Philadelphia; That the Office being removed into the different Counties of the State, put them to an additional Expence of
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purchasing Horses, which with their keeping, loss by their Sale, and lodging in Taverns, has brought upon them a burthen, which they are unable to bear.
That Mr. Stelle has Certified the above to be a true State of facts.
On the above Statement the Board beg leave to observe, that admitting the necessity of the Expences, as alledged in the Memorial (which cannot in their opinion be supposed) the Memorialists entered into and continued in the Public Service, under an express Contract, against which (till the termination of the same) they never exprest an objection.
That to encrease the Allowance of the Applicants, would in fact be an act of bounty, and not of justice; and that the present state of the Finances preclude, in the opinion of the Board, any further Grants of Money, except on objects, where the National Character, or Interest, may be materially involved.
Whereupon the Board beg leave to Report,
That the Memorialists should be informed, that the Prayer of their Memorial, cannot be complied with.
All which is humbly Submitted.
Samuel Osgood
Walter Livingston
April 5th. 1787.
On a report of the board of treasury to whom was referred a memorial of William Mumford and Joshua Dawson clerks to Benjamin Stelle late commissioner for adjusting the accounts of the State of Pennsylvania
Ordered That the memorialists be informed that the prayer of their memorial cannot be complied with.
[Report of Board of Treasury on plan for selling lands1]
[Note 1: 1 Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 139, pp. 467--470, read April 5, 1787. Passed April 21, 1787. The covering letter of the Board, also read, is in Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 140, I, p. 343. See March 20, 1787.]
The Board of Treasury to whom it was referred to Report a Plan for Selling for Public Securities, the Townships Surveyed in the Western Territory,
Beg leave to Observe,
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That agreeably to the Ordinance1 of the 20th. May 1785, no Distribution or Sale of Lands can be made until seven Ranges shall have been completely Surveyed, and a Return made of the Surveys.
[Note 1: 1 Journals, vol. XXVIII, pp. 375--381.]
That the Geographer of the United States has lodged with the Board of Treasury, Surveys and Plats of Four Ranges of Townships, and fractional parts of Townships.
That the Surveys of the said four Ranges, do not extend half thro' the same from South to North.
That the Townships, and fractional parts of Townships already Surveyed, are twenty six, amounting by a Calculation of the Geographer to 675,000 Acres.
That one seventh part is allotted to the late Army, which is 96,428 Acres, leaving 578,572 Acres to be disposed of by the United States.
That by the Ordinance aforesaid, the Board of Treasury are to have the original Surveys and Plats entered in a Book to be kept for that purpose, and also to send Copies of the same to the several Loan Officers; which with that to be entered in the Book to be kept by the Board, will make fourteen Copies of the same Surveys and Plats, which will create more Expence and delay than is probably expedient in the present state of the Public Affairs.
That considering the Surveyors have already been employed two Years, it is not probable that in the course of another, they will have completely Surveyed the first Seven Ranges.
From the foregoing considerations it has become expedient in the Opinion of the Board, so far to alter the Ordinance, (as to the Lands already Surveyed) as it respects to their distribution to the several States; the Sale of the same by the Commissioners of the Loan Offices, and the Inhibition of any Sale 'till seven Ranges are compleatly Surveyed.
For this purpose they submit to the consideration of Congress, the following Resolves,
That after the Secretary at War shall have drawn for the proportionate quantity of the Lands already Surveyed, which were assigned to the late Army, agreeably to the Ordinance of the 20th. May 1785, the remainder shall be Advertised for Sale in one of the News Papers at least, of each of the States, for the space of six [four] Months from the date of the Advertisement; at the expiration of which time, the Sale of the Land shall commence in the place where Congress shall
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sit, and continue from day to day until the same shall be disposed of; provided that none of the Land shall be Sold at a less price than One Dollar per Acre, and that the Sale shall be made agreeably to the mode pointed out by the Ordinance aforesaid.
That one third of the purchase Money shall be immediately paid in any of the Public Securities of the United States to the Treasurer of the said States; and that the remaining two thirds shall be paid in like manner in three Months after the date of the Sale, on which payment (a Certificate thereof being previously furnished by the Treasurer to the Board of Treasury) Titles to the Lands shall be given to the Purchasers by the' Board of Treasury, agreeably to the Terms prescribed by the said Ordinance; Provided, that if the second payments shall not be made in three Months as aforesaid, the first payment shall be forfeited, and the Land shall again be exposed to Sale.
Ordered, That the Board of Treasury take the necessary measures for carrying the aforesaid Resolutions into effect, and also for exhibiting the Surveys of the Lands.
All which is humbly Submitted.
Samuel Osgood
Walter Livingston
April 4th. 1787.
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