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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 --MONDAY, MAY 5, 1788.
Congress assembled. Present New hampshire, Massachusetts New Jersey, Pensylvania, Maryland Virginia and South Carolina and from Connecticut Mr [Stephen Mix] Mitchel, from Delaware Mr [Dyre] Kearny and from Georgia Mr [Abraham] Baldwin.
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[Report of Secretary of Congress on various letters and Petitions1]
[Note 1: 1 Reports of Secretary of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 180 pp. 72--74.]
Office of Secy of Congress
May 3, 1788
On the letter2 of 10 of April from J Lamb to the Secy of foreign Affairs desiring him to inform Congress that he is in New York and prays for a Settlement of his Mission to Algiers
[Note 2: 2 See May 2, 1788. According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, the letter was referred to the Board of Treasury to report in conformity with the report.]
The Secy of Congress reports
That the letter of 10 of April from J Lamb be ag referred to the board of treasury.
On the letter3 of 10 June 1787 from Mr Colignon containg his proposals for publishing a plan to extirpate all public misery
[Note 3: 3 See May 2, 1788. According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, the letter was returned to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs in conformity with the report.]
The Secy of Congress reports
That the letter of 10 June 1787 from Mr Collignon agd with the pamphlet accompanying it be returned to the Office of foreign Affairs.
On the letter4 of 31 Decr . 1787 from Mr Jefferson accompanied with "An Act of the King's Council of State for the encouragemt . of the Commerce of France with the U S of America Decr . 29, 1787 and his Observations thereon
[Note 4: 4 See May 2, 1788.]
The Secy . of Congress reports that the letter of 31 Decr . from Mr . Jefferson be returned to the Office of foreign Affairs And that the agd Act for the encouragement of the Commerce of France with the U S of A. together with Mr Lamberts Letter with accompanied the said Act be referred to the Secy . for foreign Affairs to take Order for the publication.5
[Note 5: 5 According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, the Act of December 29, 1787 and a letter of M. Lambert to Jefferson of the same date were referred, in conformity with this report, to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs to take order for publication. Printed copies of the letter and the Act (second proof), in French and English, are in Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 87, II, pp. 35--38 and 39--46, respectively. They were transmitted from France to Jay by W. Short in a letter of January 1, 1788.]
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On the memorial1 of James Wilson in behalf of the United land Companies of the Illionois and Wabash stating the claims of the said companies, suggesting a mode for obtaining information touching the fairness of their purchases and representing their willingness in case they should be found to be well founded to cede to the U S a great proportion thereof
[Note 1: 1 According to the Despatch Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 185, IV, p. 30, this memorial was delivered and read, May 2, 1788.]
The Secy of Congress reports
That the memorial of Jas . Wilson in behalf of the United land Companies of the Illionois and Wabash be referred to agd a committee.2
[Note 2: 2 According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, this committee consisted of Mr. William Irvine, Mr. Abraham Clark, Mr. Nathan Dane, Mr. Stephen Mix Mitchell and Mr. Edward Carrington. It reported June 27, 1788. According to receipt of James Wilson, the petition and accompanying papers were returned to him March 22, 1790. Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 41, X, p. 703.]
On the letter of 20 Sept 1787 from Mr Kosciusko late a Col. in the Army of the U S stating that he has not these three years recd int on the Money due to him and praying that Mr Grand may be directed to pay him yearly according to the Certificate given him at the treasury Office.
The Secy of Congress reports
That the letter of 20 Sept 1787 from Mr Kosciusko agd be referred to the board of treasury.3
[Note 3: 3 According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, the letter was referred to the Board of Treasury as indicated in the report.]
On the petition4 of Garret Rapalje and John Wood referring to their former petition for liberty to purchase a tract of Land N W of Ohio and stating that Contracts have been proposed to them for divers parcels of the land prayed for in case Congress should think proper to order a grant of the same and praying for a speedy answer as they have been long absent from their families
[Note 4: 4 See May 2 and 7, 1788.]
The Secy of Congress reports
That the petition of Garret Rapalje and John Woods be referred to the board of treasury.
On the letter of the 17 April from the board of treasury enclosing an extract of a letter from the Comrs . of loans in Amsterdam touching
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a proposal for compleating the last loan made in Holland; and also on another letter of the 21 April from the board enclosing one of the 7 feby last from Mr Jefferson on the same subject
The Secy of Congress reports
That the letters1 of 17 and 21 April from the board agd of treasy with the letters enclosed be referred to the said board to report.
[Note 1: 1 See May 2, 1788. According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, the letters were referred to the Board of Treasury as indicated in the report. Report rendered June 3, 1788.]
On the letter2 of 2 May from the Secy at war enclosing a letter from Mr Jefferson and sundry papers touching the claim of John Jackson a british pilot, who in the year 1779 went on board Capt J P. Jones then hovering on the coast of England and was detained and, in the Action with the Serapis which ensued, lost his Arm,
[Note 2: 2 See May 2, 1788.]
The Secy of Congress reports that this matter came before Congress in 1785 and was referred to a Comee who reported3 as their Opinion "That 6 dollrs . per month, a pilots half pay be allowed and paid out of the treasy . of the U. S in half yearly payments to the said J Jackson" and that this report has never been still lies undetermined.
[Note 3: 3 Journals, vol. XXIX, pp. 777--778.]
[Report of committee on Claims of Virginia4]
[Note 4: 4 Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 20, II, p. 331, in the writing of Mr. Nathan Dane. Read May 5, 1788. The report is indorsed "to be filed" and "filed in Iron chest". See March 3, 1788.]
The Committee consisting of [Mr. Jeremiah Wadsworth, Mr. Nathan Dane, Mr. Abraham Clark, Mr. William Irvine and Mr. Dyre Kearny] To whom were referred Sundry papers relative to the Illonois accounts subject to be adjusted and settled agreeable to the Terms of the Virginia Cession of Western Territory, report
That by An Act5 of Congress of the 10th of October 1780 it was resolved "that any necessary and reasonable expences which any particular State should [shall have] incurred since the Commencement of the present war in subduing any British posts, or in maintaining forts or garrisons within and for the defence, or in acquiring any part of the Territory that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States shall be reimbursed".
[Note 5: 5 See Journals, vol. XVIII, p. 915.]
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That a Condition in the Acceptance of the Act of Virginia is as follows, "that in order to comply with the Second Condition so far as has been heretofore provided for by the Act of the 10th . of October 1780 it is Agreed that one Commissioner shall be appointed by Congress, one by the State of Virginia, and another by those two Commissioners, who or a majority of whom shall be authorised and impowered to adjust and liquidate the accounts of the necessary and reasonable expences incurred by the said State, which they may Judge to be comprized within the true intent and meaning of the said recited Act".
That the said Commissioners have been accordingly Appointed and after a long investigation appear to have brought the business referred to them nearly to a final adjustment, by whose determination and report in the premises the contracting parties are reciprocally bound as in all other Cases.
Your Committee, therefore, are of opinion that neither party can with any propriety interfere in the business so referred.
[Report of committee on petition of inhabitants of St. Vincents and Illinois1]
[Note 1: 1 Papers of lhe Continental Congress, No. 19, VI, pp. 5--6a, in the writing of a clerk. Delivered March 31 and read May 5, 1788. There is a broadside of the report on p. 7. It was made the order of the day for Friday, May 9, 1788, but no session was held on that date. See March 27, June 26 and August 29, 1788.]
The Committee [consisting of Mr. Jeremiah Wadsworth, Mr. William Irvine and Mr. James White] to whom was referred the petition of the French and American Inhabitants of Port St Vincents and the Illinois by their Agent Mr . Tardiveau beg leave to report that as there is much uncertainty about the possessions of the Inhabitants of the Country upon the Wabash and Missisippi Rivers, and the Quantities of Land that they may be entitled respectively to hold and enjoy by rights acquired before they became subjects of the United States, in order to quiet their minds, to maintain them in their just rights, and extend to them the liberality of the United States they submit the following resolutions viz
Resolved that the Governor of the Western Territory shall cause to be surveyed and laid out, as soon as may be a tract of land upon the Wabash River bounded in the following manner to wit, beginning at the place where the River a Maries falls into the Wabash and
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running thence east eight miles thence north to the Southern1 boundary line of a tract of land lately agreed for by the Board of Treasury with Messrs Flint and Parker; thence with that line to the Wabash and across the same twenty miles thence due north so far as to meet a due west line drawn from the point of beginning. Also one other tract of land upon the Mississippi bounded in the following manner viz. beginning at the mouth of the wood River and running with the Southern boundary line of a tract of land lately agreed for by the Board of Treasury with Messrs Flint and Parker to the Kaskaskias River thence Southerly untill it meets the Mississippi at the mouth of the River au Vase, thence with that River to the place of beginning and including all the Islands in that river near to the eastern bank of the same, which two tracts of land will contain and circumscribe all the settlements made by the ancient French Inhabitants, except such as may have been within the Tract agreed for with Flint and Parker upon the Illinois River, and the rights of each as may have been settled therein and provided for by the agreement with them.
[Note 1: 1 The phrase "thence north to the Southern" should read "thence south to the northern".]
Resolved that the Governor of the Western territory shall cause as soon as may be, due enquiry to be made into the claims to lands of the Inhabitants of the Country upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers, and where it shall be asscertained either by Records that have been preserved in the Country or by authentic writings in the Possession of the parties claiming which may not have been recorded that lands may have been granted to any of the said Inhabitants by the french Government, or conceded to them by the military officers in command there from time to time, or by the Intendant or other civil Officer of that Crown who may have been entrusted with the distribution of lands he shall provided the Quantity expressed in such grant does not exceed four hundred acres, on the application of the said Inhabitants respectively or of their Heirs or legal Representatives, cause the same to be surveyed and laid out, agreeably to the descriptions in the said Writings and Records contained, at their own proper Costs and charges, and shall grant letters patent under the seal of the Government and Counter signed by the Secretary confirming the same to the said Parties and to their Heirs and Assigns forever, to the Inhabitants of the Country upon the Wabash the Lands to be laid out in the tract upon the Wabash, and to the Inhabitants of the Mississippi in the tract upon the Mississippi.
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And whereas it may be that persons may have acquired equitable Titles to lands under some peculiar Customs established and recognized in the ancient French Colonies where no actual grants have passed in that Case Resolved that the Governor of the Western Territory wherever it shall be made satisfactorily to appear by any of the Inhabitants of the Countries upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers, or by the Heirs or legal Representatives of any persons who have heretofore been inhabitants of the same, that they or their Predecessors respectively had acquired equitable or Customary rights to Lands shall cause to be surveyed for each on their applying for the same, and at their Proper Costs and Charges four hundred acres of Lands within either of the before described Tracts of Land, in that upon the Wabash for the Inhabitants upon the Wabash, and in that upon the Mississippi for those upon the Mississippi, and issue letters Patent under the seal of the Government granting the same in the inhabitants individuals and to their Heirs and Assigns forever.
And whereas the Country upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers was by the treaty of Paris 1763 ceded to the Crown of Great Britain and grants of land may have been made to Individuals inhabiting there by the Officers of that Crown Resolved that the Governor of the Western territory shall cause like enquiries to be made as in the cases of the ancient French inhabitants and order the lands to be surveyed and laid out for them respectively within the bounds of the before described tracts of Land, and under the same limitations and restrictions Issue letters Patent confirming the same to them and their: Heirs and Assigns respectively forever.
And whereas from the conquest of the Country upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers untill the Cession made by the State of Virginia to the United States the same was under the Government and dominion of that State, and many persons may have removed during that period into the said Country and have acquired legal or equitable Titles to lands, under the laws or Customs of Virginia Resolved that the Governor of the Western territory shall cause due enquiry to be made into the same and upon the same being asscertained; to order the lands to be surveyed and laid out for the Persons claiming the same their Heirs or legal representatives within either of the before described tracts of Land, and Issue letters Patent confirming them, to them, and their Heirs and Assigns forever under and Subject to the same Regulations limitations and restrictions as are prescribed in the Case of the french and English Inhabitants.
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And whereas it may be that within the boundaries of the before described Tracts of land upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers after all the claims of the inhabitants, whether legal or equitable, to any quantity of Land, not exceeding four hundred Acres for each, shall have been satisfied there may yet remain an over plus, Resolved that the Governor of the Western Territory may, and he is hereby empowered and directed upon application to order the same to be surveyed and laid out for any person or persons in quantities not exceeding four hundred Acres for each applicant and to Issue letters Patent, granting and confirming the same to the said Applicants respectively and to their Heirs and Assigns for ever they paying for the same at the rate ofpr Acre, any thing in the powers to the board of Treasury to dispose of Western territory notwithstanding, out of which powers the before described tracts of Land upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers are hereby expressly excepted.
Resolved that where the Claims to Lands of the Inhabitants of the Country upon the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers, whether legal or equitable do not amount to four hundred acres for each, the Governor of the Western territory may and he is hereby empowered at the request of the parties to grant to the Parties a quantity in addition that shall make up four hundred acres for each Inhabitant and provided that in all cases where the Claim exceeds that Quantity he shall report the same with all the Circumstances attending it to Congress for their Decision. And to the end that the business may be conducted with safety and propriety as well for the United States as for the Individuals interested, Resolved that the Governor shall erect an Office where all persons claiming lands under Grants from the Crown of France the Government of Great Britain or the State of Virginia shall present the same or authentic Copies of the Records, where the same may have been preserved and from which warrants of survey shall Issue to the Surveyors to be appointed to lay out the same, which Surveyors before they enter upon the execution of their offices shall take an Oath or AFfirmation of fidelity to the United States and for the due and faithfull execution of their Offices respectively before they enter on the same which Warrants together with plotts of the tracts of land shall be returned to and filed in the said Office, before any Patent shall Issue, and in all Cases where equitable Titles shall have been asscertained the Governor shall certify the same, under his hand and seal to the party, which certificate shall be recorded in
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the said Office and warrants of survey Issued thereupon and return of the warrants together with the Plotts of the land be returned and filed before any Patent for the same shall Issue. And the Secretary of the Government shall make return once in every three months to the Secretary of Congress of all warrants Issued by the Governor in pursuance of the foregoing Resolutions.
[Report of Secretary at War on western posts1]
[Note 1: 1 Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 151, pp. 339--342, read May 5, 1788. A copy of General Butler's letter is on pp. 335--336. See March 18 and 24, 1788.]
The Secretary of the United States for the Department War to whom was referred a letter of the 11th . of March 1788 from the Superintendant of Indian affairs for the Northern district,
Reports,
That it is to be regretted that every arrangement of military posts for the protection of the frontiers is exceedingly defective compared with the importance of Niagara and Detroit.
That by the said posts being unjustly withheld from the United States, they are not only constrained to make inadequate establishments for the defence of the frontiers but are subjected to excessive expences by being obliged to transport all their supplies upwards of three hundred miles by land.
That untill the United States are in possession of said posts not only the before recited evils will be continued, but it is to be apprehended no solid peace can be effected with the Indians.
That the opinion of the Superintendant with respect to the establishment of posts at the Miami Village and at Cayahoga would be well founded were existing circumstances favorable to the plan.
That posts being established at said places must depend on one or the other of the following circumstances. Either the Indians must sincerely concur in the measure, or the posts and garrisons themselves must be so strong, and possess such communications, as to bid defiance to the force of the Indians.
To attempt the establishment of small posts far advanced into the country in the present irritated temper of the Indians would most probably accelerate a war which it is highly the interest of the United States to avoid.
A post of five hundred men being established at the Miami Village at the rapids of the Miami river, which runs into Lake Erie, would be highly advantageous to the Indian trade and the security of the
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frontiers. But the said post ought to be supported by others so as to have a free communication by the way of the Wabash, as well as Lake Erie.
Should the Indians at the ensuing treaty receive favorably the proposition, a considerable post might this year be established at Cayahoga river, which runs into Lake Erie. Should they be averse to the design it must be deferred. For the troops on the frontiers will be too much reduced to attempt the establishment by force, and it is uncertain whether the Treasury will be able to furnish money to recruit others to supply their places.
The average number of troops on the frontiers during the present year will not exceed three hundred and fifty, unless exigencies should arise to induce the States to furnish the public treasury better than otherwise it will be.
Hence it will appear that any capital alteration of the posts will depend on the issue of the ensuing Indian Treaty combined with other causes.
Your Secretary will request early information of the Commissioners with respect to the dispositions of the Indians on this point, which with any propositions arising therefrom shall be submitted to Congress for their decision.
All which is humbly submitted.
H Knox1
[Note 1: 1 May 5, 1788. According to the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 189, the following committee was appointed:
Mr. Thomas Tudor Tucker, Mr. William Irvine and Mr. Paine Wingate on the report of the Board of Treasury on memorial of William Gardner. See May 2, 1788. The committee reported July 11, 1788. See also July 15, 1788.
Also according to the Committee Book, the following was referred:
Letter of Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, to the Virginia delegates, March 13, 1788, with reference to extension of the time of the Commissioner for settling the accounts of that State with the United States. Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 71, II, p. 589, read May 5, 1788. Referred to the Board of Treasury to report. Report rendered May 7, 1788.
According to indorsement was read:
Memorial of Ruben Stiles, April 20, 1788, for the settlement of his accounts. Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 41, IX, p. 469, read May 5, 1788. See May 6 and July 30, 1788.
According to the Despatch Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 185, IV, p. 31, was received:
Letter of John Wereat, President of the Georgia Convention, to President of Congress, January 5, 1788, transmitting the ratification of the Constitution.]
War Office,
March 31st . 1788
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