| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journals of the Continental Congress --THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1788.
Congress assembled present New hampshire Massachusetts, Rhode island, New York, New Jersey, Pensylvania Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia and from Connecticut Mr [Pierpont] Edwards and from North Carolina Mr [Hugh] Williamson.
[Report of committee on protest of French minister1]
[Note 1: 1 Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 25, II, pp. 487--488, in the writing of Mr . Alexander Hamilton. Read June 12 and passed June 13, 1788. See May 30 and June 6, 1788. The original report was emended to read as it was passed.]
The Committee [consisting of Mr. Alexander Hamilton, Mr. Nathan Dane, Mr. Jonathan Dayton, Mr. Samuel Allyne Otis and Mr. Edward Carrington] to whom was referred the report of the Secretary for foreign affairs on the note from The Minister Plenipotentiary of France with the papers accompanying it report,
That it appears by the said note and papers accompanying it, that the person mentioned therein, to wit Joseph Marie Anne Fermier commander of the Brig David is charged, with having betrayed his betraying his trust and running away with a cargo of Coffee, which by the laws of all countries is highly criminal and by those of some particular countries amounts to piracy. That in the execution of this design is alleged to have been begun at the Cape continued by certain acts on the high seas and completed in the commonwealth of Virginia. Your Committee therefore submit the following resolution
That the Secretary for foreign affairs transmit the said note of the Minister Plenipotentiary of France of the 28 Ultime to the Executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia to the end that the said Executive may communicate to Congress the necessary information on the subject, and also to signify to the said Executive that it is the sense of Congress that the said J M A F ought to be secured in order that justice may be done in regard to the crime with which he is charged. And that the said Secretary be directed to inform the said Minister Plenipotentiary that instructions have already been given to our the Minister of the United States at the Court of France concerning the Consular Convention referred to in his note.
Page 213 | Page image
[Report of committee on memorial of G. Morgan and the inhabitants of Illinois and St. Vincents 1]
The Committee consisting of Mr [Hugh] Williamson, [Mr. Nathan Dane, Mr. Edward Carrington, Mr. Dyre Kearny and Mr. Paine Wingate] to whom was referred the Memorial of Geo. Morgan and his associates, respecting a tract of land in the Illinois Country on the Missisippi beg leave to report
That there are sundry french settlements on the River Missisippi within the tract which Mr . Morgan and his associates propose to purchase. Near the mouth of the River Kaskaskies, there is a Village which appears to have contained near Eighty families from the beginning of the late revolution. There are twelve families in a small Village at la Prairie du Rochers and near fifty families at the Kahokia Village. There are also four or five families at Fort Chartres and at St Phillips which is five miles farther up the River. The Heads of families in those Villages appear each of them to have had a certain quantity of arable land alloted to them, and a proportionate quantity of meadow and of woodland or pasture. Your Committee are of the Opinion that from any general sale which may be made of the lands on the Missisippi there should at least be a reserve of so much land as may satisfy all the just claims of the Antient Settlers on that river, and that they should be confirmed in the possession of such lands as they may have had at the beginning of the late revolution, which may have been allotted to them according to the laws or Usages of the French or British Governments under which they have respectively settled. And whereas an additional quantity of land may be Necessary for the support of those people whenever the settlement shall increase and the Indian trade, by which they have chiefly subsisted, shall become less profitable, your Committee are of the Opinion, that such allowance should also be made them within the reserved limits.
[Note 1: 1 Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 19, IV, pp. 145--155, in the writing of John Fisher. Read June 12, made the order of the day for June 19 and acted on June 20, 1788. For text of original report read lined type and omit bracketed portions. For text of amended report as printed read bracketed portions and omit lined type. A copy of the amended report, with manuscript changes to bring it into conformity with the report as adopted is in Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 19, IV, p. 157. See May 13, 14 and 23, 1788.]
Page 214 | Page image
Your Committee observe that in the Contract which is already made for the sale of a tract of land in the Western Country the purchasers are to be charged with surveying three Lots which are reserved for the benefit of the United States. They conceive that future contractors may be relieved from this expence; but they would propose that every agreement hereafter to be made shall be equally binding on the contracting parties, whereupon they submit the following Resolves.
That the Board of Treasury be authorised to Contract with any person or persons for a grant of a Tract of land which shall be bounded as follows;
Beginning on the River au Vase in the parallel of the mouth of little Wabash River, thence running due North to the Parallel of the mouth of wood River, thence West to the Missisippi at the Mouth of wood River, thence down the River Missisippi to the mouth of the River Au Vase, thence up the said River to the place of beginning, saving and reserving their possessions and Titles to the Antient Inhabitants of Kaskaskias, la Prairie du Rochers, Fort Chartres, St . Phillips and Kahokia which shall be satisfied from lands within the limits herein after to be described.
That the purchaser or purchasers shall oblige themselves to lay off the Tract at their own expence into Townships or fractional parts of Townships and to divide the same into lots according to the land Ordinance1 of the 20th . May 1785, complete Returns of which are to be made to the Board of Treasury. The lot No 16 in each Township or fractional part of a Township to be given perpetually for the purposes contained in the said Ordinance and the lot No . 29 in each Township or fractional part of a Township to be given perpetually for the purposes of Religion, and that each of the several Townships shall be thus laid off before the original purchaser or purchasers shall have disposed of the same, or made any settlement therein. The price to be not less than two thirds of a dollar per Acre for the Contents of the said tract, except the reservations and gifts aforesaid, payable in specie, Loan Office Certificates, reduced to Specie Value or Certificates of liquidated debts of the United States, the principal only of the said Certificates to be received in payment; and the Board of Treasury for such interest as may be due on the Certificates rendered in payment as aforesaid prior to the first of Jany 1787 shall
[Note 1: 1 Journals, vol. XXVIII, pp. 375--381.]
Page 215 | Page image
issue indents for interest to the possessors which shall be receivable in payment as other indents for interest of the existing Requisitions of Congress. And for such interest as may be due on the said Certificates between that period and the time of payment, the said Board shall issue Indents, the payment of which to be provided for hereafter.
That part of the purchase money not less than two [one] hundred and fifty Thousand Dollars shall be paid down upon closing of the Contract, and the remainder of the purchase money whenever the Indian claim shall have been extinguished and the Boundary line of the Tract run by the Geographer of the United States or his assistants, the Contents of the land which is to be sold ascertained, and a plot of the same returned to the Office of the Treasury Board, on which payment a grant shall be made, and the purchaser or purchasers shall have the right of Entry and Occupancy.
That separate Tracts shall be reserved for satisfying the Claims of the Antiant settlers which shall be included within the following boundary Viz a straight line to be extended from the Mouth of the little River Marie below the River Kaskaskies to the old French fort on the East side of the said River Kaskaskias, and opposite the Kaskaskias Village, thence North three Miles, thence West across the Kaskaskia river to the ridge of Rocks and high land that extends from the Kaskaskia to the Illionois Rivers, then along the West side or foot of the said ridge of Rocks and high land to the parallel that runs two miles North of the Church at Kahokia, thence west to the River Mississippi, thence down the said river to the mouth of the River Marie.
That measures be immediately taken for confirming in their possessions and titles, the French [and Canadian Inhabitants] and other settlers on those lands who on or before the year 1783 had professed themselves Citizens of the United States or any of them, and for laying off the Several tracts which they rightfully claim within the described limits, and for laying off for the benefit of said Inhabitants three additional Tracts adjoining the several Villages, Kaskaskias, la prerie du Rochers and Kohokia, in the form of a Parallelogram, extending from the River Missisippi Eastward to the Ridge of Rocks before described, and of such extent as shall contain [(300) four hundred] Acres for each of the families now living at either of the Villages of Kaskaskia, la Prarie du Rochers, Kohokias, Fort Chartres
Page 216 | Page image
or St . Phillips. The additional reserved tract adjoining the Village of Kaskaskias shall be for the Heads of families in that Village, The tract adjoining la Preries du Rochers shall be for the heads of families in that Village, and the tract adjoining Kahokia shall be for the heads of families in that Village, as also for those at fort Chartres and St . Phillips. A. Such additional Donation of [four hundred] Acres to be hereafter distributed by lot among the sundry claimants, at the end ofyears, after the tract shall have been laid off; it being provided that no person shall be entitled to such reserved Donation, unless he or she is at such time a resident within the Limits first above described, and unless he or she or his or her Ancestor shall have continued to be residents within the same limits from the beginning of the late Revolution. [Such additional donation of four hundred acres to be divided by lot and immediate possession given; Provided Nevertheless that no person thus obtaining possession of such lands shall have power to alienate the same until he or she, or his or her heirs shall have resided at leastyears from the time of such division within that district; at the end of which period every such resident shall obtain a title to the reserved lot; and all lots not thus conveyed to residents shall revert to the United States.]
That whenever the Antient settlers shall have been confirmed in their possessions and Titles and the amount of the same ascertained, and the three additional Parallelograms shall also be laid off for future Donations, and such other Tract as may formerly have been possessed by Geo. Morgan or so much of the same as he may rightfully claim, the whole remainder of the soil within the reserved limits above described shall be considered as appertaining to the general purchase and shall be conveyed accordingly.
That Measures be immediately taken to entinguish the Indian Claim, if any such Claim exists to the land bordering on the Missisippi from the month of the Ohio to a determined station on the Missisippi, that shall be Sixty or Eighty miles north from the Mouth of the Illionois River and extending from the Missisippi as far Eastward as may be.
That the Governor of the Western Territory be instructed to repair to the French settlements on the Missisippi at and above the Kaskaskies. That he examine the Titles and possessions of the settlers as above described in order to determine what quantity of land they may severally claim, which shall be laid off for them at their own expence, and that he take an account of the several heads of families
Page 217 | Page image
living within the reserved limits in order that he may determine the quantity of land that is to be laid off in the several Parallelograms, which shall be laid off accordingly by the Geographer of the United States or his Assistant at the expence of the United States.
That the Geographer of the United States be instructed to take the latitude of the Mouth of the River Au Vase and the Mouth of wood River, and of the North East and South Eastern Angie of the tract, and that in executing all other large Surveys he take the latitude of three or four of the Chief Corners.1
[Note 1: 1 June 12, 1788. According to indorsement and the Committee Book, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 190, p. 195, the following committee was appointed:
Mr. Alexander Hamilton, Mr. James R. Reid and Mr. Samuel Allyne Otis on the memorial of Udny Hay, dated June 10, read June 12, 1788, regarding his claim for rank and emoluments. Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 41, IV, p. 258. A statement of Hay's account signed by J. Burrall, Commissioner of Accounts, is on pp. 262--263. Copies of other supporting documents are on pp. 260, 265--266, 269--270, 273--277. The report of the Secretary at War on this subject, rendered August 23, 1785, was also referred to this committee. See Journals, vol. XXIX, pp. 652--653. Mr . Hamilton was replaced by Mr. Pierpont Edwards on June 13. Report was rendered June 16, 1788. See also June 27, July 1 and 22, 1788.
Also according to indorsement and the Committee Book, was referred to the Board of Treasury to report:
Petition of Samuel Townsend, October 31, 1787, read June 12, 1788, to be repaid money for which he was sued and which he had paid for the United States. Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 42, VII, pp. 493--494. Report rendered July 18, 1788. The enclosed papers were returned on May 20, 1790.]
PREVIOUS SECTION .. NEXT SECTION .. NAVIGATOR
| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |