II. William Branch Giles’s Resolutions on the Secretary of the Treasury, [27 February 1793]

II. William Branch Giles’s Resolutions on the Secretary of the Treasury

[27 Feb. 1793]

Resolved, That it is1 essential to the due administration of the government of the United States, that laws making specific2 appropriations3 of monies4 should be strictly observed by the administrator of the finances thereof.

Resolved, That the05 violation of a law6 making appropriations7 of monies,8 is a violation of that article9 of the Constitution of the United States, which requires, that no monies10 shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has violated the law, passed the fourth of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, making appropriations of certain monies, authorized to be borrowed by the same11 law, in the following particulars, to wit:

1. By applying a certain portion of the principal borrowed, to the payment of interest falling due upon that principal, which was not authorized by that, or any other law.

2. By drawing part of the same12 monies into the United States, without the instructions of the President of the United States.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has deviated from the instructions given by the President of the United States, in executing13 the authorities for making loans, under the acts of the fourth and twelfth of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has14 omitted to discharge an essential duty of his office, in failing to give Congress official information in due time, of the monies drawn by him from Europe into the United States; which drawing commenced December, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, and continued till January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, and of the causes of making such drafts.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has, without the instructions of the President of the United States, drawn more monies, borrowed in Holland into15 the United States, than the President of the United States was16 authorized [to]17 draw, under the act of the twelfth of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, which act appropriated two millions of dollars only, when borrowed, to the purchase of18 the public debt; and that he has omitted to discharge an essential duty of his office, in failing to give official19 information to the commissioners for purchasing the public debt, of the various sums drawn from time to time suggested by him to have been intended for the purchase of the public debt.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury20 did not consult the public interest, in negociating a loan with the bank of the United States, and drawing therefrom four hundred thousand dollars at five per centum per annum, when a greater sum of public money was deposited in various banks, at the respective periods of making the respective drafts.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has been guilty of an indecorum to this House, in undertaking to judge of its motives in calling for information which was demandable of him, from the constitution of his office, and in failing to give all21 the necessary information within his knowledge, relatively to the subjects of reference made to him of the nineteenth of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, and of the twenty-second of November, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, during the present session.

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be transmitted to the President of the United States.

Text reprinted from Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, at the Second Session of the Second Congress (Philadelphia, 1793), 147–8. Tr (DNA: RG 233, House Records, Smooth Journal, 2d Cong., 2d sess.); with omissions and variations. Collation of the text in the Journal with the Tr, with the texts printed in five Philadelphia newspapers—the Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, 1 Mch. 1793; Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser, 2 Mch. 1793; the Gazette of the United States, 2 Mch. 1793; the General Advertiser, 2 Mch. 1793; and the National Gazette, 6 Mch. 1793—and with the text printed in Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , iii, 900, establishes the Journal as the most reliable source for the resolutions. The Daily Advertiser, the Gazette of the United States, and the Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends number the resolutions; in the Gazette of the United States the third resolution is printed as the fourth, the fourth resolution as the fifth, and the fifth resolution as the third. Other significant variations are noted below; inconsequential differences in capitalization, punctuation, and spelling have been ignored.

1. Word omitted in Tr.

2. Word omitted in Daily Advertiser.

3. Next two words omitted in Federal Gazette, General Advertiser, and National Gazette.

4. Annals, Daily Advertiser, and Gazette of the United States: “money.”

5. Daily Advertiser, Gazette of the United States, and Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends : “a.”

6. Preceding three words omitted in Tr.

7. Next two words given as “for monies” in Federal Gazette and National Gazette.

8. Daily Advertiser, Gazette of the United States, and Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends : “money.”

9. Daily Advertiser, Gazette of the United States, and Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends : “section.”

10. Daily Advertiser, Gazette of the United States, and Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends : “money.”

11. Daily Advertiser: “said.”

12. Daily Advertiser: “said.”

13. Gazette of the United States and Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends : “exceeding.”

14. Word omitted in Daily Advertiser.

15. General Advertiser: “in.”

16. Word omitted in Daily Advertiser, Federal Gazette, and National Gazette.

17. Word, supplied, is present in all other texts.

18. Preceding three words omitted in General Advertiser.

19. Word omitted in Tr.

20. Preceding three words omitted in Tr.

21. Federal Gazette and National Gazette: “to all.”

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Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: II. William Branch Giles’s Resolutions on the Secretary of the Treasury, [27 February 1793]
Author: Giles, William Branch
Date: 27 February 1793

Reference

Cite as: “II. William Branch Giles’s Resolutions on the Secretary of the Treasury, [27 February 1793],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-25-02-0259-0003. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 25, 1 January–10 May 1793, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, pp. 294–296.]