Notes on Debates, 10 June 1783
Notes on Debates
MS (LC: Madison Papers). For a description of the manuscript of Notes on Debates, see , V, 231–34.
The Report on the Cession of Virga. was taken up.1 Mr. Elseworth urged the expediency of deciding immediately on the Cession. Mr. Hamilton joined him, asserting at the same time the right of the U. States.2 He moved an amendment in favor of private claims.3 Mr. Clarke was strenuous for the right of the U. S. and agst. waiting longer.4 (this had reference to the absence of Maryland which had always taken a deep interest in the question)5 Mr. Gorham supported the policy of acceding to the report. Mr. Fitzimmons recommended a postponement of the question, observing that he had sent a copy of the Report to the Maryland Delegates. The President was for a postponement till the sense of N. Jersey be known.6 The Delaware Delegates expecting instructions were for postponing till Monday next. It was agreed at length that a final vote should not be taken till that day7 Mr. M. yielding to the sense of the House, but warning that the opportunity might be lost by the rising of the Legislature of Virga.8
Mr. Hamilton & Mr. Peters with permission moved for a recommitment of the Report, in order to provide for Crown titles within the territory reserved to the State.9 Mr. Madison objected to the motion, since an amendment might be prepared during the week & proposed on Monday next. This was acquiesced in. It was agreed that the President might informally notify private Companies & others as well as the Maryland Delegates of the time at which the Report would be taken into consideration10
The Order of the day for appointing a Secretary of For: Affairs, was called for, & none having been put in nomination, the order was postponed.11 Mr. Bland then nominated Mr. Arthur Lee, Mr. Gorham nominated Mr. Jefferson, but being told he would not accept, then named Mr. Tilghman, Mr. Higginson nominated Mr. Jonathan Trumbull. Mr. Mongomery nominated Mr. George Clymer. It was understood that Genl. Schuyler remained in nomination12
1. , VI, 503, n. 4; JM Notes, 4 June, and n. 2; 5 June, n. 1; 6 June 1783, and n. 1. The journal of Congress for 10 June omits mention of the “Report.”
2. , VI, 400–401; 441, n. 6; 442–43; 444, n. 2; 472, n. 4; 482, n. 10; 491; 503, n. 5.
3. The land speculators’ “private claims” to large areas north and west of the Ohio River were usually based on grants from Indians or titles, real or alleged, conferred by the Crown of Great Britain. See the entries, Illinois Company, Indiana Company, Land companies, Vandalia Company, and Wabash Company, in the indexes of , II, III, IV, and V.
5. JM Notes, 4 June, n. 4; 9 June, and n. 1. For Maryland’s “deep interest,” undeviatingly hostile to Virginia’s claim to the Old Northwest, see , II, 72–77; 81–82; 101; 301, n. 4; IV, 179, nn. 7, 8; 201; 221, n. 11; V, 50; VI, 291; 296, n. 38.
6. JM Notes, 9 June, nn. 2, 3. JM, in the feeble hand of his old age, interlineated “[Mr. Boudinot” above “President.” As a delegate from Maryland, James McHenry presented his credentials to Congress on 11 June (, XXIV, 389; , VI, 485, n. 1). He was the only delegate from his state in attendance until the return of Daniel Carroll on 7 August 1783 (, XXIV, 492).
7. JM Notes, 6 June 1783, n. 1. Congress did not meet on Monday, 16 June. The instructions expected by Gunning Bedford, Jr., and Eleazar McComb, the delegates from Delaware, were not adopted by the General Assembly of their state until 21 June, the final day of the session (Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, VI [1887], 828, 834, 837, 839–41). There appears to be no evidence that these instructions opposing the reservations of land made by Virginia in its offer of cession were laid before Congress.
8. “Mr. M.” is JM. See , VI, 502; 503, nn. 5, 6.
9. For the stipulation in the proposal of cession by Virginia requiring Congress to guarantee the title of the state to the western lands excluded from the offer, see JM Notes, 5 June 1783, n. 1. “Crown titles” were grants of land made directly by the king to individuals or corporations (William and Mary Quarterly, 2d ser., X [1930], 52–55).
10. Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase of Maryland, and Bernard and Michael Gratz, Robert Morris, William Murray, and Samuel Wharton of Philadelphia were among the prominent shareholders in “private Companies” (, III, 47, n. 2; 344, n. 2; 346, n. 14; IV, 179, n. 8; 221, n. 11; 228, n. 7; Thomas P. Abernethy, Western Lands and the American Revolution, pp. 234–35).
11. , XXIV, 382, 390. See also , VI, 224, n. 7; 419, n. 4; JM Notes, 4 June 1783, and nn. 3, 4; JM to Randolph, 17 June 1783.
12. Although the journal for 10 June does not refer to the “Order of the day” and omits mention of these nominations, Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, recorded them on a prefatory page of one of his committee books. Lee’s name was withdrawn on 26 August at his own request; Jefferson’s was immediately canceled when Congress was informed, probably by JM, of his friend’s unwillingness to serve. On 18 June Silas Condict nominated his fellow citizen of New Jersey, William Churchill Houston (, I, 44, n. 5). On that day Boudinot, who on 18 December 1782 had proposed Hamilton’s father-in-law, Major General Philip John Schuyler (1733–1804), re-nominated him. Thereafter no further nominations were made until 25 and 26 February 1784 (NA: PCC, No. 186, fol. 2).
Lieutenant Colonels Tench Tilghman (1744–1786), a Baltimore merchant in civilian life, and Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740–1809), of Hartford, were, respectively, Washington’s aide-de-camp and military secretary. Trumbull later had a distinguished political career: four years as speaker during his service of six years (1789–1795) in the United States House of Representatives; two years (1795–1796) in the federal Senate; two years (1796–1798) as lieutenant governor of Connecticut; and eleven years (1798–1809) as governor. Clymer’s nomination, first offered by FitzSimons on 18 December 1782 and renewed by Joseph Montgomery on the present occasion, was canceled on an unspecified date.