Notes on Debates, 20 June 1783
Notes on Debates
MS (LC: Madison Papers). For a description of the manuscript of Notes on Debates, see , V, 231–34.
The Soldiers from Lancaster came into the City under the guidance of Sergeants. They professed to have no other object than to obtain a settlement of accounts, which they supposed they had a better chance for at Philadelphia than at Lancaster. [see the Report of the Committee on that subject]1
The Report of the Committee [see the Journal] on the territorial Cession of Virga. being taken up,2 & the amendment on the Journal proposed by Mr. McHenry & Mr Clarke, being lost,3 Mr. Bedford proposed that the second condition of the Cession be so altered as to read “that in order to comply with the said Condition, so far as the same is comprized within the Resolution of ocr. 10. 1780. on that subject,” Commissioners as proposed by the Committee, be appointed &c. and that instead of “for the purposes mentioned in the said Condition,” be substituted “Agreeable to that Resolution.”4 In support of this alteration, it was urged by Mr. McHenry, Mr. Bedford & Mr. Clarke that the terms used by Virga. were too comprehensive & indefinite.5 In favor of the Report of the Committee, it was contended by Mr. Ellsworth that the alteration was unreasonable inasmuch as Civil expences were on the same footing of Equity as Military and that a compromize was the object of the Committee. Sundry members were of opinion that Civil expences were comprized in the Resolution of ocr. 10. 1780. Mr. Bland & Mr. Mercer acceded to the alteration proposed. Mr. Madison alone dissented, and therefore did not insist on a Call for the votes of the States. Mr. McHenry moved, but without being seconded “that the Commissioners instead of deciding finally should be authorized to report to Congress only.[”]
In the course of debate Mr. Clarke laid before Congress the Remonstrance of New Jersey as entered on the Journal.
As the Report had been postponed at the instance of the President & other Delegates of N. Jersey, in order to obtain this answer from their Constituents, and as the Remonstrance was dated on the 14th. of June,6 and was confessed privately by Mr. to have been in possession of the Delegates on Monday last, an unfairness was complained of.7 They supposed that if it had been laid before Congress sooner the copy which would have been sent by the Virga. Delegates, might hasten the opening of the Land Office of that State.8 Mr. Clarke said there were still good prospects, and he did not doubt that the time would yet come when Congress would draw a line limiting the States to the westward & say thus far shall ye go & no farther.9 Mr. Bedford moved that with respect to the 4th & 5th. Conditions of the Cession “it be declared, that Clarke & his men, & the Virginia Line, be allowed the same bounty beyond the Ohio as was allowed by the U. S. to the same Ranks.” This Motion was seconded by Congress adjourned without debating it; there being seven States only present and the spirit of compromise decreasing.10
From several circumstances there was reason to believe that R. Island, N. Jersey Pennsylvania & Delaware, if not Maryland also retained latent views of confining Virginia to the Alegheny Mountains11
Notice was taken by Mr. Madison of the Error in the Remonstrance, which recites “that Congress had declared the Cession of Virginia to be a partial one[”]12
1. JM Notes, 19 June 1783, and n. 7. The brackets are JM’s. The Hamilton committee’s written report, submitted on 20 June, following the arrival of the mutineers in Philadelphia, advised Congress that John Pierce, the paymaster general of the army, who would soon return to the city from Washington’s headquarters, had complete charge of arranging financial settlements with continental troops. In every instance the settlement could be reached only at the various posts where the troops were stationed. For this reason the mutinous “detachment” must return to Lancaster before having its demands considered. Money “will immediately be sent” there, continued the report, “to be paid to the troops on account of the month’s pay heretofore directed to be advanced to them, the payment of which has hitherto been delayed by particular circumstances; together with notes for three months’ pay intended to be advanced to the men when furloughed” (, III, 400, and n. 1; , XXIV, 413–15). For Pierce, see , III, 115, n. 2; , XXVII, 53, and n. 87.
2. For the appointment of “the Committee,” including JM, and its report, see JM Notes, 4 June, n. 2; 5 June, n. 1; 6 June, and n. 1; 10 June; JM to Randolph, 10 June 1783, and n. 16; , XXIV, 406–7.
3. The report recommended that Congress, upon accepting the offer of Virginia to cede its lands north and west of the Ohio River to the United States, agree to assume the “necessary and reasonable expences” of both a military and civil nature incurred by Virginia in that area “since the commencement of the present war.” The McHenry-Clark motion, if adopted, would have limited this pledge to cover solely the military costs. Of the seven states effectively represented in Congress only New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware favored the motion (, XXIV, 406–7).
4. The journal omits mention of the motion of Gunning Bedford, Jr. See JM Notes, 10 June 1783, n. 7. Strictly interpreted, the resolution of 10 October 1780 bound Congress financially to reimburse Virginia only for its military expenses “in subduing any of the 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” (, XVIII, 915). Therefore the McHenry and Bedford motions, although differently phrased, were similar in purpose. The committee’s report recommended that three commissioners—one appointed by Congress, one by “the State of Virginia,” and the third by those two—”should be authorised and empowered to adjust and liquidate the account of the necessary and reasonable expences incurred by the said State” for military operations and civil government in the Old Northwest (, XXIV, 406–7). See also , II, 138, n. 2.
5. The “second condition” of the offer of cession of 2 January 1781 provided “That Virginia shall be allowed and fully reimbursed by the United States, her actual expenses in reducing the British posts at the Kaskaskies, and Saint Vincents; the expense of maintaining garrisons, and supporting civil government there, since the reduction of the said posts; and in general all the charges she has incurred, on account of the country, on the northwest side of the Ohio river, since the commencement of the present war” (, Oct. 1780, p. 80).
6. JM Notes, 9 June, and nn. 2, 3; 10 June 1783; , XXIV, 407–9.
7. “Monday last” was 16 June. The blank left by JM after “Mr.” should perhaps be filled with “Boudinot.”
8. Although the New Jersey delegates could not have known when the May session of the Virginia General Assembly would close, their delay in submitting the representation and remonstrance of their own state legislature to Congress prevented a copy of that document from reaching Richmond before the General Assembly adjourned on 28 June 1783 (, May 1783, p. 99).
9. , III, 304, n. 1.
10. The acreage, either in the district of Kentucky or in the territory north of the Ohio River, pledged by the Virginia General Assembly to its officers and troops on “State establishment,” including George Rogers Clark and those under his command, and to its officers and troops “upon the continental establishment,” was more generous than that stipulated in the bounty-land ordinances of Congress (, XI, 559–65). See also , II, 53, n. 3; 74; 75; V, 119, n. 20; JM Notes, 4 June 1783, and n. 1. The motion of Bedford, therefore, demanded in effect that Virginia break its contracts with the members of its armed forces. As JM suggests, by noting the decrease in “the spirit of compromise,” Bedford aimed only to goad the Virginia delegates rather than to suggest an amendment which Congress would accept.
11. , II, 74–77; 176–77; 178 nn.; 196, n. 2; IV, 35, n. 10; 179, nn. 7, 8; 201; V, 200; 201, n. 8; VI, 291–92; 296, n. 38; 472, n. 4.