Sm th, of New Jersey, had the vote of that state, and Mr. Merchant, of Rhode Island, the vote of that state.

The resolutions respecting Vermont, moved by Mr. M'KEAN on the 27th day of November, were taken into consideration. They were seconded by Mr. HAMILTON, as entered on the Journal of this day. Previous to the question on the coercive clause, Mr. MADISON observed, that, as the preceding clause was involved in it, and the Federal Articles did not delegate to Congress the authority about to be enforced, it would be proper, in the first place, to amend the recital in the previous clause by inserting the ground on which the authority of Congress had been interposed. Some, who voted against this motion in this stage, having done so from a doubt as to the point of order, it was revived in a subsequent stage, when that objection did not lie. The objections to the motion itself were urged chiefly by the delegates from Rhode Island, and with a view, in this, as in all other instances, to perplex and protract the business. The objections were — first, that the proposed insertion was not warranted by the act of New Hampshire, which submitted to the judgment of Congress merely the question of jurisdiction; secondly, that the resolutions of August, 1781, concerning Vermont, having been acceded to by Vermont, annulled all antecedent acts founded on the doubtfulness of its claim to independence. In answer to the first objection, the act of New Hampshire was read, which, in the utmost latitude, adopted the resolutions of Congress, which extended expressly to the preservation of peace and order, and prevention of acts of confiscation by one party against another. To the second objection it was answered - first, that the said resolutions of August being conditional, not absolute, the cession of Vermont could not render them definitive; but, secondly, that prior to this accession, Vermont having, in due form, rejected the resolutions, and notified the rejection to Congress, the accession could be of no avail, unless subsequently admitted by Congress; thirdly, that this doctrine had been maintained by Vermont itself, which had declared that, inasmuch as the resolutions of August did not correspond with their overtures previously made to Congress, these had ceased to be obligatory; which act, it was to be observed, was merely declaratory, not creative, of the annulment.

The original motion of Mr. M'KEAN and Mr. HAMILTON was agreed to, seven states voting for it, Rhode Island and New Jersey in the negative.

FRIDAY, December 6.

An ordinance, extending the privilege of franking letters to the heads of all the departments, was reported and taken up. Various ideas were thrown out on the subject at large; some contending for the extension proposed; some for a total abolition of the privilege, as well in members of Congress as in others; some for a limitation of the privilege to a definite number or weight of letters. Those who contended for a total abolition, represented the privilege as productive of abuses, as reducing the profits so low as to prevent the extension of the establishment throughout the United States, and as throwing the whole burden of the establishment on the mercantile intercourse. On the other side it was contended, that, in case of an abolition, the delegates, or their constituents, would be taxed just in proportion to their distance from the seat of Congress; which was neither just nor politic, considering the many other disadvantages which were inseparable from that distance; that as the correspondence of the delegates was the principal channel through which a general knowledge of public affairs was diffused, any abridgment of it would so far confine this advantage to the states within the neighborhood of Congress; and that, as the correspondence at present, however voluminous, did not exclude from the mail any private letters which would be subject to postage, and if postage was extended to letters now franked, the number and size of them would be essentially reduced, the revenue was not affected in the manner represented. The ordinance was disagreed to, and the subject recommitted, with instruction to the committee, giving them ample latitude for such report, as they should think fit.

A Boston newspaper, containing, under the Providence head, an extract of a letter purporting to be written by a gentleman in Philadelphia, and misrepresenting the state of our loans, as well as betraying the secret proposal of the Swedish court to enter into a treaty with the United States, with the view of disproving to the people of Rhode Island the necessity of the impost of five per cent., had been handed about for several days. From the style and other circumstances, it carried strongly

the appearance of being written by a member of Congress. The unanimous suspicions were fixed on Mr. Howell. The mischievous tendency of such publications, and the necessity of the interposition of Congress, were also general subjects of conversation. It was imagined, too, that a detection of the person suspected would destroy in his state that influence which he exerted in misleading its counsels with respect to the impost. These circumstances led Mr. WILLIAMSON to move the following proposition on this subject:

"Whereas there is reason to suspect, that as well the national character of the United States, and the honor of Congress, as the finances of the said states, may be injured, and the public service greatly retarded, by some publications that have been made concerning the foreign affairs of said states,- -Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into this subject, and report what steps they conceive are necessary to be taken thereon."

It was opposed by no one.

Mr. CLARK, supposing it to be levelled in part at him, rose and informed Congress, that, not considering the article relative to Sweden as secret in its nature, and considering himself at liberty to make any communications to his constituents, he had disclosed it to the assembly of New Jersey. He was told that the motion was not aimed at him, but the doctrine advanced by him was utterly inadmissible. Mr. RUTLEDGE observed, that, after this frankness on the part of Mr. Clark, as well as from the respect due from every member to Congress, and to himself, it might be concluded, that, if no member present should own the letter in question, no member present was the author of it. Mr. Howell was evidently perturbated, but remained silent.

The conference with the committee of the legislature of Pennsylvania, with subsequent information, had rendered it very evident that, unless some effectual meas ures were taken against separate appropriations, and in favor of the public creditors, the legislature of that state, at its next meeting, would resume the plan which they had suspended.

Mr. RUTLEDGE, in pursuance of this conviction, moved that the superintendent of finance be instructed to represent to the several states the mischiefs which such appropriations would produce. It was observed, with respect to this motion, that, however proper it might be as one expedient, it was, of itself, inadequate; that nothing but a permanent fund for discharging the debts of the public would divert the states from making provision for their own citizens; that a renewal of the call on Rhode Island for the impost ought to accompany the motion; that such a combination of these plans would mutually give efficacy to them, since Rhode Island would be solicitous to prevent separate appropriations, and the other states would be soothed with the hope of the impost. These observations gave rise to the motion of Mr. HAMILTON,

"That the superintendent of finance be, and he is hereby, directed to represent to the legislatures of the several states the indispensable necessity for their complying with the requisitions of Congress for raising one million two hundred thousand dollars, for paying one year's interest of the domestic debt of the United States, and two millions of dollars towards defraying the expenses of the estimate for the ensuing year, and the inconveniences, embarrassments, and injuries to the public service, which will arise from the states' individually making appropriations of any part of the said two millions of dollars, or any other moneys required by the United States in Congress assembled; assuring them withal, that Congress are determined to make the fullest justice to the public creditors an invariable object of their counsels and exertions; that a deputation be sent to the state of Rhode Island, for the purpose of making a full and just representation of the public affairs of the United States, and of urging the absolute necessity of a compliance with the resolution of Congress of the 3d day of February, 1781, respecting the duty on imports and prizes, as a measure essential to the safety and reputation of these states." Against Mr. Rutledge's part of the motion no objection was made; but the sending a deputation to Rhode Island was a subject of considerable debate, in which the necessity of the impost-in order to prevent separate appropriations by the states, to do equal justice to the public creditors, to maintain our national character and credit abroad, to obtain the loans essential for supplying the deficiencies of revenue, to prevent the encouragement which a failure of the scheme would give the enemy to persevere in the war-was fully set forth. The objections, except those which came against the scheme itself from the delegates of Rhode Island, were drawn from the unreasonableness of the proposition. Congress ought, it was said, to wait for an official answer to their demand of an explicit answer from Rhode Island, before they could, with propriety, repeat their exhortations. To which it was replied, that, although this objection might have some weight, yet the urgency

of our situation, and the chance of giving a favorable turn to the negotiations on foot for peace, rendered it of little comparative significance. The objections were finally retracted, and both the propositions agreed to. The deputation elected were Mr. Osgood, Mr. Mifflin, and Mr. Nash, taken from different parts of the United States, and each from states that had fully adopted the impost, and would be represented without them, except Mr. Osgood, whose state, he being alone, was not represented without him.

No Congress.

SATURDAY, December 7.

The grand committee met again on the business of the old paper emissions, and agreed to the plan reported by the sub-committee in pursuance of Mr. FITZSIMMONS'S motion, viz., that the outstanding bills should be taken up, and certificates issued in place thereof at the rate of one real dollar for nominal ones, and

-

that the surpluses redeemed by particular states should be credited to them at the same rate. Mr. CARROLL alone dissented to the plan, alleging that a law of Maryland was adverse to it, which he considered as equipollent to an instruction. For filling up the blank, several rates were proposed. First, one for forty-on which the votes were, no, except Mr. Howell. Second, one for seventy-five-no; Mr. White and Mr. Howell, ay. Third, one for one hundred-no; Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Fitzsimmons, ay. Fourth, one for one hundred and fifty-no; Mr. Fitzsimmons, ay. The reasons urged in favor of one for forty were first, an adherence to public faith; secondly, that the depreciation of the certificates would reduce the rate sufficiently low, they being now negotiated at the rate of three or four for one. The reason for one for seventy-five was that the bills passed at that rate when they were called in, in the Eastern States; for one for one hundred — that, as popular ideas were opposed to the stipulated rate, and as adopting the current rate might hurt the credit of other securities, which derived their value from an opinion that they would be strictly redeemed, it was best to take an arbitrary rate, leaning to the side of liberality; for one for one hundred and fifty-that this was the medium depreciation when the circulation ceased. The opposition to these several rates came from the southern delegates, in some of whose states none, in others but little, had been redeemed, and in all of which the depreciation had been much greater. On this side it was observed, by Mr. MADISON, that the states which had redeemed a surplus, or even their quotas, had not done it within the period fixed by Congress, but in the last stages of depreciation, and in a great degree even after the money had ceased to circulate; that, since the supposed cessation, the money had generally changed hands at a value far below any rate that had been named; that the principle established by the plan of the 18th of March, 1780, with respect to the money in question, was, that the holder of it should receive the value at which it was current, and at which it was presumed he had received it; that a different rule, adopted with regard to the same money in different stages of its downfall, would give general dissatisfaction. The committee adjourned without coming to any decision.

No Congress.

MONDAY, December 9.

TUESDAY, December 10

A motion was made by Mr. RAMSAY, directing the secretary of war, who was about to visit his family in Massachusetts, to take Vermont in his way, and deliver the resolutions passed a few days since to Mr. Chittenden. For the motion, it was urged that it would insure the delivery, would have a conciliating effect, and would be the means of obtaining true and certain knowledge of the disposition and views of that people. On the opposite side, it was exclaimed against as a degradation of so high a servant of the United States, as exposing him to the temerity of leaders who were, on good ground, suspected of being hostile to the United States, and as treating their pretensions to sovereignty with greater complaisance than was consistent with the eventual resolutions of Congress. The motion was rejected.

A motion was made by Mr. GILMAN, that a day be assigned for determining finally the affair of Vermont. The opposition made to the motion itself by Rhode Island, and the disagreement as to the day among the friends of the motion, prevented a decision, and it was suffered to lie over.

For the letter of the superintendent of finance to Thomas Barclay, commissioner

for settling accounts in Europe, agreed to by Congress, see Secret Journal of this date.

WEDNESDAY, December 11.

The secretary of war was authorized to permit the British prisoners to hire themselves out, on condition of a bond from the hirers for their return. The measure was not opposed, but was acquiesced in, by some, only as conformable to antecedent principles established by Congress on this subject. Colonel Hamilton, in particular, made this explanation.

Mr. WILSON made a motion, referring the transmission of the resolutions concerning Vermont to the secretary of war in such words as left him an option of being the bearer, without the avowed sanction of Congress. The votes of Virginia and New York negatived it. The president informed Congress, that he should send the resolutions to the commander-in-chief to be forwarded.

THURSDAY, December 12.

The report made by Mr. Williamson, Mr. Carroll, and Mr. Madison, touching the publication in the Boston paper, supposed to be written by Mr. Howell, passed with the concurrence of Rhode Island; Mr. Howell hesitating, and finally beckoning to his colleague, Mr. Collins, who answered for the state in the affirmative. As the report stood, the executive of Massachusetts, as well as of Rhode Island, was to be written to, the Gazette being printed at Boston. On the motion of Mr. OSGOOD, who had seen the original publication in the Providence Gazette, and apprehended a constructive imputation on the Massachusetts delegates by such as would be ignorant of the circumstances, the executive of Massachusetts was expunged.

FRIDAY, December 13.

Mr. HOWELL verbally acknowledged himself to be the writer of the letter from which the extract was published in the Providence Gazette. At his instance, the subject was postponed until Monday.

No Congress.

SATURDAY, December 14.

MONDAY, December 16.

The answer to the objections of Rhode Island as to the impost, penned by Mr. Howell, passed without opposition, eight states being present, of which Rhode Island was one, a few trivial alterations only being made in the course of discussion. Mr. Howell, contrary to expectation, was entirely silent as to his affair.

TUESDAY, December 17.

Mr. CARROLL, in order to bring on the affair of Mr. Howell, moved that the secretary of foreign affairs be instructed not to write to the government of Rhode Island on the subject. The state in which such a vote would leave the business, unless the reason of it was expressed, being not adverted to by some, and others being unwilling to move in the case, this motion was incautiously suffered to pass. The effect of it, however, was soon observed, and a motion in consequence made by Mr. HAMILTON, to subjoin the words, "Mr. Howell having in his place confessed himself to be the author of the publication." Mr. RAMSAY, thinking such a stigma on Mr. Howell unnecessary, and tending to place him in the light of a persecuted man, whereby his opposition to the impost might have more weight in his state, proposed to substitute, as the reason, "Congress having received the information desired on that subject." The yeas and nays being called for by Mr. HAMILTON, Mr. Howell grew very uneasy at the prospect of his name being thereby brought on the Journals, and requested that the subject might be suspended until the day following. This was agreed to, and took place on condition that the negatived counter-direction to the secretary of foreign affairs should be reconsidered, and lie over also.

WEDNESDAY, December 18.

This day was chiefly spent on the case of Mr. Howell, whose behavior was extremely offensive, and led to a determined opposition to him those who were most inclined to spare his reputation. If the affair could have been closed without an insertion of his name on the Journal, he seemed willing to withdraw his protest; but the impropriety which appeared to some, and particularly to Mr. Hamilton, in suppressing the name of the author of a piece which Congress had so emphatically

reprobated, when the author was found to be a member of Congress, prevented a relaxation as to the yeas and nays. Mr. HOWELL, therefore, as his name was necessarily to appear on the Journal, adhered to the motion which inserted his protest thereon. (See the Journal.) The indecency of this paper, and the pertinacity of Mr. Howell in adhering to his assertions with respect to the non-failure of any application for foreign loans, excited great and (excepting his colleagues, or rather Mr. Arnold) universal indignation and astonishment in Congress; and he was repeatedly premonished of the certain ruin in which he would thereby involve his character and consequence, and of the necessity which Congress would be laid under of vindicating themselves by some act which would expose and condemn him to all the world.

See Journals.

THURSDAY, December 19.

FRIDAY, December 20.

A motion was made by Mr. HAMILTON for revising the requisitions of the preceding and present years, in order to reduce them more within the faculties of the states. In support of the motion, it was urged that the exorbitancy of the demands produced a despair of fulfilling them, which benumbed the efforts for that purpose. On the other side, it was alleged that a relaxation of the demand would be followed by a relaxation of the efforts; that unless other resources were substituted, either the states would be deluded, by such a measure, into false expectations, or, in case the truth should be disclosed to prevent that effect, that the enemy would be encouraged to persevere in the war against us. The motion meeting with little patronage,

it was withdrawn.

The report of the committee on the motion of Mr. Hamilton proposed that the secretary of Congress should transmit to the executive of Rhode Island the several acts of Congress, with a state of foreign loans. The object of the committee was, that, in case Rhode Island should abet, or not resent, the misconduct of their representative, as would most likely be the event, Congress should commit themselves as little as possible in the mode of referring it to that state. When the report came under consideration, it was observed that the president had always transmitted acts of Congress to the executives of the states, and that such a change, on the present occasion, might afford a pretext, if not excite a disposition, in Rhode Island not to vindicate the honor of Congress. The matter was compromised by substituting the "secretary of foreign affairs, who, ex officio, corresponds with the governors, &c., within whose department the facts to be transmitted, as to foreign loans, lay." No motion or vote opposed the report as it passed.7

SATURDAY, December 21.

The committee to confer with Mr. Livingston was appointed the preceding day, in consequence of the unwillingness of several states to elect either General Schuyler, Mr. Clymer, or Mr. Read, the gentlemen previously put into nomination, and of a hint that Mr. Livingston might be prevailed on to serve till the spring. The committee found him in this disposition, and their report was agreed to without opposition. See the Journal.

MONDAY, December 23.

The motion to strike out the words "accruing to the United States was grounded on a denial of the principle that a capture and possession, by the enemy, of movable property extinguished or affected the title of the owners. On the other side, this principle was asserted as laid down by the best writers, and conformable to the practice of all nations; to which was added, that, if a contrary doctrine were established by Congress, innumerable claims would be brought forward by those whose property had, on recapture, been applied to the public use. See Journal.

Letters were this day received from Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and the Marquis de la Fayette. They were dated the 14th of October. That from the first enclosed a copy of the second commission to Mr. Oswald, with sundry preliminary articles, and distrusted the British court. That from the second expressed great jealousy of the French government, and referred to an intercepted letter from Mr. Marbois, opposing the claim of the United States to the fisheries. This despatch produced much indignation against the author of the intercepted letter, and visible emotions in some against France. It was remarked here that our ministers took no notice of the distinct commissions to Fitzherbert and Oswald; that although, on a supposed inti