New Jersey, Mr. [John] Beatty; from Delaware, Mr. [James] Tilton; from Maryland, Mr. [Jeremiah Townley] Chase; from Virginia, Mr. [James] Monroe, and from South Carolina, Mr. [Richard] Beresford; the President adjourned Congress till ten o'clock to-morrow.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1784.

Congress assembled: Present, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pensylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina: and from the State of New Hampshire, Mr. [Abiel] Foster; from New Jersey, Mr. [John] Beatty; from Delaware, Mr [James] Tilton, and from South Carolina, Mr. [Richard] Beresford.

On the report of a committee, consisting of Mr. [Arthur] Lee, Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson and Mr. [Samuel] Osgood, to whom was referred a letter of 20 December, 1783, from J. Carlton, secretary in the war office.

Resolved, That the secretary in the war office be, and he is hereby authorized and directed, to issue such commissions for promotions obtained in 1782, and such brevet commissions under the act of Congress of the 30 September, 1783, and other subsequent resolves, as remained unissued at the time of the resignation of the late Secretary for the De partment at War have not been issued; to issue warrants on the paymaster in favor of officers who were of the lines southward of Maryland, for such rations retained in October, November and December, 1782, as have not yet been settled for, and for pay and subsistence advanced to the army since the first day of January last; to make monthly estimates for the government of the Superintendant of Finance, of subsistence for the officers retained in service.

Resolved, That regular returns of military stores and of the troops retained in service, be made to the war office.1

1 The report, in the writing of Arthur Lee, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 19, I, folio 521. The words crossed out so appear in the report and not in the Journal. Carleton's letter is in No. 60, folio 41.

On the report of a committee, consisting of Mr. [Edward] Hand, Mr. [James] Tilton and Mr. [Hugh] Williamson, to whom was referred a motion of Mr. [Edward] Hand [of January 23],

Resolved, That the principals in the several departments of quartermaster general, commissary of military stores, cloathier, and of the hospital, be, and they are hereby ordered to transmit, as soon as may be, to the war office, to be laid before Congress, exact returns of all the stores in their respective departments, specifying the quantity and quality of each article, where deposited, in whose care, and in what manner secured.

Ordered, That Mr. Joseph Carlton, secretary in the war office, take the speedyest and most effectual method of conveying the foregoing resolution to such persons as are affected thereby, in any part of the United States.1

On the report of a committee, consisting of Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson, Mr. [Samuel] Osgood and Mr. [Hugh] Williamson, to whom were referred a letter of 25 December, 1783, from John Allan, and the papers therein enclosed,

Resolved, That a copy of the said letter be sent to the governor of Massachusetts, with a recommendation, that he cause enquiry to be made, whether the encroachments therein suggested, have been actually made on the territories of the United States State of Massachusetts, by the subjects of his Britannic Majesty, from the government of Nova Scotia, and if he shall find any such to have been made, that he send a representation thereof to the British governor of Nova Scotia, with a copy of the Proclamation of the United States of the 14 instant which is to be enclosed to the governor of Massachusetts for that purpose, requesting him in a friendly manner, and as a proof of that disposition for peace

1 This report, in the writing of Edward Hand, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 27, folio 255.

and harmony which should subsist between neighboring states, to recall from off the said territory, the said subjects of his Britannic Majesty, so found to have encroached thereon; and that the governor of Massachusetts be requested to inform Congress of his proceedings herein, and the result thereof.1

The report of the committee, on a letter of the 6 November, from the legislature of New Hampshire, touching the proceedings and sentence of the court of appeals in cases of capture, on the case of the Ship Brig Lusannah, having been called for, and the same being read, as entered on the Journal of the 21 instant,

A motion was made by Mr. [David] Howell, seconded by Mr. [Edward] Hand,

That the consideration thereof be postponed; and on the question for postponing, the yeas and nays being required by Mr. [Abiel] Foster,

1 This report, in the writing of Thomas Jefferson, is in the Papers of the Conti

nental Congress, No. 19, I, folio 57. See ante January 6.

29th January, 1784. Referred

[Motion of M: Hugh Williamson. to Mr Thomas Jefferson, M: Hugh Williamson Mr David Howell.] Resolved, That his late Commission be returned to General Washington in a neat gold box to be preserved among the archives of his family.1

The Committee consisting of Mr. [William] Ellery, Mr. [Samuel] Osgood and Mr. [Edward] Hand to whom the letter of Major Gen! Knox of the 3 of January current with its enclosures was referred offer the following report,

It appears to your committee from an inspection of said letter and its enclosures, that Major Gen! Knox has made the necessary provisions and arrangements for the security and preservation of the military stores and for the subsistence and cloathing for the troops in the department under his superintendance, that he has reduced the hospital department, and that measures were taken for making suitable reductions in the Cloathiers and Quarter Master's departments;

That in consequence of directions from Gen! Washington the several lines which composed the troops in that quarter are dissolved, and that one regiment of infantry commanded by Brig. Gen! Henry Jackson and fully officered, consisting of five hundred rank and file is formed of the men whose times of service do not expire until the year 1785 and a corps of Artillery under the command of Major Beauman of about one hundred and twenty;-That one comp of infantry would be detached to Springfield to guard the valuable public stores deposited there, a detachment of artillery at Albany, and in its neighborhood were order'd to fort Schuyler to guard certain stores which were sent there the last summer with an intention of taking possession of the posts on the western lakes;-that a company and a small detachment of artillery will be stationed at New York at the request and under the orders of his Excellency Gov! Clinton until the powers of the civil government are fully established; and that the remainder of the infantry and the corps of artillery would be stationed in the garrison at West-point and its immediate dependencies:

1 This report, in the writing of Hugh Williamson, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 36, II, folio 307. The indorsement shows that it was presented and referred as above. It does not appear that the committee ever reported. The commission remained with the archives of Congress.

That great quantities of shot and shells are laying up at the furnaces where they were made and it is the opinion of Gen! Knox that those at Mount-Hope and Hibernia in N. Jersey and those at Salisbury in Connecticut should be collected to the post at West-point.

That Gen! Washington had directed him to continue to superintend the posts and military affairs in that department until the pleasure of Congress should be known, that after the several arrangements were made of the public business he was permitted to attend to his own private affairs in Boston, and that he should soon set out for that place.

Whereupon the following is submitted

Resolved, That Congress entertain a just sense of the attention of Major Gen! Knox to the business of his department, and approve of the arrangements he hath made for the security and preservation of the public military stores; for the subsistence of the troops under his command, and for the reduction of the hospital, Cloathiers, and Quarter Master's department.

The necessary arrangements having been made for the preservation and security of the public military stores so far as the same come under the direction of a military command, and the army reduced to one regiment of infantry and a small detachment of Artillery, your committee submit to the consideration of Congress whether it be necessary to continue a Major Gen! in Command of the department or West-point, with the pay annexed to a separate department.

Your committee are of opinion that a consideration of the utility of collecting the shot and shells that are at Mount-Hope and Hibernia in the State of N. Jersey and at Salisbury in Connecticut to the post at West-point, cannot be properly taken up until complete returns shall have been made to Congress from the War-Office agreeably to the resolution of

Resolved, That previously to stationing a body of troops at New York to be under the orders of the Governor, until the powers of the civil government of the state of New York shall be established, a request therefor ought to be made to and granted by Congress.1

1 This report, in the writing of William Ellery, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 38, folio 371. According to the indorsement it was delivered and read this day. Knox's letter and its enclosures are on folios 375–395.