Ordinance, the fineness of each class stated, & it's value by weight estimated in Units & fractions of Units decimally expressed.

And that the sd draught of an Ordinance be reported to Congress at their next meeting for their consideration & determination.

REPORT ON COMMITTEE OF THE STATES.1

C. C.

The Commee. to whom was referred a report on the powers with which a Commee of the states should be vested during the recess of Congress and a Motion on the same subject have agreed to the following resolutions.

Resolved that the Commee. of the states which shall be appointed pursuant to the 9th. article of Confederation and perpetual union to sit in the recess of Congress for transacting the business of the United States shall possess all the powers which may be exercised by seven States in Congress assembled, except those of sending Ambassadors, Ministers, Envoys, resident-Consuls or Agents to foreign Countries or courts: establishing rules for deciding what captures: on land or water shall be legal & in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or appropriated.

Establishing courts for receiving & determining finally appeals in cases of capture, constituting courts for deciding disputes & differences arising between two or more states: fixing the standard of weights & measures for the United States: changing the rate of postage on the papers passing through the post offices established by Congress, and of repealing or contravening any Ordinance or Act passed by Congress.

Resolved that no question except for adjourning from day to

1 Endorsed: "No. 33. Report Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Osgood, Mr. Sherman, On powers of a comee of the States in recess of Congress: Delivered 30 Janꞌ 1784. Ent Read May 27. Postponed to 29. May. Pass'd May 29 1784." By the Journals of Congress it appears that this plan was debated April 26th (under which date the plan is printed), and on May 27th, while the plan as finally adopted is printed under May 29, 1784. See ante, page 388, and Jefferson's Autobiography (1, 75).

day shall be determined without the concurrence of nine votes. That a chairman to be chosen by the Committee shall preside. That the officers of Congress when required shall attend on the sd. Commee. That the Committee shall keep a journal of their proceedings to be laid before Congress and that in these journals, which shall be published monthly & transmitted to the executives of the several States, shall be entered the yeas & nays of the members when any one of them shall have desired it before the question be put.

TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF FINANCE.'

1

J. MSS.

(ROBERT MORRIS.)

[February 1, 1784]

A grand Committee of Congress is now engaged in preparing estimates of the necessary federal expenses of the present year from the first to the last day of it inclusive and of the articles of interest on the public debts foreign & domestic which call indispensably for immediate provision while the impost proposed ultimately for their discharge shall be on it's passage through the states; these estimates are to lead to a new requisition of money from the states, but the commee have hopes that this new requisition may be lessened if not altogether dispensed with provided a full compliance can be obtained with the former requisitions of Nov. 2. 1781 for 8 millions of dollars & of Octob. 10 1782 for 2 millions of dollars. They suppose that the requisn of 8 millions was greater than all the objects of it did in event require. They suppose further that some

1 Morris' reply is printed in the Sparks' Diplomatic Correspondence, XII, 468, and in Wharton's Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, VI, 774; but neither work prints this letter.

ns

of these objects have been transferred to other funds. Of course there will be a surplus remaining after all the demands against this requisition which have been paid & payable out of this fund. In like manner 2 m having been part of 6 mill, estimated on a war establmt and peace taking place immediately after, they expect a surplus may remain on this also after all paiments made & to be made out of it. These surplusses which will be reached by no former appropriation & which are therefore fairly open to be newly appropriated they ask of you to estimate according to the best of your information, that they may see how far an enforcement of them will go toward supplying the demands of the current year: but that they may know how to call on the several states to pay up their deficiencies, it will be necessary also for you to inform them what proportion of these requisitions had been paid up by each state to the 1st day of Jan. 1784.

Another object claimed the attention of the Commee. By a vote of Sept. 4, 1782, 1,200,000 Dollars were required from the states for the special purpose of paying interest, with a permission to them to pay first out of their quotas the interest on loan office certificates and other liquidated debts, loaned or contracted in their own states, so that the balance only was to be remitted to the Continental Treasury. Have any such balances been remitted, or have you any information how far the several states have proceeded, in compliance to comply with this requisition by paimt of interest within their own state?

Or loan office certificates? If you have we shall be obliged to you for it.

A former commee had been appointed to revise the civil list and to adapt it to the change of circumstances which peace has induced. They have gone through that work & reported except so far as it relates to the department of Finance, by which I mean to include the establishments of in the several offices of the Superintend, Comptroller, Auditor, Register, Treasurer, & the Commers. for settling the accts in the several states, and the accts of the Staff departments. They hope from your letter in answer to one written you by Dr. Williamson their chairman that you are turning your attention to this subject and that you will be so kind as to inform them. whether any of the offices or officers may be dispensed with under present circumstances so as to lessen it's expenses without endangering more substantial loss, a true & laudable economy being their object. I take the liberty of mentioning this subject to you only because the Grand Commee under whose instructions I write to you, will of course be delayed in their estimates till the other commee shall have made a full report on the civil list.

With you I know it is unnecessary to urge as early an answer as is practicable and have therefore only to add assurances of the sincere respect & esteem with which I have the honor to be, &c.

TO JAMES MADISON.

MAD. MSS.

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 20. 1784. DEAR SIR,-Your favour of the 11th inst. came to hand this day. I had prepared a multitude of memons of subjects whereon to write you, but I will first answer those arising from your letter. By the time my order got to Philadelphia every copy of Smith's history of New York was sold. I shall take care to get Blair's lectures for you as soon as published, and will attend to your presumed wishes whenever I meet with anything rare & of worth. I wish I knew better what things of this kind you have collected for yourself, as I may often doubt whether you have or have not a thing. I know of no objections to the printing the revisal; on the contrary I think good will result from it. Should this be decided I must make a short trip to Virginia, as from the loss of originals I believe my copies must often be wanting.'

I had never met with the particular fact relative to the grinders of the incognitum found in Brasil & Lima & deposited in the British Museum, which you mention from Dr. Hunter. I know it has been said that in a very few instances such bones have been found in S. America. You will find a collection of these in 2. Buff. Epoq. de la Nature, 187. But they have been so illy attested, so loosely & ignorantly described, and so seldom even pretended to have been seen, that I have supposed their identity with the Northern bones, & perhaps their existence at all not sufficiently established. The authority of Hunter

The Report of the Committee of Revisors.—Cf. II, 197.