REPORT ON CESSION OF WESTERN TERRITORY.1

C. C.

March 22, 1784.

The Report of a Committee on the Subject of Western territory having been referred to the Grand committee they have had the same under their consideration and agreed to the following report.

Congress by their resolution of Sep. 6. 1780, having thought it adviseable to press upon the states having claims to the Western country a liberal surrender of a portion of their territorial claims, by that of the 10 of Oct. in the same year having fixed the con ditions to which the Union should be bound on receiving such cessions; and having again proposed the same subject to those states in their address of April 1783, wherein, stating the National debt & it's annual interest, they recommended for the dis charge of the interest the plan of an impost on commerce new under consideration with the states, with such subsidiary funds as they might judge most convenient, & for the discharge of the principal & expressing some their reliance for its discharge on other-resources-but chiefly on the prospect of vacant territory, in aid of other resources, they, for that purpose, as well as to obviate disagreeable controversies & confusions included in the same recommendation a renewal of those of Sep. the 6th & of Oct. the 10th 1780. which several recommendations have not yet been finally complied with.

Resolved, that the same subject be again presented to the attention of the said states, that they be urged to consider that the war being now brought to a happy termination by the personal services of our souldiers, the supplies of property by our citizens, & loans of money from them as well as from foreigners, these several creditors have a right to eallfore precise designation of the funds expect that funds shall be provided on which they are to may rely for indemnification; that Congress still consider vacant territory as the a capital resource; that this too is the time when our Confederacy with all the territory included within it's limits should assume it's ultimate and permanent form; & that therefore the sd states be earnestly pressed by immediate & liberal cessions to

1 Endorsed "Report of grand Comee delivered March 22, 1784. Monday 29 assigned for consideration."

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forward these necessary ends, & to remove those obstacles which disturb the harmony of the Union, which embarrass it's councils & obstruct its operations.

REPORT ON THE ARREARS OF INTEREST.1

The Grand Committee consisting of

C. C.

[March 22, 1784]

appointed to prepare and report to Congress the arrears of interest on the National debt, together with the interest and expences for the year 1784 from the first to the last day thereof inclusive and a requisition of Money on the States for discharging the same, have agreed to the following report.

Resolved that there will be wanting for arrears of interest, and for the interest & services of the present year 1784, from the

1 There is no record of the appointment of this committee, which consisted of Jefferson, Foster, Partridge, Howell, Sherman, Beatty, Montgomery, Tilton, Chase, Spaight, and Read. The report was considered by Congress April 5, 12, 22, and 27, 1784; and, after material amendment, was adopted April 28, 1784. In the Jefferson MSS. (5th, II.) is a rough draft of this report, in Jefferson's handwriting, and this fair copy, which was presented to Congress, is also written by him.

This report was at once printed as a broadside (cf. Ford's Bibliography of the Continental Congress), with the title :

The Grand Committee consisting of [blank] / appointed to prepare and report to Congress, the arrears of interest on the national / debt, together with the interest and expenses for the year 1784, from the first to the last / day thereof inclusive, and a requisition of money on the states for discharging the same, have agreed to the following Report: / Folio. Broadside. The report as adopted was printed as :

The United States in Congress assembled / April 27, 1784. / Folio. Broadside.

The / United States / in / Congress assembled, / April 27, 1784. / Congress resumed the considera- / tion of the report to the Grand / Committee appointed to pre-pare and report to Congress, the arrears / of Interest on the national debt, toge-/ther with the expenses for the year / 1784, from the first to the last day thereof inclusive, and a requisition of money on the States for maintaining the / same, which being amended to read as follows: / ...... / [colophon.] Boston: Printed by Adams and Nourse. / By Order of the Honourable House of Representatives. / M,DCC,LXXXIV. / 8vo. pp. 12.

Foreign Debt.

first to the last day thereof inclusive, the following sums expressed in Dollars, tenths and hundredths of Dollars.

The Committee were apprized that the resolutions of Congress of Apr. the 18th 1783. had recommended to the several states the

raising an annual revenue by the establishment of certain imposts for the purpose of discharging the national debt, principal and interest. But it occurred to them that those recommendations were still before several of the legislatures; that however desirable a compliance therewith is for the preservation of our faith, & establishment of a National Credit, yet as time had already elapsed, and more must elapse before their final confirmation can be hoped at; after it shall be obtained time will also be requisite to advance the plan to the term of actual collection, good faith. requires that in the mean while other measures should be resorted to for the purpose of discharging the growing interest.

In the statement of the interest due at the close of the year 1782, the Committee have supposed its amount lessened by 1,200,000 dollars required & apportioned by the resolutions of Congress of Sep. the 4th and 10th 1782, & appropriated to the sole purpose of paying the interest of the public debt. This requisition gave license to the states to apply so much as should be necessary of their respective quotas of it, to the payment of interest due on certificates issued from the loan office of their own states, & other liquidated debts of the United States contracted therein. Hence they suppose it has happened that the actual payment of these quotas have been uncommunicated to the Office of finance for the United States. The Committee are of opinion that the states should be desired to communicate to the Superintendant of finance the payments they have made under this requisition, & where they have been incomplete to hasten their completion as the means still relied on by Congress for the discharge of that part of the interest of the public debt. And while on this subject they beg leave to add that from the representation to Congress by the Minister of France, referred to this Committee they learn that in some of the states a discrimination has taken place between the citizens of their own & subjects or citizens of other Countries, which was not authorized by the said resolution: they are of opinion that such states should be requested to revise & reform their proceedings herein; and to extend the benefits of this provision equally and impartially to all persons within it's description.

Your Committee came then to consider in what way it would

be best to call for the sums requisite for the services before stated. And they thought it their duty in the first place to enquire whether no surpluses might remain on former requisitions of Congress after effeeting fully the purposes were effected to which they were originally appropriated; under an assurance that it would be both the duty and sense of Congress to apply such surpluses, in every instance, towards lessening the next requisitions on the states. They found in fact that such a surplus would remain on the requisition of Oct. 30. 1781, for eight millions of Dollars for the services of the ensuing year; and that this surplus would be great from the following circumstances. That requisition was estimated on supposition that the Continental army would be completed by the states to it's full establishment, and that cloathing, subsistence & other necessaries for such an army must of course be provided. The states were far short of producing such an army. Hence the calls for money were proportionably abridged. It was estimated too on the further supposition that we might be disappointed in the endeavors we were then exerting to borrow money both at home & abroad, and of course that the whole must be supplied by taxes. Loans however were obtained and the surplus increased by this second cause. A third circumstance has further enlarged it. The payments on this requisition have been small & slow. Hence, instead of money, those who served & supplied the United States have received certificates only that money is due to them, and these debts have been transferred to the fund proposed to be raised by way of impost. So that tho' the debts exist, they are removed from this to another fund. To know then the amount of this surplus, the Committee extended their enquiries to the sums actually received under this requisition, the purposes to which they have been applied, and the anticipations thereof still unsatisfied. They found that 1,486,511.71 only of the eight millions of Dollars had been received at the treasury at the close of the year 1783 that these had been applied to the services of the years 1782. & 1783: and that for other services of the same years debts were contracted to the amount of about one million of dollars more, which depend for their discharge on further receipts under this requisition. Your Committee then are of