1. On 2 Jan., at the behest of Rufus King and others, Congress ordered Charles Thomson to report on the states’ compliance with two congressional resolutions of 18 April 1783 and a third of 30 April 1784. Under the first the states were asked to empower Congress to levy an impost, and for a 25-year period, the states would agree to set aside funds to discharge the national debt. The second resolution called for the alteration of Art. 8 of the Articles of Confederation so as to more accurately determine the proportion of funds to be supplied by each state to Congress. The third would have granted Congress the power to regulate trade. In the report, Thomson indicated the progress toward full compliance with the resolutions, but in no case had more than eight states fully complied (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 30:6–10). Thomson sent the report to the states under cover of a 12 Jan. 1786 circular letter (Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Paul H. Smith and others, Washington, D.C., 1976–2000; 26 vols. description ends , 23:89). The copy of Thomson’s report enclosed by King has not been found, but it was presumably one of the copies Congress ordered printed for its use (Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols. description ends No. 20045). John Jay also enclosed copies of the report with his 3 Feb. letter, below.

2. On 15 Feb., King and others presented a committee report identifying the state legislatures yet to grant the impost, rendering it “the unquestionable Duty of the several States to adopt, without farther delay, those measures, which alone in the Judgment of the committee, can preserve the sacred faith of this Confederacy.” By late March, Georgia and Maryland granted the impost to Congress (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 30:70–76; Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Paul H. Smith and others, Washington, D.C., 1976–2000; 26 vols. description ends , 23:210–211). See also the Board of Treasury’s 7 March letter, and note 2, below.

3. Elbridge Gerry, who married Ann Thompson on 12 Jan. in New York City, wrote to JA on 2 Feb. to announce his marriage and to inform JA that he was no longer a member of Congress. After relocating to Cambridge, Gerry wrote to JA on 21 Nov., as Shays’ Rebellion was coming to a climax, that he hoped to “have many well relished Dishes of politics with You here, the present Commotion notwithstanding” (both Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates description begins John Langdon Sibley, Clifford K. Shipton, Conrad Edick Wright, Edward W. Hanson, and others, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– . description ends , 15:246–247).