1. On 2 May Charles Thomson had read to Congress a report by Secretary at War Benjamin Lincoln opposing a promotion in rank for Colonel Goose Van Schaick of the First New York Regiment, continental line. Daniel Carroll, chairman of Congress, sought to have the report discussed on 3 May, even though it had not been assigned a place on the calendar for that day (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 236, 287–88; Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , VI, 323). In accordance with a procedural rule of Congress (see n. 2), JM called for a vote to determine whether the delegates would sustain Carroll’s action and thereby delay consideration of “the order of the day.” This had been since 1 May the report of the Boudinot committee on the petitions of the land companies and the offers of New York, Virginia, and Connecticut to cede their western lands (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 223–35). JM should have written, “Secretary at War.”

2. This motion was another tactical maneuver by Madison and Bland to prevent the opponents of Virginia from postponing a vote until they could sufficiently recruit their strength to carry the Boudinot committee’s recommendation that Virginia’s offer of cession be rejected (JM to Randolph, 1 May 1782, and n. 6). JM’s motion was in accord with the seventh procedural rule of Congress, reading, “An order of the day, when called for by a State shall always have the preference and shall not be postponed but by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress assembled.” This rule qualified the sixth, which begins, “When a report, which has been read and lies for consideration, is called for it shall immediately be taken up” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XX, 477). In the vote on JM’s motion, only the delegation of Georgia sided with Virginia. Of the delegates from states north of Virginia, John Morin Scott alone supported JM (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 236–37).

On 6 May, over the opposition of the Virginia and South Carolina delegations, Congress finally adopted a motion to postpone a consideration of the Boudinot committee report—a postponement destined to extend until 31 July 1782 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 240–41, 423). The decision to postpone signified that the advocates of the report recognized their inability to secure the votes of nine or more states, requisite for its adoption, until New Hampshire and Connecticut should be represented in Congress by at least two delegates each.