On 20 January FitzSimons moved that the House request the president to submit a plan for the defense of the frontiers. After JM “doubted if it was agreeable to the Constitution,” FitzSimons withdrew his motion. On 21 January the Committee of the Whole took up Nicholas’s report, which recommended that the military establishment be authorized to continue in service until 1 June 1798 (Annals of Congress description begins Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … (42 vols.; Washington, 1834–56). description ends , 3d Cong., 2d sess., 1120, 1121, 1122, 1163). On 2 February Dayton proposed instead a resolution that the military establishment be continued by enlistments for a maximum term of three years at the president’s discretion.