1. The bracketed words are in the JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends . For the context of the present motion, see Notes on Debates, 5 December 1782, and nn.

2. On 3 December Thomas McKean introduced a motion, drafted and seconded by Alexander Hamilton, which in manuscript, unlike the printed journal, comprises a preamble followed by five separate resolutions. The first resolution recommended that, in view of “acts and proceedings” in Vermont “highly derogatory to the authority of the United States, and dangerous to the Confederacy,” Congress provide for an “immediate and decided interposition” to restore and maintain peace there until “a decision shall be had” on the conflicting jurisdictions within that “district.” The first method of “interposition,” as proposed by the second resolution, was to require the de facto government of Vermont to permit persons who had been banished from the district to return, to be immune from further molestation, and to resume possession of their confiscated property. The third resolution recommended that, if “the people of the said district” refused to heed the demands embodied in the first two resolutions, the “United States will take effectual measures to enforce a compliance with them” (Harold C. Syrett and Jacob E. Cooke, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton [11 vols. to date; New York, 1961——], III, 204–5; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIII, 765–66).

Immediately after the McKean-Hamilton motion was introduced, David Howell, seconded by Abraham Clark, moved that the third resolution be deleted. This motion is designated by JM as “the question for striking out the clause.” To counter the Howell-Clark proposal, JM and McKean, supported by the eighth rule of congressional procedure requiring that a motion comprising several separate proposals should be read and debated seriatim “by paragraphs,” moved to have a consideration of the Howell-Clark motion postponed so as to accord obligatory precedence to their own motion for amending the first resolution (“a previous part of the [McKean-Hamilton] motion”). The manuscript of the JM-McKean motion has not been found. Congress, after refusing by a vote of six states to three to postpone a consideration of the Howell-Clark motion, rejected it by a vote of seven states to two (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; XXIII, 766–68). Thereby the way was opened for considering the principal recommendation of the JM-McKean motion.

3. The New Hampshire act was adopted on 17 November 1779; the New York act, on 21 October 1779 (NA: PCC, No. 40, I, 563–69; II, 112). Each state had thereby agreed to permit Congress, in accordance with its resolutions unanimously adopted on 24 September 1779, “to hear and determine all differences” among New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts over their respective boundaries and jurisdiction in the area known as the New Hampshire Grants or Vermont. Besides citing “the articles of confederation” (Article IX) as its constitutional warrant, Congress also justified its interposition as being “indispensably necessary,” because “the interest of the whole confederacy” required “that all intestine dissentions be carefully avoided, and domestic peace and good order maintained” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XV, 1096–99). See also Notes on Debates, 14 November, and n. 2; 3 December 1782, and n. 22.

The JM-McKean motion sought to strengthen the constitutionality of the McKean-Hamilton resolutions by making explicit that Congress was not assuming an authority to interpose solely because its resolutions were being flouted by Vermont, but also because the two sovereign states most affected by the disorder had requested Congress to intervene. Following the defeat of the JM-McKean amendment by a vote of six states to three, the McKean-Hamilton resolutions were adopted by a vote of seven states to two, Rhode Island and New Jersey opposing (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIII, 768–69). See Notes on Debates, 5 December 1782, and n. 16.