Thomas Jefferson Papers

I. Resolution of Congress concerning a Commercial Clause, 31 December 1782

I. Resolution of Congress concerning a Commercial Clause

In Congress, 31 Dec. 1782. “On the report of a Committee to whom was referred a letter of the 14th of October last from the Minister plenipotentiary at the Court of Versailles, Resolved” that the American joint commissioners be instructed “to endeavour to obtain for the Citizens and inhabitants of the United States a direct Commerce to all parts of the British dominions and posessions in like manner as all parts of the United States may be opened to a direct Commerce of British subjects, or at least that such direct Commerce be extended to all parts of the British dominions and possessions in Europe and the West Indies.”

MS (DLC); 2 p., signed by Charles Thomson. Printed in JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, D.C., 1904–37, 34 vols. description ends , xxiii, 838.

Franklin’s letter of 14 Oct. evoking this addendum to the instructions is printed in Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev., V, 811–12. The original report to Congress was drawn up by James Madison (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, D.C., 1904–37, 34 vols. description ends , xxiii, 838, note). On this matter, see Vernon G. Setser, The Commercial Reciprocity Policy of the United States 1774–1829, Philadelphia, 1937, p. 37ff.

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    Jefferson Papers
    Title
    I. Resolution of Congress concerning a Commercial Clause, 31 December 1782
    Author
    Continental Congress
    Date
    31 December 1782

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    Cite as
    “I. Resolution of Congress concerning a Commercial Clause, 31 December 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0199-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 6, 21 May 1781–1 March 1784, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952, p. 212.]