MS (DLC: PCC, No. 36, ii); in TJ’s hand.

On 23 Jan. 1784 (according to endorsement on the MS motion in the same volume of PCC), David Howell moved “That the report of 22d. October, 1783 [of Robert Morris, Superintendant of Finance, concerning the foreign and domestic debt of the United States and related matters; see 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 , xxv, 715–16] be referred to a Grand Committee to report a requisition on the States for the payment of interest on the national debt.” Among the eleven members named to the Grand Committee was TJ; see 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 , xxvi, 48. Committee Book (DLC: PCC, No. 186) lists the committee under date of 23 Jan., records the substance of Howell’s motion, and contains the following notation: “To sit in the Congress room tomorrow at 10 oclock and proceed on the business”; following this—indicating that the present motion may possibly have been made 24 Jan. or later—is another notation: “The Committee instructed to prepare and report an estimate of current expences from 1 Jany 1784 to 1 Jany 1785”; the reference of this additional instruction was certainly made before 31 Jan. (see Joseph Carleton to TJ, 1 Feb. 1784). The Grand Committee reported on 22 Mch. 1784.