To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 4 July 1794
From Edmund Randolph
Philadelphia July 4. 1794.
The Secretary of State has the honor of reporting to the President of the U.S. upon such of the laws of the last session of congress, as were not published at the time of the former report.1
No. 34. for the relief of persons imprisoned for debt.
35 Next annual meeting of congress.
36. Extending the time of loans.
37. for paying the interest of the balances to the States.
38. Compensating Arthur St Clair.
39. Lewis Dubois.2
40. Payment to Bank. President to apply 200,000 dolls. of foreign loans.
41. Laying Embargoes. Eventual power to President.
42. Drawback & Credit.
43. Credit.
44. John Robbe.3
45. Duties upon Carriages.
46. Building of Gallies. Eventual power to President.
47 Commissioners of loans.
48. Duties on licences.
49. Duties on Spirits. President to appoint supervisors & inspectors.
50. Punishment of crimes. President to execute 7th and 8th Sections.
51. Duties on Sugar & Snuff.
52. Provision for frontiers. President may increase rations.
53. Jabez Rogers.4
54. Additional duties.
55. Additional allowance to Clerks.
56. Robert Forsyth’s family.
57. Invalids.
58. Useful arts.
59. Lighthouses & Beacons.
60. Nicholas Rieb.5
61. Health-officer for Baltimore.
62. Patents to Virginia line. Eventual power to President.
63. Appropriations. may borrow 1,292,137 dols. 38/100.
64. District courts.
65. Duties on auction.
of these several Laws the President is to have an agency in the following.
No. 40. Secretary of the Treasury.
49. Secretary of the Treasury.
52. War department.
63. Secretary of Treasury.
Note! the eventual powers are not here considered, as they call for no immediate exertion, of this denomination are No. 41. 46. 62—No. 46 is supposed not to require immediate action for what has already passed.6 No. 50. is extremely important and requires very particular attention from the President as to the manner of deputing the power.7
D, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State; LB, DNA: RG 59, Reports of the Secretary of State to the President and Congress.
1. For the former report, see Randolph to GW, 5 June. For the following laws as published, see . 6:16-17 for numbers 38, 39, 44, 53, 56, and 60, and . 1:370-400 for the remaining numbers. Number 53 is printed in both . 1:390 and . 6:17.
2. During the Revolutionary War, Lewis Duboys (Dubois; 1728-1802) served as colonel of the 5th New York Regiment. Dissatisfied with a congressional decision about his precedence among colonels, he resigned his commission in December 1779 and became a colonel of New York state levies. This act extended to him the benefits of half-pay voted to Continental officers by Congress in 1780.
3. John Robbe of Stoddard, N.H., a sergeant in the 5th New Hampshire Militia Regiment, was wounded at Bennington, Vt., on 16 Aug. 1777. He had received an invalid pension from New Hampshire, but this act extended a federal pension to him. He remained on the pension rolls as late as 1835 (Hammond, Rolls, 3:331, 439-42; White, Genealogical Abstracts, 3:2901).
4. Jabez Rogers, Jr. (1764-1839) was a merchant and distiller at Middlebury, Vermont. This act remitted the duties on some of his spirits that were destroyed in a fire.
5. Both Nicollas Rieb and his son Peter Rieb served as shoemakers in the Regiment of Artificers during the Revolutionary War. This act directed settlement of the account of Peter Rieb, who had later been lost at sea.
6. "An Act to authorize the President of the United States to lay, regulate and revoke Embargoes," 4 June, gave GW that power "whenever, in his opinion, the public safety shall so require," but only when Congress was not in session and only until fifteen days after the next meeting of Congress ( . 1:372). "An Act to authorize the President of the United States during the recess of the present Congress, to cause to be purchased or built a number of Vessels to be equipped as Galleys, or otherwise, in the service of the United States," 5 June, authorized GW to commission officers as well as purchase and equip the vessels. It appropriated $80,000 and authorized GW to take out a loan for that sum ( . 1:376). "An Act to amend the act intituled ’An act to enable the officers and soldiers of the Virginia line on Continental Establishment, to obtain titles to certain Lands lying northwest of the river Ohio, between the Little Miami and Sciota,’" 9 June, stated that the president would issue a patent when the soldier produced a warrant, a certificate that the warrant was "unsatisfied," and a survey of the tract, "any thing in any former law to the contrary notwithstanding" ( . 1:394).
7. "An Act in addition to the act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States," 5 June, provided for punishment of those citizens who enlisted to serve "a foreign prince or state" at war, who were involved in fitting out or arming a vessel to be used by a foreign prince, or who "set on foot" or provided the means for a "military expedition" from the United States against a territory with which the United States was at peace. Section 7 of the act gave the president "or such other person as he shall have empowered for that purpose" authority to employ military force to seize such vessels or prevent such an expedition. Section 8 authorized the president or his agent to employ force "to compel any foreign ship or vessel to depart the United States, in all cases in which, by the laws of nations or the treaties of the United States, they ought not to remain within the United States" ( . 1:381-84).