First Report of the Committee to Digest the Resolutions of the Committee of the Whole respecting Canada, &c., [17 June 1776]

First Report of the Committee

to Digest the Resolutions of the Committee of the Whole respecting Canada

[17 June 1776]

Resolved º that the Commissioners for Indian affairs in the Northern department be directed to use their utmost endeavors to procure the assistance of the Indians within their department to act against the enemies of these colonies, that they particularly endeavor to engage them to undertake the reduction of Niagara, engaging on behalf of Congress to pay them 133 ⅓ dollars3 for every prisoner they shall take and bring to head quarters, or to the said Commissioners.

Resolved º that the Commissioners for Indian affairs in the Middle department be directed to use their utmost endeavors to procure the assistance of the Indians within their department: that they particularly endeavor to engage them to undertake the reduction of Detroit upon the same terms offered the Indians who shall go against Niagara.

Resolved º that the Commissioners in each of the said departments be directed to employ one or more able partisans whom the Congress will liberally reward for their exertions in the business to be committed to them.

Resolved º that it is the opinion of this Committee that there be raised for the service of the United colonies one battalion of Germans.4

Resolved º that the companies of rifle men from Virginia and Maryland be regimented, and that the regiment be compleated to the original number of the Pennsylvania battalion.

Resolved º that the Pennsylvania battalion of rifle men be compleated to their original establishment.

Resolved º that two companies of the forces now in the Delaware counties be ordered to Cape May.

Resolved º that the committee appointed to Contract for5 cannon be directed to procure a number of brass or iron, field peices to be made or purchased immediately.

Resolved º that a proper assortment of medicines be sent to Canada.

Resolved º that Mr. James Mease be directed to purchase and forward to the Quarter master general in New York as much cloth for tents as he can procure.

Resolved º that proper persons be appointed by Congress to purchase such articles as may be wanted for the use of the soldiers in Canada and send the same to Albany, that they may be forwarded to the army in Canada: and that they be particularly attentive to provide in time a sufficient number of leathern breeches and underwaistcoats, and such other winter cloathing as may be necessary for them.

Resolved º that the Committee appointed to contract for the making of shoes for the army, be directed to forward with all expedition to the Quarter master in Canada such as are already provided.

Resolved º that Prisoners taken by continental arms be not exchanged by any authority but the Continental Congress.

Resolved º that it is the opinion of this Committee that all vessels which sailed from the port or harbor of Boston whilst the town of Boston was in possession of the enemy having on board effects belonging to the enemies of America and which have been or may be seized, be liable, together with the said effects, to confiscation; in the same manner and proportions as have been heretofore resolved by Congress.

Resolved º that the Continental agents in the respective colonies where no courts have been established for the trial of captures have power and be directed to dispose at public sale of such articles of a perishable nature as shall be taken from the enemies of America, and that the money arising from such sale be liable to the decree of such court whenever established.

Resolved that the inventory of the Ordinance stores taken by Capt. Manly be sent to General Washington, and that he be requested to appoint a person on the part of the colonies to join one on the part of Captain Manly and his crew, who, having first taken an oath for that purpose, shall proceed to value the same, and if they cannot agree in the value they shall call in a third person to determine the same: that the report of such persons be returned to Congress so soon as may be, and the value of the stores belonging to Captn. Manly and his crew be thereupon transmitted them.

Dft (DLC: PCC, No. 19, VI). Without date or endorsement.

On 30 May Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, Benjamin Harrison chairman, “to take into consideration the report of the committee appointed to confer with the generals” (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 , iv, 406); see above, Report of Committee on Letters from Washington, Schuyler, and the Commissioners in Canada, 21 May 1776. On 16 June the committee of the whole resolved “That a committee of four be appointed to digest and arrange the several resolutions reported”; TJ, Braxton, Middleton, and Robert Treat Paine were appointed, and they reported next day (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 , v, 446). The present document was evidently one form or part of their report; the lack of the usual formal introductory paragraph or of an endorsement by Charles Thomson suggests that it was not presented to Congress but to the committee of the whole. Ford (II, 4–6) prints it under an assigned date of 21 May as the report of a mythical “Committee on Canadian Affairs,” but it embraces a wide range of topics that engaged the attention of Congress over a period of several weeks. Thus Resolutions 1, 2, and 3 are identical with the third to fifth resolutions in the report of the committee to confer with the generals drawn by Edward Rutledge and submitted 25 May (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 , iv, 394–5). Resolution 4, originally voted on 25 May as one of the recommendations of the committee reporting on the letters from Washington, Schuyler, and Robertson, was struck out of the present report and referred to a committee of delegates from the middle states and was subsequently passed on 27 June (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 , iv, 392; v, 454, 487–8). Resolutions 5–14, together with the last (unnumbered) resolution, appear in TJ’s draft in the same form in which they were adopted by Congress and copied into the Journal (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 , v, 452–4). For the committee “of which Mr. Shearman is Chairman,” to which Resolution 10 was referred, 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 , v, 420–1. Resolutions 6b, 13, and 14 had appeared first in a much earlier report, of 10 May (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 , iv, 343–4). From this it appears that the committee of the whole reviewed the work of several special committees, some of whose recommendations had already been agreed upon.

1. The numbering of the resolutions is in TJ’s hand. In the draft reports of the earlier special committees whose work the committee of the whole reviewed, TJ has written corresponding marginal numbers beside the resolutions drawn from the several reports.

2. This and the following marginal notations (except the numbers) are assigned to Benjamin Harrison in JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. W. C. Ford and others, Washington, 1904–1937 description ends .

3. In the Rutledge draft report this figure is £50 Pennsylvania currency.

4. This paragraph deleted in committee of the whole; see explanatory note, above.

5. Preceding three words in another hand; the blank space after the word “cannon” is in the MS.

Authorial notes

[The following note(s) appeared in the margins or otherwise outside the text flow in the original source, and have been moved here for purposes of the digital edition.]

º R. 1.1 pospon’d2

º R. 2. pospon’d

º R. 3. pospon’d

º R. 4. referred to NJ and P for the mode

º R. 5.

º R. 6. a.

º R. 6. b.

º R. 7.

º R. 8. Committee already appointed to provide medicines.

º R. 9.

º R. 10. Committed to the Committee of which Mr. Shearman is Chairman.

º R. 11.

º R. 12.

º R. 13.

º R. 14.

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Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: First Report of the Committee to Digest the Resolutions of the Committee of the Whole respecting Canada, &c., [17 June 1776]
Author: Committee of the Continental Congress
Date: 17 June 1776

Reference

Cite as: “First Report of the Committee to Digest the Resolutions of the Committee of the Whole respecting Canada, &c., [17 June 1776],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0164. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, 1760–1776, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 389–392.]