1. JM canceled “later’s.”

2. JM canceled “the.”

3. JM canceled “as far as human.”

4. The entire draft was canceled by diagonal and vertical ink lines. The printed journal of Congress erroneously includes the draft as a portion of a report struck out by Congress on 12 August (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIII, 462).

On the same page used by JM, Rutledge jotted down in much abbreviated form some expressions which he incorporated in the third paragraph of the recommendations submitted to Congress on 29 July. In these recommendations JM’s influence is shown in the first paragraph reading, “That Congress always have been ready & willing to agree to a General Cartel, for the Exchange of Prisoners of War, upon just [&] reasonable terms,” and in so much of the sixth paragraph as reads, “R. That the Comder. in Cheif be directed to transmit these Resolves to Sir G. C.” (NA: PCC, No. 28, fols. 83–85; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 421–22).

On 29 July Congress, apparently without debate, referred these recommendations to a new committee comprising John Lowell, Ezekiel Cornell, and JM (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 422 n.). This committee never reported, perhaps in some measure because Lowell left Philadelphia for his home in Massachusetts on 6 August (Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , VI, 431). The next day Congress assigned a dispatch, written by Washington on 3 August about the cartel, to a committee on which JM served under John Morin Scott as chairman. On 8 and 9 August, when further word on the same subject from Washington reached Congress, the Lowell and Scott committees were discharged, and all documents relating to the issue were referred to a new committee headed by Arthur Lee (NA: PCC, 186, fol. 48; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 456 n., 460, n. 2; Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Sources, 1745–1799 (39 vols.; Washington, 1931–44). description ends , XXVI, 455, 466–67; Thomson, “Debates,” description begins Charles Thomson, “Debates in the Congress of the Confederation from July 22d to September 20th, 1782,” Collections of the New-York Historical Society, XI (1878), 63–169. description ends 103–4). Although Rutledge was a member of this committee, the portions of his report of 29 July influenced by JM bear no resemblance to the resolutions about a cartel included by Lee among the recommendations which his committee submitted to Congress on 12 August 1782 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIII, 462–64; Thomson, “Debates,” description begins Charles Thomson, “Debates in the Congress of the Confederation from July 22d to September 20th, 1782,” Collections of the New-York Historical Society, XI (1878), 63–169. description ends pp. 105–6).