1. JM Notes, 4 Apr. 1783, and nn. 4–6. JM obviously should have written “State.” Although the journal for 7 April makes clear that Congress amended the report of the grand committee by reducing the estimated population of South Carolina from 170,000 to 150,000, the session of that day evidently adjourned without proportionately lowering the financial quota of the state from $108,000 to $96,183 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIV, 231). By 18 April, when Congress adopted the amended report of the grand committee, this needed adjustment had been made, along with an increase in the quota of every other state except Georgia and Delaware (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIV, 259; Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , VII, 128, and n. 3).

2. The “principle” could be defended on the ground that three of the four state censuses, which had been available to the grand committee for estimating financial quotas, had been taken in 1774 or 1775 (JM Notes, 4 Apr. 1783, n. 2). According to the colony-by-colony population schedule adopted by Congress on 29 July 1775, Virginia’s “Inhabitants, of all ages, including negroes and mulattoes” numbered 496,278 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , II, 221–22). This figure was 16.5 per cent of the total population of the thirteen colonies at that time, as compared with the 17.1 per cent as estimated in the grand committee’s report. If the delegates of Virginia meant that the figures of 1775 should be revised so as to take into account only three-fifths of the slaves, her advantage from using the 1775 rather than the 1783 estimate in allocating financial quotas obviously would have been much greater than the difference between those two percentages. The exact number of slaves in Virginia in 1775 is unknown. In 1782 Jefferson judged that they comprised over 47 per cent of the population. Many years later a scholar concluded that 42 per cent would be approximately accurate on the eve of the Revolution (Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (6 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , V, 351, nn. 21, 22; Stella H. Sutherland, Population Distribution in Colonial America, p. 202). See also Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (6 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , V, 129, n. 13.

3. Of the “different persons” only John F. Mercer is identifiable.

4. By 18 April 1783 Georgia’s quota had been lowered from $25,000 to $16,030 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIV, 231, 259). Between about 2 November 1782 and 30 June 1784 there was no delegate in Congress from Georgia to speak on her behalf (Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , VI, xliv–xlv; VII, lxvi; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIV, 836–37). From the close of 1778 to the close of 1781 the British had occupied most of the coastal area of Georgia. Thereafter until 12 July 1782, when they evacuated Savannah, they were confined to that seaport and its environs. During the entire period the civil government of the patriots was “feeble, uncertain, and peripatetic,” and their armed strife with Loyalists was almost unceasing (Charles C[olcock] Jones, Jr., The History of Georgia [2 vols.; Boston, 1883], II, 417–41).

5. JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIV, 232, n. 1. In his letter of 30 March, Washington acknowledged President Elias Boudinot’s of 23 March (Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , VII, 93–94; 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 , XXIV, 273). See also JM Notes, 22 Mar., and n. 3; 24 Mar. 1783, and n. 1.