Notes on Debates, 9 June 1783
Notes on Debates
MS (LC: Madison Papers). For a description of the manuscript of Notes on Debates, see V, 231–34.
,Not States enough assembled to make a Congress.1 Mr. Clarke signified to those present, that the Delegates of N. Jersey being instructed on the subject of the Back lands,2 he should communicate the Report thereon to his Constituents.3
1. JM Notes, 4 June 1783, and n. 4. Complying with “positive instructions,” Elias Boudinot, president of Congress, wrote on 3 June to the governors of New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Georgia, urging them to send delegates so that at least the required minimum of nine states would be able to vote effectively on issues making “the present conjuncture of affairs” of “great importance” ( , VII, 178). This plea, which Boudinot repeated on 3 and 22 July, did not bring an adequate representation until 7 August 1783 (ibid., VII, 210, 231; , XXIV, 493).
2. Abraham Clark referred to resolutions of the New Jersey General Assembly dated 16 June 1778 and 29 December 1780–3 January 1781, claiming for the state a proportionate share of the western lands and opposing the provisos included in the offer of Virginia to cede lands north and west of the Ohio River to Congress ( , XI, 649–50; NA: PCC, No. 69, fols. 565–71). See also , VI, 291. Clark’s colleagues from New Jersey in Congress were Boudinot and Silas Condict.
3. For the “Report,” see JM Notes, 4 June, n. 2; 5 June, n. 1; 6 June 1783, and n. 1. Clark’s “Constituents,” the “legislative council and general assembly of New Jersey,” adopted a “representation and remonstrance” on 14 June, reaffirming their earlier resolutions on the subject and urging Congress to “press” Virginia “to make a more liberal surrender of that territory of which they claim so boundless a proportion.” This document was laid before Congress on 20 June ( , XXIV, 407–9). See also JM Notes, 10 June 1783.