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security; the hopes of our enemies encouraged to protract the war; the zeal of our friends depressed by an appearance of remissness and want of exertion on our part; Congress harassed; the national character suffering, and the national safety at the mercy of events.

This state of things cannot but be extremely painful to Congress, and appear to your committee to make it their duty to be urgent to obviate the evils with which it is pregnant.

Resolved, That Congress agree to the said report.

2. IN THE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION.

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1783.

Resolutions were passed recommending to the several States to invest the Congress with certain specified powers for raising revenue to restore and maintain the public credit, &c. These resolutions were transmitted to the several States, with an address, prepared by a committee consist. ing of Mr. Madison, Mr. Ellsworth, and Mr. Hamilton, and adopted by Congress on the 26th April, 1783. The resolutions, as well as the address, consist, for the most part, of propositions and recommendations concerning the fiscal measures necessary to be adopted; from the latter, however, it is considered proper to make the following extracts:

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The plan thus communicated and explained by Congress must now receive its fate from their constituents. All the objects comprised in it are conceived to be of great importance to the happiness of this confederated republic, are necessary to render the fruits of the Revolution a full reward for the blood, the toils, the cares, and the calamities which have purchased it. But the object of which the necessity will be peculiarly felt, and which it is peculiarly the duty of Congress to inculcate, is the provision recommended for the national debt. Although this debt is greater than could have been wished, it is still less on the whole than could have been expected, and, when referred to the cause in which it has been incurred, and compared with the burdens which wars of ambition and of vain-glory have entailed on other nations, ought to be borne, not only with cheerfulness, but with pride. But the magnitude of the debt makes no part of the question. It is sufficient that the debt has been fairly contracted, and that justice and good faith demand that it should be fully discharged. Congress had no option but between different modes of discharging it. The same option is the only one that can exist with the States. The mode which has, after long and elaborate discussion, been preferred, is, we are persuaded, the least objectionable of any that would have been equal to the purpose. Under tnis pe:

suasion, we call upon the justice and plighted faith of the several States, to give it its proper effect, to reflect on the consequences of rejecting it, and to remember that Congress will not be answerable for them.

"Let it be remembered, finally, that it has ever been the pride and boast of America that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human nature. By the blessings of the Author of these rights on the means exerted for their defence, they have prevailed against all opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent States. No instance has heretofore occurred, nor can any instance be expected hereafter to occur, in which the unadulterated forms of republican government can pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying themselves by their fruits. In this view, the citizens of the United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude, and all the other qualities which ennoble the character of a nation, and fulfil the ends of government, be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on the rights of mankind. If, on the other side, our governments should be unfortunately blotted with the re verse of these cardinal and essential virtues. the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed, the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against them, and their patrons and friends exposed to be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation.

"By order of the United States in Congress assembled."

8. IN THE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30. 1784

Congress assembled. Present: New Hampshire

Massachusetts

Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Congress took into consideration the report of a committee, consisting of Mr. Gerry, Mr. Reed, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Jefferson, to whom were referred sundry letters and papers relative to commercial matters; and the same, being amended, was agreed to as follows:

"The trust reposed in Congress renders it their duty to be attentive to the conduct of foreign nations, and to prevent or restrain, as far as may be, all such proceedings as might prove injurious to the United States. The situation of commerce at this time claims the attention of the seve

ral States; and few objects of greater importance can present themselves to their notice. The fortune of every citizen is interested in the success thereof, for it is the constant source of wealth and incentive to industry; and the value of our produce and our land must ever rise or fall in proportion to the prosperous or adverse state of trade.

"Already has Great Britain adopted regulations destructive of our com. merce with her West India Islands. There was reason to expect that measures so unequal and so little calculated to promote mercantile intercourse, would not be persevered in by an enlightened nation. But these measures are growing into system. It would be the duty of Congress, as it is their wish, to meet the attempts of Great Britain with similar restrictions on her commerce; but their powers on this head are not explicit, and the propositions made by the legislatures of the several States render it necessary to take the general sense of the Union on this subject.

"Unless the United States in Congress assembled shall be vested with powers competent to the protection of commerce, they can never command reciprocal advantages in trade; and, without these, our foreign commerce must decline, and eventually be annihilated. Hence it is necessary that the States should be explicit, and fix on some effectual mode by which foreign commerce not founded on principles of equality may be restrained.

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have

That the United States may be enabled to secure such terms, they

"Resolved, That it be, and it hereby is, recommended to the legisla tures of the several States to vest the United States in Congress assem bled, for the term of fifteen years, with power to prohibit any goods wares, or merchandise, from being imported into or exported from any of the States, in vessels belonging to or navigated by the subjects of any power with whom these States shall not have formed treaties of com

merce.

"Resolved, That it be, and it hereby is, recommended to the legisla tures of the several States to vest the United States in Congress assem bled, for the term of fifteen years, with the power of prohibiting the sub jects of any foreign state, kingdom, or empire, unless authorized by treaty, from importing into the United States any goods, wares, or mer chandise, which are not the produce or manufacture of the dominions of the sovereign whose subjects they are.

"Provided, That to all acts of the United States in Congress assem bled, in pursuance of the above powers, the assent of nine States shal: necessary."

4. IN THE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1785.

Congress took into consideration the report of a committee, consisting of Mr. Monroe, Mr. Spaight, Mr. Houstoun, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. King, on a motion of Mr. Monroe, for vesting the United States in Congress assembled with the power of regulating trade; and, the same being read,

Ordered, That it be referred to a committee of the whole.
Congress was then resolved into a committee of the whole.
Mr. Holten was elected to the chair.

The P.esident resumed the chair; and Mr. Holten reported that the committee of the whole have had under consideration the subject referred to them, but, not having come to a conclusion, desire leave to sit again to-morrow.

Resolved, That leave be granted.

[The following is the report referred to. It was afterwards farther considered; but Congress did not come to any final determination with respect to the constiutional alteration which it proposed. It was deemed most advisable, at the time, that any proposition for perfecting the act of confederation should originate with. the State legislatures.]

The committee, consisting of Mr. Monroe, Mr. Spaight, Mr. Houstoun, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. King, to whom was referred the motion of Mr. Monroe, submit the following report:

That the first paragraph of the ninth of the Articles of Confederation be altered, so as to read thus, viz:

"The United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article-of sending and receiving embassadors entering into treaties and alliances-of regulating the trade of the States, as well with foreign nations as with each other, and of laying such impost and duties upon imports and exports as may be necessary for the purpose; provided, that the citizens of the States shall in no case be subjected to pay higher imposts and duties than those imposed on the subjects of foreign powers; provided, also, that the legislative power of the several States shall not be restrained from prohibiting the importation or exportation of any species of goods or commoditics whatsoever; provided, also, that all such duties as may be imposed shall be collected under the authority, and accrue to the use, of the State in which the same shall be payable; and provided, lastly, that every act of Congress for the above purpose shall have the assent of

nine States in Congress assembled-of establishing rules for deciding in all cases what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or appropriated-of granting letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace-appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures; providea that no member of Congress shall be appointed judge of any of the said courts."

That the following letter be addressed to the legislature of the several States, showing the principles on which the above alteration is proposed:

The United States having formed treaties of commerce with the most Christian king the King of Sweden, and the states-general of the United Netherlands; and having appointed ministers with full authority to enter into treaties with other powers, upon such principles of reciprocity as may promote their peace, harmony, and respective interests,-it becomes necessary that such internal arrangements should be made as may strictly comport with the faith of those treaties, and insure success to their future negotiations. But, in the pursuit of the means necessary for the attainment of these ends, considerable difficulties arise. If tne legislature of each State adopts its own measures, many and very eminent disadvantages must, in their opinion, necessarily result therefrom. They apprehend it will be difficult for thirteen different legislatures, acting separately and distinctly, to agree in the same interpretation of a treaty, to take the same measures for carrying it into effect, and to conduct their several operations upon such principles as to satisfy those powers, and at the same time preserve the harmony and interests of the Union, or to concur in those measures which may be necessary to counteract the policy of those powers with whom they shall not be able to form commercial treaties, and who avoid it merely from an opinion of their imbecility and indecision. And if the several States levy different duties upon their particular produce exported to the ports of those powers, or upon the produce and manufactures of those powers imported into each State, either in vessels navigated by and belonging to the citi. zens of these States or the subjects of those powers, it will, they apprehend, induce on their part similar discriminations in the duties upon the commercial intercourse with each State, and thereby defeat the object of those treaties, and promote the designs of those who wish to profit from their embarrassment. Unless the United States in Congress assembled are authorized to make those arrangements which become ne.

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