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Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 5
Contents:
Friday, December 20
Debate on Mr. Hamilton’s motion for revising the requisitions of the preceding and present years—Mode of transmitting to the executive of Rhode Island the several acts of Congress, with a state of foreign loans.
A motion was made by Mr. HAMILTON for revising the requisitions of the preceding and present years, in order to reduce them more within the faculties of the states. In support of the motion, it was urged that the exorbitancy of the demands produced a despair of fulfilling them, which benumbed the efforts for that purpose. On the other side, it was alleged that a relaxation of the demand would be followed by a relaxation of the efforts; that unless other resources were substituted, either the states would be deluded, by such a measure, into false expectations, or, in case the truth should be disclosed to prevent that effect, that the enemy would be encouraged to persevere in the war against us. The motion meeting with little patronage, it was withdrawn.
The report of the committee on the motion of Mr. Hamilton proposed that the secretary of Congress should transmit to the executive of Rhode Island the several acts of Congress, with a state of foreign loans. The object of the committee was, that, in case Rhode Island should abet, or not resent, the misconduct of their representative, as would most likely be the event, Congress should commit themselves as little as possible in the mode of referring it to that state. When the report came under consideration, it was observed that the president had always transmitted acts of Congress to the executives of the states, and that such a change, on the present occasion, might afford a pretext, if not excite a disposition, in Rhode Island not to vindicate the honor of Congress. The matter was compromised by substituting the "secretary of foreign affairs, who, exofficio, corresponds with the governors, &c., within whose department the facts to be transmitted, as to foreign loans, lay." No motion or vote opposed the report as it passed.Public Journals of Congress, 6th December, 1782, vol. 4, p. 114; 12th December, 1782, vol. 4, p. 118; 18th December, 1782, vol. 4, p. 120; 20th December, 1782, vol. 4, p. 123; 31st December, 1782, vol. 4, p. 127; 2d January, 1783, vol. 4, p. 128; 14th January 1783, vol. 4, p. 142.
Secret Journals of Congress, (Domestic Affairs,) 3d January, 1783,vol. 1, p. 246.
Diplomatic Correspondence, (First Series,) 4th January, 1783, vol. 11, p. 291.
The Providence Gazette, 2d November, 1782; the Boston Gazette, 10th November, 1782.
See Debates below, pp. 20, 80.7
Contents:
Chicago: Elliot, Jonathan, ed., "Friday, December 20," Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 5 in The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, ed. Jonathan Elliot (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1901), Original Sources, accessed March 16, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=5M6ML76HYFER6TT.
MLA: . "Friday, December 20." Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 5, edited by Elliot, Jonathan, in The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, edited by Jonathan Elliot, Vol. 5, Philadelphia, J. B. Lipincott Company, 1901, Original Sources. 16 Mar. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=5M6ML76HYFER6TT.
Harvard: (ed.), 'Friday, December 20' in Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 5. cited in 1901, The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, ed. , J. B. Lipincott Company, Philadelphia. Original Sources, retrieved 16 March 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=5M6ML76HYFER6TT.
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