Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Brotherhead, William J.M

Home , Arthur Middleton, George Plater, Henry Wisner, James Greenleaf, John Hanson, Mount Vernon Conference

Presented by: Stanley & Naomi Yavneh Klos

Delegates from the United Colonies of America first caucused at the City Tavern in Philadelphia on September 4, 1774

The progression of the United States of America from thirteen British colonies into its current republic was a complex political process that spanned nearly 15 years. Many governmental institutions, such as the United States Department of State and the Smithsonian Institute,1 dichotomize the U.S. Republic’s founding into two simple governmental components, the Continental Congress and the current U.S. tripartite system: The United States House of Representatives and Senate in Congress Assembled (U.S. Congress), The President of the United States of America (U.S. President), United States Supreme Court (U.S. Supreme Court). Some historians have been more thorough and expanded this dichotomy by dividing the Continental Congress Era into three different phases, the First Continental Congress, The Second Continental Congress, and the Congress of the Confederation.2 Other historians use the Articles of Confederation term, the United States in Congress Assembled,3 rather than the Congress of the Confederation for the March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789 U.S. Founding period.

1 Department of State, Common Core Document of the United States of America ... “In 1783 the Continental Congress voted to establish a federal city, and the specific site was chosen by President George Washington in 1790,” Washington D.C., 2012 http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/179780.htm AND Smithsonian Institute, Traveling exhibit: "A Glorious Burden, The American Presidency,” “John Hanson was the First President of The Continental Congress," http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/home.html 2 Kenneth R. Bowling, 'A Tub to the Whale': the Founding Fathers and Adoption of the Federal Bill of Rights. Journal of the Early Republic 8 (Fall 1988): 225 3 Stanley L. Klos, President Who? Forgotten Founders, Estoric.com, Carnegie, PA, 2004, 127

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos In addition to the U.S. Republic’s stages and nomenclature challenges, even casual readers on this period are besieged by conflicting dates, facts, and supporting evidence in works, ranging from academic to Wikipedia articles, that cloud fundamental issues such as discerning the true date of U.S. Independence4 or identifying the first U.S. “Head of State”5 or even determining what body of law was the first U.S. Constitution.6 The U.S. Founding convolution is ubiquitously apparent in everything from school text books to Library of Congress exhibits.7 Even the U.S. Supreme Court, in its opinions,8 does not recognize the difference between the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation’s United States in Congress Assembled. These misunderstandings stem from the failure of historians and politicians to establish a sound framework and nomenclature for the early United American Republics that eventually formed the current U.S. Republic. The goal, therefore, of this exhibit and subsequent lectures is to propose a generally acceptable framework and nomenclature for illuminating the 13 Colonies and State Republics that governed from 1774 to 1789, eventually forming the current U.S. Republic.

Before identifying the key junctures in the evolution of the United States and its democracies, much consideration was given to defining the word “republic” in its 18th-century American context. One of the most important works on the classifications of political systems during the 18th Century was Baron de Montesquieu’s, The Spirit of Laws. Montesquieu defined three kinds of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic. Specifically, regarding a confederation republic, he wrote:

This form of government is a convention by which several smaller states agree to become members of a larger one, which they intend to form. It is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations, till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body.9

From the inception of the United Colonies of America in 1774 to the Revolutionary War’s concluding Definitive Treaty of Peace in 1784, the 13 Original Colonies and States formed confederation republics

4 White House, “Our Government,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government and US Department of State, “Federal Holidays July 4, 1776,” http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/resources-et/celebrate/federal-holidays.html 5 Smithsonian Institute, Traveling exhibit: "A Glorious Burden, The American Presidency,” 6 Robert Goldwin, James Madison's "Sagacious, Powerful, and Combining Mind” “The Articles were not a true constitution but a self-described treaty of alliance among the states.” http://www.loc.gov/loc/madison/goldwin-paper.html Library of Congress, 2012. 7 See, for example, Alan Brinkley, who declares, “The first elections under the Constitution took place in the early months of 1789. Almost all of the newly elected congressman and senators had favored ratification.…” New York: McGraw Hill, 2007, p. 168 and Library of Congress Creating the United States Exhibit: “Confederation Congress Elects Its First President John Hanson” Charles Thomson to George Washington, November 5, 1781 letter, Manuscript,. 8 United States Supreme Court, "Appreciation of the Continental Congress’s incapacity to deal with this class of cases was intensified by the so called Marbois incident of May 1784 ..." SOSA v. ALVAREZ-MACHAIN, Opinion of The Court, Page 22 9 Secondat, Charles de - Baron de Montesquieu, De l'esprit des lois, translated by Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist IX, Independent Journal, November 21, 1787, New York

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos that had “such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body.”10 Therefore, a colonial republic began with their formation of an association titled, Continental Congress: United Colonies of America.

Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist IX went further by defining the United States of America confederacy stating:

The definition of a confederate republic seems simply to be "an assemblage of societies," or an association of two or more states into one state. The extent, modifications, and objects of the federal authority are mere matters of discretion. So long as the separate organization of the members be not abolished; so long as it exists, by a constitutional necessity, for local purposes; though it should be in perfect subordination to the general authority of the union, it would still be, in fact and in theory, an association of states, or a confederacy. The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.11

United States in Congress Assembled Delegate, James Madison, also defined the word republic, in Federalist No XXXIX writing:

… we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior. It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic. It is sufficient for such a government that the persons administering it be appointed, either directly or indirectly, by the people; and that they hold their appointments by either of the tenures just specified …12

Now, with the word republic defined by Hamilton, Madison and Montesquieu, the present book puts forth the proposition that there were three distinct republics that led to a fourth which is the current government of the United States. Each Republic is so delineated because each marks a divergent stage in the U.S.

10 Ibid 11 Hamilton, Alexander, the Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection, Independent Journal, November 21, 1787, New York. 12 Madison, James, Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles, Independent Journal, January 16, 1788, New York.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Founding’s political system. The names designated to each period were derived from the republic’s founding resolution or constitution and are as follows:

 First United American Republic: United Colonies of America13fashioned under the First Continental Congress: 14 September 4, 1774 to July 1, 1776;  Second United American Republic: The United States of America:15 “Free and Independent States”16 formed by the Second Continental Congress: July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781;  Third United American Republic: The United States of America: “The Perpetual Union”17 formed by 13 Independent States ratified constitution, the Articles of Confederation: March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789;  Fourth United American Republic: The United States of America: “We The People”18 formed under an 11-State19 ratified United States Constitution of 1787: March 4, 1789 to Present.

With the four founding republics now identified, the following nomenclature, derived from the body of law of three unicameral and tripartite governing bodies, is offered for your consideration:

 The First United American Republic Government: The Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America (CCUCA or First Continental Congress), the name Continental Congress recorded in the Articles of Association.20  The Second United American Republic Government: The Continental Congress of the United States of America (CCUSA or Second Continental Congress), the name Colonies being changed to States as recorded in the Declaration of Independence.21  The Third United American Republic Government: The United States in Congress Assembled (USCA or Confederation Congress), the name recorded in the Articles of Confederation.22

13 The name, the United Colonies of America, was not introduced as part of a Continental Congress UCA resolution until Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking up Arms. Although passed as the United Colonies of North America on July 21, 1775 the word “North” would be dropped by 1776. 14 The name, Continental Congress is formally adopted by Congress in the Articles of Association dated October 20, 1774. 15 The name, United States of America is formally adopted by Congress in the Declaration of Independence dated July 4, 1776. 16 The term “Free and Independent States” is formally adopted by Congress in Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution for Independence on July 2, 1776. 17 The term “The Perpetual Union” is formally adopted by Congress in the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1778 and ratified by all 13 States on March 1, 1781. 18 The term “We the People” is formally adopted by the Philadelphia Convention on September 17, 1787 in the current U.S. Constitution and ratified by the eleven States forming the new republic by the summer of 1788. 19 The States of North Carolina and Rhode Island did not ratify the second U.S. Constitution until after the government was formed and operational in New York. 20 Journals of the Continental Congress, Articles of Association, October 20, 1774. 21 Journals of the Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. 22 Journals of the United States in Congress Assembled, Articles of Confederation, March 1, 1781.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos  The Fourth United American Republic Government: The United States House of Representatives and Senate in Congress Assembled (Bicameral Congress), The President of the United States of America (U.S. President), United States Supreme Court (U.S. Supreme Court), the names recorded in the United States Constitution of 1787. 23 For the purpose of this book this U.S. tripartite bicameral legislative government is abbreviated to Bicameral Congress.

It is noted now that America’s Four United Republics Exhibit and talk will be one of many given at the Annapolis Continental Congress Festival. The address will present the U.S. Founding in the aforesaid new and innovated light. The Exhibit and talk will ardently support the Annapolis Continental Congress Society’s proposal to establish a National Continental Congress Center in Annapolis.

Having distinguished America’s Four United Republics we may now deal with them one by one, and with the exhibit’s help, discover if the nomenclature, elements of which each is composed, and the propositions meet what might become a generally accepted framework designed to illuminate the U.S. Founding period.

On October 6, 1788 renovations began on old New York City Hall to prepare offices for the new tripartite U.S. government. The USCA moved their offices to Fraunces Tavern and convened there on October 8th, 1788. The USCA was able to form quorums on October 9th and 10th. Secretary Charles Thomson would conduct USCA business until March 4, 1789. The confederation republic never again formed a quorum fading away, in building similar to where the Continental Congress first caucused, a former British Colonial tavern.

23 Constitution of the United States, Charters of Freedom, National Archives, http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

Oil Paintings of Presidents Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America

United Colonies of America24 fashioned under the First Continental Congress: 25 September 4, 1774 to July 1, 1776. The Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America (CCUCA or First Continental Congress), the name Continental Congress recorded in the Articles of Association26 governed the First United American Republic.

24 The name, the United Colonies of America, was not introduced as part of a Continental Congress UCA resolution until Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking up Arms. Although passed as the United Colonies of North America on July 21, 1775 the word “North” would be dropped by 1776. 25 The name, Continental Congress is formally adopted by Congress in the Articles of Association dated October 20, 1774. 26 Journals of the Continental Congress, Articles of Association, October 20, 1774.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Monarch of the British American Colonies www.kinggeorgeiii.com

George III - Autograph letter signed framed 27” x 28”, dated September 2, 1786 to an unnamed friend. Letter discusses the design of the Theological Pivre Medal, the health of Elizabeth (his daughter), and his friend’s horseback riding:

My Good Lord, Yesterday I received from Burch his design for the Reverse of the Theological Pivre Medal, think, I now communicate to you this only Alterations I have proposed is that the Anfs shall not appear so well finished but of ruder workmanship and the name of the University as well as the year placed at bottom as on the other Medal. We have had some alarm from a spasmatick attack on the breast of Elizabeth which occasioned some inflammation but by the skill of Sir George Baker She is now just fully recovered and in a few days will resume riding on horseback which has certainly this Summer agreed with her. I am sure to find by a letter Mr. Delany has had from Mr. Montagu that you are preparing to do the same as I am certain it will contribute to Your Health, which I flatter myself is improved by your proposing to attempt it this Season. Believe me even My Good Lord, Your Most Affectionately, George R Windsor Sept 2, 1786.

George III was born in 1738, son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Augusta. He married Charlotte of Mecklinburg-Strelitz in 1761 and produced fifteen children. George was diagnosed with porphyria, a mental disease which disrupted his reign as early as 1765.

George III succeeded his grandfather, George II, in 1760; his father Frederick, Prince of Wales, had died in 1751 having never ruled. George's plan of taxing the American colonies to pay for military protection for Britain led to the Revolutionary War in 1775. The colonists proclaimed independence in 1776, but George continued the war until the American victory at Yorktown in 1781. The Peace of Versailles, signed in 1783, ensured British acknowledgment of the United States of America. George’s political power decreased when William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783. George reclaimed some of his power, driving Pitt from office from 1801-04, but his condition worsened again and he ceased to rule in 1811. Personal rule was given to his son George, the Prince Regent. George III died blind, deaf and mentally ill at Windsor Castle in 1820.

Sophia, Charlotte - A Revolutionary War dated autograph letter signed by Queen Charlotte to her brother written in French on the 19th of February 1779, framed 34 x 17, translated in full:

“Sir my brother. It is with great pleasure that I congratulate Your Majesty on the Birth of the Princess, that Riene your very lovely wife comes by the assistance of Divine Providence to put the World, and I share with Your Majesty the joy that this event causes you begging the Quite Powerful that it of a agene from days to days to fill the royal house with all kinds of Benedictions. With my perfect sincerities. Sir my brother, Your good sister, Charlotte. At St. James, 19th February 1779.”

Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the wife of George III. She married George shortly after his accession to the throne, in 1761. When George III first received his young bride on September 9, 1761, at the garden gate of St James's Palace, he was supposedly taken aback by her lack of beauty. It became evident, though, that the pious and modest Strelitz princess soon conquered his heart and willingly submitted to his strong influence over her.

In the first twenty-one years of her marriage Queen Charlotte gave birth to fifteen children, nine sons and six daughters. Their eldest son was the future George IV, born in 1762. In contrast to most European Royal houses George III and Charlotte had a harmonious marriage. Charlotte played a prominent, though reticent, role on the stage of European world history. As Queen of England and consort of George III she became an eyewitness of a turbulent age.

First President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America September 5, 1774 to October 22, 1774 and May 20 to May 24, 1775 www.peytonrandolph.com

U.S. Constitution of 1787 Signer

A Five Pound Virginia Colonial Note dated March 4, 1773 and signed by Peyton Randolph and future U.S. Constitution Signer and Supreme Court Justice John Blair on the front. It is also signed on the reverse by Virginia Treasurer Robert Carter Nicholas.

Peyton Randolph (September 10, 1721 – October 22, 1775) was a planter and public official from the Colony of Virginia. He served as speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, chairman of the Virginia Conventions, and the first President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America. He died in Philadelphia serving as a Virginia Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

John Blair, Jr. (1732 – August 31, 1800) was a Signer of the U.S. Constitution of 1787 and jurist. He was an exceptional legal scholar who worked behind the scenes to the idea of a permanent union of the newly independent states and loyally supported fellow Virginians James Madison and George Washington at the Constitutional Convention. Later he served as a judge on the Virginia court of appeals and on the U.S. Supreme Court, where he influenced the interpretation of the Constitution in a number of important decisions.

November 1774 Printing

Suffolk Resolves historic printing headed: "Account of the Proceedings of the American Colonies since the passing the Boston Port Bill" which is continued from a previous printing but this report includes the Suffolk Resolves, prefaced with: "At an assembly of delegates from every town in the county of Suffolk in America, of which Boston is the capital, resolutions to the following effect were unanimously agreed to..." and what follows are the points of the Resolves, which on Sept. 17 would be endorsed by the First Continental Congress of the United Colonies in Philadelphia & reported as such in this issue (delivered to Philadelphia by Paul Revere, although not mentioned here). These Resolves proclaim the Coercive Acts unconstitutional & advise Massachusetts citizens to form a tax collecting body & to hold the taxes in escrow until the Coercive Acts are repealed.

Background: The Suffolk Resolves was a declaration made on September 9, 1774 by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, of which Boston is the major city. The convention that adopted them first met at the Woodward Tavern in Dedham, which is today the site of the Norfolk County Courthouse. The Resolves were recognized by statesman Edmund Burke as a major development in colonial animosity leading to adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence from Kingdom of Great Britain in 1776, and he urged British conciliation with the American colonies, to little effect. The First Continental Congress passed the Resolves on September 17, 1774.

Other content includes: "Debates in the House of Commons" relative to the situation in America. Another report is headed: "Causes of the Present Discontent & Commotion in America" which includes a list of 13 reasons, the first of which reads: "The stamp act, by which duties, customs & impositions, were enacted without & therefore against, the consent of the colonies..."

[Articles of Association – Journals of the Continental Congress] - Issued October 20, 1774 and recorded in the Journals of the Continental Congress - containing the proceedings From Sept. 5. 1774. TO Jan. 1. 1776. Published by order of Congress. Volume I. Philadelphia was printed and Sold by R. Aitken, Bookseller in1777. Originally just called Congress, the word Continental was added to the name on October 20, 1774 in the Articles of Association primarily to distinguish this Congress from the many Congresses being held throughout the Colonies.

“We, his majesty's most loyal subjects, the delegates of the several colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts- Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South-Carolina, deputed to represent them in a continental Congress, held in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th day of September, 1774” 27

The Articles of Association were an alliance between the Colonies, later States, and not a Constitution. The colonies believed that Great Britain would redress their grievances, enumerated in the Articles of Association, after they imposed economic sanctions. On December 1, 1774 the colonial boycott became active and trade with England fell sharply. The British Parliament and King George III responded by enacting on March 30, 1775 the New England Restraining Act which sanctioned the northeastern American colonies: (1) Effective July 1, 1775, New England trade was to be limited to England and the British West Indies; trade with other nations was prohibited. (2) Effective July 20, 1775, New England ships were barred from the North Atlantic fisheries. This measure improved the colonial Canadian alliance and damaged New England economy. The Continental Congress would convene under this agreement passing laws, enacting treaties and conducting a war for seven years.

27 Journal of the Continental Congress, Articles of Association, October 20, 1774.

Second President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America October 22, 1774 to October 26, 1774 www.henrymiddleton.com

[Middleton, Henry] - Address of the American Delegates to Quebec – Urbanus, Sylvanus, The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle January 1775 from Volume XLV. London: D. Henry, 1775. This volume, 8” x 9½” , includes a full printing of first Continental Congress’ “Substance of the Address of the American Delegates, in general Congress assembled, to the inhabitants of the province of Quebec.” signed in type Henry Middleton, President.

The Continental Congress overwhelmingly sought to enlist the support of the Quebec Colony in their negotiations with the Crown. It had been only 12 years since the Quebec Provenance was lost by the French to England in 1763. Despite this, the former French citizens of Quebec were not given five important rights of British constitutional law:

1. Representative Government 2. Trial by jury. 3. Liberty of the person, 4. Holding lands by the tenure and 5. Freedom of the press

The Address was translated into French and submitted as: Lettre aux habitans de la Province de Quebec, ci-devant le Canada, de la part du Congrès général de l'Amérique Septentrionale, tenu à Philadelphie, Qubec. 28 Quebec would send no delegates to Continental Congress or the United States, in Congress Assembled despite continued letters, resolutions and even a Constitution Article beckoning them to join the “Perpetual Union” In Article XI of the Constitution of 1777

Henry Middleton (1717 – June 13, 1784) was a plantation owner and public official from South Carolina. He was the second President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America from October 22, 1774, until Peyton Randolph was able to resume his duties briefly beginning on May 10, 1775. He was captured in 1780 by the British in the Siege of Charleston and sadly avowed his loyalty to King George III to avoid prison. His son, Arthur Middleton a signer of the Declaration, was also captured but remained loyal to the United States and was imprisoned in Florida.

28 Journals of the Continental Congress, Lettre aux habitans de la Province de Quebec, ci-devant le Canada, de la part du Congrès général de l'Amérique Septentrionale, tenu à Philadelphie, Qubec., October 26, 1774.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Benjamin Franklin’s Proposed Plan of Government www.articlesofconfederation.com

"The Name of this Confederacy Shall Henceforth be the United Colonies of North America”

[Franklin, Benjamin] - "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union entered into by the Delegates of the several Colonies of New Hampshire, &c in General Congress met at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775." The Gentleman's Magazine, London, December, 1775.

Articles of Confederation - two page 1775 printing on what is commonly known as the Benjamin Franklin version of the a plan to unite for: "...a firm league of friendship with each other...for their prosperity, for their common defence against their enemies, for the security of their liberties & properties...". The wording in this version of the Articles of Confederation involves some different text from the May 1775 Benjamin Franklin version due to the constitution’s evolution into the final version of the Articles passed November 15, 1777.

Other News includes three pages taken up with: "Protest entered in the Upper House against the Bill for Prohibiting all Commercial intercourse with the Confederated Colonies" which is very good reading in defense of America and the colonists’ grievances. Four pages report on: "Proceedings of the American Colonies" including a great document from Boston stating in part: "...We, his majesty's loyal subjects of the town of Boston...now take this opportunity to profess our firm allegiance to his Majesty & entire obedience to his Government & laws...". There is also an: "Extract of a letter from Montgomery" datelined at the camp before St. John's, Oct. 20, being the general's report which begins: "I have the pleasure to acquaint you with the surrender of Chamblee to Major Brown & Major Livingston, which last headed about 300 Canadians..." with more, taking nearly a full page.

Further on is a report which includes: "There are no advices from Boston later than the 12 of Oct., when Gen. Gage left it invested as before by the rebel army which, however, had attempted nothing since the affair of Bunker's Hill..." with much more. Yet another report includes: "A plan likewise of attacking the regulars at Boston by means of a floating battery is also said to have miscarried & many of the Provincials perished. A report has been propagated...that the Generals Washington & Lee had disagreed & that to reconcile the difference & restore harmony in the Provincial army, Dr. Franklin & other delegates had suddenly quitted Philadelphia & appeared at the headquarters at Cambridge..." & further on is: "The inhabitants of New Bern in North Carolina set the example to Gen. Howe of forming an Association of Loyalists by disarming all those who had refused to sign the Association of that Province..." with more.

Unlike the 21st Century, the United States Congress, the delegates of the Continental Congress (1774 – 1781) and the United States in Congress Assembled (1781 – 1788) bound themselves to an “Oath of Secrecy” on legislative, executive and judicial arising out of their unicameral congresses. Consequently, official records of their proceedings are simple sketches of federal measures void of debate with only occasional reporting of delegate roll call voting on various resolutions, laws and treaties. This Oath of Secrecy is one of the primary reasons why little is known about what actually occurred “behind the scenes” during the formation of the United States under the Articles of Association and the Constitution of 1777.

Resolved: That every member of this Congress considers himself under the ties of virtue, honor and love of his Country, not to divulge, directly or indirectly, any matter or thing agitated or debated in Congress, before the same shall have been determined, without leave of Congress; nor any matter or thing determined in Congress, which the majority of the Congress shall order to be kept secret., and that if any member shall violate this agreement, he shall be expelled this Congress, & deemed an enemy to the liberties of America, & liable to be treated as such; and every member signify his consent to this agreement by signing his name.

James Duane Robert Treat Paine Arthur Middleton John Witherspoon Lewis Morris Stephen Hopkins Francis Hopkenson Abraham Clark Francis Lewis Samuel Ward Thomas McKean George Walton William Floyd Roger Sherman George Read John Hart Robert Livingston Silas Deane Caesar Rodney Benjamin Rish Henry Wisner Thomas Johnson John Jay William Williams Stephen Crane William Paca Richard Smith George Clymer William Livingston Samuel Chase Samuel Huntington John Carroll Thomas Willing Richard Henry Lee Robert Alexander Jonathan Elmer Andrew Allen Thomas Jefferson Oliver Wolcott Mann Pagelun Robert Humphreys Benjamin Harrison Rogers Nathan Beownson James Wilson Thomas Nelson Elbridge Gerry Mathew Thornton Robert Morris Francis Lightfoot Lee Thomas Jones James Lovell Benjamin Franklin John Penn Jonathan Sorgeant Thomas Burke William Dickinson William Hooper George Clinton William Smith Edward Biddle Joseph Hewes William Whipple William Duer John Hancock Thomas Lynch Mathew Tilgham Cicholas VanDyke Josiah Bartlett Thomas Hyorden Carter Braxton Thomas Marchant John Langdon Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Junior George Tsvoet Thomas Cushing Arch Bulloch Lyman Hall Samuel Adams John Houstonn Button Gwinnett John Adams Thomas Lynch, Jr. William Ellery

FORCE, Peter, American Archives: Collection of Authentick Records, for the United States, to the Final Ratification thereof. Published Under Authority of an Act of Congress in 1848.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Third President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America May 25, 1775 to July 1, 1776 www.JohnHancock.org

John Hancock’s 1776 Appointment of the Officer Who Would Later Block Cornwallis’s Escape

Hancock, John: Partially Printed Document Signed as President of the Continental Congress, to George Weedon. Philadelphia, Pa., February 13, 1776. 1 p., 9½ x 14½ in. Countersigned by Charles Thomson as Secretary of Congress. George Weedon, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Virginia third battalion, begins a Revolutionary career that will end with American victory at Yorktown.

Historical Background: Lieutenant George Weedon received this commission in the 3rd Virginia “battalion” (regiment) at the same time outspoken politician Patrick Henry was elected Colonel of the 1st Virginia. Four months later, Weedon was promoted again, to Colonel. He led his troops across the Delaware with Washington’s forces on December 25, 1776 in the attack on Trenton that produced a pivotal American victory. Weedon became Brigadier General in February 1777, following the death of General Hugh Mercer, who had been wounded at the Battle of Princeton. The 3rd regiment saw action at the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and Weedon commanded a brigade consolidated from Pennsylvania and Virginia troops during the winter at Valley Forge. Despite his meteoric rise, Weedon resigned in 1778 after Congress reorganized the Continental Army and promoted his less-senior rival, Brigadier General William Woodford, ahead of him. Even with a personal plea from Washington to remain in his country’s service, Weedon never rejoined the Continental Army, although he continued to serve in the Virginia militia, eventually rising to his former rank. During the Siege of Yorktown, Weedon’s brigade engaged British forces under Colonel Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton and seized their position at Gloucester Point, effectively blocking one of Cornwallis’s escape routes and forcing his surrender to Washington’s army.

John Hancock served as the third President of the Continental Congress taking office one month after the “shot heard ’round the world” at Concord and Lexington, and his tenure in office witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill, Washington assuming command of the Continental Army, the Declaration of Independence, and Washington’s early victories at Trenton and Princeton.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos The United States of America: “Free and Independent States”

Oil Paintings of Presidents Continental Congress of the United States of America

The United States of America:29 “Free and Independent States”30 formed by the Second Continental Congress: July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781. The Continental Congress of the United States of America (CCUSA or Second Continental Congress), the name Colonies being changed to States as recorded in the Declaration of Independence31 governed the Second United American Republic.

29 The name, United States of America is formally adopted by Congress in the Declaration of Independence dated July 4, 1776. 30 The term “Free and Independent States” is formally adopted by Congress in Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution for Independence on July 2, 1776. 31 Journals of the Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

[Lee, Richard Henry] – Resolution of Independence, centennial manuscript. On June 7th, 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia took the foremost part in presenting the call for Independence by submitting this motion: ``Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation. 32

Congress was called to order on July 1, 1776 at 9am and heated debate consumed most of that hot and humid Monday. The Declaration of Independence had been set aside to consider Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence. Late in the day it was apparent that the delegates from Pennsylvania and South Carolina were not ready to pass the resolution. Additionally the two delegates from Delaware split, postponing debate until the following day. Moreover, the delegates from New York were still not empowered by their State legislature to cast a vote of either yes or no on the question of independence. On July 2, 1776 both Robert Morris and John Dickinson, opponents to the resolution, “abstained” by not attending the historic session. The remaining delegation carried Pennsylvania’s vote for independence.33 South Carolina delegate Arthur Middleton, who had replaced former Continental Congress President Henry Middleton, changed the colony's position to yes on independence in direct violation of his father’s directive. Traveling 80 miles through a lightning storm, asthmatic and suffering from a serious facial cancer delegate Caesar Rodney, who was summoned34 by fellow delegate Thomas McKean, arrived in time to break Delaware’s deadlock. Rodney cast the third vote for Delaware and it was for independence. With this vote, all 12 colonies adopted the resolution, introduced by Richard Henry Lee.

32 Op Cit, June 7, 1776 33 JCC, July 2, 1776 34 McKean, Thomas to Caesar A. Rodney, August 22, 1813, The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence, 1651-1827

[Resolution For Independence]. Pamphlet. Pennsylvania Magazine: or American Monthly Museum. Philadelphia, Pa., R. Aitken, June 1776 [published in the first few days of July.] 48 pp., 5¼ x 8¼ in., with fold out map. Due to a shortage of paper, The Pennsylvania Magazine: or American Monthly Museum, edited by Thomas Paine, held the June issue past its normal publication date (which would have been July 3rd), allowing time for the last-minute insertion of the actual resolution of Congress declaring independence. The Pennsylvania Evening Post is the only other contemporary publication of the resolution we have found, in their July 2nd issue.

Historical Background: The Pennsylvania Magazine was founded by printer and bookseller Robert Aitken, who launched the periodical singlehandedly in January 1775, but soon hired Thomas Paine, who had only arrived in America in December 1774. As editor, Paine quickly became a major contributor, sometimes writing under the initials “A.B.,” and other times writing with no by-line. Paine wrote prolifically on many topics for the magazine, including Revolutionary War politics and even descriptions of inventions.

Due to a paper shortage, the June issue was slightly delayed. As it reported: “To our Correspondents. Hermes came too late for insertion this month. Our customers will excuse us, though the day of publication be sometimes delayed: The great difficulty we have procuring printing paper, renders it impossible for us to publish always on the first Wednesday of the month [July 3].” That left enough time for the last-minute addition of the news of Independence. “July 2. this day the Hon. Continental Congress declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.”

Likely appearing on July 4 or 5, this is one of the first reports of independence found in any publication. (The Pennsylvania Evening Post printed the resolution on the night of July 2; we know of no other publication at the time.) Had their paper delivery been delayed only a day or two more, the Magazine would have mentioned the July 4th Declaration of Independence. Instead, that appears in the July issue, which was printed in the first few days of August.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

[Declaration of Independence] Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776, Centennial Reprint Newspaper, with the entire text of the Declaration on page one.

Once the Declaration of Independence was passed by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 the mission of the Delegates was to transmit the document to all the Colonists. John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, had secured a lucrative printing contract for the Continental Congress. That evening John Hancock ordered Dunlap to print broadside copies of the declaration. Dunlap printed perhaps 200 broadsides, since known as the Dunlap broadsides, which were the first published versions of the Declaration. Dunlap also printed published the entire resolution on the front page of his paper, The Pennsylvania Packet on July 8, 1776. In 1777 Dunlap would take over the printing of the Journals of the Continental Congress from Robert Aitken, but lost the contract in 1779 after printing in his newspaper a letter from Thomas Paine that leaked news of the secret French aid to the Americans.

In 1784, Dunlap's paper became a daily with a new title: the North American and United States Gazette. It was not the first daily in the United States—the Pennsylvania Evening Post beat him to the punch in 1783—but it became the first successful daily.

[Declaration of Independence] - Copperplate engraving printed on thin wove paper. “In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Imprint at bottom left, “W. J. STONE SC WASHn” [William Stone for Peter Force, Washington, DC. ca. 1833], 26” x 30”,.

By 1820 the original Declaration of Independence, now housed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., already showed signs of age and wear from handling. John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, commissioned William J. Stone to engrave a facsimile – an exact copy –on a copper plate. There is still debate about whether Stone used a “wet” or chemical process to trace the original manuscript, helping to make the exact copy. In 1823, Congress ordered 200 official copies printed on vellum. Fewer than 40 of Stone’s printing on vellum are known to have survived, with at least 21 of those housed in institutions and public collections.

All subsequent exact facsimiles of the Declaration descend from the Stone plate. One of the ways to distinguish the first edition is Stone’s original imprint, top left: “ENGRAVED by W.J. STONE for the Dept. of State by order,” and continued top right: “of J. Q. Adams, Sec of State July 4, 1823.” Sometime after Stone completed his printing, his imprint at top was removed, and replaced with a shorter imprint at bottom left, “W. J. STONE SC WASHn,” as seen on this document, just below George Walton’s printed signature. The shorter imprint was copied on subsequent plates.

This Force printing, the second edition of the first exact facsimile, remains one of the best representations of the Declaration as the manuscript looked over 150 years ago, prior to its nearly complete deterioration – very little of the original is legible today.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton Letter www.charlescarrollofcarrollton.com

The Centennial Book Of The Signers: Being Facsimile Letters of Each Signer of the Declaration Of Independence, Brotherhead, William J.M. Stoddart & Co, 1875. Half-Leather, 295pp. Illustrated with 100 engravings of portraits, views, etc., including 13 original hand colored designs (one for each colony) with a historical monograph and a history of the Centennial Exhibition. The first 160pp includes the history of the exhibition, the historical monograph which has a summary of the history of each colony and a biography of each signer, the text of the declaration, a history of Independence Hall and the exhibition buildings.

The next 135pp. has a page dedicated to each signer with an engraving or two of the signer, his home, etc. and a facsimile of a signed letter written by that signer. The signers are arranged by state, starting in the north with New Hampshire and concluding with Georgia. The elusive Button Gwinett is included. Each state's section begins with an elaborate hand-colored engraving. Handsomely bound in half-morocco with gilt lettering and ornamentation on the covers and spine.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton (September 19, 1737 – November 14, 1832) was a wealthy Maryland planter and an early advocate of independence from Great Britain. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and later as first United States Senator for Maryland. He was the only Catholic and the longest-lived (and last surviving) signatory of the Declaration of Independence, dying at the age of 95.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Signer of the Declaration of Independence www.williampaca.com

Paca, William -- Autograph letter signed “Wm. Paca,” written to Captain John Lynn to supply the Continental Line. In full

Sir, We shall be obliged to you to procure and deliver to Captain John Lynn two pairs of shoes and eleven shirts from detachment of the Continental line to the west River for the protection of the State Ship. With Great Respect, Honorable Sir Yur Most Humble and obedient servant

William Paca

William Paca was a Delegate from Maryland; born at “Wye Hall,” near Abingdon, Queen Anne (now Harford) County, Md., October 31, 1740; was graduated from Philadelphia College in 1759; studied law in Annapolis, Md., and in the Middle Temple, London, England; was admitted to the bar in 1764; returned home and commenced the practice of his profession at Annapolis in 1764; member of the provincial assembly 1771-1774; Member of the Continental Congress 1774-1779; a signer of the Declaration of Independence; served in the state senate 1777-1779; chief judge of the superior court of Maryland 1778- 1780; chief justice of the court of appeals in prize and admiralty cases 1780-1782; governor of Maryland from November 1782 to November 1785; was influential in establishing Washington College in Chestertown, Md., in 1786; delegate to the state convention in 1788 which ratified the Federal Constitution; appointed by President Washington as judge of the United States Court for Maryland and served from 1789 until his death at “Wye Hall,” Queen Anne County, Md., October 23, 1799; interment in the family burial ground, Queen Anne County, Md.

Stone, Thomas – A December 9, 1783 Autograph letter signed written to the Honorable Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer who has docketed and boldly signed Thomas Stone. The letter discusses the opinions of why the Port Tobacco Court House was not moved to Chapel Point.

Thomas Stone (1743 – October 5, 1787) was an American planter who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a delegate for Maryland. He later worked on the committee that formed the Articles of Confederation in 1777. He acted as the Chairman of the United States in Congress Assembled for a short time during their Annapolis 1784 session.

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723 – November 16, 1790) was a politician and a Founding Father of the United States. Born long before conflicts with Great Britain emerged, he was a leader for many years in Maryland's colonial government. Jenifer supported the Revolutionary movement, albeit at first reluctantly. He served as president of the Maryland council of safety (1775-77), then as president of the first state senate (1777-80). He sat in the Continental Congress and the USCA (1778-82) and held the position of state revenue and financial manager (1782-85). A conservative nationalist, Jenifer favored a strong and permanent union of the states and a Congress with taxation power. In 1785 he represented Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference. He was one of Maryland’s Delegates to the Philadelphia Convention and signer of the U.S. Constitution of 1787.

Chase, Samuel – An Autograph Letter Signed written to Mr. Bowen dated August 16, 1787 regarding legal papers relating to Buchanan and estate of Lane (deceased) stating that papers should be filed with the Sherriff. Letter is still being transcribed.

Samuel Chase (17 April 1741 – June 19, 1811) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and earlier was a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland. Early in life, Chase was a "firebrand" states-righter and revolutionary.[2] His political views changed over his lifetime and in the last decades of his career he became well known as a staunch Federalist, and was impeached for allegedly letting his partisan leanings affect his court decisions. Chase was acquitted by the Senate.

Ellery, William -- Autograph document signed “Wm. Ellery,” written to Thomas Burgess. Ellery is requesting Burgess to furnish a list of “Petitioners for the benefit of the Act of Congress of Jany. 2, 1813.” This one page letter, measuring 6 ½ x 8 ¼ inches, is docketed by Thomas Burgess perpendicular to Ellery’s text. Seal of Ellery in lower left corner. Document is framed, 23” x 16”, for display.

William Ellery was born in Rhode Island in 1727. He practiced law in Newport, Rhode Island until he was elected to the Continental Congress of 1776, where he served on several committees and signed the Declaration of Independence. He also served in the United States in Congress Assembled under the ratified Articles of Confederation until 1785 when he was appointed a United States, commissioner of the Continental Loan Office in 1786. William Ellery died in 1820 at 92 years old.

Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Ross, George - Autograph document signed “Geo. Ross,” dated “January Term 1750.” A response to a summons for Nathaniel Simpson of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania to appear regarding money owed to Jacob Snevley. George Ross as attorney for Nathaniel Simpson writes his rebuttal on one page

George Ross was born on May 10, 1730 in New Castle Delaware. He studied law and established a practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. From 1768 to 1774 he was a member of the assembly of Pennsylvania and represented the county of Lancaster. He was appointed to assist in preparing a declaration of rights for the colony/state, for forming rules of order for the convention, and for defining and settling what should be considered high treason and misprision of treason against the state as well as the punishments that should be levied for those offenses. In 1774 he was elected to the Continental Congress, where he remained until 1777until he was appointed a judge of the Court of Admiralty for the state of Pennsylvania, but died on July 14, 1779 from an attack of gout at just 50 years old.

Clymer, George - Partly printed document signed “G Clymer” regarding the importation of alcohol into Pennsylvania. Clymer has signed as the Supervisor of the Revenue for the District of Pennsylvania. The document is framed, 26”x 12” for display.

George Clymer was born in Philadelphia on March 16, 1739. His uncle raised him and made him a partner in his mercantile business. Clymer attended patriotic meetings, served on the Pennsylvania council of safety, and in 1773 headed a committee that forced the resignation of Philadelphia tea consignees appointed by Britain under the Tea Act. In 1775-76 he acted as one of the first two Continental treasurers, even personally underwriting the war by exchanging all his own specie for Continental currency.

In December 1776, when Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore, he, George Walton and Robert Morris remained behind to carry on congressional business. After the British victory at the Battle of Brandywine, British troops advancing on Philadelphia detoured for the purpose of vandalizing Clymer's home in Chester County about 25 miles outside the city. After the war Clymer served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention which framed the Constitution of 1787. He was elected to the First 1789 Congress (March 4, 1789 - March 3, 1791) serving as chairman of the Committee on Elections. In 1790 he was appointed collector of excise duties but resigned after the Whisky Rebellion. He re-emerged in public life in 1796 being one of the appointed commissioners to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokees and the Creeks Native Americans. On January 23, 1813 he died at his home, “Sommerseat,” in Morrisville, Pennsylvania and is interred in Friends Meeting House Burial Ground, Trenton, N.J.

[Articles Of Confederation]. Newspaper, Continental Journal, January 22, 1778, Boston, Mass. Full printing of the official Articles of Confederation on the entire front page and one column of the back page.

Following its adoption on November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were first printed in Lancaster (where Congress was meeting when Philadelphia was under British occupation) by printer Francis Bailey as a pamphlet. Philadelphia’s John Dunlap, printer of the first daily newspaper in America, the Pennsylvania Packet, had also retreated to Lancaster, where he printed the Articles in Father Abraham’s Pocket Almanack. State printings of the Articles were issued shortly thereafter, but priority of these contemporary pamphlet, newspaper, and broadside issues has not been established. This January 22, 1778, issue of the Continental Journal published by John Gill was likely issued simultaneously to a 16- page pamphlet edition also from his press.

Also of interest in this issue: Henry Laurens, President of Congress, urges passage of the Articles of Confederation, Financial obligations of the states for the war effort, General Orders from Washington, an Extract from the Militia Act, and notes on Washington taking up winter quarters.

Second President of the Continental Congress of the United States of America November 1, 1777 to December 9, 1778 www.henrylaurens.com

Continental Congress “Establishes the American Army”

[Laurens, Henry] - Journals Of Congress, containing the Proceedings of the Continental Congress from January 1, 1778 to January 1, 1779, Philadelphia: Printed by David C. Claypoole, Printer to the Congress of the United States of America, Volume IV, 748 pages plus index, 1779.

Establishment of the American Army

I. Infantry -- Resolved, That each battalion of infantry shall consist of nine companies, one of which shall be of light infantry; the light infantry to be kept complete by drafts from the battalion, and organized during the campaign into corps of light infantry. That the battalion of infantry consist of Commissioned. ... Each of the field officers to command a company. The lieutenant of the colonel's company, to have the rank of Captain lieutenant.

II. Artillery -- That a battalion of artillery consist of Commissioned. ...

III. Cavalry - That a battalion of cavalry consist of Commissioned. ...

IV. Provost - Resolved, That a provost be established, to consist of... This corps to be mounted on horseback, and armed and accounted as light dragoons.

Militia subsistence in lieu of extra rations June 6, 1778 - The Congressional embargo prohibited the export of grain and flour in an effort to redirect domestic supply of foodstuffs to the Continental Army. The measure had its intended effect and by 1779 exports had been reduced to a trickle and overseas trade from the port of Philadelphia fell to between one-fifth and two-fifths of its prewar size. The volume of Philadelphia exports, largely breadstuffs, dropped from over sixty thousand tons in 1773 to less than four thousand tons in 1779. Although a few merchants continued to risk running blockades and fighting privateers to reach overseas markets, most had given up. With limited access to export trade, supplying the army became the only real market left open to the grain community.

Continental Army Military Manual

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben - Regulations For The Order And Discipline Of The Troops Of The United States. Important military manual written expressly for the use of American troops during the Revolutionary War, published three years after the first edition and one of two printed in Hartford circa 1782 by Hudson and Goodwin. The German-born Steuben, well-trained in the highly disciplined military system developed under Frederick the Great, served as inspector general of the Continental Army. In this capacity he wrote his Regulations For The Order And Discipline Of The Troops Of The United States on orders from the Continental Congress.

First published in 1779 with an introduction Continental Congress resolution signed by President John Jay, the work became the standard text for the Continental Army and the United States Army into the early 19th century. Fifty editions, abridgements, extracts, and adaptations were printed before 1800. Steuben's contribution to American independence cannot be underestimated. "He was unrivaled among the citizens of the new nation as an expert on military affairs. His introduction of European military concepts to the Continental army marks the beginning of a truly professional military tradition in the United States."

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Third President of the Continental Congress of the United States of America December 10, 1778 to September 28, 1779 www.johnjay.net

Jay, John - An important May 28, 1779 transmittal letter signed as President of the Continental Congress to Patrick Henry who has docketed on verso. The letter reads: “Philadelphia, 28th May 1779 His Excellency Governor Henry: Dear Sir, I have the honor of transmitting to you herewith enclosed, a copy of an Address of Congress to the Inhabitants of the United States.” Transmitted with this circular letter to Governor Patrick Henry the Virginia copies of Jay’s “Address of Congress to the Inhabitants of the United States” were transmitted to the State. President John Jay implored the populace to maintain its resolve, and to be wary of insidious reports that the new government was failing in the wake of the collapsing US Continental Dollar. The currency weakened to 10 dollars to one Spanish Ocho Reales then 100 to 1, and finally the dollar collapsed at 1000 to 1 in 1781. John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence reported of that period: "For two or three years we constantly saw and were informed of creditors running away from their debtors, and the debtors pursuing them in triumph, and paying them without mercy."

On September 27, 1779, Jay was appointed Minister to Spain to obtain financial aid, commercial treaties and recognition of U.S. independence. The royal court of Spain refused to officially receive Jay as the Minister of the United States fearing that such U.S. recognition could spark revolution in their colonies. Jay, however, convinced Spain to loan $170,000 to the US government and departed Madrid on May 20, 1782. On June 23, 1782, Jay reached Paris, where negotiations to end the American Revolutionary War were already underway U.S. Peace Commissioner Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. John Jay convinced Adams and Franklin to ignore the orders of Congress and negotiate with Britain separately excluding France. John Jay was also adamant the negotiations be halted until Great Britain recognized the “colonies” as an independent State. Negotiations resumed in the fall with England’s U.S. recognition. The final treaty dictated that the United States would have Newfoundland fishing rights, the Northwest Territory (now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota), Britain would acknowledge the United States as independent nation and would withdraw British troops

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos in exchange for the United States ending the seizure of Loyalist property and honoring private debts. The treaty granted the United States independence and Jay, knowing Spain was also at war with Great Britain, acquiesced on the Treaty bequeathing the British possessions of East and West Florida to the United States. In a separate treaty with Spain on the same day in Versailles, Great Britain ceded the Floridas to the Spanish Empire. Jay, however, insisted the navigation rights to the Mississippi River through Spanish New Orleans remain open to the United States.

Early in 1776, one paper continental dollar was worth a Spanish milled dollar which was about 92% fine silver and weighing .89 troy ounces. By the end of 1776, the need to issue more war dollars forced the new States to stop honoring the redeemable clause for Spanish milled dollars on the currency. The States then refused to tax their citizens to support the new fiat dollar currency.35 Loans and subsidies furnished by France from the Franco-American Alliance in 1778 brought considerable sums into the federal treasury but they weren't nearly enough to fund the war effort. The Continental Congress continued to issue excessive amounts of what became fiat currency tied to neither silver or gold. By April of 1779 the trade was 20 U.S. dollars being equal to one Spanish Milled Dollar. Continental Congress President John Jay wrote George Washington that “… the state of our currency is really serious. Where or by what means the progress of the depreciation will be prevented is uncertain." 36

Congress, in an effort to pay for the war and prop up the economy, issued over $241,500,000 of continental bills of credit by 1780. The States increased their own currency emissions to more than $200,000,00037 heavily overburdening their citizens with taxes to meet the demands on their notes. The fiat U.S. dollar was doomed and a collapse occurred by the end of 1780. Congress officially recalled the dollar on March 18, 1780 adopting measures for redeeming bills in circulation at the ratio of 40 to 1.38 Mr. Pelatiah Webster, a merchant of Philadelphia wrote: 'We have suffered more from this than from every other cause of calamity; it has killed more men, pervaded and corrupted the choicest interests of our country more, and done more injustice than even the arms and artifices of our enemies. ' 39 Mr. Webster would go on to write in 1791 “Political Essays on the Nature and Operation of Money, Public Finances, and other Subjects, published during the American War" which, is required reading by anyone interested in the history of U.S. currency.

35 Fiat currency is paper declared by a government to be legal tender. The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning "let it be done". Fiat money achieves value because a government requires it in payment of taxes and deems it as "tender" to pay all debts. It is not tied to a commodity such as gold or silver. 36 John Jay Papers, John Jay to George Washington April 1779 37 Bullock, Charles Jesse, Essays on the monetary history of the United States, Published by Macmillan and Company 1900, pages 63-64 38 JCC, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et al, Saturday March 18, 1780 39 Gide, Charles and Charles William August Veditz, Principles of Political Economy, D.C. Heath & Co., 1903, page 270

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos John Witherspoon, the New Jersey signer of the Declaration of Independence and President of what is now Princeton University, wrote of the 1778-1780 collapse of the dollar; "For two or three years we constantly saw and were informed of creditors running away from their debtors, and the debtors pursuing them in triumph, and paying them without mercy." 40

Thomas Jefferson reported: “It continued to circulate and to depreciate till the end of 1780, when it had fallen to 75 for 1, and the money circulated from the French army … being by that time sensible in all the States north of the Potomac, the paper ceased its circulation altogether in those States. In Virginia and North Carolina it continued a year longer, within which time it fell to 1,000 for 1 and then expired, as it had done in the other States ..." 41

Consequently, on the front lines the Continental Army was clothed in rags, half-starved and not paid. The desertions to the British lines averaged more than 100 soldiers a month. The British changed their strategy and launched a southern spring campaign. The English successfully captured key southern ports in the Carolinas and Georgia. Former Continental Congress President Henry Middleton surrendered with the fall of Charleston taking an oath of allegiance to King George III. Commander-in-Chief George Washington wrote during this period "he had almost ceased to hope."42

[U.S. Dollar] - Astronomical Diary: Or Almanack for the Year 1786, published by Low, Nathanael, Boston, Massachusetts. Complete in 24 pages; illustrated; 18 cm. Good, original stitching in place, text browned with some old damp staining, edge tattering with loss. The highlight of this publication is their monthly table of depreciation for US Dollar, from 105 (indexed to gold and silver) in January 1777 to 4,000 in March 1780.

Five Dollars, Continental Currency, dated May 10, 1775 - Emission totaling $3,000,000 payable in Spanish milled dollars, or the equivalent in gold or silver, was authorized by the Continental Congress resolution of May 10, 1775 and approved by resolutions of June 23-24 and July 25, 1775 and put into circulation in August. The money, for "The United Colonies", was to be used to pay war expenses and was to be redeemed from taxes collected by the colonies.

Fifty Dollars, Continental Currency, dated January 14, 1779 - Emissions totaling $95,051,695 payable in Spanish milled dollars, or the equivalent in gold or silver, were authorized by seven separate resolutions between January 14 and November 29, 1779. $50,000,000 of this was to be used as exchange for the recall of the May 20, 1777 and April 11, 1778 issues. A new border cut used the legend "United States of North America" and on the reverse are a new series of leaf and cloth nature prints. Also emblems and mottos were cut in a smaller size and part of the emblem and left border of the obverse were printed in red with the remainder in black. Printed by Hall and Sellers in Philadelphia, the paper was made at Ivy Mills in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and contains blue fibers and mica flakes. Denominations printed were the: $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $20, $30, $35, $40, $45, $50, $55, $60, $65, $70 and $80.

40 Moulton, Harold Glenn, Principles of Money and Banking: A Series of Selected Materials, with Explanatory Introductions ,Chicago University Press in 1916 41 Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson (1904-1908), edited by Paul Leicester Ford, 12 vols., vol. IX, p. 248 42 Smith, William George, William Gifford John Taylor Coleridge, John Gibson Lockhart, Whitwell Elwin, William Macpherson, Sir William Smith, John Murray, Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle, George Walter Prothero, The Quarterly Review, "The Rise and Progress of Popular Disaffection", Published by John Murray, 1817 page 553

Oil Paintings of Presidents United States in Congress Assembled

The United States of America: “The Perpetual Union”43 formed by 13 Independent States ratified constitution, the Articles of Confederation: March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789. The United States in Congress Assembled (USCA or Confederation Congress), the name recorded in the Articles of Confederation44 governed the Third United American Republic.

43 The term “The Perpetual Union” is formally adopted by Congress in the Articles of Confederation November 15, 1778 and ratified by all 13 States on March 1, 1781. 44 Journals of the United States in Congress Assembled, Articles of Confederation, March 1, 1781.

General Washington Advocates “Vigorous Preparation”— Including a Draft

GEORGE WASHINGTON. Letter Signed, to Benjamin Harrison. Philadelphia, Pa., December 19, 1781. Circular letter in the hand of Tench Tilghman, with two edits in Washington’s hand. Two months after the British surrendered at Yorktown, Washington urged the Governor of Virginia to ensure that his state met the quota of troops mandated by Congress. “I will take the liberty of recommending a matter to your Excellency which I must sollicit you to urge to the Legislature, as absolutely necessary to the filling your Regiments with proper Men, more especially if the mode of drafting should be adopted.” Copies of this letter, with some variations, were also sent to the Governors of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Historical Background: The Congressional resolves urging the states to complete their troop quotas “in the most pressing manner” had been passed prior to Cornwallis’s October 19, 1781, surrender at the Battle of Yorktown. The American victory there marked the beginning of the end of the Revolutionary War. Washington, however, could not afford to be complacent; the enemy still held New York, Wilmington, Savannah, and Charleston. In a letter to Congress drafted two days earlier, Washington had acknowledged receipt of the resolves, and written that he was “almost persuaded” that filling the ranks would make the next campaign “almost decisive.” He then struck the statement (Fitzpatrick), evidently fearful that, even with the qualifiers, he was being overly optimistic. In his letter to the Governors, however, Washington used that optimism to spur recruitment or, if necessary, conscription. Their previous failure to keep a sufficient force of regular troops in the field had allowed the enemy to virtually overrun the Southern states. Now, with the victory at Yorktown, “a moment is allowed us to rectify our past errors, and, if rightly improved, to put ourselves in such a situation, that we need not be apprehensive of the force Great Britain has remaining upon the Continent, or which She can probably hereafter bring.” More important, fielding a strong regular force would likely force Britain into peace negotiations, with America having the upper hand.

Cornwallis’s defeat led Britain to abandon an offensive war and accelerate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. In the spring of 1782, envoy Richard Oswald opened formal negotiations with American commissioners. That summer, British troops evacuated Savannah, and a skirmish in South Carolina, the Battle of Combahee River, marked the last fighting between British and American forces. In November, Britain agreed to recognize American independence and to withdraw its forces. The Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War, was formally ratified by Congress on April 11, 1783. By the end of the year, the last British troops had evacuated New York City.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos First President of the United States of America in Congress Assembled

45 March 1, 1781 to July 6, 1781 www.SamuelHuntington.org

Engraved document, 10½” x 6½”, signed "Sam. Huntington, Prefident", as President of The United States Of America In Congress Assembled, Philadelphia, 1781 countersigned by Secretary of The Board of War, Benjamin Stoddert. The Parchment document is accomplished in clerical hand, with embossed paper seal of the United States in upper left corner. Samuel Huntington was the first President of the United States under the Constitution of 1777. This commission is just one of hundreds of documents (i.e. treaties, judicial decisions, resolutions …) he executed as President. The ratification of the Articles of Confederation, the 1777 Constitution of the United States, was delayed until March 1, 1781 by Maryland due to border disputes and fears of forming a powerful central government. On March 1, 1781, with the 13th state’s ratification, the Continental Congress ceased to exist and “The United States in Congress Assembled” was placed at the head of each page of the Official Journal of Congress. The New United States in Congress Assembled Journal reported on March 2, 1781:

“The ratification of the Articles of Confederation being yesterday completed by the accession of the State of Maryland: The United States met in Congress, when the following members appeared: His Excellency Samuel Huntington, delegate for Connecticut, President.”46

45 In 2008 Half-Dollar Size Medallions for the ten Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled and the U.S. Seats of Government were struck for the exhibits at the Republican and Democrat National Convention. These medals will be on display at the exhibit.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Second President of the United States in Congress Assembled

July 10, 1781 to November 5, 1781 www.ThomasMcKean.com

An October 19th, 1781 autograph letter attested by Jos: Carleton the Secretary of the Board of War commending Surgeon John Thomas, Esquire for serving with the 8th Massachusetts Regiment since January 1, 1777 and ordering him to “… faithfully & diligently to discharge the duty of Surgeon…”. The letter details Mr. Thomas’ duties under the new United States in Congress Assembled. It is Signed Thomas McKean president of the Congress of the United States of America at Philadelphia the 19th day of October 1781 and in the sixth year of our Independence.

Letters from the Presidency of Thomas McKean are rare as his term lasted only four months. This letter is displayed with Autographed Military Orders dated September 19, 1781 under McKean's Presidency.

46 Journals of the United States, In Congress Assembled, March 2, 1781

[McKean, Thomas Thanksgiving Proclamation] - Dated October 26, 1781 as printed in the Journals of The United States In Congress Assembled, 1781 – 1782, published by Order Of Congress, Volume VII, 10 ½” x 8 ¼”, New York: Printed by John Patterson, 1787.

On October 24th, 1781 President Thomas McKean received news of the Victory at Yorktown and the entire congress unanimously resolved to adjourn and go to church to "… return thanks to Almighty God …” 47 The religious services were held at the Dutch Lutheran Church and conducted by Chaplain George Duffield. Two days later the United States in Congressed Assembled under the leadership and partial authorship of President McKean issued a Proclamation in part:

Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God, the supreme Disposer of all Events father of mercies, remarkably to assist and support the United States of America in their important struggle for liberty, against the long continued efforts of a powerful nation: it is the duty of all ranks to observe and thankfully acknowledge the interpositions of his Providence in their behalf. Through the whole of the contest, from its first rise to this time, the influence of divine Providence may be clearly perceived in many signal instances, of which we mention but a few …

It is therefore recommended to the several states to set apart the 13th day of December next, to be religiously observed as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer; that all the people may assemble on that day, with grateful hearts, to celebrate the praises of our gracious Benefactor; to confess our manifold sins; to offer up our most fervent supplications to the God of all grace, that it may please Him to pardon our offences, and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws … By Order of the United States in Congress Assembled Thomas McKean, President"

47 Ibid, October 24, 1781

Third President of the United States in Congress Assembled

November 5, 1781 to November 4, 1782 www.JohnHanson.net

[Hanson, John] – Thanksgiving Proclamation printed in full in The Freeman's Journal Or The North-American Intelligencer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1782 "Proclamation" by the United States in Congress Assembled, which mentions in part: "...indispensable duty of all nations not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn & public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf..." and further on mention that: "...taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these states, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged...and the events of the war in the course of the year now drawing to a close...do hereby recommend it to the inhabitants of these states...to observe...of Thursday, the 28th day of November next, as a day of solemn thanksgiving to God for all his mercies...to testify their gratitude to God for his goodness..." and more, done in Congress at Philadelphia on the 11th of October, and signed in type by the President: John Hanson.

Hanson, John and Thomson, Charles – United States in Congress Assembled, Military Commission signed by John Hanson as President and Charles Thomson as Secretary 1781-1782. Commission is blank and not dated but signatures are Hanson and Thomson.

GEORGE WASHINGTON. Autograph Letter Signed, to Major James McHenry, Newburgh, NY, August 15, 1782. 2 pp. In this highly personal letter, Washington offers a glimpse of the man behind the otherwise stolid image. After victory at Yorktown, Americans were awaiting news of a final peace treaty from Paris. Washington remained head of the Continental Army, and warily watched British General Sir Henry Clinton’s army in New York City. For all its friendly tone and nebulous phrases, Washington and McHenry are actually discussing the very serious business of funding and maintaining troop levels to discourage future British actions.

Complete Transcript

Newburgh 15.th Aug.t 1782

My dear McHenry, Let me congratulate you, and I do it very sincerely, on your restoration to health._ I was in pain for you._ I was in some for myself – and wished for my PS of M--- ; and both my P----e L----s. in J----; resolving (like a man in the last agony) not to follow the trade & occupation of a G----. Any more.

I attribute all the delays, & my disappointments in this business, to your sickness; for otherwise, I should denominate you an unfeeling – teasing – mortal._ In proof of it, I would assert that in March last, I committed a matter to your care of which you took no notice till July following; –and then in such a way, as to set afloat a thousand ideas; which resolved themselves into almost as many anxious questions._ These again, you acknowledge the rect. Of on the 26.th of July, – and on the 3.d of August promise an answer._ When? three or four Weeks from that date ; during this time my imagination is left on the Rack._ I remain in the field of conjecture. – unable to acct. for the causes of somethings, or to judge of their effect;_ In a word, I cannot develop some misteries, the appearance of which gave rise to those quæries, which were made the contents of a letter. Do not my dear Doctor tease your Mistress in this manner – much less your Wife, when you get one._ The first will pout, _& the other may scold – a friend will bear with it, especially one who assures you, with as much truth as I do, that he is sincere.

Adieu. G:oWashington

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Fourth President of the United States in Congress Assembled

November 4, 1782 to November 2, 1783 www.EliasBoudinot.com

United States Government Flees Philadelphia & Re-convenes in Princeton

[Elias Boudinot] – important Presidential Proclamation issued on June 24, 1783 by Elias Boudinot, President of the United States in Congress assembled. This is a full front page printing of the Proclamation in the Connecticut Journal dated Wednesday, July 9, 1783, New Haven, CT, and printed by Thomas and Samuel Green. Proclamation in full reads:

Whereas a body of armed soldiers in the service of the United States, and quartered in the barracks of this city, having mutinously renounced their obedience to their officers, did, on Saturday the aist instant, proceed under the direction of their sergeants, in a hostile and threatening manner to the place in which Congress were assembled, and did surround the same with guards: and whereas Congress, in consequence thereof, did on the same day resolve, "That the president and supreme executive council of this state should be informed, that the authority of the United States having been, that day, grossly insulted by the disorderly and menacing appearance of a body of armed soldiers, about the place within which Congress were assembled; and that the peace of this city being endangered by the mutinous disposition of the said troops then in the barracks, it was, in the opinion of Congress, necessary, that effectual measures should be immediately taken for supporting the public authority:" and also, whereas Congress did at the same time appoint a committee to confer with the said president and supreme executive council on the practicability of carrying the said resolution into due effect; and also whereas the said committee have reported to me, that they have not received satisfactory assurances for expecting adequate and prompt exertions of this state for supporting the dignity of the federal government ; and also whereas the said soldiers still continue in a state of open mutiny and revolt, so that the dignity and authority of

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos the United States would be constantly exposed to a repetition of insult, while Congress shall continue to sit in this city.

I do therefore, by and with the advice of the said Committee, and according to the powers and authorities in me vested for this purpose, hereby summon the Honorable the Delegates composing the Congress of the United States, and every of them, to meet in Congress on Thursday the 26th of June instant, at Princetown, in the state of New Jersey, in order that further and more effectual measures may be taken for suppressing the present revolt, and maintaining the dignity and authority of the United States; of which all officers of the United States, civil and military, and all others whom it may concern, are desired to take notice, and govern themselves accordingly.

Given under my hand and seal, at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, this 14th day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1783, and of our Sovereignty and Independence the seventh his Excellency, Elias Boudinot, President of the United States in Congress Assembled.

AND

Boudinot, Elias - Autograph letter signed "Elias Boudinot," as President of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, to Major General Arthur St. Clair in Philadelphia, Princeton [N.J.], 9 July 1783. "You may depend on Congress having been perfectly satisfied with your conduct." On June 21, Continental troops--grown desperate to receive long overdue back pay--mutinied in their barracks at Philadelphia. Some 300 to 400, under arms, marched on Independence Hall, surrounded it, and kept the entire United States Government virtual prisoners. The mutineers demands were made in very dictatorial tones, that “…unless their demand were complied with in twenty minutes, they would let in upon them the injured soldiery, the consequences of which they were to abide.”

Boudinot sought the help of the Pennsylvania Assembly, also in session, to call in the Pennsylvania Militia but that body refused believing they would only join the mutineers escalating the hostage crisis. Word was immediately sent to Major General Arthur St. Clair:

The mutinous soldiers presented themselves, drawn up in the street before the State House, where Congress had assembled. The executive Council of the State sitting under the same roof, was called on for the proper interposition. President Dickinson came in, and explained the difficulty under actual circumstances, of bringing out the militia of the place for the suppression of the mutiny. He thought that without some outrages on persons or property, the temper of the militia could not be relied on. Genl St. Clair then in Philadelphia was sent for, and desired to use his interposition, in order to prevail on the troops to return to the Barracks. His report gave no encouragement.

In this posture of things, it was proposed by Mr. Izard that Congress, should adjourn. It was proposed by Mr. Hamilton, that General St. Clair in concert with the Executive Council of the State should take order for terminating the mutiny. Mr. Reed moved that the General should endeavor to withdraw the troops by assuring them of the disposition of Congress to do them justice. … In the meantime the Soldiers remained in their position, without

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos offering any violence, individuals only occasionally uttering offensive words and wantonly pointed their Muskets to the Windows of the Hall of Congress. No danger from premeditated violence was apprehended, but it was observed that spirituous drink from the tippling houses adjoining began to be liberally served out to the Soldiers, & might lead to hasty excesses. 48

Major General Arthur St. Clair along with Alexander Hamilton, negotiated the release of Congress through the mutinous “soldiers, though in some instances offering a mock obstruction, permitting the members to pass through their ranks.”49 President Boudinot then quickly acted to move Congress to Princeton surrounding the town and Nassau Hall with 1700 New Jersey Militia men. Boudinot wrote his brother of the incident:

My dear Brother Philada. 23 June 1783 -- I have only a moment to inform you, that there has been a most dangerous insurrection and mutiny among a few Soldiers in the Barracks here. About 3 or 400 surrounded Congress and the Supreme Executive Council, and kept us Prisoners in a manner near 3 hours, tho' they offered no insult personally. To my great mortification, not a Citizen came to our assistance. The President and Council have not firmness enough to call out the Militia, and allege as the reason that they would not obey them. In short the political Maneuvers here, previous to that important election of next October, entirely unhinges Government. This handful of Mutineers continue still with Arms in their hands and are privately supported, and it is well if we are not all Prisoners in a short time. Congress will not meet here, but has authorized me to change their place of residence. I mean to adjourn to Princeton if the Inhabitants of Jersey will protect us. I have wrote to the Governor particularly. I wish you could get your Troop of Horse to offer them aid and be ready, if necessary, to meet us at Princeton on Saturday or Sunday next, if required.50

In this letter President Boudinot replying to General St. Clair concerning the aftermath surrounding the hostage crisis:

Dear Sir, I duly recd your favor of yesterday but conceiving that you had mistaken the Resolution of Congress, I showed it to Mr. Fitzsimmons and we have agreed not to present it to Congress, till we hear again from you. Congress were so careful to interfere one way or the other in the military etiquette, that we recommitted the Resolution to have everything struck out that should look towards any determination as to the Command, and it was left so that the Commanding officer be him who it might, was to carry the Resolution into Execution; and it can bear no other Construction. If on the second reading you choose your Letter should be read in Congress, it shall be done without delay … Elias Boudinot, President P. S., You may depend on Congress having been perfectly satisfied with your conduct.

In the end, St. Clair saw that the mutiny ringleaders were arrested, tried and sentenced to death. They were pardoned in September by the Pennsylvania Supreme Council and through a resolution of Congress. The Confederation government would never return to Philadelphia Arthur St. Clair would go on to become the ninth President of the United States of America in Congress Assembled with his administration enacting both the Northwest Ordinance and the U.S. Constitution of 1787.

48 Ibid, Saturday June 21, 1783 49 Ibid 50 Smith, Paul H., et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789. Elias Boudinot to Elisha Boudinot June 23, 1783, 25 volumes, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976-2000)

5th President of the United States in Congress Assembled

Signer of the United States Constitution www.ThomasMifflin.com

President Mifflin Military Commission as President of the United States in Congress Assembled dated February 22, 1784: The United States in Congress Assembled to Jno. Campbell. Gentleman Greeting. The reposing especial trust and Confidence in your Patriotism, Valor, Conduct and Fidelity, Do by these presents Constitute and appoint you Lieutenant in the North Carolina Line in the Army of the United States to take rank as Lieutenant from Eighth day of April 1779 … Witness His Excellency Thomas Mifflin, Esq. President of the Congress of the United States of America at Annapolis on the 22nd Day of February 1784 in the Eight Year of Independence. By Order of Congress Joseph Carlton Secretary of War Office.

Thomas Mifflin’s presidency was most eventful beginning with the resignation of George Washington as Commander-in- Chief, the ratification of the Treaty of Paris ending the revolutionary War and the establishment of the first consular for Far East trade in Canton, China. In 1787 Thomas Mifflin was chosen to take part in the Constitutional Convention. He attended regularly, but made no speeches and historians maintain the former Confederation U.S. President did not play a substantial role.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos First Commander-in-Chief Signer Constitution of 1787 – Convention President

[Washington, George and Mifflin, Thomas – Commander-n-Chief Resignation] Urbanus, Sylvanus. The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, March 1784 from Fourth Number, Volume LIV, London: D. Henry, 1784. This volume includes a full printing of George Washington's Resignation as Commander-in-Chief to Congress and President of the United States Thomas Mifflin’s response.

The last great act of the Revolutionary War, George Washington's Resignation as Commander-in-Chief. On December 17th, 1784 Congress failed to convene the mandatory nine state quorum to conduct ratification of the Treaty of Paris despite the news of George Washington's impending audience to resign as Commander-in-Chief. According to historian David Ramsay:

In every town and village, through which the General passed, he was met by public and private demonstrations of gratitude and joy. When he arrived at Annapolis, he informed Congress of his intention to ask leave to resign the commission he had the honor to hold in their service, and desired to know their pleasure in what manner it would be most proper to be done. They resolved that it should be in a public audience.51

George Washington's attendance in Congress set the stage for one of the most remarkable events of United States history. George Washington was formally received by President Thomas Mifflin and Congress there-by resigning his commission as Commander-in- Chief. What made this action especially remarkable was that George Washington, at his pinnacle of his power and popularity, surrendered the commission to President Thomas Mifflin, who by all accounts, conspired in the Conway Cabal to replace Washington as Commander-in-Chief with Horatio Gates in 1777. 52 The United States, in Congress Assembled reported:

According to order, his Excellency the Commander in Chief was admitted to a public audience, and being seated, and silence ordered, the President, after a pause, informed him, that the United States in Congress assembled, were prepared to receive

51 Ramsay, David, The History of the American Revolution Published - James J. Wilson, Trenton: 1811 52 Smith, Paul H., ed. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, John Laurens to Henry Laurens, headquarters on January 3rd, 1778

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos his communications; Whereupon, he arose and addressed Congress as follows: Mr. President: The great events on which my resignation depended, having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them, to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States, of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task; which however was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.

The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, increases with every review of the momentous contest. While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, in this place, the peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular, those who have continued in the service to the present moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress.

I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them to his holy keeping. Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life'”

George Washington then advanced and delivered to President of the United States his commission, with a copy of his address, and resumed his place. President Thomas Mifflin returned him the following answer:

Sir, The United States in Congress assembled receive with emotions, too affecting for utterance, the solemn deposit resignation of the authorities under which you have led their troops with safety and triumph success through a long a perilous and a doubtful war. When called upon by your country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted the sacred charge, before they it had formed alliances, and whilst they were it was without funds or a government to support you. You have conducted the great military contest with wisdom and fortitude, through invariably regarding the fights of the civil government power through all disasters and changes. You have, by the love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to display their martial genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. You have persevered, till these United States, aided by a magnanimous king and nation, have been enabled, under a just Providence, to close the war in freedom, safety and independence; on which happy event we sincerely join you in congratulations. Having planted defended the standard of liberty in this new world: having taught an useful lesson a lesson useful to those who inflict and to those who feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action, loaded with the blessings of your fellow-citizens, but your fame the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your official life the glory of your many virtues will military command, it will continue to animate remotest posterity ages and this last act will not be among the least conspicuous .

We feel with you our obligations to the army in general; and will particularly charge ourselves with the interests of those confidential officers, who have attended your person to this interesting affecting moment. We join you in commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, beseeching him to dispose the hearts and minds of its citizens, to improve the opportunity afforded them, of becoming a happy and respectable nation. And for you we address to him our earnest prayers, that a life so beloved may be fostered with all his care; that your days may be happy, as they have been illustrious; and that he will finally give you that reward which this world cannot give.

USCA Proclamation Announcing Ratification of the Treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and Confirmed American Independence

Mifflin, Thomas - Proclamation Broadside of the Treaty of Paris, “By the UNITED STATES in CONGRESS Assembled, A PROCLAMATION.” Annapolis: John Dunlap, 1784 that Signed by Thomas Mifflin as President of the United States in Congress Assembled and Charles Thomson as Secretary of the United States in Congress Assembled in the left margin.

Official proclamation of the American ratification of the definitive treaty of peace, ending the Revolutionary War. Despite Thomas Mifflin's pleas for delegates to attend Congress to ratify the treaty, it was not until January 13, 1784, that enough states (nine) were represented. The next day, they approved ratification. The broadside carries the complete, official text of the articles agreed to in Paris as well as the text of Congress's ratification of the treaty.

“…WE THE United States in Congress assembled, having seen and duly considered the definitive articles aforesaid, did by a certain act under the seal of the United States, bearing date this 14th day of January 1784, approve, ratify and confirm the same and every part and clause thereof … and being sincerely disposed to carry the said articles into execution truly, honestly and with good faith … we have thought proper by these presents, to notify the premises to all the good citizens of these United States…

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Thomas Mifflin has signed as President of the United States “… GIVEN under the Seal of the United States, Witness his Excellency THOMAS MIFFLIN, our president, at Annapolis, this fourteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four…”

The defeat of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in October of 1781 convinced Britain to look beyond military efforts to resolve the American conflict. In March of 1782, Parliament authorized the king to negotiate for peace. In April, British commissioner Richard Oswald began informal peace talks with Benjamin Franklin. British envoys were authorized to treat with representatives of the “colonies,” a characterization that U.S. Commissioner John Jay was unwilling to accept. To break the impasse, Parliament revised its diplomatic instructions, but not before heated debate over whether the change amounted to recognition of independence or merely of the name by which the Americans wished to be called. The preliminary Articles of Peace, signed in November of 1782, formally acknowledged American independence. Before taking effect, a treaty ending the war between Britain and France also had to be signed. Once accomplished, the final treaty was signed by the British, French and American ministers on September 3, 1783, and then transmitted to Congress for ratification.

This broadside was printed in Annapolis as part of the Treaty’s ratification process. Available for distribution by January 16- 17, 1784, this is one of only two known completed with the official seal, and signatures of Thomas Mifflin as president of the United States, in Congress Assembled and Charles Thomson as secretary. The only other known copy is in the National Archives.

Presented to Benjamin Franklin

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos [Lattre, Jean] - ETATS UNIS DE L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE avec le Canada et la Floride, an original 18th century 7" x 10" (180 x 250 mm) copperplate engraved 1783 map of The United States Of America Following the Peace Treaty of 1783 that was dedicated and presented to his Excellence Mr. Benjamin Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of France.

[Treaty of Paris} - LAWS OF MARYLAND PASSED AT A SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, begun and held at the City of ANNAPOLIS on Tuesday the tenth of April, and ended the twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven. [TOGETHER WITH THOSE PASSED]: on Monday the fifth of November and ended the seventeenth of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty- seven.... William Smallwood, Esq; Governor. (2 sections). Annapolis, Maryland, 1787. Folio, each measuring 14-1/2 inches high by 9 inches wide. Disbound, lacking the covers. 47 pages, and 43 pages, respectively. The unpaginated leaves have been numbered in ink in an early hand 194 to 286, but with the numbering mistakenly starting with the later section. The pages of the section containing the laws passed from November through December are darkened with chipping to the edges of the first and last. Occasional marginal annotations penned in an early hand comment on provisions of the laws. Examples of these manuscript annotations include: "This Act is made Permanent by 1798 Chap. 71", and "This act is a Supplement to 1763 Chap. 21 and Repealed by 1791 Chap. 68".

This 1787 printing includes “An Act declaring the treaty of peace between the United States and his Britannic majesty the supreme law within this state"

It also includes "An Act for laying out roads from Snell's bridge and Green's bridge, on Patuxent, to the bridge over Patapsco falls, near Ellicott's lower mills", "An Act for the more effectual remedy to extinguish fire in Baltimore-town", "An additional supplement to the act to prevent the exportation of unmerchantable tobacco", , "An Act to prevent the inconveniencies arising from slaves being permitted to act as free", "An Act concerning pardons", "An Act for the sale of inspected tobacco in certain cafes", etc., etc., etc.

United States in Congress Assembled Annapolis and Trenton Sessions 1784-85

Original bank check drawn on the Manhattan Company of New York City (an early bank), Remsen, Henry, a Cashier check dated April 30, 1803 to Charles Dickinson and signed by Henry Remsen, Jr (1762-1843). Remsen was born in New York, Nov. 7, 1762 to Henry (or Hendrick) Remsen and Cornelia (Dickenson) Remsen. He first rose to notoriety as the acting Foreign Secretary of the United States in Congress Assembled.

In 1783, after Robert R. Livingston resigned as the first Foreign Secretary to the United States, the papers of the Department of Foreign Affairs remained locked, sealed, and inaccessible. The President of the United States in Congress Assembled acted as Secretary for Foreign Affairs ad interim until March 2, 1784, when Congress elected 22 year old Henry Remsen, Jr., "as undersecretary in the office for foreign affairs, to take charge of the papers in that office." He served in this capacity, taking charge of the books and papers without other assistance, until Livingston's successor, John Jay, entered upon his duties as Secretary for Foreign Affairs in December 1784. In Annapolis, Congress met in the Senate chamber of the State Capitol, and while no specific record has been found as to where Remsen had his office in Annapolis, its most probable location was with Congress in the State Capitol.

When John Jay assumed the office of Foreign Secretary in New York, Remsen remained as his undersecretary. Thomas Jefferson, who replaced Acting Secretary of State John Jay in 1789, kept Remsen on as secretary who eventually was appointed the first Chief Clerk of the US Patent Board from 1790-1792. He recorded the first rules for the examination of patents. The current Patent Office building, the Remsen building, was dedicated to him in 2003.

The United States in Congress Assembled In Their Annapolis Session Asks the States for the Power to Regulate Trade

Passed in reaction to British regulations that severely hampered America’s foreign commerce, this resolution signified an attempt to counteract Britain’s stranglehold on American trade. Virginia agreed to the request, but several other states did not follow suit. The failure to approve national regulation of commerce was a key factor leading to the Philadelphia Convention three years later, where Congress’s power to regulate trade would be written into the new Constitution.

Excerpt

“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 . . . 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. . . . Resolved, That it be, and it hereby is recommended to the legislatures of the several states, to vest the United States in Congress assembled, for the term of

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos fifteen years, with power to prohibit any goods, wares or merchandize 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 commerce. . . . Provided, That to all acts of the United States in Congress assembled, in pursuance of the above powers, the assent of nine states shall be necessary.”

Historical background

In 1777, after sixteen months of debate, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. Four years passed before the plan was ratified by all of the states. The Articles were inherently flawed:

There was no separation of power. Each state, no matter its size, had one vote in Congress. Any act of Congress required the approval of nine states, rather than a simple majority. There was no chief executive. Perhaps most important, Congress could not levy taxes, instead having to request funds from the states and loans from abroad.

Congress also lacked the authority to establish uniform regulations for foreign and domestic commerce. When Britain closed its West Indian ports to American goods after the Revolution and then flooded American ports with British products, Congress could not retaliate. States independently set import duties and payment plans for paying down their Revolutionary War debts. For example, New York imposed stiff duties on British imports but refused to approve a five percent federal tax on imports. These inconsistent policies led to increased tensions between the states and deteriorating financial prospects for Congress, which defaulted on Revolutionary War loans.

In September 1783, a committee led by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison concluded that Congress should ask the states to cede the power regulate commerce. On April 30, 1784, Congress passed this resolution seeking the authority to regulate trade and to set discriminatory duties and trade restrictions on countries, such as Britain, that would not agree to commercial treaties. The bill failed to gain the support of enough states to be implemented. Finally, two years later, the Annapolis Convention convened to work toward new commercial agreements between states. Hamilton and Madison used the occasion to call for a broader convention to discuss amending the Articles of Confederation. Congress concurred, and called on the states to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia in 1787. At the Federal Convention, the delegates agreed on the need to discard the Articles and draft an entirely new frame of government.

The resulting U.S. Constitution gave Congress the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States . . . [provided] all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States [and] . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States.”

Charles Thomson served as secretary to the Continental Congress when it began in 1774, continuing throughout the entire pre-constitutional period until the federal government came to power in 1789. In that capacity, Thomson was one of only two people to sign the original Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Thomson as Secretary and John Hancock as President of Congress. Thomson is also credited with creating the

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November 30, 1784 to November 23, 1785 www.RichardHenryLee.org

[Virginia Act of Cession – United States, in Congress Assembled] - The Massachusetts Centinel, 9 ½” x 14 ¼” dated Saturday August 19, 1786 containing a full printing of a Northwest Territory Act of Virginia Land Cession:

Whereas it appears, from the knowledge already obtained of the tract of Country lying Northwest of the river Ohio, that the laying it out and forming it into states of the Extent mentioned in the resolution of Congress of the 10th of October, 1780, and in one of the conditions contained in the cession of Virginia, will be productive of many and great inconveniences: That by such a division of the country, some of the new states will be deprived of the advantages of Navigation, some will be improperly intersected by lakes, rivers and Mountains, and some will contain too great a proportion of barren unimprovable land, and of consequence will not for many years, if ever, have a sufficient number of inhabitants to form a respectable government, and entitle them to a seat and voice in the federal council: And whereas in fixing the limits and dimensions of the new states, due attention ought to be paid to natural boundaries, and a variety of Circumstances which will be pointed out by a more perfect knowledge of the country, so as to provide for the future growth and prosperity of each state, as well as for the accommodation and security of the first adventurers. In order therefore that the ends of government may be attained, and that the states which shall be formed, may become a speedy and sure accession of strength to the Confederacy:

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Resolved, That it be, and it hereby is recommended to the legislature of Virginia, to take into consideration their Act of cession, and revise the same, so far as to empower the United States in Congress assembled, to make such a division of the territory of the United States lying Northerly and westerly of the river Ohio, into distinct republican states, not more than five nor less than three, as the situation of that country and future circumstances may require; which states shall hereafter become members of the federal Union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the original states, in conformity with the resolution of Congress of the 10th October, 1780.53

Richard Henry Lee’s Presidency passed the Western Land Ordinance of 1785 the previous year. Despite this it was necessary for Congress to pass this resolution to persuade Virginians to secede their Northwest Territorial claims to the federal government. This was no small matter to Virginians as land sales were a primary source of State revenues and the Ohio River would become the dividing line between Virginia and what was being proposed as a slave free territory. Virginia ceded the land and in 1787 the Northwest Ordinance would be passed by the United States, in Congress Assembled.

AND

[Lee, Richard Henry Land Ordinance of 1785] – The Pennsylvania Packett and Daily Advertiser, Monday, May 30, 1785, printing of the Western Land Ordinance dated May 20, 1785 and signed in type by Richard Henry Lee as President of the United States in Congress Assembled and Charles Thomson as Secretary of the United States in Congress Assembled.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 set aside a test tract of land in the Northwest Territory for real estate development.54 The federal surveyors divided the land into individual square townships. Each side of the township square was to be six miles in length containing thirty-six square miles of territory. The township was then divided into one-square mile sections, with each section receiving its own number and encompassing 640 acres. Section sixteen was to be set aside for a public schools and sections eight, eleven, twenty-six, and twenty-nine were to provide veterans of the American Revolution with land as payment for their service during the war thus greatly reducing the war debt. The government would then sell the remaining sections at public auction at the minimum bid of 640 dollars per section or one dollar for an acre of land in each section.

The federal land that was not in dispute by the Native Americans was eagerly occupied by western settlers but as squatters. The frontiersman had no respect for the authority of the United States, in Congress Assembled. In 1785, the settlers were correct in their assessment as the federal government failed to muster the capital necessary to pay magistrates and troops to enforce the $1.00 per acre fee. With the States no longer in control of the lands and a weak federal government floundering in debt, a tide of western squatters flowed into the Northwest Territory. President Lee’s plan to fund the federal government from western land sales imploded and no capitol flowed into the federal treasury from the western lands. The survey system would expand from this small range in Ohio to the Pacific Ocean and then into Alaska as the United States acquired territory during its “manifest destiny” period. Future Presidents would utilize Lee’s system and fund government projects, public education, railroads, interstate highways and national parks through land sales and swaps throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. Lee's plan was prophetic but like most visionaries he was slightly ahead of its time.

53 Journals of the United States in Congress Assembled, Friday, July 7, 1786. 54 Burnett, Edmund Cody, Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, Published 1931, The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Page 439

Revolutionary War General Governor of Maryland November 26, 1785 to November 24, 1788

Plater, George and Cokey Thomas Deye – Letter signed as President of the Maryland Senate and Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates dated Annapolis, December 1784 to General William Smallwood advising him of his appointment as a delegate to the United States in Congress Assembled, in full:

We are directed by the Maryland Assembly to inform you they have this appointed you a Delegate to Congress for the ensuing year I have the honor to be your most humble and obedient servant, George Plater, Pres Sen Thomas Cockey Deye, Speaker of the House of Delegates

George Plater (November 8, 1735 – February 10, 1792) was an American planter, lawyer, and statesman from Saint Mary's County, Maryland. He represented Maryland in the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1780, served as President of the Maryland State Senate, and briefly served as the sixth Governor of Maryland in 1791 and 1792.

AND

Smallwood, William - Autograph Letter Signed dated November 10, 1788 to His Excellency Thomas Johnson Esq. congratulating him in succeeding him as Governor. In part:

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos I most sincerely congratulate you on your being appointed this Day Governor of the State of Maryland --- from an impression that your abilities and experience enable you to render more essential services to the public than any other person … W Smallwood

Thomas Johnson (November 4, 1732 – October 26, 1819) was an American jurist with a distinguished political career. He was the first Governor of Maryland, a delegate to the Continental Congress and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

AND

Smallwood, William - Gubernatorial Proclamation dated July 12, 1788 signed W. Smallwood as Governor reads in part

… I have therefore thought proper by and with the advice of counsel to issue this my proclamation requiring all persons to refrain from committing such violences and outrages. And I do hereby warn them of the Pains and Penalties which such Laws inflicts for such offenses and of the necessity which Government will seduced to enforcing the laws in the surest manner.

William Smallwood (1732 – February 14, 1792) was an American planter, soldier and politician from Charles County, Maryland. He served in the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of major general. He was serving as the fourth Governor of Maryland when the state adopted the United States Constitution.

[Jay, John] - Independent Gazetteer, Philadelphia, June 5, 1788 published, as ordered by the United States in Congress Assembled the Extract from the records of the Council of State dated December 29, 1787 a trade agreement signed by Le Ct. De La Luverne of France and John Jay as Foreign Secretary for the United States. This being a complete 1788 printing in both French and English of “An Act of the King's Council, for the encouragement of commerce of France with the United States of America.” After negotiating the Treaty of Paris Jay returned to Congress and worked hard as a Delegate and was lobbied strongly to accept the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

“He was unwilling, for reasons of private business, to be detained at Trenton, where Congress had been in session and was to reassemble in September, and also because he was reluctant to assume such responsibility without the privilege of selecting his own clerks, a power which Congress had heretofore reserved to itself. Meantime he was elected a delegate to Congress by the state legislature; but on December 21st, Congress having decided to adjourn to New York, and yielding in the matter of the appointments of his subordinates, Jay accepted the secretaryship, and resigned his seat on the floor. 55

Under Jay the Secretary for Foreign Affairs became the most important and powerful appointment under the Articles of Confederation and Jay held the post until the establishment of the 2nd Constitutional government in 1789. Although not a member of Congress he was given the privilege to appear before that body and state his views. All foreign correspondence that had gone directly to the President of the United States, even when Robert Livingston held the post, no went directly to Jay so the chair was effectively removed from a position of power in the matter of foreign relations.

In 1789, under the Constitution of 1787, John Jay turned down the appointment of U.S. Foreign Secretary instead accepting the office as the First Chief Justice of the United States. Congress would later add to the duties of the Foreign Secretary and rename the Cabinet position, Secretary of State. Thomas Jefferson, while Minister of France, accepted the appointment of Secretary of State in 1789 but Jay served both as Supreme Court Chief Justice and Acting-Secretary of State until Jefferson returned to the United States in 1790.

55 Pellew, George, John Jay, page 230

Chairman of the United States of America in Congress Assembled November 23, 1785 until May 12, 1786 www.DavidRamsay.us

Ramsay, David - Autograph Letter Signed, 15” x 9”, to Elias Boudinot. Philadelphia May 23, 1786 with Free Frank defending one of the few “perks” of serving in the United States, in Congress Assembled – Free Franking:

"It is a matter of doubt whether the privilege of franking letters extends to the members of Congress on their way to or from public business. I have put my name on the outside of this on purpose that you may claim this as a matter of right. So few are the privileges and so limited the powers of that body, that I note it a kind of treason to give up any that they may possess by fair or liberal constitution… "

David Ramsay was a historian and surgeon who graduated from Princeton University in 1765, and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1773. He was the son-in-law to former Continental Congress President Henry Laurens and a delegate from Charleston, South Carolina to the United States in Congress Assembled in 1782-3, and 1785- 6. Ramsay was elected the Chairman of the United States, in Congress Assembled serving from November 23, 1785 until May 12, 1786 in the place of President John Hancock. Ramsay was also a State Senator of South Carolina and Author of History of the Revolution of South Carolina from a British Province to an Independent State " (Trenton, 1785); " History of the American Revolution" (Philadelphia, 1789); " On the Means of Preserving Health in Charleston and its Vicinity " (Charleston, 1790) ; "Review of the improvements, Progress, and State of Medicine in the Eighteenth Century" (1802) ; " Life of George Washington" (New York, 1807); "History of South Carolina from its Settlement in 1670 to the Year 1808" (Charleston, 1809) ; "Memoirs of Mrs. Martha Laurens Ramsay, with Extracts from her Diary" (1811) ; "Eulogium on Dr. Benjamin Rush " (Philadelphia, 1813); "History of the United States, 1607-1808,"

Ramsey was killed as a result of wounds he received from the pistol of a maniac after testifying about the man's mental unsoundness on May 8, 1815.

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November 3, 1783 to November 2, 1784 www.JohnHancock.org

Hancock, John: [Boston?], Sept. 15-Dec. 16, 1786, two pages, manuscript, folio, with old folds, a few repairs to wear at folds only very slightly affecting any text. There are a couple of tiny worm holes but all else in very good condition. This ledger lists items purchased (presumably) and their cost, from September 15 through December 16, 1786. The list consists largely of tea, sugar, coffee, nutmeg, mustard, and other spices.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Background: During the period in which this ledger was written, Hancock was serving as a delegate from Massachusetts to the United States in Congress Assembled. This year, 1786, was a hiatus in his governorship of Massachusetts which resumed in 1787. The citizens of Massachusetts elected the former president to a two year term as a Delegate to the United States in Congress Assembled. The Delegates were elated to have Hancock as a representative in New York as many believed that the man presided over the Continental Congress that produced the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation would reinvigorate the collapsing confederation government. Consequently, John Hancock was elected to the one year term of President of the United States on November 23, 1785.

Hancock, to everyone’s amazement, never reported for office claiming illness. David Ramsay and Nathaniel Gorham served out his Presidential term doing all of his duties under the title "Chairman" of the United States in Congress Assembled. This ledger proves, however, that John Hancock was quite active in his business pursuits during his illness. The large quantity of goods purchased in this ledger gives evidence to a thriving merchant business when he was supposed to be in New York serving as United States President under the Articles of Confederation.

[Hancock, John] - Massachusetts Centinel (Boston) dated Jun 14, 1786. Under the dateline of "Boston, Wednesday, June 14 (1786)" reports that JOHN HANCOCK has resigned as President of the United States in Congress Assembled and that Nathaniel Gorham is elected President in his place.”

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Eighth President of the United States in Congress Assembled

June 6, 1786 - November 13, 1786 www.NathanielGorham.com

Autograph letter signed ("Nathaniel Gorham") to the merchants Messrs. Reynell & Coates, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 5 November 1772. Early Gorham Autograph Letter Signed on legal folio, writing that

“…by Capt. Hinkley I wrote you desiring you to ship me 2 Tons Barr Iron which I take this opportunitiy to desire you to alter & in the room of it to send six Tons pig Iron & if you cannot get pig Iron then to send the Barr Iron as above mentioned…”

According to the Iron Act of 1750, iron manufacture was prohibited in the colonies and all pig and bar iron was to be shipped to Great Britain for finishing. Many Colonial merchants and manufacturers skirted these laws and future President Gorham’s business was no exception to circumventing these British Laws. While most of the arms used during the American Revolution were of European manufacture, some of the numerous New England iron furnaces did supply shot, shells and the occasional cannon.

Acts and Laws, Passed by the GENERAL COURT of Massachusetts; Begun and held at Boston, in the County of Suffolk, on Wednesday the thirty-first Day of May, Anno Domini, 1786; and from thence continued, by Prorogation and Adjournment, to Wednesday the thirty first Day of January, 1787. ([Boston: Printed by Thomas Adams, 1787]) pp. 546-627 , 280 x 190 mm. With state seal at front. Pagination continued from laws published from May 1783 (Evans 18021, Sabin 45569.

The imprint opens with an act to pay the militia raised to suppress Shay's rebellion, or "…providing for the Pay and Subsistence of the Militia that have been, now are, and may be employed by Government, in suppressing the dangerous Rebellion that has taken Place within this Commonwealth." Reacting to the recent tumults in central Massachusetts court houses, the General Court sought to put down the "dangerous and unprovoked rebellion … by a number of wicked and designing persons against the constitution and government …" The act was passed on 6 February 1787 only days after a large number of Daniel Shays retreating forces were captured in Petersham.

The next piece of legislation (9 Feb.) was "An Act in Addition to an act, entitled, 'an Act granting Indemnity to sundry Offenders on certain Conditions, and providing for the Trial of such who shall neglect or refuse to comply with said Conditions, and of those who shall be guilty of like Offences [sic] in future…" It would appear this may have been aimed at Daniel Shays who was still at large following the end of the rebellion. On page 555 we find an especially draconian act, "describing the Disqualifications to which Persons shall be subjected, who have been or may be guilty of Treason, or giving Aid or Support to the present Rebellion, and to whom a Pardon may be extended…." On 564, we find "An Act for the more speedy and effectual Suppression of Tumults and Insurrections in the Commonwealth."

Much more fine content including legislation concerning court seatings, a bridge "where Penny Ferry has been usually kept", dividing the county of Hampshire "into three Describes for the Purpose of choosing Registers of Deeds …", court officer's fees, highway repair, and "An Act in Addition to an Act, entitled 'An Act more effectually to prevent the Desertion of French Sailors."

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Lincoln, Benjamin - Document signed and dated October 28, 1804, Marblehead, MA. Benjamin Lincoln has signed as Port Collector for 36 gallons of wine with Joshua Prentiss as Inspector of the Port.

Benjamin Lincoln was born in Hingham, Massachusetts January 24, 1733. He was a member of the provincial congresses of Massachusetts and was active in training Continental troops. In 1776 he was appointed major-general of the state militia and led the effort to clear Boston harbor of British ships. He participated with Washington at the Battle of White Plains, Fort Independence and others. During the Battle of Bemis’s Heights he mistook some British for American troops and received a severe wound that forced him to retire for a year and crippled him for the rest of his life. He is notable for overseeing the largest US surrender of the war at the Siege of Charleston and for being the officer who formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown. From 1781 he was appointed as the first United States Secretary of War serving until late 1783. He was succeeded in the post by Henry Knox who was re-appointed by George Washington under the U.S. Constitution of 1787. The office of Secretary of War was abolished in 1947 by Congress and President Harry Truman.

In 1786 Daniels Shays lead a rebellion against the government of Massachusetts. Gov. James Bowdoin appointed former major General Benjamin Lincoln, personally raised $20,000 to finance the expedition, to command 4,000 men against the insurgents because the U.S. federal government was unable to form a quorum or raise the funds necessary to field a federal army. . On January 20, 1787 with USCA still unable to form a quorum, General Lincoln marched from Boston to relieve General William Shepard (1737-1817), who was holding the arsenal at Springfield. One week later, he successfully split the Shaysite forces at the Connecticut River. Barred from using military force unless the rebels fired first, Lincoln developed a two-fold strategy. From his headquarters in the Pittsfield home of John Chester Williams, he sent mobile parties in every direction, apprehending and disarming the insurgents. At the same time, he spread the word that he would intercede with the government on behalf of those rebels who peaceably surrendered, and many of them did. On the night of February 3-4, 1787, he led a surprise attack on the Shaysite headquarters at Petersham, Mass., scattering the main rebel forces and forcing Daniel Shays (1747-1825) to flee to Canada, ending the rebellion.

Calls for Philadelphia Convention “…to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”

[Annapolis Convention] – Full printing of the 1786 proceedings of the entire proceedings of The Annapolis Convention that met in the Maryland State House on September 11-14, 1786. In attendance were 12 representatives of 5 States (Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia), including Chairman John Dickinson, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Clark, William C. Houston, George Read, Richard Bassett, Edmund J. Randolph, and James Madison. Delegates from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and North Carolina either did not participate or arrived too late to take part; Maryland, Connecticut, South Carolina, and Georgia did not make any appointments. Because of the sparse representation, the commissioners took no action on the announced topic. Hamilton and Madison, however, convinced them that they should exceed their limited mandate and recommend a national meeting to consider the adequacy of the Articles of Confederation. The carefully couched report, drafted by Hamilton, proposed that all the States and the Continental Congress endorse another conference to be convened at Philadelphia on the second Monday of May in 1787. Its purpose, in essence, would be the framing of measures to strengthen the Articles. When the delegates rode away from Annapolis, they could not be sure that the proposed meeting would even take place. The resolution, in part, states:

Your Commissioners, with the most respectful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction that it may essentially tend to advance the interests of the union if the States, by whom they have been respectively delegated, would themselves concur, and use their endeavors to procure the concurrence of the other States, in the appointment of Commissioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, to take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an Act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as when agreed to, by them, and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, will effectually provide for the same.

American Museum, Or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, Prose And Poetica, 1787 printing.

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February 2, 1787 to October 29, 1787 Revolutionary War Major General & Northwest Territory Governor

A rare partly printed document signed on parchment 12" x 7½" dated October 20th, 1787, New York. This Articles of Confederation Military Commission is for the appointment of Jacob Kingsbury as Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. The document is boldly signed "Ar. St. Clair" as President of The United States of America in Congress Assembled. The appointment is countersigned by "H(enry) Knox" as Secretary of War with an intact United States War Department Seal.

Arthur St. Clair's Congress passed two of the most important pieces of laws ever enacted the Northwest Ordinance and the United States Constitution of 1787. As recognition for his good work as US President Arthur St. Clair was named Governor of the Northwest Territory shortly after he executed this commission.

[Northwest Ordinance] – “An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, north west of the river Ohio". The American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, &c. prose and poetical. For August, 1787. Volume II., Number II. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1787., 8vo., (8 x 4 6/8 inches).

Considered by many scholars to be the most important act of the United States in Congress Assembled during its existence, the ordinance was adopted on 13 July 1787. This key enactment, which set precedents for later territorial development, was primarily written by Rufus King and Nathan Dane of Massachusetts. U.S. Senator Daniel Webster rightfully praised the Northwest Ordinance passed under President Arthur St. Clair’s Confederation Congress: “We are accustomed to praise lawgivers of antiquity ... but I doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced the effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787.” 56

In 1787, the world was now put on notice that the land north and west of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi would be settled and utilized for the creation of "… not less than three nor more than five territories." Additionally, this plan for governing the Northwest Territory included freedom of religion, right to trial by jury, the banishment of slavery, and public education as asserted rights granted to the people in the territory. This ordinance was and still remains one of the most important laws ever enacted by the government of the United States and it begins: “An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio.”

Specifically, this ordinance was an exceptional piece of legislation because Article V permitted the people North and West of the Ohio River to settle their land, form their own territorial government, and take their place as a fully-fledged state, equal to the original 13. The Northwest Ordinance's Article V became the principle that enabled the United States rapid westward expansion, which ended with the inclusion of Alaska and Hawaii as our 49th and 50th states. This ordinance also guaranteed that inhabitants of the Territory would have the same rights and privileges that citizens of the original 13 States enjoyed. Equally important Article VI provided that slavery and involuntary servitude were outlawed in the Northwest Territory. This was a law that finally gave some merit to the Declaration of Independence's "... all men are created equal..." It took three years and a Congress led by Arthur St. Clair to pass this ordinance making the legislation one of the great laws enacted in American History. Theism was also openly expressed in the legislation as Article Three of the Ordinance stated: “Religion, Morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.”57

56 Librarian of Congress, The Works of Charles Sumner, Lee and Shepard: 1877 Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1877, BY FRAXCIS V. BALCIf, EXECUTOR, page 416 57 Ibid

September 17, 1787

[United States Constitution] – The American Museum, along with the "Columbian Magazine," has the honor of being the first successful American magazine, both published in Philadelphia. The Museum was published by Mathew Carey and existed from January, 1787 thru the end of 1792. This September issue has the very distinguished honor of being the first magazine to print the Constitution of the United States, and it is great to have in a publication from the city where the document was created. The Constitution appears in the back third of the issue, complete with a prefacing paragraph which includes: "The constitution framed for the united states of America by a convention of deputies from the states of.....at a session begun May 14, and ended September 17, 1787." followed by the memorable Preamble which begins: "We, the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union..." "Article I" and the balance of the U.S. Constitution follows, taking eight pages. At its conclusion are the signatures in type of George Washington and other members of the Constitutional Convention, listed by state.

Included are the two letters, each signed in type by the Convention President, George Washington, concerning the work of the Convention and the notice that it will be sent to the various states for ratification, etc... A very important “related item” in this issue is the September 28, 1787 resolution from the United States in Congress Assembled that permits state conventions to be formed to consider the Constitution. Often overlooked by constitutional scholars, it is important to note the law required the United States in Congress Assembled resolution for the new US Constitution to be ratified by the States. The Philadelphia Convention delegates did not revise the Articles but developed an entirely new Plan of The Federal Government that the requested to be sent to the states for their consideration with only 2/3rds of their legislatures being required to discard the Articles of Confederation for their new constitution. The convention overstepped its authority granted by Congress on February 21, 1787 by first, discarding the Articles instead of revising it and second, completely dismissing the modification requirements set forth in Article XIII of the federal constitution that stated: “Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.”58

58 JCC, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et al , November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Framer of the Constitution of 1787 Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Ellsworth, Oliver - Rare Revolutionary Era document signed O. Ellsworth and dated, Hartford, June 7th 1776, approving payment of Twenty Pounds, three shillings & seven pence for Salt Peter, a component of gunpowder, for the Colony of Connecticut. Document is framed, 14” x 22”, for display. Ellsworth took an active part in the proceedings of the Philadelphia Convention. Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia moved to name a new entity in the Constitution of 1787 the “national government":

“Mr. R. wishes to have that resol. dissented to. The resol. postponed to take up the following: 1st. That a union of the States merely federal will not accomplish the object proposed by the articles of confederation, namely, "common defence, security of liberty, and general welfare" … 2. Resolved that no treaty or treaties between the whole or a less number of the States in their sovereign capacities will accomplish their common defense, liberty or welfare. 3. Resolved therefore that a national government ought to be established consisting of a supreme legislature, judiciary and executive.”59

For a month the delegates debated Randolph's motion of a tri-cameral division and the utilization of the phrase "national government": On June 20th the following amendment was proposed by Oliver Ellsworth: It was moved by Mr Ellsworth seconded by Mr Gorham to amend the first resolution reported from the Committee of the whole House so as to read as follows -- namely, Resolved that the government of the United States ought to consist of a Supreme Legislative, Judiciary, and Executive. On the question to agree to the amendment it passed unanimously in the affirmative.60 The words, "of America”, was added Gouverneur Morris final editorial changes in the Constitution. 61

Had Ellsworth not been a Delegate to the Philadelphia convention the new Constitution might have titled the nation, The National Government of America. If this occurred then George Washington would have been entitled, rightfully, the first President of the National Government of America. The name, United States of America from the Constitution of 1777, however, was adopted and Washington became the 11th President utilizing the title President of the United States. In the spring of 1796, Ellsworth was appointed Chief Justice of the United States. He also was a candidate in the 1796 US Presidential Election as a Federalist receiving 11 electoral votes.

59 Farrand, Max, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, May 30, 1787, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911 60 Ibid, June 20, 1787 61 Ibid

Benjamin Franklin Relates the Story of Moses and the Israelites in Support of the Constitution Federal Hall in New York News of the First Presidential Inauguration

Benjamin Franklin. Newspaper. New-York Daily Gazette. June 2, 1789. New York, N.Y An avowed Deist, Benjamin Franklin argues that even if the new Federal Constitution had been handed down by an angel, some would still oppose it. As a case in point, he reminds the reader that the Law of Moses has been opposed by “some discontented, restless spirits” in “every one of the thirteen tribes.” Franklin goes on to say that he was confident an “omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler” had guided the writing of the Constitution because it was so important to the welfare of the world.

Excerpt: “A zealous advocate for the proposed Federal Constitution, in a certain public assembly, said, thatthe ‘repugnance of a great part of mankind to good government was such, that he believed, that, if an angel from heaven was to bring down a constitution formed there for our use, it would nevertheless meet with violent opposition.’ He was reproved for the supposed extravagance of the sentiment; and he did not justify it. Probably it might not have immediately occurred to him that the experiment had been tried, and that the event was recorded in the most faithful of all histories, the Holy Bible; . . . To conclude, I beg I may not be understood to infer, that our General Convention was divinely inspired when it formed the new Federal Constitution, merely because that constitution has been unreasonably and vehemently opposed; yet I must own I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence, that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler, in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being.”

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos 10th President of the United States in Congress Assembled

January 22, 1788 to January 21, 1789 www.CyrusGriffin.com

Cyrus Griffin - Military Commission executed as President of the United States in Congress Assembled appointing Asa Hartshorn to the rank of Ensign in the newly formed United States Army on October 11, 1787. The commission is also signed by the nation's first Secretary of War, Henry Knox.

Griffin was born in Farnham, Richmond County, Virginia in 1749; died in Yorktown, Virginia, 14 December 1810. He was educated in England studying law at the University of Edinburgh and at the Temple in London. While in England Griffin courted nobility and married a Lady Christina, daughter of John Stuart, sixth Earl of Traquair. He returned to Virginia and as a young lawyer gave early adhesion to the patriot cause. Griffin was elected a member of the State house of delegates in 1777, 1778, 1786, and 1787. , was a member of the Virginia legislature. He was elected President of the United States in Congress Assembled on January 22, 1788 serving until the government's demise in 1789. After the presidency Griffin was appointed president of the Supreme Court of Admiralty from its creation until its abolition. He was also appointed a commissioner to the Creek Nation in 1789. Griffin would be acknowledged for his service by George Washington with an appointment to United States Court, District of Virginia on November 28, 1789. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 10, 1790, and received a commission on February 10, 1790. Griffin's most notable case was Aaron Burr versus the Unite States of America. Griffin served as the first Federal Judge in Virginia under the Constitution of 1787 until his death on December 14, 1810.

American Museum, or Repository of Ancient And Modern Fugitive Pieces, Prose and Poetica, For November 1787, Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, Vol. II Num. V, 2nd ed, page 417 - 520 103 pps. This 18th-Century Magazine includes the Federalist Papers were a series of essays published in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet and the Daily Advertiser as a response to Anti-Federalist opposition to the proposed US Constitution. After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the new Constitution was sent to the various states for ratification in September 1787. Anti-Federalists essays condemning the document began to surface later that month, quickly followed by the Federalist efforts of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Included in this 18th-Century Magazine:

Federalist No. 1 - Alexander Hamilton essay published on October 27, 1787 under the pseudonym Publius. This paper provides the outline for the papers arguing for the inadequacy of the  Federalist No. 2 - An essay by former Continental Congress President which is the second of the Federalist Papers. It was published on October 31, 1787 under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all the Federalist Papers were published. No. 2 is the first of four papers by Jay discussing the protection of the United States from dangerous foreign influence, especially military force. It is entitled, "Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence."  A printing of Connecticut Constitutional Convention Delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth letter transmitting to Governor Samuel Huntington (former Continental Congress and United States in Congress assembled President) the new U.S. Constitution.  A printing of Massachusetts Constitutional Convention Delegate Eldridge Gerry to Samuel Adams President of the Massachusetts Senate on his reasons why he refused to sign the US Constitution for his State. This began the debate on Massachusetts’ ratification of the US Constitution.  A Full Printing of An Officer of The Late Continental Army (William Findley) objections to the new Federal Constitution signed Plain Truth, Nov. 7, 1787"  A Full Printing of a Jerseyman, dated November 5, 1787 on the new Constitution that appeared in the Trenton Mercury newspaper reprinted in the Pennsylvania Packet 11/15/1787v and in the November issue of the Philadelphia American Museum. This began the constitutional debate on NJ's ratification.  John Hancock (former Continental Congress and United States in Congress assembled President) Proclamation as Massachusetts Governor dated October 17, 1787  Resolution from the United States in Congress Assembled sending federal arms, horses and supplies to aid them in protecting their borders from "invasion"

Grand Procession at Portsmouth

[US Constitution Ninth State Ratification] - The Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser, Thursday July 3, 1788, Boston: Published by Adams and Nourse, reports on ratification parade: THURSDAY being the day appointed to celebrate the RATIFICATION of the Federal Constitution by the State of New-Hampshire, a numerous concourse of the inhabitants of Portsmouth, and the neighboring towns being assembled on the Parade, about eleven o'clock an armed ship was espied from the State-House, bearing down under full sail; being hailed on her approach, she proved to be the ship UNION, Thomas Manning, Esq. commander, from Concord, out five days, bound to the Federal city, all well and in good Spirits. About a quarter past eleven, the dropt anchor, and having received a pilot on board, got under way and joined the procession, which moved in the following order:

A Band of Music in an open coach, and six horses decorated Husbandmen, A Plough drawn by nine yoke of Oxen; A man sowing; A Harrow, Reapers, Threshers, Mowers, Hay-makers, each with their proper implements; A man swinging sax; A cart for gathering in harvest; Blacksmiths and Nailors with their forges, Anvils and Stedges at work; Shipwrights with their tools; Caulkers; Rope-makers with spinning wheel and hemp round their waistes; Occupied Riggers, Mast makers, Ship-joiners; Block makers; Mathematical instrument-makers with an Azimuth Compass; Boat-builders at work on a boat nearly completed; Carvers; Painters, Glaziers and Plumbers; Coopers trimming casks; Coilers of fifh; Stowadores; Pilots with Spy-Glasses and Charts; The Ship Union Completely rigged, armed and manned under an easy fan with colors flying, elevated on a carriage, drawn by nine horses, a tenth (emblematical of Virginia) completely harnessed, and ready to join the rest; Ship Captains with their; quadrants; … Every possession was distinguished by some insignia or badge, peculiar to it; The procession moved on through on the principal streets of the town, the band playing and singing the federal Song, "It comes! It Comes!" and after saluting the President of the State, and the President and Members of the Convention, at their respective lodgings with nine guns each, from the Ship, the Procession moved on to Union-Hill, where a cold collation was provided the Band of Music playing during the repast,

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos and the Ship lying to, with a man' at malt head, sent to spy Out the Ship VIRGINIA, which was hourly expected to join the rest of the fleet.

After dinner nine federal toasts were given. Then fired a salute of nine guns, which was returned by three cheers, and immediately after the firing, the songs were sung accompanied by the Band. The procession then formed and returned in the fame order they came, and upon their return were saluted with thirteen guns from the Artillery. On their arrival at the State-House, a federal salute was fired from the Ship, returned with three cheers; which ended the Procession. The Ship proceeding on her voyage, again fired a federal salute as she passed his Excellency's seat. In the evening the State-House was beautifully illuminated with nine candles in each window, whi1e a large company of ladies and gentlemen, formed In a semi-circle, were entertained by the Band from. the balcony.

Amendments to the Constitution proposed by the New-Hampshire Convention.

The first, second; third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth almost verbatim with Massachusetts. The following are the remainder:7th. All common law causes between citizens of different States shall be commenced in the common law Courts of the respective States-and no appeal shall be allowed to the federal court in such case unless the sum or value of the things in controversy amount to 3000 dollars. 9th Congress shall at no time consent that any person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall accept of a title of nobility, or any mother title or office from any king, prince or sovereign State. 10th. That no standing army shall be kept up in time of peace, unless with the consent of three quarters of the members of each branch of Congress -- nor s[all soldiers in time of peace be quartered upon private houses, without the consent of the owner. 11th Congress shall make no law touching religion, or to infringe the right of conscience.12th. Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion

The U.S. Constitution of 1787 & Bill of Rights The United States House of Representatives and Senate in Congress Assembled, The President of the United States of America, and The United States Supreme Court

The United States of America: “We The People”62 formed under an 11-State63 ratified United States Constitution of 1787: March 4, 1789 to Present. The United States House of Representatives and Senate in Congress Assembled (Bicameral Congress), The President of the United States of America (U.S. President), United States Supreme Court (U.S. Supreme Court), the names recorded in the United States Constitution of 1787 64 governed the Fourth United American Republic.

62 The term “We the People” is formally adopted by the Philadelphia Convention on September 17, 1787 in the current U.S. Constitution and ratified by the eleven States forming the new republic by the summer of 1788. 63 The States of North Carolina and Rhode Island did not ratify the second U.S. Constitution until after the government was formed and operational in New York City on March 4, 1789. 64 Constitution of the United States, Charters of Freedom, National Archives, http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

First Commander-in-Chief Signer Constitution of 1787 – Convention President First United States President under the Constitution of 1787 www.GeorgeWashington.us

[Washington, George, State of the Union Address] - Massachusetts Centinel, Boston January 16, 1790 framed, 30” x 30”, for display. President George Washington delivers the very First State of the Union Message to both Houses of Congress. He says in part, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” In dealings with various Indian Tribes on the borders of the fledgling United States, Washington vows protection for American settlers. This speech was the last to be delivered orally until early in the Twentieth century. A rare front page printing signed in script type.

The U.S. Constitution of 1787 permits the President “from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” President Washington delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress and when completed took a seat at the session expecting Congress to enact the measures he requested in his Inaugural Address. To Washington’s amazement he was asked to leave the room while Congress deliberated. Washington, from that point on, delivered his State of the Union Addresses by letter.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Declaration of Independence Committee of Five Member First United States Foreign Secretary Louisiana Territory Purchase Commissioner

Livingston, Robert R. – Order of Court, two pages, four sides, 18 1/2” x 24” on Vellum, dated December 23, 1791 to conduct a hearing on the 3rd Tuesday of January 1792 signed Robert Livingston, Chancellor of New York. Livingston, in his capacity as Chancellor, swore in George Washington at the first U.S. President inauguration

Livingston, as a New York Delegate to the Second Continental Congress was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, although he was recalled by his state before he could sign the final version of the document. Of the five figures standing in the center of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, Robert Livingston is depicted in the center of the Committee of Five presenting the draft Declaration to the Second Continental Congress. The five prominent figures depicted are, from left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.

From 1777 to 1801, he was the first Chancellor of New York, then the highest judicial officer in the State. He became universally known as "The Chancellor", retaining the title as a nickname even after he left the office. Livingston was also U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783, under the Articles of Confederation.

LIVINGSTON, Robert R., (brother of Edward Livingston and cousin of Philip Livingston and William Livingston), a Delegate from New York; born in New York City November 27, 1746; was graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University), New York City, in 1765; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1773 and commenced practice in New York City; city recorder 1773-1775; member of the provincial convention of 1775; Member of the Continental Congress 1775-1776, 1779- 1780 and 1784; one of the committee of five appointed to draw up the Declaration of Independence but returned to duties in the provincial assembly before it was signed; delegate to the State constitutional convention in April 1777; Secretary of Foreign Affairs from August 1781 to August 1783; chancellor of New York State 1777-1801 and administered the oath of office to President Washington April 30, 1789; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of New York in 1798; Minister Plenipotentiary to France 1801-1804; assisted Robert Fulton and was his partner in constructing the first steamboat; died in Clermont, N.Y., February 26, 1813; interment on his estate, “Clermont,” near Clermont, N.Y.; reinterment in St. Paul’s Churchyard, Tivoli, N.Y.

JOHN ADAMS. Autograph Letter Signed as Vice-President, to Winthrop Sargent. Philadelphia, Pa., January 24, 1795. 2 pp., 8 x 10 in. John Adams worries over the survival of civilization in the wake of the French Revolution.

Complete Transcript: Philadelphia January 24. 1795

Dear Sir I have received your favour of the 30th of November and transmitted to Dr Belknap as you desire the Papers inclosed. The Utensils and ornaments represented in the Drawings, are great Curiosities, and seem to shew more skill in Arts, than any of the native Indians, at this day are possessed of. I am not enough in the habit of Antiquarian Speculations to hazard any Conjectures concerning them. I have never interested myself much in the Inquiries concerning the ancient Inhabitants of this Country, or the Part of the World from which they first emigrated.

I should not be at all surprised, if hereafter evidence should be discovered that America was once a Seat of Arts Science and Civilization: nor should I wonder if anyone should prophecy that Europe, will cease to be what it is and become as Savage and barbarous as America was three hundred years ago. The Temper and Principles prevailing at present in that quarter of the World have a Tendency to as general and total a destruction, as ever befel Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah. If all Religion and Governments all arts and sciences are destroyed the Trees will grow up, Cities will moulder into common Earth, and a few human Beings may be left naked to chase the Wild Beasts with Bows and arrows. <2>

Printing they say will prevent it. But it would be very consistent with the present professed Principles to destroy every Type and Press as Engines of Aristocracy, and murder every Pen and Ink Man as aiming at superiority.

I hope in all Events that Religion and Learning will find an Asylum in America: But too many of our fellow Citizens are carried away in the dirty Torrent of dissolving Europe. I thank you Sir for giving me an opportunity to see those Antiquities, and should be glad to see any others that may appear.

I am, Sir with great Esteem, your most obedient

John Adams To: Mr. Secretary Sargent

JEFFERSON, Thomas - President (1743-1826). Letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as Secretary of State, to Governor George Clinton, "Office of Secretary of State," [New York], 31 March 1790. 1 full page, integral blank, verso docketed by Clinton "Letter from the Secretary of the United States enclosing Acts," traces of old mounting on blank, otherwise in exceptionally crisp condition.

CONGRESS AUTHORIZES THE NATION'S FIRST CENSUS, SPECIFIES "UNIFORM RULES" FOR THE NATURALIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS AND ENACTS FIRST FULL BUDGET OF THE UNITED STATES. "I have the honor," Jefferson writes, "to send you herein [not enclosed] two copies duly authenticated of the Act providing for the enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States: also of the Act to establish an uniform rule of Naturalization; also of the Act making appropriations for the support of Government for the Year 1790, and of being with sentiments of the most perfect respect....."

One of the key enactments of the second session of the First Congress under the Constitution was the legislation approving the first Census, signed by President Washington on 1 March 1790. The new Constitution mandated such an enumeration, as it stipulated that representation in the House of Representatives would be proportional based on population. Marshals, appointed for the various districts, were charged with the compilation of the tallies, and were to report the results within nine months (though at least one state, South Carolina, required an additional nine months to complete its census data). Similarly, Article I, section 8 of the new Constitution required Congress "to establish an uniform rule of naturalization," and, in light of the expected increase in immigration, this legislation was speedily passed. The new act specified that "any alien, being a free white person" who was of "good character" and had resided in the United States for two years could become a citizen after taking an oath "to support the constitution of the United States." [With:] The Columbian Centinel, Boston, 28 July 1790. 2pp. folio (of 4). Page one features text of the three acts referred to above.

HENRY KNOX. Manuscript Letter, in the hand of and signed for Knox by Samuel Shaw, with Knox’s autograph docketing. “H.Knox’s Letter West Point Octo.1782” 2 pp., 13 x 8 in. - “The State have too much dignity and too high a character to support, to suffer the men who have shed their blood in its cause, and who in consequence are untimely cut off from all the sweet enjoyments of society, to solicit the icy hand of charity for that food, which a less decided conduct would have given them in ease and plenty.”

Excerpt

“West Point 20 Octo. 1782

Sir, I am constrained to state to Your Excellency a subject which will be as distressing to you as it is painful to humanity. Capt. Slewman, of Colonel Crane’s regiment of artillery, was dangerously wounded in the battle of Germantown. Although he lingered for a long time, yet unfortunately for him, the wound did not prove mortal. He is incapacitated from further service by its effects, which are such as to subject him to continual apprehensions, and totally to deprive him from pursuing any business to obtain a subsistence.

Congress have recommended to the several states to make provision for their wounded officers but Captain Slewman represents that he never has been able to derive any benefit from it, as the states have passed no laws for that purpose. I was inclined to believe he was mistaken until upon further enquiry, I found he was certainly right in his information.. . .I hope and believe that Your Excellency will take this matter into consideration, and use such measures as will effect the relief of the gallant unfortunates, whose sufferings, if too long continued, will tend to tarnish the lustre of the revolution.”“I go with you as far as you go, in Proposals for diminishing the Occasions & Mischiefs of War, & perhaps a little farther.—By the Original Law of Nations, War & Extirpation was the Punishment of Injury. Humanizing by degrees, it admitted Slavery instead of Death. A farther Step was, the Exchange of Prisoners instead of Slavery…”

Henry Knox

[BILL OF RIGHTS]. Newspaper. Gazette of the United States, John Fenno, New York, June 13, 1789. 4 pp., 10 ¼ x 16 ¼ in. Less than a week after introducing them in the House of Representatives, Madison’s proposed Bill of Rights makes the newspapers. He lists nine areas where he deems amendments necessary. Congress would send twelve amendments to the states for ratification in September 1789.

Excerpt “… The following are the Amendments to the New Constitution, proposed by the Hon. Mr. Maddison [sic] — as mentioned in our last — viz.

RESOLVED, That the following amendments ought to be proposed by Congress to the legislatures of the states, to become, if ratified by three-fourths thereof, part of the constitution of the United States.

First. That there be prefixed to the constitution a declaration- That all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from the people. That government is instituted, and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform or change their government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution.

Secondly. That in article 1st, section 2, clause 3, these words be struck out, to wit, “The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative, and until such enumeration shall be made.” And that in place thereof be inserted these words, to wit, “After the first actual enumeration, there shall be one representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to ____ after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that the number shall never be less than ____ nor more than ____ but each state shall after the first enumeration have at least two representatives; and prior thereto”

Thirdly. That in article first, section 6, clause 1, there be added to the end of the first sentence, these words, to wit:- “But no law varying the compensation last ascertained shall operate before the next ensuing election of representatives.”

Fourthly. That in article first, section 9, between clauses 3 and 4, be inserted these clauses, to wit:[“]The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of their religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or in any pretext infringed. …

JEFFERSON, THOMAS. Printed Document Signed as Secretary of State, An Act declaring the consent of Congress to a certain Act of the State of Maryland, and to continue for a longer time, an Act declaring the assent of Congress to certain Acts of the States of Maryland, Georgia and Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations… . Philadelphia, Pa., March 19, 1792. Signed in type by George Washington as President, Jonathan Trumbull as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and John Adams as Vice President. Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine, 1791. 1 p., 10 x 14¾ in. Evans 24881.

A Jefferson-Signed Act Allowing States to Collect Duties

Unless granted permission by Congress, the Constitution forbade States from collecting duties on imports, exports, or vessel tonnage. However, Congress regularly granted permission for individual states to levy imposts or duties to be used for the improvement of their harbors and waterways. These permissions were regularly renewed, sometimes for decades. Here, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson certifies a copy of the Congressional Act that was constitutionally required for individual states to levy tonnage duties.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos First Attorney General of the United States Second U.S. Secretary of State

Edmund Randolph. Document Signed, as Secretary of State; Philadelphia, May 31, 1794. “An Act of the Third Congress of the United States, First Session.” The extension of these loans, and St. Clair’s failure to subdue Native Americans on the frontier, contributed to the outbreak of the Whiskey Rebellion in the summer of 1794.

“An ACT further extending the time for receiving on Loan the Domestic Debt of the United States... That the term for receiving on loan that part of the domestic debt of the United States which shall (be extended)…until the last day of December next inclusively on the same terms and conditions…Provided, That the books for receiving the said subscriptions shall be opened only at the Treasury of the United States…

An ACT to Compensate Arthur St. Clair…for his expenses while going from New York to Fort Pitt…That he be further allowed at the rate of five dollars per day…being the time he was employed in the business of Indian treaties…”

The printed approval of House Speaker Frederick A. Muhlenberg, Vice President John Adams and President George Washington appear above Randolph’s signature.

Edmund Randolph (August 10, 1753 – September 12, 1813) was an American attorney, the seventh Governor of Virginia, the second Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General. In 1787, as a delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention, Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan as an outline for a new national government. Randolph was appointed as the first U.S. Attorney General in September 1789, maintaining precarious neutrality in the feud between Thomas Jefferson (of whom Randolph was a second cousin) and Alexander Hamilton. When Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State in 1793, Randolph succeeded him to the position. The major diplomatic initiative of his term was the Jay Treaty with Britain in 1794, but it was Hamilton who devised the plan and wrote the instructions, leaving Randolph the nominal role of signing the papers. Randolph was hostile to the resulting treaty, and almost gained Washington's ear. Near the end of his term as Secretary of State, negotiations for Pinckney's Treaty were finalized.

July 13, 1787 www.northwestordinance.org

[Ordinance of 1787 Compliance] - Slave Emancipation Signed with the mark of David Enlow, dated September 20, 1810, Harrison County, Indiana Territory. The Manuscript is 12 ½” x 7 ½” on laid rag-content paper which is toned with tiny holes in fine condition framed, 21” x 32” for display. Enlow frees a Negro woman Sara after committing her to four years of indentured servitude:

“ … a my right, title, and interest in and to the said Negro woman Sarah … in consequence of her voluntarily bound herself to serve me and during the term of four years commencing from the first day of January in the year Eighteen hundred and Seven…”

On July 13, 1787 Arthur St. Clair’s Confederation Congress passed, after three years of long debate, “an Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio.”65 This vast territory which was conceded by Britain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris now comprises the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. One of the major stumbling blocks in the Ordinance’s passage was due to Article 6 which prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the entire territory. Despite the final language in Article Six excepting fugitive sales, this new ordinance meant that a Black American could swim or walk into the Northwest Territory and this new law would protect their claim to freedom until proven a fugitive. Many slaves did just that and as the Northwest Territory, beginning with Ohio, became Free States the exportation of fugitives became quite impossible and illegal as new laws were enacted to protect all former slaves. This trek north and west became so popular that it was named the Underground Railroad by the 1830’s.

In addition to the Underground Railroad many slaves gained their freedom through their “masters” north and westward migration. The Northwest provided these settlers with unprecedented advantages of inexpensive land and government incentives to settle in the new territory. Those citizens with slaves were forced to emancipate them to comply with Article Six of the Ordinance. This rare emancipation manuscript which has been carefully preserved was consequently forced upon David Enlow by the territory of Indiana resulting in the freedom of Sarah.

65 Journals of the United States, in Congress Assembled, an Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, July 13, 1787

Georgia Deed

Mifflin, Thomas and McKean, Thomas – DS signed on vellum being a land indenture which was part Robert Morris’ 1794 purchases of tracts of land totaling 782, 415 acres from Gideon Denison and John Hall in Georgia. Gideon Denison and Dr. John Hall were land speculators who were dumping the Pine Barrens Georgia land on unwitting speculators. Robert Morris and his partners, who acquired this land from the Georgia landholders, were unaware that the region was an undesirable waste covered with pine trees. This indenture is in poor condition and needs to be fully translated for further research. It reads in part:

“This indenture of our lord nine thousand and seven hundred and ninety four between Gideon Denison of Savannah in the State of Georgia March ??? Morris of the City of Philadelphia in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Esquire of the other part Witnessed that the said Gideon Denison for and ??? lawful money of Pennsylvania to him in hand well and truly paid by said Robert Morris at and before the sealing and delivery here of the receipt whereof is ??? sold, aliened, enfeoffed , released and confirmed and by these Presents Both grant Bargain sell, alien, enfcoff, release and confirm unto the said Robert Morris and to his ?????”

It is most likely that at one time this deed had the signature of Thomas McKean, as Supreme Court Justice of Pennsylvania. The area where he should have signed is blotted out. Further research is also needed on why this Georgia Deed needed to be perfected in Pennsylvania. It is my guess that this was required to meet the certification requirements set forth in the North American Land Company. Once again further research is required.

Background: It is reported that when Morris discovered the truth of his acquisition of this lousy land , he tried to dump it on other unsuspecting purchasers claiming that "Timber is convenient to saw Mills and navigable waters, the Lumber more valuable than any other and always commanding ready money at the port of Export.” Robert Morris to John Marshall, November 10, 1795.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos This is hard to swallow because Robert Morris was designated Superintendent of Finance in 1781 and restored stability to the nation's finances. Morris, a wealthy colonial merchant, was nicknamed "the Financier" because of his reputation for procuring funds or goods on a moment's notice. His staff included a Comptroller, a Treasurer, a Register, and auditors, who managed the country's finances through 1784, when Morris resigned because of ill health. The Treasury Board of three Commissioners continued to oversee the finances of the confederation of former colonies until September 1789. The fact that the man who signed the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the second U.S. constitution , the financier of the Revolutionary War and the United states Superintendent of Finance from 1781-1784 ended up in debtors prison for three and half years over the collapse of the land scheme is a remarkable founding story.

Signer of the Declaration of Independence Signer of the Articles of Confederation Signer of the US Constitution Superintendent of Finance 1781-1784

Robert Morris - North American Land Company signed stock certificate, number 2101 for eight hundred and thirty-three shares. The certificate is issued to James Greenleaf, who organized the North American Land Company along with Robert Morris and John Nicholson in February 1795 Robert Morris was a sitting US Senator at the time stepping down on March 3, 1795 to pursue his vision of real estate development.

© America’s Four United Republics Exhibit - Annapolis CC Festival November 26-28, 2012 DRAFT Copyright All Rights Reserved Stanley and Naomi Yavneh Klos Robert Morris was born at or near Liverpool, England, in 1734. When he reached 13 years of age, he immigrated to Maryland to join his father, a tobacco exporter at Oxford, Md. After brief schooling at Philadelphia, the youth obtained employment with Thomas and Charles Willing's well-known shipping-banking firm. In 1754 he became a partner and for almost four decades was one of the company's directors as well as an influential Philadelphia citizen. Wedding Mary White at the age of 35, he fathered five sons and two daughters.

In 1775 the Continental Congress contracted with his firm to import arms and ammunition, and he was elected to the Pennsylvania council of safety (1775-76), the committee of correspondence, the provincial assembly (1775-76), the legislature (1776-78), and the Continental Congress (1775-78). On July 1, 1776, he voted against independence, which he personally considered premature, but the next day he purposely absented himself to facilitate an affirmative ballot by his delegation. Delegate Morris specialized in financial affairs and military procurement. He worked closely with General Washington, wheedled money and supplies from the states, borrowed money in the face of overwhelming difficulties, and on occasion even obtained personal loans to further the war cause. He turned down the U.S. Presidency under the Articles of Confederation in 1781 but accepted the office of Superintendent of Finance (1781-84). Congress, recognizing the perilous state of the nation's finances and its impotence to provide remedies, granted him dictatorial powers and acquiesced to his condition that he be allowed to continue his private commercial enterprises. He slashed all governmental and military expenditures, personally purchased army and navy supplies, tightened accounting procedures, prodded the states to fulfill quotas of money and supplies, and when necessary strained his personal credit by issuing notes over his own signature or borrowing from friends. To finance Washington's Yorktown campaign in 1781, in addition to the above techniques, Morris obtained a sizable loan from France. He used part of it, along with some of his own fortune, to organize the Bank of North America, chartered that December. The first government-incorporated bank in the United States, it aided war financing. After the war he served as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, and the following year to the Constitutional Convention, where he sympathized with the Federalists but was, for a man of his eminence, strangely silent. Although in attendance at practically every meeting, he spoke only twice in debates and did not serve on any committees. In 1789, declining Washington's offer of appointment as the first Secretary of the Treasury, he took instead a U.S. Senate seat (1789-95).

During the later years of his public life, Morris went into land speculation investing in the District of Columbia, NY Adirondacks, Ohio and the rural south creating what was really the first “REIT”, North American Land Company, purchasing over 6,000,000 acres. An expected loan from Holland for development never materialized because England and the Dutch declared war on Revolutionary France. The subsequent Napoleonic Wars ruined the market for American Lands and Morris's highly leveraged company collapsed as the real estate bubble burst. By 1798, the crisis had resulted in the imprisonment of many American debtors including Robert Morris who languished in debtor's prison for three years. After his release, and suffering from poor health, Morris spent the rest of his life in retirement. He was assisted by his wife, who had supported him throughout his misfortune. Morris died on May 8, 1806, in Philadelphia, and is buried at Christ Church

AND

Morris, Robert -- Autograph letter signed "Robt Morris," dated Philadelphia, 9th March 1798, to John Nicholson, his partner in speculating, from debtors' prison.

"The enclosed letters of the 7th from the trustees came hither last night. It appears that they grow sore under your letters and I confess that the reply as to Oden I expected after taking a copy. I suppose you will return this letter with such remarks as may occur."

This letter was docketed by Nicholson, who apparently had no remarks to make. Morris and Nicholson had speculated heavily inland together, but when the real estate market collapsed on their North American Land Company venture, Morris was left penniless and deep in debt. His letters from jail are scarce. Framed with this letter is a facsimile of an Autograph Document Signed "Robt Morris," dated December 12, 1794. This promissory note used as a court exhibit at the proceedings that freed him from debtor's prison in 1801 and it is an unpaid note to Mathias Kirlin for $1,336.67 due within 60 days.

Robert Morris, who voted against the Declaration of Independence but signed it after it was adopted, was the keystone to bolstering and supporting the economy of the U.S. during the late war, often using his own money to avert the collapse of the government. After the Revolution Morris speculated wildly, often on overextended credit, in lands in the West and at the site of Washington, DC. Morris attempted to escape creditors by retreating to The Hills, the country estate he had acquired in 1770. Arrested at the behest of creditors in 1798, Morris was thrown into the Philadelphia debtor's prison. By the time he was released in 1801, under a federal bankruptcy law of which the above note was used at his trial, his properly and fortune had vanished, his health had deteriorated, and his spirit had been broken. Robert Morris died in 1806 at 73 years old.

Thus Far - June 14, 2012