actually adopted by Congress, the Report was committed.

A motion was made by Mr. RUTLEDGE, seconded by Mr. WILLIAMSON, to instruct the Committee to report the best mode of liquidating the domestic debts, and of obtaining a valuation of the land within the several States, as the Article of Confederation directs. The first part of the instruction was negatived, provision having been previously made on that head. In place of it the Superintendent of Finance was instructed to report the causes which impede that provision. The second part was withdrawn by the mover. committee, however, was afterwards appointed, consisting of Mr. RUTLEDGE, Mr. NASH, Mr. DUANE, Mr. OSGOOD, and Mr. MADISON, to report the best scheme for a valuation.

A

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST.

A report was made by a Committee to whom had been referred several previous reports and propositions relative to the salaries of foreign Ministers, delivering it as the opinion of the Committee, that the salaries allowed to Ministers Plenipotentiary, to wit, two thousand five hundred pounds sterling, would not admit of reduction; but that the salary allowed to Secretaries of Legations, to wit, one thousand pounds sterling, ought to be reduced to five hundred pounds. This Committee consisted of Mr. DUANE, Mr. IZARD, and Mr. MADISON, the last of whom disagreed to the opinion of his colleagues as to the reduction of the two thousand five hundred pounds allowed to Ministers Plenipotentiary.

Against a reduction it was argued that not only justice, but the dignity of the United States, required a liberal allowance to foreign servants; that gentlemen who had experienced the expense of living in Europe did not think that a less sum would be sufficient for a decent style; and that, in the instance of Mr. Arthur Lee, the expenses claimed by him and allowed by Congress exceeded the fixed salary in question.

In favor of a reduction were urged, the poverty of the United States, the simplicity of republican governments, the inconsistency of splendid allowances to Ministers, whose chief duty lay in displaying the wants of their constituents, and soliciting supply of them; and, above all, the policy of reconciling the army to the economical arrangements imposed on them, by extending the reform to every other department.

The result of this discussion was a reference of the Report to another committee, consisting of Mr. WILLIAMSON, Mr. OSGOOD, and Mr. CARROLL.

A motion was made by Mr. HoWELL, seconded by Mr. ARNOLD, recommending to the several States to settle with and satisfy, at the charge of the United States, all such temporary corps as had been raised by them respectively, with the approbation of Congress. The repugnance which appeared in Congress to go into so extensive and important a measure at this time, led the mover to withdraw it.

A motion was made by Mr. MADISON, seconded by Mr. JONES, "That the Secretary of Foreign Affairs be authorized to communicate to Foreign Ministers, who may reside near Congress, all such articles of

intelligence received by Congress as he shall judge fit; and that he have like authority with respect to acts and resolutions passed by Congress; reporting, nevertheless, the communications which, in all such cases, he shall have made."

It was objected, by some, that such a resolution was unnecessary, the Secretary being already possessed of the authority; it was contended by others that he ought, previously to such communication, to report his intention to do so; others, again, were of opinion that it was unnecessary to report at all.

The motion was suggested, by casual information from the Secretary, that he had not communicated to the French Minister the reappointment of Mr. Jefferson, no act of Congress having empowered or instructed him to do so.

The motion was committed to Mr. WILLIAMSON, Mr. MADISON, and Mr. PETERS.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND.

A considerable time previous to this date, a letter had been received by Congress from Mr. Henry Laurens, informing them of his discharge from captivity, and of his having authorized in the British Ministry an expectation that Earl Cornwallis should in his turn be absolved from his parole. Shortly after, a letter from Dr. Franklin informed Congress that at the pressing instance of Mr. Laurens, and in consideration of the offer of General Burgoyne for Mr. Laurens by Congress, as well as the apparent reasonableness of the thing, he had executed an instrument setting Cornwallis at liberty from his parole,

until the pleasure of Congress should be known. These papers had been committed to Mr. RUTLEDge, Mr. MONTGOMERY and Mr. MADISON, who reported in favor of the ratification of the measure, against the opinion, however, of Mr. RUTLEDGE, the first member of the Committee. The report, after some discussion, had been recommitted, and had lain in their hands until, being called for, it was thought proper by the Committee to obtain the sense of Congress on the main question, whether the act should be ratified or annulled; in order that a report might be made correspondent thereto. With this view, a motion was this day made by Mr. MADISON, seconded by Mr. OSGOOD, that the Committee be instructed to report a proper act for the ratification of the measure. In support of this motion it was alleged, that whenever a public minister entered into engagements without authority from his Sovereign, the alternative which presented itself was either to recall the minister, or to support his proceedings, or perhaps both; that Congress had, by their resolution of the seventeenth day of September refused to accept the resignation of Mr. Laurens, and had insisted on his executing the office of a Minister Plenipotentiary; and that on the twentieth day of September they had rejected a motion for suspending the said resolution; that they had no option, therefore, but to fulfil the engagement entered into on the part of that Minister; that it would be in the highest degree preposterous to retain him in so dignified and confidential a service, and at the same time stigmatize him by a disavowal of his conduct, and thereby disqualify him for a proper execution of the service; that it was improper to

send him into negotiations with the enemy, under an impression of supposed obligations; that this reasoning was in a great degree applicable to the part which Dr. Franklin had taken in the measure; that, finally, the Marquis de la Fayette, who, in consequence of the liberation of Cornwallis, had undertaken an exchange of several officers of his family, would also participate in the mortification; that it was overrating far the importance of Cornwallis, to sacrifice all these considerations to the policy or gratification of prolonging his captivity.

On the opposite side it was said, that the British Government having treated Mr. Laurens as a traitor, not as a prisoner of war, having refused to exchange him for General Burgoyne, and having declared, by the British General at New York, that he had been freely discharged, neither Mr. Laurens nor Congress would be bound, either in honor or justice, to render an equivalent; and that policy absolutely required that so barbarous an instrument of war, and so odious an object to the people of the United States, should be kept as long as possible in the chains of captivity; that as the latest advices rendered it probable that Mr. Laurens was on his return to America, the commission for peace would not be affected by any mark of disapprobation which might fall on his conduct; that no injury could accrue to Dr. Franklin, because he had guarded his act by an express reservation for the confirmation or disallowance of Congress; that the case was the same with the Marquis de la Fayette; that the declaration against partial exchanges, until a cartel on national