thing in their power to carry on the war, and to prevent the embarrassments under which our affairs now labour.

It now remains to estimate the supplies necessary for the current year; and to point out the measures already taken for obtaining those supplies.

Congress by their resolutions of the 3d and 21st of October last, have resolved that the army for the ensuing campaign shall consist of six legionary corps, four regiments of artillery, fifty regiments of infantry, and one regiment of artificers, amounting to thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-eight rank and file. The pay and subsistence according to the present establishment for one year amounts to

Provisions for ditto,

Quartermaster's department estimat

$5,104,385

4,357,012

Two years interest on certificates payable at the several loan offices, Certificates given by quartermasters

and commissaries, &c. estimated,

Total $19,407,45773

595,46635

1,500,000

No charge is made for clothing, new arms, or ammunition, as it is hoped the measures taken for procuring them will be effectual.

The measures taken for obtaining these supplies. By the act of the 4th of November

last, the states have been called, upon to furnish the provisions necessary, amounting to

By the same act they are called upon
to raise and pay into the continen-
tal treasury, in four quarterly pay-
ments, the first payment to be made
the 1st June next,
The requisition of the 26th August,
1780, which has not yet been re-
ceived, is relied on as indispensa-
ble,
The old money must be called in and
cancelled. For until that is done
no regularity can be introduced into
the finances, nor any dependence
placed on any requisitions made.
For as the old currency is daily de-
preciating, and as the same, by
laws of many of the states, is made
a standard by which to value the
new money, unless it be speedily
destroyed, it cannot fail to sink the

$4,357,012

1,642,988

3,000,000

bled a command of new money to the amount of ·

The duties on imports and prizes,
which, from the propriety as well
as necessity of the measure, it is
not to be doubted but the several
states will readily grant on the
terms proposed by Congress, will,
it is presumed, produce in the
course of the current year
And as it is to be presumed that the
states have taken measures to com-
ply with the requisitions of Janua-
ry, May, and October, 1779, it is
hoped they will now see the neces-
sity of carrying those measures into
effectual execution, or at least take
the necessary steps for calling in
the quartermasters' and commissa-
ries' certificates to the amount of
their respective deficiencies, which
by a return from the board of trea-
sury are

On the 16th March last the states
were called on for their respective
quotas of one and half million of
dollars quarterly, the first payment
to be made 1st June next.

quarterly payments amount to

Three

3,200,000

500,000

468,201

4,500,000

Suppose the foregoing funds productive, still there will be a deficiency

It will moreover be necessary to provide funds for paying the interest of the debts contracted in Europe. With a view to this, Congress, in their requisition of February, 1780, among other specifick supplies, called upon the states of Virginia and Maryland to furnish a quantity of tobacco, which it was expected might have been shipped to France, and been the beginning of a fund for defraying the expenses of our ministers at foreign courts, and paying the interest of moneys borrowed in Europe. But the want of ships last fall, and the naval superiority of the enemy in Chesapeake Bay this spring, have prevented the publick from deriving any advantage from that requisition.

It has been before observed, that the debts contracted abroad amount, by computation, to the sum of six millions of dollars, the annual interest of which is three. hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The annual interest of the money borrowed on certificates previou to the first of March, 1778, and which is to be paid by bills drawn on our minister at the court of France, amounts to 438,79831.

The credit and honour of the United States require that a fund should be provided not only for defraying this interest, but also for discharging the principal, or at least those certificates for the interest of which bills are to be drawn annually on our minister, who has no

fund to apply to that purpose, and who therefore has to depend on the success of his solicitations, as it be'comes due.

And what equally concerns the honour of the United States, a fund should be provided for defraying the expenses of our ministers abroad. This shows the absolute necessity of the states immediately granting the duties on imports and prizes as requested by Congress.

Before we conclude it may not be amiss to observe, that from the constant depreciation of the currency, and the unpunctuality of the states in complying with the requisitions of Congress, the sums called for when paid in have heretofore always been greatly inadequate to the purposes designed.

The foregoing report being twice read and debated by paragraphs, was agreed to.

Ordered, That copies thereof be sent to the several states.

APRIL 19, 1781.

The report of a committee, consisting of Mr. S. Adams, Mr. Duane, and Mr. Wolcott, to whom was referred a letter of March 10th, in the name and behalf of the general court of Massachusetts, was taken into consideration, and the same being read twice, was agreed to, as follows:

The letter under consideration represents "That "there is reason to suppose that the state of Massachu"setts is called on for contributions in an undue proportion to her abilities. That the duty on imports