July 28, 1998
Contact:
Press Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Library of Congress Publishes Final Volume in Delegate Letter Series
The Library of Congress has just published the final textual
volume in its 25-volume series containing the extant
correspondence of the 344 delegates who attended the Continental
Congresses during the American Revolution.
Volume 25 of Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789
covers the period from March 1, 1788, to July 25, 1789, during
which Congress carried on the nation's business under the Articles
of Confederation while preparing to transfer authority to the
federal government under the newly ratified Constitution. Fiscal
problems continued unabated as Congress pursued legal means to
collect outstanding Continental accounts and adopted a requisition
for 1788, to which the states paid scant attention.
In foreign affairs, Congress considered a French protest over
Virginia's seizure of a French pirate and sought Spanish
cooperation in apprehending fugitive slaves that had fled to
Florida. It also deferred negotiations with Spain over navigation
of the Mississippi River to the new government.
This volume documents as well Congress's preoccupation with
Western lands. To expedite sale, Congress amended the land
ordinance of 1785 and negotiated a contract with George Morgan and
Associates for the purchase of large tracts in the Illinois
country, while confirming the land titles of French settlers
already there. It also rejected the terms of Georgia's Western
land cession and approved a contract granting Pennsylvania a large
tract bordering Lake Erie. Congress further sent Continental
troops to pacify an uprising in Luzerne, Pa., and planned for the
mobilization of frontier militia against Western and Southern
Indians. At the same time, it condemned settler encroachments on
Cherokee lands and reserved Ohio lands for Christian Delaware
Indians. When it appeared that the Constitution would be
ratified, Congress postponed its consideration of Kentucky
statehood, leading the territory's delegate, John Brown, to
intrigue with the Spanish minister over the possibility of
Kentucky's independence.
Of great interest in the volume are documents that highlight
the transition from confederated to federal government. Although
Congress took up the ninth ratification of the Constitution, that
of New Hampshire, on July 2, 1788, it debated for two months the
report of the committee appointed to prepare the details for the
change in government. The early stages of debate were complicated
by the delay in receiving ratifications from Virginia and New York
and the rejection of the Constitution by Rhode Island and North
Carolina. However, the sectional split over the site of the
government -- New York, Philadelphia, Lancaster, Wilmington, or
Baltimore -- was not resolved until the Southern delegates yielded
to the majority interest in New York and dates were set for
appointing presidential electors, for electing a president, and
for "commencing proceedings under the said constitution." Shortly
thereafter, when Congress was forced into cramped quarters to
permit the restoration of City Hall for the incoming government,
most delegates left New York.
Congress transacted its last official business on October 10,
1788, although a few delegates drifted in and out of Congress over
the ensuing five months. On July 25, 1789, Secretary Charles
Thomson finally delivered the papers and records of the
Confederation to the new federal government that had begun
organizing in March.
Volume 25 of Letters of Delegates also includes a 235-page
supplement of documents from 1774 to 1787 that have become
available or were discovered since the publication of earlier
volumes in the series in which they would otherwise have appeared.
The most significant of these is New Jersey delegate John Fell's
diary of congressional activity in 1780, which supplements his
diary for 1779 previously published in volumes 11-14 of these
Letters. Other important discoveries are chaplain Jacob Duché's
first prayer in Congress, September 7, 1774, documents of the
Secret Committee in 1775-76, proceedings of a treaty held with the
Indians at Easton, Pa., Committee on Appeals decrees, caches of
letters of William Ellery, Samuel Holten, and Charles Thomson, and
George Clymer's "thoughts" on West Indian trade.
The editors of the Letters project, Paul H. Smith and Ronald
M. Gephart, have drawn upon more than 23,000 documents assembled
from hundreds of institutions and private individuals from all
over America and Western Europe, particularly the Library's own
unrivaled collections covering the American revolutionary era.
They have attempted to present all the extant documents written by
the delegates during their attendance in Congress. Dozens of
librarians, archivists, and private collectors assisted the
editors in the project.
The publication of this material began in 1976 with a
generous grant from the Ford Foundation. It supersedes the 60-
year-old Letters of Members of the Continental Congress prepared
in eight volumes by Edmund C. Burnett.
Volume 25 of Letters of Delegates to Congress,
1774-1789 is available by mail from the Superintendent of
Documents, New Orders, PO Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954.
Telephone orders may be placed by calling (202) 512-1800 to charge
copies to VISA or MasterCard, or by sending a fax to (202) 512-
2250.
Volume 25 (843 pages) sells for $56 (cite stock number 030-
000-00277-6 when ordering by mail or by telephone). Previous
volumes, at various prices, are still available from the
Superintendent of Documents.
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PR 98-113
7/28/98
ISSN 0731-3527