Delegates to Congress . Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 15, April 1 1780-August 31 1780
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Committee of Congress to To: the Pennsylvania Council


Sir,
May 22. 1780.

   The Committee of Congress are ready to confer with the Committees of the Supreme Executive Council and Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the Subject of the enclosed Resolution at such Time and Place as they shall appoint.(1)

   I have the Honour to be, on Behalf of the Committee, your Excellency's most obedt and very hble Servt.Oliv Ellsworth


Note: RC (NjP: General Manuscripts). Addressed: "His Excy The Presidt of the Supreme Executive Council, Pennsylva."

1 A May 19 request from the Pennsylvania Assembly for a conference with Congress on the subject of "Certificates issued by the officers of the Staff department" had been referred to a committee consisting of Oliver Ellsworth, James Henry, and William C. Houston. Upon meeting with Pennsylvania officials on the twenty-second, the committee submitted a report to Congress on the twenty-fourth, whereupon the same



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three delegates were reappointed a committee to consider "means" for discharging the certificate debt issued by the commissary and quartermaster departments. For their May 24 report and the resolves adopted by Congress on May 26 recommending that the states declare such certificates receivable by collectors of Continental taxes, see JCC, 17:441-42, 455-57, 462-66; and Samuel Huntington to the States, May 29, 1780. See also PCC, item 69, 2:201-4; Pa. Council Minutes, 12:360; and William C. Houston to William Livingston, May 26, 1780.

   As currency finance gradually disappeared as an option for meeting Continental obligations early in 1780, the issuance of certificates by staff officers, often resorting to force, had become the principal device for meeting the army's needs. As E. James Ferguson observed of the system, "the line between purchases and impressments was vague and unmeaningful," and in 1780 a large certificate debt became concentrated in Pennsylvania where procurement efforts to meet the demands of Washington's army increasingly focused. Pennsylvanians had understandably become alarmed at the trend, and therefore insisted upon legislation for making certificates receivable for taxes levied to meet Continental requisitions. For the work of Ellsworth's committee and discussion of some of the practicalities and fiscal intricacies debated at this time see William C. Houston to William Livingston, May 26, 1780. For analysis of Continental fiscal policy and the steps taken by Congress in May and in August 1780 to cope with its massive certificate debt, see E. James Ferguson, The Power of the Purse (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961), pp. 64-68. See also Philip Schuyler to Ezra L'Hommedieu, June 10, 1780.