1 This entry simply indicates that Thomas McKean took his seat in Congress in the midst of this day's proceedings. Delaware was not represented when the first roll call vote of this day was taken, but McKean later cast the state's vote against the recall of Franklin when two votes on the issue were taken subsequently.

   Although this much is clear, the delegates' excited reaction to McKean's appearance this day is puzzling. Objection was made to having his attendance recorded in the journals-his only appearance between February 24 and June 11-although how the matter arose and why the objection was voiced is not clear. Secretary Thomson made the following entry in his journals for April 22 but, as the words are crowded in the margin and between the lines, he obviously penned them as an afterthought: "Mr. McKean a delegate for Delaware attended & took his seat." That they were subsequently lined out merely adds to the confusion; and according to Fell's diary the following day "Mr. S. Adams moved that Mr. McKean being Enterd on the Journals as attending, might be cancelld and a Debate insued agreed to stand." If Fell is right on this latter point, the entry should not have been lined out at all. Amid so much conflicting evidence, any interpretation must remain largely conjectural. See JCC, 13:491, 498-500; PCC, item 1, 21:250; and Fell's Diary, April 23, 1779 .

   That the congressional debate on the recall of the American commissioners in France sparked controversy is beyond doubt, and McKean himself later recurred to this subject in the following March 25, 1780, letter to Richard Henry Lee, claiming in the process an inflated role for himself in opposing the recall movement.

   "In the Winter & Spring of 1779 there was a cabal, whose views I could not fathom; there were some possessed of restless spirits, and who endeavored to set member against member, and the Congress against the States, particularly Pennsylvania and those of New-England, and the States agt. Congress. Every artifice was used to instill prejudices against all our foreign Ministers and Commissioners, particularly your brothers; and I really believe, if I had not in April last gone off the Bench into Congress, in the face of a vote of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, that they would have been recalled without exception. My fears were, that at that critical period, when it had been propagated in Europe; and some uneasiness discovered on that score by the court of France; that we were listening to overtures from Great Britain, a change of men might have implied a change of measures, and given some countenance to the reports; and for this reason I thought it wrong to recal any Gentleman in such a conjuncture. The vote was taken with respect to Doctor Franklin, and being determined in the negative, it was postponed as to the rest until I was absent on the circuit. Places were sought after by some, and vacancies were necessary for the purpose of obtaining them, but I could not think this was the only thing in contemplation; tho' I may have been mistaken, as harmony seemed to be restored in some measure upon the appointments of Messrs. Jay and Carmichael. The death of Mr. Drayton, and the considerable change about that time of the members, several of them not having been re-elected, left us pretty quiet ever since, tho' prejudices still too much prevail." Lee Papers, PPAmP.