PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES
IN
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Monday, December 2, 1793.
This being the day appointed by the constitution for the meeting of the present Congress, the following members appeared and took their seats:
From New Hampshire.—Nicholas Gilman, John S. Sherburne, Jeremiah Smith, and Paine Wingate.
From Massachusetts.—Shearjashub Bourne, David Cobb, Henry Dearborn, Benjamin Goodhue, Samuel Holten, William Lyman, Theodore Sedgwick, George Thatcher, and Artemas Ward.
From Connecticut.—Amasa Learned, Uriah Tracey, Jonathan Trumbull, and Jeremiah Wadsworth.
From Vermont.—Israel Smith.
From New York.—Theodorus Bailey, Ezekiel Gilbert, Henry Glenn, James Gordon, Silas Talbot, John E. Van Allen, Philip Van Cortlandt, Peter Van Gaasbeck, and John Watts.
From New Jersey.—John Beatty, Elias Boudinot, Lambert Cadwalader, Abraham Clark, and Jonathan Dayton.
From Pennsylvania.—James Armstrong, William Findlay, Thomas Fitzsimons, Andrew Gregg, Thomas Hartley, William Irvine, John Wilkes Kittera, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Peter Muhlenberg, Thomas Scott, and John Smilie.
From Maryland.—George Dent and Samuel Smith.
From Virginia.—William B. Giles, Carter B. Harrison, John Heath, Richard Bland Lee, James Madison, Andrew Moore, Anthony New, John Nicholas, Francis Preston, Robert Rutherford, Abraham Venable, and Francis Walker.
From Kentucky.—Christopher Greenup.
From North Carolina.—Thomas Blount, William Johnson Dawson, Matthew Looke, Nathaniel Macon, and Alexander Mebane.
From South Carolina.—William Smith.
From Georgia.—Abraham Baldwin and Thomas P. Carnes.
A quorum of the members being present, the House proceeded to ballot for a Speaker, when it appeared that Frederick A. Muhlenberg, one of the members from Pennsylvania, was elected; whereupon he was conducted to the chair; and made his acknowledgments to the House.[47]
The House then proceeded, in the same manner, to the appointment of a Clerk, when John Beckley was appointed.
The usual oath was then administered to the members.
Messages were interchanged between the two Houses, announcing their formation and readiness to proceed to business.
Joseph Wheaton was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms, Gifford Dally as Doorkeeper, and Thomas Claxton as Assistant Doorkeeper.
A joint committee was appointed by the two Houses to wait on the President of the United States, to inform him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled, and ready to receive any communication that he may think proper to make to them.
Resolved, That two Chaplains, of different denominations, be appointed, one by each House, to interchange weekly.
Resolved, That a standing Committee of Elections be appointed; also a committee to report rules and orders of proceeding.