[21] About one hundred and fifty miles.
[22] Mr. Jefferson.
[23] General Gates was associated with him in the mission.
[24] It is in these words; "whereas it is the desire of the representatives of this commonwealth to embrace every suitable occasion of testifying their sense of the unexampled merits of George Washington, esquire, towards his country, and it is their wish in particular that those great works for its improvement, which both as springing from the liberty which he has been so instrumental in establishing, and as encouraged by his patronage, will be durable monuments of his glory, may be made monuments also of the gratitude of his country. Be it enacted, &c." This bill is understood to have been drawn by Mr. Madison.
[25] Mr. Madison.
[26] Mr. Fitzsimmons, and Mr. Rutledge.
[27] On a subsequent occasion, an attempt was made to obtain a resolution of congress, recommending as an additional amendment to the eighth article of the confederation, that the taxes for the use of the continent should be laid and levied separate from any other tax, and should be paid directly into the national treasury; and that the collectors respectively should be liable to an execution to be issued by the treasurer, or his deputy, under the direction of congress, for any arrears of taxes by him to be collected, which should not be paid into the treasury in conformity with the requisitions of congress.
Such was the prevalence of state policy, even in the government of the union, or such the conviction of the inutility of recommending such an amendment, that a vote of congress could not be obtained for asking this salutary regulation as a security for the revenue only for eight years.
[28] See note, [No. III.] at the end of the volume.
[29] The facts relative to this negotiation were stated in the correspondence of General Washington. The statement is supported by the Secret Journals of Congress, vol. 4, p. 329, and those which follow.