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Note
This
series contains a record of payment notes issued as the direct result
of "An act to call in all Contractors and Surplus Certificates,
to issue State Notes to the Holders, and to procure a more accurate
Estimate of the State Debt" (Acts of the Tenth General
Assembly of the State of New Jersey, chap. 110, p. 224, 1785).
Under this law, Silas Condict was appointed commissioner to exchange
new state notes, bearing 6% interest annually, for the various "contractors'
certificates" (notes issued by county contractors, commissioners
and others, in payment for military supplies purchased during the
Revolutionary War) and "surplus certificates" (payment
notes issued by tax collectors to citizens when the state-issued
notes they used to pay their taxes exceeded their tax debt). Any
contractors' certificates issued in continental currency would be
exchanged using a previously established scale of depreciation.
Originally, all exchanges were to take place by 1 October 1786;
however, after complaints to the legislature, a supplemental law
was passed in November 1786 extending the deadline to 22 February
1787 (Acts of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of
New Jersey, chap. 180, p. 372, 1786). After further complaints,
a 2 November 1787 resolution of the General Assembly, with concurrence
of the Council the following day, extended the deadline to 1 January
1788 and authorized State Treasurer James Mott to complete the exchange.
A few days later, however, after the treasurer declined this additional
duty, Maskell Ewing was appointed to finish the task (Votes
and Proceedings of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State of
New Jersey, 1787, pp. 33 & 64; and Journal of the Proceedings
of the Legislative Council of the State of New Jersey, 1787,
pp. 14 & 19).
Provision for paying interest on these notes was made in a revenue
act passed by the legislature earlier in 1787 (Acts of the Eleventh
General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, chap. 208, p.
429, 1787). This law directed the treasurer to make interest payments
on various types of state-issued certificates each year for a period
of twenty-two years. In 1790, however, following an act of Congress
by which the federal government took over payment of principal and
interest due on certain certificates, the law was repealed and interest
payments on Condict's and Ewing's notes were limited to four years
(United States Statutes at Large, Vol. I, chap. 34, p.
138; and Acts of the Fifteenth General Assembly of the State
of New Jersey, chap. 323, p. 675, 1790).
| Item
1 |
The
first account in this series documents the exchange of surplus
and contractors' certificates for Condict's and Ewing's notes.
Each page of the ledger is divided into two columns. The left-hand
column, labeled "Vouchers received," provides the
following information about the certificates being exchanged:
certificate number (when applicable); certificate date (ca.
1770s-1784); received from whom (person exchanging certificate
for new note); payable to whom (original taxpayer or supplier
of goods and services); signed by whom (includes title abbreviations
such as "Col." for tax collector, "Cont."
for contractor, and "QM" for quartermaster); amount
in continental currency; amount of principal; and amount of
interest due on the original note. In order to determine
whether the individuals listed in the "payable to whom"
column were suppliers of goods and services to the army (and
therefore considered supporters of the revolutionary cause),
researchers should note whether the certificates were signed
by contractors, quartermasters, etc., as apposed to tax collectors.
The right-hand column, labeled "Notes Issued," contains the
following information about the new notes: note number, issued
to whom, amount of principal, and interest due. The notes
run sequentially from #1 to #3679. Although this account does
not indicate when each note was issued, we do know they bore
a printed date of 1 January 1786 (see Item 5). Because of
the legislation we know that Condict's notes (#1 - #3433)
were issued until 22 February 1787. Ewing's Notes (#3434 -
#3679) were issued between November 1787 and 1 January 1788
(see Ewing's February 1788 report to the Legislature: Secretary
of State/ AM Papers/ No. 2635AM).
NOTE: Item 1 is indexed by the Revolutionary
War service cards and slips as "Auditor's Accounts,
Book D" (referencing the stamped page numbers).
Only the names of the contractors, quartermasters, and other
officials who gathered supplies for the army (listed in the
"by whom signed column" of the account) are included, however.
It is not known why the names of those who received the contractors
certificates (listed in the "payable to whom" column) were
not indexed, since they provided supplies to the military.
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| Item
2 |
This
account records interest paid on Condict's and Ewing's notes
between 1787 and 1792. The following information is included:
date paid (and voucher number), note ("certificate")
number, paid to whom, signed by whom (Condict or Ewing), co-signed
by whom (always Aaron Dunham, State Auditor), payable to whom
(person originally issued note), amount of principal, annual
interest, and total paid. The account ends with a note to
see the fourth-year register for the "remainder of the
1st year's interest." Accounts of interest payments for
the second, third and fourth year, however, have not been
located (although this series does include some receipts
for the later years' interest payments, see items 3 and 4
below). |
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| Item
3 |
Items
3a to 3e are receipt booklets for the second, third and fourth
year's interest paid on Condict's and Ewing's notes. The receipts
include the following information: voucher number, certificate
number(s), signed by whom (Condict or Ewing), payable to whom
(person originally issued note), amount of principal, and
amount of interest. Each receipt ends with the statement "Received
[date] of James Mott" followed by the payment amount
and the signature of the recipient. The back of each page
is endorsed with the inscription "Examined and allowed"
followed by three signatures of members of the committees
of the Legislative Council and General Assembly assigned to
settle the treasurer's accounts. These receipts do not
correspond to the 1787-1792 account of interest (Item 2),
which includes only first-year payments. |
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| Item
4 |
This
booklet contains receipts for second- and fourth-year interest
paid on Condict's and Ewing's notes between 1795 and 1796.
The format is similar to that of Item 3. This booklet also
contains receipts for interest payments on "depreciation
notes" and "militia notes." |
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| Item
5 |
Item
5a is Condict note #407; item 5b is Ewing note #3590. The
notes have the printed date of 1 January 1786; however, as
discussed above, we know that Condict's notes (#1 - #3433)
were issued until 22 February 1787 and Ewing's Notes (#3434
- #3679) were issued between November 1787 and 1 January 1788. |
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| Item
6 |
Items
6a and 6b are an incomplete set of the receipt portions of
Condict notes #2301 - #2900, issued between 1785 and 1787.
These receipts were retained by Condict as a record of each
note issued and include the following information: note number,
county, to whom issued, amount of principal, amount of interest
due, signature of the person receiving note [not always the
person to whom issued]. |
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| Item
7 |
Items
7a to 7c are unused booklets of Condict or Ewing notes. |
It should also be noted
that state-issued notes were used as currency and often changed
hands. The individual exchanging certificates for Condict's or Ewing's
notes was not always the original certificate-holder. Also, the
individual collecting interest on the notes was rarely (if ever)
the original note-holder. All of the records in this series, however,
do record the names of the original certificate- and note-holders.
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