[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8715]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       HONORING THE 225TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

  Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Oversight and Government Reform be discharged from further 
consideration of the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 351) honoring 
the 225th Anniversary of the Continental Congress meeting in Nassau 
Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1783, and ask for its immediate 
consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:

                            H. Con Res. 351

       Whereas, in response to the financial difficulties of the 
     times, the Continental Congress departed the city of 
     Philadelphia suddenly due to a possible uprising by 
     discontented Continental Army soldiers who had not been paid;
       Whereas the President of the Continental Congress, Elias 
     Boudinot, established a temporary capital at Princeton ``in 
     order that further and more effective measures may be taken 
     for suppressing the present Revolt, and maintaining the 
     Dignity and Authority of the United States'';
       Whereas members of the Continental Congress were instructed 
     to meet in Princeton on June 26, 1783;
       Whereas the 300 residents of Princeton took members of the 
     Congress into their homes;
       Whereas Princeton University offered the prayer hall and 
     the library in Nassau Hall for Congress to use to conduct the 
     governmental business of the United States;
       Whereas the Congress conducted essential business in Nassau 
     Hall, which helped shape the foreign relations of the 
     fledgling Nation;
       Whereas General George Washington was called to Princeton 
     by a letter from President Boudinot to receive the formal 
     thanks of the Nation for his dedicated service as commander-
     in-chief;
       Whereas, on August 18, General Washington left Major 
     General John Knox in charge of the encamped army at Newburgh, 
     New York, and traveled with a guard of dragoons and his wife, 
     Martha Washington, to the Rockingham estate in Rocky Hill, 
     New Jersey, which was made available for his use over the 
     next three months;
       Whereas General Washington met with the Continental 
     Congress in Nassau Hall on August 26 and received the public 
     thanks of his country for his success in the struggle for 
     liberty;
       Whereas, in late October at Rockingham, Washington 
     completed writing his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the 
     United States dismissing the troops and announcing his 
     retirement;
       Whereas, while Congress was meeting in Princeton, the 
     Treaty of Paris was signed in Paris by John Adams, John Jay, 
     and Benjamin Franklin on September 3, 1783, marking the end 
     of the American Revolution and establishing the boundaries of 
     the new Nation; and
       Whereas Congress departed Princeton in early November 1783 
     to winter in Annapolis, Maryland: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the 
     225th Anniversary of the Continental Congress meeting at 
     Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey, should be commemorated.

  The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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