A Committee of the States was an arm of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

government under the

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...

. The committee consisted of one member from each state and was designed to carry out the functions of government while the

Congress of the Confederation The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States of America during the Confederation period, March 1, 1781 – Mar ...

was in recess. The committee was in effect for only one year, 1784, and never achieved a quorum.

History

In the draft of the

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...

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and the draft committee, this committee was called the Council of State, vested with executive and staff control for commerce, trade, education and issues as delegated by Congress. A minimum of nine of the thirteen states would have had to vote in favor of delegating any new powers to the council, a model after the various administrative committees set up during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Instead, the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...

changed it to Committee of the States, with limited management powers only when Congress was not in session. The committee was set up in 1784 on the proposal of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

, then a congressman from Virginia. The committee "quarrelled very soon, split into two parties, ndabandoned their post." This was the only time that the committee was formed, and never had a

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

to carry out its administrative tasks.

Powers

The congressional powers that did not require nine votes were: *Oversee foreign affairs *Appoint and receive ambassadors * Rules of prize *Create and appointing high sea courts *Establish post roads and offices *Fix postage rates *Appoint general military officers *Establish military rules and regulations *Chose a president of the Congress *Establishing standards of weights and measures *Indian trade and affairs regulation

References

Continental Congress 1784 establishments in the United States 1784 disestablishments in the United States {{US-gov-stub