1488. CONFEDERATION, The States' Committee.—[continued].
As the Confederation
had made no provision for a visible head of
the government during the vacations of Congress,
and such a one was necessary to superintend
the executive business, to receive and
communicate with foreign ministers and nations,
and to assemble Congress on sudden
and extraordinary emergencies, I proposed
early in April [April 14, 1784] the appointment
of a committee, to be called the Committee
of the States, to consist of a member from
each State, who should remain in session
during the recess of Congress: that the functions
of Congress should be divided into executive
and legislative, the latter to be reserved,
and the former by a general resolution
to be delegated to that Committee. This
proposition was afterwards agreed to.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 54.
Ford ed., i, 75.
(1821)
