View source for Committee of the States

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|agency_name     = A Committee of the States
|type            = Committee
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|formed          = 1784
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'''A''' '''Committee of the States''' was an arm of the [[United States]] government under the [[Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union]]. 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]] was in recess.<ref>{{cite web|last=Mount|first=Steve|title=Constitutional Topic: Articles of Confederation|url=http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_arti.html|publisher=USConstitution.net|access-date=22 June 2012}}</ref>

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

==History==
In the draft of the [[Articles of Confederation]] by [[John Dickinson (politician)|John Dickinson]] 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]]. Instead, the [[Second Continental Congress]] changed it to Committee of the States, with limited management powers only when Congress was not in session.<ref name=sn>{{cite web|title=Article 10 Summary—The Committee of the States|url=http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/articles/section7.rhtml|work=The Articles of Confederation (1781-1789)|publisher=sparknotes.com|access-date=22 June 2012}}</ref>

The committee was set up in 1784 on the proposal of [[Thomas Jefferson]], then a congressman from Virginia. The committee "quarrelled very soon, split into two parties, [and] abandoned their post."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson|year=1821|pages=49|editor=Frederick Ellis |url=https://archive.org/details/lifelettersoftho00jeff/page/54/mode/2up?view=theater}}</ref>  This was the only time that the committee was formed, and never had a [[quorum]] to carry out its administrative tasks.<ref name=sn/>

==Powers==
The congressional powers that did not require nine votes were:
*Oversee foreign affairs
*Appoint and receive ambassadors
*[[Prize (law)|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<ref>{{cite web|title=Why the Articles of Confederation failed.|url=http://www.discoveringthefoundingprinciples.com/2011/01/why-articles-of-confederation-failed.html|work=Originalism and Discover the Founding Principles|publisher=discoveringthefoundingprinciples.com|access-date=22 June 2012}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Thomas Jefferson}}
{{USAConfGov|state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Continental Congress]]
[[Category:1784 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1784 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Confederation period]]

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