Continental Congress Proceedings

Pennsylvanian “Mad” Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) received his nickname during the War of Independence for his daring military exploits and legendary temper. Brigadier-General Wayne participated in many significant battles against British forces, most famously in a 1779 attack on British fortifications at Stony Point on the Hudson River in New York. Wayne’s political career is less well known: following the end of the war with Britain in 1783, Wayne served one term in the Pennsylvania State Legislature (1784) before moving to Georgia, where he served as a delegate to the state convention that ratified the United States Constitution (1788), and as a Representative of Georgia in the United States Congress (1791). The following year, President George Washington placed Wayne in command of military forces struggling against the Native American nations in the Northwest Territory. Wayne’s military victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) and his diplomatic settlement with the tribes at the Treaty of Greenville (1795) secured American control of the upper Ohio Valley for the fledgling United States. This volume of the proceedings of the Continental Congress was published in Philadelphia in 1784, and bears Anthony Wayne’s signature on the title page.