Congress did not formally end the naval establishment by act or resolution, unless one considers that such was the effect of the resolution of January 25, 1780, which provided that the pay of all naval officers except those in actual service should cease. After this date it would seem that as the vessels were captured, sold, or thrown out of commission, the names of the officers were taken from the pay-roll. In September, 1783, an unsuccessful attempt was made in Congress to discontinue the Agent of Marine.[313] Morris continued in office until November 1, 1784, when he retired from public service. Congress made no move to fill his place as Agent of Marine, for there was little need for such an official. Certain unimportant naval business, chiefly concerned with the settlement of naval accounts, remained, however, to be transacted. This for the most part naturally fell to the Board of Treasury, organized in the spring of 1785. This Board, aided by the commissioner for settling the marine accounts, and by James Read, the efficient secretary to the Agent of Marine, with whom Morris on retiring left the books and papers of the Naval Department, wound up the small, unimportant, and dwindling business of the navy. FOOTNOTES: [266] Ford’s Washington, IX, 75-76, Washington to James Duane, December 26, 1780; 33-5, Washington to John Sullivan, November 20, 1780; 125, Washington to R. R. Livingston, January 31, 1781; 131-34, Washington to John Sullivan, February 4, 1781; 246, Washington to John Sullivan, May 11, 1781. [267] Hamilton’s Hamilton, I, 127, note, Hamilton to Robert Morris, 1780; 154-55, 159, Hamilton to James Duane, September 3, 1780. [268] Sparks’s Gouverneur Morris, I, 229-30. [269] Sparks’s Gouverneur Morris, I, 227-28; Reed’s Reed, II, 296. [270] Journals of Continental Congress, January 10, 1781. [271] Wells, Samuel Adams, III, 127, Adams to Lee, January 15, 1781; 128, extract from a letter of Luzerne, French minister to the United States. [272] Journals of Continental Congress, February 7, February 9, 1781. On October 1, 1781, the salary of the Secretary of Marine was fixed at $4,000 per annum, payable in specie. [273] Journals of Continental Congress, February 27, March 30, 1781. Three states were willing to accept McDougall on the conditions he proposed. Samuel Adams and his friends voted against acceptance. [274] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 137, I, 47, 55, Morris to President of Congress, June 22, 1781; Ibid., 28, p. 145, Report of Committee respecting “America”; journals of Continental Congress, June 23, 1781. [275] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 137, I, 77; Journals of Continental Congress, July 11, 1781. [276] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 137, I, 137, Morris to President of Congress, September 10, 1781. [277] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 28, p. 135, Resolutions of M. Smith. [278] Ibid., p. 133, Report of Committee on Smith’s resolutions.