Editing Richard Henry Lee (section)

===President of Congress===
Lee was elected the sixth president of Congress under the [[Articles of Confederation]] on November 30, 1784, in the [[French Arms Tavern]], [[Trenton, New Jersey]]. Congress convened on January 11, 1785, in the old [[New York City Hall]], with Lee presiding until November 23, 1785. Although he was not paid a salary, his household expenses were covered in the amount of $12,203.13.<ref>[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YhGJOCnB8bE/Uw4Iv1RksdI/AAAAAAAAJNg/VtgHb6N1bZk/s1600/President's+Expenses.png Estimate of the Annual Expenditure of the Civil Departments of the United States, on the present Establishment] [http://www.richardhenrylee.org/ President Richard Henry Lee]</ref>

Lee abhorred the notion of imposing federal taxes and believed that continuing to borrow foreign money was imprudent. Throughout his term, he maintained that the states should relinquish their claims in the [[Northwest Territory]], enabling the federal government to fund its obligations through land sales. He wrote to friend and colleague Samuel Adams:

<blockquote>I hope we shall shortly finish our plan for disposing of the western Lands to discharge the oppressive public debt created by the war & I think that if this source of revenue be rightly managed, that these republics may soon be discharged from that state of oppression and distress that an indebted people must invariably feel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://leearchive.wlu.edu/papers/letters/transcripts-ballagh/b311.html|title=President Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Adams, New York May 20. 1785|access-date=22 September 2016|archive-date=October 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028074445/http://leearchive.wlu.edu/papers/letters/transcripts-ballagh/b311.html|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Debate began on the expansion of the [[Land Ordinance of 1784]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s survey method; namely, "hundreds of ten geographical miles square, each mile containing 6086 and 4-10ths of a foot" and "sub-divided into lots of one mile square each, or 850 and 4-10ths of an acre" on April 14.<ref>[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HeY1dA9YuvQ/Um07Ec68twI/AAAAAAAAHgY/vVmemvCmfTg/s1600/Ohio+Territory+Section.jpg Plat of Township 2, Range 7 in the Ohio Seven Ranges ca. 1786] [http://www.richardhenrylee.org/ Richard Henry Lee, President of the United States in Congress Assembled]</ref> On May 3, 1785, [[William Grayson]] of Virginia made a motion, seconded by [[James Monroe]], to change "seven miles square" to "six miles square."

The [[Land Ordinance of 1785]] passed on May 20, 1785,<ref>Olsen, J.S., & Mendoza, A.O. (2015). Land Ordinance of 1785. In ''American economic history: A dictionary and chronology'', (p. 367). Greenwood.</ref> yet the federal government lacked the resources to manage the newly surveyed lands. Not only did [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] refuse to relinquish their hold on the [[plat]]ted territory, but much of the remaining land was occupied by [[squatter]]s. With Congress unable to muster magistrates or troops to enforce the dollar-per-acre title fee, Lee's plan ultimately failed, although the [[U.S. Geological Survey|survey system]] developed under the Land Ordinance of 1785 has endured.<ref>{{cite web|author=Staff|date=May 29, 2012|title=The Public Land Survey System (PLSS)|url=http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607063232/http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html|archive-date=June 7, 2012|access-date=June 20, 2012|work=National Atlas of the United States|publisher=[[U.S. Department of the Interior]]}}</ref>