Congress to authorize a navy. On January 2, 1794, by a narrow margin of 46–44, the House of Representatives voted to authorize building a navy and formed a committee to determine the size, cost, and type of ships to be built. Secretary of War Henry Knox submitted proposals to the committee outlining the design and cost of warships. To appease the strong opposition to the upcoming bill, the Federalist Party inserted a clause into the bill that would bring an abrupt halt to the construction of the ships should the United States reach a peace agreement with Algiers. The bill was presented to the House on March 10 and passed as the Naval Act of 1794 by a margin of 50–39, and without division in the Senate on March 19. President Washington signed the Act on March 27. It provided for acquisition, by purchase or otherwise, of four ships to carry forty-four guns each, and two ships to carry thirty-six guns each. It also provided pay and sustenance for naval officers, sailors and marines, and outlined how each ship should be manned in order to operate them. The Act appropriated $688,888.82 () to finance the work. Design and preparations With the formation of a Department of the Navy still several years away, responsibility for design and construction fell to the Department of War, headed by Secretary Henry Knox. As early as 1790 Knox had consulted various authorities regarding ship design. Discussions of the designs were carried out in person at meetings in Philadelphia. Little is known about these discussions due to a lack of written correspondence, making determination of the actual designers involved difficult to assemble. Secretary Knox reached out to ship architects and builders in Philadelphia, which was the largest seaport in North America at the time and possibly the largest freshwater port in the world. This meant that many discussions of ship design took place in Knox's office, resulting in few if any records of these discussions being available to historians. Joshua Humphreys is generally credited as the designer of the six frigates, but Revolutionary War ship captains John Foster Williams and John Barry and shipbuilders Josiah Fox and James Hackett also were consulted. The final design plans submitted to President Washington for approval called for building new frigates rather than purchasing merchant ships and converting them into warships, an option under the Naval Act. The designers realized