Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
A letter from the council of safety of Maryland, with the examination of Alexander Ross,1 and sundry papers found in his possession:
Resolved, That the letter from General Washington2 and the letter from the council of safety of Maryland, with Mr. Ross’s papers, be referred to a committee of five:
The members chosen, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Rutledge, Mr. Goldsborough,3 Mr. Paine, and Mr. Rodney.
Journals of the Continental Congress, 4:316
Alexander Ross, “from Fort Pitt, an old offender,” was stopped in Virginia while returning to Maryland after meeting with Lord Dunmore. The Virginia Committee of Safety copied letters found on Ross, including several from Lord Germain to Govenor Eden, and sent them to the Baltimore Committee. That committee referred the letters directly to the Continental Congress, bypassing and thus infuriating the Maryland Council of Safety. Ross was arrested and held in confinement until May 10, when the Continental Congress, acting upon the report of the committee, resolved to discharge him (Virginia Gazette, Apr. 12, 1776; Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 4:823–824, 873–874; Journals of the Continental Congress, 4:347).
This letter from Washington to John Hancock, dated April 25[-26], 1776, appears in The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 4:125–129.
Robert Goldsborough (1733–1788), a Maryland native, studied law in London and practiced there until 1759. Upon his return to America he continued to practice law in Maryland and became attorney general in 1766. He served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776 (
DAB
).