Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
Information being given that complaint is made with respect to the powder manufactured at Mr. O
Resolved, that Mr. Wisner, Mr. Paine, & Mr. R. R. Livingston be a committee to inquire into the defect and take measures to have it remedied.2 Extract from the minutes,
RTP had already taken an interest in Mr. Eve’s powder mill at Frankfort. According to his diary he visited it on Feb. 3, and then on Feb. 24: “I rode wth. Mr. Ward & al to Eves Powder Mill at Frankfort. He says he has made 20 C of Powder this week.” Then on Apr. 20: “Rode with Mr. Webster to the Paper mills at Schuylkill & Gristmill & Powder Mills at German Town & Frankfort.”
Robert R. Livingston reported to his brother John on June 15 that “Mr. Eves’s powder is in very bad repute,” but no official report to Congress seems to have been made by this committee. Congress did, however, pass resolutions on Aug. 28 and Sept. 2 concerning the inspection of domestic and imported powder (Letters of Delegates to Congress, 4:222–223).
Charles Thomson (1729–1824) was the first and only secretary of the Continental and Confederation congresses (1774–1789). A native of Ireland, Thomson came to America young and prospered in trade and in Pennsylvania provincial politics. Disappointed not to receive an office under the new federal government, he retired to his estate in 1789 and devoted the rest of his life to Biblical scholarship and translation (
DAB
).