Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
The last Letter which I had the honour of writing to you was dated the 23d. Ulto.1 & sent by Messenger Storer.2
Inclosed with this you will receive an Address from Congress of the 31st. Ulto.3 to the Legislature of Massachuset & also an Act of the same date particularly referred to in the Address. I likewise inclose a Letter directed to Samuel A. Otis4 treating principally of the subjects contained in the above mentioned Address & therefore I judge it proper to pass the Letter through your hands.
I have further in charge to transmit to you, to be as early as possible laid before the proper branch of Government, another Act of Congress of the 31st. Decemr. for promoting a speedy reformation in the Army, which with the papers before recited you will receive in the present Cover. I have the honour &c.
Not located.
Ebenezer Storer (1729/30–1807), a Boston merchant, had served as a Boston selectman (1771–1772) and was treasurer of Harvard College (1777–1807), succeeding John Hancock in that post (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 12:208–214).
The address expressed Congress’s concern at “the extortionate views and demands of the proprietors of cloathing lately purchased or attempted to be purchased within your State by Mr. S. Allen Otis” for use by the Continental troops. The address is reproduced in full in Journals of the Continental Congress, 9:1072–1073.
Samuel Allyne Otis (1740–1814), the younger brother of James Otis (1724/5–1783) and Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), graduated from Harvard in 1759. A Boston merchant before the Revolution, Otis was appointed official agent of the U.S. clothier-general James Mease in Sept. 1777. By 1779 he was deputy quartermaster general of the United States. He served in the Continental Congress (1777–1778) and in 1789 was elected secretary of the U.S. Senate (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 14:471–480).