Printed in the Journals of the Continental Congress, 3:317.

Gen. Richard Montgomery (1738–1775) served in Canada with the British Army during the Seven Years’ War. Frustrated by his inability to purchase a major’s commission, Montgomery sold his captain’s commission in 1772 and moved to New York. He served in the Provincial Congress of 1775 and was appointed brigadier general by the Continental Congress on June 22. Generals Schuyler and Montgomery were ordered to lead an invasion of Canada, which was the subject of this committee’s investigation. On Sept. 16 Schuyler removed himself from command in favor of Montgomery, and on Nov. 11, Montgomery seized the city of Montreal. On Dec. 31, Montgomery was killed during an attack on Quebec ( ANB ).

Walter Livingston (1740–1797) was a delegate to the New York Provincial Congress in 1775 and to the Continental Congress (1784, 1785). He was commissary of stores and provisions for New York and for the northern department of the Continental Army in 1775 and 1776. In 1785 he was appointed as commissioner of the U.S. Treasury ( Biographical Directory of the American Congress ).

Eliphalet Dyer declined this committee assignment because of an “indisposition,” and Robert R. Livingston was appointed in his stead (Journals of the Continental Congress, 3:317, 339). The choice of the committeemen did not meet with general approval. On Dec. 12, Gen. Charles Lee wrote to Richard Henry Lee that “inter nos, I think it might have been better chosen. Payne has certainly not the mannieres—which, according to Lord Chesterfield, and my observation, are so requite to captivate the French” (The Lee Papers. Collections of the New-York Historical Society [1871], 1:228).

The committee departed for Ticonderoga on Nov. 12 with instructions to exert its “utmost endeavours to induce the Canadians to accede to a union with these colonies” and send delegates to Congress (Journals of the Continental Congress, 3:340). On the day they left, Gen. Richard Montgomery captured Montreal, and while en route the committee learned that St. Johns was also taken and heard a false report that Benedict Arnold had entered Quebec.

Despite working against weather that was “equal to Midwinter” (RTP Diary, Nov. 19, 1775), the committee reached Albany on Nov. 21 and Ticonderoga on Nov. 28. They reported to Congress on the New York-built fortifications and met with General Schuyler a number of times over the course of a week before returning to Albany without venturing into Canada because of the advancing winter. They did not have an opportunity to meet with General Montgomery, who was busy besieging Quebec, but wrote to him “to inform the Canadians of the Sentements of Congress, when he should find a proper Opportunity to Communicate them and to pave the way” for another committee. However, Montgomery was never able to fulfill that suggestion as he was killed at the storming of Quebec on Dec. 31. The committee report, written in Langdon’s hand and signed by RTP and Langdon, detailed their discussions with Schuyler and observations on the state of the army, appeared in the Journals of the Continental Congress, 3:446–452.

John Langdon (1741–1819), a Portsmouth, N.H., merchant, was a delegate from his province to the Continental Congress, and later served as governor and as a Democratic-Republican federal senator.

Thomas Lynch (1727–1776), a South Carolina planter, was a member of the house of assembly regularly from 1751 onwards, a delegate to the First and Second Provincial Congresses and the Stamp Act Congress, and a member of the Continental Congress (1774–1776). Lynch was unable to sign the Declaration of Independence because of illness and died later in the year while en route home.

John Jay (1745–1829), a New York lawyer and graduate of King’s College, served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. Then he returned to New York to assist in drafting the state’s constitution and was appointed chief justice of the state but resigned in order to return to the Continental Congress as its president (1778–1779). Jay was minister to Spain and then one of the commissioners for the peace treaty with Great Britain. Upon his return to America he served as secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation and upon the adoption of the Constitution became the first chief justice of the United States ( DAB ).

Silas Deane (1737–1789), a 1758 graduate of Yale, represented Connecticut in the Continental Congress (1774–1776) until he was sent to France in March 1776, first as a secret political and financial agent, and in September of that year as ambassador with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee. He was recalled by Congress in 1778 and investigated for financial misconduct ( DAB ).