Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I did desert, because I found that was my only method of getting from Albany. I should have taken my leave of your most agreable family, but the Urgency of my Journey would not admitt of it. Pray make my Excuses & present my Compliments to yr. Lady (whose Welfare I should gladly hear of ) & also to the young Ladys yr. Daughters.
I had a fatiguing Journey here, but don’t find myself the worse for it. We want much to have the Report of the Cmssrs. of the Indian Treaty. The Report of the Cmttee. I was upon is Committed, & I hope will soon be reported. I shall press the matter1; I find the Time of my Delegation is Extended to the Last of the month after which it is uncertain whether I shall be here.
Inclosed I send a Newspaper containing a simple & I think very intelligeable method of making Salt petre, as also the result of the Cmtee. you were upon which I am sure never was dispersed in the manner it ought to have been. I am sure you will extend the knowledge & practice of this most essential manufacture as far as you possibly can. I assure you it becomes more & more necessary to encrease it.
My Compliments to Mr. Dough,2 Col. Tenbroek3 & others with whom I had the pleasure of any Acquaintance.
Hoping you health & best hapiness, I rest yr. most hble. Sevt.,
P.S. I also send you a Resolve of Congress occasioned by the Kings Proclamation.4
They have got to make Salt petre in large quantitys in many places, & to that degree in Massa. that the Government are about Setting up two powder Mills. Pray don’t be behind the best of us.
There is no news here, except that the River is broke up here & I expect 2 ships of 30 guns & 2 Briggs of 18 or 20 will sail soon on a Cruise.
Congress passed a series of resolves dealing with the military situation in New York and Canada on Jan. 8–9 (Journals of the Continental Congress, 4:38–40, 42–45).
Volkert Pieter Douw (1720–1801) was at this time a delegate to and vice president of the New York Provincial Congress. He had been recorder of Albany, 1750–1756; a member of the provincial assembly, 1759–1768; and mayor of Albany, 1761–1770. Later he served as commissary to the North Army, 1779–1780, and after the war was a state senator and county judge The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans [Boston, 1904]).
Abraham Ten Broek (1734–1810) was at this time colonel of the militia and member of the New York Provincial Congress and committee of safety. Later he became a brigadier general headquartered in Albany. After his military service, Ten Broek was the first judge of the court of common pleas for Albany County and the city’s first mayor [
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Congress’s resolution of Dec. 6, 1775, which was subsequently printed as a broadside by John Dunlap (Journals of the Continental Congress, 3:409–412, 513). It was in response to King George III’s proclamation to suppress rebellion and sedition in North America, dated Aug. 23, 1775. The proclamation appears in Merrill Jensen, ed., English Historical Documents, vol. 9: American Colonial Documents to 1776 (New York, 1962), 850–851.
being fully sensible how agreable to you are all Gentlemen of merit & accomplishments, I take the liberty to introduce to your acquaintance Major Thomas Hanson,1 a Gentleman of Family & fortune in Maryland; he has pleasured us with his Company for some months at Philadelphia & is now taking a Tour to the Northward. With my best Compliments to your Lady & family, I am your obliged hble. Serv.
Thomas Hanson was perhaps the man who served as captain of the Third Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp, July to December 1776 (Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army, 273).