Philada. June 10th. 1775 My very dear Sr.,1

I cannot express to you the Surprize & uneasiness I recd. on hearing yr. Congress Express respecting the Want of Gun Powder; it always was a matter that lay heavy on my Mind but the observation I made of yr. Attention to it & yr. Alertness & perseverance in every thing you undertake, & your repeatedly expressing it as your Opinion that we had quite probably enough for this Summers Campaign, made me quite easy. I rely upon it, that measures are taken in your parts of the Continent to Supply this defect. The design of yr. Express will be zeallously attended to I think. I have seen one of the Powder Mills here where they make excellent Powder2 but have work’d up all the Nitre; one of our Members is Concerned in a Powder Mill at N. York & has a man at Work making Nitre. I have taken pains to enquire into the method. Dr. Franklin3 has seen Salt Petre Works at Hannover4 & Paris; & it strikes me to be as unnecessary After a certain time to send abroad for Gun Powder as for provisions. People will make use of common understanding & Industry; but for the present we must import from abroad.

Major Foster told me at Hartford he suspected he had some Land that would yeild Nitre, pray converse with him about it. Dr. Franklin’s account is much the same as is mentioned in one of the first of American Magazines. The Sweepings of the Streets & Rubbish of old Buildings are made into Mortar & built into Walls exposed to the Air & once in about two months scraped, & lixiviated & evaporated. When I can describe the method more minutely I will write you; mean while give me leave to Condole with you the Loss of Col. Lee.5 Pray remember me to Col. Orne 57& all other our Worthy Freinds. Pray take Care of yr. important health, that you may be able to stand stiff as Pillars in our new Government.

I must now Subscribe with great Respect & affection yr. hble. Servt.

R T Paine

RC (New Jersey Historical Society) ; addressed: “To Elbridge Gerry Esq. at Watertown in Massachusets per Express”; endorsed.

1.

Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), a 1762 Harvard graduate from Marblehead, was elected to the General Court in 1772 and to the Provincial Congress in October 1775. He replaced Thomas Cushing as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, serving until 1780 and again 1783–1785. Gerry later served in the First and Second Congresses (1789–1793), as governor of Massachusetts (1810–1811) and as vice president of the United States from 1813 until his death (see George A. Billias, Elbridge Gerry: Founding Father and Republican Statesman [New York, 1976]). RTP and Gerry corresponded with some regularity through mid 1778.

2.

See Charles C. Smith, “The Manufacture of Gunpowder in America,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society , 1st ser., 14:248–256.

3.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), senior statesman of the American cause and active in educational, scientific, public service, and political spheres, had served as the agent for Pennsylvania in London from 1757 to 1762 and again 1764 to 1775. On May 6, 1775, the day after his return to Philadelphia, Franklin was elected to the Continental Congress, where he served until his appointment as minister to France in 1776 ( DAB ). RTP and Franklin had known each other since at least 1751 (see vol. 1, p. 145). RTP noted in his diary for June 7, 1775: “din’d Dr. Franklins this Evning,” and Franklin visited Sally Cobb Paine at the family home in Taunton later in the year (see below, Sally Cobb Paine to RTP, Nov. 10, 1775).

4.

Joseph Palmer published a 1766 “Method of Making Salt Petre at Hanover” in the Boston Gazette, July 24, 1775.

5.

Col. Jeremiah Lee (1721–1775) of Marblehead, Mass., was called “one of the most eminent merchants on this Continent” at the time of his death. Lee had been elected to the Continental Congress in 1774 but declined, although he did serve on the Committee of Safety and was a prominent Whig voice in Massachusetts (Essex Institute Historical Collections 52[1916]:329–339).

Saturday, June 10, 1775

Resolved: That it be, and is hereby earnestly recommended to the several colonies of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and the interior towns of Massachusetts bay, that they immediately furnish the American army before Boston with as much powder out of their town, and other publick stocks as they can possibly spare; keeping an 58exact account of the quantities supplied, that it may be again replaced, or paid for by the Continent; this to be effected with the utmost secrecy and dispatch.

That it be recommended to the committees of the several towns and districts in the colonies of the Massachusetts bay, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, and the eastern division of New Jersey, to collect all the salt petre and brimstone in their several towns and districts, and transmit the same, with all possible despatch, to the provincial Convention at New York.

That it be recommended to the provincial Congress of the colony of New York, to have the powder Mills, in that colony, put into such a condition as immediately to manufacture, into gun powder, for the use of the Continent, whatever materials may be procured in the manner above directed.

That it be recommended to the committees of the western division of New Jersey, the colonies of Pensylvania, lower counties on Delaware and Maryland, that they, without delay, collect the salt petre and sulphur in their respective Colonies, and transmit the same to the committee for the city and liberties of Philadelphia; to the end, that those articles may be immediately manufactured into gun powder, for the use of the continent.

That it be recommended to the conventions and committees of the colonies of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that they, without delay, collect the salt petre and sulphur in their respective colonies, and procure these articles to be manufactured, as soon as possible, into gun powder, for the use of the Continent.

That it be recommended to the several inhabitants of the united colonies, who are possessed of salt petre and sulphur, for their own use, to dispose of them for the purpose of manufacturing gun powder.

That the salt petre and sulphur, collected in consequence of the resolves of Congress for that purpose, be paid for out of the continental fund.

Resolved, That Mr. Paine, Mr. Lee,1 Mr. Franklin, Mr. Schuyler2 and Mr. Johnson,3 be a committee to devise ways and means to introduce the manufacture of salt petre in these colonies.4

Printed in the Journals of the Continental Congress, 2:85–86.

1.

Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794) was active in opposition to the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts and an early advocate of committees for intercolonial correspondence. A member of the Continental Congress from Virginia (1774–1779), Lee was the sponsor of the independence resolu­59tion and became one of the signers of the Declaration. He returned to Congress (1784–1785 and 1787), serving as president in 1784. After the ratification of the Constitution, Lee returned to the federal legislature as a senator and president pro tempore of the Second Congress ( DAB ).

2.

Gen. Philip Schuyler (1733–1804), a veteran of the 1755 Crown Point Expedition and a member of the New York delegation to the Continental Congress, was appointed as one of the four major generals under Washington on June 15, 1775 ( DAB ).

3.

Thomas Johnson (1732–1819) was a member of the Continental Congress from Maryland (1774–1776) and (1777–1779) was governor of that state. After the war, he briefly served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1791–1793) ( DAB ).

4.

Despite RTP’s longstanding interest in the production of saltpetre, this committee apparently did not report back to Congress. A successor committee with an entirely different membership was appointed, Oct. 16, 1775 (Journals of the Continental Congress, 3:296).