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.
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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).
By a return’d Express I last evening receiv’d a Resolution of Congress which I herewith take the liberty of transmitting you, least that sent you should miscarry.
2It will be intirely out of my power to attend the business directed in the Resolution which I have signified to Congress, & must beg the favor of you sir, and the other Gentlemen in the Commission to excuse.1
I heartily wish you may be able to investigate the true causes of the failure which reflect so much dishonour on the American Arms. In order to contribute my mite, I beg leave to recommend that Capt. Caleb Gardner2 may be called upon, as I understand he ingaged as a Volenteer in this intended expidition & from my Knowledge of that Gentn: I am Confident he will give you as good information of matters as any person you’ll meet with.
Whipple had been appointed a member of the commission to investigate the failure of the Rhode Island expedition (see Extract from the Minutes of the Continental Congress, Dec. 12, 1777, RTP 3:423).
Caleb Gardner (1739–1806), a sea captain who sailed to China and the East Indies in his early years, had retired to life as a merchant in his native Newport before the Revolution, for which he raised a company. In 1778 he assisted the French navy in negotiating out of Newport Harbor beyond the blockading British navy. After the war, Gardner was appointed French consul in Newport (Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography).