June 1779? 1 Freinds and Fellow Citizens,

Your Representatives in General Court Assembled The General Assembly of this State have already expressed their high Sence of the Importance of the late address of Congress to the Inhabitants of the United States of America by directing the most effectual measures to have it made known to the Inhabitants of this State with great pleasure we find the public attention so rouzed by the Importance of the Subject matter thereof The depreciation state of our Currency hath often been the Occasion of Laws & regulations of Government for remedying that evil, but the various Sentiments of the Good People of this State & the other States on such expedients have been so various as to render them all abortive. Can the best Laws without the Support of the People suppress an Evil or produce a Good? If the Legislative Body of the United States or of any perticular State point out to the Inhabitants the necessity of their spirited Exertions for their own Preservation where must the blame be thrown if the good end be not produced? is it not evident that an Attention to private Interest has been carried to that length as to reduced the public Welfare to distressing Circumstances? Can Private 94 Interest be secure when public credit is tottering? it is therefore with great pleasure that we find the public Attention so far rouzed engaged by the late Address of Congress. Can you give a more convincing proof of your Approbation of the Same, of your Country Love to your Country & your Countrys Cause and even of your Love to your selves & private Interest than by a spirited attentive Endeavour Exertion to carry into execution the recommendations of it, can he be a freind to his Country or even to himself who doth not? if the prices of all Commodities are equally reduced is not every Man as rich as he was before if the quantity of Money be reduced in the Same proportion? is not a want of Confidence not only between Merchant & Farmer but also between Merchant & Merchant & Farmer & Farmer between a man & his Neighbour a prevailing obstacle to the reducing prices by Agreement? will not general Engagements Conferences sincere Engagements & Spirited Inspections remove this Obstruction? Can the public Treasury of the United States be supplied witho. Taxing, loaning, or Emissions, will not further emissions have a tendency to injure the bills already Current; must not our Taxes be large in proportion to the quantity of circulating bills, must not the remainder of the sum necessary for current public Expence of the War be made up by loaning? Can therefore the holders of money bills Apply them to a better use then by placing them in the Continental Loan Office in such quantities as to prevent the necessity of further Emissions? if the depreciation of bills of Credit has Arisen from the largeness of the Emissions must not further emission be prevented, & can that be done but by returning the bills to the public Treasury. To the speedy & spirited Attention of the good People of this State We recomend these Matters expecting that Answer by corresponding Conduct to the above Queries wch. your good Sence, self Interest & love to yr. Country must dictate, expecting that Simular exertions will take place thrô the other States that our evils which arise from that general behaviour of the people will be speedily relieved by their Good Will & Virtue. And that the Influence & Assistance of the Legislative Authority of this State may not be wanting to promote & support the exertions of the Good People of this State it is hereby Recomended to the Good people of this State of all Orders & Occupations to assist Countenance & support by public Conferrences, Sincere Engagement & prudent spirited inspections & all other discreet ways in their power the carrying into execution the important matters recomended by the late address of Congress & particularly by Appoint­95 ing Suitable persons in the Several Towns to recieve from Any persons therein Such Sum or Sums of money Current Bills of Credit of the United States of America as they are willing to put into the Continental Loan Office for the purposes aforsaid.

Dft. ; endorsed: “Draft of Address of Genl. Court to People in aid of Address of Congress—on the Currency.”

1.

This appears to be a response to a congressional address, dated May 26, which was presented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives on June 11 and printed in the Boston Gazette of June 21. The address resulted in a convention at Concord on July 14 to set prices. RTP, then a member of the House, probably intended this to be a newspaper response, but it was never published.

Salem July the 9th 1779 Sr.,

I1 take this Oppertunity to Inform you that One Simon Burn2 Late of Nova Scotia had Liberty from the Councel Board of this State the Seventeenth of Novembr last to Bring Up his Family and Effects from Nova Scotia, But in his out ward bound Voyge Did, as I am Inform’d, take into a Small Schooner Boate called the Rosalle of about Ten Tons Burthen about Nine Barrels of Turpintine more or Less, with Some Other Stores which ware not Duly Cleard at the Navall Office for the Port of Salem, which he saith was Landed at Pemiquid3 In this State, But no Certificat has yet Appeard of his so Doing, Some People have Sugested that the Said Turpintine was Carried & Landed at Nova Scotia But as there was a Vessel a Bulding for a Mercht. belonging to the town of Salem at Pemiquid, there may be some Foundation for Said Burns Assertion that it was there Landed—or Part there of, what May Turn Out in Evidence If Prosicuted I am not Able to Say.

The Boat is Small & Very Old and but of Little Value I belive not Sufficant to pay the Charges of Prosicution as there was nothing Brought up in her but Fiftean of our Prisners, which he Says he was at the Expence of Suporting them with Necessarys for their Passage from Nova Scotia Except Three Old Sales Belonging to Mr. Bromfield of Newbury Port and a Bead, Tabel & Case Draws & Some Old Chares, with his Wife & Children. The man is Very Pore, & Some People are Pressing me to Commince 96 a Prossicution Against him. I wish no more than to Due my Duty in this Case, I there fore would be there fore be Directed by you in this case, and If you think Proper to Libell the said Boat, Under these Circumstances, I must Conform there to, and would have you Libell her Accordingly but If Other ways, you should be of Oppinion not to Prossicute I should be glad you would Send me Word as Sone as Possable, as the Boat has been Detaned neare about Twelve Days,4

I am Your Humble Servant Warwick Palfray Naval Officer

RC ; endorsed.

1.

Warwick Palfrey (1715–1797), variously spelled Palfray and Palfry, of Salem, Mass., was a member of the Committee of Safety and Correspondence, 1774–1775. He represented his native town in the state House of Representatives in 1776. On Nov. 23, 1776, the House appointed him as naval officer for the Port of Salem, and he served in that post throughout the Revolutionary period (Essex Institute Historical Collections, 67[1931]:159; Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, 52, pt. 2:168).

2.

“Simon Burn” was actually Seth Barnes, who had two permits (Feb. 28 and Mar. 2, 1778) to take “some necessaries” to his family in Nova Scotia. On Nov. 20, there was a legislative resolve allowing Barnes to take specified amounts of corn, cider, molasses, sugar, rum, and tobacco aboard his schooner Bever, and all armed vessels were ordered not to molest or impede him. Later in the war Barnes was located at Yarmouth, N.S., and transported former prisoners to Massachusetts. He was also granted permission to sell fish from Nova Scotia in Massachusetts and invest the proceeds in any commodity, other than flour, grain, or meat, for resale in Nova Scotia (The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 [Boston, 1922], Chapter 534 [1779–1780], 251–252; Chapter 260 [1780], 649).

3.

Pemaquid, now part of the town of Bristol, Maine.

4.

There is no mention of this incident among the cases which RTP prosecuted.