1. When Rhode Island governor William Greene wrote Ellery from Warwick on 8 March, he also mentioned the adoption of a $300 bounty from the state “for the encouragement” of recruits “inclined to engage during the war” and the promise that “their wages are to be made equally as good in silver as it was at the commencement of the war” (Staples, R.I. in the Continental Congress description begins William R. Staples. Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, 1765–1790, With the Journal of the Convention that Adopted the Constitution. Edited by Reuben A. Guild. 1870. Reprint. New York, 1971. description ends , 276; see also Greene to GW, 8 March, and GW to Greene, 28 March). In his reply to Greene, written at Philadelphia on 4 April, Ellery stated his belief that the Rhode Island “quota was too large . … Our State hath sometimes by too great an ardour injured itself.” Ellery then remarked on Greene’s request for Rhode Island troops to remain in the state: “Your Excellency requests, if I should find it necessary that I would write to Genl. Washington on the subject of one of our States regiments being stationed this campaign within the State. I could not think it necessary; for if I had known what your excellency had written I have not the vanity to imagine that I could have suggested any additional argument or enforced what you must have urged. However as it seemed to be your desire, and as I shall always consider your desires, tho not fully expressed, as commands, I have also written to the Genl. on that head, and shall esteem myself very happy if my efforts should contribute a mite towards the granting of so reasonable a request. I wish the Genl. Assembly may succeed; but when I consider that the troops of the Virginia and No. Carolina line are gone to the Southward, and that he chuses and it is necessary that he should have a respectable army with him, I cannot promise myself that the application will prove successful. … P.S. By a letter from Genl. Washington yesterday we are advised that a fleet from Cork of 45 sail had arrived at N. York and that he was informed that the enemy there were taking up transports; perhaps, I say, to carry a reinforcement to Genl. Clinton to supply the losses he sustained in his passage” (Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 15:6–8; see also GW to Samuel Huntington, 3 April). Greene responded to Ellery from Warwick on 17 April in a letter that in part reads: “I received your favor of the 4th instant, and acknowledge I was short in not including the numbers you mention in Colonel Sherburn’s regiment, &c. &c. Since I wrote you, His Excellency Gen. Washington has taken care to furnish this State with a return of the number of men doing duty, agreeable to the resolution of Congress, in the several Departments, except that of the artificers, which I recollect was omitted in that. But I doubt not this State will take care to be properly informed in regard to their numbers already on duty prior to their completing the number ordered” (Staples, R.I. in the Continental Congress description begins William R. Staples. Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, 1765–1790, With the Journal of the Convention that Adopted the Constitution. Edited by Reuben A. Guild. 1870. Reprint. New York, 1971. description ends , 279; see also JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 16:150–51).

2. John Adams wrote Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, from Spain on 11 and 16 Dec. 1779. Adams was en route to Paris, where he would serve as U.S. minister to France. In his later letter, sent from Corunna, Adams in part wrote: “It is the prevailing Opinion here, that the Court of Madrid is well disposed to enter into a Treaty with the United States, and that the Minister from Congress will be immediately received, American Independence acknowledged, and a Treaty concluded” (Butterfield, Diary of John Adams description begins L. H. Butterfield, ed. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. 4 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1961. description ends , 4:204–6; see also Butterfield, Diary of John Adams description begins L. H. Butterfield, ed. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. 4 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1961. description ends , 4:195–96, and Papers of John Adams description begins Robert J. Taylor et al., eds. Papers of John Adams. 17 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1977–. description ends , 8:295–96, 299). Congress read these letters from Adams on 27 March 1780 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 16:288; see also Oliver Ellsworth to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 28 March, in Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 14:548–49).

GW replied to Ellery from Morristown on 10 April: “I have been honored with yours of the 29th ulto on the subject of Governor Greenes request that one of their Regiments might be stationed in the State of Rhode Island. I had, previous to the Rect of your letter, informed the Governor of the improbability of my being able to comply with his request. The reasons which influenced me then, will naturally suggest themselves to you, when you consider the necessity we shall be under of concentering, as much as possible, our force in this quarter, to make up the reduction occasioned by the expirations of service and by the detachments which we have already made and are about to make to the southward.

“It is to be wished that our circumstances would admit of being guarded at every point, and against every possible event, but as that is not the case, we are under the necessity of calling our force to that quarter which will most probably be the scene of Action.

“I am obliged by your agreeable communication of Mr Adams’s account of the favorable disposition of the Court of spain” (Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).

Ellery then wrote Greene from Philadelphia on 18 April in a letter that in part reads: “I acquainted your Excellency in my last that I had written to Genl. Washington as I was requested. The Genl. writes me that he had informed you of the improbability of his being able to comply with your request. I hope however that the recruits the army may receive may still render it prudent for him to continue the battalion of blacks in the State” (Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 15:48–50).