1. Of [ca. 6] March, above. Ellery’s letter of 13 May (Adams Papers) informed JA that Rhode Island legislators favored ratification of the Constitution with amendments but that Gov. Arthur Fenner’s support of ratification hinged on whether his ally Ebenezer Thompson (1735–1805) kept his post as port collector of Providence. Ellery also solicited JA for the collectorship of Newport. On 14 June George Washington nominated Ellery for the position, and his appointment was confirmed the same day. Ellery held the post until his death on 15 Feb. 1820. Thompson remained in his position from 1789 to 1790 and then served as naval officer from 1790 until his death in 1805 (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1789–. description ends , 1st Cong., 2d sess., p. 51; Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, Washington, D.C., 2005; rev. edn., bioguide.congress.gov. description ends ; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987–. description ends , 5:414–415).

2. The question of how the U.S. government should handle Rhode Island’s outlier status took a turn on 28 April 1790, when Maryland senator Charles Carroll moved to form a committee to address the issue. Members Carroll, Oliver Ellsworth, Robert Morris, Ralph Izard, and Pierce Butler drafted the Rhode Island trade bill, which prevented “bringing goods, wares and merchandizes from the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, into the United States; and to authorize a demand of money from the said State.” It was read in the Senate on 13 May and passed five days later in a vote of 13 to 8. William Maclay led the opposition, claiming it was meant to “impress the People of Rhode Island, with Terror,” in “the same Way That a Robber does a dagger or a Highwayman a pistol.” Newspaper accounts of the debates nurtured a new groundswell of Federalist sentiment. The Providence United States Chronicle, 20 May, reported that senators were weighing a bill to restrict the state’s trade as of 1 July and demanding a $27,000 payment due 1 August. The bill was read in the House of Representatives on 19 and 20 May but referred to committee. Rhode Island’s brinkmanship with the federal government ended with ratification of the Constitution on 29 May (First Fed. Cong. description begins Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1791, ed. Linda Grant De Pauw, Charlene Bangs Bickford, Helen E. Veit, William C. diGiacomantonio, and Kenneth R. Bowling, Baltimore, 1972–2017; 22 vols. description ends , 1:294–295, 309, 311, 312 313–314; 9:225, 271).

3. Struck by the influenza epidemic in New York, Washington battled a nearly fatal case of pneumonia from 10 to 20 May. He resumed his duties on 30 May but remained weak. AA was sensitive to the political implications of Washington’s second grave illness in a few months, observing that “most assuredly I do not wish for the highest Post. I never before realizd what I might be calld to, and the apprehension of it only for a few days greatly distresst me” (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987–. description ends 5:393, 394, 395, 396, 398; AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 9:62).