1. Letter not located. Clough has not been identified.

2. The congressional resolution of 26 Oct. 1775 “recommended to the several provincial Assemblies, or councils of safety, of the United Colonies, to export to the foreign West Indies . . . as much provision or any other produce . . . as they may deem necessary for the importation of arms, ammunition, sulphur, and salt petre.” In their letter to the New York Congress that covered this resolution, the New York delegates pointed out “the Propriety of keeping it [the proposed trade with the West Indies] as secret as the Nature of the Business will admit.” Upon receiving this letter and the resolve of 26 Oct., the provincial congress appointed a committee on 2 Nov. to negotiate with Fine and charged that “this letter and resolve to be kept secret.” The result of the negotiation has not been ascertained. Fine’s proposal may have been incorporated into the operations of a committee appointed on 9 Dec. to plan voyages to procure arms, ammunition, and other supplies. The delegates’ letter to the New York Congress also promised that “it will not be long before you will be made acquainted with the sentiments of the Congress respecting the general state of trade.” LS, in the hand of JJ, N (EJ: 4375); LDC description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds., Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (26 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1976–98) description ends , 2: 260–61; FAA, 4th ser. description begins Peter Force, ed., American Archives: Fourth Series, Containing a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America, from the King’s Message to Parliament, of March 7, 1774, to the Declaration of Independence by the United States (6 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1837–46) description ends , 3: 1315; 4: 398.

On 1 Nov., Congress adopted resolutions forbidding exports until 1 Mar. 1776 and decreeing that inhabitants of New York, Delaware, North Carolina, and Georgia “ought not to avail themselves of the benefit allowed to them by the late restraining act.” These resolutions carried a proviso that they were not to interfere with Congress’s resolves for the encouragement of the importation of arms and ammunition. JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends , 3: 308, 314–15; JPC description begins Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the State of New-York (2 vols.; Albany, N.Y., 1842) description ends , 1: 190.