The Secret Committee to the Maryland Council of Safety, 13 September 1776: résumé
The Secret Committee to the Maryland Council of Safety7
LS: Maryland Historical Society
<Philadelphia, Sept. 13, 1776: We have been asked for powder for the continental frigate built at Baltimore.8 The powder should have been ordered there, and we understand you have a considerable supply; please furnish four and a half tons for the purpose to Messrs. William Lux, Samuel Purviance, and David Stewart.9 We will repay you in kind or supply more if necessary. Signed by Franklin, Josiah Bartlett, Richard Henry Lee, and Robert Morris.>
7. This letter was ordered written in a committee meeting on Sept. 5, at which BF was not present: Smith, Letters, V, 108. He does not appear to have attended after June, 1776, as mentioned in our editorial note on the committee above, Sept. 18, 1775; why he signed the letter we have no idea.
8. The Virginia; see the complete text of the letter in Naval Docs., VI, 807.
9. For these three Baltimore merchants see Robert Purviance, A Narrative of Events Which Occurred in Baltimore Town during the Revolutionary War . . . (Baltimore, 1849), pp. 31–2, 105.