To Alexander Hamilton from the New York Committee of Correspondence, 17 March 1777
From the New York Committee of Correspondence1
Kingston [New York] 17th: March 1777
Dr Sir
We are to inform you that Robt. R Livingston2 is with us a Committee appointed by Convention to correspond with you at Head Quarters. You will give us Pleasure in the Information that his Excellency is recovered from the Illness which had seized him the Day before Messrs. Cuyler and Taylor3 left Head Quarters. Any Occurrences in the Army which may have happened you will please to communicate.
In Answer to your Letter to the Convention of the sixth of March Instant We are to inform you that it is determined to permit that Company to join the Continental Army for which you will take the necessary Steps.4 At the same Time you will take some Notice of the Disposition of our Guns which as you well know are all in the Continental Service & unless some little Attention is paid to them We may perhaps never see them again.
We are Sir your most obedt. & humble Servants
Gouvr Morris
Wm Allison
LS, in writing of Gouverneur Morris, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. On September 17, 1776, the Provincial Convention of New York adopted the following resolution:
“Resolved, That Colo. Allison, Mr. R. R. Livingston and Mr. Wisner, Senr. be and are hereby appointed a committee of correspondence. That they be and hereby are authorized to establish post riders between the Fish Kill, where this Convention now statedly sits, and Head-Quarters, for the purpose of obtaining daily intelligence, and that this Convention will make provision for defraying the expense thereof; and that the said committee be and are hereby empowered to write letters to any correspondents, and take every other proper means to obtain intelligence” ( , I, 627).
Henry Wisner, Sr., who was also a delegate to the Continental Congress, was apparently dropped from the committee, and on March 14, 1777, Gouverneur Morris was added to it. On the same date, the Convention ordered the committee to “employ a proper person at Head-Quarters to communicate intelligence” (ibid., 835).
2. Son of Robert R. Livingston, who was a cousin of Colonel Robert Livingston, the third and last lord of Livingston Manor.
3. Jacob Cuyler and John Tayler were both delegates to the Provincial Convention from Albany County.
4. On March 17, 1777, the Provincial Convention adopted the following resolution: “Resolved, That the said company be permitted to enlist in the service of the Continent, and that Mr. Morris inform Capt. Hamilton thereof” ( , I, 838).