Delegates to Congress . Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 2, September 1775-December 1775
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Secret Committee Minutes of Proceedings

Committee Chamber Sepr. 27th. 1775, Philadelphia.

   At the Meeting of the Committee of Secrecy appointed by the Honble continental Congress of the 13 U [nited] C[olonies] in N. A. present-Saml. Ward, John Langdon, Silas Deane, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickenson & Thos. McKean Esqrs-Members of the said Committee of Secrecy.(1)

   A Contract was enterd into by Thos. Willing & Robert Morris & Co.(2) of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pensylva., Merchts of the one part, with Samuel Ward, John Langdon, Silas Deane, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickenson & Thos. McKean the aforesaid Members of the other part as follows vizt.-That the sd. Thos. Willing, Robert Morris* & Co. shall & will, with the utmost speed & secrecy send a ship or vessel to some part of Europe & there purchase at the cheapest rate they can a thousand barrels of good powder, twelve good brass guns (six pounders), two thousand stand of good arms vizt. Soldiers muskets & bayonets & five thousand gunlocks double bridled, of a good quality, & in case the aforesaid quantity of powder cannot be procurd, that they


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shall & will purchase as much Saltpetre & sulphur if to be had as will make as much powder as shall be deficient.

   As by the sd. Contract copied into the Register of the Contracts of the sd. Committee of Secrecy p. 2 &C bearing date the day & year aforesaid, reference being thereunto had, more fully & at large appears.

   * N.B. Mr. Patterson Coll[ecto]r in the port of Philadelphia in the years 1773, 1774, says that in those years protested Bills returnd against Mr. R. Morris for about 50,000 ster. A. Lee had it from Mr. W. Livingston.


Note:

   MS (MH) . Extracted from a 138-page document in the Lee Family Papers consisting of the Secret Committee's minutes of meetings and extracts from the journals of Congress pertinent to the committee's work for the period September 18, 1775-September 10, 1777. Endorsed: "Copy, Journal of the Secret Committee, N. 2d"; and captioned: "The proceedings of the Committee of Secrecy appointed by the Honble Congress of the thirteen United Colonies, 1775." The copyist's final entry indicates that this document was made sometime after October 5, 1778, the day the committee met pursuant to a congressional resolve of September 4, 1778, and agreed to hire "a capable Clerk" to assist in settling the committee's accounts and preparing them for delivery to the Committee of Commerce. See JCC, 12:878-79.



1 Thomas Willing was also a member of this committee, which Congress appointed September 18 "to contract and agree for the importation and delivery of . . . gunpowder." Subsequently known as the Secret Committee, it was granted significant decision-making powers and ultimately became the manager of extensive exportation and importation operations crucial to the war effort. JCC, 2:253-55, 3:280, 336.



2 Although there was a heated discussion of the Willing, Morris & Co. contract in Congress on September 25, the contract was apparently not completed until the 27th, when the company was also advanced $45,000. See Secret Committee Account, September 27, 1775-August 26, 1776; and John Adams' Notes of Debates, September 25, 1775. See also Secret Committee Minutes of Proceedings, February 5, 1776.