[dateline] Philadelphia June 30th. 1776
[salute] Dear Sir
Your Favour of the 17th. I received by Yesterdays Post. Am much obliged, to you for
your judicious Observations of the Spirit of Com•
{ 25 } merce and Privateering, and many other Subjects, which I have not Time to consider,
at present. I mean to express my Sentiments of them in this Letter.
1
You tell me a Plan is forming for immediately erecting a Foundery. I wish you would
oblige me so much as to write me, who the Persons are who have laid this Plan: whether
it is to be carried on by the Public or by private Persons—who are the Undertakers—where
the Foundery is to be—whether it is a brass or an Iron Foundery or both? In short
what the Plan is in all its Particulars. . . .
2 Are there any Artists sufficiently skilled with you? Have you Iron, or Ore, suitable
to make Iron, proper for Cannon. Where shall you get Brass? Has Mr. Aaron Hobart of
Abington done any Thing at casting Cannon. Has he an Air Furnace? Where does he get
his Iron? And where, his Skill and Knowledge?
There are several other Subjects of Inquiry that occur to my Mind, which are of no
small Importance.
Musquetts and Bayonnetts are excessively wanted in all the Colonies. Twelve Months
ago We were distressed, to a Degree that Posterity will scarcely credit for Powder.
This is now over. Now Arms are almost in as much Demand. The Convention of Virginia
have taken as bold a Step to get Arms as the Massachusetts did to get Salt Petre.
They have passed an ordinance for paying out of the public Treasury Twenty Dollars
for every Musquet and Bayonnett which shall be made in the Colony for a year. Pensilvania
makes very good Guns and in considerable Numbers. I fear the Massachusetts, in the
Multiplicity of their Cares, have not done so much as they might in this Way. I am
sure that Province upon a proper Exertion of its Ingenuity and Policy, as well as
the Wit and Dexterity of her Tradesmen might make a vast Number of Arms annually.
I want to be informed, what Number is now made Weekly or Monthly in the Province.
How many are made by Mr. Orr; how many by Pratt, how many by Barrett of Concord, and
how many by Pomroy of Northampton. . . . I sincerely wish that the Province would
undertake in a public Capacity to encourage this Manufacture, and that they might
do it with as much Wisdom and Spirit, and then I know they would have as much success,
as they had in the Manufacture of Salt Petre.
There are several other Articles which deserve the public Attention.
Flints begin to be wanted, and I am convinced that those Colonies abound with the
proper Flint Stone, and that nothing is wanting but a little Attention to find it,
and a little skill, to brake it into the proper Sizes and Shapes. Orange County in
New York abounds with
{ 26 } it, and the People there use no other flints. I wish the general Court would set a
Committee to search for it, or recommend it to the select Men of the Towns to look
for it.
Sulphur is an Object which lies in your Way as a Philosopher and a Physician. . .
. Is it to be found any where in the Province. Our Province has an Advantage of all
others, in one Respect, the Division of it into Towns which are incorporated Bodies
Politick and have public Officers and frequent public Meetings, gives the General
Court Power, by ordering the select Men to call Town Meetings and to insert any subject
in the Warrant, to diffuse and circulate any Information or Instruction and a Spirit
of Inquiry into the whole Mass of the People at once. If some such Method was taken
it is very likely that Sulphur Ore might be found in Plenty.
Lead is another Thing of great Importance, and there certainly is a great Quantity
of the Ore in the Towns of Northampton and Southampton. It is a Pity that Something
cannot be done to set the Manufacture agoing.
In one Word, my Friend, I cannot think that Country safe, which has not within itself
every Material necessary for War, and the Art of making Use of those Materials. I
never shall be easy, then, untill We shall have made Discoveries of Salt Petre, Sulphur,
Flynts, Lead, Cannon, Mortars, Ball, Shells, Musquetts, and Powder, in sufficient
Plenty, so that We may always be sure of having enough of each.
Another Thing my Heart is set upon is Salt. Pray inform me, what has been done with
you towards the Manufacture.
The Intelligence you give me of your Success, in ferretting away, the Men of War,
is some Consolation for the melancholly Accounts We have from Canada. It proves that
Coll. Quincy was right when he wrote me, that with Powder and heavy Cannon, he would
undertake to make Prisoners at Discretion of the Army in the Town and the fleet in
the Harbour as he did last Summer.
3