[dateline] Philadelphia April 6. 1777
[salute] My Friend
The Business of the naval and marine Department, will I hope be soon put in a better
Train than it has been. A Board of Assistants has been appointed here, consisting
of three Gentlemen, not Members of Congress, whose whole Time is devoted to the service.
Mr. Hopkinson, Coll Nixon, and Mr. John Wharton are the Men. The first is a Gentleman
of Letters, the second an able Merchant, the third an eminent shipwright.
1
There is a Talk of appointing a similar Board at Boston, and a Commissioner at every
considerable Port in N. England. Who would be proper Persons for these Places? They
should be well acquainted with Navigation. They should be, well informed in Trade.
They should be Men of Character and Credit.
The Marine Committee, have lately received Letters from
{ 145 } Captns. Thompson,
2 McNeal, and several others, pointing out Defects, Abuses and Mismanagements, and
proposing Plans of Improvement, Redress and Reformation. These will do good. This
is the Way to have things go right; for officers to correspond constantly with Congress,
and communicate their sentiments freely.
McNeal, I Suppose, by his Letter, before this, has Sailed, and I hope your Embargo
is off, before now, that the Privateers may have fair Play.
3 Indeed I am sorry it was ever laid. I am against all shackles upon Trade. Let the
Spirit of the People have its own Way, and it will do something. I doubt much whether
you have got an hundred soldiers the more for your Embargo and perhaps you have missed
Opportunities of taking many Prizes and several Hundreds of seamen.
South Carolina Seems to display, a Spirit of Enterprize in Trade, Superiour to any
other State. They have Salt at half a Dollar a Bushell, and dry Goods in great Plenty
tho dear. Many french Vessells have arrived there. Some Bermudians and some of their
own. They have exported their Crop of Indigo and a great deal of Rice. They have some
Privateers, and have made several Prizes.
Tobacco too, begins to be exported in large Quantities, from Maryland, Virginia, and
North Carolina. Vessells sell at very high Prices in all these states. In short in
one more Year, I fancy Trade will be brisk, in every Part of the Continent, except
with Us, the Destruction of whose Fishery, has deprived Us, of our staple, and left
Us nothing to export. We must build ships and cutt Masts, and take Fish with our Privateers
&c. I am &c.