The Secret Committee to John Ross
LS: New York Public Library
<Philadelphia, September 27, 1776: Several vessels bringing
clothing have been captured. Please purchase on the best possible
terms 10,000 striped blankets, 30,000 yards of blue and brown
broadcloth at 3s. to 6s. the yard, 3,000 yards of different colors
for facings at about 4s., and 1,000 pieces of Duffields or the
equivalent at about 90s. Use either funds on hand or credit; we
are buying rice, indigo, tobacco, etc., for immediate export, and
the season will give us a fair opportunity of getting them to
market, whereas enemy cruisers have hampered us this summer.
Get the cloth wherever it can be most quickly procured, except in
Great Britain or Ireland; if need be charter a foreign ship to carry
it, and we will promptly return her loaded. If you cannot send
directly to America, consign the goods to William Bingham at
Martinique, Cornelius Stevenson at St. Eustatius, Isaac Gouverneur
at Curaçao, or Stephen Ceronio at Cap François, with orders
to forward them at once. Signed by Franklin, Robert Morris,
Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lewis, and Philip Livingston.>
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