Second Continental Congress: November 28, 1775

Congress debates and passes comprehensive “Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies.” The Report of the state of North Carolina was also debated and several specific polices agreed to including the raising of two battalions and the hiring of two ministers of the gospel.  Silas Deane writes that he is reconciled “to retire, and share the Fate, of my Country as an individual.”

Link to date-related documents

Journals of the Continental Congress [Edited]

Ordered, That Robert Morris call on the several persons appointed to sign the Continental bills, and request that they finish the numbering and signing of the bills, as the Money is much wanted.

Congress resumed the consideration of the rules for the regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies, and the same being debated by paragraphs, were agreed to. [Editor’s Note.  For the complete Report see the Journal of Congress. Link to date-related documents.]

Congress then considered the report of the Committee on North Carolina, which being read and debated by paragraphs, Congress came to the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the two battalions which the Congress directed to be raised in the province of North Carolina, be increased to the continental establishment, and kept in pay at the expense of the United Colonies for one year from this time, or until the further order of Congress, as well for the purpose of defending the good people of that colony against the attacks of ministerial oppression, as assisting the adjacent colonies.

That application be made to the councils of safety of the provinces of Pennsylvania and South Carolina, for so much gun powder as can be spared for the immediate supply of North Carolina.

Resolved, That the delegates of the colony of North Carolina be directed to purchase a number of drums, fifes and colors, suitable to the said battalions, and that the president be directed to draw money from the continental treasurers for the payment thereof.

That the convention or committee of safety of North Carolina be desired to employ, immediately, all the gunsmiths in that colony, in the making of Muskets and bayonets, of the size and in the manner recommended by Congress the 4th of November.

That two Ministers of the Gospel be applied to, to go immediately amongst the regulators and highlanders in the colony of North Carolina, for the purpose of informing them of the nature of the present dispute between Great Britain and the colonies; that the gentlemen to be employed be paid for their services, and that the delegates of North Carolina employ persons proper for this business.

That it be recommended to the convention or committee of safety of North Carolina, in case the method of defending the said colony by minute men be inadequate to the purpose, to substitute such other mode as to them shall appear most likely to effect the security of that Colony.

Agreeable to the order of the day, the Congress took into consideration the report of the Committee on the memorials of the tea holders, and the same being read and debated, on the question put to agree to it, carried in the negative.

Adjourned to ten o’Clock tomorrow.

Silas Deane to John Trumbull

You must congratulate Me, on my Dismission from the Congress, when you consider that the happiest Time for a Man to die, is at that Moment, when he is highest in the Esteem of the World he leaves, and quite resigned to his Fate in the Next. And when I seriously assure You, without Vanity, that I could never expect, or wish, to stand fairer, or have greater influence in this, or any future Congress, than what I enjoy, at this Moment, & have for sometime past, And assure you I am quite resigned, to retire, and share the Fate, of my Country as an individual.

I own that the Business of the political kind is what I prefer to any other, but I have had for this Twelvemonth past so great a Share, as well neigh to give me a Surfeit, quite To make me willing to give place to my Successors, whose Abilities, & perseverance I pray God may be equal To The more than Herculean Labor of completing the Plan, successfully laid out, & entered upon by their predecessors.

I go for Philadelphia Tomorrow.

Edited with commentary by Gordon Lloyd.