TO JONATHAN TRUMBULL.
[MS., Massachusetts Archives; a text is in W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel
Adams, vol. iii., pp. 7, 8,]
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY BOSTON Mar 19 1778
SIR/
I am to acquaint your Excellency in the Name & by order of the Council of this State, that your Letter of the 16th Instant directed to the President, relative to the Defence of Hudsons River has been receivd & read at that Board. The General Assembly is now under a short Adjournment, and the Council are not authorizd in their Executive Capacity & seperate from the House of Repts to order any Part of the Militia of this State beyond its Limits. The Assembly will meet on the first Day of the next Month. Your Excellencys Letter, together with another receivd this Day from Govr Clinton upon the same Subject, will then be laid before that Body; and altho the Government of this State are now under the Necessity of keeping up more than fifteen hundred of the Militia to guard the Troops of Convention & for other extraordinary Service in and about the Town of Boston, yet there can be no Doubt but a due Attention will be given to so interesting & important a Concern as the Defence of Hudsons river.
I have the Honor to be with the most cordial Esteem
Yr Excys most Humble Servt