Your letters of the 18th and 19th of February, covered the resolutions of Congress, dated November 28th, January 25th, and February 11th, I was favored with in May last, which I did myself the honor to lay before the General Assembly.
The important observations you are pleased to make relative to our affairs, our friends, allies, and enemies, have their just weight, which the Legislature are very sensible of. To be prepared, therefore, for whatever measures the enemy may take, they have passed a law to draft every twentieth man in the State, to serve in our Continental battalions eighteen months; as enlistments during the war cannot be obtained in this State, so as to answer any general purpose. I flatter myself, we shall have a respectable body of men soon in the field, under Major General Greene. In August they are to rendezvous. One hundred wagons, for the Continental service, the State is also to furnish, in lieu of one hundred men.
I have given directions for the damages, which the inhabitants of this State have received from the British, to be ascertained as nearly as may be, agreeably to your request.
The records of our Secretary's office being scattered in different parts, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy, during their incursions and marches through the State, I have been prevented from procuring you copies of the papers you mention; but I have sent by Mr Blount, the bearer, and one of our Delegates, a map, or short sketch of the outlines of the State; extending to the westward as far as Mississippi, the boundary formed by the treaty of Paris in 1763, which we consider ourselves not absolutely bound by, having a previous right by the charter of Charles the Second, which I shall shortly transmit to you. By this our territory extends from sea to sea, that is from the Atlantic to the Western ocean.
I have the honor to be, &c.
ALEXANDER MARTIN.
TO THE MINISTER OF FRANCE.
Philadelphia, July 3d, 1782.
Sir,
The undersigned, Secretary of the United States for the Department of Foreign Affairs, has the honor to deliver the enclosed letter of congratulation, on the birth of the Dauphin, in the name and behalf of the Governor, Council and Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in General Assembly convened, agreeably to the request of his Excellency, Governor Greene. The undersigned will do himself the honor to transmit to them any reply, which the Minister of France shall think it proper to make thereto.