Deane, Silas

Autograph letter signed ("Silas Deane"), 4 pages (11 5/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 296 x 188 mm) on a bifolium (watermarked English arms | gr), Philadelphia, 16 October 1774, to Thomas Mumford (at Groton, Connecticut), reception docket on margin of first page; a few small holes at intersecting folds, costing two characters and touching several others. Half red morocco folding-case, blue morocco labels.

Robert J. Sudderth Jr. (cited in Smith)

Letters of Delegates to Congress, ed. Smith, 1:201–03

A spectacular letter from the first session of the Continental Congress by delegate Silas Deane, soon to be the United States' first foreign diplomat: "Three capital, &, general Objects were in View From The First—A Bill of American Rights,—A List of American Greivances,—And Measures For Redress." Deane writes with a clear sense of accomplishment to his Connecticut colleague Thomas Mumford, a member of the state assembly who would act as agent for the Secret Committee of Congress in 1776. After six weeks of "close, & at Times, warm debate," Deane is confident that the proceedings of the Congress have improved the prospects for the "peace, & Liberty, of the American Colonies."

"The Affairs immediately before Us, as the General Heads are agreed on, and Committees appointed to make the Draughts. No Resolution of any Consequence, and I dare say, you will judge, some of them so, has been pass'd in the Congress, but with an Unanimous Voice, though they have many of them taken up Days in close, & at Times, warm debate. Three capital, &, general Objects were in View From The First—A Bill of American Rights,—A List of American Greivances,—And Measures For Redress. You will easily consider the First the most important Subject that could possibly be taken up by Us, as on the Fixing them rightly, with precision, yet sufficiently explicit, & on a certain, and durable Basis, such as the Reason & Nature of things, the Natural Rights of Mankind, The Rights of British Subjects, in general, and the particular, & local privileges, Rights, & immunities of British American Subjects, considered in degree distinct, yet connected with the Empire at large. On This I say, all the Consistency at least, of Our future proceedings, in America depends, and in a great degree, the peace, & Liberty, of the American Colonies—In doing this, We have proceeded with the Utmost Caution knowing how critical and important an undertaking it was, & how fatal a misstep must be, not to Ourselves only but to all posterity."

Progress in debate has sometimes been slow, Deane admits, but not from lack of effort: "the whole British Constitution, its rise, progress, & completion, has been reveiwed minutely,—All the Statutes respecting it, or affecting the Colonies attended To and considered—when You add to This, The Time necessarily spent as well as Difficulty to be encountered at last, To bring Men, From infancy, habituated to different modes, of Treating Subjects, perfectly to harmonize, You will set down no small portion of Our Time to this Head of Business. Our Greivances You will say are evident To all, and may be enumerated in one Day as well as in a Month,—on second Thought You will perhaps be willing to give Us longer Time on that part—For a Greivance deserving the Notice of the United Continent must not only be a real, but one so general, That a Stand must be made against it, and Our measures for redress, be persevered in, untill it is removed. To enumerate as greivances, matters of lesser Moment, would be below the dignity, & lessen the weight of this Continental Council, here again, We have recourse To the Statutes, the Usages, & Customs of both Countries to direct Us, as Well as to their, & Our Bill of Rights. The Measures to be pursued for, or mode of obtaining Redress is a delicate, yet important Subject. These Three Subjects have taken up the Cheif of Our Time. We meet at Nine, & set untill half past Three, then adjourn untill the Next Morning, this brings Us to Dinner at Four or afterwards, which being generally in parties, on invitation out, or at Our Lodgings concludes the Day, and though We have sat, now, Six Weeks, We have not had One day's respite."

Deane reports the arrival of "Two Expresses from Boston," one, the Suffolk Resolves, delivered to Congress by Paul Revere on 17 September, and the other a letter from the Boston Committee of 29 September describing the British fortification of Boston. After sharing some news of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Deane asks Mumford to exert his influence with the publisher of the Connecticut Courant to stop his reprinting negative reports on the doings of Congress from the New-York Gazette. "Watson of Hartford, merits the severest reproof, for printing in his paper the false, & scandalous paragraphs, from Rivington's Gazette, respecting the Congress,—Rivington in private Life is more infamous than Chartres, & in public a greater incendiary than Clodius, yet this Stupid Watson, reprints in the Connecticut Courant the improbable Forgeries, of this most superlatively vile, retailer of Scandal ... I ask pardon, for saying so much, on this unworthy Subject, but I feel for the honor of the Colony, affected by such rascally publications. ..." 

Deane promises to continue to look for a mercantile position for Mumford's son, but stresses that the outlook is uncertain. Still, he offers a jaundiced endorsement of Philadelphia as a home for a young man: "I should prefer this City, To any place on the Continent for a Lad to serve his Time in. The Manners are simple, & pure, and their industry and Oeconomy, exceeding any thing to be expected in so populous a City. I mean by simple & pure only comparatively, for here are Debauchees, Whores, & Rogues as well as in other places, but not so Numerous."

Deane closes with strong pledge of congressional—and, if necessary, military—support of Boston, then under interdiction of the Intolerable Acts. "The Cause of Boston You have already seen is made by Us a Common Cause, & You must not be surprized at a Resolution, of all the Colonies, here represented, made Unanimously, to stand by, & support them to the last with Life, & Fortune, and that Resolution published on the housetop at Westminster. ... I pray that a Regulation of the Connecticut Militia may be attended to in earnest, much, perhaps all Depends on it there & throughout America."