[c.12 June 1778]
Resolved that as the enemy are daily practising insidious and delusive arts to impose upon the good people of these States, that whenever a Passport shall be granted for Dr. Ferguson to come to Congress, he be attended by an escort of Light Horse under the command of an Officer of politeness, discernment, and zeal, by whose vigilance improper communications may be prevented.2
Manuscript, South Carolina Historical Society. In the hand of Richard Henry Lee.
1 Lee probably offered this proposed resolution on 12 June while Congress was considering whether to grant Dr. Adam Ferguson a passport to transmit a letter from the Carlisle peace commissioners to Congress. Lee may have written this resolve on 11 June when he was drafting a proposed report for the committee appointed that day to consider this issue, and it could have been considered in Congress as late as the morning of 13 June, but it seems likely that the resolve was penned during the debate on the 12th.
2 On the verso of the scrap of paper on which Lee drafted this resolve are two notes written by Henry Laurens and Charles Thomson. Their content and appearance suggest that the president and secretary of Congress exchanged these notes while debate on the passport request was in progress on 12 June. At the top of the document Laurens penned the query: "If Doctr, Ferguson comes here will it not follow that some conference will be had & what is the conclusion?"
To which Thomson replied: "I suppose he will bring a letter sealed and if sealed he should be confined to his room & an answer to the letter sent by him or by a special messenger of Congress but no conference ought or can with propriety be held with him.
"Tho from curiosity I fancy conferences will be held with him by the members possibly not to any great purpose on our side."