body.

Further, it will be noted that the committee-work to which he was thus
assigned was often of the homeliest and most prosaic kind, calling not
for declamatory gifts, but for common sense, discrimination,
experience, and knowledge of men and things. He seems, also, to have
had special interest and authority in the several anxious phases of
the Indian question as presented by the exigencies of that awful
crisis, and to have been placed on every committee that was appointed
to deal with any branch of the subject. Thus, on the 16th of June, he
was placed with General Schuyler, James Duane, James Wilson, and
Philip Livingston, on a committee "to take into consideration the
papers transmitted from the convention of New York, relative to Indian
affairs, and report what steps, in their opinion, are necessary to be
taken for securing and preserving the friendship of the Indian
nations."[199] On the 19th of June, he served with John Adams and
Thomas Lynch on a committee to inform Charles Lee of his appointment
as second major-general; and when Lee's answer imported that his
situation and circumstances as a British officer required some further
and very careful negotiations with Congress, Patrick Henry was placed
upon the special committee to which this delicate business was
intrusted.[200] On the 21st of June, the very day on which, according
to the journal, "Mr. Thomas Jefferson appeared as a delegate for the
colony of Virginia, and produced his credentials," his colleague,
Patrick Henry, rose in his place and stated that Washington "had put
into his hand sundry queries, to which he desired the Congress would
give an answer." These queries necessarily involved subjects of
serious concern to the cause for which they were about to plunge into
war, and would certainly require for their consideration "cool-headed,
reflecting, and judicious men." The committee appointed for the
purpose consisted of Silas Deane, Patrick Henry, John Rutledge, Samuel
Adams, and Richard Henry Lee.[201] On the 10th of July, "Mr. Alsop
informed the Congress that he had an invoice of Indian goods, which a
gentleman in this town had delivered to him, and which the said
gentleman was willing to dispose of to the Congress." The committee
"to examine the said invoice and report to the Congress" was composed
of Philip Livingston, Patrick Henry, and John Alsop.[202] On the 12th
of July, it was resolved to organize three departments for the
management of In