On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, “A petition of Pierre Le Fargue was referred to the Secret Committee” of the Continental Congress. Delegate Richard Smith of New Jersey recorded in his diary a few more details about the cryptic petition:

A Frenchman who had brought into this Port Ammunition now requested Leave to export Produce therefor, it was referred to the Secret Committee

Smith had served zealously in the Continental Congress from the beginning but would end up resigning at the end of March 1776 “having suffered in my Health by a close Attendance on Congress.” As a result Smith would not sign the Declaration of Independence. Some historians have speculated that Smith was opposed to Independence, as he retired from public service altogether in 1777, but he never joined the Loyalists even when the British Army occupied New Jersey. So he should be remembered for his contributions for American Liberty in the first year of the Revolutionary War.

Sources: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-february-7-1776/; “Diary of Richard Smith in the Continental Congress, 1775-1776” II, The American Historical Review, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Apr., 1896), pp. 493-516 at p. 500, accessed at https://www.jstor.org/stable/1833727?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3A5514e80e2f621afa63b98a1f84a6c9cb&initiator=recommender&seq=8; https://prabook.com/web/richard.smith/1056016