In December the Assembly met at Greenwich, but finding that place too exposed, adjourned to Providence. The chief subject of discussion was how to raise an army, and the New England States were invited to send committees to Providence to concert some general plan of action. The Recess Committee gave place to a Council of War, composed of ten members. The dangerous system of short enlistments still prevailed and a brigade of three regiments, two of infantry, each composed of seven hundred and fifty men in eight companies, and one of artillery composed of three hundred men in five companies, were voted for fifteen months. The command was given to General Varnum, and Malmedy, a French officer, recommended by General Lee, was appointed "Chief Engineer and Director of the works of defence in this State, with the rank of Brigadier." When brought to the test of enlistment its roll filled up very slowly. The Convention of the Eastern States met in Providence. Each state was represented by three delegates. Stephen Hopkins was chosen President. After long and frequent consultations with the Assembly, it was recommended that an army of six thousand men should be concentrated in Rhode Island, of which Massachusetts was to furnish nineteen hundred men, Connecticut eleven hundred, New Hampshire three hundred, and Rhode Island eighteen hundred and a thousand Continental troops. Other questions called for equal attention. Men no longer dared to look to paper and a printing-press for their money, but to taxing and borrowing. A loan of forty thousand pounds at five per cent. was voted. But the borrowers were many, the lenders few, and taxes hard to collect. With less wisdom it was voted to prevent monopolies and regulate prices. All of these questions recur from time to time till men grow weary of contending with the natural laws of trade. Meanwhile the army was almost naked, and more than once on the brink of starvation and mutiny. The plans of the convention for concentrating a large force were never wholly carried out, and the army of the State, like the army of Congress, was too often an army on paper. Yet one great step was taken at the suggestion of General Varnum. Colonel Christopher Greene, Lieutenant-Colonel Olney and Major Ward were sent home to enlist a battalion of negroes for the Continental service. When the question came before the Assembly in the form of a resolution to enroll slaves, compensate their masters and give them their freedom, it met with some opposition upon the ground that it would be disapproved of in other states, that the masters would not be satisfied with the compensation, and that there were not slaves enough to make a regiment. But the wiser opinion prevailed, the regiment was raised, and when the day of trial came the freedman proved himself an excellent soldier.