Proposed Newport Military Installation correspondence, August 16, 1794

Boston August 16th 1796
Sir
I have the honor to send to your Excellency, copies of the
Plans, buildings, etc., now erecting or to be erected afterwards
For the Defense of Rhode Island, or the Harbour of Newport.
Your Excellency will easily perceive, that the sums granted
Were so small, that I could not complete the plan of fortification
calculated to put that Island beyond any danger of being
conquered by a foreign Enemy but what your Excellency has
been pleased to approve will sufficiently remove all fear of
being insulted, or put under contribution by a small force such
as 2 or 3 ships of the line, and 10 or 12 hundred men of Land forces;
and perhaps is it more advisable to restrain our fortifications
to the number of defenders easily to be collected together in case
of an attack, than to be at a very great expense of erecting
fortifications, which we are uncertain to man properly in case
of necessity, and which probably are at last to become a conquest
to an Enemy, when they intend to make a capital expedition
against them
I am with great Respect
Your Excellency’s Most obedient humble Ser.
His Excellency Arthur Fenner Rochefontaine
Engr. Pro tempore