From Benjamin Franklin to George Croghan, 14 April 1767
To George Croghan
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
London, April 14. 1767.
Sir
I received your Favour of Jany. 16. with the Copy of your Report to Sir William Johnson, and one Letter of later Date, all which I communicated to Lord Shelburne.4 I delivered him also your Letter that was directed to him. I wish more Attention was paid here to what is recommended by People acquainted with America, and particularly that more could be expected in consequence of your Representations; but ’till our Ministry feels itself a little better settled,5 and has more time to spare from defending itself to think of such distant Objects, I doubt little will be done. You have doubtless render’d great Service to Government by your Negociations among the Indians. I take every Opportunity of mentioning it, and I hope you may in time obtain some suitable Reward. I thank you heartily for the Information and Entertainment I received by reading your Journals,6 and am, with great Regard, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
Col. Geo. Croghan
Addressed: To / Col. George Croghan / at / Philadelphia [Philadelphia struck out and Johnson Hall substituted]7 / via New York, / per Packet
4. Croghan’s letter to BF of Jan. 16, 1767, has not been found, but the copy of his report to Gen. Thomas Gage (not to Sir William Johnson, as BF mistakenly writes here) reached Lord Shelburne. It is printed from the original in the Lansdowne MSS by Alvord and Carter, eds., The New Régime, pp. 487–94. For Croghan’s letter to BF of Jan. 27, 1767, see above, pp. 12–16. His letter to Shelburne, Jan. 16, 1763, mentioned in the next sentence, is in the Clements Library. Nicholas B. Wainwright, George Croghan Wilderness Diplomat (Chapel Hill, [1959]), p. 241.
5. The Chatham administration, which came to power in the summer of 1766, was never able to demonstrate real stability. This failure was principally owing to Chatham’s continuous illness and to his anomalous position as Lord Privy Seal.
6. In addition to the journal of Croghan’s western trip of 1765 (above, XII, 395 n), BF may have had access to a copy of the journal of the 1766 expedition, during which Croghan collected the mastodon bones he sent to BF and Shelburne.
7. In June 1767 Croghan went to New York City and then to Johnson Hall. Wainwright, George Croghan, p. 244.