1From Benjamin Franklin to Silas Deane, 27 August 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I am much oblig’d by your Favour of the 13th Inst. Mr. Goddard, Riding Surveyor to the Gen. Post Office is gone to the Southward, for Settling the new Post-Offices all along to Georgia. Mr. Bache, the Comptroller, is to set out next Week Northward on the same Business, who will take with him Directions from me to establish all the Officers in your...
2Contract between the Secret Committee and Silas Deane and Others, 19 February 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: South Carolina Historical Society; copy: Connecticut Historical Society We normally summarize contracts of the secret committee signed by Franklin, but this one is important enough to be printed in full because it was the initial reason for Deane’s going to France. Soon after he lost his seat in Congress in October, 1775, and thereby his membership in the secret committee, he began to...
3The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Certificate for Silas Deane, [2 March 1776] (Franklin Papers)
DS : Connecticut Historical Society; DS : Library of Congress; copy: South Carolina Historical Society; copy: Yale University Library We the underwritten, being the Committee of Congress for secret Correspondence, do hereby certify whom it may concern, that the Bearer, the Honourable Silas Deane Esquire, one of the Delegates from the Colony of Connecticut, is appointed by us to go into France,...
4The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Instructions to Silas Deane, 2 March 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Connecticut Historical Society; copy: Yale University Library; copy: South Carolina Historical Society These instructions, which were probably drafted by Franklin, are the first to an American agent in a foreign country. They mark an important step toward the assumption of sovereignty, and the committee of secret correspondence seems to have taken that step on its own initiative. The...
5Silas Deane to Robert Morris and the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 23 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : (duplicate): Library of Congress This letter, in form to Morris but in fact to the committee, is the only one from Deane that Franklin surely saw before his departure for France; it was therefore part of his small stock of information about what would face him in Europe. The letter deals only with the preliminaries of Deane’s mission, because he reached France long after he had hoped to....
6The Committee of Secret Correspondence to [Silas Deane], 8 July 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from The North American and United States Gazette (Philadelphia), October 12, 1855. With this you will receive the Declaration of the Congress for a final separation from Great Britain. It was the universal demand of the people, justly exasperated by the obstinate perseverance of the Crown in its tyrannical and destructive measures, and the Congress were very unanimous in complying...
7The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 7 August 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Maine Historical Society; letterbook copy: National Archives The above is a Copy of our last, which went by the Dispatch Captain Parker. The Congress have since taken into consideration the heads of a Treaty to be proposed to France, but as they are not yet concluded upon, we cannot say more of them per this conveyance. You will see by the Newspapers which accompany this, that the...
8The Continental Congress: Instructions to Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee as Commissioners to France, [24 … (Franklin Papers)
Attested copy: Harvard University Library This document was long in the making. On August 27 Congress expanded the committee that was drafting the proposed treaty of commerce with France, and ordered it to draft also instructions to the commissioners who were to carry the treaty. The committee reported the instructions on September 10. On the 24th, a week after Congress approved the treaty, it...
9Barbeu-Dubourg: Memorandum for the American Commissioners, [before 9 January? 1777] (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society This memorandum is the first account of the negotiations over tobacco that had been going on before Franklin’s arrival, and that were expected to play a crucial part in financing the war. No other American export was in such demand in France; if military supplies were to be traded for commodities, the only commodity available was tobacco. The committee of...
10The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 1 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Harvard University Library; letterbook copy: National Archives Mr. Morris has communicated to us the substance of your letters to him down to the 23rd June when you was near setting out for Paris. We hope your reception there has been equal to your expectation and our wishes, indeed we have no reason to doubt it considering the countenance we have met with amongst the French Islands, and...
11The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 2 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Haverford College Library; letterbook copy: National Archives We have this day received from the Honorable Congress of Delegates of the United States of America the important papers that accompany this letter being, These papers speak for themselves and need no Strictures or remarks from us, neither is it our business to make any. You will observe, that in case of the absence or...
12Additional Instructions by Congress to Franklin, Deane, and Jefferson, 16 October 1776 (Jefferson Papers)
Additional instructions to B F, S D, and T J, commissioners from the united states of America to the king of France. Whilst you are negotiating the affairs you are charged with at the court of France you will have opportunities of conversing frequen[t]ly with the ministers and agents of other european princes and states residing there. You shall endeavour, when you find occasion fit and...
13The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 23 October 1776: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Haverford College Library; copy: National Archives <Philadelphia, October 23, 1776: We have written you twice today by different ships. This letter goes by the Andrew Doria to St. Eustatius, to be forwarded to William Bingham and by him to you in a French vessel. We enclose two resolutions of Congress. The first replaces Thomas Jefferson as commissioner with Arthur Lee, whom you will...
14The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners to France, 24 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; letterbook copies: Library of Congress; National Archives The Congress having Committed to our Charge and Management their Ship of War called the Reprisal, Commanded by Lambert Wickes Esqr. carrying sixteen Six pounders and about one hundred and twenty Men, We have allotted her to carry Doctor Franklin to France and directed Capt. Wickes to proceed for the...
15From Benjamin Franklin to Silas Deane, 4 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Translation: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères When Franklin wrote this letter he was, as far as we know, ignorant of Deane’s activities since leaving Bordeaux the previous June. Those activities were multifarious, as might be expected of a man who was the agent for a consortium of American merchants under contract with the secret committee as well as the representative of the...
16From Benjamin Franklin to Silas Deane, 7 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Connecticut Historical Society On December 4, after writing the letters from Auray printed above, Franklin and his grandsons set out for Nantes, and reached Vannes late that evening. The journey, as Franklin described it, was not relaxing. “The carriage was a miserable one, with tired horses, the evening dark, scarce a traveller but ourselves on the road; and to make it more comfortable...
17From Benjamin Franklin to Silas Deane, 20 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Connecticut Historical Society Finding myself too much fatigu’d to proceed to Paris this Evening, and not knowing whether you have receiv’d my Letter wherein I requested you to provide me a Lodging , I have concluded to remain here to-night. If you are in Paris, I hope to hear from you to-morrow Morning before I set out, which will hardly be till about Noon. With the sincerest Esteem, I...
18Barbeu-Dubourg: Memorandum for the American Commissioners, [after 21 December 1776] (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society M. D. propose a Messieurs F. D. et L. de leur faire des avances soit de draps, soit de fusils (du modele de 1763, controllés et tirés des propres magazins du Roy) pour la valeur de trois cent mille livres tournois, a condition que ces Messieurs lui fourniront en retour des tabacs de Virginie et de Mariland pour pareille somme, bien entendu que les achats...
19The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners, 21[–23] December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society, New York Public Library, University of Virginia Library, British Library; AL (incomplete draft ): American Philosophical Society; three copies: American Philosophical Society, National Archives, Library of Congress This letter was in response to Deane’s of October 1, which was the first word from him in Paris that reached Philadelphia. He complained hotly...
20The American Commissioners to the Comte de Vergennes, 23 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères We beg Leave to acquaint your Excellency, that we are appointed and fully impowered by the Congress of the United States of America, to propose and negotiate a Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and the said States. The just and generous Treatment their Trading Ships have received, by a free Admission into the Ports of this Kingdom,...
21The American Commissioners to the Conde de Aranda, 28 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Archivo Historico Nacional; draft: Harvard University Library We wish to inform your Excellency, that we are directed by the United States of America, to cultivate the Friendship of the Court of Spain, with that of France. For that purpose, as well as to pay our personal Respects to your Excellency, we purpose to wait upon you to-morrow, or on any other Day that will be more convenient,...
22Francis Mackay to Franklin and Silas Deane, 28 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I would be glad to have the pleasure of meeting you or one of you incognito, therefore be so good as to appoint an hour, and where, that I may have the opportunty of acquainting you of things which would not be proper for me to commit to Papers. I am Gentlemen Your most obedient and most humble Servant You will find my name in the Court Callender Quebec...
23Louis Lebègue de Presle Duportail to the American Commissioners, [29 December 1776] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society This is the first appearance of one of the important French volunteers. The American army suffered from a dearth of engineers, and the commissioners had been instructed to obtain four competent ones. Duportail (1743–1802) had graduated from the military school at Mézières and joined the corps of engineers at the age of eighteen. In 1776 he completed a new...
24The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the Amerìcan Commissioners, 30 December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; Haverford College Library; LS without postscript: Joseph E. Fields, Joliet, Ill. (1958); AL (draft ): American Philosophical Society; copies: Historical Society of Pennsylvania; National Archives (two) The military defeats that had followed consistently on the Battle of Long Island, and had brought the British so near Philadelphia that Congress had fled to...
25The American Commissioners: Memorandum for the Dutch, [before 31 March 1778] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: the Marquess of Abergavenny, Eridge Castle, Sussex (1955) When the Ancestors of the present Inhabitants of the United States of America first settled that Country, they did it entirely at their own expence; The public of England never granted one Shilling to aid in their Establishment. Georgia is an exception for which public grants have been made. Had any such grants been ever made they...
26Lambert Wickes to the American Commissioners, 4 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I this day received yours 26th. Decemr. and shall pay due Attention to the Contents thereof. I shall emeadiately proceed for port L’Oriont and Execute that Bussiness and make my report Accordingly, as soon as possible. I shall take particular Care to Send my letters as you Direct and all my Letters will be directed to the Honourable Doctor Franklin, untill...
27The American Commissioners to Vergennes, 5 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library. On Sunday, January 5, the commissioners went to Versailles. That evening they sent a brief note to Vergennes asking for an audience on Monday morning. Such an interview in the spotlight of the court would have been quite different from the previous clandestine meeting in Paris, but the idea never seems to...
28The American Commissioners to Vergennes, 5 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères Dr. Franklin, Mr. Dean, and Mr. Lee, present their most respectful Complimts. to the Count de Vergennes; and request an audience of his Excellency, to-morrow morning, at such hour as he shall be pleas’d to appoint. Notation: 1777. Janvier 5. In BF ’s hand according to Stevens ( Facsimiles , VI , no. 613), but actually in Arthur Lee’s. We have...
29Conrad-Alexandre Gérard to the American Commissioners, 6 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: American Philosophical Society; Library of Congress On desireroit qu’on voulut bien suspendre la Communication du Memoire signé contenant des Demandes particulieres. On aura l’honneur de prevenir du Moment ou elle pourra se faire. En attendant on pourroit se borner a faire Part du Memoire d’Eclaircissemens relatif a l’etat des Choses en Amerique, ainsi que des Pieces qui y sont...
30Geoffroy Chalut de Verin to the American Commissioners, [before 6 January 1778] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Chalut de Verin prie Messieurs Franklin, Monsieur Dean et Le Chevalier Lée de lui faire l’honneur de venir diner [mardi 6] janvier Jour des Roix. Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Benjamin Franklin / A Passy The farmer general: above, XXIV , 348 n. The “Jour des Roix” or Epiphany, Jan. 6, must have been in 1778: a year earlier BF was not in Passy, and a year...