Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Vaughan, [17 or 18 September 1777]

From Benjamin Vaughan9

ALS: American Philosophical Society

Hotel des bains de Bourbon, Rue Richlieu
[September 17 or 18, 1777.1]

My dear, dear sir,

I am arrived once more in this town, and wish to be blessed with one hour’s conversation concerning myself and a brother.2 You know from my friend Williams that I am obliged to leave my name at Lord Stormonts in consequence of the note I before wrote to him; and if you could give me an interview at a neutral place till I have gone through the ceremony of seeing him (if so he should be disposed) it would be more convenient to me. But do not put yourself in the least out of your way; for I hope I have manliness to take any tone with him or others who may question me on your account. I am my dear sir, most gratefully, most reverently, and most devotedly your

Benjm: Vaughan

The sooner I can see you, the happier for me. In haste.

Addressed: Dr. Franklin / Passy

Notations: Vaughan Bn. / M. Vaugn to Dr Franklin

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

9He had recently been a messenger, according to Paul Wentworth, between BF and Shelburne, and had just left Amsterdam. He had gone there, Wentworth continued, with recommendations from Shelburne and Thomas Walpole and with two ends in view: to raise a £20,000 loan on his Jamaica estates, which he claimed BF would guarantee against confiscation if the Americans captured the island, and to establish an Amsterdam house of his own, for which he would furnish £10,000 in capital “and the protection of Dr. F. and the Congress.” Stevens, Facsimiles, II, no. 191, pp. 6–8.

1See BF’s answer, the following document.

2His brother John may already have had in mind attaching himself to a French commercial firm in order to learn the language. The plan materialized the following spring; see his father’s and Benjamin’s letters to BF of March 5, 1778. APS.

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