From Benjamin Franklin to the Baron Otto von Blome, 25 December 1778
To the Baron Otto von Blome
Reprinted from American State Papers (38 vols., Washington, 1832–61), XXXVI (Class IX: Claims), 2257
Passy, December 25, 1778
I have considered this proposition,8 and see no objection to it. I will write to the Congress in favor of it, if desired. The Congress, it is to be presumed, will draw no bills of exchange on me without enabling me to pay them. We have paid all their bills hitherto. I have no doubt of Mr. Sayre’s being well received by the Congress, agreeable to them, and very proper to be employed in establishing the proposed connexion of commerce.
7. Included in a March 4, 1800, report to the House of Representatives (American State Papers, XXXVI, 223–6) rejecting Sayre’s claims for compensation for services rendered the United States. For those claims see John R. Alden, Stephen Sayre: American Revolutionary Adventurer (Baton Rouge and London, [1983]), pp. 183–4.
8. To exchange Danish naval stores for tobacco in the Chesapeake: see Sayre’s Nov. 7 letter.