Benjamin Franklin Papers
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Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-27-02-0136

Dumas to the American Commissioners, 24 July 1778: résumé

Dumas to the American Commissioners3

ALS: American Philosophical Society; AL (draft): Algemeen Rijksarchief

<The Hague, July 24, 1778, in French: It is reported that France has declared war on England,4 causing the British stocks to decline in Amsterdam. It is also reported the British have released the Dutch ships they captured. Thank you for forwarding me the packet from the committee of secret correspondence. I will continue to do all I can to add to our friends and weaken the enemy. On Monday5 I may perhaps deliver the treaty to the Grand Pensionary; I will also send it to Amsterdam. Two copies are being made; on French instructions articles 11 and 12 will be eliminated.6>

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

3Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VI, 313–15.

4Neither France nor Britain ever issued a formal declaration of war.

5July 27.

6The two articles of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce that the United States and France had agreed to drop.

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