From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Rhoads, 30 June 1774
To Samuel Rhoads
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London, June 30. 1774
Dear Friend
I send you herewith a few Pamphlets which I request you to distribute among the Committee and others as you may think proper. The Considerations are said to be by Lord Camden, the Speech by the Bishop of St. Asaph, both my good Friends.6 I hope soon for the Pleasure of finding you and yours well and happy; and am ever Yours affectionately
B Franklin
Saml Rhoads Esqr
Addressed: To / Samuel Rhoads Esqr / Philadelphia / per Capt. Miller / with a Parcel
6. The committee was the Pa. Assembly committee of correspondence. One of the pamphlets was Considerations on the Measures Carrying on with Respect to the British Colonies in North America … (London, 1774), published in April. Although BF was not alone in attributing it to Camden, modern scholars agree with the Gent. Mag., XLIV (1774), 480, and the Monthly Rev., LII (1775), 177, that the author was William Robinson-Morris, for whom see the DNB. A second pamphlet was Jonathan Shipley, A Speech, Intended to Have Been Spoken on the Bill for Altering the Charters of the Colony of Massachusett’s Bay (London, 1774), which had been published ten days before: Public Advertiser, June 20. Both are reprinted, with introductions and annotation, in Paul H. Smith, ed., English Defenders of American Freedoms, 1771–1778 (Washington, 1972), pp. 11–14, 29–43, 45–105.