The continental congress having been pleased to appoint us a committe for collecting an account of the hostilities committed by the ministerial troops and navy in America, since last March, with proper evidence of the truth of the facts related, the number and value of the buildings destroyed, and of the vessels inward and outward bound seised, by them as nearly as can be ascertained, and also...
Proposals. That two Battallions of Marines be raised consisting of one Collonell, two Lt. Collonells, two Majors &c. (officers as usual in other Regiments) that they consist of five hundred Privates each Battalion, exclusive of Officers. That particular Care be taken that no Persons be appointed to office or inlisted into Said Battalions but such as have actually Served in the Merchant Service...
3VII. Naval Committee to Dudley Saltonstall, 27 November 1775 (Adams Papers)
The Congress are now preparing two Ships and two Brigantines to be fitted out as soon as possible to cruise against our common enemy. They have thought of you as a proper person to take the command of one of those ships as Captain. If you enter into this service, which we take to be the service of your country, you will give us the earliest information and repair to Philadelphia as soon as...
4VIII. Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies, 28 November – December 1775 (Adams Papers)
ART. 1. The Commanders of all ships and vessels belonging to the THIRTEEN UNITED COLONIES, are strictly required to shew in themselves a good example of honor and virtue to their officers and men, and to be very vigilant in inspecting the behaviour of all such as are under them, and to discountenance and suppress all dissolute, immoral and disorderly practices; and also, such as are contrary...
5Contract 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...
6Silas 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....
7To John Jay from Silas Deane, 2 December 1776 (Jay Papers)
I send you the Memoirs of Mr. Beaumarchais and direct you to begin at the 20th page and collored the margins to the 6th page or 8th of the next Memoire. I hope my other letter may arrive, as it is difficult writing in this way. Let me entreat you to send me some instructions and powers in proper form, if you design I shall represent the United States in any tolerable character. I am, my dear...
8To John Jay from Silas Deane, 3 December 1776 (Jay Papers)
If my Letters arrive safe they will give you some Idea of my situation—without Intelligence, without Orders, and without remittances, yet boldly plunging into Contracts, Engagements, &. Negotiations, hourly hoping that something will arrive from America— By General Coudry I send 30.000 Fusils—200 ps. of Brass Cannon, Thirty Mortars 4000 Tents, &. Cloath g for 30.000 Men, with 200 Tons of Gun...
9The 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,...
10The 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,...
11The 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...
12The 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...
13The 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...
14[The American Commissioners]: Memoir [for Vergennes], [c. 8 January 1777] (Franklin Papers)
D : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères The situation of the United-states, require an immediate supply of Stores of various sorts, of which a proportion of Military for the opening and supporting the coming Campaign. Vessels or Ships belonging to the United-States cannot be procured, and if they could, the Danger and Risque would be very great. Diffuculties have arose at the...
15Negotiations over Tobacco between the American Commissioners and the Farmers General: Two Documents, 9 January 1777 and … (Franklin Papers)
(I) D : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: American Philosophical Society; incomplete copy, Harvard University Library. (II) AD (draft): American Philosophical Society On January 9 the commissioners met with a committee of the farmers general to begin negotiations for a tobacco contract. The agenda of that meeting, or the product of it, was written questions from the farmers...
16The American Commissioners to the Baron de Rullecourt, 10 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: University of Virginia Library This letter of appointment is the only dated record of one of the most bizarre schemes to which the commissioners ever lent themselves. A considerable amount of material about the plan is extant among Franklin’s papers in the American Philosophical Society: two letters from the Baron to the commissioners, a proposed agreement between him and Franklin, and a...
17[Duportail and the American Commissioners]: Memorandum on Terms of Service, [11 January 1777] (Franklin Papers)
D : American Philosophical Society 1. M. de Portal demands to be at the Head of the Corps d’Ingenieurs in America: and under the Orders only of the General, or the Commander in chief in the Place where he may be. 2. He demands a Rank superior to that he enjoys at present, which is Major in the marine Infantry. 3. He proposes to take two Captains of the same Professions with him: to whom should...
18The American Commissioners to Gérard, 14 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library The commissioners are here acknowledging, on the surface, the King’s message that Gérard had transmitted to them the day before. Their gratitude, however, had little to do with the message, which offered them nothing beyond a vague promise, at the end, of help in purchasing supplies. What they are in fact...
19The American Commissioners to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 17[–22] January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
LS and two copies: National Archives; copy: South Carolina Historical Society We joined each other at this place on the 22d. of December and on the 28th. had an Audience of his Excellency the Count De Vergennes, one of his most Christian Majesty’s principal Secretarys of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs. We laid before him our Commission with the Articles of the proposed Treaty of...
20The American Commissioners: Receipt for Money from the French Treasury, 17 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères We the underwritten, Ministers plenipotentiary from the Congress of the United States of America, do hereby acknowledge, that we have received of Mons. Micaut d’Harvelay, Garde du Tresor Royal, the Sum of Five Hundred Thousand Livres, Money of France. Witness our Hands, The loan discussed in the preceding letter. Joseph Micault d’Harvelay...
21The American Commissioners to [Montaudoüin], 26 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Library of Congress We are very much obligd to you for the information containd in yours of the 21st. Mr. Williams’s good sense will prevent him from being materially embarrassd by any manouvre employd to make him counteract our Instructions. We cannot so entirely comprehend the obligation we have to the Mayor and Aldermen of your City, as to know in what terms to return it. As it is...
22The American Commissioners to Thomas Morris, 26 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Library of Congress We have expected some Remittances from you to our credit, in consequence of the sales which have been made at Nantes. You must be sensible how very unbecoming it is of the situation we are in, to be dependent on the credit of others. We therefore desire that you will remit with all possible expedition the Sum allotted by the Congress for our expences. Notation: Mr. T....
23The American Commissioners to Samuel Nicholson, 26 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Library of Congress You are directed to proceed to Boulogne, and there purchase, on as good Terms as possible a Cutter suitable for the purpose of being sent to America; on the purchase being made dispatch the Vessel to Havre du Grace to the Care of Monsr: Limozin, and agree in the Bargain to have her delivered at said Port at the risque and expence of the Original Owner, at which...
24The American Commissioners to Thomas Morris, 30 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: National Archives; copy: University of Virginia Library; AL (draft): Library of Congress We are inform’d that the Cargoes at Nantes, have been disposed of some time past, yet we are still without any remittance from you. The Congress directed you to pay Mr. Dean for the purposes of our Embassy the sum of ten Thousand pounds; this you must consider as the first and most Important...
25The American Commissioners: Memorandum to Vergennes, 1 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library This memorandum, most of it in Franklin’s hand, marks a distinct departure from the position that he generally maintained. He “was from the first averse to warm and urgent solicitations with the Court of France,” Silas Deane remarked years later. “His age and experience, as well as his philosophical temper,...
26The American Commissioners: Two Resolutions, 2 February 1777, 5 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
(I) DS and draft DS (incomplete); (II) ADS : all University of Pennsylvania Library The context of these resolutions is the commissioners’ memorandum to Vergennes of February 1, in which they urged France to enter the war. Their instructions gave them almost no practical leverage for achieving that end, and they were considering how far they could stretch the instructions. Congress had...
27The American Commissioners to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 6 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
LS and copy: National Archives; copy: Harvard University Library Since our last, a Copy of which is enclosed Mr. Hodge is arrived here from Martinique, and has brought safely the Papers he was charged with. He had a long Passage and was near being starved. We are about to employ him in a Service, pointed out by you, at Dunkirk or Flushing. He has delivered us three sets of the Papers we...
28The American Commissioners to the President of Congress, 6 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and copy: National Archives This will be delivered to you by M. de Coudray, an Officer of great Reputation here, for his Talents in general, and particularly for his Skill and Abilities in his Profession. Some accidental Circumstance, I understand, prevented his going in the Amphitrite; but his Zeal for our Cause, and earnest Desire of promoting it, have engag’d him to overcome all...
29The American Commissioners: Proposed Memorial to Lord George Germain, 7 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
DS : Library of Congress; ADS (draft): Library of Congress Whereas the Snow Dickenson with her Cargoe, which was the property of the Congress of the United States of America, was by an Act of Piracy, in some of her Crew, carried into the port of Bristol in England, and there as we are informed, was converted to the use of the Government of Great Britain; and the perpetrators of so base and...
30The American Commissioners to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 8 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and copy: National Archives Since Our last We have received the inclosed Intelligence from London, which we take the earliest Opportunity of forwarding, in hopes it may be received with Our other Letters by Nantes. A Vessel from So: Carolina, loaded by that state, which sailed the 20th December, is arrived at L’Orient with Rice and Indigo. As We were particular in Our last which was sent...