11The Committee of Secret Correspondence: a Report to Congress, [on or before 14 February 1776] (Franklin Papers)
AD : National Archives The invasion of Canada, authorized by Congress in June, 1775, had begun in August under Major General Philip Schuyler. Because of his ill health the command almost immediately devolved upon his subordinate, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who by November had captured the forts at Chambly and St. Johns and the city of Montreal. Governor Carleton escaped to Quebec...
12Charter Party between the Secret Committee and Joseph Harper and James King, 1 February 1776: résumé (Franklin Papers)
DS : The Rosenbach Foundation <February 1, 1776: The agreement is between members of the committee and James King and Joseph Harper, Philadelphia merchants and owners of the brigantine Cornelia of approximately 100 tons, Thomas Genn master, to hire her for a voyage to France. She is to sail to a port in South Carolina to be subsequently designated, there to be loaded with rice, indigo, or...
13Contract between the Secret Committee and John and Nicholas Brown, 6 February 1776: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Copy: John Carter Brown Library <Philadelphia, February 6, 1776: The Browns will procure in Europe 10,000 good blankets at approximately 4 s. 6 d. to 5 s. sterling apiece; 9,200 yards of blue and brown broadcloth for uniforms and 800 yards of different colors for facings, most of the cloth, being for privates, at about 4 s. sterling per yard and the rest, for officers, at 6 s. ; ten tons of...
14Charter Party between the Secret Committee and Joseph Hewes, 14 February 1776: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Copy (microfilm): University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill <February 14, 1776: The agreement is between members of the committee and Joseph Hewes of North Carolina, merchant, one of the owners of the brigantine Fanny of approximately 150 tons, now in the York River, to hire her for a voyage to Europe. She will be in good condition and well provisioned and manned. The owners will pay...
15Contract 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...
16The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Certificate for Silas Deane, [2 March 1776] (Franklin Papers)
DS : Connecticut Historical Society; DS : Library of Congress; copy: South Carolina Historical Society; copy: Yale University Library We the underwritten, being the Committee of Congress for secret Correspondence, do hereby certify whom it may concern, that the Bearer, the Honourable Silas Deane Esquire, one of the Delegates from the Colony of Connecticut, is appointed by us to go into France,...
17The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Instructions to Silas Deane, 2 March 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Connecticut Historical Society; copy: Yale University Library; copy: South Carolina Historical Society These instructions, which were probably drafted by Franklin, are the first to an American agent in a foreign country. They mark an important step toward the assumption of sovereignty, and the committee of secret correspondence seems to have taken that step on its own initiative. The...
18The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Instructions to William Bingham, 3 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania These instructions were composed on the day that Congress authorized the secret committee to export to the West Indies enough goods to pay for the 10,000 muskets described in the second paragraph. Bingham’s mission to the Caribbean was similar to Deane’s earlier one to Europe in that both went in a dual role. Each was the agent of the committee of secret...
19The Committee of Secret Correspondence to William Bingham, 3 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society We deliver you herewith two Letters from the secret Committee of Congress, one directed to Messr. Adrian Le Maitre and Mr. Richard Harrison at Martinico, whereby they are directed to pay the Net Proceeds of a Cargo of Provisions Consign’d them per the Sloop Fanny Capt. Britton to our Order and We have endorsed on said Letter that the Payment is to be made to...
20The Secret Committee to Richard Harrison and Adrien le Maitre, 3 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society We wrote you the 2d Ultimo by the Sloop Fanny Capt. Wm Britton which we hope will get safe, at that time we directed how you were to dispose of the Net Proceeds of the Cargo Consigned you by said Sloop and probably you may have complyed with those orders before this reaches you, if so its well, but if those orders are not executed and you remain possessed of...