91To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 25 May 1779 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: Library of Congress I was in hopes to have had something material to have communicated to you before this but I presume that matters of so much importance & difficulty require long & repeated consideration— In a very long conference of above two hours I enforced every argument for peace upon the terms wch I have explained to you, or nearly upon similar terms, but at all events for...
92To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 24 February 1778 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: Library of Congress Yours of Feb 12 received. I have called at Mr. Hutton’s door, but he was not at home, I shall deliver the letters to morrow. We are to have a very long day in the house today, so that I cannot enter into any matter at present. Suspend for a few hours, or days. Times seem to be mending. Let us take all possible chance of reconciliation. While there is life there...
93To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 29 August [i.e., May?] 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Library of Congress Will you be so good as to send me Mr Maddison’s pamphlet, the time is come for me to return. Be so good as to send me the memorials of the merchants trading to Carolina & Georgia. I must take copies in case of any future correspondence upon the Subject— Can you & Mr Franklin do me the favour to dine with me on Saturday next at 3 o’clock Addressed: A Son Excellence /...
94To Benjamin Franklin from [David Hartley], 14 November 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Public Record Office; copy: Clements Library Hartley’s cast of mind was similar to that of the peace negotiators with whom Franklin dealt during his last months in England. All of them regarded reconciliation as a problem to be analyzed, ordered, and reduced to rational terms from which a rational solution might emerge. Barclay and Fothergill pinned their hopes on negotiating by...
95To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 13[–17] May 1782 (Franklin Papers)
Transcripts: National Archives, Massachusetts Historical Society I wrote you a long Letter dated May 1st. 1782. by Mr. Laurens, who left London on Saturday last, but I will add a few Lines now by a Conveyance, which I believe will overtake him, just to tell you two or three Things, which, I believe, I omitted in my last. Perhaps they may not be of any Consequence; but, as they relate to my own...
96To Benjamin Franklin from [David Hartley], 25 May 1782 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin … (3 vols., 4to, London, 1817–18), II , 349–50. Yours of the 13th instant I received by Mr. Oswald. I did not doubt but that the news of a general and absolute release of the American prisoners which Lord Shelburne was so good to communicate to me, in answer to that part of your letter of the 5th...
97To Benjamin Franklin from [David Hartley], 2 May 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society We have striven, to the utmost of our limited powers, for reconciliation between Great Britain and America. If that is become impossible, let us, at least, not relax our endeavours to obtain peace . Upon what ground wou’d it be possible to establish peace? By your letter to Lord Howe, which has been lately published here, as well as from all other accounts,...
98David Hartley to the American Peace Commissioners: Memorandum, [before 27 April 1783] (Franklin Papers)
D : Massachusetts Historical Society; copy: Public Record Office David Hartley arrived in Paris on April 24. The following day he called on the individual American peace commissioners and found them eager to arrange for the opening of British and American ports to each other’s trade and to conclude as quickly as possible a definitive treaty of peace. On April 26 he went to Versailles,...
99To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 18 December 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society; transcript: Library of Congress I hope the Exchange will now meet with no longer delay. I have been referred to a personal Conference and Consultation with the board of Commissioners of Sick and Hurt, wch is the Executive board for the Exchange. I there saw all the instructions from the admiralty to them, together with the Kings consent to the Exchange...
100To John Adams from David Hartley, 11 March 1782 (Adams Papers)
Having been long informed of your benevolent Sentiments towards peace I writt a letter to you on the 19th of last month thro the hands of Mr Laurens junr to renew that subject with you because I was aware at that time from conferences and correspondencies to wch I had been a party that the topic of peace wd soon become general. I understand that Mr Jay Dr Franklin Mr Laurens and yourself are...
101To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 21 March 1782 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin … (3 vols., 4to, London, 1817–18), II , 289–90. You will have heard before this can reach you, that Lord North declared yesterday in the House of Commons that his Majesty intended to change his ministers. The House is adjourned for a few days to give time for the formation of a new ministry. Upon...
102Proposals for an Anglo-American Commercial Agreement, June 1783 (Adams Papers)
[ Paris ], June 1783. LbC-Tr ’s in Jean L’Air de Lamotte’s hand ( Adams Papers ); APM Reel 103. The two proposals calendared here, one by David Hartley and the other by John Jay, are dated June in the Letterbook, but any effort to arrive at an exact date is problematical. They were likely done sometime after 21 May but prior to Hartley’s letter to the commissioners of 14 June , above, and...
103David Hartley to the American Peace Commissioners: Memorial, 1 June 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: National Archives (two), Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, Public Record Office; transcript: National Archives The proposition which has been made for an universal & unlimited reciprocity of Intercourse & Commerce, between Great-Britain and the American United-States, requires a very serious Consideration on the part of Great-Britain, for the reasons already stated...
104To Benjamin Franklin from [David Hartley], 23 November 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Public Record Office Some American friends have desired to have an account drawn out of Mr. Hartleys proposition for terms of accommodation, drawn up with a view to send it to some of their friends in America for their opinion, therefore an account of the plan of those motions which are to be actually moved in the house next week has been drawn up from part of the letter which was sent...