11The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners, 9 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; copies: Library of Congress; Yale University Library Captain Hammond having been detained longer than we expected, furnishes us with an opportunity of giving you the information we have since our last received from the Army, thro a Committee of Congress left at Philadelphia; for we have yet had no regular accounts from General Washington. On the 2d....
12The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners, 25 March 1777 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; copy: Library of Congress We are commanded by Congress to transmit Copies of their Resolve of the 13 instant to all the Gentlemen abroad that hold correspondance with any of their Committees. The Necessity of Such a resolution and due attention to it, is fully evinced by the heavy expence america has been put to by many Gentlemen received into their...
13The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 7 August 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Maine Historical Society; letterbook copy: National Archives The above is a Copy of our last, which went by the Dispatch Captain Parker. The Congress have since taken into consideration the heads of a Treaty to be proposed to France, but as they are not yet concluded upon, we cannot say more of them per this conveyance. You will see by the Newspapers which accompany this, that the...
14The 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...
15The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners, 2 February 1777 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; LS : Rutgers University Library ; draft: Harvard University Library; copies: National Archives (two), Library of Congress You will recieve inclosed copies of our letters of the 21st. and 30th. Decemr., and of the Resolves of Congress accompanying them. It concerns us not less than we are sure it will you, that you should have heard so seldom from us, but...
16The Committee of Secret Correspondence to [Silas Deane], 8 July 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from The North American and United States Gazette (Philadelphia), October 12, 1855. With this you will receive the Declaration of the Congress for a final separation from Great Britain. It was the universal demand of the people, justly exasperated by the obstinate perseverance of the Crown in its tyrannical and destructive measures, and the Congress were very unanimous in complying...
17The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners, 21[–23] December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society, New York Public Library, University of Virginia Library, British Library; AL (incomplete draft ): American Philosophical Society; three copies: American Philosophical Society, National Archives, Library of Congress This letter was in response to Deane’s of October 1, which was the first word from him in Paris that reached Philadelphia. He complained hotly...
18The Secret Committee to the American Commissioners, 14 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society; LS : American Philosophical Society, Harvard University Library; copies: Library of Congress, British Library. I have the honor to enclose herein a Copy of two Resolves of Congress passed the 19th and 29th Novr. by which the Secret Committee are directed to import two hundred and twenty Six Brass Canon and Arms and equipage compleat for three thousand...