In the latter part of February, 1783, William Franklin and the other Loyalist representatives who had submitted a petition to Parliament at the beginning of the month2 published a pamphlet entitled The Case and Claim of the American Loyalists Impartially Stated and Considered. The first section, “The Case of the American Loyalists,” reviewed the royal proclamations issued during the war and described the Loyalists’ dutiful responses. The second section, “The Claim of the American Loyalists,” argued that Great Britain was legally and morally obligated to compensate them for their losses, and that British citizens had to share their burden.3

The present manuscript, undated and incomplete, appears to be the start of a response to the “Claim.” The two answers Franklin drafted follow directly from the two sentences that form that section’s second paragraph, which launches a 22-page argument. Franklin was on the verge of composing a third answer when he seems to have abandoned the exercise. No other versions of this project survive, nor have any references to it been located among his own papers, the papers of his contemporaries, or in the press. He did compose another kind of counter-argument to the Loyalists’ claims in the form of an apologue, published immediately below. In that piece, the objections he expresses here are delivered as a speech so persuasive that the claims were summarily rejected.