From Benjamin Franklin to James Searle, 13 September 1780
To James Searle
ALS: Miss Lillian S. Wilson, Scarsdale, N.Y. (1955)
Passy, Wednesday morning Sept. 13. 1780
Sir
I received the Letters and Pacquets you were so good as to send me by Mr Dana on Monday,5 and I thank you for your Care of them. I sent my Grandson the same Afternoon to congratulate you on your Arrival, and to request the Honour of your Company at Dinner this Day. But he did not meet with you. I was out all Day yesterday at Versailles, and so the Repeating of the Message happen’d to be omitted. If you are not otherwise engaged I shall be glad to see you. My Grandson will conduct you.6 With great Regard, I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Honble. Mr Searle
5. See Searle to BF, Sept. 11. Searle informed Dana that Congress had empowered JA to seek a loan in the Netherlands pending the arrival of Henry Laurens; Dana left immediately for Amsterdam to inform JA: Adams Correspondence, III, 416–17. BF provided him with a signed printed passport dated Sept. 11 (Mass. Hist. Soc.); for the passport’s format see XXXII, 413n.
6. On Sept. 16 Searle wrote WTF that he would dine with BF the following day (APS). Presumably he received little encouragement from BF about the prospects of obtaining a loan for Pennsylvania in France, as a month later he proceeded to the Netherlands: BF to Dumas, Oct. 2 and Dumas to BF, Oct. 20, both below.