1To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 31 October 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society In pursuance of the directions of the House of Representatives of this His Majesty’s Province, I have the pleasure to Inform you that they have made choice of you as their Agent in Great Britain for the purposes mentioned in the Vote which I now transmit you. I am directed also to acquaint you that the House will write you more fully by the next...
2From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 24 December 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin … (10 vols., Boston, 1836–40) VII , 492–4. In his letter to Samuel Cooper six months before, Franklin had put more emphasis on loyalty to the King than was perhaps welcome to leaders of the Massachusetts House. During the debate over the agency he had been criticized for being, as a postal official and the father of a colonial...
3From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 5 February 1771 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin ... (10 vols., Boston, 1836–40), VII , 501–6. In 1770 Franklin, in a series of letters to American friends, began a commentary on various aspects of the imperial constitution. The letter below is part of this series. It discusses the current state of the American controversy and prospects for the future, and in the process...
4From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 10 June 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Public Record Office During Franklin’s correspondence with leading Bostonians over the past year, the gap between his views and theirs had been gradually narrowing; but this letter shows that it had not yet closed. He deplored the exercise of the King’s prerogative through instructions to governors, he denied that Parliament might bind the colonies without their consent, he believed that...
5To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 20 July 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society At the desire of the Committee of the House of Representatives I now transmitt you a Copy of the Commissioners Taxes in the Towns of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Brooklyn for the years they respectively resided in those towns certified by the Assessors of the Several Towns aforementioned. I am with respect Your most humble Servant See the House Committee to BF...
6To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 2 October 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society This will be handed you by William Storey Esqr. who will deliver you the Votes of the last sessions of the General Court. He goes home to sollicit for releif from the Difficulty under which he at present labours; Natha. Wheelwright Esqr. during Mr. Storeys being Deputy Register in the Court of Admiralty had a Vessell and Cargo Seized and Condemned in said...
7From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Public Record Office; incomplete draft: American Philosophical Society I am now return’d again to London from a Journey of some Months in Ireland and Scotland. Though my Constitution, and too great Confinement to Business during the Winter, seem to require the Air and Exercise of a long Journey once a Year, which I have now practiced for more than 20 Years past, yet I should not have...
8From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 13 April 1772 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin … (10 vols., Boston, 1836–40), VIII , 7–8. I wrote to you in January last a long letter, by Meyrick, and at the same time wrote to the Committee, since which I have received no line from any one in Boston, nor has Mr. Bollan yet received the answer we wait for, respecting the eastern settlements on the crown land. The Parliament...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 15–23 July 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library The petition from the Massachusetts House enclosed in the following letter marked another advance in the logic leading toward independence. Whitehall’s intention to pay colonial officials out of revenue drawn from America by the Townshend duties was engendering greater and greater opposition in the Bay Colony. In 1771 Hutchinson had exacerbated it by refusing to...
10From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 3 September 1772 (Franklin Papers)
AL (letterbook draft): Library of Congress I write this Line just to acknowledge the Receipt of your several Favours of July 15 and 16, enclosing the Resolves of the House relating to the Governor’s Salary, and the Petition to the King. Lord Dartmouth, now our American Minister, will probably not be in Town till the Season of Business comes on, I shall then immediately put the Petition into...