To Benjamin Franklin from Arthur Lee, 3 January 1779
From Arthur Lee
LS:4 American Philosophical Society
Chaillot Janry. 3d. 1779
Sir
I enclose you a letter received Yesterday from Dr. Berkenhout, the Author of those which were communicated to you the Year before last on the same Subject.5 If you think any use can be made of it for the public Good, I shall be glad to be informed of it.
One of those, which I sent you before with the Answer I proposed giving to it, I have searched for and cannot find among my papers. Tho’ I think you returned it; yet I shall be obliged to you for looking over your papers for it, as perhaps it may be among them.
I am with great Respect, Sir Your Most obt. Servan
Addressed: To the Honble / Benjamin Franklin Esqr. / at / Passi
Endorsed: Mr Lee about Dr Berkenhout
4. In Hezekiah Ford’s hand.
5. In August, 1777, Lee’s old school friend and a British agent, Dr. John Berkenhout, had contacted him in an unsuccessful attempt to initiate American-British negotiations (XXIV, 554). On Dec. 25, 1778, he wrote Lee again, claiming, “I hate all your bloody minded rogues on both sides the question. Peace, everlasting peace is my hobbyhorse . . .” (Harvard University Library; reproduced in Lee Family Papers, reel 5, frames 546–7). He then suggested that the two meet somewhere on the European continent; Lee turned over a copy of the letter to Vergennes (Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, III, 7–8) as he had done in 1777.