1Arthur Lee to Samuel Adams, 10 June 1771: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: reprinted from Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee ... (2 vols., Boston, 1829), I , 216–18. When Franklin was elected agent for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the autumn of 1770, it was over the opposition of a faction led by James Otis and Samuel Adams. Their candidate was Arthur Lee, and they succeeded in having him named as alternate, to serve if Franklin were...
2To George Washington from Arthur Lee, 10 July 1771 (Washington Papers)
When I sit down to sollicit your patronage; I trust more to your goodness, than to any claim I can have on your favor from merit or acquaintance. Having understood, that it is probable the Assembly will revive the Agency-bill; I take the liberty of entreating your vote & interest, in being appointed. Knowing what influence you very justly possess; I shall greatly depend for success, on your...
3To Benjamin Franklin from Arthur Lee, 21 August 1772 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Historical Society of Pennsylvania Mr. Lee’s Compliments to Dr. Franklin. The Gentleman who deliverd him the inclosd Letter, having informd him, that the Bearer of it from Mr. Cushing was under an express injunction to deliver it to Dr. Lee in the absence of Dr. Franklin, as the Contents requird immediate attention; Mr. L. took the Liberty of opening it. The Contents however appear to Mr....
4The Petition to the House of Lords against the Boston Port Bill, [26 March 1774]: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Summary of DS : House of Lords Library In late March three petitions against the bill, from Americans in London and a few Englishmen with American connections, were presented to the three branches of the legislature. All were the handiwork of Arthur Lee, and Franklin was a signer. The first was delivered to the House of Commons on the 25th, the second to the Lords on the 28th, and the third to...
5The Petition to the House of Lords against the Massachusetts Government and Administration of Justice Bills, [before 11 … (Franklin Papers)
Summary of DS : House of Lords Library In March a group of Americans in London had petitioned against the Boston Port Bill, and in May much the same group protested against the two coercive measures that followed. It was Arthur Lee, we assume, who again drafted separate petitions to the King, Lords, and Commons; and Franklin again signed them all. They were as fruitless as the signers, after...
6The Continental Congress to Franklin, William Bollan, Edmund Burke, Charles Garth, Arthur Lee, Thomas Life, and Paul … (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress This letter from the Congress over the signature of its president carried to England the official news, so long awaited, of what had happened in Philadelphia. The letter was drafted at the end of the session by a committee of two and approved on the last day, October 26. Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Congress, enclosed it in a covering letter of the same date...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Lord Dartmouth to Franklin, William Bollan, and Arthur Lee, 23 December 1774: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Public Record Office <St. James’s Square, Friday, December 23, 1774: A note in the third person asking them to meet him at his house at ten the following morning. > To learn how the King had received the petition from the Continental Congress; see the following document.
8From Benjamin Franklin to the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly: a Circular Letter from Franklin, William Bollan, and … (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Princeton University Library; draft: Library of Congress When four of the seven agents to whom the Congress had entrusted its petition refused to have anything to do with it, the three representatives of Massachusetts faced the problem of how to deliver it; and they decided to depart from their instructions and not put it directly into the hands of the King. The “regular Official...
9Three Public Notices Concerning the Petition from the Continental Congress, 17–18 January 1775 (Franklin Papers)
I and II: printed in The Whitehall Evening Post , respectively January 19–21 and 14–17, 1775; III: printed in The Public Advertiser , January 20, 1775. Once Dartmouth informed the Massachusetts agents on December 24 that the King had received the petition from the Congress and would lay it before Parliament, they had to decide when it might properly be published. As soon as it had been...
10From Benjamin Franklin to the Speakers of the Colonial Assemblies: a Circular Letter from Franklin, William Bollan, and … (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress Our last Letter informed you, that the King had declared his Intention of laying the Petition before his two Houses of Parliament. It has accordingly been laid before each House, but undistinguished among a Variety of Letters and other Papers from America. A Motion made by Lord Chatham, to withdraw the Troops from Boston, as the first Step towards a conciliating Plan,...