1Silas Deane to Robert Morris and the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 23 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : (duplicate): Library of Congress This letter, in form to Morris but in fact to the committee, is the only one from Deane that Franklin surely saw before his departure for France; it was therefore part of his small stock of information about what would face him in Europe. The letter deals only with the preliminaries of Deane’s mission, because he reached France long after he had hoped to....
2To John Jay from Robert Morris, 23 September 1776 (Jay Papers)
Altho your express delivered me your favour last Wednesday or Thursday yet I did not receive the letter from M r . Deane untill this day and shall now send after the Express that he may Convey this safe to your hands. Shou’d he be gone I must find some other safe conveyance. You will find enclosed both M r . D—ne’s letters as you desired and I shall thank you for the Copy of the Invisible...
3To John Jay from Robert Morris, 12 January 1777 (Jay Papers)
I have been possessed of your obliging fav r . of the 2 d Ulto a considerable time, but being too much pressed with public & private business to permit my being a regular correspondent it is needless to apologize. You undoubtedly must have been well acquainted with the rapid progress made by our Enemies through the Jerseys and the danger to which this City has been exposed for some Weeks past,...
4To John Jay from Robert Morris, 4 February 1777 (Jay Papers)
Your favour of the 7 th Ult o came safe to hand, Timothy Jones is certainly a very entertaining, agreable Man, one woud not judge so from any thing contained in his cold insipid letter of the 17 th Sept r . unless you take pains to find the Concealed beauties therein, The Cursory observations of a Sea Captain wou’d never discover them, but transferred from his hand to the penetrating Eye of a...
5To John Jay from Robert Morris, 1 April 1777 (Jay Papers)
The enclosed letters came by a French Ship to New Hampshire & were sent under Cover to me by M r Langdon with many others, I believe they are from England, and wish they may convey agreable Tidings. Last Week a Brig t arrived here with 6800 Muskets & 2100 Gun Locks, another in Maryl d With 633 bbls Powder & this ship into Portsmouth brought with her about 12,000 Muskets, 1000 bbls Powder a...
6To John Jay from Robert Morris, 6 July 1780 (Jay Papers)
I am absolutely ashamed to think how long you have been gone & that in all that time I have not found time ^ leisure ^ to write you a line, & even now sit down in the midst of hurry & Confusion occasioned by the dispatch of several Vessels under my care all going away together; just to enclose a letter from M rs . Meredith at Trenton to M rs . Jay. I regret that I did not fix a Cypher with...
7To John Jay from Robert Morris, 5 June 1781 (Jay Papers)
I must freely acknowledge the justice of Your charge against me as a bad Correspondant, for the force of Truth wou’d Convict were I to deny, and perhaps Friendship will hardly bear with paliatives but knowing well your attachment to and practice of Sincerity, I shall honestly tell you I did not like to write on political matters, and in what may be called Domestick you had constantly better...
8To John Jay from Robert Morris, 29 June 1781 (Jay Papers)
I did expect to have written you official letters before this time, having now received my Commission and fairly entered upon the duties of my Station, but Congress press business on me so exceedingly, that I cannot yet command the time necessary for writing all I have to say to you. This I write at the request of a most worthy man, my friend M r . John Ross, to whom Congress have made a...
9To John Jay from Robert Morris, 4 July 1781 (Jay Papers)
The Derangement of our Money Affairs. The Enormity of our public Expenditures. The Confusion in all our Departments. The Langour of our general System. The Complexity and consequent Inefficacy of our Operations. These are some, among the many, Reasons which have induced Congress to the Appointment of a Superintendent of Finance. I enclose you Copies of their Resolutions on that Subject, with...
10To John Jay from Robert Morris, 7 July 1781 (Jay Papers)
This will accompany my former Letter of the 4 th Instant, which you will perceive to be so written, as that it may be shewn if necessary to the spanish Minister. You will make such Use of it as Prudence may dictate. I would gladly now give you Details of our Situation and Plans for reforming it But I have not yet sufficiently obtained the one, nor mastered the other. Whenever I am in Capacity...