To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Harrison, 10 August 1779
From Richard Harrison6
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Amsterdam Augt. 10. 1779.
Sir
When the inclosed was put under my care I promised myself the Honor of conveying it to you long before this. But an accident which obliged me to take a circuitous Voyage by the West-Indies,7 prevented, & will, I trust, be a sufficient Excuse for the length of time it has been on it’s way.
I have the Honor to be most respectfully Sir Yr Excellency’s obt. & very hble. servt.
Rd. Harrison
Notation: Rd. harrison 10. aout 1779.
6. A Maryland merchant, who formerly had been agent in Martinique for both Virginia and Maryland.
7. While in Martinique he obtained a letter of introduction from his former business partner, William Bingham: XXIX, 640–1. He was in Passy on Nov. 26, when he took an oath of allegiance, attested by BF. APS. He subsequently became American agent, and later consul, at Cadiz: Richard B. Morris, ed., John Jay, the Winning of the Peace: Unpublished Papers 1780–1784 (New York, Cambridge, London, 1980), p. 41 and passim; Jefferson Papers, XVII, 246.