1To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 15 August 1774 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): British Museum This letter brought Franklin his earliest first-hand news, as far as we know, that the crown was losing control of Massachusetts. The arrival on May 13 of the commander in chief and new governor, Thomas Gage, did not slow the process. The General Court that had just been elected clashed with him immediately on the choice of Council members, and on the transfer of the...
2To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 6 November 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): British Museum My State of Health, and Excursions upon that Account into the Country must be my Excuse for not taking an earlier Notice of your very obliging Packet of 8th June, for which I return you my particular Thanks. Your Letter and Replies to Mr. Strahan’s Questions gave me great Pleasure, tho the closing and prophetic Part coming from one so capable of discerning amidst...
3To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 15 November 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): British Museum I wrote you the 6. Inst. acknowledging the Receit. of your very obliging Packet of June 8th. and mentioning the Use I have made of your Letter &c among some of the leading Men in our H. of Represent. in whom I could confide. They agreed with me that your Principles were incontestible, your reasoning clear and conclusive, and supported by History and Fact. The King...
4To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 15 March 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have been confin’d to my House great Part of this Winter by my valetudinary State, and been little able to see and converse with my Friends, and less to write to them. A Line from you would have greatly refresh’d me in this Confinement, as your Letters have ever been one of the greatest Entertainments of my Life: but I do not mean to complain, having been...
5To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 9 September 1774 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society; draft copy: British Museum This letter carries on the story begun in Cooper’s earlier one above, August 15, of the collapse of royal authority in Massachusetts. But, as with his description of the crisis that culminated in the Tea Party, the chronology is confused; and in the confusion the principal developments are obscured. Outside Boston, as the King’s...
6To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 10 November 1773 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): British Museum I received your valuable Favors of the 7th and 25th of July, and you will please to accept the Thanks of the Committee of our Congregation as well as my own for the Trouble you have very kindly given yourself in your clear and particular Account of the warming Machines for large Rooms, and your Advice respecting our new Building, together with the truly philosophical...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 3 August 1769 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): British Museum I am now to acknowledg the repeated Favor of your Letters, with the Notes of Mr. P.’ Speech in Parliament, the arguments on the Dissenting Cause; and the Political Pamphlets, in which you have given me no small Entertainment. I could not forbear communicating what you wrote to some particular Friends, to whom I knew it would give great Pleasure, and to allow some...
8To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 1 January 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): British Museum In my last of Novr [15] I mention’d the Uses I had made of the Sentiments you were pleas’d to communicate to me, and the Effect they had upon the leading Men of our House of Commons. I did this with much Caution as that no Disadvantage can acrue to you from any Quarter. The same Caution I shall ever use respecting my Friends on your Side the Water who are so good as...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 10 July 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): British Museum I should sooner have acknowledg’d the Receit of your Favors of Decemr 30. and Feby 5. had not the State of my Health call’d me out of Town, and oblig’d me to be sparing in Writing. My Thanks are due to you for writing me with so much Freedom and I endeavor to make the best Use of what you communicate to me. Your Interposition in Favor of the Charter was kind, and...
10To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 14[–15] June 1773 (Franklin Papers)
AL (incomplete): American Philosophical Society; ALS (draft): British Museum I wrote you on the 15th. March and 23d of April last, and mention’d in these Letters, which I hope you have receiv’d, the most important Political Occurrences among us, particularly the grand Discussion, in the last Session of Assembly between the Governor and both Houses, and the great Effect it had upon the Minds of...
11To John Adams from Samuel Cooper, 16 October 1774 (Adams Papers)
Having just been informed that Mr. Tudor is going to Philadelphia, I take this opportunity to thank you for the obliging favor of your letter of 29th September. The struggle, as you justly observe, between fleets and armies and commercial regulations, must be very unequal: We hope, however, the congress will carry this mode of defence as far as it will go, and endeavor to render it as early...
12To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 1 April 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society; draft: British Museum I wrote you in Septr and Aug: last, and it is a great While indeed since I have had the Pleasure of a Line from you. The Anxiety and Distress bro’t upon us by the Port Bill and other Acts, and the Troops and Ships of War station’d here have been great; and much Art and Pains have been employ’d to dismay us, or provoke us to some...
13To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 23 August 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): British Museum Tho I wrote you not long since by Mr. Lane, yet Commodore Gambier telling me He shall take Pleasure in bringing you a Letter; I cannot forbear mentioning the Obligations we are under to this Gentleman in his Department as Commander of the Ships station’d here. Ever attentive to the Kings Service He has enterd into no Parties; He has treated with great Humanity and...
14To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 17 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): British Museum In this letter, written the day after the Tea Party, Cooper confined himself until his conclusion to narrating the developments that culminated in destruction of the tea. His narrative is difficult to follow because it is not in chronological order; to clarify it we list the actual sequence of events. In his concluding comments on these events Cooper echoed a number...