Benjamin Franklin Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-43-02-0222

Thulemeier to the American Commissioners: Résumé, 10 December 1784

Thulemeier to the American Commissioners3

LS and copy: National Archives

⟨The Hague, December 10, 1784, in French: Your letter of November 10, conveyed by a Dutch courier, did not reach me until the 26th. I transmitted to the king a French translation of your draft treaty,4 to which the recent instructions of Congress obliged you to make a few changes that differ from the proposal I gave to Mr. Adams on April 9. I will notify you of the king’s observations on the new draft as soon as they reach me. Article 23 is dictated by the purest zeal for the good of humanity. Nothing could be a more just reflection on the noble disinterestedness of the United States. It is to be desired that these sublime sentiments should be adopted by all maritime powers without exception. The calamities of war would be softened, and hostilities, often provoked by cupidity and greed, less often repeated. Please remember the request I made in my letter of October 18,5 regarding the preference of the United States as to a port city for the exchange of commerce.⟩

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

3Published in Jefferson Papers, VII, 565–6, and, with an English translation, in Adams Papers, XVI, 400–2.

4Thulemeier also forwarded the commissioners’ draft treaty in English, their justification for adding Article 23 (which he also had translated), and a copy of the Americans’ May 12 commission. His cover letter pointed out the addition of Articles 13 and 23, paraphrasing the commissioners’ letter of Nov. 10: Thulemeier to Frederick II, Dec. 10, 1784, Geheimes Staatsarchiv PreuBischer Kulturbesitz.

5A slip of the pen; his letter of Oct. 8 is above.

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