To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Harrison, 28 August 1784
From Benjamin Harrison
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Virginia, Richmond Augt 28. 84
Dear Sir
This will introduce to you Mr William Short, a Gentleman of my particular acquaintance, and a member of the Council of this State; you will find him the agreeable Gentleman, a man of considerable abilities, and in every respect worthy your civilities at [and] attentions, to which I most earnestly recommend him. He goes to France to join his intimate friend Mr Jefferson, in whose place I request you to stand, if his business should have called him from Paris, before Mr Shorts arrival.5 I have the honor to be with sentiments of the most Perfect esteem and regard your most Obedient Hble Servant
Benja Harrison
5. TJ had invited the promising 24-year-old, whom he viewed as possessing “very uncommon genius, erudition and merit,” to accompany him to Paris and serve as his private secretary. Short, having been advised by William Alexander to maintain an independent identity lest he be shunned by Parisian society as a “Domestic,” kept his seat on the Executive Council of Virginia, to which he had been elected in 1783. The Council soon replaced him, and when TJ succeeded BF as minister to France in 1785, Short was appointed the legation secretary and began drawing a congressional salary: DAB; Jefferson Papers, VI, 123; VII, 148–9, 229, 254–7; VIII, 546–7.