91From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 8 October 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Press copy of ALS and transcript: Library of Congress; copy: William L. Clements Library I received your favour of the 24th past, and rejoice that you have a reasonable Prospect of the Recovery of your dear Sister in time. I join with you most cordially in “Wishes to forward, not only the Continuance of Peace between the two Countries, but the Improvement of Reconciliation”; and I “presume” as...
92From Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson, 13 September 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Library of Congress Mr Livingston having resigned, I am obliged to trouble you with some Notes of Enquiry, and other Papers that have been put into my Hands from time to time. If you can procure any of the Informations desired, you will much oblige me and some of my Friends.— With great Esteem, I am ever, Yours most affectionately Endorsed: Letter from Doct Franklin Sept 13. 1783.— After...
93From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Cooper, 26 December 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Press copy of ALS and transcript: Library of Congress I have received your Favour of the 16th October, and am much oblig’d by the Intelligence it contains.— I am happy to hear that your Government has agreed to furnish Congress with the Means of discharging the National Debt. The Obstruction that Measure met with in some of the States, has had very mischievous Effects on this side the Water;...
94From Benjamin Franklin to the Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, 30 July 1784 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress; copy: Massachusetts Historical Society; transcript: National Archives I have the honour to communicate to your Excellency an Extract from the Instructions of Congress to their late Commissioners for treating of Peace, expressing their Desire to cultivate the Friendship of his Imperial Majesty and to enter into a Treaty of Commerce for the mutual Advantage of his...
95From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 18 October 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères I was much obliged by the Readiness with which your Excellency favour’d my Request of a Sauf Conduit for Mr Bondfield, and I beg you to accept my thankful Acknowledgements. Permit me to ask another Favour of the same kind for my Nephew Mr Williams, who I am confident will make Use of it for the Advantage of his Creditors. With great and...
96From Benjamin Franklin to Crocco, 15 December 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Press copy of LS : National Archives I have just received the Letter you did me the honour of writing to me the 25th. past. I did indeed receive your former Letter of July, but being totally a Stranger to the mentioned Proceedings of Mr. Montgomery and having no Orders from Congress on the Subject, I knew not how to give you any satisfactory answer, till I should receive farther Information;...
97From Benjamin Franklin to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, 25 February 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Philosophical Society Enclosed I send you a Letter and sundry Papers I lately recd from Mr. Eckhardt of Utrecht, a most ingenious Mechanician whom I first knew in London. You will see what he desires, and what Answer I have made him. If you can do him any Service, I need not pray you to do it, because you have a Pleasure in assisting Genius: Show if you please what he says of...
98From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 31 May 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Gilder Lehrman Collection; copy: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères Some Inconveniencies are said to have arisen from a want of Certainty in the Powers of our Consuls. The Articles respecting that Matter have been some time prepared and agreed to between Mr de Raynevall and me. If there is no Change of Sentiment respecting them, I beg leave to request your Excellency would...
99From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Shipley, 22 August 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library When I am long without hearing from you, I please my self with re-perusing some of your former Letters. In your last of April 24. 83. you mention the Departure of Anna Maria with her Husband for Bengal. I hope you have since heard often of their Welfare there. When you next favour me with a Line, please to be particular in letting me know how they do. My Grandson,...
100List of Letters to Write, [c. 1 January 1784?] (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society Lettres à ecrire Chev. de Karalio M. de Breteuil Mr. le Chancelier Mr Chase M. de Vergennes Mr Todd Quy. what is become of the Post-Office Negn Chevr d’Osmont M. Lamy Made Chaumont Bonnefoy Hambourgh R Peters Esqr Turin Miss Davies Amelia Barry—
101From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Sr., 20 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Biblioteca Labronica The Bearer, Mr Biederman, is recommended to me by Persons of Distinction, as a Gentleman of Worth & very respectable Character, charged with the Concerns and Interest of many principal Manufacturers and Merchants in Saxony, between which Country and ours I should be glad to see a commercial Intercourse opened and established, as it might be advantageous to both. I...
102Proposal for a Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce: Articles 13, 23, and 24, [before 10 November 1784] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: National Archives The twenty-seven-article treaty proposal that the American commissioners sent to Thulemeier on November 10 was copied, with the appropriate adjustments, from the one they had prepared for use with Denmark; see the headnote and documents immediately above. Jefferson’s final draft of the proposal for Denmark is published in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, with all...
103From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 6 September 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: Massachusetts Historical Society, William L. Clements Library (two), Library of Congress (two) Inclosed is my Letter to Mr. Fox. I beg you would assure him, that my Expressions of Esteem for him are not mere Professions. I really think him a Great Man; & I could not think so, if I did not believe he was at Bottom, and would prove himself, a good One. Guard him against Mistaken Notions...
104From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Banks, 30 November 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Library; press copy of ALS : Harvard University Library I did myself the honour of writing to you the Beginning of last Week, and I sent you by the Courier, M. Faujas’s Book upon the Balloons, which I hope you have receiv’d. I did hope to have given you to day an Account of Mr Charles’s grand Balloon, which was to have gone up yesterday; but the filling it with inflammable Air...
105From Benjamin Franklin to Félix Vicq d’Azyr, 1 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Académie Nationale de Médecine, Paris I should be very happy to be present at the Reading of your Eloges of Messrs Sanchez & Hunter; but my Indisposition, the Stone, makes it extreamly inconvenient to me to use a Carriage on the Pavement, or to be confined long in a Room, so that I cannot have the Pleasure you propose to me so kindly of meeting the Society whom I highly respect, on...
106From Benjamin Franklin to John Adams, 5 February 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society I received the Letter you did me the Honour of writing to me the 24th past. You have had a terrible Passage indeed, taking it all together from London to Amsterdam. The Season has been, and continues, uncommonly severe, and you must have suffered much. It is a Pity that the good Purpose of your Voyage, to save if possible the Credit of Mr Morris’s Bills...
107From Benjamin Franklin to William Temple Franklin, 8 September 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have receiv’d no Line from you since that from Dover. I continue as well as when you left me. M. le Veillard is much better but still weak and cannot yet go abroad.— The rest of our Friends are well, and often enquire after you. I intended to have sent you some more Letters; but my Time has been all devour’d by Business and Visitors. The inclos’d Pacquet...
108To John Jay from Benjamin Franklin, 10 September 1783 (Jay Papers)
I have received a Letter from a very respectable Person in America, containing the following Words viz. “It is confidently reported, propagated and believed ^ by some ^ among us, that the Court of France was at bottom against our Obtaining the Fishery and Territory in that great Extent in which both are secured to us by the Treaty; that our Minister at that Court favoured, or did not oppose...
109From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Hewson, 26 December 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library In reading Mr Viny’s Letter when I receiv’d it, I miss’d seeing yours which was written behind it in a Corner. I thank you much for your kind Offer respecting my Grandson. I was fully resolv’d on sending him in September last, and engag’d Mr Jay, one of my Colleagues then going to England, to take him over in his Company: But when it came to be propos’d to him, he...
110From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Price, 2 August 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Mrs. J. W. Williams, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland (1955) I received your Favour of the 12th past with the Pamphlet of Advice to the Americans, for which I thank you much; it is excellent in itself, and will do us a great deal of Good. I communicated immediately to Mr Dupont the Letter of Mr Turgot, thinking him the properest Person to consult on the Subject, as he has the Care of the...
111From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 15 December 1783 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères I understand that the Bishop or Spiritual Person who superintends or governs the Roman Catholic Clergy in the United States of America, resides in London, and is supposed to be under Obligations to that Court, and subject to be influenced by its Ministers. This gives me some uneasiness, and I cannot but wish that one should be appointed to...
112From Benjamin Franklin to La Condamine, 19 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): American Philosophical Society; LS : Bakken Museum I receiv’d the very obliging Letter you did me honour of writing to me the 8th Inst. with the Epigram &c. for which please to accept my Thanks. You desire my Sentiments concerning the Cures perform’d by Comus, & Mesmer. I think that in general, Maladies caus’d by Obstructions may be treated by Electricity with Advantage. As to the...
113From Benjamin Franklin to Ingenhousz, 16 January 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library; copy: Library of Congress I have this Day received your Favour of the 2d Instant. Every Information in my Power respecting the Balloons I sent you just before Christmas, contain’d in Copies of my Letters to Sir Joseph Banks. There is no Secret in the Affair, and I make no doubt that a Person coming from you would easily obtain a Sight of the different Balloons of...
114From Benjamin Franklin to [John Calder], 21 August 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Press copy of ALS : Library of Congress Understanding that my Letter intended for you by General Melvill was lost at the Hotel d’Espagne I take this Opportunity by my Grandson to give you the purport of it, as well as I can recollect. I thank’d you for the Pleasure you had procur’d me of the General’s Conversation, whom I found a judicious, sensible, and amiable Man. I was glad to hear that...
115Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures, [May 1784] (Franklin Papers)
AD (draft): Library of Congress; press copy of copy: American Philosophical Society The “dry fog” that blanketed much of Europe during the summer of 1783 had occasioned much scientific speculation, but its cause was as yet unknown. In this paper, written nearly a year after the fog first appeared, Franklin was less concerned with its cause (though he did propose a theory that would turn out to...
116From Benjamin Franklin to Lewis R. Morris, 14 September 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and transcript: National Archives I receiv’d by the Washington the Bills and Accounts mentioned in yours of the 5th of June, and shall soon send you an Account of the Disposition of the Money. My Account as stated by you appears to be right. With much Esteem I have the honour to be, Sir Your most obedient & most humble Servant
117From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 22 October 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin … (3 vols., 4to, London, 1817–18), 11, 439. I received my dear friend’s kind letter of the 4th instant from Bath, with your proposed temporary convention which you desire me to shew to my colleagues. They are both by this time in London, where you will undoubtedly see and converse with them on...
118Outline of an Unsent Letter to Charles Thomson, [before 11 November 1784] (Franklin Papers)
AD (draft): American Philosophical Society These notes for a letter that was never written display a sense of bitterness and disappointment rarely seen in Franklin’s papers. That he even contemplated sending such a letter, albeit a private one—admitting to Thomson that he felt unappreciated and was “sorry and asham’d” for having asked a personal favor of Congress (a favor not granted)—betrays...
119From Benjamin Franklin to Cadet de Vaux, 5 February 1784 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Bibliothèque Municipale, Nantes Malgré tout le desir que J’ai, Monsieur, de faire quelque Chose qui puisse vous etre agreable ainsi qu’a M. Votre Frere,— Il m’est absolument impossible de faire le voyage de Paris dans Ce moment cy; ma Maladie, et la saison rigoureuse, sont des obstacles insurmontables pour moi— J’ai moi meme fait executer un Poele Cheminée propre a bruler le Charbon de...
120To John Jay from Benjamin Franklin, 26 October 1785 (Jay Papers)
This will be delivered to you by M r . Houdon, the Statuary of Paris who was agreed with by M r Jefferson and my self, at the Request of the Government of Virginia, to come over & take the Bust of General Washington, in order to make his Statue for that State. He has made the Bust, which is much admired by the Connoisseurs here, and will show it to you. He goes to New York, partly with a View...