11The Secret Committee to the American Commissioners, 14 January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society; LS : American Philosophical Society, Harvard University Library; copies: Library of Congress, British Library. I have the honor to enclose herein a Copy of two Resolves of Congress passed the 19th and 29th Novr. by which the Secret Committee are directed to import two hundred and twenty Six Brass Canon and Arms and equipage compleat for three thousand...
12The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 1 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Harvard University Library; letterbook copy: National Archives Mr. Morris has communicated to us the substance of your letters to him down to the 23rd June when you was near setting out for Paris. We hope your reception there has been equal to your expectation and our wishes, indeed we have no reason to doubt it considering the countenance we have met with amongst the French Islands, and...
13The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 23 October 1776: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Haverford College Library; copy: National Archives <Philadelphia, October 23, 1776: We have written you twice today by different ships. This letter goes by the Andrew Doria to St. Eustatius, to be forwarded to William Bingham and by him to you in a French vessel. We enclose two resolutions of Congress. The first replaces Thomas Jefferson as commissioner with Arthur Lee, whom you will...
14The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Certificate for Silas Deane, [2 March 1776] (Franklin Papers)
DS : Connecticut Historical Society; DS : Library of Congress; copy: South Carolina Historical Society; copy: Yale University Library We the underwritten, being the Committee of Congress for secret Correspondence, do hereby certify whom it may concern, that the Bearer, the Honourable Silas Deane Esquire, one of the Delegates from the Colony of Connecticut, is appointed by us to go into France,...
15The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 2 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Haverford College Library; letterbook copy: National Archives We have this day received from the Honorable Congress of Delegates of the United States of America the important papers that accompany this letter being, These papers speak for themselves and need no Strictures or remarks from us, neither is it our business to make any. You will observe, that in case of the absence or...
16The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 7 August 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Maine Historical Society; letterbook copy: National Archives The above is a Copy of our last, which went by the Dispatch Captain Parker. The Congress have since taken into consideration the heads of a Treaty to be proposed to France, but as they are not yet concluded upon, we cannot say more of them per this conveyance. You will see by the Newspapers which accompany this, that the...
17The Committee of Secret Correspondence: Instructions to Silas Deane, 2 March 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Connecticut Historical Society; copy: Yale University Library; copy: South Carolina Historical Society These instructions, which were probably drafted by Franklin, are the first to an American agent in a foreign country. They mark an important step toward the assumption of sovereignty, and the committee of secret correspondence seems to have taken that step on its own initiative. The...
18The Committee of Secret Correspondence to [Silas Deane], 8 July 1776 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from The North American and United States Gazette (Philadelphia), October 12, 1855. With this you will receive the Declaration of the Congress for a final separation from Great Britain. It was the universal demand of the people, justly exasperated by the obstinate perseverance of the Crown in its tyrannical and destructive measures, and the Congress were very unanimous in complying...