Benjamin Franklin Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-27-02-0401

Jonathan Loring Austin to the American Commissioners, 19 September 1778: résumé

Jonathan Loring Austin to the American Commissioners8

ALS: American Philosophical Society

<Passy, September 19, 1778: On Tuesday [September 22] I will leave for Holland and then for America. I would appreciate letters of recommendation to Congress, the Massachusetts Council and other assemblies or individuals. Had I the money myself or had I not exceeded the credit with Pliarne, Penet & Cie. given me by the Board of War in Boston, I would not ask compensation for my time and expenses. I will be answerable to you or to Congress for any sum you advance me. P.S.: Please recommend our commercial house whose address I leave.9 I expect soon to report in French to the public about my activities, despite my lack of time here for study.>

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

8Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VII. In a covering letter to JA, Austin asked him to lay the present letter before the commissioners (APS).

9Before coming to France with the news of Saratoga, Austin had been an active merchant in Kittery and Portsmouth: Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, XVI, 303.

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