From Benjamin Franklin to Gérard de Rayneval, 13 October 1782
To Gérard de Rayneval
ALS: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copies: Library of Congress (two), Massachusetts Historical Society
Passy, Oct. 13. 1782.
Sir
With this you will receive the Copy you desired of Mr Oswald’s Commission.4
I request your kind Care in forwarding the enclos’d Letter to Spain, by your first Courier.
I have the honour to be with sincere Esteem & Attachment Sir Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
M. de Rayneval
4. Vergennes had still not seen the commission by the following day, when he complained to La Luzerne that BF and Jay were keeping from him all news of their negotiations with Oswald, including showing him a copy of Oswald’s full powers: Giunta, Emerging Nation, I, 617. According to Ridley’s account, BF also wanted to send Vergennes a copy of the preliminary articles (above, Oct. 5–7), but Jay insisted on silence because the French had “communicated to us none of their Secrets”: Klingelhofer, “Matthew Ridley’s Diary,” pp. 117–18 (entries of Oct. 2 and 5).