From Benjamin Franklin to Tristram Dalton, [11] August 1780
To Tristram Dalton
Copy: Library of Congress
Passy, Augt. [11] 1780.1
Sir,
I wrote to you the 17th. of October last, on the Subject of your unfortunate Brig.2 I suppose you received that Letter, as the Vessel I sent it by arrived.3 I now enclose a Copy of the Answer I some time since received to my Application on your Behalf, together with a Copy of a Letter I wrote immediately on receiving that Answer.4 I have since heard nothing more of the affair. The minister of the Marine has in this time of War an infinity of Business. I suppose it has slipt his Memory; But I will remind him of it, tho’ I cannot say I have much hopes of Obtaining a Reconsideration. I have the Honour to be Sir, &c.
Tristram Dalton Esqe. Newbury Port, New England.
1. The letter comes between two others of that date in BF’s letterbook. It is not a response to Dalton’s letter of July 22, above, which BF would not have had time to receive. BF and JA had discussed the Fair Play incident, and Francis Dana also was familiar with Dalton’s concerns: Adams Papers, VIII, 356; Dalton to BF, July 22.
2. XXX, 544–5.
3. Probably the Mercury, which had reached Martha’s Vineyard in February: XXX, 473n, 618–19n.
4. In June Sartine had announced the payment of 15,000 l.t. as compensation for the sinking of the Fair Play, a sum which BF argued was insufficient: XXXII, 596, 614–15.