To Benjamin Franklin from John Carroll, 11 May 1776
From John Carroll
ALS: Henry E. Huntington Library
Montreal May 11th. 1776
Dear Sir
Among the inclosed papers is an open letter to Genl. Schuyler in recommendation of Mrs. Walker, which your B[rothe]r Commissioners desire you would deliver to her.
If you can conveniently wait all tomorrow at S. Johns, you will oblige me much, as I am uncertain whether I shall not join you.6 Believe me, my Dear Sir, that no one can wish your welfare more ardently, or bear a greater regard for you than, Dear Sir Your affectionate and most obedient servant
J Carroll
6. The note to Schuyler for Mrs. Walker is above, May 11. BF had decided to leave, according to Charles Carroll, partly because of his declining health and partly because of the grim prospect in Canada. Journal, pp. 75–6. Father Carroll left because his mission had proved hopeless. The Canadian clergymen whom he saw argued that they were better off under the British than they ever would be under the Americans, who were intolerant of Catholicism. In addressing the British people in 1774 Congress had called their faith, they reminded him, “a religion that has deluged your island in blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder and rebellion through every part of the world.” See Bernard U. Campbell, “Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Most Rev. John Carroll,” U.S. Catholic Mag. and Monthly Rev., III (1844), 244–6, and for the quotation JCC, I, 88. Carroll did join BF at St. Johns, and they traveled together to Philadelphia; see the note on BF to Carroll and Chase below, May 27.