61From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 14 September 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and transcript: Library of Congress; copy: Public Record Office I now send you the Passport required. I postpon’d answering your last in hopes of obtaining it sooner; but tho’ it was long since agreed to, much Business in the Admiralty Department here has I suppose occasion’d its Delay. The Port of Calais was not approv’d of, and I think the Ports mention’d (Nantes or L’Orient) are better...
62From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 25 January 1779 (Franklin Papers)
LS : The Current Company, Bristol, R.I. (1977); transcript: Library of Congress I a long time believed that your Government were in earnest in agreeing to an Exchange of Prisoners. I begin now to think I was mistaken. It seems they cannot give up the pleasing Idea of having at the End of the War 1000 Americans to hang for high Treason. You were also long of Opinion, that the Animosity against...
63From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley: Two Letters, 22 February 1779 (Franklin Papers)
(I) LS , AL (draft), copy, and transcript: Library of Congress; (II) transcript and incomplete copy: Library of Congress I received your Favor of Jany 23d containing the Answer you had received from the Board of Sick and Hurt, in which they say they are taking Measures for the immediate Sending to France the Number of Americans first proposed to be changed, &c. I have heard nothing since of...
64From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 8 June 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Stanley R. Becker, East Hampton, New York (1976); transcript: Library of Congress I wrote you a few Lines the 25th of last Month, mentioning that we had here 200 English Prisoners, and desiring you to propose an Exchange. I hope you receiv’d my Letter and that I shall soon be favour’d with an Answer. We are oblig’d to keep the Prisoners on Shipboard where I doubt they cannot be...
65From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 14 April 1782 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Library; copy: William L. Clements Library The Bearer having been detain’d here, I add this Line to suggest, that if the new Ministry are dispos’d to enter into a General Treaty of Peace, Mr Laurens being set intirely at Liberty may receive such Propositions as they shall think fit to make relative to Time, Place, or any other Particulars, and come hither with them. He is...
66From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 8[–10] October 1779 (Franklin Papers)
LS , copy, and transcript: Library of Congress My Dear Friends late Letters have been long in coming, having met some Delay on the Way. I am told the Communication is now more open. As Captain Tattwell cannot now perform his Engagement specifically by procuring the Release of Captain Harris and his Crew, I think he may be discharged of his Parole by obtaining the Release of some other Captain...
67From John Adams to David Hartley, 12 September 1780 (Adams Papers)
I am obliged to you for a Letter of the 14th of August, which was this day delivered me, by your Friend. You was not misinformed when you heard that the Object of my Appointment, was Peace; nor do I differ from your Opinion that this Appointment was honourable; altho I See no Prospect at all, of ever acting in Virtue of it. War, will not last forever it is true: but it will probably last long...
68From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 16 [February] 1782 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Library of Congress I received your favour of the 24th. past wherein you have taken the Pains to rectify a Mistake of mine relating to the Aim of your Letters. I accept kindly your Explication and hope you will excuse my error when you reflect, that I know of no Consent given by France to our treating separately for Peace, and that there has been mixt in most of your Conversations &...
69From Benjamin Franklin to [David Hartley], 1 January 1779 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : National Maritime Museum I am glad to learn by your Favour of the 19th past, the good Disposition of the Board who are to manage the Exchange. They may depend on the fairest and most candid Proceeding on the Part of the Commissioners here. Our Agent at Nantes, whose Name you desire, is Mr Schweighauser, a Noted Merchant there, who does our Business by Sub-Agents in the other Ports of...
70From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 26 February 1775 (Franklin Papers)
AL : D. A. F. H. H. Hartley Russell (1955), on deposit in the Berkshire Record Office This note is the first extant communication between Franklin and a man who, as correspondent and eventually as peace negotiator, was destined to play a considerable part in his life. David Hartley ( c. 1730–1813), the son of a physician-philosopher well known in his day, was a close friend of Sir George...
71The American Peace Commissioners to David Hartley: Answers to Propositions, [29 June 1783] (Franklin Papers)
Copies: William L. Clements Library, Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society (two), National Archives (two), Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; transcript: National Archives Answers to Mr Hartleys six Propositions for the definitive Treaty— To the 1st This matter has been already regulated in the 5th & 6th Articles of the Provisional Treaty to the utmost extent of our...
72From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 25 May 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and copy: Library of Congress I am glad to learn by the Newspapers that you got safe home, where I hope you found all well. I wish to know whether your Ministers have yet come to a Resolution to exchange the Prisoners they hold in England, according to the Expectations formerly given you. We have here above two hundred who are confin’d in the Drake, where they must be kept, as we have not...
73From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 13 May 1782 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; copy: Library of Congress; transcripts: Massachusetts Historical Society, National Archives I have just received your Favour of the 3d. Instant. I thank you much for the good News you give me, that “an Order is issued by your Government for the Release of all the American Prisoners everywhere , an Order not partial or conditional , but general and absolute...
74From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 7 January 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: William L. Clements Library I have this moment recd your favour of the 25th past acquainting me with the change in administration. I am sure that in reforming the Constitution wch is sometimes talked of, it wd not be better to make your great offices of State hereditary, than to suffer the inconvenience of such frequent & total changes. Much Faction & Cabal wd be prevented, by having a...
75The American Peace Commissioners to David Hartley, 7 September 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: Massachussetts Historical Society, Library of Congress We have the honour of transmitting herewith enclosed an Extract of a Resolution of Congress of the 1. May last, which we have Just recd. You will perceive from it that we may daily expect a Commission in due Form, for the Purposes mentioned in it, and we assure you of our Readiness to enter upon the Business, whenever you may think...
76From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 23 March 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin … (3 vols., 4to, London, 1817–18), II , 428. I received the letter you did me the honour of writing to me requesting a recommendation to America of Mr. Joshua Grigby. I have accordingly written one; and having an opportunity the other day, I sent it under cover to Mr. Benjamin Vaughan. The...
77American Peace Commissioners to David Hartley, 17 July 1783 (Jay Papers)
We have the honour to inform you that we have just received from Congress their Ratification in due Form of the Provisional Articles of the 30 th : of November 1782, and we are ready to exchange Ratifications with his Britannic Majesty’s Ministers as soon as may be. By the same Articles it is stipulated, that his Britannic Majesty shall with all convenient Speed, and without causing any...
78From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 12 September 1775 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): Library of Congress I have this Day received your Favours per Capt. Falconer, of which more in my next. With this I send you a number of Newspapers and Pamphlets, by which you will see Things are become serious here. Your Nation must stop short, and change its Measures, or she will lose the Colonies for ever. The Burning of Towns, and firing from Men of War on defenceless Cities...
79From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 26 February 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library; transcript: Library of Congress I receiv’d yours of the 18th and 20th. of this Month, with Lord North’s proposed Bills. The more I see of the Ideas and Projects of your Ministry, and their little Arts and Schemes of amusing and dividing us, the more I admire the prudent, manly and magnanimous Propositions contained in your intended Motion for an Address to the...
80From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 8 May 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: Public Record Office, William L. Clements Library, Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society Although the American peace commissioners refused to conduct formal negotiations with David Hartley until he received a commission granting him full powers, they took advantage of his presence to exchange ideas. On April 29 (above) they discussed three proposed articles for a...
81From John Jay to David Hartley, 14 December 1789 (Jay Papers)
I have had the Pleasure of rec g your Letter of the Day of August last. Whether the United States will be more or less happy than other nations God only knows; I am inclined to think they will be, because to me there appears to be ^in my opinion^ more Light & Knowledge ^are^ diffused thro the Mass of the People of this Country than of any other. The Revolution in France certainly promises...
82From Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 6 May 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Dartmouth College Library What as far as we know was the first letter Franklin wrote after landing was not to his son or sister or some close friend, as might be expected, but to an Englishman who three months earlier seems to have been no more than a casual acquaintance. In late February, when Hartley asked for information, Franklin furnished it in a formal, third-person note, and a few...