To John Jay from Benjamin Franklin, 24 April 1782
From Benjamin Franklin
Passy, Apl 24. 1782
Dear Sir,
The Prince de Masseran,1 being so good as to desire carrying a Letter to you, I sit down to write you a few Lines, tho’ I hope soon to see you.
Enclosed I send a Copy of one of Mr. Deanes Letters.2 I shall shew you more when you come.
In consequence of a Proposition I sent over, the Parliament of Britain have just passed an Act for exchanging American Prisoners.3 They have near 1100 in the Goals of England & Ireland, all committed as charged with high Treason. The Act is to impower the King, notwithstanding such Commitments to consider them as Prisoners of War according to the Law of Nations, and exchange them as such. This seems to be giving up their Pretensions of considering us as rebellious Subjects, and is a kind of Acknowledgment of our Independence. Transports are now taking up to carry back to their Country the poor brave Fellows who have borne for Years their cruel Captivity, rather than serve our Enemies; and an equal Number of English are to be deliver’d in Return. I have upon Desire furnish’d Passports for the Vessels.
I believe you will find the Marquis D’Yranda the surest Friend upon Occasion; and his Connection with our Banker here,4 makes the Money Transactions more easy than with another. But I hope those perplexing Affairs are over. You will be right in taking the Arrangements with the Marquis which you mention in yours of March 29.5
Our Affairs in Holland are en bon Train, we have some Prospect of another Loan there;6 and all goes well here.
The Proposal to us of a separate Peace with England, has been rejected in the manner you wish,7 and I am pretty certain they will now enter into a General Treaty. I wrote you a few Lines by last Post, and on the same Day a few more by the Court Courier.8 They answered chiefly to press your coming hither to assist in the Affair. With great & sincere Esteem, I am ever, Dear Sir,9 Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B. Franklin
I inclose what I suspect to be a pretended American Paper,10 which, however, tho’ it should be ^found^ fictious, as to the Form, is undoubtedly true as to the Substance. For the English cannot deny such a Number of Murders having been really committed by their Instigation—
His Exy.. J. Jay Esqre..
LS, in the hand of William Temple Franklin, UkWC-A (EJ: 26). Marked: “No. 26”. Endorsed: “ . . . Recd. 9 May 1782”.
1. The prince de Masserano, who served as an aide-de-camp on Crillon’s staff. See Lafayette to JJ, 28 Apr. 1782, below.
2. Enclosure not found. Possibly Deane to BF, 1 Feb. 1782. See , 36: 507–25; 37: 206.
3. William Hodgson had kept BF informed about a bill for a general exchange of prisoners that Edmund Burke had introduced in Parliament in early 1782. See Hodgson to BF, 1 and c. 22 Mar. and 14 Apr. 1782, all written from London, PU: Franklin.
4. Ferdinand Grand.
5. See this letter, above.
6. JA obtained a loan of 5 million florins at 5 percent interest from a consortium of Amsterdam bankers on 11 June 1782. F. van Wijk, De Republiek en Amerika, 1770–82 (Leiden, 1921), 167; Pieter J. van Winter, American Finance and Dutch Investment, 1780–1805, trans. James C. Riley (2 vols.; New York, 1977), 2: 1086.
7. See BF to JJ, 16 Mar. 1782, above.
9. The remainder of the complimentary close and the postscript are in BF’s hand.
10. Enclosure not found, but it was undoubtedly BF’s Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle, no. 705, a fictitious account BF printed on his press at Passy that described a massacre of New England farmers by the Seneca. , 37: 206n.