1Two Letters from Giambatista Beccaria, [after 11 August 1773] (Franklin Papers)
Incomplete drafts: American Philosophical Society These letters were drafted in reply to Franklin’s of August 11, the preceding document, and were completed at some time between receipt of that letter and early March, 1774. Whether Beccaria sent them in draft is not clear, but only the drafts survive; and they pose an editorial problem. His earlier letters to Franklin, which have been...
2Notes on Colds, [1773?] (Franklin Papers)
AD (draft): Library of Congress These notes defy editing. They are hard to decipher; the ink has now faded in places to illegibility. They are on loose sheets of paper with no hint of their sequence, and frequent marginal additions have to be interpolated by guesswork. No internal evidence suggests a date, if indeed the sheets were all written at the same time. Previous editors, although they...
3To Benjamin Franklin from Anthony Todd, [1773?]: résumé (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society <1773? A note in the third person: thanks Franklin “for the Paragraphs which seem to be perfectly right”; the New York packet will sail, wind permitting, when tonight’s mail reaches Falmouth.>
4To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Rush, [after 15 September 1773] (Franklin Papers)
AL (incomplete): American Philosophical Society I acknowledge myself much indebted to you for the Instruction contained in your last Letter. I have met with many Facts which confirm your Opinion of the Origin of Catarhs from Cloaths, Beds, Books &c. Baron Van Swieten in his last Volume of Commentaries on Dr. Boerhave’s Aphorisms in treating upon Epidemic Diseases mentions with Astonishment a...
5Reply to D. E. Q., [after 30 October 1773] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Library of Congress The publication of “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One,” signed Q.E.D., attracted considerable attention, which Franklin stimulated by two shorter contributions to the same paper. On October 18 the Public Advertiser reprinted the “Rules,” and in the issues of October 29–30 it carried a reply from some one—Sir Francis Bernard, according to...
6On a Proposed Act to Prevent Emigration, [December? 1773] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Library of Congress The rate of emigration to America from Scotland and Ireland, particularly Ulster, increased rapidly in the years immediately before 1775. Rising rents were a principal cause, along with the unemployment that in Scotland followed the financial crisis of 1772 and in Ireland the collapse of the linen trade. By 1773 the drain of population was causing concern. In November...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Sir John Pringle, [December 1773?] (Franklin Papers)
AL : Historical Society of Pennsylvania Dr. Pringle’s Compliments to Dr. Franklin and if he is to be at home this evening and at leisure Dr. P. will wait upon him and play at chess. Mean while Dr. P. returns Dr. F. the French letter which he was to shew to C. Castries [?]. He sends him a small piece upon Electricity, sometime ago sent to Dr. P. from Germany, but which Dr. P. has not yet...
8To Benjamin Franklin from John Winthrop, 31 December 1773: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Library of Congress I concur perfectly with you in the Sentiments expressed in your last. No considerate Person, I should think, can approve of desperate Remedies, except in desperate Cases. The People of America are extreamly agitated by the repeated Efforts of Administration to subject them to absolute Power. They have been amused with Accounts of the pacific Disposition of the...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 29 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Dans le moment que je traçois cette première demie ligne on m’a annoncé une persone envoyée par M. Le Prince de Conti pour me demander si j’avois reçu la description et la figure que vous m’avez promise de votre cheminée, et me prier de lui en faire part aussitôt que je l’aurai. J’ai repondu que vous sauriez incessamment l’interêt que S.A.S. y prenoit et...
10To Benjamin Franklin from a Committee of the Library Company of Philadelphia, 28 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
Minutebook copy: Library Company of Philadelphia In Behalf of the Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, we acknowledge the receipt of your sundry favours, particularly of the 22d August 1772 with the Books by Falconer; for observations upon which you will please to be referr’d to the last Page of the Inclosed. Mr. Bache has likewise delivered Hawkesworth’s Voyages, McPherson’s...
11From Benjamin Franklin to John Ellis, 26 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Linnean Society, London I return the Book you were so kind to favour me with. Upon Consideration, tho’ I wish to do any thing you can be desirous I should do, I find it impossible for me to write any thing worth reading on a Subject that will be exhausted by Dr. Fothergill and yourself, who are both so much better acquainted with it. I am ever, with the greatest Respect and Esteem, Dear...
12Franklin’s Public Statement about the Hutchinson Letters, 25 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The London Chronicle , Dec. 23–25, 1773 By the late summer of 1773 the furor aroused by the Hutchinson letters had spread from Boston to London. Franklin’s role in the affair was still unknown; attention focused on who had obtained the correspondence from Thomas Whately’s papers, and a long controversy on this point began in the pages of the Public Advertiser . On September 4 an...
13To Benjamin Franklin from John Ellis, 25 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Mr. Ellis presents his respectful compliments to Dr. Franklin and begs he would return him the French Book upon Moco Coffee, as he intends to make some extracts from it. Dr. Fothergill being very desirous that the remarks upon Coffee should be speedily publishd. Hopes he will think of his kind promise of assisting therein, as it must speedily go to the...
14To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 21 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Library of Congress Since the Above the Teas are all destroyed but as the Vessell is just upon sailing must refer for particulars to Dr. Williamson the Bearer of this whom I recommend to your Notice and to whom I must also refer you for a particular Account of the transactions here and the other Colonies relative to this affair. I am with great respect your most humble servant The copy...
15To Benjamin Franklin from the Massachusetts House of Representatives Committee of Correspondence, 21 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress; LS : Harvard University Library; draft: Boston Public Library It has been the Expectation of many of the Colonists that the last Session of Parliament would have put a final end to those Grievances under which they had so long been oppressed, and against which they had so long, in vain, Remonstrated. They expected that the Revenue Acts would have been Repealed and...
16To Benjamin Franklin from Seth Paddock, 21 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I Was Very Well Received Here By our Kinsman and Family and a Number of Gentlemen Farmers Who Intend to Settle in Ameria I have Given Them my Best Advice of the Country Which is to land att New Yourk Which is in the Center of America and a Fine Country all Round them. I Am Prevaild upon to Stay Here and Keep Christmass. I Have addressd: Mr: Benjn: Stead for...
17To Benjamin Franklin from [Theodore Forbes?] Leith, before 20 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Lloyd’s Evening Post , Dec. 20–22, 1773 The Parmesan Cheese is not made at present in the neighbourhood of Parma, but is solely the produce of the State of Milan, and especially of the country betwixt Placentia and Milan; that made near Lodi is the most esteemed. The following account is given from an observation of the whole process, as conducted at a considerable Farmer’s on the...
18To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 17 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): British Museum In this letter, written the day after the Tea Party, Cooper confined himself until his conclusion to narrating the developments that culminated in destruction of the tea. His narrative is difficult to follow because it is not in chronological order; to clarify it we list the actual sequence of events. In his concluding comments on these events Cooper echoed a number...
19To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Franklin, 17 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I Received your kind Letter by Mr. Danforth with the book of advice Inclos’d, for which I kindly thank you, and hope I Shall follow your good Directions. I find Still the times are hard and Dificult, but Desire to be thankfull. I Rubb along with my Neighbours. I hope Sir these Lines may find you in good health as they Leave me and my Family. My Wife and my...
20To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 11 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Library of Congress Since the foregoing I have received another Letter from the Speaker of the House of Deputies of Rhode Island and wrote at their desire, requesting that I would use my Endeavors to procure them G: Rome’s original letter, I must therefore repeat my request to you Sir that you would be so Kind as procure and transmitt said Letter to Metcalf Bowler Esqr or Mr. Henry...
21To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., 11 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Inclosed is a Letter from the Revd. Doctr Mather which he desired me to send to you. I am much obliged by your kindness in procuring the Organ as desired which came out in good order, except the omission of one Pipe the 11th from the lef side in the second (leaden) Stop, which I suppose the [maker?] forgot: I shall be obliged if you will please to send me...
22To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 10 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
LS and copy: Library of Congress I have duly received your several Favors of Augt 24 and Sept 1st. with the papers Inclosed which I shall Communicate to the House as soon as they meet. Capts: Hall, Bruce and Coffin are arrived with a quantity of Tea shiped (in pursuance of a late Act of Parliament) by the East India Company to the address of Richard Clark & sons, Thos and Elisha Hutchinson,...
23To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Shipley, 9 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Tho I gave my Daughter Georgiana full powers to return You our best thanks for the kind Visit You intend us, I cannot help assuring You myself that We shall be most extreamly happy to see You and hope You will come as soon and stay as long as your Affairs will permit. Your Countrymen in N. America have done me too much honour for the little merit of meaning...
24To Benjamin Franklin from John Ellis, 8 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Mr. Ellis presents his kindest respects to Doctor Franklin, he has seen Doctor Fothergill very lately, who is very urgent to have his thoughts on Coffee go to the press. Mr. Ellis hopes that Doctor Franklin will be so good accordingly to promise to send him his thoughts on the [?] Subject, considering it in a Political light of the advantages it would be to...
25To Benjamin Franklin from Caffiéri l’ainé, 6 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Jay l’honneur de vous donner avis que je vous Envoie par messieurs minet & fector de Douvres une Caisse Emballee Contenant Librairie marquee MF Libri que Jay recû de Paris d’Envoy de Mr. Pankouke. Vous voudrèz bien avoir la Complaisance de men accuser la reception, jay deboursè pour port de Paris à Calais passavants porteurs &c. 15 livres tournois, que jay...
26To Benjamin Franklin from the Marquis de Condorcet, 2 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Voici, mon cher et illustre confrere, quelques questions que je prends la liberté de proposer à la Société philosophique de Philadelphie, et dont je vous supplie de vouloir bien me procurer la reponse. 1°. Si les pierres calcaires et les silex renfermant des productions marines, ou des empreintes de productions marines, ces productions soit coquilles soit...
27To Benjamin Franklin from Nathaniel Falconer, 2 December 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society This will inform you of my Savef arrivall of Dover after a passage of 30 Days. I took my Leave of mrs. Franklin the Last Day of November in the morning when She mrs. Beach and the two Boys where all well. I hope in a few Days to have the pleashure of takeing by the hand my best Compliments to mrs. Stevenson mrs. and mr. hewson and master Temple. I am Dear...
28To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Bache, 30 November 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I send you the inclosed that you may see the Disposition the good People of this City are in, respecting the Tea, that is hourly expected. The Paper however is designed more as a Scare Crow, than any thing else. I am with Respect Dear sir Your Affectionate son Addressed: To / Doctor Benjamin Franklin / Craven Street / London He doubtless enclosed the...
29To Benjamin Franklin from Jean-Baptiste LeRoy, 29 November 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Je me proposois tous ces Jours cy de vous écrire Monsieur et cher confrère pour vous rendre compte d’un mémoire que j’ai lu à notre rentrée publique sur la forme des conducteurs de la Foudre ou des Gardes-Tonnerre mais malgré moi cela ne m’a pas été possible. Cependant Je crois que M. Dubourg vous en aura écrit. Deux choses m’ont déterminé à cette Lecture...
30To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 25 November 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society J’ai reçu le paquet que vous avez eu la bonté de m’envoyer par M. Stanley, qui ne m’a point laissé son adresse, et que je n’ai pu savoir d’ailleurs. Ce paquet contenoit les Transactions philosophiques de Philadelphie, la vie de M. Collinson, et les deux dernieres pieces que vous avez publiées dans les papiers publics, et j’ai lu le tout avec le plus grand...