From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 6 December 1782
To Vergennes
LS:4 Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères
Passy, 6 Decr 1782
Sir,
I have the honour of returning herewith the Map your Excellency sent me Yesterday. I have marked with a strong Red Line, according to your desire, the Limits of the thirteen United States, as settled in the Preliminaries between the British & American Plenipotentiarys.5
With great Respect, I am Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedt & most humble Servant
B Franklin
His Exy. Count de Vergennes
4. In WTF’s hand.
5. In 1842 Jared Sparks located a map in the AAE that he thought might have been the one discussed in this letter: a small (18 inches square) 1746 map of North America by d’Anville on which the American boundary was drawn with a bold line in red ink. The significance of this discovery was debated in the ongoing controversy over the Maine border. All Sparks claimed was that the location and appearance of this map were suggestive; neither he nor anyone since has been able to prove a link to BF. See Herbert B. Adams, The Life and Writings of Jared Sparks (2 vols., Boston and New York, 1893), II, 392–411; Henry S. Burrage, Maine in the Northeastern Boundary Controversy (Portland, Maine, 1919), pp. 323–4, 370–1.