From Benjamin Franklin to [William Franklin, 12 October 1774]
To [William Franklin2]
AL (incomplete letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society
[October 12,3 1774]
[Page or pages missing] on their Virtue, Wisdom and Magnanimity: Lord C——n says he would give half his Worth in the World to be present at the Debates of such an uncorrupted Body on so important an Occasion;4 and I often regret that I did not leave this Country in time to have been there myself.
Your Omission of Remittances to me I now feel very sensibly; for I find myself more indebted to the G. Post Office than I expected, and am embarassed to discharge it. I am ever, Your affectionate Father
2. BF signed himself “your affectionate Father” in writing to both RB and WF, but his complaint about remittances strongly indicates that he is addressing the latter. By October RB owed him some £60 and WF almost £600. Ledger, pp. 56, 52.
3. The fragment follows the letter of Oct. 12 to the New Jersey committees, the conclusion of which, along with the beginning of this letter, must have occupied a page now lost; the next draft in the letterbook is that to Galloway of the same date. On Dec. 24, below, WF acknowledged a letter from his father of Oct. 13; BF frequently copied and redated an earlier draft, and we assume that this was a case in point.
4. Lord Camden’s view of the Congress was of a piece with his general position; see the note on him in BF to Shipley above, Sept. 28.