184411Response to a Memorandum of Sabatier fils & Després, [c. 29 August? 1783] (Franklin Papers)
D : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères Apostille proposée par Monsieur Le Docteur Francklin Sur le Mémoire de MM. Sabatier fils et Desprez. Jepense que MM. Sabatier fils et Desprez dirigent Irrégulierement Leur demande Sur moy qui n’ayant jamais eté partie dans le marché dont il Sagit, et n’ayant pas dû m’attendre à La répétition de La somme qui en est L’objet, n’ait fait aucune...
184412From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 11 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your kind little Letter of August 26. per Packet. Scarce any one else wrote to me by that Opportunity. I suppose they imagin’d I should not be return’d from Germany. You mention writing to me by a Son of Mr. Potts’s. A Ship is come from Philadelphia, Capt. Golley. But I have only one Letter in her, and that is from Mr. Hall, to whom my Respects....
184413John Jay and Dutch Affairs: Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
During his years abroad as envoy and peace commissioner, Jay was not directly involved in negotiations with the Dutch. John Adams, assisted by American agent C. W. F. Dumas, bore the brunt of such responsibilities. The connections they forged resulted in support for American independence from the Dutch Patriotic faction; loans to the United States in June 1782, the first obtained by the United...
184414Editorial Note on Franklin’s Accounts (Franklin Papers)
The following accounts, identified in earlier volumes, continue to apply to the current period: VI and VII ( XXIII , 21); XVII ( XXVI , 3); XIX and XXII ( XXVIII , 3–4); XXV, XXVII ( XXXII , 3–4); XXX ( XXXVI , 3); XXXI ( XXXVIII , 3). We offer here a summary of entries that have not found a place elsewhere in our annotation but provide insights into Franklin’s private and public life. Account...
184415Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
The Commissioners’ letter or memorial to Vergennes of early January 1779 is highly significant. Despite its long dissertation on the evils of the Carlisle Commission’s manifesto of 3 October 1778 and its appeal for a French declaration to counter the manifesto’s effects, the principal object of the letter was the dispatch of naval reinforcements to America. John Adams later wrote to Elbridge...
184416Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
The network of spies and couriers that has come to be known as the Culper ring, on account of the code names of its spies, had its genesis in GW’s need to provide reliable intelligence to Vice Admiral d’Estaing on British naval movements at New York during the fall of 1778. Recognizing the provision of quality intelligence as a critical aspect of the new military partnership, GW sought...
184417Address from Rhode Island Federalists, 2 April 1789 (Adams Papers)
The Federalists of this State though denied the Priviledge of giving you their Suffrages, are peculiarly happy, to find your Excellency by so decided a Majority, One of the Gentlemen placed at the Head of that August Body, to which, with Anxious expectation, this Country now looks up to rescue it from that Anarchy & Prostration which have So long degraded the American Character, and rendered...
184418To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 4 June 1815 (Madison Papers)
As Christians you all profess to be upon an equality with all other men, inasmuch as you rest your hopes for eternal life in the world to come, upon the Grace of God revealed in his son Jesus Christ. Therefore, as Christians I presume to address you. God hath given you much, may you be good stewards for the Lord of hosts. War is contrary to the spirit of Christianity, which is universal...
184419Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In the bitter verbal battling which rumbled beneath the physical violence of the pre-Revolutionary years, the heavy advantage rested with the radical press. Led by such pseudonymous journalistic swordsmen as Samuel Adams, Joseph Hawley, and Joseph Warren, the patriots skewered the administration and the loyal faction without restraint, and almost without opposition. Only one tory printer...
184420Report of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, 21 December 1790 (Jay Papers)
The Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, The Chief Justice, The Secretary of State, The Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General Respectfully report to the Congress of the United States of America: That pursuant to the Act intitled an Act making provision for the Reduction of the Public Debt, They on the 26th day of August last convened at the City of New...
184421“A Republican” to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 5 February 1820] (Jefferson Papers)
It is for no trifling end that I venture to intrude upon the honourable retirement in which you have placed yourself. The authority of your name has been used to advocate sentiments that are entirely opposed to those conveyed in your writings. It has been asserted that you have abandoned your former opinions, and that your silence is conclusive proof of it. It is, sir, with a full belief that...
184422Introductory Note: From Andrew G. Fraunces, 16 May 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
This letter from Andrew Fraunces initiated a controversy over the payment of two warrants issued by the Board of Treasury in 1787 and 1789. Although Fraunces maintained that he had purchased these warrants in early May, 1793, it cannot be stated with certainty just how he obtained them or whether he ever actually owned them. During June, July, and August, 1793, Fraunces wrote to both Hamilton...
184423Circular Letter from the Officers of the Massachusetts Line of the Late Army, 28 February 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
We have had the honour to be appointed a Committee, by the Officers of the Massachusetts line of the late Army, to attend to and prosecute their memorial to the Congress of the United States, on the subject of compensation for the losses sustained by them and the soldiers who served during the war, in consequence of the singular manner in which their services have been acknowledged and...
184424From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Fox, 1 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : William Logan Fox, Philadelphia (1956) I wrote to you of the 22d past, via Maryland. Inclos’d I send a Copy of the late Votes on the Affair of the American Stamp-Act. The Repeal is now in a fair way of being compleated, on which I congratulate you and the Assembly. I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, P.S. An Act will pass at the same time with the Repeal of the Stamp Act,...
184425Editorial Note on a Charity Appeal, [before 15 April 1778] (Franklin Papers)
Broadside: American Philosophical Society Among Franklin’s papers in the American Philosophical Society is a one-page printed invitation to the “Assemblées de Charité,” held at the Grand Châtelet on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoon of Holy Week, April 15–17, 1778; it was in a packet that Franklin endorsed “Notes and Invitations.” The assembly was a religious service followed by a...
184426Indian Affairs under Jay’s Governorship: Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
Like his longstanding predecessor, George Clinton, Jay used the governor’s office to carry out policies that favored state growth over the needs of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and other Indian groups residing in present-day central and western New York and neighboring Canada. Motivated primarily by the goals of financial gain, commercial development, and expanded white settlement, Jay’s...
184427Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
The two documents which follow are virtually all that have survived pertinent to Adams’ early law studies, except for accounts in his diary. Document I, a fragment entitled “Ld Cokes Sayings,” cannot be dated with certainty, but the content suggests that it is some kind of epitome made by Adams during his early reading of Coke on Littleton. Document II is Adams’ Commonplace Book, a compendium...
184428Minutes of the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies, 23 December 1776 (Jay Papers)
[Present: Leonard Gansevoort Esq r . Chairman; John Jay, Zephaniah Platt, Nathaniel Sacket, Esq rs .] . . . Resolved that Enoch Crosby assuming the Name of John do forthwith do forthwith repair to Mount Ephraim and use his Utm and use his utmost Art to ^ discover the ^ designs, Places of Resort, and Route, of certain disaffected Persons in that Quarter, who have form’d a Design of Joining the...
184429To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 3 August 1795 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 3 August 1795, Philadelphia. Acknowledged in JM to an unidentified correspondent, 23 Aug. 1795 . Enjoys improved health. Will forward “Features of Mr. Jay’s Treaty” to JM; asks for JM’s views on the treaty.
184430Editorial Note: Documents Concerning the Residence of Congress (Jefferson Papers)
Except for Document iii in this series, all of the notes and memoranda pertaining to the embittered question of finding a permanent seat for Congress were printed by Ford, iii , 458–62, as if they proceeded entirely from Jefferson’s hand, and were assigned the conjectural date of 13 Apr. 1784 on the belief that they were drafted at the time of the renewed discussion of the question. But most...
184431Enclosure: [Account Statement with the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures], [18 July 1793] (Hamilton Papers)
Dr. Alexander Hamilton Esqr: In A/C with The Society for Establishing useful Manufactures Cr: 1793 1793 Feby. 20 To paid his draft on Benjamin Walker 300.00 Feby. 26 By Cash Advanced Wm. Pearce in Phila. at sundry times 2,340.90 June 8 To Wm. Duer’s Order on F. Ingraham 500 “ “ By ditto ditto George Parkinson