To Benjamin Franklin from Charles Thomson, 26 October 1774
From Charles Thomson3
ALS: Library of Congress
Philada Octr. 26. 1774
This day the congress broke up, the papers are not all got ready, but will be sent to you by the next opportunity. As a vessel sails to Morrow Morning early I am ordered to forward to you the petition to the King.4
I have the pleasure to inform you that at the last session of Assembly you are continued Agent for this province, of which you will no doubt receive a proper certificate.5
Mr. Cushing tells me he has sent you a copy of some of the proceedings which are printed.6
Lest the resolve referred to in the enclosed letter should not be contained in that publication I enclose you a certifyed copy.7 I am sir Your humble Servant
Cha Thomson
Addressed in another hand: To / Benjamin Franklin Esqr. / in / London / [Deleted note:] Capt. Morwick is particularly requested to take great Care of this and deliver it as soon as possible it being the Petition from the Congress.
Endorsed: C. Thomson Oct. 26. 1774
3. The Secretary of the Congress and BF’s old friend; see above, VII, 266 n and subsequent vols. This letter covered the preceding one and its enclosures; see BF’s acknowledgment below, Feb. 5.
4. The vessel, as indicated by the deleted note on the address of this letter, was the Britannia, Capt. Morwick. A ship of that name under a Capt. Van Horne had sailed from New York in September, sprung a leak, and been forced in to Philadelphia; she left in late October, Van Horne having presumably given place to Morwick, and reached Falmouth on Dec. 22. N.-Y. Gaz. and the Weekly Mercury, Sept. 19, 1774, Feb. 20, 1775; PMHB, XL (1914), 201; Quincy, Memoir, pp. 198, 284; Public Advertiser, Dec. 24, 1774. Thomson sent copies of the enclosures with his letter below of Nov. 1, but did not explain precisely which documents went in which packet. He says here that he is sending the petition and the vote of thanks, and on Nov. 1 that he is sending the petition and the addresses to the British people and to the colonies. BF’s acknowledgment below, Feb. 5, proves that both packets also contained, as might be expected, the covering letter from the Congress.
5. See above, Oct. 15.
6. Along with a letter that is now missing. It was written from Philadelphia, where he was a delegate, in late October; for it was sent with other correspondence dated the 25th: Quincy, Memoir, pp. 189, 209. Cushing probably enclosed the first edition, published in Philadelphia on Oct. 24, of Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress …: Charles Evans, American Bibliography … (14 vols., Chicago, etc., 1903–59), V, no. 13, 713.
7. The vote of thanks mentioned in the preceding letter.