To Benjamin Franklin from [Benjamin Vaughan], [18 September 1777]
From [Benjamin Vaughan]
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Thursday. [September 18, 1777]
I am ashamed my dear sir at the littleness of my heart or rather that of my friends: as soon as I have passed the opportunity for conversing with this man it will be over, and I shall see you as publicly as at Xmas.1 Yes my dear sir I will meet you at 5, in the middle of the Seine; any where, so that I do but meet you, and tell you how much I revere you. In haste.
Addressed: A Monsr. / Monsr. Franklin
Endorsed: M. Vaughan to BF.
1. “This man” was Stormont; see Vaughan’s note above under Sept. 17. “Xmas” indicates that the young man had been in Paris when, or immediately after, BF arrived there. At that time Vaughan must have received forty guineas for the support of JW’s child (above, XXIII, 242 n); he also received a loan of the same amount, which he later repaid to BF’s London bankers: Waste Book, entry of Feb. 8, 1777.