To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, [1782?]
From Samuel Cooper
AL: American Philosophical Society
[1782?]
Sir,
Before you left America, I believe I mention’d to you the great Losses I had sustain’d from the Enemy, in my Household Furniture, Books, Debts from Persons who took Refuge in Howe’s Army &c.8 so that take all together, I am perhaps, as large a Sufferer, in Proportion to what I possess’d, as any one in this Town; nor would two thousand Pounds Lawf: Money make me Whole.9 I had before full little enough to make me easy in my usual Manner of living, which was not excessive, and this Loss is the heavier in advancing Age. I have made no Application to any on this Side the Water, knowing the many Calls upon them for public Services & private Wants in this Time of great Exertion & common Distress. Many of my former Friends I honorably lost by my through, undisguis’d Attachment to the Rights of my Country & those who espous’d them. If they are establish’d I am still happy. But as you will have a principal Hand in Negotiations, Should Britain come to Terms with us, I hope she will be induc’d to make some Compensation to American Sufferers; On that or some similar honorable Occasion you may be of particular Service to your Friend.— This in Confidence.
8. XXII, 387–8.
9. Cooper was permitted, however, to purchase on favorable terms furniture sequestered from the houses of Loyalists: Charles W. Akers, The Divine Politician: Samuel Cooper and the American Revolution in Boston (Boston, 1982), p. 214.