Adams Papers

To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 30 June 1781

From Benjamin Franklin

Passy, June 30. 1781

Sir

This is to request that you will accept no more Bills with an Expectation of my Paying them, till you have farther Advice from me: For I find that Mr. Laurens, who went away without informing me what he had done, has made so full a Disposition of the Six Millions granted at my Request before his Arrival, that unless the Specie he sent to Holland is stopt there, I shall not be in a Condition to pay them.1 I have the Honour to be, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble Servant

B Franklin

RC (Adams Papers).

1. Franklin wrote a similar letter to William Jackson on 28 June. Despite Jackson’s protests, Franklin succeeded in stopping shipment of the specie to the U.S. aboard the South Carolina. See Franklin, Papers description begins The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, William B. Willcox (from vol. 15), Claude A. Lopez (vol. 27), Barbara B. Oberg (from vol. 28), Ellen R. Cohn (from vol. 36), and others, New Haven, 1959– . description ends , 35:195–196, 211–214, 219–226, 242–244.

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 30 June 1781
    Author
    Franklin, Benjamin
    Recipient
    Adams, John
    Date
    30 June 1781

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 30 June 1781,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-11-02-0294. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 11, January–September 1781, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Richard Alan Ryerson, Anne Decker Cecere, Celeste Walker, Jennifer Shea, and C. James Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 399–400.]

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