To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Wharton, [June 1766]
From Samuel Wharton
ALS (incomplete): American Philosophical Society
[June 1766]9
[First part missing] That the Proprietors must have lost their Interest, Otherwise Mr. F, could not have got, that Obnoxious Man, John Hughs appointed1—Indeed! To do them Justice, I verily think, They believe it is all Over, with Them, for your Old Acquaintance Dr. Thomas Bond told Me last Night, They were extremely Mortified and disappointed. God Grant! This may Only, be a preparatory Shock, To the grand One, Which you, I ardently hope have secured for Them.
I am straitened very much in Point of Time, and therefore cannot send you the Particulars of the Conference, held by Mr. Croghan at Fort Pitt, The beginning of this Month; But you may depend upon his having settled the Peace, upon the most secure Conditions and That He will safely reach the Illonois and conciliate the Minds of the Indians, in that Neighbourhood. The particulars of the Treaty will, dubtless, be forwarded by the General to the Ministry and Therefore there is the less Necessity of my troubling you, with it.
The Post is just going off, Therefore I must abruptly conclude, with my best Wishes for your Success and a Continuation of your Health. I am Dear Sir, with sincere Regard your Obliged and affectionate Friend
Saml Wharton
9. Dated thus because of the mention in the second paragraph here of George Croghan’s conference with the Indians at Fort Pitt “The Beginning of this Month.” The conference having ended, Croghan left for the west on June 18, 1766. Samuel Wharton, who had been at Pittsburgh at the time, was back in Philadelphia sometime before July 5. Pa. Gaz., July 10, 1766, carried a brief statement of the success of the Indian conference. Alexander C. Flick, ed., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, v (Albany, 1927), 304; Nicholas B. Wainwright, George Croghan Wilderness Diplomat (Chapel Hill, [1959]), p. 233.
1. This passage harks back in part to events of the spring of 1765. When Grenville asked BF rather than Thomas Penn to suggest someone to be stamp distributor for Pa., it was believed on both sides of the ocean that this action showed BF as having greater influence with the government than the Proprietor had. See above, XII, 146 n; Morgan, Stamp Act Crisis, p. 246. What had been the case with Grenville would presumably be even more so now with Rockingham. As to Hughes, by this time his ineptitude and tactlessness in responding to attacks on his behavior had made him “Obnoxious” even to some members of his own political party.