From Benjamin Franklin to ——, [11 April 1767]
To———
MS not found; reprinted from extract in The Pennsylvania Chronicle, June 1–8, 1767.5
[April 11, 1767]
We have been very busy about the Paper Money Affair. The Merchants are to wait on Lord Clare6 with their Opinion in Favour of it in a Day or two. After receiving Dr. F’s Remarks on the Report of the Board of Trade,7 they have drawn up a new Representation on the Subject, which they have signed,8 and Dr. F’s Paper is to be given in by itself. Mr. Garth for South Carolina, Mr. Montague for Virginia, Dr. Franklin for Pennsylvania, Mr. Charles for New-York, Mr. Sherwood for Rhode-Island, and Mr. Deberdt for Massachussetts,9 have attended the Meetings of the Merchants on this Occasion. The Strength of the Opposition, the daily Expectations of new Changes in the Ministry, and the present Resentment against America, keep Minds so agitated, that there can be but very little Progress made in American Affairs.
5. This document and the one immediately following were printed, one after the other, in Pa. Chron., June 8, 1767, this one headed: “Extract of a Letter from a Merchant in London, dated April 11, 1767.” Verner W. Crane, Letters to the Press, pp. 92–3, first attributed both letters to BF. References to BF in the third person were probably Goddard’s alterations, made to preserve the writer’s anonymity.
6. Robert Nugent, Viscount Clare, was at this time president of the Board of Trade; see below, p. 123 n.
7. See above, pp. 76–87.
8. The merchants’ representation was presented to the Ministry by May 20, 1767; see below, pp. 163–4.
9. These men, all of whom have been mentioned in preceding volumes of this edition, were agents for their various colonies.