Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from the New Jersey Assembly Standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry, 26 July 1774

From the New Jersey Assembly Standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry6

LS: American Philosophical Society

July 26 1774 Burlington

Sir

At the Last Session of Assembly we were appointed a Committee to obtain amongst other things the most Early and Authentick Intelligence of all Acts and Resolutions of the Parliment of Great Britain or the Proceedings of Administration that may have Relation to or any ways Affect the Liberties and Priviledges of America.

We know of no Person so Proper to make Application to on this Occasion as to you our Agent and we shoud be glad you woud favour us with any that shoud come to your knowledge or that you wou’d point out any more proper mode to enable us more Effectually to answer the Purpose for which we are Appointed.

We are Sensible of the difficulties which an Attention to your Trust has already laid you under and it will give us great Pleasure to find you rise Superior to all the late Attempts to do you Prejudice; Perhaps the request we make may be Attended with an impropriety which escapes our Attention. If it does, be pleased to favour us with your Sentiments they will be received with great respect on this or on any other Occasion, for with great truth we can Assure you that we shoud be glad of all Opportunitys to shew the high Esteem we Entertain of your Integity as well as of your Abilitys. We are Your Most humble Servants

Saml Tucker
John Mehelm
Robt Frd Price
and friends Henry Paxson
J Kinsey
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

6The committee was formed on Feb. 8, 1774, to obtain information about British measures and keep in touch with the other colonies; Virginia was the first to establish such a committee, in March of 1773, and New Jersey the last. The committee that wrote the letter preceding this was the traditional one, formed on Feb. 23, to correspond with the agent. Votes, N.J. (Nov., 1773–March, 1774), pp. 122, 174. The two had a number of members in common, including Tucker, Price, and Kinsey; Mehelm was on the first and not the second, Paxson on the second and not the first. These distinctions apparently became blurred when the five signers, representing both committees, met together and drafted the two letters to BF.

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