Certificate Authenticating Extracts from Minutes of the Georgia Assembly, 3 December 1777
Certificate Authenticating Extracts from Minutes of the Georgia Assembly5
AD: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Passy, Dec. 3. 1777.
I do hereby certify whom it may concern, that the Papers herewith connected under my Seal, viz. the Extract from the Minutes of the Assembly of Georgia, signed by Henry Cuyler, Clerk; and the Instructions to Capt. De la Plaigne signed by N W. Jones Speaker, are genuine and authentic Papers.
B. Franklin
Notation in Franklin’s hand: Certificate in favour of Capt Delaplaigne’s Orders
5. The purpose of the certificate was to establish the credentials of Emmanuel-Pierre de La Plaigne, Georgia’s agent in Europe (above, XXIV, 82–3. He arrived in November, charged specifically with engaging artillerymen and engineers (a plan to which Congress, when it heard of it, took strong exception: JCC, IX, 821) and with contracting for clothing, cloth for the Indians, and medical supplies. As soon as he was armed with this certificate he opened negotiations with Bayard & Cie., and on Dec. 11 contracted with the firm for supplies and for the passage of some 200 men. Robert R. Crout, “Pierre-Emmanuel de la Plaigne and Georgia’s Quest for French Aid during the War of Independence,” Ga. Hist. Quarterly, LX (1976), 180–2.