The American Commissioners to Bersolle, 3 May 1778
The American Commissioners to Bersolle7
Copies: National Archives (two), Massachusetts Historical Society
Passy May 3d. 1778.
Sir,
Your Bill upon our Banker was not paid, because it was drawn without our Leave; and before you had sent Us the Accounts to shew we were your Debtors,8 and he could not regularly pay a Bill on our Account, which he had not our Orders to pay. We are Sir, your most obedient Servants.
B. Franklin
Arthur Lee
John Adams
(Copy)
Monsr. Bersolle.
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]
7. Published in Butterfield, John Adams Diary, IV, 88; we reprint it for comparison with Lee’s draft above, April 22.
8. The remainder of the sentence is probably BF’s addition; he wrote it on a loose sheet now in the Library of Congress.