Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from John Trumbull, 8 December 1781

From John Trumbull7

ALS: American Philosophical Society; AL (draft): Yale University Library

Bilbao 8th: December 1781.

Sir.

I had the honor to receive your Excellency’s letter of the 26th: of last month, yesterday, and have in consequence drawn upon Mr. Grand this day for the amount you mention.

I beg leave to congratulate your Excellency upon the capture of Lord Cornwallis, & the very flattering situation of our Affairs in America.

Majr. Jackson requests me to present his best respects & wishes for your Excellency’s happiness, in which I assure you He is most sincerely join’d by your Excellency’s most Obedient & most humble servant

John Trumbull

His Excelly: B Franklin Esqr.

Addressed: His Excellency / Benja. Franklin Esqr. / Passy

Notation: Trumbull. John. Dec. 10. 1781.

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

7Trumbull would sail for America in mid-December aboard the Cicero, accompanied by William Jackson and JA’s son Charles. They arrived in Beverly, Mass., in late January: XXXV, 590; Theodore Sizer, ed., The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, Patriot-Artist, 1756–1843 (New York, 1970), pp. 79–81; Adams Correspondence, IV, 272–3, 295.

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