1The Continental Congress to Franklin, William Bollan, Edmund Burke, Charles Garth, Arthur Lee, Thomas Life, and Paul … (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress This letter from the Congress over the signature of its president carried to England the official news, so long awaited, of what had happened in Philadelphia. The letter was drafted at the end of the session by a committee of two and approved on the last day, October 26. Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Congress, enclosed it in a covering letter of the same date...
2To Benjamin Franklin from Lord Dartmouth to Franklin, William Bollan, and Arthur Lee, 23 December 1774: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Public Record Office <St. James’s Square, Friday, December 23, 1774: A note in the third person asking them to meet him at his house at ten the following morning. > To learn how the King had received the petition from the Continental Congress; see the following document.
3From Benjamin Franklin to Arthur Lee, 19 March 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Harvard University Library I leave Directions with Mrs. Stevenson to deliver you all the Massachusetts Papers, when you please to call for them. I am sorry that the Hurry of Preparing for my Voyage and the many Hindrances I have met with, prevented my meeting you and Mr. Bollan, and conversing a little more on our Affairs before my Departure. I wish to both of you Health and Happiness,...
4The Committee of Secret Correspondence to [Arthur Lee], 30 November 1775 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: University of Virginia Library On November 29, 1775, Samuel Chase brought before Congress a proposal to send ambassadors to France. John Adams seconded the motion, and a vehement debate ensued. A number of alternatives were advanced, and one finally gained approval: to appoint a five-member committee of secret correspondence for the purpose of opening communication with friends of...
5The Committee of Secret Correspondence to [Arthur Lee], 12 December 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Maine Historical Society By this Conveyance we have the Pleasure of transmitting to you sundry printed Papers, that such of them as you think proper may be immediately published in England. We have written on the Subject of American Affairs to Monsieur C. G. F. Dumas, who resides at the Hague. We recommend it to you to correspond with him, and to send through his Hands any Letters to us...
6The Continental Congress: Instructions to Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee as Commissioners to France, [24 … (Franklin Papers)
Attested copy: Harvard University Library This document was long in the making. On August 27 Congress expanded the committee that was drafting the proposed treaty of commerce with France, and ordered it to draft also instructions to the commissioners who were to carry the treaty. The committee reported the instructions on September 10. On the 24th, a week after Congress approved the treaty, it...
7The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Arthur Lee, 23 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Yale University Library; two copies and extract: National Archives By this conveyance we transmit to Silas Deane Esq. a Resolve of the Honble. the continental congress of Delegates from the Thirteen United States of America, whereby you are appointed one of their Commissioners for negotiationg a treaty of alliance, Amity and Commerce with the Court of France, and also for negotiating...
8The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners to France, 24 October 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society; letterbook copies: Library of Congress; National Archives The Congress having Committed to our Charge and Management their Ship of War called the Reprisal, Commanded by Lambert Wickes Esqr. carrying sixteen Six pounders and about one hundred and twenty Men, We have allotted her to carry Doctor Franklin to France and directed Capt. Wickes to proceed for the...
9The Committee of Secret Correspondence to the American Commissioners, 21[–23] December 1776 (Franklin Papers)
LS : American Philosophical Society, New York Public Library, University of Virginia Library, British Library; AL (incomplete draft ): American Philosophical Society; three copies: American Philosophical Society, National Archives, Library of Congress This letter was in response to Deane’s of October 1, which was the first word from him in Paris that reached Philadelphia. He complained hotly...
10Barbeu-Dubourg: Memorandum for the American Commissioners, [after 21 December 1776] (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society M. D. propose a Messieurs F. D. et L. de leur faire des avances soit de draps, soit de fusils (du modele de 1763, controllés et tirés des propres magazins du Roy) pour la valeur de trois cent mille livres tournois, a condition que ces Messieurs lui fourniront en retour des tabacs de Virginie et de Mariland pour pareille somme, bien entendu que les achats...