From Benjamin Franklin to the Marquis de Castries, 31 August 1782
To the Marquis de Castries
ALS: Archives de la Marine
Passy Augt. 31. 1782
Sir
If there is nothing improper in the Requests made by Mr Williams in the enclos’d Letter, I beg leave to recommend them to your Excellency’s favourable Attention.6 With great Respect, I am, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Marquis de Castries
Notation: R [Repondu] le 8. 7bre. 1782. / [audela ?] 1er 7bre v. la f. du même jour et la lettre ecrite à M Clouet
6. BF enclosed JW’s Aug. 23 appeal to Castries, described in our annotation of JW to BF, Aug. 23. The present letter and its enclosure were submitted to Castries with a memorandum (in an unknown hand and dated only September, 1782) summarizing their contents and advising Castries that if he intended to grant permission, he should sign the two letters attached. One was to BF, the other to M. Clouet (commissary at Lorient: XXXVI, 629n). Notations on the memorandum, which is at the Archives de la Marine, indicate that Castries approved the request and answered BF on Sept. 8. The notations on the present letter confirm this information. BF sent a copy of the Sept. 8 letter (now missing) to JW, who forwarded it to Williams, Moore & Co. in Lorient on Sept. 14 (Yale University Library).