Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to the Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, 30 July 1784

To the Comte de Mercy-Argenteau

LS:2 Library of Congress; copy:3 Massachusetts Historical Society; transcript: National Archives

Passy July 30th. 17844

Sir,

I have the honour to communicate to your Excellency an Extract from the Instructions of Congress to their late Commissioners for treating of Peace, expressing their Desire to cultivate the Friendship of his Imperial Majesty and to enter into a Treaty of Commerce for the mutual Advantage of his Subjects and the Citizens of the United States; which I request you will be pleased to lay before his Majesty. The appointing and instructing Commissioners for Treaties of Commerce with the Powers of Europe generally, has by various Circumstances been long delayed, but is now done; and I have just received Advice that Mr. Jefferson late Governor of Virginia, commissioned with Mr. Adams our Minister in Holland, & myself for that Service, is on his way hither and may be expected by the End of August, when we shall be ready to enter into a Treaty with his Imperial Majesty for the above Purpose, if such should be his Pleasure—

With great and sincere Respect, I am, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient & most humble Servant,

B. Franklin

His Exy. the Count de Mercy &ca. &ca.—5

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

2In the hand of BFB. BF added the complimentary close before signing.

3Also in BFB’s hand. WTF forwarded it to JA on Aug. 1, along with a copy of Mercy-Argenteau’s response of July 30, below: Adams Papers, XVI, 287–8.

4BF drafted this letter on July 26; see the entry of that date in BF’s journal, [June 26–July 27], above.

5Notations in French, made by Mercy-Argenteau’s secretary on the verso, recorded all the salient information about this letter and its enclosure, summarized the letter, and noted that the minister answered it the same day and sent a translation to Vienna on Aug. 1. Mercy-Argenteau must have enclosed this LS, as well, as it bears the stamp of the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna.

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