To Benjamin Franklin from Graf von Brühl, 29 March 1784
From Graf von Brühl
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Dover St. March 29th. 1784.
Sir
I presume to trouble you with an Application for a Letter of Recommendation in favour of Mr Biederman Dr of Law in the University of Leipzig who in the Course of last year set out for America in the Capacity of Agent & Manager of the Concerns & Interest of many of our principal Manufacturers & Merchants.7 If you should be inclined to comply with my Request, I beg you will trust me with the Care of transmitting your recommendatory Letter to that Gentleman. I need not point out to you the advantages that will arise to both Countries from the Countenance with which you will be pleased to honour Dr Biederman’s Undertaking. It is with singular pleasure I embrace this opportunity to assure you of the high Esteem & great respect with which I have the honour to subscribe myself, Sir Your most obedient & most humble Servant
Ct de Brühl
Notation: Cte. De Bruhl March 29. 1784—
7. Ehrenhold Friedrich Biedermann met with BF in March, 1783, having been introduced by the Saxon minister, Schönfeld: XXXIX, 311–12. On March 22, 1783, BF wrote recommendations for him to Jonathan Williams, Sr., and RB. (These letters were located only recently; copies are in the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv and reproduced in the work cited below.) Biedermann traveled to America in June, 1783: Christian Deuling, “Friedrich Justin Bertuch und der Handel mit Nordamerika,” in Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747–1822): Verleger, Schriftsteller und Unternehmer im klassischen Weimar, ed. Gerhard R. Kaiser and Siegfried Seifert (Tübingen, 2000), pp. 199–200, 221, 225.