61From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, July 26[–c. 15 August 1784] (Franklin Papers)
LS , copy, and transcript: Library of Congress I have received several Letters from you lately, dated June 16th. June 30, & July 13. I thank you for the Information respecting the Proceedings of your West India Merchants, or rather Planters: The Restraints whatever they may be upon our Commerce with your Islands, will prejudice their Inhabitants, I apprehend, more than us. It is wonderful how...
62From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, 29 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin … (3 vols., 4to, London, 1817–18), III , 466. I received your kind letters of the 16th and 20th instant. I thank you for your philosophical news. We have none here. I see your philosophers are in the way of finding out at last what fire is. I have long been of opinion that it exists every where...
63From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, 17 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: American Philosophical Society Since I wrote to you respecting Dr. Withering, I have received a very satisfactory Letter from him. So this Affair need not give you father [farther] Trouble.— I am sorry to hear you are hurt by a Fall from your Horse. I hope the Effects will not be lasting; and that by this time you are recover’d. It will give me great Pleasure to hear that our...
64From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 31 May 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Gilder Lehrman Collection; copy: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères Some Inconveniencies are said to have arisen from a want of Certainty in the Powers of our Consuls. The Articles respecting that Matter have been some time prepared and agreed to between Mr de Raynevall and me. If there is no Change of Sentiment respecting them, I beg leave to request your Excellency would...
65From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 5 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; AL (draft): American Philosophical Society I received the Letter which your Excellency did me the honor of writing to me, respecting the Necessity of producing legal Proof of the Arrangements made with the Creditors mention’d in Mr. Williams’s State of his Affairs. I am much obliged by the Attention you are so good as to afford this Business...
66From Benjamin Franklin to Vicq d’Azyr, 24 May 1784 (Franklin Papers)
L : Yale University Library M. Franklin a l’honneur de faire mille Complimens à Monsieur Vicq-d’azir, et le prie de vouloir bien lui envoyer le Rapport de Messrs. Andry et Thouret sur les Aimans présentés par Mr. L’abbé le Noble, il lui en sera infiniment obligé. Il desireroit aussi savoir si la Société Royale continue toujours à faire imprimer chaque Année la Collection de ses mémoires, qu’il...
67From Benjamin Franklin to Félix Vicq d’Azyr, 1 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Académie Nationale de Médecine, Paris I should be very happy to be present at the Reading of your Eloges of Messrs Sanchez & Hunter; but my Indisposition, the Stone, makes it extreamly inconvenient to me to use a Carriage on the Pavement, or to be confined long in a Room, so that I cannot have the Pleasure you propose to me so kindly of meeting the Society whom I highly respect, on...
68From Benjamin Franklin to John Walter, 17 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Copy and transcript: Library of Congress I have received a Book for which I understand I am obliged to you, the Introduction to Logography.— I have read it with Attention, and as far as I understand it am much pleas’d with it. I do not perfectly comprehend the Arrangement of his Cases; but the Reduction of the Number of Pieces, by the Roots of Words and their different Terminations is...
69From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Webb, 22 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: Library of Congress I received your’s of the 15th. Instant, and the Memorial it inclosed. The account they give of your situation grieves me. I send you herewith a Bill for Ten Louis d’ors. I do not pretend to give such a Sum. I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your Country with a good Character, you cannot fail of getting into some Business that will in time enable...
70From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Sr., 20 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Biblioteca Labronica The Bearer, Mr Biederman, is recommended to me by Persons of Distinction, as a Gentleman of Worth & very respectable Character, charged with the Concerns and Interest of many principal Manufacturers and Merchants in Saxony, between which Country and ours I should be glad to see a commercial Intercourse opened and established, as it might be advantageous to both. I...
71From Benjamin Franklin to William Withering, 1 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Mr Vaughan communicated to me a very ingenious & judicious Letter (as it appear’d to me) written by you on the Subject of calculous Complaints & the Remedies that had been propos’d for them. You were so good as to say that if I would send you a state of my Case, you might perhaps be able to point out some Plan of Proceeding that would be serviceable. I...
72From Benjamin Franklin to John Witherspoon, 5 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Presbyterian Historical Society; copies: Columbia University Library, New Jersey Historical Society, New York Society Library I have received the Letter you did me the honour of writing to me the 27th past. It would be a pleasure to me to see you here, but I cannot give you any Expectations of Success in the Project of obtaining Benefactions for your College. Last Year Messrs. Wheelock...
73Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures, [May 1784] (Franklin Papers)
AD (draft): Library of Congress; press copy of copy: American Philosophical Society The “dry fog” that blanketed much of Europe during the summer of 1783 had occasioned much scientific speculation, but its cause was as yet unknown. In this paper, written nearly a year after the fog first appeared, Franklin was less concerned with its cause (though he did propose a theory that would turn out to...
74Franklin’s Journal, [26 June 1784–27 July 1784] (Franklin Papers)
Incomplete AD supplemented by WTF ’s edited transcript: Library of Congress. Mr. Waltersdorff called on me, and acquainted me with a Duel that had been fought yesterday Morg between a French Officer, and a Swedish Gentleman of that Kings Suite, in which the latter was killed on the Spot, and the other dangerously wounded:— That the King does not resent it, as he thinks his Subject was in the...
75Certification for Jacques Le Maire de Gimel, 30 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : University of Pennsylvania Library I do hereby certify whom it may concern, that Col. Lemaire came from Virginia to France in the Year 1778, with Letters of Recommendation to me from Patrick Henry Esquire then Governor of that State, by whom he was employed to procure Arms and military Stores here for the Use of their Army; which Commission, as far as I have ever heard, he executed with...
76Aux Auteurs du Journal de Paris, [before 31 March 1784] (Franklin Papers)
(I) French translation: press copy of D : American Philosophical Society; printed in Journal de Paris, April 26, 1784; (II) Reprinted from The Repository, I (1788), 5–10; partial copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania; fragment: American Philosophical Society In February, 1784, a Parisian apothecary named Quinquet and his friend Lange, a distiller, began to demonstrate in Paris a new kind of...
77Franklin and Chaumont: Agreement on Accounts and Receipt, [28 May 1784] (Franklin Papers)
(I) ADS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania; press copy of ADS : American Philosophical Society; D (draft): American Philosophical Society; copy: the marquis de Bausset, Ivry-sur-Seine (1961); (II) press copies of two DS : American Philosophical Society The “Experiment” that Franklin proposed to his landlord on May 2 succeeded. Chaumont finally accepted the judgment that their arbitrator,...
78Certification of Bills, [8 August 1784] (Franklin Papers)
Press copy of DS and copy: College of William and Mary Library I do hereby Certify whom it may concern, that the following Certificates of Money, due from the Treasury of the United States of America, to the following Officers, have been by them lodged in my Hands, Viz:— Dollars To Major Genl DuPortail, { One dated 24 Novr. 1781. for 5,255: One dated 4 Novr 1783. for 9960: One dated 4 Novr....
79Loose Thoughts on a Universal Fluid, [25 June 1784] (Franklin Papers)
AD (draft): Library of Congress; copies: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, American Philosophical Society (two); copies of French translation: Library of Congress (two), Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France In this series of speculations, Franklin tried to combine into one theory his long-held beliefs about light, heat, and fire. The concept he used to link these phenomena—the subtle...
80Report of the Royal Commission to Investigate Animal Magnetism: Résumé with Extracts, [11 August 1784] (Franklin Papers)
Rapport des commissaires chargés par le Roi, de l’examen du magnétisme animal (Paris, 1784) The commissioners of the Faculté de médecine and the Académie des sciences—with the exception of Franklin—met in Paris on Wednesday, August 11, to sign the report of their four-month investigation. Franklin, unable to travel, had signed in advance, having received the pristine manuscript in a locked box...