To Benjamin Franklin from Lafayette, [17 May 1784]
From Lafayette
ALS: University of Pennsylvania Library
Paris Monday Evening [May 17, 1784]3
My dear Sir
In Case the Arret for our free ports Has not Yet Come to Your Excellency’s Hands, I Have the Honour to Send You one Which I Have just Now Got— Most Respectfully and Affectionately Yours
Lafayette
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]
3. The day Calonne sent Lafayette 24 copies of the May 14 arrêt concerning free ports. Lafayette had tried to influence the government’s selection by writing to Calonne, Vergennes, and Castries: XXXIX, 104n; XLI, 286; Giunta, Emerging Nation, II, 369.