To Thomas Jefferson from George Logan, 5 October 1803
From George Logan
Stenton Octbr: 5th 1803
Dear Sir
I am informed that several Persons are applying for the Office of Mr: Clay which will become vacant on his taking his seat in Congress Mr: Walter Franklin a young Gentleman of the Law in Philadelphia, spoke to me some time since on this subject; he wished me to mention to you, that should you honor him with the appointment, he would do the duties of the office with care & fidelity. The Father of Mr Franklin was an eminent Merchant in New York, previous to the American revolution. On the British taking possession of that City, he retired to Philadelphia, making a great sacrifise of his property. Mr: Walter Franklin was educated to the Bar, has considerable Professional abilities & is universally esteemed. Some time ago he married the Grand Daughter of Saml Howell an old revolutionary Patriot. Of this character and of Mr: Franklins Father, General Washington in his official Letters speaks with great respect. Mrs. Logan has copied the enclosed extract on this subject for your information; she desires her best respects to be remembered to you—and is of opinion with me that the cause of Republicanism will be served by giving the office to Mr: Franklin in preference to some whose names have been mentioned to us as applying for it—
I shall leave Stenton on the 12th and expect to be at Washington on the 16th—The Marquis Yuries with his Family dine with me to day. They will leave this in two or three days, for the Seat of Government.
With sentiments of great Respect I am your Friend
Geo Logan
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 8 Oct. and “Franklin Walter. to be Commr. bkrptcy v. Clay” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Extract from General George Washington’s “official Letters” requesting Congress to appoint “two Person’s to purchase stores and clothing for the use of the Army after the evacuation of Philadelphia”; Washington writes, “Some gentlemen have mentioned Messieurs Samuel Howell and Thomas Franklin as well qualified both on account of their integrity and attachment to our cause, and from their knowledge of the city” (MS in same, in Deborah Logan’s hand, being a partial extract of Washington to Henry Laurens, Valley Forge, 31 May 1778, in Official Letters to the Honourable American Congress, Written, During the War Between the United Colonies and Great-Britain, By his Excellency George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental Forces, Now President of the United States, 2 vols. [Boston, Mass., 1795], 2:263; see Washington, Papers, Rev. War Ser., 15:283-4).
In 1797, Walter Franklin married Sarah Howell, daughter of Captain Samuel Howell, at the Friends Meeting House on Market Street in Philadelphia. She died two years later. In 1802, he married Anne Emlen, whose father was a prominent Quaker preacher. In 1809, Franklin became attorney general of Pennsylvania (Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, 15 Apr. 1797; Porcupine’s Gazette, 26 June 1799; Franklin Ellis and Samuel The History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men [Philadelphia, 1883], 235; Josiah Granville Leach, Genealogical and Biographical Memorials of the Reading, Howell, Yerkes, Watts, Latham, and Elkins Families [Philadelphia, 1898], 159, 171-2; Vol. 29:89n).
marquis yuries with his family: that is, Carlos Martínez de Irujo, the Spanish minister to the United States who had recently become marqués of Casa-Irujo, and his wife, Sally, daughter of Governor Thomas McKean (Vol. 30:194n; Vol. 39:293).