Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Jackson, 27 December 1763
From: Jackson, Richard
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Temple December 27, 1763
I write to you by every Packet, but having heard that a Vessel sails for Philadelphia to morrow am desirous of troubling you with a few Lines which I hope will be in Time. I have had but one letter from you a great While, but though this would be Matter of Chagrin to me at all Times, the Occasion of my Loss gives me much more concern, I flatter myself however your Cure is now perfectly effected, I assure you with great Truth I am capable of no greater pleasure; than it would give me to hear you are perfectly recovered and free from any inconvenient Consequences. When I have the satisfaction of knowing this myself, I shall give pleasure to a 1000d People here by telling it to them.
I did not forget to name you in the Manner you deserve to Lord Egmont, but affairs here never were so mutable. Lord Egmont is 1st Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Hide in the former Place, I do not at all know this Lord, but shall take care he shall be acquainted with your Merit. It is now said Lord Egmont and Lord Sandwich are to change Places, that is the latter to return to his Place. I wish Lord Egmont was in Lord Halifax’s Place, who has now the Superior Administration of American Affairs, perhaps few so unfit for it. This Mutability of Offices is no proof of an unstable Ministry, it seems more established than ever, I need not inform you that Mr. Grenville is at the head of it, and I have a good Deal of Access to him, and have too received a very considerable Mark of his good will and Esteem, and what is generally too deemed a Mark of his Confidence; but I suspend my opinion on the Subject; when I know more I will write fuller on this Subject, at present American Affairs are in a Critical Situation. I have taken great pains and made the Utmost Use of my Access to Men of Rank and Weight and hope I have not thrown my Pains away. Some Men whose Judgment I esteem equal if not superior to any of the Nation, seem to think as I wish they should. In the mean time I publish nothing for obvious Reasons, though I have begun to print. There are many things, while I have the honour to be in favour with Administration, that will [be] more serviceable in private than Publick, but which if I find I cannot do the Service to the Colonies (and my Mother Country too, for I consider their Interests as inseperable as far [as] I go) I wish, in the station I am in, may as well be made publick as not.
You rightly conjecture, Major Barker at Manilla is the Gentleman whom you seek after, I made the same guess, and have been a good deal since employed in inquiring whether, he was returning to England, or was to continue in the Companys Service there and in the latter Case, how I could treat with him. From the best Information I could get I expect him in England in February or March. I find others have the same View. Mr. Sherwood told me he had such a Commission.
I wish I could give you more satisfaction, on Messrs. Coxes Application, but I fear the whole will prove very Uphill work. It is not however my fault I assure you, I have taken a great deal of Pains, and will yet engage them in as little Expence as I can make sufficient. The Indian War, the Strength this adds however groundlessly to many inveterate Prejudices, the length of time this Claim has been deserted, and what is worst a Report of the Attorney and Sollicitor General, the last my friend deGrey and Dr. Hay Kings Advocate against Lord Cardigans Claim of St. Vincent and S[ant]a Lucia though the Duke of Montagus Desertion was only because forced by France. I dare say I need not assure you that I do not magnify difficulties, either to make those Gentlemen give up their Claim or augment any merit of mine, I have some Reliance on Materials at the Board of Trade, that I have a promise of an Access to.
I write Mr. Galloway by the same Ship, this goes in, but in great haste in answer to one of his. I flatter myself the Province stands justifyed in the Eyes of Administration against any Complaint of G[eneral] Amherst. Mr. Allen has much contributed to this, to whom I have opined my Sentiments fully on the General Interests of America, especially those that may be affected by expected Measures in Parliament. I am much pleased with Mr. Allen.
A Revenue to be raised in America for the Support of British Troops is not now to [be] argued against: it would answer no Purpose to do so. I only contend that it should be built on a foundation consistent with the Constitutions of the Colonies, and on the Principles of Relation between the Mother Countries and her Colonies; it is not disputed that the M[othe]r Country is Mistress of the Trade of its Colonys, this Right has always been challenged and exercised, by England and all other Countries, the M C [Mother Country] may prohibit foreign Trade, it may therefore tax it. And the Colonys have a Compensation, in Protection but I dread internal Taxes.
I beg you will make my Compliments to Mr. Galloway. I shall always esteem myself much honoured as well as instructed by his Correspondence, and shall never think his Letters too frequent or too long, though great Variety of Business, and hurry of Spirits may shorten or obscure mine.
I agree perfectly with you in your sentiments about a Plethora of Money, the Advantages of Commerce are derived from the Industry it inforced and the Money it gains should be impounded, that which passes into Circulation often does great Mischief, and casually that impounded as all impounded things will sometimes do when they break down their Banks. Every Body speaks in favour of Col. Bouquet but those whose Business it should chiefly be to do so, I do not mean but that some of them do so too. It would have given me immense Pleasure to have seen Pittsburgh in its Prosperity in time of Peace, yet I do not despair, the Indian War is calamitous and the sufferers are to be pittied, yet I comfort myself with viewing the State of England after all the Ravages committed by the Danes.
I thank you for your good wishes as to my Marriage. I assure you I have been chiefly prevented from Marrying by a Resolution I have taken to enjoy a full Political Independence, this I am sure I shall do while I remain single, I think I shall do so now even though I should marry, unless I should have 10 Children but that Number or any Near it is a strong Temptation in this Corrupted Country. I am too apt, besides to think all Conditions of Life like a Merchants Ledger ballanced at bottom though they differ at first sight in length, Value or other Circumstances, to be very entent about changing those I chance to be in. I am Dear Sir with the most unfeigned Esteem your most Obedient Affectionate humble Servant
R Jackson
I inclose a List of Acts sent to me by Mr. Wilmott Agent for the Proprietors, which I sent a Duplicate of by the last Packet to you and intended but omitted sending this to Mr. Galloway.
Dr. Pringle altogether declines any Concern in our Schemes, only because he says he makes it a Rule to prevent Views of Profit from intruding on the Quiet necessary a Life of Literary Pursuit and Speculation.


Title: Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft: Tables of Rates of Postage, [1763]
From: Franklin, Benjamin,Foxcroft, John
To:

Franklin and Foxcroft prepared this broadside for prominent display in every American post office. While it is undated, its use of the rate structure prescribed by the parliamentary act of 1710 indicates that it must have been drawn up before word of the new act of 1765 reached the colonies, and it seems probable that the two deputy postmasters general worked it out during one of their long periods together in 1763.
Most of this large sheet is given over to a table showing the rates for a single-sheet letter between any two of the forty-one post offices on the main route from Falmouth (the present Portland, Me.) to Norfolk, Va. It is constructed in somewhat the same form as that in which tables of mileages often appear on modern automobile road maps: a large right-angled triangle composed of boxes arranged in vertical columns and horizontal rows. Along the hypotenuse of the triangle are listed the names of the post offices in geographical order, each connecting with both a column and a row, and in the boxes are numbers representing penny-weights and grains of silver. These range from 1:8 (1 pennyweight, 8 grains) to 11.
To determine the rate between any two post offices along this route, the postal patron was to run his eye down the vertical column of boxes headed by the name of the more northerly of the two offices till it met the horizontal row of the more southerly office. The figure in the box at the intersection of the column and row indicated the number of pennyweights and grains of silver that a single-sheet letter would cost if sent in either direction between these towns. The cost in sterling money could then be figured at the rate of 3d. per pennyweight. The broadside gives no directions for converting the sterling cost into local currency, probably because the rates differed from colony to colony and from one date to another.
Two similar but smaller triangles of boxes provided information of the same sort for the route between New York City and Quebec and the inland route from New York to Boston via Hartford and Springfield. Below these tables the deputy postmasters general gave instructions for the use of the tables and supplementary information.
While it seems unnecessary to reproduce these tables in full, the explanatory text at the bottom as prepared by Franklin and Foxcroft is reprinted below, and some of the significant information derived from the tables themselves is summarized here.
The three tables list a total of 48 colonial post offices in operation in or about 1763. What was regarded as the principal office in each colony or geographical section was set in capitals and small capitals as indicated below. In order as shown on the tables the post offices were:
“Falmouth, in Casco-Bay,”; “Portsmouth, in New-Hampshire.”
“In Massachusetts-Bay Government”: Newbury, Ipswich, Salem, Marblehead, Boston.
“In Rhode-Island Government”: Providence, Greenwich, Towerhill, Newport, Westerly.
“In Connecticut Government”: New-London, Guildford (Guilford), New-Haven, Stratford, Norwalk, Stanford (Stamford).
New York
“In New Jersey”: Elizabeth-Town, Woodbridge and Perth-Amboy (combined), New-Brunswick, Prince-Town, Trenton, Bristol and Burlington (combined).
“In Pennsylvania”: Philadelphia, Newcastle and Wilmington (combined).
“In Maryland”: Susquehanna, Joppa, Patapsco, Annapolis, Marlborough.
“In Virginia”: Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Port-Royal, Hob’s Hole (Tappahannock), Urbanna, Williamsburg, York, Hampton, Norfolk.
On the New York-Quebec route: Albany, Montreal, Quebec.
On the New York-Boston inland route: (New-Haven), Middletown, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester.
The lowest rate shown on any of the three tables was one pennyweight, eight grains (equal to 4d. sterling), which was charged as postage between any two offices not more than sixty miles apart. The highest charge shown was 11 pennyweight (equal to 2s. 9d. sterling) for a letter between Falmouth and any office south of Alexandria, or between any other office north of Boston and one beyond Williamsburg. A few representative rates, converted into sterling, were: Boston–New York, 1s.; Boston–Philadelphia, 1s. 9d.; Boston–Williamsburg, 2s. 6d.; New York–Philadelphia, 9d.; New York–Annapolis, 1s.; New York–Williamsburg, 1s. 3d.; Philadelphia–Annapolis, 9d.; Philadelphia–Williamsburg, 1s.; Annapolis–Williamsburg, 1s.

[1763]
Tables of the Port of all Single Letters, carried by Post in North-America, as establish’d by Act of Parliament in the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her late Majesty Queen Anne, Entitled, An Act for Establishing a General Post-Office, for all Her Majesty’s Dominions.
Rated in Penny-weights and Grains of Silver, at Three-Pence Sterling for each Penny-weight.
[Here follow the tables described in the headnote.]
EXPLANATION.
These Tables shew the Rate of a Single Letter, from any one Post-Office to another, viz. by the Figure, or Figures, set down at the Angle of Meeting, or in the Square which points to both Places.
EXAMPLE.
To know the Postage of a Letter from New-York, to Williamsburg: Look in the Table for New-York, and thence carry your Eye strait down until it comes opposite to Williamsburg, and in that Point of Meeting you’ll find [5] which is Five Penny-weight of Silver, for the Port of a Single Letter between those Two Offices.
I. The Rates set down in these Tables must be doubled for all Double Letters, and trebled for all Treble Letters, and for every Ounce Weight Four times as much must be charged as is here set down.
II. All Ship-Letters and Packets must be charged, over and above the Rates set down in these Tables, with 16 Grains Weight of Silver, for such as are received from on Board; and with 8 Grains Weight, for such as are directed on Board any Ship or Vessel: And the whole Postage of these last Sort, must be paid down at the Post-Office where such Letters and Packets are delivered in.
III. For all extraordinary Posts and Expresses sent along the Post Road, and for all Expresses sent from any Stage to any Place out of the Post Road, there must be charged and paid One Penny-weight of Silver for every Mile such Express shall be sent.
Note, In the above Tables, the several Places are ranged as they lye in the Course or present Route of the Post.
B. Franklin.J. Foxcroft.
Woodbridge: Printed by James Parker, by Order of the Post-Master General: Note, These Tables are to be pasted on a Board, and hung up in open View, in the most convenient Place in each respective Post-Office.


Title: A Scheme for a Western Settlement, [1763–1764]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

This draft of a memoir in Franklin’s hand survives only in the lower two-thirds of one leaf, written on both sides. The mention of the writer’s presence “in Connecticut in August last” indicates that it was written during the last four months of 1763 or the first seven months of 1764. Actually, Franklin was not in Connecticut during August 1763, having gone from New York to Newport by water on his way to Boston, but in July he did meet and discuss the Susquehannah Company’s affairs with its agent, Eliphalet Dyer, in Greenwich, R.I., while recuperating at the Greenes’ house after the first of his two traveling accidents. On his return trip in October he passed through Connecticut and undoubtedly discussed the company with Joseph Chew, postmaster at New London and a lukewarm member of the company. Franklin’s memory was not always exact on such details of time and place.
On the basis of Connecticut’s sea-to-sea charter of 1662 and the Susquehannah Company’s land purchase at Albany in 1754, the company was actively promoting settlement in the Wyoming region of Pennsylvania in 1762 and 1763. Vigorous opposition developed in several quarters: the Penns and their local officials, the Delaware and Iroquois Indians, Sir William Johnson, and the British government. Dyer went to England in the late summer of 1763 on an ill-timed and fruitless mission to secure a royal charter for the company. Precisely what Franklin thought of the whole project is not clear and there are somewhat conflicting contemporary statements of his views. The company’s claims and some of its plans must have seemed to him unrealistic, and its dealings with the Indians highly questionable; on the other hand, he may have been privately pleased that it was causing trouble to Thomas Penn, and his long-standing interest in western settlement may have aroused his sympathy for the company’s major objectives.
Too little of this document survives to establish its immediate occasion or the full nature of the scheme he had in mind. From what does remain it seems possible that he thought that if the Susquehannah Company could secure royal sanction, if its proposed settlement did not encroach on lands justly claimed for any other colony, and if others than Connecticut residents were allowed to take shares in the enterprise, the company should be encouraged. Then (and only then) it could serve as the basis for an organized western settlement in which he and others equally interested might profitably invest.

[1763–1764]
[First part missing]
That every Contributor of [blank] Dollars, shall be entitled to a Quantity of Land equal to a Settler, for every such Sum of [blank] Dollars contributed and paid to the Company’s Treasurer; and a Contributor for [blank] Shares to have an additional Share gratis. That Settlers may likewise be Contributors, and have Right to Land in both Capacities.
That Settlers and Contributors from all the Colonies shall be freely received into the Company, without Distinction, except a small Distinction in favour of the People of Connecticut, who shall have their Shares [blank] Dollars cheaper, in consideration of their Right to the Soil by Charter as aforesaid.
That the better to preserve the Good will of all the neighbouring Colonies to this intended new Settlement the Company will not attempt to settle on any Lands or interfere with any Grant now held by other Colonies, tho’ subsequent to that of Connecticut.
[About five lines missing]
might be there allotted them, and Encouragement to Settle, &c.
The Assembly not doubting their Right to the Soil but apprehending some Inconveniencies might attend their maintaining a Jurisdiction in a Country divided from them by an intervening Province, took Time to consider till the October Session.
Since the Assembly rose, the Number of the Petitioners are greatly increased; and when B.F. the Writer of this Memoir was in Connecticut in August last he was assured that not less than 1000 Families would be ready to move on the Grant of a Settlement. And being apply’d to for his Advice and Assistance in furthering and promoting such Settlement by some of the principal Persons of that Government, he heartily engag’d therein, as judging it might not only be a means of extending the [remainder missing].


Title: Nathaniel Evans: Verses Addressed to Benjamin Franklin, 1763
From: Evans, Nathaniel
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Precisely when Evans composed these verses cannot be established, but there seems to be no reason to disregard the statement in the subheading of the London Chronicle printing in 1765 that he wrote them in 1763. Franklin is known to have played his armonica for at least one visitor to his Philadelphia home even before the end of 1762; friends’ reports of his new instrument undoubtedly spread rapidly through the little city and many acquaintances must have found opportunity to hear it during the months before he set off on his travels to Virginia and New England or after his return in early November. That the Chronicle printed the verses in the late summer of 1765 while Evans was in London for ordination suggests strongly that he had brought them with him and either actively sought their publication or acquiesced when someone else, possibly William Strahan, asked him to make them available for the Chronicle.
When William Smith included them in the 1772 volume of Evans’ poems, five years after the young man’s death, the verses had undergone considerable change. Instead of the 48 lines in the 1765 printing, there were now only 30, and several of them differed in varying degrees from their earlier form. In his preface to the book Smith stated with regard to the poems: “Many of them are fragments, and unfinished; and but few of them were revised by himself, with a view of their being published. Some corrections have, therefore, been made, where there appeared anything materially faulty in respect to Grammar, the exactness of the rhymes, &c. But in these the Publisher has been sparing, and has taken care that the Author’s sense should in no case be deviated from.”
In the light of this statement it is impossible to determine which of the changes in this piece Evans himself made and which Smith or his collaborator Elizabeth Graeme decided upon before sending the book to the printer. The 1765 version is reprinted here and the 1772 changes are all indicated in the notes.

To Benjamin Franklin, ESQ; LL.D. F.R.S.
Occasioned by hearing him play on the Armonica. Written in Philadelphia, 1763.

Long had we, lost in grateful wonder, view’d
Each gen’rous act thy patriot soul pursu’d;
Our little State resounds thy just applause,
And pleas’d from thee new fame and honour draws.
Envy is now, by merit overthrown,
Oblig’d in thee superior worth to own.
The Muse to sacred virtue ever bound,
Beams the bright ray her glorious sons around;
And sure in thee those virtues are combin’d,
That form the true pre-eminence of mind.
How were we fixt with rapture and surprize,
When first you told the wonders of the skies!
By simple laws deducing truths sublime,
Before, deep-bosom’d in the womb of time.
With admiration struck, we did survey
The lambent lightnings innocently play,

And the red thunder from th’ ethereal round
Burst the black clouds and harmless smite the ground,
As down thy Rod was seen the dreaded fire,
In a swift flame to vanish and expire:
Blest use of art! apply’d to serve mankind,
The noble province of the sapient mind!
This, this be wisdom’s, this the sage’s claim,
To trace the godhead thro’ this wondrous frame;
For this the soul’s grand faculties were giv’n,
To search the chain connecting man with heav’n.
But not alone those weightier thoughts controul
Thy comprehensive far-pervading soul;
The softer studies thy regard command,
And rise with fair refinement from thy hand.
Aided by thee, Urania’s heavenly art
With finer raptures charms th’ extatic heart;
Th’ Armonica shall join the sacred choir,
Fresh transports kindle, and new joys inspire.
Hark! the soft warblings, rolling smooth and clear,
Strike with celestial ravishment the ear,
Conveying inward, as they sweetly roll,
A tide of melting music to the soul.
And sure if aught of mortal-moving strain,
Can touch with joy the high angelic train,

’Tis such a pure transcendent sound divine
As breathes this heart-enchanting frame of thine.
Shall not the Muse her slender tribute pay?
Her’s is no venal, but the grateful lay;
Apollo bids it, where such virtues shine,
And pours a graceful sweetness thro’ each line;
Her country too, responsive to the sound,
Swells the full note, and tells it all around.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Franklin, [1763?]
From: Franklin, Peter
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Brother
[1763?]
These Comes to Inform you that I got Home well In three Days after my Departure From you; I Have not met aney Good Opertunity to Send for that money, desire youd Imbrace the first Good One that you Have.
I would Beg one Favour that youd go to the Post Office and Enqur whether there was a Letter for me, In the Time in that Time that I was In Boston For my wife gave one to mr. Cambel to Put In the male and He Says He did, and whether Theye Ever thay Returne Letter to the Place thay Come from after thay Ben there But a week.


Title: Timothy Folger: Petition to Sir Jeffery Amherst, [1763]
From: Folger, Timothy
To: Amherst, Sir Jeffrey

The end of the war with France aroused great interest in possible new settlements not only in the West but also in the region to the northeast, particularly in Nova Scotia and the Island of St. John in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, now Prince Edward Island. It was natural that these maritime lands should seem especially attractive to the people of southeastern New England—Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket—for from new homes there they might be able to continue and expand the fishing and whaling activities in which they had long been engaged.
On May 1, 1764, Franklin wrote to Richard Jackson explaining the petition he had drafted for his relative Timothy Folger of Nantucket: “The Nantucket Whalers, who are mostly my Relations, wanted a Settlement there [the Island of St. John], their own Island being too full. At their Request I drew a Petition for them last Year, to General Amherst; but he had no Power to settle them any where. They are desirous of being somewhere in or near the Bay of St. Lawrence, where the Whale—as well as other—Fishing is excellent.”
“Last Year” dates this petition in 1763 and it is quite likely that Franklin drew it during his stay in Boston in the summer and fall. While there he probably met Keziah Folger Coffin and perhaps also Timothy Folger, two of his Nantucket cousins. This draft of the petition, in Franklin’s hand, remains among his papers.

[1763]
To his Excellency Sir Jeffery Amherst, General of all his Majesty’s Forces in America.
The Memorial and Petition of Timothy Folger of the Island of Nantucket in Behalf of himself and many others Inhabitants of the said Island,
Humbly Sheweth,
That the chief Occupation of the Inhabitants of the said Island, hath ever been the Cod and Whale Fishery in which they now employ above One hundred Sail of Vessels.
That since the Reduction of Canada by his Majesty’s Arms under the Conduct of your Excellency, they have entred the great Gulph of St. Laurence with their Whaling Vessels, and have met with extraordinary Success there in that Fishery.
That they could carry on the same with still greater Advantage to themselves and to the Publick if they had some Settlement in or near the said Gulph, which they might make a Home for themselves and Families, and where the Land would be capable of producing Corn and feeding Cattle for their better Subsistence. That some of them did the last Summer look into several Harbours and Places round the said Gulph of St. Laurence to see if any could be found suitable for that purpose; and have reported, that the Island of St. Johns, (which was early in the War reduced by your Excellency, and the French Inhabitants removed) is extreamly well situated to carry on the said Fishery, and has all the other Requisites for a comfortable Settlement.
A considerable Number therefore of the Inhabitants of Nantucket, induc’d by these Conveniences, as well as for that they are over populous and greatly straitned for Room in the Island they at present inhabit, would remove to the said Island of St. Johns, if they might be permitted so to do, and could obtain a Grant of Lands there for their Settlement.
And as many of them are desirous of making a Beginning there the ensuing Summer, they humbly pray your Excellency to grant them such Permission; and that you would also appoint Lands for them on the said Island, to be held on such Terms and under such Government as his Majesty in his Wisdom shall hereafter direct, which Terms they have no doubt will be good and encouraging; and that your Excellency would moreover in your Goodness recommend this Settlement to his Majesty that it may as soon as possible obtain the Royal Countenance and Protection.
And your Petitioners, as in Duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.
Timo. Folger in Behalfof the People of Nantucket
 Endorsed: Petition of T. Folger to Gen Amherst


Title: Post Office Commissions to Abraham Hunt, 10 January 1764 (and 13 October 1775)
From: Franklin, Benjamin,Foxcroft, John
To: Hunt, Abraham

The commission given by Franklin and William Hunter to Thomas Vernon as deputy postmaster at Newport, R.I., Dec. 24, 1754, is printed above, V, 451–2. With the text of that earliest known post-office commission signed by Franklin as deputy postmaster general appears a note listing five similar commissions known to the editors and stating that later these documents would not be printed individually in this edition at their respective dates. An unusual circumstance justifies an exception to that general statement.
Mr. Theodore Sheldon owns not only the original commission that Franklin and John Foxcroft, joint deputy postmasters general under the Crown, issued to Abraham Hunt as postmaster of Trenton, Jan. 10, 1764, but also the commission that Franklin, serving as postmaster general of the United Colonies, issued to Hunt, Oct. 13, 1775, after the beginning of the American Revolution. It is as unusual as it is fortunate that two commissions, issued more than eleven years apart to the same individual for the same office and signed by the same postmaster general, but under the authority of two different governments, should survive approximately two centuries later in the same private collection. The editors greatly appreciate Mr. Sheldon’s willingness to permit the reproduction of these documents together here.
Comparison of the texts of the two commissions to Hunt shows that the printed portions of the second are in most respects an almost verbatim repetition of the first. The differences, however, are significant. The headings reflect the contrasting governmental authorities under which they were issued. The commission of 1764 testified to Hunt’s “Loyalty to His Majesty,” while that of 1775 certifies instead his “public Spirit.” Franklin and Foxcroft issued the first one jointly, but Franklin acted alone on the other; Foxcroft had become a Loyalist. By the terms of the earlier document Hunt was to hold office for three years “unless sooner removed by us”; the later commission, reflecting the unsettled political situation between the outbreak of hostilities and the Declaration of Independence, is less precise as to the method or authority for its possible termination. The dating at the end of the second commission also omits all reference to the British regnal year, although in October 1775 the United Colonies were still nearly nine months away from formally renouncing George III and proclaiming themselves the United States.

I
[January 10, 1764]
Benjamin Franklin, and John Foxcroft, Esquires, Post-Masters-General of all His Majesty’s Provinces and Dominions on the Continent of North-America.
  To All to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting, Know Ye, That We  the said Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft,  having received good Testimony of the Fidelity, and Loyalty to His Majesty, of  Abraham Hunt, of Trenton, in New-Jersey, Gent. and reposing great Trust and Confidence in the Knowledge, Care, and Ability of the said Abraham Hunt to execute the Office and Duties required of a Deputy Post-Master, have Deputed, Constituted, Authorized, and Appointed, and by these Presents do Depute,  Constitute, Authorize, and Appoint the said  Abraham Hunt, to be our lawful and sufficient Deputy, to Execute the Office of Deputy Post-Master  at Trenton in New-Jersey, aforesaid,  to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy the said Office, with all and every the Rights, Privileges, Benefits and Advantages, to the same belonging, from the Day of  the Date hereof  for the Term of three Years, unless sooner removed by us, under such Conditions, Covenants, Provisoes, Payments, Orders and Instructions, to be faithfully observed, performed, and done, by the said Deputy, and Servants, as  he  or they shall, from Time to Time, receive from Us, or by our Order. In Witness whereof, We the said Benjamin Franklin, and John Foxcroft, have hereunto set our Hands, and caused the Seal of our Office to be affixed: Dated the  Tenth  Day of  January,  17 64,  in the  Fourth Year of His Majesty’S Reign.
B FranklinJohn Foxcroft

II

By Authority of the Congress.Benjamin Franklin, Esq;Appointed Post-Master-General of all the United Colonies on the Continent of North-America.
[October 13, 1775]
  To All to whom these Presents shall come, sends  Greeting: Know Ye That I, the said Benjamin Franklin, having received good Testimony of the Fidelity and public Spirit of Abraham Hunt, of Trenton, in New Jersey, Gent. and reposing great Trust and Confidence in the Knowledge, Care and Ability of the said Abraham Hunt,  to execute the Office and Duties required of a Deputy Post-Master, have deputed, constituted, authorized and appointed, and by these Presents do depute, constitute, authorize and appoint the said  Abraham Hunt, to be my lawful and sufficient Deputy, to execute the Office of Deputy Post-Master of  Trenton, in New-Jersey, to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy the said Office, with all and every the Rights, Privileges, Benefits and Advantages, to the same belonging, from the Thirteenth  Day of October, Inst.  for the Term of three Years, or until he shall receive a new Commission, or until the present be superseded under such Conditions, Covenants, Provisoes, Payments, Orders and Instructions, to be faithfully observed, performed and done, by the said Deputy, and Servants, as he or they shall, from time to time, receive from me, or by my Order. In Witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Franklin, have hereunto set my Hand, and caused the Seal of my Office to be affixed: Dated the  Thirteenth  Day of  October,  177 5.
B Franklin


Title: Argument for Making the Bills of Credit Bear Interest, [13–14 January? 1764]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

On Dec. 20, 1763, the day Franklin resumed his seat in the Assembly after his long trip to New England, Governor John Penn transmitted to it letters from General Amherst and his successor as commander-in-chief, General Thomas Gage, demanding that the province raise and clothe one thousand men to act in concert with the regular troops against the Indians. In contrast to the negative reactions of the assemblies of New York, New Jersey, and Virginia to similar requisitions, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives promptly resolved, December 22, to provide the force required and, on January 6 after a holiday recess, voted to raise £50,000 to meet the costs involved. Franklin had written Richard Jackson on December 19 that the Assembly and the newly arrived governor, John Penn, seemed to be on good terms, but he added cautiously: “What Disputes may arise during the Session, I know not; but fear a Money Bill will revive the old ones.” His fear was soon fully justified.
On January 10 the Assembly began to consider ways and means of raising the £50,000 and continued the debate sporadically through the rest of the month. On the 11th two members were sent to ask the governor for a copy of his instructions on supply bills, since the Assembly was “truly desirous to avoid every Occasion of Disagreement with his Honour in their intended Grant to the Crown.” Penn complied the next day, sending down copies of his eleventh and twelfth instructions. These provided that he was to approve no measure that allowed any money to be left to the disposal of the Assembly alone, excluding the governor from a voice in the matter; that he do his best to keep the quantity of bills of credit in circulation at any one time as low as possible; that any act for bills of credit must conform to the agreement between the Proprietors and the provincial agents ratified by the Privy Council in 1760; and that the bills of credit not be made legal tender for any quitrents “or other sterling Payments” due to the Proprietors, but that all such dues be payable in sterling exchange, unless an indemnity to the Proprietors be enacted to protect them from loss by the depreciation of the bills of credit.
After receiving this information the Assembly spent virtually the whole of its sittings on January 13 and 14 debating ways and means of raising the supply. It seems highly probable that Franklin delivered the speech printed below on one of those two days. It is true that before he sent this copy to Richard Jackson in the following June he endorsed it “December 1763,” but the Assembly Votes give no indication that any discussion on the nature of a proposed supply bill took place during that month. The caustic reference in the fourth paragraph to the governor’s instructions, “which we have seen,” suggests strongly that he made the speech soon after those instructions were read to the Assembly on January 11. Probably by the next June he had forgotten the precise sequence of events during the long controversy over the supply bill.
It seems clear from the record that by the end of the debate on January 14 the Assembly had informally agreed to raise the supply by an issue of paper currency to be financed chiefly by a general property tax, though the details of the measure and the procedures and rates of assessment remained to be determined. Much of the Assembly’s time during the rest of the month was devoted to these problems of tax rates and property assessment in the several counties. Only on January 31 did the House resume the general discussion of “ways and means.”
At the conclusion of the debate on that day three questions were put to vote: 1. Should the bills of credit be made legal tender “in all Payments whatsoever”? 2. Should they be made legal tender in all payments excepting “the Proprietary Quitrents, and their other Sterling Debts”? 3. Should the £50,000 “be struck in Provincial Notes, bearing Interest” (Franklin’s proposal)? All three questions were voted in the negative. Thus Franklin’s speech, the longest in his lifetime of which the text survives, failed to persuade a majority of his fellow assemblymen to adopt his scheme.
On February 1 the House resumed the discussion, and this time a majority voted to issue bills of credit which would be legal tender “in all Payments, the Proprietaries Sterling Rents only excepted.” A committee was appointed to prepare the bill; it was introduced on February 10 and, after an extended debate, was passed on the 24th and ordered to be delivered to the governor.
It is unfortunate that the official journal of the Assembly is so barren of details on the debates that took place over this first supply bill of 1764. The deficiency is in some measure offset by a surviving fragment of a private journal kept by one of the members, Samuel Foulke, a Quaker assemblyman from Bucks County and obviously an admirer of Franklin. His record for January 1764, written as a consecutive narrative, deals first with the problems created by the massacres of the Indians on Conestoga Manor and at Lancaster and then, without giving specific dates, describes the Assembly’s deliberations after receiving copies of the proprietary instructions relating to supply bills.
The members, Foulke wrote, seeing that “it would be in vain to offer him [the governor] a Bill for raising money in the mode heretofore used in this Government, therefore, went into Consideration of new ways and Means for raising Money, which held the House Chiefly Employed for about four weeks, upon which Arose Very Serious and Arduous debates, in which B. Franklin and John Dickinson Greatly distinguished themselves; the first as a politician, the other as an Orator. The points Debated were whether we shou’d make Exceptions in Our Money bill in favour of the proprietaries, with a respect to their Quitrents, &c., Or Emit a new Species of bills of Credit, not to be Enforced as Legal Tender to any Man, but [which] to give them Credit, were to bear an Interest to the possessor, and by that means avoy’d any disputes with the proprietaries; the above-Named Gentlemen were for the latter. The Chief Speakers on the other side were Jos. Galloway, Jos. Fox, G. Ashbridge, and tho’ the first Named had to my appre[hen]sion much the advantage of the latter in reason and argument, yet to my great surprise, when the Question was put, it was Carried in favour of the propriet’s; such was the unaccountable Attachment of a majority of the Members to the usual mode of raising money, and their Ill Judged fear of going out of the beaten track to try a new Method of making money, which probably would have Exempted them and their Constituents from the necessity of wearing that Servile piece of furniture Call’d a Neck-Yoke” until it should please the King to take the government into his own hands, “which I believe is the wish of every one who retains a Just sense of Freedom.”
The adoption of Franklin’s scheme for issuing interest-bearing notes instead of the familiar bills of credit might have settled the problem of legal tender, but that it could have prevented the controversy that did take place, as Foulke thought it would, is doubtful. Whether the £50,-000 needed for the troops took the form of bills of credit or of interest-bearing notes, provision had to be made for the future retirement of this paper money. Taxation, including a general property tax, was necessary in any case. And once a bill was passed and sent to the governor containing clauses taxing the proprietary estates along with all others, trouble was almost certain to follow. As the events of the next months were to show, the Assembly’s bill set the stage for one of the most acrimonious disputes between a Pennsylvania Assembly and a proprietary governor, and their supporters, that ever confounded the politics of the province. Franklin’s plan, however meritorious in other respects, would probably have produced the same result.

Sir
[January 13–14? 1764]
I have been long in this House, and have seldom seen Matters of more Importance under its Consideration; and never more Unanimity in sincere Desire of obtaining the Point in View, tho’ we have not yet been so happy as to agree in the Mode of it.
During the Course of these weighty Debates I have been pleas’d to see some Members make use of Notes, who stood as little in need of such Helps in Speaking as any among us. It show’d they gave a serious Attention to the Business before us; and it appear’d rather respectful to the House, as they seem’d willing to offer us on this Occasion, not their hasty Thoughts, but They have thus afforded us some good Lights; and I could wish to see the Practice more frequent, since I think Notes would be useful to others besides myself, who have bad Memories, and particularly so to me who am but a very indifferent Speaker.
Three or four different Modes have been proposed of producing the Money we intend to give.
The first is, to strike the Sum, and make the Bills as heretofore a legal Tender to all, the Proprietaries not excepted. This I believe we are all pretty well satisfied is impracticable. We have seen the Instruction, and we know that whatever our Distresses are, the Proprietor has no Bowels; he never relents.
The second is, To make the Bills a legal Tender to all except the Proprietor—according to the Instruction. This we cannot do, because it is unequal and unjust.
The third is, To make the Proprietor a particular Compensation. This is not only an unjust Preference given to one Possessor of Property above another, but in the Proprietor’s Case is of dangerous Example.
The fourth is, To make the Bills a legal Tender in all Cases, perpetual Contracts only excepted; which will take in the Cases of all others whose Contracts are in the same Circumstances with those of the Proprietors. I must own the Equality of this Proposition pleases me. I would only wish to have the Exception extended to all Specific Contracts, past, present, and to come; I mean Contracts in which the kind of Money, or other thing to be paid, is particularly express’d. All Contracts, Sir, are between two or more Parties, and intended by each for his own Advantage; the Parties are free Agents, they have their Eyes open and know what they do. If I want to purchase another Man’s House, and he happens not to have sufficient Confidence in our Currency, but places his Affection upon Sterling, and will let me have the House at a Price I like, and afford me some Time for the Payment, provided I will oblige myself to pay in Sterling; If I like his Proposal, why should the Government interfere and say to the Seller take care what you do, I make such Contracts void by Law: The Seller then can have no Confidence in my Sterling Bond, if I should give it, and so the Bargain is broke off. Does the Government by such a Law think to favour me who was to have been the Debtor; I do not thank the Government. It has prevented me of a beneficial Bargain. It has hurt the Seller too, for his House sticks upon his Hands. If at length, to induce him to sell his House, and take the Risque which he thinks there is in the Currency, I agree to give him a greater Price than he would otherwise have required, the over Price I pay is so much Injury done me by the Government’s officiously interfering in private Contracts. I do not mean to say, the Government has nothing to do with private Contracts; it ought undoubtedly to have a Power over them, but it is to enforce the Observance of them—that’s all—unless the People were all Minors and Ideots. Again, If I sell a House to be delivered at some time hereafter, on a Contract to be paid in Sterling, and you come in with your Law in favour of my Debtor, that shall allow him if he pleases to pay me in Currency, at 33 and ⅓d. you, may with equal Justice, allow me, if I please, instead of a House to deliver him a Hogstie.
I am therefore for leaving all specific Contracts to be executed according to their Tenor; and that our Bills, if they must be made a legal Tender, shall be such only in Common Dealings, where no specific Contract has been made.
I know it is objected, that this will make our Currency of less Use, and by Degrees of little or no Use at all; for People will gradually get into the Way of making all their Contracts in Sterling. I answer, they will not, unless they find by Experience they can fulfill ’em; and if they can where is the harm of it? If our Currency becomes of less and less Use, it will hardly be in a swifter Proportion than we are like to have less and less of it, if we sink it as the Laws direct. And what is there amiss in having the Occasion for a particular Currency diminish as the Currency itself diminishes?
But it will be said, we cannot in this Country do without a Paper Currency, we must always have one. I own, I am not clearly of that Opinion; but if it be true that we must always have a Paper Currency, then it is my Duty to advise, that it be an honest One; that the Bills have Advantages in themselves, which shall support their Value, and prevent their Depreciating as their Quantity increases. That which in all Dealings is to be the Measure of all other Values, ought itself to have as steady and fixt a Value, as human Wisdom can contrive. Were we about to order a true Standard Yard to be made for regulating Long Measure throughout the Country, and a true Standard Peck for other Measure, I imagine we should think of some Substance to make them of that would be firm enough to preserve the Dimension given; and that no Man in his Senses would propose the Yard to be made of a knit Garter, and the Peck of a ribb’d Stocking. At present every Bill that I receive tells me a Lie, and would cheat me too if I was not too well acquainted with it. Thirty Shillings in our Bills, according to the Account they give of themselves should be worth five Dollars; and we find them worth but four: They should be worth 22s. 6d. Sterling, and we find them worth scarce 17s. 2d. Sometimes indeed more or less as the Garter shrinks or stretches. When we sit here in Legislation, we have great Power, but we are not almighty. We cannot alter the Nature of Things. Values will be as they are valued or valuable, and not as we call them. We may stamp on a Piece of Paper, This is Ten Shillings, but if we do not make some other Provision that it shall always be really worth Ten Shillings, the Say-so of our Law will signify little. Experience in other Colonies as well as in ours, have demonstrated this. And indeed of what Force can it be to fix an arbitrary Value on the Bills, unless the Value of all Things to be purchased by the Bills could be fix’d by the same Law. I want to buy a Suit of Cloth, and am told by the Seller, that his Price is 20s. a Yard. Very well, says I, cut me off 5 Yards, and here are five 20s. Bills for you. I beg your Pardon, says he, the 20s. that I mean is 20s. lawful Money, according to such an Act of Parliament: Your Paper Money is greatly depreciated of late; it is of no more than half its nominal Value, your 20s. is really worth but ten; so that if you pay me in those 20s. Bills you must give me ten of them for five Pounds. Don’t talk so to me, says I, you are oblig’d by Act of Assembly to take these Bills at 20s. each. Very well, says he, if I must take them so I must; but as the Law sets no Price on my Goods, if you pay me with those Bills at 20s. each, my Cloth is 40s. a Yard, and so you must still give me ten of them; and pray then what becomes of your Law?
The true Way in my Opinion to preserve a Value in our Paper Bills nearly equal to the nominal Sums we stamp on them; is to consider 1st. on what we found them; 2dly. what real Value that Fund gives them; and how much less that real Value is than the nominal One we set on them; and 3dly. in what manner a Compensation may be made to every Possessor of them for the Difference. If we do these Things rightly, we then act with Wisdom, Justice and Honour; becoming the legislative Body of a reputable Country.
In the first Place then we propose to found the Credit of these Bills on a Tax to be raised, which is to sink them as I understand in Six Years at one Sixth Part per Annum, for the due and punctual Performance of which there is to be the Sanction of a Law. If this be the Case, and allowing the Security to be good, of which I make not the least Doubt, (tho’ some Colonies have by subsequent Laws postpon’d the Payments they had engaged to make, for much longer Terms) I say, supposing the Law punctually executed, it is not difficult to come at the 2d. Point, which was to compute what real Value that Fund gives the Bills. When you pay them out, it is instead of so much real Money which you owe and ought to pay immediately, but not having the Money to pay, these are your Promisory Notes, obliging you to pay the whole Sum, not upon Demand, but in Six Years by annual Quotas; they are therefore in the nature of things, and between honest Men, really worth no more than the Sum that remains, when Interest for the Time is deducted; and allowing that publick Security is something better than private, I shall state that Interest at 5 per Cent only; then

The Interest of
£50,000 for the first
  Year is
£2500:
0:
0

  Do of 41,666:
  13:
  4

2d
  Year is
2083:
6:
8

  Do of 33, 333:
  6:
  8

3d
  Year is
1666:
13:
4

  Do of 25, 000:
  0:
  0

4th
  Year is
1250:
0:
0

  Do of 16, 666:
  13:
  4

5th
  Year is
833:
6:
8

  Do of 8,333:
  6
  8

6th
  Year is
416:
  13:
  4

Total of Interest
£8750:
0:
0

This Sum, £8750, taken from
£50,000

  8,750

leaves
  £41,250

for the true Value of the promisory Notes, or as we call them, Bills of Credit, which is almost 20 per Cent less than their nominal Value; and if People should compute the Interest at 6 per Cent instead of 5, and have withal any reason to doubt the Punctuality of the Government as to the Time of Payment, their Value would be proportionally lower.
We have thus considered the Fund of our intended Bills, the full real Value that Fund can give them, and how much less that real Value is than the nominal Value we mark upon them. We come now to consider, in what manner a Compensation may be made to every Possessor of them for the Difference. The Method I shall venture to propose, disgustful as it may be to my Brethren at first Sight, is plain easy and honest, and I am persuaded that the more they consider it, the more reasonable it will appear, and the less they will be averse to it. It is merely this, Let the Bills bear an Interest of Five per Cent. Some Gentlemen, whose Judgment I esteem, I know have already declar’d against this Method, and from very laudable Motives, a Concern for the Ease of the People they represent, already much burthen’d with Taxes; and an Apprehension that a Tax to pay this Interest would greatly aggravate that Burthen. I have already shown them, that the proposed Interest will amount to much less than they conceiv’d it; for by a hasty Calculation, they call’d it 14 or £15,000 whereas it appears to be but £8750 for the Six Years, the Interest diminishing yearly as the Principal diminishes, which I suppose they did not advert to. I shall now endeavour to show, that the People must and will be tax’d that Sum, over and above the £50,000 whether a special Provision is made for it or not; whether the Bills express the Bearing of Interest or do not; in short a Sum equal to the Interest must and will be taken from the People, either in a way that is honorable to the Government, or in a Way that is dishonorable. And if I can make this appear, I think we shall not hesitate a Moment which to chuse.
Let us now suppose the Bills struck and made a legal Tender as heretofore, without bearing Interest; and as we can more easily conceive the Matter by a single Instance, let us suppose that the Government is to pay me £600 for Provisions the Produce of my Farm, for Cloathing, Arms, Ammunition, Carriages, or any other Thing I have supplied for the Army. The Government tenders me the nominal Value of £600 in Bills. I enquire on what they are founded, and when they are to be paid. The Government tells me that the Fund is this; I am to be tax’d £100 a Year for 6 Years, the Treasurer is order’d to receive these Bills in Payment of my Taxes, and so in 6 Years they are all to be taken off my Hands. But Mr. Government (I might humbly expostulate and say), by this taking from me Six Years Taxes at once, you really take more from me than Six hundred Pounds. That Sum you ought now to pay me, and no Tax will be due from me this 12-Month, and then but a 6th. Part of the Sum will be due, and the rest from Year to Year.

The Interest of
£600 for the
1st.
  Year will be
£30:
0:
0

    which I lose

  The Interest of
£500 for the
2d.
  Year will be
25:
0:
0

  The Interest of
£400 for the
3d.
  Year will be
20:
0:
0

  The Interest of
£300 for the
4th.
  Year will be
15:
0:
0

  The Interest of
£200 for the
5th.
  Year will be
10:
0:
0

  and The Interest of
£100 for the
6th.
  Year will be
5:
  0:
  0

In all
£105:
0:
0

So that my real Tax for the Six Years is Seven hundred and five Pounds. Friend, says the Government you don’t consider the whole of the Matter; I have made these Bills a legal Tender; you must take them, ’tis true; but then you may make any one else with whom you have Dealings take them again: So shuffle them off your Hands as fast as you can, let every body in their Turns have their Share of them, and so every one will lose his Share of the £105 you mention, in proportion to the Time that each Man keeps my Bills in his Hands. I thank you Mr. Government, I now understand you and am very much oblig’d to you; for I find, that instead of intending to cheat me alone you only intend to cheat every Body.
The House will readily perceive that the Case of every Sum and Parcel of Money the Government shall pay out till the £50,000 is expended will finally be the same with that of this £600 which is only the Representative of the whole.
Gentlemen have said, This Paying Interest is a dear Way of coming at Money; we should get it upon the best Terms we can: We can save the Interest by our Law that shall make the Bills a legal Tender. Power to do a dishonest or dishonourable Action, and a Convenience obtain’d by doing it, if such a Thing could be, will not both together justify such an Action. But if we think we can by our Power save the Interest, and it is so good a Thing to avoid a Tax upon the People tho’ it be to pay the People their just Due; let me propose an Improvement, by which we shall come at our Money on still better Terms. Why should not I be as desirous of easing the People as any Gentleman among us? It is only extending our Power then, one Step farther; and enacting that the Principal too shall never be paid any more than the Interest, but our Bills pass current for ever, and no Tax ever be laid to redeem them. I shall be told immediately that this would spoil their Credit and prevent their answering any End; they would lose all their Value. I am of the same Opinion, and I think too that they will lose a Proportion of their Value, if we do not pay the Interest; so that we shall really save Nothing by refusing it.
It has been objected that allowing the Bills to bear Interest would introduce the vile and mischievous Practice of Stock-Jobbing, I must own I do not see this, and that I cannot answer it because I do not understand it. Why should public Bills bearing Interest occasion Stock Jobbing any more than private Bonds? Such Bills have been and now are in Use in several of the Colonies, and I have never heard any Complaint or Mention of such Jobbing.

Other Gentlemen have express’d an Apprehension that such Bills would be refused and undervalued as no Law compelled the Taking of them. I own I have no such Apprehension. If the Bills are of convenient Denominations I think they will readily pass. Experience has shown it in other Governments. Interest is a powerful Motive; it will make Men break Laws, and do right without a Law.
Upon the whole the Method I have propos’d appears to me to have many Advantages. It will avoid that vile Dispute with the Proprietor, at the Time of all Times when we should be most careful to avoid it. It will avoid the Necessity, and the dangerous Example of any partial and unjust Provision in his favour; It will give the Bills a steady and more equal Value which is necessary to make them a proper Measure of other Values: It will be a Conveniency to all who have Occasion to keep Money by them for future Purposes, and of course turn out into common Currency Money that would otherwise remain in their Chests; It will draw great Sums home that are now in the Funds in England; It will cost the people no more in reality than Bills without Interest, and will in my Opinion be a Measure in every respect prudent, just and honourable.
But I submit, as I ought to do, my Sentiments to the Wisdom of the House.

Endorsed: December 1763 Argument for making the Bills of Credit bear Interest
B.F.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from James Bowdoin, 18 January 1764
From: Bowdoin, James
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston, Janry: 18. 1764
I am very glad to hear you got home Safe with your Daughter and Mr. Foxcroft without any further accident; and hope your arm has recovered it’s former Strength.
I here enclose, open for your perusal, a Letter to Mr. Canton on the Subject I spoke to you about. If any thing should occur to you to improve the Telescope further than what is noticed in said Letter, I shall take it as a favor you would mention it to Mr. Canton; and that you’d be so good as to let my letter accompany your own. I hope we shall soon have the pleasure of seeing you again. An annual tour this way would contribute much to your health. Please to make my Compliments to your good lady, to your daughter and Mr. Foxcroft and believe me to be with the utmost regard Dear Sir your most humble &c. Whenever Mr. Winthrop shall deliver me Æpinus, I will take care to send it to you.
I would have a Micrometer of Dolland’s Invention fixed to the Telescope. I intirely forgot to mention it in my letter to Mr. Canton. I shall be obliged if you’ll mention in your Letter to him. The micrometer to be taken off and put on at pleasure, if when on and not wanted, it would stand in the way.
This is the Figure which the Foregoing Letter to Mr. Canton refers to.
Benja. Franklin Esqr. in Philadelphia


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 20 January 1764
From: Pennsylvania Assembly
To: Penn, John

During the summer and early autumn of 1763 hostile Indians repeatedly attacked isolated settlements and farms on the Pennsylvania frontier, killing many whites, carrying others off into captivity, and driving the rest in terror from their homes to the relatively few garrisoned forts or the larger communities to the east. The small numbers of armed men authorized by the Assembly were quite inadequate to cope with the  raiding bands, and by the time cooler weather set in there were almost no settlers in the more exposed areas foolhardy enough to remain on their own lands.
The frontiersmen, both the refugees and those living in areas less vulnerable to attack, were vehemently critical of the seemingly do-nothing Assembly and violently hostile to the Indians—to all Indians, that is, not only those who had gone on the warpath but also the relatively small groups that had come sufficiently under the influence of white men, chiefly Quakers and Moravians, to settle down on nearby land and live as peaceable neighbors. Rumors spread around that some, at least, of these Indians were giving secret aid and comfort to more active tribesmen. It is impossible to say now how many of these reports, if any, were based on solid fact; the important point is that many white men believed them and concluded that the only sound policy was to remove all Indians from the areas under white control, either by evacuation or by death.
On October 21 the provincial commissioners reported to the Assembly that they believed the Moravians at Bethlehem had been secretly supplying a nearby body of Christianized Indians with arms and ammunition, which the Indians in turn had supposedly been bartering with “our Enemies on the Frontiers.” These “Moravian Indians” were also believed to have been “principally concerned” in a series of murders in Northampton County. The commissioners recommended that these Indians be removed to some place “where their Behaviour may be more closely observed.” The House thereupon resolved that those who were “willing and desirous, from their Attachment to the Government, or regard for their own Safety,” be invited to come down to some place the governor and Council should think “most safe and convenient for them,” and that the government would pay for the expense of their removal and support.
Some 127 Indians were thereupon moved to Philadelphia, arriving on November 11 in the company of a Moravian missionary, Rev. Bernhard Adam Grube. They encountered great hostility in the city. The first plan was to place them in the barracks, but a group of soldiers and their wives living there would have none of them and took up arms to hold them out. After standing around for five hours enduring insults from the populace as well as the soldiery, the Indians were taken to Province Island in the Delaware at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, on which stood several buildings normally used as a pesthouse, or quarantine hospital.
Since early in the century a small group of Indians had been living on the Penns’ Conestoga Manor near the borough of Lancaster. During the autumn of 1763 rumors had been spreading that they had been harboring at least one hostile Indian. In the first part of December some men from Paxton, farther up the Susquehanna, investigated at Conestoga and returned home with the report that they had seen several armed Indians there. That news was enough; early in the morning of December 14 about fifty armed riders burst into the little village, murdered the six Indians they found there, and burned down the cabins. Fourteen other Indians who lived at Conestoga were saved for the time being because they were away from home the night of the raid. When the news of this massacre reached Lancaster, the authorities rounded up the fourteen survivors and placed them in the workhouse, the strongest building in the borough, for safety. But the men from Paxton, who asserted later that one of these Indians was a murderer, descended upon Lancaster on December 27, broke down the doors of the workhouse, and dispatched all fourteen Indians, men, women, and children alike.

On December 21, two days after the Assembly had reconvened following an October adjournment, Governor Penn reported on a series of conferences he and his predecessor Hamilton had held with a group of friendly Indians living on the upper Susquehanna. They were “uneasy at their present Situation” and wished to come to live under the protection of the government. The Assembly would have to provide money, however, if it approved this proposal. In the same message Penn also reported on the massacre at Conestoga Manor on the 14th, done “without the least Reason or Provocation, in cool Blood,” and he told the House of the orders he had given the magistrates of the western counties “to exert themselves, and endeavour, by all possible Means, to discover and secure the Principals concerned in this outrageous Act.” He added that the survivors, then still lodged in the Lancaster workhouse, wanted to be transferred to Philadelphia or its neighborhood. The Assembly replied on the 24th with a brief message promising to provide funds to move both these groups of Indians to safety.
When the assemblymen reconvened in January after a brief recess, they and the governor exchanged messages about the killing of the Indians in the Lancaster workhouse on December 27, and the Assembly unanimously resolved to provide funds for whatever additional force the governor and provincial commissioners might require “to frustrate the further wicked Designs of the lawless Rioters.” As early as November 22 rumors had begun to circulate that the country people, “becoming embittered because the authorities are taking no adequate measures for defense,” were planning “to come to the city in droves and destroy everything in revenge.” Reports of a proposed march on the city increased, and after the events at Conestoga and Lancaster were known in Philadelphia it became clear that the major objective of such a march would be the killing of the Indians on Province Island. It seemed desirable, therefore, to get them away to some place of even greater safety.
While the governor and Council were concentrating on this problem, the Assembly undertook to deal with another aspect of the general situation: the trial of the murderers at Conestoga and Lancaster, when and if they should be identified and caught. Granted the state of public opinion in Lancaster County, it seemed unlikely that any jury there would be likely to convict them, however strong the evidence might be. A committee of three, including Franklin, was therefore appointed to bring in a bill for the trial of capital offenses committed between white men and women and Indians. The measure they introduced, January 4, provided that those accused of such crimes should be brought to Philadelphia and tried there. But this measure, so contrary to the principle of common law that a criminal trial should take place in the county where the crime was committed, “Occasion’d such a Clamour in the House and out-a-doors that the house thought proper to let it lye after the first reading untill the present unhappy Commotion and ferment should have time to subside.” The proposal was not revived.
The Indians on Province Island, alarmed for their own safety, petitioned the Assembly for a vessel large enough to take them all to England, but the governor and Council decided that a much more feasible plan was to send them to the protection of Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian affairs, on the Mohawk River in upper New York province. A detachment of Montgomery’s Regiment of Highlanders, then in Philadelphia, was planning to set off early on the morning of January 5 for New York City, and its commander generously agreed to escort the Indians as far as that city. Letters were at once dispatched to Johnson and General Gage informing them of this action and also to Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden of New York and Governor William Franklin of New Jersey asking permission to send the Indians through their provinces.
William Franklin cooperated quickly, but when the Indians had reached Perth Amboy, January 11, ready to cross over to Staten Island and enter the province of New York, they were halted. Word came that when Colden consulted the New York Council, its members unanimously advised him to refuse permission for the Indians to travel through that jurisdiction. New Yorkers regarded the Indians living on the east side of the Susquehanna as “the most obnoxious” of any, Colden reported, “a Number of Rogues and Thieves, Runaways from the other Nations,” and not to be trusted. General Gage wrote Penn that under the circumstances he would arrange for some companies of the Royal American Regiment, who were about to march to Philadelphia, to escort the Indians back there. And so this group of displaced men, women, and children, numbering about 140 by now, were forced to retrace their steps. They reached Philadelphia on January 24 and this time were quartered in the barracks under guard of British regulars.

When Penn learned of Colden’s refusal to permit the Indians to travel through New York, he laid the situation before his councilors on January 16. Acting on their recommendation, he sent a message to the Assembly the same day, reporting what had happened and asking its opinion and advice as to how the government could most effectually give the Indians “that Protection and Security which, under their Circumstances, they have an undoubted Right to expect and claim from us.” The Assembly was prevented from conducting business from the afternoon of January 17 to the afternoon of the 19th by a “sudden Indisposition” of Speaker Norris, but when it did meet, a committee of four, including Franklin, was appointed to draft a reply. The message the committee prepared was sent to the governor on the 20th.

May it please your Honour,
January 20, 1764.
We have taken into our Consideration your Honour’s Message of the Sixteenth Instant, with the Letters therein referred to, and are pleased to find the Governor so heartily disposed to afford the Indians he mentions “that Protection and Security which, under their Circumstances, they have an undoubted Right to expect and claim from us.” We should be very glad, if it was in our Power, “to point out the Manner in which this can most effectually be done;” but as our “Opinion” must be founded on the Information we have received, we can only mention such Measures as appear to us at present to be most reasonable; submitting our Sentiments to the Judgment your Honour may form from any Intelligence you have since received, or any Circumstances that may hereafter happen.
We observe, with particular Pleasure, “the kind Part General Gage has taken in this Matter,” in protecting these Indians, and directing the Escort, on their Arrival in this City, to receive “such Orders as you shall judge proper to give them.”
As this humane and prudent Step of the General is equally calculated to secure these unhappy People, and preserve the internal Peace of this Province, while our own Troops are engaged in the Defence of our Frontiers, we shall be obliged to your Honour, if you will please to return his Excellency our Thanks for this generous and seasonable Act of Goodness.
The Indians, we apprehend, will be sufficiently protected by the Companies that compose this Escort, while they remain here. When these Companies march from hence, if there should appear to be the same Danger of any Outrage being committed against these Indians, that there seems to be at present, we are of Opinion, that it will be adviseable for your Honour to lodge them in some Place where they can be most easily and conveniently guarded by an armed Force, to be raised by your Honour for that Purpose.
It will be with the utmost Regret we shall see your Honour reduced to the Necessity of pursuing these Measures; but with an Abhorrence altogether inexpressible we should behold “these poor Creatures,” who, desirous of living in Friendship with us, as Proofs of this Disposition quitting a Settlement that made them suspected, and surrendering their Arms, have delivered themselves, their Wives and Children, into our Power, on the Faith of this Province, barbarously butchered by a Sett of Ruffians, whose audacious Cruelty is checked by no Sentiment of Humanity, and by no Regard to the Laws of their Country.
Such a Massacre we have Reason to expect from the Persons who perpetrated such shocking Barbarities in Lancaster County, and their Abettors, unless they are deterred by a vigorous Exertion of Power, which never can be more properly employed than in vindicating the Honour and Dignity of a Government, enforcing an Obedience to the Laws, and repressing the dangerous Insolence of tumultuous Insurgents, who, guided by a blind Rage, undertake by open Force to controul the Conduct of the Administration, and counteract the best concerted Measures for the general Good.
It will therefore be agreeable to us, that your Honour would be pleased to order the Sheriff and Coroner of Lancaster County, and the Magistrates of that Borough, to come down, and give you the best Information that can be obtained of the Persons concerned in these Violences; that they being discovered and apprehended, due Punishment may be inflicted on such daring Disturbers of the public Peace.
Signed by Order of the House,Isaac Norris, Speaker.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Bernard, 23 January 1764
From: Bernard, Francis
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston, Jan 23. 1764
I am favoured with yours of the 11th inst. and am much obliged to you for the trouble you have given yourself of sending a Messenger to Alexandria. I should have proposed this Measure long ago, if I had any Notion that the conveyance of letters to that Town had been so precarious: for tho’ I have had sevral letters from him, yet I cannot find that any of my letters (from Aug. 30, when I sent a letter to Mr. Dunlap to be forwarded, to the present time,) have reached him. When he gets to Philadelphia, the easiest way of his return will be by Sea, if a good Vessell offers: but that I must leave to your Judgement. But I am desirous in all things that your trouble should be lessened as much as possible.
I have less concern to trouble you with another business, because being intended for public Utility you will make it your own concern. I have a desire to endeavour to establish a Sturgeon fishery in the River Penobscot. And I have engaged a suitable Man for that purpose, who by means of the Garrison of the Fort there will have labour cheap: all that We want is a good receipt. The best pickled Sturgeon I ever eat, was cured at Trenton: and as your Neighbourhood to that Operator must give you some acquaintance with him, I would trouble you to get his receipt in as precise Words as possible: and you may assure him in such case that Penobscot Sturgeon shall not be sent to Philadelphia or New York or any other Market, that he may call his.
I have a like desire to try the Pickling Salmon according to the New Castle Way. But I fear I shant be able to get a receipt from thence by the next Season: if you have one by you, I should be glad to be favoured with it. I am &c.
Benj Franklin Esqr.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Solomon Williams, 25 January 1764
From: Williams, Solomon
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Honored Sir
Leb: 25 Jany 1764.
You Will Pardon this Trouble and My Freedom In using your Name When I inform you that Mr. Webster for Whom is the Enclosed Desired me thus to Make use of your Name to Carry a Letter to him with the Assurance that he had your Favorable permission for it. Since I have this Occasion to Speak to you Allow me sir in the Crowd of your Admirers to Return you My Sincere Thanks for your Eminent Services to the literary World by your Wonderful discoverys and Improvements In Electricity. I wish you Increasing and abundant Success and honor in All your Generous Endeavors to promote the Improvement and happiness of Mankind. I am Honored Sir with Great Respect your very humble Servant
S: W:
Copy of the Cover of my Letter to Mr. Webster to Mr. Franklin.

Endorsed: Copy of My Lr to Mr Pelatiah Webster


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Jackson, 26 January 1764
From: Jackson, Richard
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Inner Temple 26 Jany 1764
I have wrote to you by every Packet that has sailed and one that has not, I mean that of the present Month, which not being in England at the time, has been detained for the next, in the mean time, I write a line or two, by a Merchant Vessel that sails tomorrow or next day.
I got pretty early intelligence of Major Barker’s arrival in England, but at the same time was informed of his Resolution to go to America, there to look after take Possesion of, and cultivate his Estate; I had long before discovered that this was the Gentleman you had in view; but thought it best to see him myself which I did an hour after I had wrote my last Letter, which however has not yet gone.
I found my Information well grounded and have no doubt he intends going to America in April. He is a sensible well-behaved man and as he has a great deal of military Merit, and is a friend of some Gentlemen of my Acquaintance who have long served in India, and who are too good Judges of Merit to bestow their friendship on one who did not deserve it, I think it is my Duty to recommend him to my friends in America and wish you would give him such Assistance as falls in your Way. Perhaps Mr. Hughes’s Acquaintance with him may help him to the Purchase of any Part of Major Barker Estate that he may determine to sell, should he come to such a determination.
Measures are taken for bringing several American Questions before Parliament. They are so numerous that I am quite at a loss where to begin, and I am so employd not only in attending the House, but in combating what I deem the most dangerous Errors in American Politicks in 100 Places, in many of which I am to begin with first Principles, that I am fit for little but sleep when I return home. Mr. Allen knows somewhat of my Assiduity on these Subjects. I have Access to almost every Place any friends of the Colony’s would wish to have Access to but I am not sensible of my making any Impression proportioned to my Endeavours, perhaps it is I, that am wrong.
I have long since given up all hopes of preventing some Parliamentary Tax to be imposed on N America as well as the W Indies for the maintenance of the Troops kept there, how far it is necessary to keep any considerable Number I will not say, but I have long argued that those kept there are for the most part maintained for the Intrests of G Britain only.
I am most averse to an Internal Tax, God knows how far such a precedent may be extended, and I have frequently asked, what internal Tax they will not lay.
Customs as well as Prohibitions on Trade, have been at all times, laid by England from the time of the long Parliament. I wish this to be the Rule of Conduct on this Occasion.
There is a Bill in Embryo for restraining your Paper Currency and of all N america within the limits prescribed to the N England Governments by the Stat 24 Geo. 2d. I have not seen the Draught of it, if it be prepared. They will certainly carry it, if they are determined so to do. My Compliments to my friends particularly the Governor of N Jersey and his Lady. It is 11 at Night and I have not dined. I am Dear sir your Affectionate humble Servant
Rd Jackson


Title: The Postmasters General to the Lords of the Treasury: Memorandum on the American Postal Service, 28 January 1764
From: Postmasters General
To: Lords of the Treasury

This document is preceded in the letterbook by a letter of the same date from Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office, to Charles Jenkinson, secretary to the Treasury, indicating that the paper would be given to George Grenville “the beginning of next Week” and that Jenkinson might “depend on a Copy of it.” Todd probably prepared at least the draft of the memorandum, acting at the direction of the joint postmasters general, as an aid to the preparation of future legislation; much of its contents reflects his correspondence with Franklin and Foxcroft in America, and it clearly shows the influence of their suggestions for the improvement of the colonial postal service.

28 Jany 1764
Memorandum relating to some Improvements suggested to be made in the Management of the Post Office in North America.
The beginning of last summer Mr. Franklin and Mr. Foxcroft, Deputy PostMaster General for North-America, undertook a Survey, which was proposed to extend at least, through the whole present Post Roads, in order to examine every where into the state and Management of the several Post Offices; to make such new Regulations as should appear to be necessary; and to observe what Improvements, the Revenue might be capable of, in the different Colonies; That they might be able, upon their return, to offer their Sentiments on the several points, which have been referred to them by the PostMaster General; particularly, That of rendering Correspondence in the vast Empire of America of the greatest utility to His Majesty’s Subjects; at the same time keeping in View the Improvements of the Revenue itself; though the Postage cannot for a long while, be expected to exceed the charges of Management, because in the Colonies, settled in part only, where the Towns are situated at a great distance from each other, there is a continual necessity of erecting new Offices; it is however satisfactory to find, That many Offices in Virginia, and other Colonies, in the like situation, which were once a Burthen and Charge, have lately been brought to bear their own Expence and even afford a prospect of soon becoming profitable; as a Country increasing in Wealth and Commerce, and so speedily multiplying its Inhabitants, cannot fail to keep pace in an Increase of Correspondence, especially, since the Posts in America are under the Management of persons of acknowledged Abilities, who have been furnished, from hence with every Light, which could possibly be collected; And the more to excite in them a laudable Zeal, they have been given to understand, that they cannot exert themselves, on any subject which will do them greater honour, or their native Country of America more signal Service, than rendering the intercourse of Letters, every day more and more safe, expeditious and frequent to their fellow Subjects.
They have already obeyed The PostMaster General, by remitting £494 4s. 8d. in full Payment of their Balance up to the 10th. of August 1761, and This is the first remittance ever made of the kind.

There is great reason to hope that the Packet Boats, which have been lately established between Falmouth and New York, as they are on no account to be interrupted in their regular Course, will contribute very materially to the Benefit of His Majesty’s trading Subjects; and may likewise, in a little Time, be aiding to the Revenue of the Posts; though at present Those Boats are, in appearance, some Burthen; as the Postage of Letters, to and from New York immediately, does not quite support the Charge of the Vessells; but, the Increase of The Inland Postage, in both Countries, occasioned thereby, tho’ it cannot be exactly ascertained, may perhaps nearly amount to the remainder of the Expence.
As the Survey of the Deputy PostMaster General in America must have been finished at the End of this Summer, an ample Report is expected from them, by one of the two next Packet Boats, with Maps delineated and adapted to the Post Roads of America; particularly, such as relate to the Posts to and from the Chief-Office of New York, which is at present the only regular Center of this important and extensive Correspondence; but, upon the establishment of the Three New Packet Boats, about to take place, to and from the Southern Parts of the said Continent, including the late immense Acquisitions, the PostMaster General has Thoughts of erecting another Central Chief Office at Charles Town, from whence the Correspondence may be brancht out and extended as occasion shall require, thro’ the Neighbouring Southern Colonies, as well as be properly connected with That already establisht in the Northern Ones.
Amongst the many Injunctions relating to the American Posts, which the PostMaster General has sent to Their Deputies there; No one has been more strongly enforced, than not to permit or suffer, any Letter or Packet, under any pretence whatever not even on the Government’s Service, to pass free of Postage; The PostMaster General, by the Post Act of the 9th. of Queen Anne, having no such dispensing Power; and the least Inovation of this kind might spread itself in such a Manner, as to prevent That Revenue from ever becoming advantageous; or perhaps even sufficient to support the Charges of maintaining a well established Post through That extensive Empire.
The Law as it now stands with respect to Ship Letters seems only to have in View Letters coming by Shipping from parts beyond the Seas into the several Ports of Great Britain and Ireland, and not Letters going by Shipping to any of His Majesty’s Islands, Colonies and Plantations in the West Indies, or America.

If a Clause to the purport of the Annext could be obtained obliging all Captains and other Officers of Ships, sailing to any of the Islands, Colonies, or Plantations aforesaid, upon their Arrival, and before they break Bulk, or are admitted to an Entry, to deliver their Letters into the Post Office of such Port, These Ship Letters would soon create a considerable Increase of the Post Office Revenue in That Country; And to encourage the Captains and others to deliver their Letters at the first Post Office, The Deputy PostMaster, to whom they are delivered, ought to be empowered to pay a Penny for each Letter or Packet, as is now practiced in Great Britain and Ireland.
This Regulation would be of the greatest use to the Merchants and Planters in all His Majesty’s American Dominions; for at present their Correspondence is liable to very great Delays, by their Letters being exposed to be embezzled, detained, or opened, by the Persons, to whom the Ships, by which they send them, are consigned, particularly when such Persons happen to be in the same Branches of Commerce.
These, amongst others, are the Reasons given in the Post Act of the 9th. of Queen Anne, for the Clauses relating to Ship Letters coming to Great Britain and Ireland; And there can be no Doubt but the same Reasons are as well founded with respect to the Correspondence in the West Indies and America, and that after a very short Experience of the safety, Regularity and Expedition of delivering, and conveying Ship Letters, by the Post, all the Merchants there will be as well pleased with this Method, as Those in England are at present; and it is most certain That no Tax whatever is so chearfully paid here as the Postage upon Ship Letters.
The necessity of a regular Post between New York and Quebec, has been so strongly pressed by General Murray the Governor, and by such a Body of British Merchants residing there, as well as at Montreal, and other intermediate Places, that it has been undertaken about once a Month, on the Arrival of each Packet Boat at New York, except for a part of the Winter Season, at a much greater Charge than the Letters can be expected to produce; especially on Account of the high rate of Postage, for the Governors Gage and Murray have both taken Notice of the legal Postage being so high on Account of the Distance; that in Canada, which is represented to be in a manner destitute of Cash, and in all places where Money is equally scarce, the people will forbear to correspond until they find Occasions, by Friends, Travellers and the like, to send their Letters, which makes it to be wished, the Legislature might also enact to the purport of the 2d. Clause annexed, That the Rate of Postage for the greatest Distances between one place and another upon the Continent of America may not exceed 1s. 6d. for a single Letter and so in proportion.