FROM JOHN JAY TO B. FRANKLIN. DEAR SIR, Bath, 26 December, 1783. Since we parted, I have been so much and so long indisposed, as that, except short letters to Mrs. Jay, I have denied myself the pleasure of writing to my friends. The kindness you have shown to us both has, nevertheless, not been forgotten, nor has my disposition to acknowledge and be influenced by it in the least abated. We have lately had a report here, that you were very ill with the stone; and some have said that you intended to seek relief from an operation. This report has alarmed your friends, and I am anxious to know how far it may be well founded. It would give me sincere satisfaction to have it contradicted under your own hand. I decline saying any thing about politics for obvious reasons. The public papers afford you the means of forming a judgment of them, especially as your long experience and knowledge of this country enable you to see further than ordinary observers. There are many in this country, who speak of you with great respect. The honest Whig Club drank your health very affectionately. There are others, who like you as little as the eagle did the cat, and probably for the same reasons. When we meet, we will talk these matters over with less reserve than I can write. Present my affectionate compliments to your two grandsons, and believe me to be, with great esteem and regard, dear Sir, &c JOHN JAY. TO THOMAS MIFFLIN, PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Dr. Franklin requests Permission of Congress to be recalled from France. DEAR SIR, Passy, 26 December, 1783. I congratulate you very sincerely on your appointment to that very honorable station, the Presidency of Congress. Every testimony you receive of the public sense of your services and talents, gives me pleasure. I have written to you a long letter on business, in my quality of minister.* This is a private letter, respecting my personal concerns, which I presume to trouble you with on the score of our ancient friendship. In a letter of the 12th of March, 1781, I stated my age and infirmities to the Congress, and requested they would be pleased to recall me, that I might enjoy the little left me of the evening of life in repose, and in the sweet society of my friends and family. I was answered by the then President, that, when peace should be made, if I persisted in the same request, it should be granted; I acquiesced; the preliminaries were signed in November, 1782, and I then repeated my petition. A year is past, and I have no answer. Undoubtedly, if the Congress should think my continuing here necessary for the public service, I ought, as a good citizen, to submit to their judgment and pleasure; but, as they may easily supply my place to advantage, that cannot be the case. I suppose, therefore, that it is merely the multiplicity of more important affairs, that has put my request out of their mind. What * See above, p. 36. See a letter to Robert R. Livingston, dated December 5th, 1782. Vol. IX. p. 436. I would then desire of you is, to put this matter in train to be moved and answered as soon as possible, that I may arrange my affairs accordingly. In the first letter above mentioned, to which I beg leave to refer you, I gave a character of my grandson, William Temple Franklin, and solicited for him the favor and protection of Congress. I have nothing to abate of that character; on the contrary, I think him so much improved as to be capable of executing, with credit to himself and advantage to the public, any employment in Europe the Congress may think fit to honor him with. He has been seven years in the service, and is much esteemed by all that know him, particularly by the minister here, who, since my new disorder (the stone) makes my going to Versailles inconvenient to me, transacts our business with him in the most obliging and friendly manner. It is natural for me, who love him, to wish to see him settled before I die, in some employ that may probably be permanent; and I hope you will be so good to me, as to get that affair likewise moved and carried through in his favor. He has, I think, this additional merit to plead, that he has served in my office as secretary several years, for the small salary of three hundred louis a year, while the Congress gave one thousand a year to the secretaries of other ministers, who had not half the employ for a secretary that I had. For it was long before a consul was sent here, and we had all that business on our hands, with a great deal of admiralty business in examining and condemning captures, taken by our cruisers and by the French cruisers under American commissions; besides the constant attendance in examining and recording the acceptances of the Congress bills of exchange, which has been, from VOL. X. 7 E the immense number, very fatiguing; with many other extra affairs, not usually occurring to other ministers, such as the care of the prisoners in England, and the constant correspondence relating to them; in all of which he served me as secretary, with the assistance only of a clerk at low wages (fifty louis a year), so that the saving has been very considerable to the public. I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN. TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Recommending Mr. Hodgson as Consul in London. Passy, 26 December, 1783. SIR, If the Congress should think it fit to have a consul for the United States in London, and do not appoint one of our own countrymen to that office, I beg leave to mention the merits of Mr. William Hodgson, a merchant of that city, who has always been a zealous friend of America, was a principal promoter of the subscription for the relief of American prisoners, and chairman of the committee for dispensing the money raised by that subscription. He also took the trouble of applying the moneys I furnished him with, when the subscription was exhausted, and constantly assisted me in al. the negotiations I had with the British ministers, in their favor, wherein he generally succeeded, being a man of weight and credit, very active, and much esteemed for his probity and integrity. These his services, continued steadily during the whole war, seem to entitle him to the favorable notice of Congress, when any occasion offers of doing him service or pleasure. With great respect, I have the honor to be, &c. B. FRANKLIN. TO MRS. MARY HEWSON. DEAR POLLY, Passy, 26 December, 1783. In reading Mr. Viny's letter, when I received it, I missed seeing yours, which was written behind it in a corner. I thank you much for your kind offer respecting my grandson. I was fully resolved on sending him in September last, and engaged Mr. Jay, one of my colleagues, then going to England, to take him over in his company. But, when it came to be proposed to him, he showed such an unwillingness to leave me, and Temple such a fondness for retaining him, that I concluded to keep him till I should go over myself. He behaves very well, and we love him very much. I send herewith two different French grammars, not knowing which to prefer, opinions here being divided. Your French master may take his choice, and you will present the other to my godson, as my new year's gift, with the two volumes of Synonymes Français, an excellent work. They will be left at Mr. Hodgson's, merchant in Coleman Street, where you may have them on sending for them. Adieu, my dear friend. I long to see you and yours, but God only knows when that may happen. I am, nevertheless, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. January 1st, 1784. Health, and prosperity, and many happy years to my dear friend and her children, for whom I send the enclosed little books. |