Philada October 24th 1776
Dear Sir
We embrace this opportunity of Your Worthy Colleague & our mutual good Friend Doctr Franklin to transmit you Copies of our letters of the [illegible] Octr by the Sloop Independence Capt [John] Young to Martinico from whence they wou'd be carried to you by Mr Wm Hodge junr sent in said Sloop for that purpose, those letters Contained a Commission from the Congress appointing Doctr Franklin, Thos Jefferson Esqr & yourself, Commissioners on behalf of the United States of America to Negotiate a Treaty of Alliance Amity & Peace with the Court of France.ー
A plan of that Treaty, Instructions from Congress relative thereto, Form of Passport for the Ships of each Nation &c we consider these papers as of the utmost consequence & hope they will arrive safe. Yesterday we wrote you a few lines enclosing additional Instructions from Congress to their Commissioners authorizing them to Treat with other Nations, also Two Resolves of Congress by one of which you wou'd see that Thos Jefferson Esqr declined his appointment & that Arthur Lee Esqr was appointed in his stead, to whom we enclosed a letter, Copy whereof goes herewith. By the other the Commissioners are directed to hire or buy Eight Line of Battle Ships for the American Service. these papers were sent under Cover to Wm Bingham Esqr our Resident at Martinico with orders to forward them immediately. We wrote you another letter yesterday Covering duplicates of all the papers & letters mentioned herein, and sent it by the armed Brigt Lexington Wm Hallock Esqr Commander to Mr Stephen Ceronio our Resident at Cape Francois with directions to forward the same to Messrs Saml & J. Hans Delap Merchts at Bourdeaux who are requested to send the Packet from thence by Express to you and Doctor Franklin carrys with him Triplicates of all these publick papers, we have been thus particular in mentioning them & the Conveyances by which they are Sent that you may know when the whole are received & we desire you to be equally pointed in advising us thereof, for we shall be anxious to hear of their getting safe & shall be very uneasy if we dont hear this in due time, for they ought not on any Account to fall into the hands of our Enemies.
Since Mr [John] Dickinson & Colo [Benjamin] Harrison were out of Congress & Doctr Franklin appointed one of the Commissioners at the Court of France, The Congress have filled up the Vacancys in this Committee & the Members now are Mr Jay Mr Johnston [Thomas Johnson, Jr.], Mr Morris, Colo Richard Henry Lee, Mr Wm Hooper & Doctr John Wetherspoon which we mention for your information, we shall Continue to address all our advices & dispatches to you only, untill informed that the other Commissioners have joined you but you will Communicate the letters to them as if directed to the whole & we depend on you to Notify Doctr Lee of his appointment using the utmost precaution in the method of doing it, or his person may be endangered, we suppose it may be best to have the letter enclosed by the Minister of France to their Ambassador in England with proper Cautions respecting the delivery of it Doctr Franklin being the bearer of this letter, it is totally unnecessary for us to enter into every detail of what is passing here or to convey any Political remarks, he being possessed of every knowledge necessary for your information will Communicate very fully every thing you can wish to know, Therefore wishing you a happy meeting with him & a successful Issue to your labours in the Service of your Country we remain with perfect esteem & regard Dear Sir [&c.]
Robt Morris |
Jno Witherspoon |
Richard Henry Lee |
Will Hooper |