The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (147 page)

580 “The scene”: from Jones, Oct. 3, 1779.

580 “For some days”: to Jones, Oct. 15, 1779.

580 “I must acquaint”: to Jones, Feb. 19, 1780.

581 “Though an evil”: to Stephen Sayre, Mar. 31, 1779.

581 “The whole”: to Samuel Cooper, Apr. 22, 1779.

581 “The extravagant luxury”: to Jay, Oct. 4, 1779.

581 “When I began”: to Sarah Franklin Bache, June 3, 1779.

582 “Though I never”: from Sarah Franklin Bache, Sept. 14, 1779.

582 “great politician”: Bigelow 8:46–57.

582–83 “I take no other”: to Richard Bache, June 2, 1779.

583 “Ben, if I should”: to Sarah Franklin Bache, June 3, 1779.

584 “The King’s ambassador”: Catherine M. Prelinger, “Benjamin Franklin and the American Prisoners of War in England during the American Revolution,”
WMQ
32 (1975), 261–94.

584 “the air doth”:
ibid.

585 “This is to continue”: to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, May 26, 1779.

585 “oiling the sentry’s”: Prelinger, “Franklin and Prisoners of War.”

585 “I cannot describe”: from Digges, Nov. 10, 1779.

586 “By the letters”: to Sartine, Nov. 28, 1779.

586 “He that robs”: to William Hodgson, Apr. 1, 1781, Smyth.

586 “a tacit cession”: “Observations by Mr. Hartley,” Bigelow, 8:38–39.

587 “A little time”: from David Hartley, Apr. 22, 1779.

587 “But this is”: to Hartley, May 4, 1779.

589 “a post in which”: Carl Van Doren,
Secret History of the American Revolution
(New York, 1941), 463. 589 “Arnold’s baseness”: to James Searle, Nov. 30, 1780.

589 “We are naked”: from Lafayette, Oct. 9, 1780.

589 “I doubt not”: from Washington, Oct. 9, 1780.

590 “the unalterable resolution”: to Vergennes, Feb. 13, 1781.

591 “I have, however”: to Adams, Feb. 22, 1781.

591 “I have passed”: to Samuel Huntington, Mar. 12, 1781.

592–93 “He has vast designs … admit of”: Clarence L. Ver Steeg,
Robert Morris: Revolutionary Financier
(Philadelphia, 1954), 13, 38.

593 “From your intelligence”: to Morris, July 26, 1781, Smyth.

594 “I am quite tired”: Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis,
Correspondence,
ed. Charles Ross (London, 1859), 1:87.

594 “The moment is critical … Hampton Roads”: Douglas Southall Freeman,
George Washington
(New York, 1952), 5:312–15.

595 “Lord Cornwallis’s conduct”:
ibid.,
367.

595 “A man was killed … manner”: Edward M. Riley, “St. George Tucker’s Journal of the Siege of Yorktown, 1781,”
WMQ
5 (1948), 375–95.

595 “Our shot and shell”: Freeman,
Washington,
5:367.

595 “Our provisions”: from a captured British journal in Riley, “Tucker’s Journal.”

596 “He might have beat”: Freeman,
Washington,
5:376.

596 “A solemn stillness”: Riley, “Tucker’s Journal.”

596 “Welcome, Brother Debtor”:
ibid.

596 “When the King … Upside Down”: Freeman,
Washington,
5:388n.

26. BLESSED WORK: 1781–82

597 “My God”: R.J. White,
The Age of George III
(New York, 1968), 137.

597 “to guide me”:
ibid.

598 “I wish”: to Thomas Pownall, Nov. 23, 1781, Giunta.

598 “I have never”: to Adams, Oct. 12, 1781, Giunta.

598 “Some writer”: to Charles Dumas, Aug. 6, 1781, Bigelow.

598 “Poor as we are”: to Jay, Oct. 2, 1780, Bigelow.

599 “by the absolute”: Lee to James Warren, Aug. 1780, Giunta.

599 “They hate us”: Adams to John Jay, Aug. 13, 1782, Giunta.

599 “He tells me”: to Samuel Huntington, Aug. 9, 1780.

599 “It was evident”: Jay to Livingston, Nov. 17, 1782, Giunta.

600 “We ought not”: Jay to Livingston, Sept. 18, 1782, Giunta.

600 “Your enemies”: from Morris, Sept. 28, 1782, Giunta.

600 “extremely sorry”: to Samuel Cooper, Dec. 26, 1782, Smyth.

601 “a gentleman”: Giunta, 1:341.

601 “He is a wise man”: Vergennes to Montmorin, Apr. 18, 1782, Giunta.

601 “wise and honest”: to Shelburne, Apr. 18, 1792, Giunta.

601 “I let him know”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:254.

601 “Yet I could”: Oswald’s journal, Apr. 18, 1782, Giunta.

601 “In case France”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:259.

601 “It is a sweet word”: Conversation notes, Bigelow, 9:262–64.

602 “We parted”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:264.

602 “I desire”: to Shelburne, Apr. 18, 1782, Giunta.

603 “On the whole”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:282.

603 “After having seen”: Fox to Grenville, Apr. 30, 1782, Giunta.

604 “America does not ask”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:287–88.

604–5 “He belongs”: Vergennes to Montmorin, May 11, 1782, Giunta.

605 “A, a stranger”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:295–96.

606 “I see … were gone”:
Bagatelles,
104–5. 606
The Morals of Chess, ibid.,
108–12.

608 “From him”: to Deane, Mar. 2, 1776.

609–10 “as repugnant … to government”: in Samuel Flagg Bemis, “British Secret Service and the French-American Alliance,”
AHR
29 (1924), 474–95.

610 “You are surrounded”: from Juliana Ritchie, Jan. 12, 1777.

610–11 610–11 “As it is impossible”: to Ritchie, Jan. 19, 1777.

611 “If the rascals”: P.J.G. Cabanis,
Oeuvres
(Paris, 1825), 5:230, 248; Esmond Wright,
Franklin of Philadelphia
(Cambridge, Mass., 1986), 296.

611 “If I were not”: from Burke, Aug. 15, 1781, Smyth, 8:317–19.

611 “Since the foolish”: to Burke, Oct. 15, 1781, Smyth.

612 “Difficulties remain”: from Burke, Feb. 28, 1782, Smyth, 8:320.

612 “the United States of America”:
Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces,
ed. Benjamin Vaughan (London, 1779), title page and vi.

612 “Be assured”: to Joseph Banks, Sept. 9, 1782, Bigelow.

612 “Supplement”: Smyth, 8:437–40.

614 “The
form”:
to Charles Dumas, May 3, 1782, Smyth.

614 “the most important”: Fox to Thomas Grenville, May 21, 1782, Giunta.

614 “trembled for the news”: Adams to Livingston, Sept. 23, 1782, Giunta.

615 “They want to treat”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:315.

615–16 “an air … each other”:
ibid.,
329–31.

616–17 “necessary … imagine”: Oswald to Shelburne, July 10, 1782, Giunta.

618 “speedily concluded”: Shelburne to Oswald, July 27, 1782, Giunta.

618 “This Court”: Jay to Livingston, Sept. 18, 1782, Giunta.

618 “firmness and independence … same system”:
Adams Papers,
3:38, 82.

620 “After much”: to Jonathan Shipley, June 10, 1782, Bigelow.

27. SAVANT: 1783–85

621 “Let us now”: to Shipley, Mar. 17, 1783, Bigelow.

622 “Our Revolution”: to Price, Aug. 16, 1784, Bigelow.

622 “the contemplation”: to Edward Newenham, Oct. 2, 1783, Bigelow.

622 “My dear friend”: to Strahan, Aug. 19, 1784, Bigelow.

623 “The remissness”: to Morris, Dec. 25, 1783, Bigelow.

624 “You tell me”: to Cooper, Dec. 26, 1783, Bigelow.

624 “the great”: to Thomson, May 13, 1784, Bigelow.

624 “Is not the hope”: to Vaughan, July 26, 1784, Bigelow.

625 “Meteorological Imaginations”: Bigelow, 10:323–26.

626 “Universal space”: to David Rittenhouse, June 25, 1784, Bigelow.

627 “In which case”: to Crèvecoeur, Bigelow, 10:363–65.

627 “By this means”: to George Whately, May 23, 1785, Smyth.

628 “Not less than”: to Joseph Banks, Aug. 30, 1783, Bigelow.

628–29 “All Paris”: to Banks, Dec. 1, 1783, Bigelow.

629 “a new epoch”: to Richard Price, Aug. 16, 1784, Bigelow.

629 “It is a serious thing”: to Ingenhousz, Jan. 16, 1784, Bigelow

629 “The people were furious”: Benjamin Franklin Bache diary, July 11, 1784, APS.

630 “What good”:
Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique par Grimm,

631
Diderot, Raynal, Meister, etc.
(Paris, 1877–82), 13:349.

630 “Convincing sovereigns”: to Jan Ingenhousz, Jan. 16, 1784, Smyth.

631 “In heaven”: Claude-Ann Lopez,
Mon Cher Papa,
170.

631–32 “There being”: to la Sabliere de la Condamine, Mar. 19, 1784, Smyth.

632 “Touch them”: Lopez,
Mon Cher Papa,
175.

633 “The report”: to William Temple Franklin, Aug. 25, 1784, Smyth.

633 “I am pestered”: to Thomson, Mar. 9, 1784, Smyth.

633
Information to Those Who Would Remove to America: Bagatelles,
77–88.

635 “I am rather”: from Vergennes, Dec. 15, 1782, Giunta.

635 “It was certainly”: to Vergennes, Dec. 17, 1782, Giunta.

636 “storm of indignation”: Alleyne Fitzherbert to Henry Strachey, Dec. 19, 1782, Giunta.

636 “It passed … consideration”: Vergennes to Luzerne, Dec. 21, 1782, Giunta.

637 “that the King”: Madison’s notes, Mar. 12–15, 1783, Giunta.

637 “the gout and gravel”: to Samuel Chase, Jan. 6, 1784, Smyth.

637 “I cannot bear”: to Thomas Mifflin, June 16, 1784, Smyth.

637 “My face”: to Jane Mecom, Oct. 25, 1779.

637 “Repose”: to John and Mrs. Jay, May 13, 1784, Smyth.

637 “Mr. Jay”: to Henry Laurens, Apr. 29, 1784, Smyth.

638 “I may then”: to WF, Aug. 16, 1784, Smyth.

638 “If all”: to Whately, Aug. 21, 1784, Smyth.

638 “I hope”: to Morris, Mar. 7, 1783, Smyth.

638 “Mr. Jay”: to Laurens, Apr. 29, 1784, Smyth.

639 “the ornament”:
Writings of Jefferson,
8:24.