Franklin & Washington

by Edward J. Larson

  43.Thomas Hutchinson to ---, January 20, 1769, PBF, 20:550.

  44.Thomas Hutchinson to ---, October 20, 1769, ibid., 20:551.

  45.“Tuesday, the 24th of May, 14 Geo. III, 1774,” in Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1773–1776, ed. John Pendleton Kennedy (Richmond: State Library, 1905), 124.

  46.“Association of Members of the Late House of Burgesses,” May 27, 1774, in PTJ, 1:107–8.

  47.“At the Committee of Correspondence,” May 28, 1774, in Kennedy, ed., Journals of the House, 1773–1776, 138.

  48.“Fairfax County Resolves,” July 17, 1774, in PGW-CS, 10:121–22.

  49.George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, July 20, 1774, ibid., 10:129–30.

  50.George Washington to George William Fairfax, June 10–15, 1774, ibid., 10:96–97.

  51.“Resolution at the Association of the Convention of Virginia of 1774,” August 1–6, 1774, in PTJ, 1:139.

  52.Ibid., 1:138; “Instructions by the Virginia Convention to Their Delegates in Congress, 1774,” August 1774, in ibid., 1:143.

  53.“Continental Association,” October 20, 1774, in ibid., 1:149–54.

  54.George Washington to Robert McKenzie, October 9, 1774, PGW-CS, 10:171–72.

  55.Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” March 23, 1775, Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy, Yale Law School, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/patrick.asp.

  56.William Franklin to Benjamin Franklin, May 3, 1774, PBF, 21:207.

  57.Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, September 26, 1774, ibid., 21:317–18.

  58.Benjamin Franklin, “Journal of Negotiations in London,” March 22, 1775, in PBF, 21:583.

  59.George Washington to George William Fairfax, May 31, 1775, PGW-CS, 10:368.

  60.Washington made this distinction explicit when he wrote, “The Crisis is arrivd when we must assert our Rights, or Submit to every Imposition that can be heap’d upon us; till custom and use, will make us as tame, & abject Slaves, as the Blacks we Rule over with such arbitrary Sway.” George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, August 24, 1774, ibid., 10:155.

  61.John Adams, quoted in David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 279.

  62.“Extract of a Letter from Philadelphia,” May 8, 1775 (New York: John Anderson, 1775), Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Broadsides, Leaflets, and Pamphlets from America and Europe, Portfolio 108, Folder 19.

  Chapter Four: Taking Command

  1.Arthur Lee, “Extracts from Journal,” October 25, 1778, in Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee (Boston: Wells & Lilly, 1829), 1:345.

  2.Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (New York: Random House, 2005), 84.

  3.E.g., George Washington to Martha Washington, June 18, 1775, PGW-RWS, 1:3 (“You may beleive me my dear Patcy, when I assure you, in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment I have used every endeavour in my power to avoid it”).

  4.John Adams to James Warren, July 24, 1775, PJA, 3:89. For Lee’s response, see Charles Lee to John Adams, October 5, 1775, ibid., 3:186 (“Untill the bulk of Mankind is much alter’d I consider the reputation of being whimsical and eccentric rather as a panegyric than sarcasm and my love of Dogs passes with me as a still higher complement”).

  5.Silas Deane to Elizabeth Deane, September 10–11, 1774, in Letters of the Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Paul H. Smith (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976), 1:61–62.

  6.JCC, June 14, 1775, 2:90.

  7.Samuel Ward to Henry Ward, October 5, 1775, in Smith, ed., Letters of the Delegates, 2:123.

  8.JCC, June 17, 1775, 2:96.

  9.“Franklin’s Design of Paper Currency,” in PBF, 22: illustration following p. 358.

  10.JCC, June 16, 1775, 2:92.

  11.G. Washington to M. Washington, June 18, 1775, 1:4.

  12.George Washington to John Augustine Washington, June 20, 1775, PGW-RWS, 1:19.

  13.Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, January 2, 1814, PTJ-RS, 7:101.

  14.Abigail Adams to John Adams, July 16, 1775, AFC, 1:246.

  15.Benjamin Rush to Thomas Rustin, October 29, 1775, in Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951), 1:92.

  16.Jefferson to Jones, January 2, 1814, 7:101. Here Jefferson added what was surely his highest accolade for Washington: “He was no monarchist from preference of his judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct views of the rights of man, and his severe justice devoted him to them.” Ibid., 7:102.

  17.A. Adams to J. Adams, July 16, 1775, AFC, 1:246.

  18.Rush to Rustin, October 29, 1775, 1:92.

  19.John Adams, Diary, in Congress May–June 1776, DAJA, 3:336.

  20.George Washington to the Officers of Five Virginia Independent Companies, June 20, 1775, PGW-RWS, 1:16–17.

  21.Silas Deane to Elizabeth Deane, June 16, 1775, in Smith, ed., Letters of the Delegates, 1:494.

  22.JCC, June 16, 1775, 2:92.

  23.John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, June 18, 1775, PJA, 3:26.

  24.E.g., “London, August 5,” Pennsylvania Evening Post, October 14, 1775, 467.

  25.George Washington, “Address to the New York Provincial Assembly,” June 26, 1775, in PGW-RWS, 1:41.

  26.Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, April 16, 1784, PTJ, 7:106–7.

  27.Upon Washington’s appointment in June 1775, Connecticut delegate Silas Deane predicted to his wife about Washington, “Our youth look up to This Man as a pattern to form themselves by.” S. Deane to E. Deane, June 16, 1775, 1:494.

  28.JCC, July 6, 1775, 2:154–56.

  29.Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, October 3, 1775, PBF, 22:218. For an extract published in London from a similar letter to English correspondents, see Benjamin Franklin to a Friend in London, October 3, 1775, PBF, 22:215–16.

  30.George Washington to Samuel Washington, July 20, 1775, PGW-RWS, 1:135. British general Henry Clinton made an eerily similar observation using almost precisely the same words. The two generals, Washington and Clinton, later led their respective armies when a single fateful battle at Yorktown lost the war for Britain.

  31.Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, May 16, 1775, PBF, 22:44.

  32.For example, in June 1775, Franklin wrote, “Hostilities being commenced by General Gage against America, and a Civil War begun, which I have no Chance of living to see the End of, being 70 Years of Age.” Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Life, June 5, 1775, PBF, 22:59.

  33.Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Shipley, September 13, 1775, PBF, 22:200; Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, July 7, 1775, PBF, 22:92. In the latter letter, he elaborated, “In the morning at 6, I am at the committee of safety, appointed by the assembly to put the province in a state of defense; which committee holds till near 9, when I am at the congress, and that sits till after 4 in the afternoon.” In the former letter, he added, “This Bustle is unsuitable to [my] Age.”

  34.John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 23, 1775, AFC, 1:253.

  35.E.g., B. Franklin to Life, June 5, 1775, 22:59 (“Hostilities being commenced by General Gage against America,” not Massachusetts); Benjamin Franklin to Humphry Marshall, May 23, 1775, PBF, 22:50–51 (“But, as Britain has begun to use force, it seems absolutely necessary that we should be prepared to repel force by force, which I think, united, we are well able to do”).

  36.Benjamin Franklin, “Proposed Articles of Confederation,” [before July 21, 1775], in PBF, 22:123.

  37.Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, May 8, 1775, PBF, 22:34.

  38.George Washington to John Hancock, September 21, 1775, PGW-RWS, 2:25, 29.

  39.George Washington, General Orders, July 4, 1775, in ibid., 1:54.

  40.George Washington to Lund Washington, August 20, 1776, ibid., 1:335–36.

  41.Benjamin Franklin to John Waring, December 17, 1763, PBF, 10:395. In response to a query from the Enlightenment era French philosophe the Marquis de Condorcet, Franklin wrote in 177
4, “The Negroes who are free live among the White People, but are generally improvident and poor. I think they are not deficient in natural Understanding, but they have not the Advantage of Education.” Benjamin Franklin to Marquis de Condorcet, March 20, 1774, PBF, 21:151.

  42.“Minutes of the Conference Between a Committee of Congress, Washington, and Representatives of the New England Colonies,” October 23, 1775, in PBF, 22:237 (among the matters that Washington raised with the delegates after the conference adjourned, with the notation that the recommendation came from the Council of Officers, which was headed by Washington). From the time of his arrival at the front, Washington complained about the “Number of Boys, Deserters, & Negroes” in the Massachusetts regiments. George Washington to [John Hancock], July 10, 1775, PGW-RWS, 1:90. The minutes of the council of officers, chaired by Washington, considering this matter state with respect to enlisting Negros in the new army, “Agreed unanimously to reject all Slaves, & by a great Majority to reject Negroes altogether.” Council of War, October 8, 1775, in PGW-RWS, 2:125. The following month, recruiters were instructed to exclude Blacks.

  43.George Washington, “Address to the Inhabitants of Canada,” September 14, 1775, in PGW-RWS, 1:461.

  44.Washington viewed Franklin’s mission as “essential” to the American effort in Canada. See George Washington to Benjamin Franklin, May 20, 1776, ibid., 4:345.

  45.As Franklin was preparing to head north to Canada, Washington wrote from the front about support for independence, “I find common sense is working a powerful change there in the Minds of many Men.” George Washington to Joseph Reed, April 1, 1776, ibid., 4:11. Only two years earlier, Paine had moved to Philadelphia from England carrying a letter of recommendation from Franklin.

  46.Benjamin Franklin to Josiah Quincy Sr., April 15, 1776, PBF, 22:400.

  47.Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll to John Hancock, May 1, 1776, ibid., 22:413.

  48.The Commissioners in Canada to [John Hancock], May 8, 1776, ibid., 22:425.

  49.Washington, “Address to the Inhabitants of Canada,” 1:462.

  50.“The Committee of Secret Correspondence: A Report to Congress,” February 14, 1776, in PBF, 22:352.

  51.“Instructions and Commission from Congress to Franklin, Charles Carroll, and Samuel Chase for the Canadian Mission,” March 20, 1776, in ibid., 22:381–83.

  52.Ibid., 22:382.

  53.Ibid., 22:381.

  54.Washington, “Address to the Inhabitants of Canada,” 1:462.

  55.“Instructions and Commission from Congress,” 22:383.

  56.George Washington to Benjamin Franklin, May 20, 1776, PBF, 22:438.

  57.Jane Mecom to Catharine Greene, June 1, 1776, ibid., 22:442.

  58.Benjamin Franklin to Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase, May 27, 1776, ibid., 22:440.

  59.Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, June 21, 1776, ibid., 22:484.

  60.George Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 31–June 4, 1776, PGW-RWS, 4:412.

  61.Only limited documentation from the drafting process survives and no certain proof of who made what edit. Some handwritten drafts exist with various insertions and deletions by different pens, suggesting that these drafts were passed around and subject to committee review. Letters from the time and later recollections suggest that, after Jefferson wrote his original draft, he gave it separately to committee members Franklin and Adams for review, and also to the full committee. Even the substantial alterations by Congress cannot be fully separated from earlier edits by committee members. Historians have endlessly analyzed the available evidence and reached different conclusions on the evolution of this historic document; here I have taken a middle course, relying in part on the sources and text in “The Declaration of Independence,” in PTJ, 1:413–33. Some of the edits that I ascribe to Franklin are also attributed to him in H. W. Brands, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 511. Walter Isaacson swears by the “self-evident” edit in his Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 312, although the eminent Jefferson scholar Julian Boyd disputes it in his Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1945), 22–23.

  62.Thomas Jefferson, “Biographical Sketches of Distinguished Men,” in The Writing of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Albert Ellery Bergh (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1907), 18:169–70.

  63.George Washington, General Orders, July 9, 1776, in PGW-RWS, 5:246.

  64.First published as an “anecdote” in Jared Sparks, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin (1836–1840; repr., Boston: Whittemore, 1854), 1:408.

  65.Compare Henry Knox to Lucy Knox, July 8, 1776, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History digital collection, www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/t-02437-00363.pdf, with George Washington to John Hancock, July 4–5, 1776, PGW-RWS, 5:200.

  66.G. Washington to J. A. Washington, May 31–June 4, 1776, 4:413.

  67.Lord Howe to George Washington, July 13, 1776, PGW-RWS, 5:296 (referring to the massive British invasion, Lord Howe begins his letter to Washington, “The Situation in which you are placed . . .”); Lord Howe to Benjamin Franklin, July 12, 1776, PBF, 22:484.

  68.Benjamin Franklin to Lord Howe, July 20, 1776, PBF, 22:520.

  69.Lord Howe to Benjamin Franklin, August 16, 1776, ibid., 22:565.

  70.Benjamin Franklin to Lord Howe, August 20, 1776, ibid., 22:575.

  71.John Sullivan, “Report of Message from Lord Howe to Congress,” September 3, 1776, in JCC, 5:731.

  72.John Adams, Diary, September 9, 1776, in DAJA, 3:418.

  73.The Committee of Conference, “Report to Congress,” September 17, 1776, in PBF, 22:607.

  74.John Adams, Diary, September 17, 1776, in DAJA, 3:422.

  75.Ambrose Serle, September 13, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe, 1776–1778, ed. Edward H. Tatum Jr. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 101.

  76.G. Washington to J. A. Washington, May 31–June 4, 1776, 4:412.

  77.Benjamin Franklin to Richard and Sarah Franklin Bache, May 10, 1785, in The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smyth (New York: Haskell, 1970), 9:327. Writing to Congress upon his arrival in France, Franklin described the crossing as “a short but rough Passage of 30 Days.” Benjamin Franklin to Committee of Secret Correspondence, December 8, 1776, PBF, 23:30. On the same day, Franklin wrote to his sister, “I arrived here safe after a Passage of 30 Days, some what fatigued and weakned by the Voyage, which was a rough one.” Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, December 8, 1776, PBF, 23:33.

  78.Benjamin Franklin to Sarah Bache, June 3, 1779, PBF, 29:613.

  79.Benjamin Franklin to Emma Thompson, February 8, 1777, ibid., 23:298.

  80.The American Commissioners to Vergennes, January 5, 1777, ibid., 23:123–24.

  81.“The American Commissioners to the Committee of Secret Correspondence,” March 12, 1777, in ibid., 23:473.

  82.Bernard Bailyn, To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and the Ambiguities of the American Founders (New York: Knopf, 2003), 67.

  83.George Washington to John Hancock, December 9, 1776, PGW-RWS, 7:284.

  84.George Washington to John Hancock, December 20, 1776, ibid., 7:382.

  85.George Washington to Samuel Washington, December 18, 1776, ibid., 7:370.

  86.George Washington to John Parke Custis, January 22, 1777, ibid., 8:123.

  87.G. Washington to Hancock, December 20, 1776, 7:382.

  88.Ibid.

  89.Resolution, JCC, December 12, 1776, 6:1027 (“Resolved . . . that, until the Congress shall otherwise order, General Washington be possessed of full power to order and direct all things relative to the department, and to the operation of war”).

  90.John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 18, 1777, AFC, 2:268.

  91.John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 30, 1777, ibid., 2:297. Eleven days later, Washington wrote to his brother about Howe an
d his army, “We have remain’d in the most perfect ignorance, and disagreeable State of Suspence, respecting their designs,” and spoke of marching and countermarching his own army in response to Howe’s supposed movements. George Washington to Samuel Washington, August 10, 1777, PGW-RWS, 10:581.

  92.Joseph Kendall to [George] Frend, September 7, 1778, in Letters on the American Revolution in the Library at “Karolfred,” ed. Frederic R. Kirkland (New York: Coward-McCann, 1952), 2:44.

  93.This account comes from Franklin’s longtime friend Benjamin Rush, who reported Franklin saying that he “wore it to give a little revenge. I wore this Coat on the day Widderburn abused at Whitehall.” Benjamin Rush, “Excerpts from the Papers of Dr. Benjamin Rush,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 29 (1905): 28. Franklin’s recent biographers differ in their telling of this story. Presumably relying on reports from the Privy Council grilling, Gordon Wood depicts Franklin’s garment as “an old blue velvet coat.” Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 191. Citing secondary sources, Walter Isaacson states that Franklin “dressed in a plain brown suit.” Isaacson, Franklin, 348. Others omit the episode. E.g., Brands, First American, 544.

  94.George Washington to Benjamin Franklin, October 9, 1780, PBF, 33:399.

  95.Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, April 2, 1782, ibid., 37:89.

  96.Benjamin Franklin to Barbeu-Dubourg, [after October 2, 1777], ibid., 25:21.

  97.E.g., see Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, April 2, 1777, ibid., 24:551 (“I refuse every day Numbers of Applications for Letters in favour of Officers who would go to America, as I know you must have more upon your Hands already than you can well employ; but M. Turgot’s Judgement of Men has great Weight”).

  98.Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, August 24, 1777, ibid., 24:459.

  99.Benjamin Franklin, “Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a Person You Are Unacquainted With,” April 2, 1777, in ibid., 24:549–50.

  100.Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, June 13, 1777, ibid., 24:158.

  101.Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, March 5, 1780, ibid., 32:57. Franklin sent a similar compliment a year earlier, when he asked his daughter in Philadelphia, “If you happen again to see General Washington, assure him of my very great respect, and tell him that all the old Generals here amuse themselves in studying the accounts of his operations, and approve highly of his conduct.” Benjamin Franklin to Sarah Bache, June 3, 1779, ibid., 29:615.