by H. W. Brands
442 “The good wishes”: from Hume, Feb. 7, 1772.
442 “He was extremely”: to WF, Jan. 30, 1772.
20. TO KICK A LITTLE: 1772–73
444 “mon cher”: from Condorcet, Dec. 2, 1773.
445 “To you”: from Beccaria, May 20, 1771.
445 “modern Prometheus”: “Fortgesetzte Betrachtung der seit einiger Zeit wahrgenommenen Erderschütterungen” (1756) in Kants Werke (Berlin, 1968), 1:472.
445 “A place”: to Royal Academy of Sciences, Nov. 16, 1772, APS.
445 “avec une sorte”: from Barbeu-Dubourg, Dec. 29, 1773.
445 “Learned and ingenious”: to WF, Aug. 19, 1772.
446 “Travelling”: to Rush, July 14, 1773.
446 “of the greatest”: to WF, Aug. 19, 1772.
447–49 “I fetched … determine this”: to William Brownrigg, Nov. 7, 1773.
449 “There seems”: from Cooper, Jan. 1, 1771.
449–50 “When I had been”: to WF, Aug. 19, 1772.
450–51 “At length”: to WF, Aug. 17, 1772.
451 “I hope”: to Cushing, Nov. 4, 1772.
451 “Upon the whole”: to Cushing, Dec. 2, 1772.
452 “There has lately”: to Cushing, Dec. 2, 1772.
453 “There must be”: Hutchinson to Whately, Jan. 20, 1769, PBF, 20:549–50.
453 “I have engaged”: to Cushing, Dec. 2, 1772.
455 “I can now”: Bache to DF, Dec. 3, 1771, PBF, 18:257.
455 “His behaviour”: to DF, Jan. 28, 1772.
455 “I advised”: to Sarah Franklin Bache, Jan. 29, 1772.
456 “In return”: to DF, Feb. 2, 1773.
456 “All who have seen”: to Jane Mecom, Jan. 13, 1772.
456 “He improves”: to WF, Jan. 30, 1772.
456 “She is nimble-footed”: to DF, Dec. 1, 1772.
457 “I still feel”: to DF, Jan. 6, 1773.
457 “I cannot”: to Joseph Priestley, Sept. 19, 1772.
458 “Our great security”: to Cushing, Jan. 5, 1773.
459 “the sentiments”: from Cushing, Mar. 24, 1773.
459 “They have had”: from Cooper, June 14, 1773.
460 “I have the pleasure”: to Dartmouth, Aug. 21, 1773.
460 “for the Better”: Public Advertiser, Sept. 22, 1773, PBF.
461 “I was down”: to WF, Oct. 6, 1773.
461 “Rules by Which”: Public Advertiser, Sept. 11, 1773, PBF.
463 “I had used”: to Mecom, Nov. 1, 1773.
21. THE COCKPIT: 1774–75
466 “I am glad”: to Cushing, July 25, 1773.
466 “totally ignorant”: to the London Chronicle, Dec. 25, 1773.
468–69 “The address …Three weeks”: Preliminary hearing before the Privy Council, Jan. 11, 1774, PBF.
470 “bull-baiting”: extract of letter, Feb. 19, 1774.
471 “unmannered railer … humanity”: PBF, 21:40n.
471 “furious Philippic”: The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, ed. George H. Guttridge (Chicago, 1960), 2:518, 524.
471–74 “the first mover … a successor”: Alexander Wedderburn’s speech before the Privy Council, Jan. 29, 1774, PBF.
474–75 “The Doctor”: Bancroft in Memoirs 1:358.
475 “for the seditious”: report of Privy Council committee, Jan. 29, 1774.
475 “I am very angry”: to Cushing, Feb. 15, 1774.
476 “This line”: to WF, Feb. 2, 1774.
476 “As things are”: to Bache, Feb. 17, 1774.
476 “They may expect”: to WF, Feb. 18, 1774.
477 “You and I”: to Jane Mecom, Feb. 17, 1774.
477 “I am too much”: to Foxcroft, Feb. 18, 1774.
477 “The admirers”: to the Public Advertiser, Feb. 16, 1774.
478 “totally departed”: Boston Gazette, Apr. 25, 1774, PBF, 21:79–83.
479 “He says”: Stanley Ayling, George the Third, 243.
479 “We are not entering”: Bernard Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution (London, 1964), 77.
479 “If they deny”: Benjamin Woods Labaree, The Boston Tea Party (Boston, 1979), 185.
480 “hearty affirmative”: The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to 1803, ed. T. C. Hansard (London, 1813), 17:1169.
480 “hostile invasion”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (New York, 1982), 233.
481 “this old snake … mischievous enemies”: Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Scenes from the Life of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1974), 241.
481 “You know”: to Jan Ingenhousz, Mar. 18, 1774.
482 “Dr. Franklin”: Priestley in Memoirs, 1:359–60.
482 “I hope”: The Letters of David Hume, ed. J. Y. T. Greig (Oxford, UK, 1932), 2:286–88.
483 “I think”: Letters of Eminent Persons Addressed to David Hume, ed. J. E. Burton (Bristol, 1989), 270–72.
483 “most bitter”: The Last Journals of Horace Walpole, ed. J. Doran and A. Francis Steuart (London, 1910; rpt. New York, 1973), 1:284–85.
484 “A great empire”: Hansard, Parliamentary History of England, 18:536.
484 “Your popularity”: from WF, May 3, 1774.
484 “Such horrid”: PG, May 4, 1774, PBF.
484 “I rejoice”: to Cushing, Sept. 15, 1774.
485 “If you should ever”: to Jonathan Williams Sr., Sept. 28, 1774.
485 “I am in”: to Cushing, Oct. 6, 1774.
485 “My situation”: to Joseph Galloway, Oct. 12, 1774.
486–89 “What is to be done … tea &c.”: Franklin journal, Mar. 22, 1775.
490 “I, the underwritten”: draft to Dartmouth, Mar. 16, 1775.
490 “He looked … national affront”: Franklin journal, Mar. 22, 1775.
490 “dangerous consequences”: from Thomas Walpole, Mar. 16, 1775.
22. REBEL: 1775–76
492 “Her death”: from WF, Dec. 24, 1774.
493 “a valuable”: to Joseph Priestley, May 16, 1775.
493 “This motion”: Journal entry for Apr. 5, 1775.
494 “Yesterday evening”: Broadside, May 8, 1775, PBF.
494 “The die”: Stanley Ayling, George the Third, 247–48.
494 “It will surely”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 266.
495 “Will you let”: ibid., 271.
496 “I believe”: from Jane Mecom, May 14, 1775.
497 “a tolerable speaker … glorious cause”: James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience (Boston, 1965), 324–25, 332, 334, 341.
498 “A frenzy”: Papers of Jefferson, 1:165.
499 “The youngest boy”: to Jane Mecom, June 17, 1775.
499 “I have but … conspicuous”: Papers of Madison, 1:149–52.
499 “a pusillanimity”: Flexner, Washington, 1:330.
499–500 “Hath any thing … our cause”: Papers of Madison, 1:158–60.
500 “a disposition”: Adams to Abigail Adams, July 23, 1775, Adams Papers.
500 “which the youngest”: to Jonathan Shipley, May 15, 1775.
500 “But, as Britain”: to Humphry Marshall, May 23, 1775.
500 “She has begun”: to Priestley, July 7, 1775.
500 “All Europe … madness”: to Shipley, July 7, 1775.
501 “Mr. Strahan”: to Strahan [unsent], July 5, 1775.
501 “Words and arguments”: to Strahan, July 7, 1775 [quoted in letter from Strahan, Sept. 6, 1775].
501 “It has been”: to Priestley, July 7, 1775.
501 “Articles of Confederation”: July 21, 1775, PBF.
504–5 “ímport all … regularly sent”: minutes of conference with Washington et al., Oct. 18–24, 1775.
505 “Here is a fine”: to Bache, Oct. 19, 1775.
505 “Tell our good friend”: to Priestley, Oct. 3, 1775.
507 “I have just heard”: WF to Germain, Mar. 28, 1776, DAR.
507 “I begin”: to Quincy, Apr. 15,
1776.
507 “utmost dispatch”: to John Hancock, May 1, 1776.
508 “We have daily”: to Hancock, May 8, 1776.
509 “an ingenious”: to Bache, Sept. 30, 1774.
509 “Dr. Kearsley”: from Thomas Paine, Mar. 4, 1775.
510 “I offer”: Thomas Paine, Common Sense (New York, 1942), 21, 40.
510 “great impression”: to Charles Lee, Feb. 19, 1776.
510 “that these United Colonies”: Papers of Jefferson, 1:298.
510 “You can write”: John Adams to Timothy Pickering, Aug. 8, 1822, Adams Papers.
510 “I am just recovering”: to Washington, June 21, 1776.
511 “Will Doctor Franklin”: from Jefferson, probably June 21, 1776.
511 “reduce them … destroy us”: Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence (New York, 1933), 160–71.
511 “I was sitting”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:169–70.
512 “There must be … hang separately”: Sparks, 1:408.
513–14 “Let the smaller … insurrections”: BF quoted in Adams Papers, 2:245–46.
514 “My Worthy Friend”: from Howe, June 20, 1776.
515 “Directing pardons”: to Howe, July 20, 1776.
516 “I watched”: PBF, 22:518–19.
517–18 “At Brunswick … and mutton”: Adams Papers, 3:418–20.
518 “I also gave”: Howe to Germain, Sept. 20, 1776, DAR.
519 “Dr. Franklin”: Adams Papers, 3:422.
23. SALVATION IN PARIS: 1776–78
520 “I suppose”: Adams Papers, 3:422.
521 “It would be”: BF et al. to Arthur Lee, Dec. 12, 1775.
521 “Perhaps, however”: to Don Gabriel Antonio de Bourbon, Dec. 12, 1775.
522 “On your arrival”: to Silas Deane, Mar. 2, 1776.
523 “It will be proper”: from John Hancock, Sept. 24, 1776.
524 “I have only”: in Rush to Thomas Morris, Oct. 22, 1776, Letters of Rush.
525 “very magnificent”: Sheila Skemp, William Franklin, 192.
525 “virulent enemy”: ibid., 212.
526 “I will not distress”: from Elizabeth Franklin, Aug. 6, 1776.
526 “I have considered”: to William Temple Franklin, Sept. 19, 1776.
527 “short but rough”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Dec. 8, 1776.
527 “almost demolished me”: to Richard and Sarah Franklin Bache, May 10, 1785, Smyth.
527 “I have acquainted”: to Deane, Dec. 7, 1776.
528 “The carriage … ever beheld”: Memoirs 2:48.
528 “The celebrated … mantelpiece”: Edward E. Hale and Edward E. Hale Jr., Franklin in France (Boston, 1888), 1:69–70; Alfred Owen Aldridge, Franklin and his French Contemporaries (New York, 1957), 66.
529 “Intelligent”: Vergennes to Aranda, Dec. 28, 1776, PBF 23:113n.
530 “As other princes”: to Vergennes, Jan. 5, 1777.
531 “of giving umbrage”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Mar. 12–Apr. 9, 1777.
531 “with which they mean”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Jan. 17–22, 1777.
531–32 “Their fleet … betrays it”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Mar. 12–Apr. 9, 1777.
536 “Count Pulaski”: to Washington, May 29, 1777.
536 “the Baron”: to Washington, Sept. 4, 1777.
536 “the Marquis”: to Washington, Aug. or Sept. 1777.
536 “The bearer”: to Washington, Mar. 29, 1777.
536 “Our corps”: from Washington, Aug. 17, 1777.
537 “These applications”: to Barbeu-Dubourg, after Oct. 2, 1777.
537 “Sir”: unaddressed model letter, Apr. 2, 1777.
538–39 “The Commissioners … from Europe”: to Vergennes and Aranda, Sept. 25, 1777.
539 “We are scarce”: to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nov. 30, 1777.
539 “We have prevented”: Washington to Lund Washington, Dec. 17, 1776, Writings of Washington.
540 “Not a word”: Adams to Abigail Adams, Aug. 20, 1777, Adams Papers.
541 “In consciousness”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 372.
542 “Sir, is Philadelphia … of war”: PBF, 25:234–35n.
542 “the total reduction”: to Vergennes, Dec. 4, 1777.
542 “You mistake”: PBF, 25:236n.
543 “He said”: Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee (Boston, 1829), 1:357.
543 “to make peace”: Philip Gibbes’ minutes of conversation, c. Feb. 5, 1777, PBF.
543 “America is ready”: Gibbes’ minutes of conversation, Jan. 5, 1778, PBF.
543 “I called on 72”: Paul Wentworth to William Eden, Jan. 7, 1778, PBF.
544 “lively and long”: Vergennes to Comte de Montmorin, Jan. 30, 1778, Facsimiles, vol. 21, no. 18.
24. BONHOMME RICHARD: 1778–79
546 “Let me whisper … wicked measures”: Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, 2:124–27.
546 “It is true”: to Arthur Lee [not sent], Apr. 3, 1778.
547 “That he was”: Adams Papers, 4:69.
547–48 “On Dr. F…. fanatic”: ibid., 2:347–52.
548 “Mr. M.”: ibid., 2:391.
548 “The history”: Letters of Rush, 2:1207.
549 “The life”: Adams Papers, 4:118–19.
551 “He would grasp”: Claude-Ann Lopez, Mon Cher Papa: Franklin and the Ladies of Paris (New Haven, Conn., 1966), 128.
551 “the magnificence”: Adams Papers, 4:109.
551 “one of the most”: ibid., 4:63–64.
551 “Alas!”: ibid., and (for the translation) Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 129.
551–52 “All the family … very white”: ibid., 134.
552 “Madame Brillon”: Adams Papers, 4:46–47.
553 “You were kind”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 38–39.
553 “The first”: to Madame Brillon”: Mar. 10, 1778.
553–54 “Let us start”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 40–44.
554–55 “You renounce … tenderness”: to Madame Brillon, July 27, 1778.
555 “Judge … appetites”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 47–48.
556 “You remember”: to Brillon, Sept. 20, 1778.
557 “That she might not”: Adams Papers, 4:58–59.
558 “ladies for whose”: from Adams, May 14, 1779.
558–59 “She entered”: Letters of Mrs. Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston, 1840), 252–53.
559 “Oh, to be seventy”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 246–47.
559–61 “If Notre Dame … avenge ourselves!”: based on ibid., 259–71.
562 “He had his hair”: Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, 1:403.
562–63 “The King … le Seigneur Franklin”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 179–84.
564 “When I gave”: Voltaire to Abbé Gaultier, Feb. 21, 1778, in Ouevres Complètes de Voltaire (Paris, 1883), 50:372.
564 “my child … Tolerance”: Alfred Aldridge, Franklin and His French Contemporaries, 10.
564 “There presently”: Adams Papers, 4:80–82.
566 “When I was”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 79.
566 “My God!”: Bagatelles, 32ff; Bigelow, 8:312ff.
569 “The Doctor … men’s truths”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:171–72.
570 “Come, Monsieur”: ibid., 170.
570 “If you Frenchmen”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 21.
570 “we do not take kings”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:168.
25. MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY: 1779–81
571 “I am a king”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:168.
572 “What have you”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 413.
572 “We have”: Washington to President of Congress, Dec. 23, 1777, Writings of Washington.
573 “Believe me”: John McAuley Palmer, General von Steuben (New Haven, Conn., 1937), 157.
574 “Our Great Faithful”: Congress to Louis XVI, Oct. 21, 1778.
575 “the God-like”: from Lafayette, Aug. 29, 1779.
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575 “Dear general”: Lafayette to Washington, Feb. 19, 1778, Lafayette Letters.
575 “zeal, military ardour”: from Washington, Dec. 28, 1778.
576 “In our kingly”: from Lafayette, Feb. 21, 1779.
576 “My blood”: Andreas Latzko, Lafayette (New York, 1936), 81.
576 “If you undertake”: Lafayette to Comte d’Estaing, Sept. 21, 1778, Lafayette Letters.
576 “I admire much”: to Lafayette, Mar. 22, 1779.
578 “The Marquis”: to Jones, Apr. 27, 1779.
578 “by all means”: to Jones, Apr. 28, 1779.
579 “Your liberal”: from Jones, May 1, 1779.
579 “No! I’ll sink … to fight”: Peter Reaveley, “The Battle,” in Jean Boudriot (ed.), John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, trans. David H. Roberts (Annapolis, Md., 1987), 82.
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.
