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CXXII: TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. III Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. III (Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763).

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CXXII

TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY

Philadelphia, 23 October, 1755.

Sir:—

I beg leave to return your Excellency my most sincere and hearty thanks for your letter of the 17th of September, with the orders for the payment of wagon owners, and an extract of your orders to Colonel Dunbar, forbidding the enlistment of servants and apprentices.1 Acts of justice so readily done become great favors, which I hope will be ever gratefully acknowledged by this people in actions as well as words.

I have also your favor of the 5th instant. Governor Morris is gone to Newcastle, to meet the Assembly of the Lower Counties, so that I cannot at present see the papers you refer me to, but I shall wait upon him in my journey to Virginia; and if, on perusing those papers, any thing seeming worthy of your notice should occur to me, I shall communicate my sentiments to you with that honest freedom which you always approve.

This journey, which I cannot now avoid, will deprive me of the pleasure of waiting on your Excellency in New York at the time you mention. I hear, too, that the governor does not purpose to send any commissioners thither, but to go himself. I know not what is to be the particular subject of your consultations; but as I believe all your schemes have the King’s service (which is the public good) in view, I cannot but wish them success.

Our Assembly meets the beginning of December, when I hope to be at home again; and if any assistance is to be required of them and the people here, depend on my faithful services, so far as my little sphere of influence shall extend. With the highest esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, &c.,

B. Franklin.

[1 ]At this time General Shirley was Governor of Massachusetts. He was with the army at Oswego, as commander-in-chief of his Majesty’s forces in America. It appears, that he never entirely fulfilled the good intentions expressed in his letter. In his autobiography, Dr. Franklin gives a particular account of the services he rendered to General Braddock, in procuring horses and wagons for his expedition. He expended, of his own money, upwards of a thousand pounds sterling. This sum was in part returned by General Braddock, but the remainder was never paid. When Lord Loudoun succeeded General Shirley, the accounts were examined and compared with the vouchers by the proper officer, and certified to be right; but Lord Loudoun declined giving an order on the paymaster for the balance, stating as a reason, that he preferred not to mix up his accounts with those of his predecessors; and, as Franklin was then on the point of departing for England, he referred him to the treasury in London, where, he said, payment would immediately be made. The application to the treasury, however, was unsuccessful. The closing paragraph of the Governor’s letter ran as follows:

“Though I am at present engaged in a great hurry of business, being to move from hence in a very few days for Niagara, I cannot conclude without assuring you that I have the highest sense of your public services in general, and particularly that of engaging those wagons, without which General Braddock, could not have proceeded. I am, with great esteem, &c.,

W. Shirley.”