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FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Document signed twice ("B. Franklin"), Passy, 11 September 1782. 2 pages, folio . Text in French, accomplished in a clerical hand.
FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Document signed twice ("B. Franklin"), Passy, 11 September 1782. 2 pages, folio . Text in French, accomplished in a clerical hand. FRANKLIN RECEIVES CONGRESS'S ORDER TO WIND UP THE AMERICAN WARTIME MISSION A unique and revealing document, signed just eight days after Franklin signed the Definitive Treaty with Britain ending the Revolutionary War, in which Benjamin Franklin certifies the French language version of the orders of Congress naming Thomas Barclay the commissioner charged with conducting a "final accounting of all of our representatives charged with the use of public funds in Europe." On 29 May 1782, Congress ordered that its various diplomats in Europe account for their use of public funds dating from 1776. Here is the French-language version of the commission authorized by the president of the Congress, Elias Boudinot, appointing Franklin's diplomatic colleague, Thomas Barclay, to conduct the accounting. Franklin certifies that the translation "conforms to the English language original" and he does the same for two supplemental orders from Congressional secretary Charles Thompson and the Commissioner of Finance, Robert Morris Barclay (1728-1793), was an Irish born Philadelphia merchant who served as America's first consul in France, from 1781-1787. He also served with John Adams in the American legation to The Hague in the 1780s, and he won the confidence of Jefferson when the Virginian replaced Franklin as American ambassador. DOCUMENTS SIGNED BY FRANKLIN AT PASSY ARE COMPARATIVELY RARE.