Beschreibung:

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, Signer (Pennsylvania). Autograph letter signed ("B Franklin) to David Hartley Craven Street, [London], 31 January 1775. 1 page, folio, 188 x 303mm. (7 1/2 x 12 in.), integral blank. THE EARLIEST LETTER FROM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO DAVID HARTLEY "FRIEND OF LIBERTY" AND FUTURE BRITISH SIGNER OF THE TREATY OF PARIS A previously unpublished letter, discovered among previously uncatalogued letters in the Hartley Papers, in which Franklin forwards "papers" (most likely scribal transcripts) of documents bearing on the early development of American resistance to the policies of Great Britain. The letter apparently marks the opening of a remarkable, historic correspondence between Franklin -- the most eminent American in London at this date -- and Hartley, an M.P. who had established a public reputation as an outspoken advocate of conciliation and forbearance with the troubled American colonies. It is unclear from Franklin's letter whether he forwards the documents on his own initiative, or, quite possibly, at the request of Hartley searching for information to use in his parliamentary efforts to reach an accomodation between the crown and its American colonies. "Dear Sir, In the enclosed Papers you will find. "1. The original Proposal of stopping Suits for English Debts, made by a few People, of the Town of Anapolis only, in Maryland. 2. A Protest against by a great Body of the most considerable People of this Town. 3. The Provincial Resolutions of Maryland in which it is omitted. "The Manchester Petition, and the London Merchants[,] Declaration before your House when they waiv'd the Leave to go into the Coventry Committee; also their Petition at the Time of the Stamp Act, which you will find in the Volume of Debates you have of mine; all show that they have never been under any Apprehension about their American Debts, and want no Aid of the Parliament on that Act." Franklin's reference to "the volume of Debates you have of mine" is an intriguing one, perhaps implying that he had earlier sent to Hartley a copy of the volume, on which he collaborated with Richard Jackson entitled The Interest of Great Britain Considered, With Regard to Her Colonies (London, 1760). That work dealt with the complex negotiations to arrive at a peace settlement between France and Great Britain to end the Seven Years' War. At issue were the fate of Canada and other French possessions in the Carribbean. Franklin sounded a note which must have struck a responsive chord in Hartley, stressing the economic interdependence and reciprocity of trade between Britain and America. "Franklin believed that the future relationship between the mother country and the colonies was dependent upon expanding trade and recognition of the population growth taking place there" ( The Intellectual World of Benjamin Franklin (Exhibition catalogue), Philadelphia, 1990, no.73).