Beschreibung:

FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790) Signer (Pennsylvania) . Autograph letter signed B. Franklin," with large flourish, TO DAVID HARLTLEY (1732-1813), British co-signer of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Passy, [France], 19 October 1779. 2 pages, 4to . Written in Franklin's most elegant cursive italic hand, and in mint condition.
FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790) Signer (Pennsylvania) . Autograph letter signed B. Franklin," with large flourish, TO DAVID HARLTLEY (1732-1813), British co-signer of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Passy, [France], 19 October 1779. 2 pages, 4to . Written in Franklin's most elegant cursive italic hand, and in mint condition. "HONOR AND HUMANITY": FRANKLIN PLEDGES HIS WILLINGNESS TO "SOFTEN THE RIGORS OF WAR," DEMONSTRATING "THAT CONFIDENCE WHICH NATURALLY OPENS BY DEGREES THE WAY TO PEACE" Franklin's letter, ostensibly concerns the plight of several prisoners about to be exchanged, but the American minister takes the opportunity to warmly salute his old friend, Hartley, and to assure him of his receptivity to any conciliatory moves toward peace between the two nations. "Having just received the Passport defined for the Cartel to make use of the Port of Morlaix," he writes, "I take this first Opportunity of sending it to you, in hopes of releasing by more expeditious Voyages the poor Prisoners on both Sides before the Severity of Winter comes on. Besides those relayed on Parole, we have now more English Prisoners than you have Americans. In those Releases we have relied on the honour & Humanity of the Board and I am persuaded we shall not find ourselves deceived. You will always see me ready in every Step that may soften the Rigours of War to give the first Demonstrations of that Confidence which naturally opens by Degrees the Way to Peace..." The situation of the American prisoners in Britain and British prisoners in France had become for both Hartley and Franklin a particularly thorny problem. The British ministry officially regarded American prisoners as traitors. "They therefore ignored [Franklin's] willingness to issue paroles to British captives..." Through David Hartley Franklin urged the easing of the lot of the prisoners as a step toward reconciliation, sent small sums of money for their relief and sought permission for an American envoy...to inspect the conditions in which the American prisoners were kept...." (Esmond Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, 1986, p.281-282. His correspondent David Hartley (1782-1813) was an amateur scientist and inventor who befriended Franklin in London in the 1760s. Hartley was one of a group of Franklin's English friends (including Richard Price, Joseph Banks, Joseph Priestley) who "saw the events of 1776 as heralding a new liberal age"; they formed "an international underground that was international, rooted in deism and liberalism, a product of free-masonry, of the enlightenment, and of the still optimistic faith in reason. From these intellectuals came the contacts that led to the peace. They dreamed of a league of peaceful nations" (Wright, p.322). Hartley's well-known opposition to the war against the rebellious colonies, made him a logical choice of the Rockingham ministry to serve as British plenipotentiary in the final stages of the critical negations in Paris with Franklin and the other American commissioners. Preliminary articles of the treaty were agreed in November 1782, then, after Hartley's arrival with amended instructions from the British government, the final Treaty of Paris was signed in Paris by Franklin, John Adams John Jay and David Hartley on 3 September 1783.