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(Benjamin Franklin) BENJAMIN VAUGHAN (1751-1835)

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(Benjamin Franklin) BENJAMIN VAUGHAN (1751-1835)
BENJAMIN VAUGHAN (1751-1835), British diplomat & colonist; friend of Benjamin Franklin, who sided with the Americans; helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the American Revolution. ALS, “Benjn Vaughan”, 4pp, Jan 16, 1783, 4to, Paris, re the seizing of a boat that belonged to a relative of Benjamin Franklin. Written while negotiating the Treaty of Paris, to British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne, In part, “I received the pacquet...from Dr. Franklin...[about] a vessel belonging to his nephew Jonathan Williams, run away with by the crew, and carried into Kinsale [Ireland]...I went to hear what grounds Dr Franklin might have for suggesting that the capture of the vessel would benefit the captors. He said, a proclamation which was framed purposely for the American war, allowed...when a vessel was run away with in any war, I believe the first commissioned person of the enemy that saw her, might make property of her...reprisals in kind should since have been ordered...He [Franklin] then replied...an enemy’s taking the profits of the treachery, was still a different thing from the case made by the proclamation...That treachery was a shocking thing to encourage for the world...” Much, much more. Jonathan Williams (1750-1815), was an American soldier. He was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson (1801) as Inspector of Fortifications and Superintendent at West Point, where he served as the first Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. Soiling along horizontal fold (touching signature), o/w VG. $1,000-1,500