NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Nov 09 @ 13:00UTC-5 : EST/CDT
<b>1. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN </b>(1706 - 1790) American statesman, inventor, and author, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Important A.L.S. "B. Franklin" as United States Commissioner to the Court of Louis XVI, also signed by his fellow commissioners<b> SILAS DEANE</b> (1737 - 1789) and <b>ARTHUR LEE</b> (1740 - 1792), 1p. 4to., Passy, Sep. 13, 1777, to merchant JOHN ROSS (1729 - 1800) at Nantes urgently seeking funds due them. The letter reads most part: <i>"...You gave us to expect at the Time we assisted You with Mr. Grand's Draughts, for Four Hundred & Fifty Thousand Livres, that you would be able to repay it, or a considerable part of it soon; We must inform You that we are at this Time in very great want of it and pray You would make us as Considerable Remittance as may be in your power, if you are not able to discharge the whole Sum, which would indeed be more agreeable to Us and of great Service to Our Country..."</i> John Ross was an independent American merchant who the Continental Congress authorized to purchase arms, ammunition, clothing and other critical supplies for the army. Ross set up his agency in Nantes where he often used his own credit to secure purchases on behalf of Congress. According to the Journals of Congress, Robert Morris addressed a letter to Congress mentioning a copy of a letter from Ross discussing the 450,000 Livres advanced to him by Franklin, Deane and Lee <i>"...on account of the United States in conformity with instructions given him by the Secret Committee, and that he had engaged to repay the Commissioners when enabled to do it by remittances from America. Mr. Morris conceiving it of importance that Mr. Ross should be enabled to return the Monies thus advanced to him, proposed to the Committee that some cargoes of Tobacco laden on Continental Account...might be consigned to the said Mr. John Ross for that purpose..."</i> According to Ross' biography, he was never quite made whole and ended up about £20,000 (or 450,000 Livres in debt) by the time. Apparently the tobacco never made it to port or something else happened to the money in the meantime. We have not found the exact reason why Ross came up short in the end, though there was much confusion as to the nature of monies received from France in the period before 1778. Because France had not openly sided with the U.S. before 1778, the financial records are sketchy and incomplete because of secrecy. Congress authorized numerous merchants to purchase supplies on account of Congress and to be reimbursed by the same. At the same time the Commissioners had been loaned approximately 3,000,000 Livres from the French treasury through a banker ("Mr. Grand"). To complicate matters, the French government had initiated its own aid program by setting up the false mercantile house of Roderigue Hortalez & Cie which shipped military stores to America on its own account. With so many actors involved, confusion was inevitable. Part of the problem came to a head when ARTHUR LEE accused fellow commissioner SILAS DEANE of profiteering from his position as commissioner. Part of the controversy revolved around Lee's assumption that the monies were a gift from the French Government while Deane and Franklin understood that the monies were loans. That, coupled with the terrible financial state of the country, likely resulted in Ross' financial loss. Seal holes at top and bottom barely affect one word of text and have been professionally mended, just a bit of toning in spots, otherwise quite fresh and in overall very good condition.<b>$15,000-20.000</b>
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