Franklin, William Temple, 1760-1823 to Tench Coxe
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04997 Author/Creator: Franklin, William Temple, 1760-1823 Place Written: London, England Type: Manuscript letter Date: 15 June 1791 Pagination: 32 p. : Height: 23.2 cm, Width: 19.6 cm Order a Copy
Most of the information on this record comes from a letter written by Julian P. Boyd, the editor of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, in 1969. Boyd's letter is in the file with the original document. The document is not signed, but Boyd identifies its creator as William Temple Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's grandson. Boyd claims it was sent to Tench Coxe who was serving as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. The letter is a summary of the report of the Lords of Trade to the Privy Council. This report was written mainly by Lord Hawkesbury on 28 January 1791. Having this document was a coup for the United States government, as they were in possession of it just as George Hammond, the first British minister to the U.S., received it as the basis for his diplomatic instructions. Asks him to communicate the findings with Alexander Hamilton (pg. 2). Coxe made copies of this document and sent it to Adams, Jefferson, and Knox. This copy appears to be in a secretarial hand, with no signature following the closing. The last page is a chart that appears to be summing up, a "Recapitulation," of the figures cited throughout the report. It lists the number of merchant vessels traveling between the U.S. and Britain, and the U.S. and the British West Indies before and after the Revolutionary War. The number of vessels and tonnage were vastly higher before the war than after it.
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