The Committee of Claims directed that Andrew McNair, the custodian, be reimbursed to “the sum of 120 23/90 dollars” for provisioning “twenty four Indians while at the state-house, which was twenty days” — the Iroquois legation that had met earlier with Congress in Philadelphia — and then, sadly, Michael Clark “for liquor for the above Indians, the sum of 27 66/90 dollars.”

Charles Thomson also noted receipt and reading of a letter from the New Jersey convention, which would have been that, pursuant to Congress’s directive, Governor Franklin had been interrogated but “refused to answer the questions put to him, denying the authority of this body.” They therefore concluded that Franklin “appears to be a virulent enemy to this country, and a person that may prove to be dangerous” and recommended his confinement.

Congress directed General Washington to direct a formal inquiry into officer conduct in the Canadian campaign.

Off-journal, however, there MAY be (but most probably IS) some intriguing movement on the Declaration, in the form of a brief undated note (other than “Friday morn”) from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin, requesting his eyes on a piece of writing:

The inclosed paper has been read & with some small alterations approved of by the committee. will Doctr. Franklyn be so good as to peruse it and suggest such alterations as his more enlarged view of the subject will dictate? the paper having been returned to me to change a particular sentiment or two, I propose laying it again before the committee tomorrow morning, if Doctr. Franklyn can think of it before that time.

Julian Boyd, following the lead of Minis Hays and his meticulous calibrations of how and when Jefferson and Franklin could ever have crossed paths in such a way that Jefferson would have sought Franklin’s advice on a paper, concluded, not definitively, that “Dr. Hays’ conjecture probably has more plausibility than a similar claim that might be advanced for any of the other papers drawn up by TJ for Congress in 1775-1776.”

I’m sure whether to admire Boyd’s precise ultra-cautiousness or to roll my eyes – but I find myself very drawn to it.

You can read Boyd’s editing of this note and his own extensive notes in the archives,  However, I edited the note myself from a photofacsimile from the American Philosophical Society, which possesses the original.

But let’s note two matters. First, Jefferson’s own guarded and cautious language itself is odd. No exact date (even to year), some passive voice (“paper has been read and … approved by the committee”; “having been returned to me”), plus addressing the addressee in third person rather than directly (“Dr. Franklyn”) – and even misspelling Franklin’s name? Granted, all kinds of language conventions were less than stable even in the late eighteenth century, so perhaps there was more interchangeability in the spelling than I’m aware of. But Franklin was an international celebrity! And Jefferson, half his age, was not.

But second, let’s say that Hayes and Boyd and others are correct, that Jefferson’s paper is a draft of the Declaration. If so, he has already run it by the committee, and, if Franklin can get to it in time, plans to run it by it again. The committee has asked Jefferson “to change a particular sentiment or two,” but what those sentiments might have been must have been left to Franklin’s devices. In any case, the note suggests a good deal more committee involvement than Jefferson’s later accounts might have us suppose. The only other members were Adams, Sherman, and maybe Livingston if he hadn’t already returned to New York. Based on the time scheme and committee references (and the Friday date), Boyd conjectured a date of … June 21, one week before the final draft was submitted.

Also, the letter indicates that Franklin had not been meeting with the committee (see below).

More importantly, the note is separated from the “inclosed paper,” so that if it WAS a Declaration draft – well, which and how? We don’t really know how many drafts total were ever in circulation, but if this note IS about the Declaration drafting, there would seem to be one or two more than we can account for in terms of what has been preserved.

As to Franklin … on this date, Franklin wrote a brief letter to General Washington, expressing thanks for a May 20 letter forwarding a most curious, cryptic (or not) letter with enclosure from Arthur Lee (Virginian acting as agent in London for Massachusetts). The letter writer, if it were Lee, seems to have falsified his handwriting and purposely mis-addressed it to Franklin while intending it for Richard Henry Lee … or something. Here’s one sentence: “All my solicitude has been about my letters reaching you; every disguise was necessary to effect that.”  It seems to involve a long, convoluted story.

It is also not clear, either, why Washington passed it on to Franklin – but it took a while in arriving. In replying, Franklin also returned a report of the Canadian campaign from General Sullivan that Washington had also passed along. Then Franklin explained, “I am just recovering from a severe Fit of the Gout, which has kept me from Congress and Company almost ever since you left us, so that I know little of what has pass’d there, except that a Declaration of Independence is preparing.”

Franklin notoriously struggled with gout in his later years. Since Washington had departed Philadelphia on June 4, that would have meant that Franklin had been absent for Lee’s resolutions on June 7 and the independence debates that followed, and then his being appointed to the drafting committee on June 11. It would mean also that he was absent on the days that Congress considered New Jersey’s dispositions with his son William.

One final comment for the day, from someone himself notorious for just barely making deadlines: IF the Jefferson later indeed dates June 21 and refers to a Declaration draft, and is accurate about the committee’s involvement, that would mean that he had already completed a full enough draft to pass by the committee by, say, June 20 or before. That is quite possible, if Jefferson were especially diligent, efficient, and organized – and had no distractions or interruptions. Quite possible! (Just something I’ve myself never once done.)

My next post will go back a ways to consider another element in the Declaration’s drafting process, since, as it happens, Congress took its own resolution of the day before and did not meet on Saturday.

Countdown to Semiquincentennial: Number 15, June 21
By Michael G. Ditmore