Before I urge my most humble Request it is fit I should give some account of myself.

After the Commencement of Hostilities I came Over from Europe in the Capacity of Clerk to the Superintendant of the brittish Hospitals to new York, I soon (impelled by the enthusiasm in the Cause Liberty in them times so prevalent) gave up my Employment and crossed over into the Jerseys to His Excellency General Washingtons Head Quarters, where I got a pass from the Marquis Fayette, with which I came to Philadelphia where I met with General Spotswood of Virginia Who employed me as a private Tutor in his Family and from Whom I had a Letter of Recommendation to Coll Lux near Baltimore where I lived in the same Capacity and from whom I have Credentials likewise which I can produce to Your Excellency.

Conscious of a Life spent in Innocence I should never perhaps forgive myself if I did not embrace this Opportunity of being somewhat known to Your Excellency of laying my Case before You, for I have frequently thought thus with myself: Who knows but the Great And Good Doctor Franklin may have imbibed somewhat of a favourable Opinion of me, if so, why should I refrain throwing myself at his feet, and imploring his Influence in my behalf, as he has it so Amply in his Power to extricate me from the cru[e]l Distresses which surround me on all sides, by pointing out to me some little Way of gaining a Subsistance, and perhaps of being Useful?

Impelled by such Reflections, I beg leave to assure Your Excellency that since my last Arrival in Philadelphia (in order to publish my Poem which your Exellency had the Condescension of Subscribing to, and which I soon ceased collecting pecuniary Subscriptions for on recollection that perhaps something may impede the publication) I have tried every way to Get into Bread but find every Door of Employment shut against me.

Despair now drives me most humbly to implore Your Excellency that You would be graciously pleased to shew me how I may gain a Subsistence as a Clerk in Some of the public Offices, or any thing, that You would allot for me, would with the greatest Gratitude be embraced by me with the utmost Ardor, for indeed Sir all my Ambition is barely to live, free from the Terrors which this moment distract me. I remain Your Excellency’s most devoted most humble and most grateful Servant