I congratulate you very sincerely on your Appointment to the very honourable Station, the Presidency of Congress. Every Testimony you receive of the public Sense of your Services and Talents, gives me Pleasure.

I have written to you a long Letter on Business, in my quality of Minister. This is a private Letter, respecting my personal Concerns, which I presume to trouble you with on the Score of our ancient Friendship.

In a Letter of the 12th of March 1781, Note 1. I stated my Age and Infirmities to the Congress, and requested they would be pleased to recall me, that I might enjoy the little left me of the Evening of Life in Repose and in the Sweet Society of my Friends and Family. I was answered by the then President, that when Peace should be made, if I persisted in the same Request, it should be granted. I acquiesc’d. The Preliminaries were signed in November 82, and I then repeated my Petition. (Note 2 A Year is past and I have no Answer. Undoubtedly if the Congress should think my continuing here necessary for the public Service, I ought as a good Citizen to submit to their Judgment and Pleasure; but as they may easily supply my Place to advantage, that cannot be the Case; I suppose therefore that it is merely the multiplicity of more important Affairs that has put my Request out of their Mind: What I would then desire of you is, to put this Matter in Train to be mov’d and answer’d as soon as possible, that I may arrange my Affairs accordingly.

In the 2[nd]? Letter above mention’d to which I beg leave to refer you, I gave a Character of my Grandson Wm. Temple Franklin, and solicited for him the Favor and Protection of Congress. I have nothing to abate of that Character; on the contrary I think him so much improv’d as to be capable of executing with Credit to himself and Advantage to the Public, any Employment in Europe the Congress may think fit to honor him with. He has been seven Years in the Service, and is much esteem’d by all that know him, particulary by the Minister, here, who, since my new Disorder (the Stone) makes my going to Versailles inconvenient to me, transacts our Business with him in the most obliging and friendly manner. It is natural for me, who love him, to wish to see him settled before I die, in some Employ that may probably be permanent; and I hope you will be so good to me, as to get that Affair likewise moved and carried thro’ in his Favor. He has I think this additional Merit to plead, that he has serv’d in my Office as Secretary several Years for the small Salary of 300 Louis a Year, while the Congress gave 1000 a Year to the Secretaries of other Ministers, who had not half the Employ for a Secretary that I had. For it was long before a Consul was sent here, and we had all that Business on our hands, with a great deal of Admiralty Business in examining and condemning Captures taken by our Cruisers, and by the French Cruisers under our Commission; besides the constant Attendance in examining and recording the Acceptances of the Congress Bills of Exchange, which has been from the immense Number very fatiguing; with many other extra Affairs, not usually occuring to other Ministers; such as the Care of the Prisoners in England, and the constant Correspondence relating to them, in all which he serv’d me as Secretary, with the Assistance only of a Clerk at low Wages (60 Louis a Year), so that the Saving has been very considerable to the Publick.