Baltimore 1 January 1777
Honble. Sir
Congress relying on your wisdom and integrity, and well knowing the great importance of the case, have appointed you their Commissioner to negotiate a treaty of friendship & commerce with the Court of Spain. The idea of Congress on this subject you will find in the instructions of Congress sent by this opportunity to yourself and the other Commissioners at the Court of France. Your Commission for this special service we have now the honor to inclose you.1
We are with great Respect & Esteem, Honble. Sir, Yr. most obedt. & very huml Servts.
Benja Harrison
Jno Witherspoon
Richard Henry Lee
Will Hooper
Receiver's copy, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania. In a clerical hand, and signed by Harrison, Hooper, Lee, and Witherspoon.
1 Franklin did not go to Spain, however, because the American commissioners, Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, had already delegated this duty to Lee. When Congress learned of the commissioners' decision, they appointed Lee commissioner to Spain on May 1, 1777. See Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:264, 289; and JCC, 7:8, 10, 318. For Lee's frustrating experience with the Spanish government, see his reports from Spain in Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:280, 292 - 96, and Buchanan P. Thomson, Spain: Forgotten Ally of the American Revolution (North Quincy, Mass.: Christopher Publishing House, 1976), pp. 48 - 56.