Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, February 11, 1764 - 1
Dear Sir,
I have just reviewed your Favour by the extra Packet of Nov. 26. and am pleas’d to find a just Resentment so general in your House against Mr Wms for [sedulous?] Conduct, and to hear the present Administration is like to continue –
If Money must be raised from us to Support 14 Battalions, as you mention, I think your Plan the most advantageous to both the Mother Country & Colonies of any I have seen. A moderate Duty on Foreign Messages may be collected; when a high one could not. – The same on Foreign Wines, and a Duty not only on Tea, but on all East India Goods might perhaps not be amiss, as they are generally rather Luxuries than Necessaries; and many of your Manchester Manufacturers might well Supply their Places. The Duty on Negros I would wish large enough to obstruct their Importation, as they everywhere prevent the Increase of Whites. – But if you lay such Duties as may destroy your Trade with the Foreign Colonies, I think you will greatly hurt your own Interest as well as ours. – I need not explain this to you, who will readily see it. – The American Fishery, too, should be as little burthened as possible. It is to no purpose to enlarge on [those] Heads, as probably your Acts are pass’d before this can reach you. –
In my last I mention’d to you the Rioting on our Frontiers, in which 20 peaceable Indians were
