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1776—1777.

had not escaped the attention of those sagacious men who exercised preponderating influence in Congress, that the Declaration of Independence would necessarily involve an appeal to the nations of Europe for countenance and aid. Accordingly, as early as the close of 1775, a committee, consisting of Mr. Harrison, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Jay, was appointed for the sole purpose of holding a secret correspondence with the friends of America, in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world. The main object of this Committee, was to sound indirectly some of the principal powers of Europe, particularly France and Spain, in regard to American affairs. Dr. Franklin, not long after, addressed a letter to a gentleman in Holland, named Dumas, making inquiries as to the prospect of aid being extended to the Americans, in the struggle upon which they had entered with the mother country. "That you may be better enabled," wrote Franklin, "to answer some questions which will probably be put to you, concerning our present situation, we inform you, that the whole continent is very firmly united—the party for the measures of the British ministry being very small, and much dispersed; that we had on foot the last campaign, an army of near twenty thousand men, wherewith we have been able, not only to block up the king's army in Boston, but to spare considerable detachments for the invasion of Canada, where we have met with great success, as the printed papers 