MODEL OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION OF A PERSON YOU ARE
UNACQUAINTED WITH

"_Sir_,--The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to
give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him,
not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it
is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings
another equally unknown to recommend him; and sometimes they
recommend one another! As to this gentleman, I must refer you to
himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly
better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him however
to those civilities, which every stranger, of whom one knows no
harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the good
offices and show him all the favor, that, on further acquaintance,
you shall find him to deserve. I have the honor to be, &c."

It would be entertaining to know how many of these letters were
delivered, and in what phrases of French courtesy gratitude was
expressed for them. Sometimes, if any one persisted, in spite of
discouragement, in making the journey at his own cost, and, being
forewarned, also at his own risk of disappointment, Franklin gave him a
letter strictly confined to the scope of a civil personal introduction.
Possibly, now and again, some useful officer may have been thus deterred
from crossing the water; but any such loss was compensated several
hundredfold by shutting off the intolerable inundation of useless
foreigners. Nor was Franklin wanting in discretion in the matter; for he
commended Lafayette and Steuben by letters, which had real value from
the fact of the extreme rarity of such a warranty from this source.

Franklin was little given to political prophecy, but it is interesting
to read a passage written shortly after his arrival, May 1, 1777:--

"All Europe is on our side of the question, as far as applause and
good wishes can carry them. Those who live under arbitrary power do
nevertheless approve of liberty, and wish for it; they almost
despair of recovering it in Europe; they read the translations of
our separate colony constitutions with rapture; and there are such
numbers everywhere who talk of removing to America, with their
families and fortunes, as soon as peace and our independence shall
be established, that it is generally believed that we shall have a
pro