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[108] [My Dinner with Franklin, 1786] Winthrop Sargent After a distinguished military career during the Revolutionary War, Winthrop Sargent (1753–1820) turned his attention to surveying. Congress appointed him surveyor of the Northwest Territory. In 1786, he became a prominent shareholder in the Ohio Company of the United States, which sought to develop land north of the Ohio River in southeastern Ohio. Besides being the Ohio Company’s largest shareholder, Sargent was also its secretary. The last week of June 1786 he stopped by Philadelphia on his way to survey land north of the Ohio River. Through much of his life, Sargent kept a detailed diary, the source of the following passage. He was an excellent observer with a good sense of the material culture. Recording his dinner with Franklin, Sargent even mentioned their simple fare: beer and russet potatoes. Afterward Franklin showed his guest some engraved prints: a commonplace after-dinner activity within well-to-do eighteenth-century families. As their conversation turned to more intellectual topics, Franklin gave Sargent a tour of his library. As he often did, Franklin located a volume ideally suited to his guest’s interests, Connoissance des temps (Wolf-Hayes, no. 701), a compendium of astronomical and meteorological calculations that the learned astronomer Jérôme de La Lande compiled for the Académie Royale des Sciences. pass’d the whole of the 29th [of June] in Philadelphia and dined with his Excellency President [of Pennsylvania] Franklin. This dignified Character [who] is distinguished in the literary and political world is very much the Object of my Wonder and Admiration. He is now advanced beyond four Score and yet seems perfectly in full Exercise of all his mental Abilities. His Perception is quick and Memory very retentive. From Appearances I should suppose him to enjoy uninterrupted Health and great Vigour of Body for his advanced Life. Our Meal was frugal, but his Excellency indulged as to Quantity, drinking only of Beer and very small Russets. We were alone excepting a Daughter (Mrs Beech [Sarah Franklin Bache]) and two Women from the Country which indulged me with the Opportunity [109] of engrossing him altogether. I found him conversible, communicative enough, easy in his Manners and affording all those Attentions which could in Reason be demanded from his Time of Life and Station. He indulged me with the Sight of several Prints executed in Europe, amongst which were General Washington’s and that of John Paul Jones—both masterly finished, and [Franklin] was so very obliging as upon my mentioning the Difficulty of procuring a nautical Ephemeris (without knowing him to be possess’d of those Calculations) as to take me to his Library and put into my Hands the Connoissance des temps done in Paris. From The Winthrop Sargent Papers, ed. Frederick S. Allis, Roy Bartolomei, and Benjamin Harrison Pershing, 7 reels (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1965), reel 1, frame 115. Winthrop Sargent ...

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