On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris, acting as the Secret Committee of the Continental Congress, wrote to Silas Deane in Paris, France, informing him that he had been appointed with Franklin as one of the Commissioners for negotiating a “Treaty of Commerce and Alliance between the Court of France and these States” and forwarding a draft treaty and instructions for negotiating the treaty. Separately they provided instructions for negotiating contracts for arms and ammunition in France. Their instructions required the “Stricktest Secrecy” and they told Deane to

expect instructions for forming Treaties with other Nations. Consequently you will Cultivate a good understanding with all the Foreign Ministers.

Source: “The Committee of Secret Correspondence to Silas Deane, 2 October 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0382. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 22, March 23, 1775, through October 27, 1776, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 1982, pp. 648–650.]