SEPAEATE EEPOET ON THE DATE OF THE 

 FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY 



I am in entire agreement with the main conclusion 

 of the committee's report, that the origin of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society should be carried back to the 

 Junto founded by Franklin in 1727 ; but I am unable to 

 agree with one section of the reasoning by which that 

 result has been reached. We have had before us much 

 material for the solution of our problem, varying in 

 character from vague reminiscences to contemporary 

 written records. Much of this is so late, so doubtful, or 

 so elusive as to be relatively valueless. On the other 

 hand there are three documents or groups of documents 

 which are both contemporary and definite, and on the 

 interpretation of these, I am convinced, the decision of 

 the question referred to us must be mainly based. 

 These are, first, the written minutes in the Society's 

 possession; second, a series of ten letters exchanged 

 between Franklin on one side and Hugh Eoberts and 

 Philip Syng on the other, between 1753 and 1785 ; and 

 third, a letter of the year 1768, from Charles Thomson 

 to Benjamin Franklin. 



From the first of these, the two minute books in the 

 possession of our Society, it is evident that there ex- 

 isted for the twelve years from 1757 to 1769, though 



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