ILLUSTRATED* 
 
 , 
 
 ! 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE CANNING jHILL 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 WORTHINGTON CO., 
 
 747 BROADWAY. 
 
 1887. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT A CO., 
 
 in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
COtfTESTTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 / j 
 
 YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP, / 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT HIS TRADE, . . 34 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TO ENGLAND AND BACK, 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN BUSINESS, 81 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GETTING ALONG, 106 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN, 129 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GEORGE WHITFIELD SOLDIERING A PHILOSOPHER, . . . 152 
 
 1* (v) 
 
 M368041 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGS 
 GETTING FAME, 173 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AS A MILITARY MAN, 199 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE, 224 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES, 249 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION, 271 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE 296 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CLOSE OF HIS CAREER, 317 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 
 CHAP TEE I. 
 
 YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 
 
 IT is uncommon for the steps of so practical 
 a person as Dr. Franklin to be turned into 
 such romantic paths. He could have dreamed 
 of nothing more than a life of hard and steady 
 labor; yet the persevering pursuit of that very 
 labor made him the counsellor of Generals and 
 Congresses, the representative of his country at 
 foreign Courts, and worthy to be asked to sit down 
 with kings. 
 
 He was a genuine product of American soil. 
 His mother-wit served him better than learning, 
 and his ready knowledge of human nature was an 
 invaluable resource. He was shrewd and saga 
 cious; prudent, yet bold; frugal, yet generous; 
 a student of philosophy, but a man of the world. 
 
 (7) 
 
8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 He took hold of whatever he did, that he might 
 work out some tangible result. Nothing came to 
 him by luck, but everything through labor. His 
 instinctive modesty was only paralleled by his ad 
 mirable self-possession. To man was ever more wil 
 ling to keep himself out of sight, if by that means 
 the cause could be helped on. He sought only stable 
 things ; and reputation followed as a matter of 
 course. His clearness and coolness of judgment 
 made him widely sought after as an adviser ; and, 
 if he offered a doubt, it was called one of " Frank 
 lin s portents," which led men to pause and reflect 
 a little longer. 
 
 This is by no means a summary of his varied 
 character, but a mere hint of the sterling ore 
 which lay beneath. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, but 
 settled in business, at last, in Philadelphia, where 
 he established his home. His father came over 
 from England with his first wife, in 1685, bringing 
 three children ; four more were born to them in 
 Boston, when his wife died, and he married again. 
 The second wife bore him ten children, of which 
 number Benjamin was the eighth, two girls being 
 his juniors. The whole brood, therefore, counted 
 seventeen : Franklin says, in his autobiography, 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 
 
 that he remembered to have seen thirteen sitting 
 around the table at one time. 
 
 His father s name was Josiah ; he married Abiah 
 Folger, a daughter of one of the early settlers of 
 !N"ew England, whom old Cotton Mather styled "a 
 godly and learned Englishman." His father s 
 trade, after coming to New England, was that of 
 a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler: he had been a 
 dyer in the old country, but found that trade too 
 poor an one to permit him to support his family. 
 He was an excellent man, of a firm and healthy 
 texture of character, fond of mechanical opera 
 tions, skilled in drawing, and much given to music. 
 After the day s work was over, he used to play on 
 his violin, accompanying it with his voice. He 
 was possessed of a sound judgment, and would 
 have been called into public affairs had not his 
 large family kept him in straitened circumstances 
 and held him all the time close to his trade. His 
 word, however, had weight with the leading men 
 of his church, and many persons came to consult 
 him about their private matters. They often 
 chose him to decide in their differences, willing 
 to abide his just decision. Franklin says that, at 
 the family table, he liked to have some sensible 
 friond, or neighbor, call in to converse with him, 
 
10 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 and invariably started some topic for talk, with a 
 view to improve the minds of the children. "By 
 this means" he adds "he turned our attentior 
 to what was good, just, and prudent, in the con 
 duct of life ; and little or no notice was ever taken 
 of what related to the victuals on the table, whether 
 it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, of 
 good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to this 
 or that other thing of the kind: so that I was 
 brought up in such a perfect inattention to those 
 matters, as to be quite indifferent what kind of 
 food was set before me." 
 
 Franklin s father lived to be eighty-nine years 
 of age, and his mother to be eighty-five : he says 
 he never knew either of them to have any sick 
 ness but that of which they died. They lie buried 
 in Boston, where he erected over them a marble 
 tablet, on which is recorded the story of their 
 lives and virtues. The inscription on this stone 
 is curious enough to be copied into even the 
 briefest life of the dutiful and illustrious son. 
 This is it : 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 11 
 
 JOSIAH FRANKLIN 
 
 and 
 
 Abiah his wife, 
 
 Lie here interred. 
 
 They lived lovingly together in wedlock 
 
 Fifty-live years ; 
 
 And without an eftate, or any gainful employment, 
 By conftant labor, and honest induftry, 
 
 (With God s blessing,) 
 
 Maintained a large family comfortably, 
 
 And brought up thirteen children, and seven grandchildren 
 
 Reputably. 
 
 From this inftance, reader, 
 Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, 
 
 And distrust not Providence. 
 He was a pious and prudent man, 
 She a discreet and virtuous woman. 
 
 Their youngest son, 
 In filial regard to their memory, 
 
 Places this ftone. 
 
 J. F. born 1655; died 1744, y*Et. 89. 
 A. F. born 1667; died 1752, Mt. 85. 
 
 "When young Benjamin was eight years old, he 
 was sent to the grammar school, his father mean 
 ing to devote him to the service of the church. 
 The lad was a ready learner, and made rapid pro 
 gress in his classes, rising from one to another. 
 He was kept here but about a year, however, his 
 father s circumstances not allowing him to think 
 
12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 of sending him to college, and was next put to a 
 Mr. George Brownwell, who kept a famous school 
 for writing and arithmetic. "With this teacher he 
 soon learned to write a good hand ; but he con 
 fesses that he made a failure in his arithmetic ! 
 He was but ten years old, when his father took 
 him out of school to help him in his business of 
 tallow-chandler and soap-boiler; and the future 
 philosopher and statesman was, so early in life as 
 that, cutting wicks for candles, filling moulds with 
 melted tallow, waiting on the shop, and running 
 of errands. He declares that he did not like the 
 trade, and wanted to go to sea; but his father 
 would permit no such thing. Living where the 
 tides came and went twice each day, he spent 
 more or less time about the water, and very soon 
 learned to swim well, and to manage boats ; and 
 when the least trouble threatened the young crew 
 on the water, Franklin was set up as captain and 
 controller. 
 
 He was generally a leader among his comrades, 
 and admits that he sometimes led them into 
 " scrapes;" he mentions one such, to show what 
 spirit he was made of. " There was a salt marsh," 
 he says, " which bounded part of the mill-pond, 
 on the edge of which, at high water, we used to 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 13 
 
 stand to fish for minnows. By mucli trampling we 
 had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to 
 build a wharf there for us to stand upon, and I 
 showed my comrades a large heap of stones which 
 were intended for a new house near the marsh, 
 and which would very well suit our purpose. Ac 
 cordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were 
 gone home, I assembled a number of my playfel 
 lows, and we worked diligently, like so many em 
 mets, sometimes two or three to a stone, till we 
 brought them all to make a little wharf. The next 
 morning, the workmen were surprised at missing 
 the stones, which had formed our wharf. Inquiry 
 was made after the authors of this transfer ; we 
 were discovered, complained of, and corrected by 
 our fathers ; and, though I demonstrated the utility 
 of our work, mine convinced me that that which 
 was not honest, could not be truly useful" 
 
 Franklin continued with his father in the soap 
 boiler s business for two years, arriving at his 
 twelfth year. He disliked the trade worse than 
 ever ; and his father began to fear lest the lad 
 would indeed run away to sea, if his own wishes 
 in the matter of a calling were not more regarded. 
 So he took his son to walk with him all about 
 the town, among the joiners, the bricklayers, the 
 
14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 turners, the braziers, and the men of other trades 
 and occupations, while at their work, all the time 
 watching to see which of them all the lad might 
 appear to prefer, and intending to let him choose 
 any one of them, if that would only break his 
 tendency for the sea. One happy result came of 
 these repeated visits, if no other : when the boy 
 became a man, he knew so much of the several 
 trades, and how workmen handled their tools, that 
 he was always ready to perform trifling jobs in 
 the house, and could construct machines for his 
 philosophical experiments just when his intention 
 was fresh and warm in his mind. 
 
 His father at last designed him for the cutler s 
 trade, and placed him for a few days, as a trial, 
 with his brother Samuel, who -had been bred to 
 the trade in London, and had recently set up in 
 business in Boston ; but his cousin demanded so 
 large a fee for his apprenticeship, that his father 
 was displeased with it, and the lad was taken 
 home again. A single circumstance at this point 
 came in to decide the whole matter; owing to 
 this alone, Benjamin Franklin was put in the way 
 of becoming widely useful to his own generation, 
 and illustrious before the world. He had a passion 
 for reading. That was the golden key which un- 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 15 
 
 locked his whole future. All the money he could 
 earn he spent in buying books. He took especial 
 delight in voyages. The first books he bought 
 were Bunyan s works, in small volumes. These 
 he afterwards sold, to get the money to buy R. 
 Burton s "Historical Collections," in all, forty 
 little volumes. He read the greater part of his 
 father s library, which was made up of volumes 
 on theology, and was of a dry, argumentative 
 character. He said he had often regretted that 
 at that particular time more proper books had not 
 been thrown in his way, especially as he was not 
 to study afterward for the ministry. He found 
 Plutarch s Lives among his father s books, and 
 devoured them ; many a promising lad has done 
 it before and since, and Franklin confessed the 
 great benefit he received from the book. He 
 mentions, likewise, a book written by De Foe, 
 styled an "Essay on Projects," and one, in par 
 ticular, written by the famous Cotton Mather, 
 called " An Essay to do Good." Much and last 
 ing good it did in his case, certainly. He ad 
 mitted that it gave him "a turn of thinking," 
 and had an influence on some of the future events 
 of his life. 
 
 Seeing how he liked books and reading, his 
 
16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 father resolved to make him a printer. This was 
 the long and decisive step in his career. One son, 
 James, was already of that trade, and had returned 
 from England not a long time before, with press 
 and other implements, to set up business in Bos 
 ton. Benjamin admits that he liked the idea of 
 that trade much better than his father s, although 
 he could not yet wholly give up the sea. To 
 make it secure as soon as possible, his father 
 made haste to bind him to service to the elder 
 brother. Benjamin resisted the plan for some 
 time, but was at length persuaded, and put his 
 own name to the legal indenture, being but 
 twelve years old at the time of doing it. This 
 instrument held him to serve his brother James, 
 at the printer s trade, until he should become 
 twenty-one years old; but, according to custom, 
 he was to have journeyman s wages the last year. 
 He took hold in earnest, and made such pro 
 gress at his new trade that he was soon of real 
 value to his brother s business. In his new situa 
 tion he was thrown in the way of procuring better 
 books, and more of them. A friendship con 
 tracted with the booksellers apprentices of the 
 town enabled him, from time to time, to borrow 
 a small volume, which he always returned soon, 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 17 
 
 and clean. Other borrowers iniglit take a useful 
 hint from their great exemplar, and save a great 
 deal of hard feeling. He used to sit up in his 
 chamber, very often for the greater part of the 
 night, reading, so as to return in the morning the 
 book he had borrowed the evening before, lest it 
 should be missed from the bookseller s shop. 
 There was a merchant in Boston then, Matthew 
 Adams by name, who was in the habit of calling 
 in at the printing office of James Franklin ; he 
 had a good store of books, and, seeing how fond 
 the printer lad was of reading, generously invited 
 him to come and see his library, offering to lend 
 him whatever books he wanted to read. 
 
 He tried his hand at writing poetry about this 
 time, and his brother rather encouraged him to 
 continue with it ; he composed a couple of bal 
 lads, one of them called " The Light House Tra 
 gedy," and the other a sailor s song, on the cap 
 ture of one Teach, a pirate of the day, who was 
 nicknamed "Blackbeard." Franklin himself af 
 terward admitted that they were " wretched stuff." 
 When they were printed, his brother -sent him 
 around town to peddle them. Of the former he 
 sold a very large number, and he was made some 
 what vain in consequence; but his father, who 
 
18 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 had good hard sense, criticised his ballads without 
 mercy, and wound up with telling him that 
 "versemakers were generally heggars." This ut 
 terly discouraged the youth s ambition in that 
 direction. He says he "escaped being a poet, 
 and probably a very bad one." 
 
 All this, however, had no effect to dissuade 
 him from his resolution to acquire skill in express 
 ing his thoughts in good prose. There was a lad 
 in town named John Collins, who was a close 
 friend of young Franklin. Both loved to argue, 
 and were fond of disputing, although Franklin 
 admitted when he grew wiser that it was a bad 
 habit in a man, and very apt to spoil conversation, 
 to sour friendship, and to disgust the company ; 
 he afterward observed that few persons were ad 
 dicted to it beside lawyers and collegians. Col 
 lins and himself became concerned in an argu 
 ment about the propriety of educating females, 
 and their natural ability for study ; his friend 
 professing to believe the other sex intellectually 
 inferior to ours, and Franklin maintaining the 
 contrary. Collins rather vanquished the future 
 philosopher with the greater flow of his words, 
 while the latter still remained unconvinced by his 
 reasons. To place the matter on its merits solely, 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 19 
 
 after they separated, Franklin put down his argu 
 ments on paper, in as clear phrases as he could 
 command, and copied and sent them to his oppo 
 nent. Collins read and answered them, and Frank 
 lin replied. They had been disputing in this style 
 to the number of three or four letters, when the 
 lad s father chanced to come across Ms papers, and 
 read them. Soon afterward, he sat down and 
 talked with his son about what he had discovered ; 
 he did not offer to argue the question involved, 
 either one way or another, but he touched upon 
 his son s style of writing, observing that, although 
 he clearly had the advantage of his opponent in 
 punctuation and spelling, he fell far short of him 
 in style of expression, in clearness, and in his 
 method of discussion. The criticism came in 
 good time ; it set the youth to thinking on the 
 faults of his composition, and aroused his resolu 
 tion to make himself a clear and effective writer. 
 He fell in with an odd volume of the British 
 " Spectator," then, a happy coincidence indeed. 
 It was the first time he had ever seen any part of 
 those delightful essays. He bought the volume, 
 and read it again and again with much delight. 
 He liked its easy style of writing so well, that he 
 resolved to try and imitate it. To this end, he 
 
20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 began with a single number, or essay, in the vol 
 ume ; mastering the thoughts or sentiments of each 
 sentence, and noting them down on paper, he laid 
 them by for a few days, and then put them in the 
 best language of his own which he could com 
 mand, and compared what he had done with what 
 the writers of the " Spectator" had done. In this 
 way, he was really writing up to the "Spectator" 
 standard, the famous authors of that collection of 
 essays furnishing him with criticisms, hints, and 
 models, as he went along. In no other way could 
 he so readily detect his own faults, or hope to 
 correct them. This plan he pursued with indus 
 try for some time, and had the satisfaction of 
 seeing his own improvement. To gain a wider 
 command of words, he turned some of the "Spec 
 tator s" tales into verse ; and afterwards, when he 
 had quite forgotten the "Spectator s" prose, 
 turned them back again into prose of his own. 
 
 In order to exercise his mind in the art of 
 methodizing and arranging his subjects as they 
 came up for treatment, he would mix up the hints 
 he had jotted down on paper, and some time after 
 ward endeavor to arrange them for himself, so as 
 to present them in the most obvious order and 
 with the greatest force. He labored hard at his 
 
YOUTH AND APPEENTICESHIP. 21 
 
 self-imposed tasks in English composition, but he 
 was resolved to become " a tolerable English 
 writer," and persevered until he met with success. 
 He was helping himself to an education ; many a 
 youth of his years refuses, to do anything for his 
 own improvement, when he has everybody to help 
 him. The time he devoted to this kind of self- 
 instruction, as well as to his reading, was either 
 at night or before going to work in the morning ; 
 on Sundays, too, he went quietly to the printing 
 office, preferring not to attend public worship, and 
 there gave the day to his reading and writing 
 exercises. His father would have expected him 
 to attend church, if he had been living at home ; 
 but being apprenticed to his brother, he had in a 
 measure passed beyond the reach of parental 
 restraints. He acknowledges that he considered 
 going to church to be a duty, but that he could 
 not afford time to practice it. 
 
 Time passed, the apprentice closely pursuing 
 his studies and his work. "When he was sixteen, 
 he fell in with a book that recommended a vege 
 table diet, and determined to make an experiment 
 of that style of living. His brother was not a 
 married man, and was therefore compelled to 
 board out his apprentices. It made trouble in 
 
"2 2 BENJAMIN FRANKLIX. 
 
 the family arrangements for one apprentice to 
 decline eating meat, and Franklin read his vege 
 tarian work more carefully, to learn bow to cook 
 the various dishes he wanted for himself; in a 
 short time he qualified himself to make hasty 
 puddings and other sorts of puddings, to boil rice 
 and potatoes, and to cook many other simple 
 dishes. Then he went to his brother and made 
 the following proposal, if the latter would give 
 him each week only half the amount he paid for 
 his board, he would undertake to board himself! 
 This from a boy of sixteen ! His brother readily 
 accepted a proposal like that; and even out of 
 that half allowance, Franklin saved still a half, 
 with which he purchased books. He also saved 
 the time he otherwise would have taken in going 
 from the office to his meals, and returning. 
 "\Yhile his brother and the rest of the apprentices 
 were gone, he ate his frugal meal, often consist 
 ing of no more than a biscuit, or a slice of bread, 
 or a tart, and a glass of water, and then applied 
 himself to study until their return. He felt his 
 head to be clearer and his apprehension much 
 quicker, from practising this temperance. In 
 these odd scraps of time, snatched from his 
 meals, he resolutely studied Arithmetic, of which 
 
YOUTH AXD APPRENTICESHIP. 23 
 
 he felt that he was wretchedly ignorant, and pro 
 ceeded some way into Navigation. He like 
 read at this time so deep a book as -Locke on 
 Human Understanding," and another entitled 
 "The Art of Thinking." English Grammar he 
 took up, too ; and an article on Logic, at the end 
 of the book out of which he studied, led him to 
 an acquaintance with the writings of Socrates, 
 and especially with the mode adopted by that 
 philosopher of arguing topics, which was by ask 
 ing questions like an humble inquirer. In conse 
 quence of this acquaintance with the Greek sage, 
 he dropped his former style of arguing with 
 positive denial and plump dogmatism, and took 
 to the " Socratic Method," which he followed 
 ever after, and found it of the widest use and 
 efficacy. Instead of arousing those with whom 
 he did not agree to open antagonism, he put 
 them questions which would draw them out in 
 definitions and concessions, they not seeing 
 whither his questions tended, and then obtained 
 his victory by their own help. He thought some 
 times that neither his cause nor himself was 
 fairly entitled to such victories. 
 
 His improvement now was rapid and percept 
 ible. He could not have failed to make progress, 
 
24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 with this thorough self-searching. About the 
 year 1720, his brother published a newspaper, 
 the second that had been printed in America. 
 It was called the "New England Courant." His 
 friends tried to dissuade him from such a project, 
 thinking that one newspaper was enough for the 
 country ; but he persevered, and young Benjamin 
 was employed as a carrier to the subscribers. 
 He would first work at the types, then at the 
 press, and finally carry around the paper. See 
 ing that some persons whom he knew began to 
 contribute short articles to the " Courant," the 
 ambitious carrier conceived the bold idea of 
 writing for its columns too. He was afraid his 
 brother James would refuse to admit any article 
 which he knew to be his, so he artfully disguised 
 his hand, wrote his communication, and placed it 
 under the door over night. In the morning it 
 was picked up, and submitted to those who were 
 in the habit of dropping in and passing judgment 
 on the articles written. Franklin was greatly 
 pleased to listen to their favorable criticisms, and 
 especially to hear them guess what respectable 
 man of the town might be the author! This 
 unexpected success so pleased him that he re 
 solved to begin and write for the press regularly, 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 25 
 
 taking all the pains possible with his productions. 
 He kept his secret well until his " fund of sense," 
 as he styled it, was exhausted, and then he made 
 himself known to his friends as the real author 
 about whom they had indulged so many sur 
 mises. 
 
 His brother James, however, did not seem to 
 like it so well, and perhaps thought Ben. would 
 be made vain by the good opinions of others; and 
 it is recorded that with this circumstance the 
 trouble between the two brothers began. James 
 felt that he was the master of Benjamin, because 
 the latter had been bound out to him after, legal 
 forms ; while Benjamin thought that, even if he 
 were apprenticed to his brother, the latter should 
 have given him kinder treatment, because he was 
 his brother. When they fell into disputes, 
 which came to be pretty often, their troubles 
 were carried before their father, to whom each 
 pleaded his own case ; and Benjamin having the 
 decision made in his favor pretty often, this fact 
 only served to widen instead of to heal the 
 breach between them. Ben. began to feel the 
 weight of the yoke of his apprenticeship, and to 
 wish it lifted from his neck altogether. At any 
 rate, the tyrannical treatment from which he then 
 
26 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 suffered, excited his hatred of tyranny from that 
 time forward through his whole career. 
 
 About this time, or very soon after, an article 
 in the Franklin newspaper gave great offence to 
 the Massachusetts Assembly. James was arrested 
 by warrant of the Speaker of the House, publicly 
 censured by him, and then thrown into prison for 
 a month, because he would not make known the 
 writer of the offensive article. 
 
 Benjamin was likewise arrested and brought be 
 fore the Governor s Council; he was merely ad 
 monished by them, probably not being thought 
 responsible for the fault, inasmuch as he was but 
 an apprentice. While his brother James lay in 
 prison, of course he had the management of the 
 paper; he confesses that he "made bold to give 
 our rulers some rubs in it," which his brother was 
 not at all displeased with, but which led to his 
 being considered by others as " a youth that had 
 a turn for libelling and satire." When his brother 
 was at length discharged, it was ordered by the 
 assembly that "James Franklin should no longer 
 print the newspaper called < The New England 
 Courant. It was talked over among the friends 
 of the paper what was best to do ; some were for 
 changing its name, so that "James Franklin" 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 27 
 
 could go on with its management; but as that 
 course would be attended with some inconveni 
 ences, it was finally resolved to let the paper be 
 continued under its old name, with Benjamin 
 Franklin as its manager and controller. In order 
 to make the whole transaction legal and fair, 
 James returned to Benjamin his indenture, with 
 a full discharge written on the back of it, which 
 could be exhibited in case of threatened trouble. 
 But Benjamin was nevertheless to sign new papers, 
 binding himself to his brother for the remainder 
 of his time ; all these were to be kept private. 
 And in this way the "New England Courant" 
 was printed by Benjamin Franklin for several 
 months ; thus was the youth launched on the open 
 sea where he was to gain a livelihood and a name. 
 Pretty soon a fresh quarrel broke out between 
 the brothers. Benjamin declared he would leave, 
 and produced his elder brother s discharge, written 
 on the back of the original indenture, as clear 
 proof of his right to do so. He dared his brother 
 to show the private agreement to anybody, well 
 knowing its worthlessness. Franklin confessed 
 that this was clearly wrong, as taking an unfair 
 advantage ; but he said he was provoked to it by 
 the blows which his brother dealt out on him in 
 
28 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 one of his many fits of passion. James Franklin, 
 however, was not at other times an ill-natured 
 man, Benjamin says; " perhaps, "added he, very 
 candidly, " I was too saucy and provoking. * 
 
 They separated at once, after that ; but James 
 took care to go around to the other printing offices 
 in town, and influence the masters not to give 
 Benjamin work; and it was this single circum 
 stance that drove him so far from his friends as 
 New York, at first, and afterward to Philadelphia. 
 He did not feel as bad about turning his back on 
 Boston either, as he otherwise might, had he not 
 come under the displeasure of the Government by 
 the course of his newspaper ; and he said he feared, 
 too, that if he stayed there longer, he would " soon 
 bring himself into scrapes." He was looked upon 
 by many persons already as " an infidel and an 
 atheist," because of his disputes on religious 
 matters. 
 
 His father, however, took sides now with his 
 elder brother, and would have kept him at home 
 in Boston until his indenture regularly expired. 
 This led the youth to take the resolution to run 
 away. His friend Collins, with whom he used to 
 debate questions on paper, aided him in his pur 
 pose. Collins made an agreement for him with the 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 29 
 
 captain of a sloop, bound for New York, to take 
 him on board, saying that he was a young man of 
 his acquaintance who had got into trouble with 
 a girl of bad reputation, and who her parents 
 insisted should marry her; in consequence of 
 which, he could neither make his appearance in 
 public, nor come down to his vessel except pri 
 vately. To raise the money needed to defray his 
 passage, Franklin sold some of his books, and was 
 taken on board without the knowledge of any 
 one. With a favorable wind he was on the water 
 but three days, at the end of which time he found 
 himself in the streets of New York, three hundred 
 miles from home, but seventeen years of age, 
 knowing no one in the whole place, bearing no 
 letter of recommendation to any person, and with 
 as little money as possible in his pocket. This 
 was in October, in the year 1723. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin now had his own way to 
 make. He chanced to be one of the few runaway 
 lads who "came to something" afterwards. 
 
 He was by this time pretty well cured of his 
 propensity for the sea, and began to look around 
 for work to do. There was a Mr. "William Brad 
 ford in town, a printer, who had come from Phila 
 delphia not long before in consequence of a 
 
30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 quarrel with the Pennsylvania Governor, and to 
 him young Franklin forthwith presented himself. 
 The kind stranger received him in a friendly 
 manner, told him he could give him nothing to 
 do there, but suggested that he might find a place 
 at Philadelphia with his son, whose best hand had 
 recently died. Franklin was grateful enough for 
 the hint, and immediately set about acting on it. 
 He went on board a boat at once for Amboy, 
 leaving directions for his chest to come round by 
 sea after him. His boating experience was un 
 pleasant, a squall overtook them, tore in pieces 
 their wretched sails, and drove them on Long 
 Island. A drunken Dutchman fell overboard, 
 whom Franklin pulled out of the water by the 
 hair of his head. The fellow drew a book out of 
 his pocket, and asked the lad to dry it for him ; 
 Franklin was delighted to find it was his dear old 
 friend, John Bunyan, " in Dutch, finely printed on 
 good paper, copper cuts, and a dress better than 
 he had ever seen it wear in its own language." A 
 printer s eye for everything, The little craft lay 
 at anchor off the Island all that day and the follow 
 ing night, the sea rolling so that it was impossible 
 to get help from the shore. They all crowded in 
 inder the hatches that night, wet and hungry and 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 31 
 
 feverish ; the next day, however, the wind shifted, 
 and by night they reached Amhoy. They had 
 been thirty hours on the water, without anything 
 to eat, and with no drink but a bottle of rum. 
 
 Franklin had taken cold and felt fever upon 
 him. He had somewhere read of copious draughts 
 of water being efficient to break up a fever, and 
 resolved to try the remedy. During the night he 
 sweat profusely, and felt so much better in the 
 morning as to be able to set out on foot, after 
 crossing by the ferry, for Burlington, a distance 
 of fifty miles ; there he expected to find convey 
 ance by water to Philadelphia. The homeless boy 
 had hard luck of it. It began to rain, and kept 
 raining all day long ; so that he was really soaked 
 before he had gone many miles, and obliged, by 
 noon, feeling extremely tired too, to call at a 
 wayside tavern for lodgings, where he rested him 
 self for the night. He became now very home 
 sick, and many times wished he had never thought 
 of leaving home. The people in the house asked 
 him a good many close questions, and he began 
 to fear lest he should be thought what he really 
 was, a runaway apprentice, and apprehended and 
 sent back whence he came. But he pushed on the 
 next morning, and walked that day to within ten 
 
32 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 miles of Burlington, stopping for the night at a 
 house kept by Dr. Brown, an infidel, who became 
 much interested in talking on various subjects 
 with him. 
 
 Next morning he started for Burlington. He 
 arrived there to find the regular boats to Phila 
 delphia just gone. It was then Saturday, and no 
 more were to leave until Tuesday. He went 
 straight back to an old woman in Burlington of 
 whom he had purchased gingerbread on his arri 
 val, and asked her frankly what was best to do. 
 She offered to lodge him until the next regular 
 boat left ; and on afterwards finding out that he 
 was a printer by trade, she tried to induce him to 
 stay there and pursue his craft. She was exceed 
 ingly kind to the youth, giving him some ox-cheek 
 for his dinner, and making him as contented as 
 she knew how. While he chanced to be strolling 
 by the river side at evening, a boat drew near, 
 having several passengers aboard. He was told 
 she was bound for Philadelphia, and asked the 
 boatmen to take him aboard. There was no wind, 
 and they were obliged to tug at the oars all the 
 way. They even pulled past the city, not know 
 ing they had reached it. A little past midnight 
 some of the passengers raised the question whether 
 
YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 33 
 
 they had not gone by ; the result of the dispute 
 was, they put the boat toward the shore, worked 
 into a creek, made fast to an old fence from which 
 they took the rails to build a fire, and stayed there 
 until the light of morning revealed the truth to 
 their eyes. They were beyond Philadelphia, as 
 some of them supposed. Immediately they got 
 the boat out from the creek and pulled back for 
 the town ; where they arrived between eight and 
 nine o clock. 
 
 Franklin landed on Market street wharf on a 
 Sunday morning, in his working clothes, dirty 
 from the long voyage, his pockets stuffed out 
 with shirts and stockings, and himself a stranger 
 to everybody, and knowing not where to go to 
 seek a lodging. 
 
34 BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT HIS TEADE. 
 
 ~^W"N such plight he entered the city where he 
 was to lay the foundation of his future fame, 
 .1 and live to enjoy its most satisfying rewards. 
 He had one dollar in his pocket beside a shilling s 
 worth of copper coins. The latter he gave to the 
 boatmen for bringing him from Burlington ; they 
 refused to take it, because he had rowed his way 
 along ; but he persisted until they took what he 
 offered. "Walking along the street, he met a lad 
 with bread, and asked where he got it ; being di 
 rected to a baker s, he at once entered the shop 
 and called for some biscuit, thinking the bakers 
 of Philadelphia made up their bread after the 
 same patterns and styles with their brethren of 
 Boston. The baker kept no such article as biscuit. 
 He then called for a three penny loaf, but the 
 baker had nothing like that. Finally, bidding the 
 man give him three cents worth of such bread as 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 35 
 
 he had, lie received "three great puffy rolls," as 
 he afterwards described them, and walked off. 
 His pockets being filled with dirty clothes, as 
 already mentioned, he put a roll under each arm, 
 and ate the third as he strolled up the streets. In 
 this style he walked up Market to Fourth street, 
 and chanced to pass the house of a Mr. Read, 
 whose daughter Sarah, whom he afterwards mar 
 ried, was standing in the door, amused with the 
 awkward appearance of the youth. 
 
 Reaching Fourth street, he turned and walked 
 down Chestnut and part of Walnut streets, still 
 engaged with his " puffy " roll, and came around 
 at last at the wharf whence he started. He went 
 on board the boat he had come on, and got some 
 water to wash his bread down ; and finding a 
 w^oman, with her child, still on board, waiting to 
 go on, he gave her the remaining two rolls, and 
 felt as if he had done his duty. Once more he 
 sallied forth up the street. Large numbers of 
 persons were thronging the walks, and he fell in 
 with the current, willing to go wherever it might 
 take him. He was borne into the Quaker Meet- 
 ing-House, near the Market, where he sat down 
 in the midst of the silent worshippers, and, hear 
 ing not a word spoken for a long time, finally fell 
 
36 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 asleep. Nor did he awake until aroused by a 
 person who told him services were over, and the 
 house was to be shut up. This Quaker meeting 
 house afforded him the first sleep he got in 
 Philadelphia. It overpowered him, he was so 
 worn down with excessive labor, fasting, and 
 watchfulness, since he left JSTew York. 
 
 On the way down to the river again, he fell in 
 with a young Quaker whose face he liked, and 
 ventured to ask him about a good tavern, where 
 a stranger could get lodgings. "Here," said the 
 Quaker, pointing to the sign of the Three 
 Mariners tavern, hard by, "is a house where 
 they receive strangers, but it is not a reputable 
 one ; if thee wilt walk with me, I ll show thee a 
 better one." The Quaker showed him to the 
 sign of the " Crooked Billet," in Water street. 
 This, therefore, was Franklin s first hostelry in 
 the City of Brotherly Love. He took his dinner 
 there, and began to be afraid, from the questions 
 put him, that his character would be suspected. 
 
 After dinner, completely tired out, he asked to 
 be shown to bed, and laid himself down on it 
 without removing his clothes ; there he slept til] 
 six o clock, when he was called to supper. Soon 
 after supper, he went to bed again, and slept 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 37 
 
 without waking until morning. He needed the 
 copious rest he was taking. Dressing himself 
 neatly, he went over to the printing office of 
 Mr. William Bradford s son, to solicit work. 
 Whom should he find there hut the same Mr. 
 Bradford he had met in New York, the old 
 gentleman having come on horsehack and arrived 
 before him. He introduced young Franklin to 
 his son, who invited him to take breakfast with 
 him. The younger Bradford was not then in 
 want of a hand in the office, hut he told the 
 youth of another printer, who had lately set up 
 business, and who would perhaps employ him. 
 The name of the new printer was Keimer. At 
 any rate, Mr. Bradford assured him that, if he 
 did not get work there, he might lodge at his 
 house, and he would give him a little work, now 
 and then, which might help along until some 
 thing better offered. 
 
 Mr. Bradford, senior, went at once with Frank 
 lin to Keimer s office, and introduced him thus 
 "Neighbor," said he, "I have brought to see you 
 a young man of your business ; perhaps you may 
 want such a one." Keimer put the youth a few 
 questions, handed him a " composing stick," to 
 see how he could work, and at once promised to 
 
38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 give Mm employment, though just then he had 
 nothing for him to do. The office was wretch 
 edly stocked, for which a beginner in the busi 
 ness might have abundant excuse. Franklin 
 went to lodge and board at Bradford s for a time, 
 until Keimer should send for him to work off a 
 poem he was then setting up from his miserable 
 stock of types. He had ingeniously put the 
 press in working order for him already. In a 
 little time, Keimer found something for him to 
 do. Both the printers of the town were but poor 
 workmen, and had a meagre stock of cases, types, 
 and machinery, with which to pursue their occu 
 pation. Franklin had an ambition to master his 
 trade, and excel every one about him engaged in 
 it. Bradford was an illiterate man, while Keimer 
 was somewhat of a scholar; the latter Franklin 
 found to be more or less knavish. He did not 
 like to have the lad lodge at Bradford s while he 
 worked for him, but he had no accommodation 
 for him at his own house, and finally arranged 
 the matter by procuring him lodgings at the 
 house of Mr. Read, the same man in whose door 
 he passed the young lady as he went along the 
 street eating his roll. His chest of clothes had 
 come round from New York by this time, and he 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 39 
 
 said he now made a more respectable appearance 
 in her eyes than when eating his bread. 
 
 Here he lived, working industriously and mak 
 ing himself contented. He tried to forget Boston 
 entirely, and let none of his friends there know of 
 his whereabouts, save Collins. He saved his 
 money, and began to lay the foundations of his 
 success. One day, his brother-in-law, named 
 Robert Holmes, who was captain of a coaster that 
 plied between Boston and Delaware, happening to 
 hear of Benjamin while he was below at New 
 Castle, wrote him a letter, telling him of the grief 
 of his friends at his long absence, pledging him 
 self that they all felt kindly toward him, and beg 
 ging him to return to them without delay. Frank 
 lin replied to his letter; but he told Ms story in so 
 different a light that his relative changed his opin 
 ion very greatly of the cause and circumstances of 
 the lad s sudden departure. As it happened, too, 
 Governor Keith was at ISTew Castle at the time, and 
 in company with Captain Holmes when Franklin s 
 letter arrived. The latter showed it to the Gover 
 nor, who read it, asked the lad s age, and expressed 
 his astonishment. He thought him a boy of great 
 promise, who deserved to be encouraged; spoke of 
 what poor printers there were in Philadelphia, and 
 
40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 held up the idea of Franklin s starting in business 
 for himself. He promised, for his part, to procure 
 the public business for him, and to help him in 
 every way he could. 
 
 Governor Keith s connection with the young 
 craftsman was of a strange character, resulting in 
 no sort of profit. Not long after this trifling 
 occurrence at New Castle, the Governor came 
 directly over to Keimer s, the latter hurrying down 
 stairs, filled with the idea that he was to receive a 
 call of importance. But great was his chagrin- to 
 hear his Excellency inquire for young Franklin. 
 The Governor came up, offered the lad a profusion 
 of civilities and compliments, blamed him very 
 much for not having made himself known before, 
 and, right before the face of Keimer, invited him 
 to go to a tavern and taste some madeira with 
 him. Franklin said he was as much astonished 
 as Keimer could have been ; however, to the tavern 
 he went, and there the Governor opened his plan for 
 him over the madeira. He would have the youth 
 set up in business forthwith ; he offered him all 
 the assistance possible ; a gentleman with him from 
 Delaware also offered to get as much of the busi 
 ness from that government as he could ; and it ap 
 peared as if fortune had come in for him at flood tide 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 41 
 
 The lad expressed doubts as to how his father 
 would view the matter, for on him he would have 
 to rely for aid in stocking his office ; but the 
 Governor promised to give him a letter to his 
 father, explaining the whole project, and especially 
 setting forth its advantages. He thought it all 
 over well, and then resolved to return home at 
 once and see his father. It was kept a secret in 
 the meantime, however, and he remained at work 
 with Keimer as before. JSTow and then, he was 
 invited to go and dine with the Governor, an 
 honor which he duly prized. A little vessel was 
 up for Boston, about the last of April. Franklin 
 took his leave of Keimer, saying merely that he 
 was going home to see his friends. The Governor 
 gave him his letter, as he had promised, and in it 
 showed the lad s father what an opportunity there 
 was for the latter to make his fortune in Phila 
 delphia. 
 
 The passage to Boston consumed two weeks. 
 The vessel ran on a shoal going down the bay, 
 and sprung a leak ; the weather was rough after 
 they got to sea, and Franklin took his turn at the 
 pumps with the rest. It was seven months since 
 he ran away from Boston, in which time his 
 
 friends had not heard a syllable of him ; for his 
 4* 
 
42 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 brother-in-law Holmes had not yet got back, and 
 he had written nothing of him, either. The family 
 were vastly surprised at his return ; yet they were 
 all glad enough to see him, save his brother 
 James. Benjamin went over to his printing office 
 to see him ; he was much better clad than when 
 he used to work for him, having a new suit of 
 clothes on, a watch in his pocket, and nearly five 
 pounds in money. Franklin said his brother 
 looked him all over, and turned to his work 
 again. The hands in the office asked him all 
 manner of questions ; what kind of a country it 
 was where he had been, and how he liked it. 
 One of them wanted to know what sort of money 
 they had there ; whereupon Franklin drew out 
 from his well-lined pocket a handful of silver 
 coins, and spread it out temptingly before them. 
 It was a new sight for them, paper being the only 
 money used in Boston at that time. He pulled 
 out his watch and showed them, too ; and finally, 
 he gave them a dollar to drink, and took his leave 
 of them all. His brother was sullen and silent all 
 the while ; in fact, he was very mad about the 
 visit ; and when their mother afterward spoke to 
 him of being reconciled to Benjamin, he declared 
 in most violent language that he never would be 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 43 
 
 reconciled to him in the world, for he had been 
 insulted before his workmen by the runaway in a 
 manner which he could never forget nor forgive. 
 But the younger brother lived to do the elder a 
 good turn, in after years, and to assist him when 
 he most needed help, and when it was most wel 
 come. 
 
 He handed Governor Keith s letter to his father, 
 which occasioned the latter a still greater surprise. 
 About this time, too, Capt. Holmes arrived home, 
 and the father read the letter to him, inquiring 
 very particularly of Sir William Keith, and ex 
 pressing his astonishment that he should have 
 thus offered to befriend a youth, who would not 
 come to man s estate for three years. Holmes 
 said all he could in favor of Keith and the project, 
 but it did not influence the strong judgment of 
 the parent ; he set his face against the whole plan, 
 and at once sat down and wrote a letter to the 
 Governor, politely thanking him for the interest 
 he had seen fit to take in his son, but positively 
 declining to give him any aid at that time in be 
 ginning business for himself; he said he was much 
 too young to undertake the responsibilities of 
 business, and it would require a good deal of 
 
44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 money, too, which a youth was not yet prepared 
 to manage. 
 
 His father would not deny, however, that he 
 was pleased with the marks of attention shown the 
 son ; and he readily consented to his return to 
 Philadelphia, especially as there was such deep- 
 seated ill feeling toward him on his "brother s 
 part, and he had already shown how well he could 
 do when left to swim for himself. His father 
 gave him some good advice before he went; en 
 joining him "to behave respectfully to the people 
 there, endeavor to obtain the general esteem, and 
 avoid lampooning and libelling," to which he 
 thought the young man was too much inclined. 
 He assured him that, if he was prudent, by the 
 time he became one-and-twenty he might save 
 enough to set himself up in business ; and that if 
 he should have nearly enough money for that pur 
 pose, but not quite enough, he would then make 
 up the difference to him. This was all his father 
 would then do for him. His parents both pre 
 sented him with little gifts, as tokens of their 
 affection, and he left home again, embarking for 
 New York. This time he went with their bless 
 ings and prayers. 
 
 The vessel put in at Newport, where Benjamin 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 45 
 
 called to see his brother John, who was settled 
 there. He was received very cordially, having 
 always been a favorite with this brother. An 
 acquaintance of this brother, named Yernon, learn 
 ing that Benjamin was going to Philadelphia, and 
 having a debt of thirty-five pounds due him in 
 Pennsylvania, requested him to collect it there, 
 and keep the money until it should be called for. 
 This money afterwards gave him considerable 
 anxiety, from the fact, that when he had collected 
 it he appropriated a great part of it to his own 
 use, and then felt troubled lest he should any day 
 be called on for it. 
 
 Setting sail from Newport, the vessel received 
 on board several passengers; among them, a 
 Quaker lady, with her servants, and a couple of 
 young women who appeared to be travelling to 
 gether. Franklin, young as he was, and unac 
 quainted with the ways of worldly persons, became 
 somewhat familiar with these two young women, 
 which excited the attention of the Quaker lady ; 
 and as she had already held a little conversation 
 with him on other matters, she ventured to break 
 her mind to him on this. Taking him aside, 
 therefore, she said in a kind manner, " Young 
 man, I am concerned for thee, as thou hast no 
 
46 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 friend with thee, and seems not to km w much of 
 the world, or of the snares youth is exposed to; 
 depend upon it, these are very bad women; I 
 can see it by all their actions ; and if thee art not 
 upon thy guard, they will draw thee into some 
 danger ; they are strangers to thee ; and I advise 
 thee, in a friendly concern for thy welfare, to have 
 no acquaintance with them." The youth was sur 
 prised ; but she told him of some things which she 
 had seen and heard, and he was soon convinced 
 she knew best about it. The girls told him where 
 they lived, as soon as they reached New York, 
 and invited him to come and see them ; but he 
 was careful not to go near them, wisely remember 
 ing the Quaker lady s warnings. The day after, 
 the captain of the vessel missed several articles 
 from the cabin ; the rooms of these women were 
 searched by an officer, and the stolen property 
 found upon them. They were punished as com 
 mon thieves. 
 
 His friend Collins, whom he met on this visit 
 home, had started for Philadelphia before him, 
 and got as far as New York. When Franklin 
 reached the latter city, he found him already 
 there. Collins, however, had fallen into a drink 
 ing habit since Franklin s first absence from 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 47 
 
 home, a matter which his friend greatly de 
 plored ; and when the latter saw him once more 
 on his arrival in New York, he found that he had 
 been drunk every day since landing. He had 
 gambled too, and thus lost all his money : so that 
 Franklin was obliged to loan him enough to dis 
 charge the cost of his passage to Philadelphia- 
 Collins was a man of parts, and very well read. 
 
 The Governor of New York, whose name was 
 Burnet, a son of the famous Bishop Burnet, of 
 England, had heard of a passenger s being on 
 board who had a supply of books, and asked the 
 captain to bring him to him. Franklin went 
 along to answer this second gubernatorial requisi 
 tion, but declined taking his friend Collins with 
 him, on account of his sad condition. The Gov 
 ernor received the youthful printer with great 
 civility, showed him into his library, and began 
 to talk very familiarly on books and authors. It 
 was a compliment which young Franklin appre 
 ciated. 
 
 He went on with his journey to the city of his 
 adoption. On the way, he collected Mr. Yernon s 
 debt ; and glad enough, too, was he of the funds, 
 for he could not have got along without them, 
 He tried to help Collins to a situation, hwt those 
 
48 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 to whom he applied saw what his unfortunate 
 habits were, and declined "employing him. Then 
 Collins began to pester Franklin for money ; he 
 knew the latter had the Yernon debt about him, 
 and that encouraged him to borrow. He pro 
 mised, of course, to pay all back when he got 
 into business, and in this way took up the larger 
 part of it. 
 
 Collins was sailing with his friend Franklin 
 and others, on the Delaware, one day, and, being 
 more or less intoxicated, refused very crossly to 
 do anything to help to propel the boat. He 
 declared, however, that he would be rowed 
 home; but Franklin as stoutly declared that 
 they would not row him. Said Collins, in reply, 
 "You must row me, or stay all night on the 
 water, as you please." The rest were ready to 
 give up to him ; but Franklin was resolved to do 
 no such thing, and he persisted in his refusal. 
 Upon this, Collins swore he would make him 
 row; and, clambering along over the others to 
 reach him, he came up and struck out at him ! 
 Just at the right instant, Franklin placed hia 
 head under the fellow s legs, and then rising up 
 in his seat, threw him heels over head into the 
 river ! He was an excellent swimmer, and that 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 49 
 
 Franklin knew ; therefore, he gave his mind 
 little anxiety about the result. "When the victim 
 had managed to swim around, and got ready to 
 lay his hand on the side of the boat to draw him 
 self in, the rowers fetched a vigorous pull with 
 their oars and put the boat clear of his reach. So 
 it was several times ; whenever he would swim 
 up and get all ready to lay hold, away went the 
 boat again. He grew even more incensed than 
 before, and, in answer to frequent inquiries, 
 obstinately declared that he would not row at 
 all. He became so tired at length that it was 
 thought prudent to draw him in again ; wet and 
 out of temper, he cut but a sorry figure. But it 
 was the last of Franklin s acquaintance with his 
 old and early friend ; they had little to say to one 
 another after that. The poor fellow went out to 
 the West Indies, not long afterwards, as a pre 
 ceptor for the sons of a gentleman at Barbadoes. 
 He promised Franklin he would remit for the 
 money he had borrowed of him, from the first 
 of his own receipts; but the latter never heard 
 a word more from him, nor received back a 
 single pound of the borrowed money. 
 
 Franklin s reflection on this occurrence, on 
 looking it all over and seeing how he acted with 
 
50 BENJAMES VEANKLIN. 
 
 Mr. Yernon s money, was this : it was one of the 
 first great errors of his life ; and his father knew 
 better than he did himself that he was yet too 
 young to undertake the responsibilities of busi 
 ness and the management of money. 
 
 Governor Keith still followed him up, notwith 
 standing the decision of his father. He told him 
 to make out an inventory of the articles he would 
 want in order to furnish a shop, and show it to 
 him. Franklin had kept Keith s advances a 
 secret from Keimer and everybody else, up to 
 this time ; had he confided in any second person, 
 he might have got advice in the matter which 
 would have materially aided him. But he could 
 not suspect that such generous offers were in the 
 least insincere. Accordingly, he sat down and 
 drew up his little inventory, making the cost of 
 it amount to one hundred pounds sterling, or 
 about five hundred dollars. The Governor ex 
 pressed himself pleased with the result, and then 
 turned and asked Franklin if it would not be 
 better for him to be on the ground himself when 
 these articles were purchased, so that he could 
 select his types and see to the quality of every 
 article. Of course, the young man answered that 
 it would ; and the Governor added that, while he 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 51 
 
 was over there in London, he might improve the 
 opportunity to make acquaintance and establish 
 correspondence in the bookselling and stationery 
 business. 
 
 Thereupon G-ov. Keith urged him to make 
 ready to set sail. The ship was named the ANNIS, 
 and the only one at that time making a passage 
 between Philadelphia and London. It would be 
 months before she would sail, however; and 
 Franklin improved the interval, working for Kei- 
 mer still. He says that during this period he was 
 fretting about the money he had lent Collins, and 
 in daily fear lest Yernon should call on him to 
 pay it over. Keimer and he got along very well 
 together ; Franklin had not yet let him into his 
 plan of starting the printing business for himself. 
 They indulged as much in discussion as ever. 
 Previous to this, and among the earliest of his 
 studies, Franklin had learned what is styled the 
 Socratic method of logic, which is by asking ques 
 tions, instead of committing oneself to any par 
 ticular view at first, and so winding up one s 
 opponent with nothing but his own answers. The 
 chief art of this style of argument lies in starting 
 a question that appears to have no sort of relation 
 to the topic under discussion, and leading your 
 
52 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 opponent out where he little suspects. The So- 
 cratic method of arguing was a favorite one with 
 Franklin, from the time in his early youth when 
 he first became acquainted with it until the end 
 of his public career. It may also serve to explain 
 the pointedness of his observations, the terseness 
 of his remarks, and the shrewdness of his rea 
 soning. 
 
 The friendship existing between Franklin and 
 Keimer was of a queer texture. Each practised 
 his wit upon the other, and fought as shy in an 
 encounter as two pugilists. Keimer became afraid 
 of Franklin s questions at last, and before answer 
 ing them, would stop and ask "what do you 
 mean to infer from that ?" He was a free thinker, 
 and proposed to establish a new sect ; he was to 
 preach the doctrines, while Franklin was to con 
 found the opponents ! Keimer wore his beard of 
 full length, and kept the seventh day of the week 
 for his Sabbath. Franklin was averse to both 
 these points, which, with the other, were essential. 
 So to compromise the matter, Franklin agreed to 
 subscribe to them, if Keimer would give up the 
 use of animal food. The latter thought he could 
 not live without eating meat ; but Franklin knew 
 better, and assured him he would be all the 
 
AT HIS TKADE. 53 
 
 healthier for it. He was a great eater, at best, 
 and a change of diet would work an improvement. 
 At last both consented to the proposal, and lived 
 up to it for three months ; Franklin confessed that 
 he was as desirous of pleasing himself by half- 
 starving his friend, as anything else. Their pro 
 visions were purchased, cooked, and brought to 
 them by a woman in the neighborhood, for whom 
 Franklin made out a list of forty dishes, none of 
 which had parts either of flesh, fish, or fowl. It 
 brought down their living expenses, too, to an ex 
 ceedingly low figure, eighteen pence sterling per 
 week. 
 
 Franklin got on with his new diet famously, for 
 he was somewhat used to it ; but Keimer was a 
 great sufferer by the change. Franklin said he 
 " longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and ordered a 
 roast pig !" He asked Franklin and a couple of 
 female friends to come and dine off it with him ; 
 but as it chanced to be brought a little sooner on 
 the table than he expected, Keimer drew up and 
 ate the whole before the rest came ! 
 
 Meantime, Franklin was extending his acquaint 
 ances. He gives a list of the young men of the 
 town he knew, and mentions particularly that they 
 
 are lovers of reading. " Many pleasant walks we 
 5* 
 
54 i BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 have liad together," says he, in his autobiography, 
 " on Sundays in the woods, on the banks of the 
 Schuylkill, where we read to one another, and 
 conferred on what we had read." One of his young 
 friends was given to writing verses, from which 
 practice a second of the number tried to dissuade 
 him ; telling him that if he would succeed in busi 
 ness, he must give his thoughts to nothing but 
 business, and that poetry would only stand in his 
 way. Franklin, too, was not over favorable to the 
 versifying practice, since his father had taken some 
 of his ballad performances in hand for him ; he 
 Admitted that one might attempt to write verses, 
 but only for the greater command of language 
 which it gave him. 
 
 He paid marked attention to Miss Read, at this 
 period, and confesses that he had great respect and 
 affection for her, and good reason to think she 
 entertained the same for him. Possibly they 
 might have married even then, though neither was 
 above eighteen years old; but the girl s mother 
 dissuaded them, saying it would be more proper 
 after his return from England, if at all, than before 
 going; and very likely she wished to see how the 
 young man promised to succeed in his new busi- 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 55 
 
 ness. A mother s counsels never come amiss in 
 a matter of this kind. 
 
 The names of the four young men who were his 
 closest friends, were Charles Osborne, Joseph 
 Watson, James Ealph, and Charles Brockden. It 
 was Ealph who was given to poetry. Franklin 
 says that Pope finally cured him of being a verse- 
 maker, and he afterwards became a good enough 
 writer of prose. Watson died in his friend Frank 
 lin s arms, a few years after, "being" as the 
 latter admits "the best of our set." Osborne 
 went to the West Indies, where he became emi 
 nent as a lawyer, accumulated money, and died 
 young. Franklin made an agreement with him, 
 that whichever died first should, if possible, come 
 back and pay a friendly visit to the other, acquaint 
 ing him with the state of things in the other world ; 
 but he adds that "he never fulfilled his promise." 
 
 Previous to sailing for England, he was very 
 frequently at the house of the Governor, where 
 the project of the printing office was the prominent 
 topic of their conversation. The governor was 
 lavish with his promises, as usual; he told the 
 youth that he should furnish him with several 
 letters of introduction, beside letters of credit with 
 which to purchase his outfit for the printing office. 
 
56 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Every time these letters were alluded to, Franklin 
 was told to call for them on a future day ; and 
 still it was a future day, and seemed likely to be 
 orly that. 
 
 The ship, too, was delayed, and delayed very 
 much as the foreman put off the performance of 
 his promises ; but when the time did come for her 
 to depart, Franklin called at his house to take his 
 leave and get his promised letters. The Govern 
 or s secretary, however, even then found an excuse 
 for the Governor, saying that he was very busily 
 engaged writing, and could not attend to him ; 
 but he pledged himself that the letters should be 
 aboard the ship at ISTew Castle, to which Franklin 
 immediately repaired. "What was his surprise to 
 find the Governor there before him ! His Secre 
 tary had excused him on the ground of being en 
 gaged writing; and now here he was at !N"ew 
 Castle ! Franklin was not a little puzzled, as he 
 well might be. He was undertaking great things, 
 on a basis that each day looked more and more 
 slender. 
 
 He had taken formal leave of Miss Eead before 
 joining the ship, and exchanged promises of mar 
 riage with her. He also went around among his 
 friends and bade them all farewell. His friend 
 
AT HIS TRADE. 57 
 
 Ralph embarked at the same time, leaving his 
 wife and child behind ; it afterwards came out 
 that he had some difficulty with his wife s rela 
 tions, and resolved to leave her on their hands 
 altogether. There were several gentlemen of 
 character and respectability on board, who occu 
 pied the whole cabin, and compelled Franklin and 
 his friend Ralph to take up with accommodations 
 in the steerage ; as nobody knew them, they were 
 not taken special notice of. But Col. French 
 who was with Gov. Keith when Franklin was in 
 vited to the tavern by that gentlemen to taste his 
 Madeira and talk over this very project of going 
 to England, came on board the ship just before 
 she sailed, and, recognizing the young printer, 
 paid him much attention ; the others seeing it, and 
 knowing Col. French to be a personage of official 
 importance in the province of Delaware, at once 
 condescended to take some notice of Franklin 
 themselves; and he and his friend Ealph were 
 both of them invited by the other passengers to 
 take up their quarters in the cabin, one of the 
 gentlemen having concluded to stay behind, thus 
 making room for them. 
 
 Franklin asked the Captain of the vessel for the 
 letters from Gov. Keith which were to be under 
 
58 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 his care, and which he understood Col. French 
 had brought on board. He was informed that all 
 the letters and dispatches were put into the bag 
 together, and could not well be got at then ; but 
 he should be allowed to pick them out before 
 they reached England. This pacified him in a 
 degree, and they set sail with favoring winds. 
 Had Franklin been older, he would never have 
 undertaken this voyage without so much as 
 seeing his letters of introduction and of credit, or 
 even knowing if they were on board ; but youth 
 is both blind and brave. It would not be deli 
 cious youth, if its light feet were hod with the 
 lead of old men s wisdom. 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 59 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 
 
 THE passage to England was marked by no 
 event of special interest. "When the ship 
 arrived in the English Channel, the captain 
 gave him leave to look in the hag for his letters, 
 which he proceeded to do, taking out such as 
 concerned him and the "business on which he had 
 come. On the day before Christmas, 1724, he 
 arrived in London. On the way across the 
 Atlantic, he had fortunately made the acquaint 
 ance of Mr. Denham, an upright and honorable 
 merchant of Philadelphia, whose advice in a 
 period of trouble was of the first importance to 
 him, and who remained his friend so long as he 
 lived. 
 
 One of his letters was addressed to the King s 
 Printer, and another to a stationer. He delivered 
 the letter to the stationer first, stating that it was 
 from Gov. Keith. The stationer broke the seal, 
 
60 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 looked it over, and said, "I don t know such a 
 person;" then, a moment after, he said, "Oh, 
 this is from Biddlesden ! I have lately found 
 him to be a complete rascal, and I will have 
 nothing to do with him, nor receive letters from 
 him !" And he gave back the letter into the 
 young man s hand, and turned on his heel. This 
 was a great surprise and disappointment. On 
 looking over the whole affair, Franklin was still 
 more astonished to find that none of the letters 
 were from Keith. Under the circumstances, 
 what was he to do, a youth, a stranger on a 
 strange shore, deceived by a man whose position 
 placed him above the reach even of suspicion in 
 his mind? He bethought himself of Mr. Den- 
 ham ; and to that gentleman he went straightway, 
 and laid before him the whole case. Mr. Den- 
 ham thereupon exposed Keith s character to 
 young Franklin, without reserve; and told him 
 there was no sort of probability that he had 
 written any letters for him whatever ; as for his 
 letters of credit, he had no credit to give, acd it 
 made the merchant laugh to think of it. "But," 
 said the young and friendless printer, " what am 
 I to do ?" The merchant advised him to think 
 no more of Keith or of his schemes, but to try 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 61 
 
 and obtain employment in some London printing 
 office, where he could gain greater skill at his 
 trade, and return to America better prepared 
 than ever to set up in business. It was sound 
 advice, and the young man had the good sense to 
 follow it. 
 
 This is the way Franklin himself speaks of this 
 transaction : " What shall we think of a Gov 
 ernor playing such pitiful tricks, and imposing 
 so grossly on a poor ignorant boy ! It was a 
 habit he had acquired. He wished to please 
 everybody ; and, having little to give, he gave 
 expectations." 
 
 He at once took lodgings with his friend 
 Ralph, at three shillings and sixpence a week; 
 and hunted up some poor relations, but they 
 were even poorer than himself ! His friend was 
 out of funds, and borrowed of Franklin as long 
 as the latter would or could lend. Franklin got 
 work almost immediately, at Palmer s, a well 
 known printing office of London ; and there he 
 remained for almost a year. He says himself he 
 was pretty diligent, yet he spent quite as much 
 money as he ought with Ralph, going to the 
 theatres. The latter soon forgot his wife and 
 child in America, and Franklin began to let Miss 
 
62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Read pass out of Ms thoughts likewise. That 
 circumstance he counts up as another among the 
 decided errors of his life. He never wrote her 
 but one letter, and then only to let her know that 
 he was not likely very soon to return. 
 
 In the London printing office, he was put upon 
 a joh of setting type for "Wollaston s "Religion 
 of Nature." As he got into it, he thought the 
 reasoning faulty, and sat down and wrote a piece 
 himself, criticising the same. He entitled it " A 
 Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure 
 and Pain." This at only nineteen ! He had 
 studied Locke and Socrates to some purpose. 
 His employer at once raised his opinion of his 
 youthful apprentice, though he condemned the 
 young man s principles. He printed his own 
 pamphlet, however, and reckoned it as still an 
 other of his errors. At this time he managed to 
 lay in with a dealer in second-hand books, who 
 permitted him to read and return the books, for 
 a given price. Franklin improved this privilege 
 to the utmost. His pamphlet brought him into 
 acquaintance with a Dr. Lyons, who had written 
 a book on " The Infallibility of Human Judg 
 ment." This gentleman paid him great atten 
 tion; carried him to an alehouse in LondoD 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 63 
 
 known as "The Horns," and introduced him to 
 Dr. Mandeville, the author of the "Fable of the 
 Bees," who was at the head of a club there. At 
 Batson s Coffee House, Dr. Lyons presented him 
 to Dr. Pemberton, who promised to take him to 
 see Sir Isaac Newton ; but that privilege he never 
 enjoyed. 
 
 He was invited to a nobleman s house in 
 Bloomsbury Square, from having brought from 
 America a purse made of asbestos, which fire will 
 not burn. The nobleman bought it of him to 
 add to his collection of curiosities, and paid him 
 a round sum for it. Ralph pretty soon left him, 
 going into the country to teach a little school, 
 and taking his friend Franklin s name to estab- 
 Hsh himself in business with ! It was flattering 
 to young Franklin to know that his name was 
 worth something to begin upon. Ralph and he 
 had a falling out at last, about the young woman 
 with whom the former had been keeping com 
 pany. He had left her rather under Franklin s 
 care, and the latter had from time to time 
 assisted her with small loans in Ralph s absence ; 
 but he having acted improperly to her one day, 
 she resented his conduct with spirit, wrote to 
 Ralph about it, and at once brought the school- 
 
64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 master up to London. He expressed himself 
 very freely to Franklin on his conduct, and said 
 that now all his obligations to the latter (for 
 money lent) were discharged. But Franklin 
 never counted on getting a penny back, the 
 vagabond having nothing out of which to pay. 
 This, however, ended their acquaintance. 
 
 "While in the -office, for the sake of getting 
 needful exercise, he worked at the press, the 
 heaviest labor a;bout the establishment. He 
 thought he was not so well unless he mixed up 
 this kind of work with his type-setting. He was 
 a strict water drinker, all the time ; while the rest 
 of the hands, numbering almost fifty, were liberal 
 consumers of beer. He thought he could lift 
 more and work harder on water than they could 
 on their beer. The hands used to call him the 
 "Water American;" yet they could not fail to 
 see that he who drank only water was stronger 
 than they who drank beer. 
 
 There was a boy who always brought in the 
 beer from the neighboring alehouse. The man 
 who worked at the press with him used to drink, 
 every day, a pint before breakfast, a pint with his 
 bread and cheese at breakfast, a pint between 
 breakfast and dinner a pint at dinner, a pint 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 65 
 
 about six o clock in the afternoon, and a final 
 pint when his day s work was all done ! Frank 
 lin thought it abominable, and it was. Three 
 quarts of beer every day ! The workman thought 
 that strong beer, of course, made Mm strong. 
 Franklin sat down to show him how mistaken he 
 was : he demonstrated that the actual strength- 
 giving qualities of beer were in proportion to the 
 amount of barley flour dissolved in the water it is 
 made of; that there was more flour in a penny 
 worth of bread ; and that he would get the most 
 real strength by eating that amount of bread, 
 with nothing but a pint of water, than by drink 
 ing down a whole quart of beer. But the man 
 would not be convinced. He kept on drinking 
 his beer, and always had four or five shillings to 
 slice off from his wages every Saturday night, 
 which he might just as well have saved. "And 
 thus," says Franklin, "these poor devils keep 
 themselves always under." 
 
 Finally he left the press-room, and was trans 
 ferred to the composing-room. It was a custom, 
 at that time, for each new comer to pay five shil 
 lings to purchase drink for all, and thaC sum was 
 demanded of Franklin by the workmen ; having 
 already paid it to the pressmen, he refused it, 
 
66 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 thinking it an imposition, and so thought the 
 master, too. He stood out for two or three 
 weeks ; but whenever he came back to his case, 
 after crossing the floor or leaving the room, he 
 was sure to find his "sorts" all mixed up, and 
 other tricks practised freely upon him, which the 
 rest ascribed to the antics of the " chapel ghost," 
 cliapel being another name for printing office ; 
 and these impositions were followed up so indus 
 triously, he finally thought best to give up his 
 resolution and pay what was demanded of him. 
 They told him the " ghost" always haunted those 
 who were not regularly admitted to their num 
 ber by the payment of the fee, and would pro 
 bably haunt him till he had paid it. He said he 
 was " convinced of the folly of being on ill terms 
 with those one is to live with continually." From 
 that day forward, he exercised a decided influence 
 over the whole office. He proposed some reason 
 able alterations in the "chapel s" laws, and suc 
 ceeded in carrying his Doint, too. 
 
 Many of the men left off drinking beer alto 
 gether, from the contagion of his example. They 
 found they could have a large porringer of hot 
 water-gruel for their breakfast, crumbled with 
 bread, spiced with pepper, and a piece of butter 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 67 
 
 thrown in, for just what they would have to pay 
 for a half pint of heer ; they felt better both in 
 their pockets and heads from the change. The 
 beer-drinkers, however, were continually obliged 
 to borrow money through the week ; and Frank 
 lin used to stand at the pay-table on Saturday 
 nights, to take up the money from one and an 
 other s wages which was due him. Some weeks 
 he was paid as much as thirty shillings out of 
 their accounts. His skill as a satirist or riggite 
 made him very popular with them. The master 
 likewise esteemed him for always being at the 
 office on Monday ; with those who drank beer it 
 was "Blue Monday," or what they also styled 
 " St. Monday," the effect of the Saturday night s 
 and Sunday s carousals not being yet over. The 
 master found him so good a hand that he put 
 him on despatch work, for which he was accus 
 tomed to obtain better pay. fie changed his 
 lodgings, too, to a place opposite the Romish 
 Chapel; the house was kept by a widow lady, 
 and his room was up three pairs of stairs, back. 
 She would not take him to lodge until she had 
 first sent to inquire about him at the place where 
 he last was ; and then she agreed to take him at 
 the samo rate, cheaper than she otherwise 
 
68 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 I 
 
 would, for the sake of having the protection of a 
 male lodger in the house. 
 
 The widow was an invalid, and had become a 
 Romanist. Franklin used to go into her room 
 and take supper with her occasionally, enjoying 
 her conversation very greatly. She. could tell him 
 stories of what had occurred so far back as the 
 times of Charles the Second. When he talked to 
 her of moving, in order to reduce his expenses and 
 save as much more as he could, she offered to take 
 off two shillings a week rather than lose so good 
 a lodger. 
 
 He became acquainted, too, with an eccentric 
 maiden lady who lodged in the house ; she was 
 seventy years of age, and lived in the most retired 
 manner possible. She was likewise a Catholic, 
 and tried to lead the life of a nun, up in her high 
 London attic. She gave away to charity all her 
 property, after reserving only twelve pounds a year 
 to subsist on herself; and even out of this meagre 
 sum she still saved something to bestow in char 
 ity. She took no nourishment but water-gruel, 
 and had no fire save what was sufficient to boil it. 
 Here she had continued to live for years, none of 
 the occupants of the house disturbing her, but 
 rather preferring to have her stay, as they were 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 69 
 
 Catholics themselves. Seeing that a priest used 
 to come to confess her, Franklin had the curiosity 
 to ask her how she could find employment for a 
 confessor, living so far out of the reach of sin and 
 temptation. " Oh," replied she, " it is impossible 
 to avoid vain thoughts !" 
 
 Franklin had been a good swimmer from his 
 early boyhood, and could not be surpassed in the 
 water by any of his companions. He taught a 
 couple of friends to swim from going but twice 
 into the river. These two friends introduced him 
 to some country gentlemen, and they all went to 
 Chelsea by water, to see the College and certain 
 curiosities there. Coming back, the company 
 asked young Franklin to show them how he 
 could perform with his limbs in the river; where 
 upon he stripped and jumped in, and swam from 
 near Chelsea to Blackfriars, performing various 
 feats by the way, that greatly surprised and 
 delighted them. One of his friends afterwards 
 proposed to travel over Europe together, giving 
 exhibitions and instructions ; on asking his good 
 friend Mr. Denham s advice about the matter, he 
 put the young man on the right track again at 
 once, dissuading him from such a project, and urg- 
 
70 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 ing him to make ready to return very soon with 
 himself to Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Denham was about to import a large stock 
 of goods, and proposed to Franklin to take him 
 as his clerk, to keep his books, copy his letters, 
 and take care of his store. That gentleman fur 
 ther promised him that, as soon as he should be 
 come familiar with business, he should be sent out 
 with a cargo to the West Indies, bearing commis 
 sions from others, which would increase his profits. 
 The young man was altogether pleased with the 
 proposal ; he had grown tired of London, and his 
 thoughts reverted to the happy days he had spent 
 in Philadelphia. He agreed with the merchant, 
 therefore, for fifty pounds a year, Pennsylvania 
 money, which was less than he was then earning, 
 but with a larger prospect. He gave up the print 
 ing business, as he thought, forever. Previous to 
 the sailing of the vessel, he went around with Mr. 
 Denham, to observe the operations connected with 
 collecting and packing a stock of goods to be sent 
 beyond the seas. 
 
 Just before he left, he received an invitation 
 from a nobleman, Sir "William Wyndham, to call 
 and see him ; the latter had two sons, who were 
 about starting on their travels, and whom he 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 71 
 
 wished Franklin to teach the art of swimming, 
 promising to pay him handsomely. The noble 
 man had heard of the swimming feat performed 
 by Franklin, the news having spread rapidly. Had 
 Franklin been addressed in this way before he had 
 engaged with Mr. Denham, it is quite prcbable he 
 would have closed with the proposal, and remained 
 in England to teach a swimming-school. But he 
 came back to America, to deal with one of these 
 sons of Sir William Wyndham, then become Earl 
 of Egremont, in a very different way. 
 
 He was in London some eighteen months ; he 
 worked hard all the time, and says he spent very 
 little upon himself but what it cost him to see 
 plays and read books. His friend Ralph had 
 proved a sort of nightmare for him ; he owed him 
 twenty-seven pounds, and this debt kept Franklin 
 poor all the time. Still he loved the vagabond ; 
 he had known him in other days and places, and 
 the bond was a strong one. He says he had learned 
 something by going abroad, and he had read con 
 siderably. 
 
 The vessel in which he embarked, sailed from 
 England on the 23d of July, 1726. "While at sea, 
 he deliberately formed a plan for the future con 
 duct of his life ; a plan which he i f * r >: teV adhered 
 
72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 to through active manhood and to the close of 
 an honored old age. "When he reached home, he 
 found Miss Eead married ; he would have heen 
 ashamed to meet her hut for this strange circum 
 stance : her friends had persuaded her that Frank 
 lin would never return, and urged her to marry a 
 man named Rogers, a potter hy trade. 
 
 He met Governor Keith on the street, who 
 seemed ashamed to look at the young printer, and 
 passed on without speaking; the Governor had 
 been deposed in Franklin s absence, and another 
 put in his place. Keimer, the Philadelphia printer, 
 had greatly improved his condition, in the mean 
 time. Mr. Denham opened a store at once on 
 Water street, and he and his new clerk set to work 
 displaying their goods. Franklin gave his whole 
 attention to his employer s business, learned how 
 to keep accounts and to sell goods, and very soon 
 became expert in his new calling. He boarded 
 and lodged with Mr. Denham, who was a father 
 to him indeed. 
 
 Matters went on swimmingly until the follow 
 ing February, when both merchant and clerk were 
 taken seriously ill the latter with the pleurisy. 
 It came near carrying him off; in fact, he says he 
 had given the world up entirely, and felt not a 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 73 
 
 little disappointed to find lie was recovering ! He 
 regretted that he should have " all the disagreeable 
 work to go over again," at some time or another. 
 But though the clerk survived, the employer died. 
 He left Franklin a small token of his love and es 
 teem, and the young man s connection with mer^ 
 cantile business ceased from that day forward. 
 
 His brother-in-law, Captain Holmes, happened 
 to be in the city at the time, and advised him to 
 go back to his trade again. Keimer made him an 
 offer of good wages by the year, to come and take 
 the management of his printing office, and, after 
 much hesitation, he took up with it. He had 
 heard bad stories of this man s character from his 
 wife s relatives, while in London, and he hesitated 
 for that reason. But nothing better promised, and 
 he took what he could get first. The office was 
 full of raw hands, and Franklin soon saw that Kei 
 mer s object in offering him large wages was a 
 purely selfish one : he would have the London 
 workman teach these poorer tradesmen, and then 
 turn him off to shift for himself. But he made 
 no needless complaint; he went about setting the 
 office in order and getting the workmen in the 
 most serviceable condition. Among the printer s 
 in the office was an Oxford scholar, 
 
 7 
 
74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 He got on very comfortably with the hands, for 
 they respected him for his skill and were glad to 
 learn of him. He says that, as Keimer did not 
 work on Saturday, that being his Sabbath, he had 
 "two days for reading." He was contented and 
 happy; nothing gave him uneasiness but the 
 money of Vernon s which he had long ago collected 
 and lent to Collins. His ingenuity was a real 
 source of profit to the establishment ; for when 
 the office needed types and engravings of a cer 
 tain kind, and even ink, Franklin went to work 
 and manufactured them. He says himself that he 
 was "quite & factotum" But things soon began 
 to betray a change : the more skilful the work 
 men under him became, the less need Keimer had 
 of his services ; and so the employer searched for 
 pretexts on which to base a feeling of dissatisfac 
 tion, and finally a quarrel. On paying Franklin 
 his second quarter s wages, Keimer told him that 
 they were too much, and thought he should take 
 off a part from them. From that time he behaved 
 uncivilly, and pretty soon with undisguised imper 
 tinence and hostility. Franklin, however, bore all 
 with exemplary patience. 
 
 But, one day, Keimer looked up at the upper 
 window of the office from the street, where a hub* 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 75 
 
 bub of some sort had taken place, and chanced 
 
 to spy Franklin with his head out to see what was 
 
 the matter. It was the occasion he wanted. The 
 
 irritated employer bawled out to Franklin, in a 
 
 loud and angry tone, to take his head in and mind 
 
 his business; and coupled his order with some 
 
 abusive words that could not but offend the 
 
 young printer exceedingly; all the neighbors 
 
 heard it, and that only served to make the matter 
 
 worse. Soon after, Keimer came up-stairs, and 
 
 continued his violent and abusive language. 
 
 High words were given on both sides. Keimer 
 
 was sorry he was obliged to give Franklin a 
 
 quarter s notice, before he could get rid of him. 
 
 Franklin replied that he would not hold him to 
 
 that, but was ready to be quit of him even then : 
 
 and he did take his hat, and walk straight out 
 
 of doors, telling one of the workmen, named 
 
 Meredith, to pick up what belonged to him and 
 
 bring them round that evening to his room. 
 
 "When Meredith entered his apartment at night, 
 he found Franklin seriously thinking about re 
 turning to Boston, and dissuaded him from it. 
 He assured the latter that Keimer was already in 
 debt for all the stock in the office and store, that 
 his creditors were beginning to be unease 
 
76 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 he -kept his shop but poorly, jsold for ready money 
 without making a profit, kept loose accounts of 
 his businsss, and would soon have to fail, at any 
 rate; then there would be a good chance for an 
 other man to step into the business. Besides, 
 Meredith reminded him that his own time with 
 Keimer would be out in the spring, and proposed 
 to him to set up business then together : he to 
 furnish the stock and Franklin the skill, in the co 
 partnership, and the profits to be shared equally. 
 Franklin accepted a proposal that promised so 
 fairly. Meredith s father also approved of it, 
 especially as he rejoiced at Franklin s influence 
 over his son in curing him of the habit of dram- 
 drinking. 
 
 Franklin made out a list of things which would 
 be wanted in the new office, and handed it to 
 Meredith s father. They were to be sent for to 
 London, and all was to be kept secret until they 
 should arrive; meantime, our young printer 
 friend was to try and subsist by obtaining work 
 at his trade. He applied to the other printing- 
 office, but could get nothing there; and so he 
 remained idle, and was likely to be, until the 
 stock should come over from England. But 
 Keimer chanced to have a prospect of a job of 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 77 
 
 printing some paper-money for New Jersey, re 
 quiring cuts and various types such as only 
 Franklin could supply ; and as he was afraid that 
 his rival, Bradford, would now employ Franklin 
 and get the job away from him, he sent the latter 
 a very proper message to come and work for him 
 again, adding that old friends should not part for 
 a few words. Meredith advised his taking up 
 with the offer, and he did. Matters went on 
 then more pleasantly than ever. Keimer got the 
 New Jersey job, and Franklin made a copper 
 plate press to do it with, the first, he says, that 
 had been seen in this country. He also cut 
 several ornaments and checks for the bills. Then 
 he went over with Keimer to Burlington, and 
 both executed the work there to the satisfaction 
 of the authorities. "Keimer received a large 
 amount of money for the job, and was thus 
 saved from going overboard in business. 
 
 Young Franklin made a good many valued 
 friends while he stayed in Burlington, including 
 several of the first men in the place. One of 
 them, an elderly man and the surveyor-general 
 of the province, told him confidentially that he 
 (Franklin) would supplant his employer in due 
 time, and set up in business for himself in Phila- 
 
78 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 delphia, where he would be sure to make his 
 fortune. He little knew that the young man had 
 just that plan in mind at the time. 
 
 Franklin discovered, too, while there, that his 
 employer was jealous of him, because of his 
 superior attainments and the attention they 
 naturally attracted from others. The young 
 printer had been a constant reader, and therefore 
 had a better stored and better disciplined mind 
 than his employer. In fact, it is to this that he 
 ascribes the partiality which was shown him on 
 that occasion, and often afterwards. Of Keimer 
 he says that " he was an odd creature, ignorant 
 of common life, fond of rudely opposing received 
 opinions, slovenly to extreme dirtiness, enthusi 
 astic in some points of religion, and a little 
 knavish withal." 
 
 Three months were thus passed in Burlington, 
 during which time he made all possible improve 
 ment in every way. In his account of himself 
 along through this period, he speaks very plainly 
 of the loose habits of thinking, on religious topics 
 especially, into which he had fallen. He says 
 that he began to doubt of revelation itself. A 
 work against Deism fell into his hands; but its 
 perusal wrought just an opposite effect from the 
 
TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 79 
 
 one to be expected. The arguments which were 
 quoted merely to be answered-, made a deeper 
 impression on his mind than the refutations ; and 
 he soon became, in fact, a confirmed Deist. 
 
 His sober reflections, however, tended to cor 
 rect these opinions afterwards. He confessed 
 that this doctrine, though it might be true, was 
 not very useful. He felt sincere regrets for 
 having written and published the pamphlet he 
 did in London, with the motto " "Whatever is, is 
 right." It did not look to him now like so clever 
 a performance as he once thought it. He says 
 that, about this time, he became convinced that 
 "truth, sincerity, and integrity, " were of the utmost 
 importance in dealings between man and man, as 
 well as in the happiness of life ; and he formed 
 "written resolutions," to practice them so long as 
 he lived. He confessed that Revelation had no 
 weight with him merely as such ; yet he cher 
 ished an opinion that, " though certain actions 
 might not be bad because they were forbidden by 
 it, or good because it commanded them, yet, pro 
 bably, those actions might be forbidden because 
 they were bad for us, or commanded because they 
 were beneficial to us." 
 
 He acknowledges that he was carried safely 
 
80 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 through the temptations of youth by " the kind 
 hand of Providence or some guardian angel; * 
 and he felt grateful that it was so. Away from 
 the restraints of home and friends, thrown among 
 persons and scenes to which he was unaccus 
 tomed, he had reason afterwards to rejoice that 
 he preserved even " a tolerable character to begin 
 the world with," and determined to preserve and 
 make the best possible use of it. 
 
IN BUSINESS. 81 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN BUSINESS. 
 
 THE new fonts of type came from London 
 soon after Franklin returned to Philadel 
 phia. He and his partner had fortunately 
 settled up all their business with Keimer before 
 their arrival, so that the latter had not so much 
 as heard of the movement before it was all ready 
 to be set on foot. In those days, when there was 
 but one, or at most but two printing offices in a 
 town of the size of Philadelphia, such an event 
 would very soon become public, and of course 
 excite more or less talk and commotion. It 
 would be no such an event now, even in any one 
 of the many thriving villages of the country. 
 
 The new firm rented a house near the Phila 
 delphia Market, at twenty-four pounds a year; 
 but in order to reduce the rent, they let in a 
 glazier and his family, who were to pay a good 
 share of it to the young printers, while the latter 
 
82 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 boarded with them. It was a thrifty way of get 
 ting along. Their first customer, as job printers, 
 was a man from the country whom a good friend 
 brought into their work-room. As all their cash 
 had been laid out in procuring what was neces 
 sary for the office, they were very glad to take 
 the five-shilling job which the stranger brought 
 them. Franklin says that those shillings gave 
 him more pleasure than "any crown" he ever 
 received afterwards; and he felt such strong 
 gratitude for the friend who had put this first 
 piece of work in his hands, that he believes it 
 had the effect ever after to make him willing to 
 aid young beginners. 
 
 One day he was met by a croaker. There are 
 such men everywhere ; they infest every com 
 munity, and make it their chief business to throw 
 wet blankets over whatever undertakings come 
 to their ears. This person was named Samuel 
 Mickle : he was an elderly man, and an utter 
 stranger to Franklin ; but he took the liberty to 
 stop him one day at his door, and ask him " if he 
 was the young man who had lately opened a new 
 printing-house." He said he was very sorry to 
 find the report true, for the undertaking was 
 great, and the cost of it would all be thrown 
 
IN BUSINESS. 83 
 
 away. He likewise told young Franklin that 
 Philadelphia was "a sinking place," the people 
 were already "half bankrupts," and the new 
 buildings going up were but deceitful promises 
 of prosperity, and were certain in time to ruin 
 them. The effect produced on the youthful 
 printer s mind by this lugubrious kind of talk 
 was to leave it in a half melancholy state; in 
 fact, he declared that if he had met with this 
 man before embarking in business for himself, he 
 never should have made the venture. 
 
 But Franklin records as a fact worth laying up 
 against this man, and all the other men of his 
 class, that he continued to live in Philadelphia 
 notwithstanding the decay into which the city 
 was falling, and kept up his croaking as briskly 
 as ever. He refused for a long time to buy a 
 house there, because he was so sure the place was 
 rapidly going to ruin ; and Franklin remarks that 
 it gave him "pleasure" to see him at last obliged 
 to give five times as much for a house as he 
 would have had to do, had he bought when he 
 first began croaking ! 
 
 About this time, Franklin set in operation a 
 club of young men, who were to meet for self- 
 improvement, which club was named the JUNTO. 
 
84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 They met on Friday evenings. The rules re 
 quired that each member should in turn bring in 
 a question to be discussed in open meeting, on 
 any point of morals, politics, or natural philos* 
 ophy ; and once in three months he was to read 
 before the body an essay of his own production, 
 on any subject whatever. There was a President 
 appointed by the club, and it was agreed that all 
 debates and discussions should be carried on in 
 a sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, and not 
 merely from a vain desire for victory. If a mem 
 ber used improper language, or was hasty, or 
 indulged in open contradiction of others, he was 
 to be fined in a small sum of money. 
 
 The members of this Junto were not altogether 
 indifferent characters. It was not exactly a club 
 to count among its members such men as Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Gold 
 smith, and Dr. Samuel Johnson, but it was 
 made immortal by at least one spirit within its 
 little circle, and that one Benjamin Franklin. 
 There was a copier of deeds among them, the 
 inventor of Hadley s Quadrant, a professional 
 surveyor, a shoemaker, a joiner, a young gentle 
 man of some fortune who was given to punning, 
 and, finally, the clerk of a merchant, William 
 
IN BUSINESS. 85 
 
 Coleman by name, who had, as Franklin himself 
 records it, "the coolest, clearest head, the best 
 heart, and the exactest morals" of any man he 
 ever met with. 
 
 This same merchant s clerk afterwards became 
 a great merchant, and one of the judges of the 
 province. He and Franklin continued fast friends 
 for the term of forty years, for almost the whole 
 of which time the club likewise continued ; and 
 Franklin says it was "the best school of phil 
 osophy, morality, and politics, that then existed 
 in the province." In order to discuss the various 
 topics with anything like justice, it of course 
 became necessary for the members to read care 
 fully beforehand such works as treated of the 
 matter under consideration ; and the rules re 
 quired such carefulness in speaking, and forbade 
 with such strictness all indulgence in intemperate 
 and improper language, that the young men soon 
 found they were receiving such real benefit from 
 the weekly meetings as they had scarcely deemed 
 possible. There was no temper lost between 
 them, which only left so much more room and 
 time for personal improvement. 
 
 This same Club brought the new printing- 
 house business. The several members of it made 
 8 
 
86 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 it a point to influence all they could in favor of 
 the young printers. Through one they procured 
 the printing of forty sheets of the new Quaker 
 history ; Keimer performed the rest of the work, 
 and Franklin said they took their part on such 
 low terms as scarcely allowed a profit. They 
 worked hard over the job, Franklin himself com 
 posing a sheet each day, and frequently not 
 finishing his day s work till eleven o clock at 
 night. 
 
 He was so eager to make his sheet a day, that 
 one night, after having placed his "forms" on 
 the "imposing stone," he accidentally made "pi" 
 of two pages ; all of which he deliberately went 
 to work and set in type again before he went to 
 bed. By industry of this sort, closely followed 
 up, the new house soon acquired reputation and 
 earned the confidence of all who knew or heard 
 of its partners. Although it was continually 
 thrown out at the Merchants Club that the new 
 printing-house was sure to fail, there being two 
 similar houses in town already, yet the young 
 men held steadily on their way. One gentleman, 
 a friend of theirs, predicted differently, however : 
 he said "the industry of that Franklin is 
 superior to anything of the kind I ever saw; I 
 
IN BUSINESS. 87 
 
 see him at work when I go home from the club, 
 and he is at work again before his neighbors are 
 out of bed." The remark was not without its 
 effect in the young men s favor. 
 
 Franklin confesses that it was this homely 
 virtue of industry that brought the concern up, 
 and afterwards kept it there. He wished his 
 posterity to know and remember how much is 
 due to the exercise of that single virtue. 
 
 It was not long before it entered into the plans 
 of Franklin to publish a newspaper in Philadel 
 phia, in connection with his job business. He 
 had had some experience in that line in Boston, 
 as the reader will remember; and he felt confi 
 dent of his ability to go forward with a plan 
 which would add to his own personal influence as 
 well as increase the profits of his establishment. 
 An old fellow printer at Keimer s had purchased 
 his time of his employer, and came over to 
 Franklin s office to offer himself as a journeyman. 
 As it happened, they had no work just then to 
 give him; but Franklin told him in confidence 
 that he should start a newspaper soon, and that 
 he would probably have work for him then. 
 
 The only newspaper printed in the city 
 was by Bradford, and a wretched affair it was. 
 
88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Yet it paid him a good profit, and Franklin 
 reasoned that if an affair of that kind paid well, a 
 better one ought to pay better; and he deter 
 mined to try the experiment. But Webb was 
 leaky; he could not keep his important secret, 
 but must needs tell it to Keimer. Upon the hint 
 thus received, Keimer resolved to begin a new 
 paper himself, before Franklin should get ready 
 for his enterprise. He would thus have the field 
 all to himself. Franklin was not a little cha 
 grined at the occurrence, and quite as much 
 vexed; and in order to do all the damage pos 
 sible to Keimer s prospects, he sat down and 
 wrote a number of pleasant pieces for Bradford s 
 paper, the very one he had determined to over 
 throw, over the signature of BUSY BODY. 
 These articles were kept up by him for several 
 months, and attracted special attention. Every 
 thing relating to Keimer s paper, his proposals 
 to the public not excepted, were ridiculed to the 
 last letter. 
 
 Keimer started his paper, however, according to 
 his proposals ; but he had not gone on with it 
 fully nine months, during which period he had 
 not more than ninety subscribers at any one time, 
 when he turned and offered the whole concern to 
 
IN BUSINESS. 9 
 
 Franklin for a mere song. The latter had been all 
 ready for the step for some little time, and of course 
 fell in with his proposal without further delay. 
 It became very profitable to him in a few years. 
 His partner, Meredith, became worse than helpless 
 in the establishment; for in addition to being a 
 wretched compositor and pressman he was seldom 
 sober. A favorable opportunity for dissolving the 
 business relations not long afterwards occurred. 
 
 Franklin put his best care and talent into the 
 columns of his newspaper; he believed, too, as 
 any practical printer would, that an attractive me 
 chanical appearance made a great difference in 
 favor of any paper ; therefore he took exceeding 
 pains with the types and the printing. A dispute, 
 since become historical, which was then going on 
 between the Governor and the Massachusetts As 
 sembly, led him to make pointed remarks on the 
 same from time to time, which drew still wider 
 attention to his paper, and soon made the principal 
 people his subscribers. When a few leading men 
 began to take the paper, their example was followed 
 very soon and very generally. Franklin sets down 
 all his good luck at this critical period as the re 
 sult of " having learned a little to scribble." And, 
 on the other hand, the man who could himself 
 
 8* 
 
90 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 "handle a pen" in conducting a newspaper, was 
 thought twice as well of as if he could not. Hence 
 he was encouraged in every manner. 
 
 Bradford, his rival, had printed an address of 
 the House to the Governor in such a careless and 
 blundering manner, Franklin resolved to improve 
 upon it and watch the effect. So he reprinted the 
 whole in a style of elegance and with all attention 
 to correctness, and sent a copy to each member of 
 the House. The entire body saw the difference 
 in the style of the work, and the friends of Frank 
 lin were thus enabled to command votes enough 
 to make him and his partner public printers for 
 the following year. 
 
 Meredith s father, who had engaged to advance 
 the money for the printing office, and who had 
 advanced but one hundred pounds already, was 
 unable to make the second payment of an hundred 
 pounds, as expected. In consequence, the firm 
 was sued for the amount ; bail was given ; but it 
 was plain to Franklin that, when the case came 
 to trial, judgment would be given against them, 
 execution would follow, and every vestige of their 
 industry and their hopes would vanish. In this 
 dilemma he was waited upon by a couple of true 
 friends, each ignorant of what the other had done, 
 
IN BUSINESS. 91 
 
 who offered him the help he so much needed in 
 order to take the whole business on his own shoul 
 ders. They did not wish him to continue the 
 connection with Meredith, however, who had re 
 peatedly been seen drunk in the streets, and whose 
 haunts were low ale-houses. 
 
 The names of these two men who so generously 
 offered him this timely assistance were "William 
 Coleman and Robert Grace. He thanked each 
 of them from his heart ; but he felt obliged to tell 
 them that he was not at liberty to break up the 
 partn^fship so long as there remained any chance 
 of Meredith s father keeping his engagement in 
 the matter of the second payment. Yet if he 
 should fail entirely to do so, then their proffered 
 aid would be most gladly accepted. 
 
 Not long after, Franklin held a talk with his 
 partner about the business, and asked him if he 
 thought his father declined to advance more mo 
 ney on account of being dissatisfied with himself. 
 The young man positively assured him that that 
 was not the reason at all ; " my father has been 
 disappointed," said he, "and is really unable, and 
 I am unwilling to distress him further." His 
 partner likewise told him that he felt certain that 
 he was unfit for the business, and ought to give 
 
92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 it up. He was Welsh ; many of his people were 
 about to colonize and emigrate to North Carolina; 
 and he felt inclined to leave with them and 2:0 
 
 o 
 
 upon the land again to work. He had been bred 
 a farmer, and not a printer ; land was very cheap 
 where they talked of going, and he was certain to 
 get at least a living there, if he did not do more. 
 He also made Franklin a proposition to assume 
 the debts of the firm, to pay back the hundred 
 pounds the elder Meredith had advanced, clear off 
 his personal debts, give him thirty pounds and a 
 new saddle, and the whole concern should be 
 turned over to his hands. 
 
 Franklin lost no time in acceding to this propo 
 sal. He had it duly drawn up in writing, signed, 
 and sealed. Payments were made as proposed, 
 and his partner left him for the distant province 
 of North Carolina. He wrote back a couple of 
 letters from that country the next year, filled with 
 sensible and reliable accounts of the climate, soil, 
 and productions, which Franklin published in the 
 columns of his paper. 
 
 Eather than seem partial to either of his two 
 kind friends, he wisely accepted half of what each 
 had offered him, and at once paid off the company 
 debts, and went on with the business. He made 
 
IN BUSINESS. 93 
 
 a pul^lic announcement in his paper that the part 
 nership was dissolved. 
 
 A lively discussion concerning paper money 
 sprang up at this time. There were but <15,000 
 of it in the province, and this was soon to he 
 funded. One class of the people opposed the plan 
 of increasing the amount in circulation, helieving 
 that it would hecome so plentiful as to grow too 
 cheap, requiring a large amount to buy the same 
 articles. This same question had come up for dis 
 cussion in the Junto, and Franklin had there ad 
 vocated an addition to the paper currency ; he said 
 he was persuaded, from the small amount which 
 was first struck off , in 1723, that it had increased 
 trade, multiplied employments, and brought more 
 population into the province ; he now saw all the 
 old houses occupied, and many new ones going 
 up; whereas, when he first strolled about the 
 streets of Philadelphia, munching his roll, he 
 noticed on many and many a house a bill reading 
 To be Let, which led him to think the inhabit 
 ants might be deserting the city. 
 
 He wrote and published a pamphlet on the sub 
 ject of paper money, entitled "The Nature and 
 Necessity of a Paper Currency. " The mass of tho 
 people received it with favor, but the wealthy class 
 
94 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 disliked it, as it swelled the cry for more pape 
 money. But the production was not answered bj 
 any writer on their side, and the House passed a 
 bill for printing more paper currency by a decided 
 majority. Very naturally, as Franklin had taken 
 such an interest in the measure, and had done so 
 much toward creating a public opinion for it, the 
 House voted him the profitable job of doing the 
 printing. It was another advance in his fortunes, 
 and he ascribed it all to his having qualified him 
 self early to express his views in writing. 
 
 He also obtained the job of printing the same 
 sort of money for Newcastle, through the inter 
 ventions of a friend ; and, in addition to that, the 
 printing of the laws and votes of the same gov 
 ernment, which he continued to do as long as he 
 followed the printing business. 
 
 Besides the printing office and the newspaper, 
 he now opened a stationer s shop, in which he 
 kept the most correct blanks that had ever made 
 their appearance among the people. He likewise 
 kept for sale paper, parchment, chapmen s books, 
 and other things of the same character. He had 
 so much work and business on his hands at this 
 time, that he hired another hand at the case, be 
 sides taking in an apprentice. Under the im- 
 
IN BUSINESS. 95 
 
 proved state of circumstances iu which, he found 
 himself, he began to pay off his printing-house 
 debt. 
 
 He said that he took a great deal oi pains not 
 only to be frugal and industrious, but not to appear 
 the contrary ; thus paying proper regard to the 
 eyes and opinions of others. He dressed very 
 plain, and never allowed himself to be seen at 
 places of public amusement. He never went off 
 fishing or shooting. He sometimes allowed him 
 self the luxury of reading a book, but that did not 
 occur too often, and caused no remark by others. 
 To let people see that he was not above his busi 
 ness, he sometimes wheeled home the paper he 
 bought at the store on a wheelbarrow. Seeing 
 what his character was, merchants went out of 
 their way to solicit his trade, offering to sell him 
 anything he needed in the line of his business on 
 most accommodating terms. He prospered rap 
 idly ; while his rival, Keimer, saw his business and 
 his credit fast melting away, and was finally forced 
 to sell his printing-house in order to satisfy his 
 creditors. The man set sail for Barbadoes, where 
 he lived very poor. 
 
 An apprentice of Keimer s, whom Franklin had 
 himself instructed when he worked in tho office 
 
96 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 of the former, bought his printing materials and 
 set up in opposition to Franklin, and the latter 
 had some fears lest he would find in him a power 
 ful rival ; out of prudence, therefore, he proposed 
 a partnership with him ; but it was rejected in a 
 very scornful way, as he was above the reach of 
 such working mechanics as young Franklin. The 
 latter had reason, however, to be grateful for the 
 refusal ; for the fellow was vain and conceited, 
 dressed above his situation, did not follow his busi 
 ness, lived showily, ran in debt, and wasted a 
 great deal of time in amusements. His business 
 very soon ran out, and he followed his old master 
 out to Barbadoes, where the apprentice had the 
 satisfaction of hiring his former employer as a 
 journeyman. 
 
 Bradford was now the only other printer in 
 Philadelphia. But he was become rich in his 
 business, and did not need to push rivalry with a 
 young man to the limit to which other men would. 
 He was the post-master, however, and as he pos 
 sessed many facilities for distributing his newspa 
 per which Franklin did not, he obtained more ad 
 vertisements on the strength of it. In order to 
 get his paper sent by the post, Franklin was forced 
 to bribe the riders, who carried them without 
 
IN BUSINESS. 9T 
 
 Bradford s knowledge ; the latter having expressly 
 forbidden them to take any copies of the rival 
 paper. Franklin has put it on record, to be re 
 membered by all honorable men forever, that when 
 he afterwards came to occupy Bradford s position 
 as post-master, he took special care not to imitate 
 so very mean a practice. 
 
 Godfrey and his family had occupied a part of 
 his house all this time, and Franklin had boarded 
 with them. One side of the shop was occupied 
 by Godfrey for his avocation that of a glazier. 
 Mrs. Godfrey had a relative, who had a daughter ; 
 and the kind woman, seeing that the young 
 printer was prospering so well, and feeling more 
 or less interested in his personal welfare, set her 
 wits to work making a match. She brought 
 them together in her apartments as often as pos 
 sible, and he admits that, on his own side, a serious 
 courtship actually ensued. The girl s father and 
 mother, too, not to be behindhand, took pains to 
 ask him to their house to tea, from time to time, 
 and adroitly left them in one another s company 
 BO often that he found it soon became necessary 
 to explain. Here the ready Mrs. Godfrey came 
 in again with her diplomacy. She expected to 
 see the fruits of her tact and skill forthwith. 
 
 9 
 
98 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 On his part, Franklin wanted her to make the 
 parents of the girl understand that, if he married 
 her, he should expect with her, by way of dowiy, 
 as much money as would suffice to pay off the re 
 maining debts of his printing establishment, 
 perhaps a hundred pounds. "Word was brought 
 back by her that they had no such sum to spare. 
 He suggested that they mortgage their house for 
 the purpose in the loan office. They retorted that 
 they did not approve the match ; because, having 
 made inquiry of Bradford (his rival), he had told 
 them the printing business was very risky in the 
 province, and that two men had but recently been 
 compelled to give it up Keimer and his appren 
 tice. Bradford told them, too, that types soon 
 wore out, and would have to be replaced at the 
 same expense as at first. Franklin was therefore 
 forbidden the house, and his lady-love was duly 
 shut up where he could not see her. He doubted 
 if the parents really meant to carry out this reso 
 lution, or if it were not part of a plan to draw him 
 into marrying their daughter stealthily, or against 
 their will. 
 
 He suspected this plan just strongly enough to 
 suffer his feelings to be touched with resentment, 
 and that concluded his attentions in that quarter* 
 
IN BUSINESS. 99 
 
 Mrs. Godfrey afterwards reported to him that the 
 father and mother felt better inclined toward him, 
 and would have been glad to bring about an ar 
 rangement; but he held out against any such 
 thing, and at length felt compelled to tell her 
 plainly that he would have nothing more to do 
 with the family. She resented it as a personal 
 matter; and the result was, the Godfreys soon 
 formed a resolution to leave his premises. This 
 left him quite alone in the house; and he made 
 up his mind to take no more inmates. 
 
 It was a fortunate occurrence for him, however, 
 and it would seem as if it could have taken place 
 at no more fit period in his whole career. By 
 being thus left alone, and feeling still more so in 
 consequence of being suddenly denied that female 
 society to which he was naturally drawn, his atten 
 tion was attracted to marriage in earnest. He 
 says he "looked around" him, and "made over 
 tures of acquaintance in other places;" but as it 
 was the prevailing opinion that a printer s busi 
 ness was but a poor one at best, he saw pretty 
 clearly that he could not obtain a wife with money, 
 unless he would consent to take up with just such 
 an one as he did not want. 
 
 As it fell out, too, this time in his favor again, 
 
100 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 a friendly acquaintance was about this time renewed 
 between himself and the Read family, who had 
 all of them kept alive a kind regard for Franklin 
 since he first went to their house to lodge. They 
 now called him in quite often to consult in their 
 private matters, and he proved serviceable to them. 
 Of course he was obliged to come in contact with 
 Miss Read, who, the reader will remember, had 
 married since Franklin broke off the acquaintance 
 while in London, and afterwards been deserted 
 by her husband. She appeared sad and shy to 
 him, speaking but little, and seeming to dislike 
 company. 
 
 His pity was awakened for her at once. He 
 accused himself with being the author of all her 
 mistakes and sorrows, from having neglected her 
 so cruelly while absent in London ; although the 
 mother of the young woman was by no means of 
 the same opinion, charging the fault upon herself 
 for not consenting to their marriage before he went 
 to London, as he had desired. Besides, it was 
 through her means that the other, and worthless, 
 match was brought about in Franklin s absence. 
 The affection was speedily revived between them, 
 and marriage was very naturally thought of by 
 both. 
 
IN BUSINESS. 101 
 
 But here an ugly obstacle interposed. It was, 
 to be sure, believed that her husband had a wife 
 living in England, which would of course render 
 the former marriage invalid; but the difficulty 
 was, to prove it. There was a story of his death, 
 too ; but that could not be proved, either, and to 
 sum up with, he had left many debts behind, 
 which the next husband would legally be called on 
 to pay. 
 
 Franklin says he got bravely over all these diffi 
 culties, however, and at last married her. The 
 wedding day was on the 1st of September, 1730, 
 and he was a little more than twenty-four and a 
 half years old. It so happened that he was never 
 troubled with any of those inconveniences from 
 which he had feared, and life began pleasantly 
 again with them both. 
 
 At that time, there was not a good bookstore, 
 or bookseller s shop, as they then styled them, to 
 the south of Boston. The printers in New York 
 and Philadelphia were stationers, but they sold 
 nothing more than "paper, almanacs, ballads, and 
 a few common school-books." Whoever wanted 
 books, must needs send out to England and im 
 port them. We can now hardly imagine the state 
 
 of things in this country which existed then. 
 9* 
 
102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 The members of the Junto each had a few 
 books. They had left the alehouse where they 
 held their first meetings, and hired a room else 
 where. Franklin proposed that they should club 
 their books together, and thus make a respectable 
 library, placing them in the club-room. There 
 each member could consult all the books, or carry 
 away for the time such as he would like to read 
 at home. The proposal was at once accepted by 
 the rest as a sensible one, and marked improve 
 ment grew out of it. 
 
 The success of this new plan of his led him to 
 attempt larger things. Though the members of 
 the club took their books back home after the ex 
 piration of a twelvemonth, owing to the trouble 
 found in taking the proper care of them and keep 
 ing them safely together, the experience gained 
 by the working of the new plan encouraged Frank 
 lin to set on foot a subscription for a large Public 
 Library, to be held for the common benefit of the 
 subscribers to the fund. 
 
 He engaged Mr. Charles Brockden, a well-known 
 scrivener and conveyancer of Philadelphia, to 
 draw up articles of agreement to be subscribed ; 
 according to which, every subscriber was to pay a 
 certain sum down for the first purchase of the 
 
IN BUSINESS. 103 
 
 book, and an annual amount to buy more with. 
 Headers were a scanty part of society in Philadel 
 phia at that time ; with all his efforts, Franklin 
 could raise but fifty persons, and they chiefly 
 young tradesmen, who were willing to pay down 
 forty shillings apiece, besides an assessment of ten 
 dollars per annum. 
 
 But the undertaking was launched with this 
 amount, and faith and industry supplied all defi 
 ciencies. They imported their books, and on a 
 given day each week the library was opened to 
 subscribers. The latter gave written notes to pay 
 double the value of the books they took out, un 
 less duly returned. 
 
 By and by, similar associations sprang up else 
 where, not only in other towns, but in the other 
 provinces. It became fashionable to read books ; 
 and fashion often works more effectually than 
 sense or reason. The people generally became 
 better acquainted with books. Those who had 
 volumes of their own to contribute, generously 
 gave them to the library ; so that it became more 
 and more respectable for the number of its vol 
 umes. The result of the increased reading of the 
 citizens of Philadelphia soon made itself visible ; 
 people from other places remarked that they ap- 
 
104 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 peared better instructed and more intelligent thau 
 men of the same class in other communities. 
 
 Franklin never forgot one remark made by Mr. 
 Brockden, when the subscribers to the enterprise 
 were about to sign their names to the articles 
 drafted by him. These articles were to be bind 
 ing on all of them for the term of fifty years. Said 
 Mr. Brockden "You are young men; but it is 
 scarcely probable that any of you will live to see 
 the expiration of the term fixed in the instru 
 ment." Many of them did live over the term of 
 time alluded to, although their company changed 
 the character of its organization by securing a 
 regular charter, which gave it corporate fosm and 
 legal existence. 
 
 One little reflection, put forth by Franklin him 
 self, is at this point worth heeding by young per 
 sons. He observed that a good plan was often 
 injured by its author s going about personally and 
 thrusting it on the attention of others, when by 
 keeping himself a little more out of sight it would 
 be sure of speedy success. Therefore he laid it 
 down as a rule for himself, at this period of his 
 life, to operate his schemes as much as possible 
 through others, instead of exhibiting himself; 
 
IN BUSINESS. 105 
 
 and lie found that it worked to a charm. He left 
 his testimony that the present sacrifice of vanity 
 would always be well repaid by the substantia) 
 results that are certain to follow. 
 
106 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 GETTING ALONG. 
 
 TN the new library he found not only a ready 
 solace from the cares and labors of his busi 
 ness, but likewise a means of improvement 
 of which he was prompt to avail himself. He re 
 solved now to pursue a fixed course of readi/ig 
 and stud} 7 , for which he set apart at least one or 
 two hours each day. In the course of time, this 
 habit would not fail to produce its peculiar effect 
 on his mind and character. 
 
 Here and now did Benjamin Franklin, while he 
 was daily hard at work at his printing case and 
 printing press, industriously build upon the foun 
 dations so hastily laid while he was an apprentice 
 in Boston. He says he did what he could to re 
 pair the loss of the learned education his father 
 had once intended for him. All the recreation he 
 allowed himself was reading. He wasted no time 
 in games, frolics, or taverns; and he continued 
 
GETTING ALONG. 107 
 
 working at his trade with all the energy he had 
 at command. 
 
 In fact, it was a rather hard row he had to hoe, 
 at best ; he was in debt for his printing office ; he 
 had a young family ; there were two business ri 
 vals who had started before him in Philadelphia ; 
 and there was need that every hour should be 
 profitably employed. But he felt much encour 
 aged, too, at finding that his business was growing 
 better, and his circumstances easier in conse 
 quence. He continued just as frugal as ever, 
 keeping constantly in mind that proverb of Solo 
 mon which his father had often repeated to him 
 while a boy, " Seest thou a man diligent in his 
 calling ? He shall stand before Kings ; he shall 
 not stand before mean men." 
 
 Little thought he, while revolving this same 
 proverb in his mind, that it would be by reason 
 of his diligence, as well as of his other virtues, that 
 he would in truth " stand before Kings." But 
 from the time when he began to see that his pros 
 perity was the result of his diligence, he had faith 
 to believe that industry was at the bottom of all 
 success in life. He admits that he did not expect 
 to " stand before Kings," although he did after 
 wards have the honor to stand before five, and to 
 
108 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 sit down to eat with one, the King of Denmark. 
 A much more enviable distinction in that day 
 than in this ; yet it is well worth noticing on ac 
 count of the literal fulfillment, in his case, of the 
 proverb. 
 
 He speaks himself of his own and his wife s 
 thrift at this time, to show the direct results of 
 frugality. He always consulted Ms wife in his 
 undertakings, obeying another proverb, but an 
 old English one, that says, "He that would 
 thrive, must ask his wife." He sets it down in 
 his autobiography as a piece of singular fortune, 
 that he had a wife who was just as saving and 
 industrious as himself. She took hold with all 
 possible cheerfulness, and helped him in his busi 
 ness ; folding and stitching pamphlets, buying old 
 linen rags (that was before the days of cotton) 
 for the papermakers, and tending shop just as he 
 would have done himself. 
 
 To show how prudently they lived, they kept 
 no servants about them to be idle ; their table 
 was set with none but plain and simple food ; and 
 their furniture was as cheap as possible. For a 
 long while, he ate for his breakfast nothing more 
 than bread and milk, using no tea; and this 
 frugal mea 1 he took from an earthen porringer 
 
GETTING ALONG. 109 
 
 which cost him only two pennies, with a pewter 
 spoon ! This was the style in which a philoso 
 pher set up housekeeping with his wife, a man 
 who was yet to represent his country abroad, and 
 to u stand before kings." 
 
 He soon after had occasion, however, to lament 
 the ill effects of prosperity, for it tempted luxury 
 to come into his dwelling. He says that he was 
 greatly surprised, one morning, on being called to 
 breakfast, to find that a china bowl was set before 
 him, with a silver spoon in it. He knew nothing 
 of it beforehand, his faithful wife being resolved 
 to greet him with a new pleasure. He states 
 that this present cost her " the enormous sum of 
 three and twenty shillings." The only excuse 
 she plead for such an act of extravagance was, 
 that she thought her husband was as deserving 
 of a china bowl and silver spoon as any of his 
 neighbors. This was the first piece of china and 
 the first piece of plate introduced into his family. 
 They had a great deal of it afterwards. 
 
 His religious views and feelings now claimed 
 a large share of his attention. He felt it to be 
 necessary to take a serious review of his life and 
 character, and endeavor to shape his conduct so 
 
 as to challenge the closest scrutiny of his own 
 10 
 
. 110 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 conscience, and merit the approbation of his 
 Maker. Though he had been educated in the 
 tenets of the Presbyterians, he thought some of 
 their points of faith unintelligible, and others 
 doubtful ; and he therefore declined to attend on 
 public worship, making of Sunday what he called 
 his " studying day." He confesses that he was 
 never without religious principles. He did not, 
 for example, question the existence of God; or 
 that He created and governs the world ; or that 
 the most acceptable service of God was the doing 
 good to man ; or that the soul is immortal ; or 
 that all crime will be punished, and all virtue 
 will be rewarded, either here or hereafter. 
 
 These points he believed to be the very essen 
 tials of religion ; and he respected all creeds, in 
 proportion to the infusion which they had of 
 these very principles. And hence, respecting all 
 creeds, and not being unwilling to believe that 
 "even the wojst had some good effects," he care 
 fully avoided all discourse that might incline a 
 person to think less of his own religion. Besides 
 this example of his toleration, he contributed 
 something to every sect that had it in mind to 
 erect a new place of public worship, never refus 
 ing their solicitations. And during the whole 
 
GETTING ALONG. Ill 
 
 time that he declined attending church, he still 
 paid in his annual subscription to the only Pres 
 byterian minister or meeting they had in Phila 
 delphia. 
 
 The minister used to come and visit Franklin, 
 and admonish him of his duty to attend on his 
 preaching, and he admits that he was prevailed 
 to do so, from time to time : once for five Sun 
 days together. He says he would have gone to 
 hear him preach regularly, but for the fact that 
 he preached discourses that were filled with po 
 lemic arguments, or matters of creed, which to his 
 mind seemed " dry, uninteresting, and unedify- 
 ing." He thought such sermons calculated to 
 make good Presbyterians, rather than good citi 
 zens. And therefore he stayed away, and pursued 
 his Sunday course of studies. 
 
 But Franklin speaks of one sermon in particu 
 lar, which he thought ought certainly to prove a 
 test of the value of his preaching, so far as he was 
 to be benefited. The text was from Philippians, 
 reading thus: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever 
 things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of 
 good report, if there be any virtue or any praise, 
 think on these things." Franklin thought that, 
 from a text of this sort, the preacher could not 
 
112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 easily go wide of a practical discourse on morals 
 and morality. Instead of that, he proceeded to 
 lay down five points, as foPows: 1st. Keeping 
 holy the Sabbath day. 2a. Being diligent in 
 reading the holy Scriptures. 3d. Attending duly 
 the public worship. 4th. Partaking of the Sacra 
 ment. 5th. Paying a due respect to God s minis 
 ters. Franklin thought himself that all these 
 might be good things, but they were not the kind 
 of good things to be expected from that text; 
 and, despairing of getting what he craved from 
 any other text if not from that, he confesses that 
 he was " disgusted, and attended his preaching 
 no more." 
 
 His mind, however, was profoundly exercised 
 about moral improvement. He aimed to have 
 his head and heart grow in wisdom and purity 
 together. It seems that, a few years before, he 
 had sat down and composed for his own private 
 use a form of prayer, or liturgy, which he had 
 entitled "Articles of Belief and Acts of Reli 
 gion ;" and he went back to the regular and con 
 scientious use of this little composition, declining 
 to attend upon public worship any more. He 
 does not attempt to excuse his conduct in this 
 respect, leaving results to speak for him. 
 
GETTING ALONG. 113 
 
 Along with the discipline obtained by this 
 course, he was led to conceive a project of 
 actually reaching a state of "moral perfection ;" a 
 bold enterprise for a young man, but one in 
 which a trial would lead him to at least a better 
 understanding of himself than he ever possessed 
 before. He says that he wished " to live without 
 committing any fault at any time, and to conquer 
 all that either natural inclination, custom, or com 
 pany might lead him into." He thought, that, 
 since he knew what was right and what was 
 wrong, there would be no difficulty in always 
 doing the one and avoiding the other. But he 
 little understood the character or extent of the 
 task he had undertaken. He could no more than 
 give his attention to one fault, in order to correct 
 and remove it, when he found that he had com 
 mitted a fault in another direction ! To use his 
 own phrase concerning the matter, "habit took 
 the advantage of inattention, and inclination was 
 sometimes too strong for reason." 
 
 His many slips had the effect, however, to open 
 his eyes to what he would not so soon have dis 
 covered in any other way ; he became wise in a 
 direction where he might long have been in dark 
 ness, but for this faulty experiment: and he at 
 10* 
 
114 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 last came to the conclusion that no person could 
 become completely virtuous from the conviction 
 that it was for his interest to become so, and that 
 all opposite habits must be broken, and really 
 good ones established in their places, before one 
 can rely on a steady rectitude of conduct. 
 
 In order to bring about, in his own case, the 
 establishment of thoroughly good habits in place 
 of the contrary, he resorted to a method original 
 with himself, extremely ingenious while likewise 
 simple, and one which deserves the closest exam 
 ination, if not the most conscientious imitation, 
 of all young men of like desires and aspirations. 
 He sat down and made a catalogue of all the lead 
 ing virtues he had ever met with in the course 
 of his reading, enumerating thirteen in all, and 
 affixing to each a short precept which illustrated 
 its meaning. They are all given here, in their 
 order, for the sake of more clearly showing the 
 nature and extent of the task which he had 
 resolutely set before him : 
 
 1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dulness; drink 
 not to elevation. 
 
 2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit 
 others or yourself ; avoid trifling conversation. 
 
GETTING ALONG. 115 
 
 3. ORDER. Let all things have their places ; 
 let each part of your business have its time. 
 
 4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you 
 ought ; perform without fail what you resolve. 
 
 5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do 
 good to others or yourself; that is, waste no 
 thing. 
 
 6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always em 
 ployed in something useful ; cut off all unneces 
 sary actions. 
 
 7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit ; think 
 innocently and justly ; and, if you speak, speak 
 accordingly. 
 
 8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or 
 omitting the benefits that are your duty. 
 
 9. MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear re 
 senting injuries so much as you think they 
 deserve. 
 
 10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uricleanliness in 
 body, clothes, or habitation. 
 
 11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, 
 or at accidents common or unavoidable. 
 
 12. CHASTITY. 
 
 13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 
 
 His object was to form habits, or, as he ex- 
 
116 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 presses it, "to acquire habitudes/ of virtue; ana 
 lie conceived a plan by which he thought he could 
 make more headway than by any other. 
 
 He determined to rivet his attention on one of 
 these virtues at a time, rather than attempt to com 
 pass them all at once, and thus lose the impres 
 sion of all. After mastering one of them, he 
 would go on to another ; and thus pass through 
 the whole catalogue. And he reasoned again, 
 that his conscientious practice of one virtue, 
 would make the practice of the following ones 
 all the easier, and chiefly because he would 
 approach them with habits of virtue already 
 formed. 
 
 He naturally began with the virtue of Temper 
 ance, he says, because " it tends to procure that 
 coolness and clearness of head which is so neces 
 sary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, 
 and a guard maintained against the unremitting 
 attraction of ancient habits and the force of per 
 petual temptations." After Temperance should 
 be duly attended to, Silence would follow more 
 easily ; and as he wished to gain knowledge 
 while he likewise improved in virtue, and re 
 membered that it was obtained rather through 
 the ear than by means of the tongue, and also 
 
GETTING ALONG. 117 
 
 desired to conquer a faulty habit of " prattling, 
 punning, and jesting," he gave the second place 
 on his list to Silence. 
 
 Then followed Order; by obeying this rule 
 strictly, he was left with time to attend both to 
 his own improvement and to his studies. Next, 
 Resolution ; this strengthened the previous habits, 
 and held him firmly on the course of acquiring 
 those which were to follow. Frugality and Indus 
 try would help to extricate him from the remain 
 der of his debt, and, by putting him on the road 
 to independence, would make Sincerity, Justice, 
 and the rest of the virtues comparatively easy to 
 acquire. 
 
 In order to carry out his plan with regularity, 
 which alone would make it of much worth to 
 him, he felt that a daily examination into his 
 heart and conduct would be necessary ; and to fa 
 cilitate this practice to the utmost, he made a lit 
 tle Book, in which he allotted a whole page to 
 each one of the virtues. Each page was ruled 
 with red ink so as to make seven columns, a col 
 umn for every day in the week; and he marked 
 each column at the top with a letter for the day. 
 Then he ruled these columns across with thirteen 
 more red lines, placing at the commencement of 
 
118 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 each line, on the extreme left, the letter signifying 
 one of the virtues, in its due order. And, finally, 
 to carry out his plan, following along on the Vir 
 tue line he could make a little black spot under 
 each day of the week, as lettered in the column, 
 for every trespass of which he might find himself 
 guilty against that particular virtue on that par 
 ticular day. 
 
 This plan enabled him to give a week s atten 
 tion to every one of the virtues in its turn ; and 
 he would go through with his catalogue every 
 three months (thirteen weeks), or four times in 
 the course of a year. For example, his first 
 week s exercise was to keep clear of sinning 
 against the virtue of Temperance ; and the next 
 week s, against Silence ; the next against Order ; 
 and so on to the end. In giving all his attention 
 the first week to Temperance, and trying to avoid 
 all errors against that virtue, he left the other vir 
 tues to take their chance, although he was strict 
 to mark down every night the remembered faults 
 of the day. If, too, he could keep his Temper 
 ance line clear of spots for the first week, he felt 
 so much strengthened in that virtue as to extend 
 his attention to the next virtue at the same time ; 
 and for the next week he would strive to keep 
 
GETTING ALONG. 119 
 
 both lines free from blemishes. Franklin compares 
 his labor over his morals to the work in a garden ; 
 the man having a garden to clear does not try to 
 get the weeds all out of the soil at once, but works 
 on one of the beds at a time, and, having got this 
 clean, goes on to the second. And he hoped to 
 persevere with his self-improvement until he could 
 successively clear his lines of all their spots, so 
 that, after going through a number of courses, he 
 should be happy beyond expression in running his 
 eyes over a clean book, after a thirteen weeks 
 daily search and inquiry. 
 
 He prefixed three Mottoes to his little Book, 
 the first from Addison, the second from Cicero, 
 and the third from the Proverbs of Solomon. 
 That from Addison was taken from his play called 
 * Cato, and read thus : 
 
 " Here will I hold. If there s a power above us, 
 (And that there is, all nature cries aloud 
 Through all her works,) He must delight in virtue : 
 And that which he delights in must be happy." 
 
 The motto from Cicero read, 
 
 " vitse Philosophia dux ! virtutum indagatrix expul- 
 trixque vitiorum ! Unus dies, bene et ex prseeeptis tuis actus, 
 peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus." 
 
120 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 That from the Proverbs read in this way : 
 
 " Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand 
 riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and 
 all her paths are peace." 
 
 In addition to these significant mottoes, he also 
 prefixed to his examination tables the following 
 little prayer, the product of his own pen : 
 
 "0, powerful Goodness ! bountiful Father ! merciful Guide ! 
 Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest inter 
 est. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom 
 dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children, as the 
 only return in my power for thy continual favors to me." 
 
 There was likewise a little prayer which he ex 
 tracted from the poet Thomson, and often used in 
 addition to the other. 
 
 In order to make the very most of his time and 
 opportunities, he knew that Order required of him 
 to put every part of his business in its proper 
 place and hour; and upon one page of his little 
 book he drew up a scheme, or plan, for occupying 
 the twenty-four hours of any natural day. He 
 divided the day into several parts, thus : from 5 
 to 8 in the morning, he set down this rule for 
 himself, " Rise, wash, and address Powerful Good 
 ness ! Contrive day s business, and take the reso 
 lution of the day ; prosecute the present study, 
 and breakfast." From 8 to 12," Work." From 
 
GETTING ALONG. 121 
 
 12 to 2, " Read, or look over my accounts, and 
 dine." From 2 to 6, "Work." From 6 to 10, 
 "Put things in their places. Supper. Music 
 or diversion, or conversation. Examination of 
 the day." From 10 to 5, " Sleep." Each morn 
 ing he asked himself the question, "What 
 good shall I do to-day ?" and each evening, 
 " What good have I done to-day ?" 
 
 For a long time he pursued this rigid course of 
 life and conduct, saving every hour of his time, 
 and undergoing a daily scrutiny at his own hands 
 which few young men, even of those resolutely 
 bent on self-culture, would have had the courage 
 and patience to carry out. It was nothing strange 
 that his little book soon began to remind him how 
 speckled with faults he was. He was obliged to 
 scratch out the marks on his pages in order to use 
 his book over again for a new course ; and, in the 
 process, he made holes in the paper. To obviate 
 the necessity of ruling new pages, he used tablets, 
 from whose surface the pencil marks could be 
 readily rubbed out with a wet sponge. 
 
 This exercise he kept up for some time, till, at 
 length, instead of going through four courses of 
 self-discipline a year, he went through but one. 
 
 After that, but one course in several years. And 
 11 
 
122 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 finally, he omitted them altogether, his travelling 
 and voyaging and foreign business preventing 
 such regularity as was necessary to make the thing 
 effective. Still, he always carried his little book 
 about with him, as a reminder of what it was pos 
 sible for him to attain to. The virtue of Order 
 gave him more trouble than any other ; it came 
 the harder for him to practice the habits of this 
 virtue, from the fact that he was not born with a 
 tendency that way. Nor was he more fortunate 
 with the virtue of Method ; he had hitherto 
 trusted to his excellent memory, and with the help 
 of that, managed to make things go off well 
 enough; but when he came to setting down to a 
 regular siege before so formidable a virtue, striv 
 ing to run his parallels closer and closer all the 
 while, he found it cost him so much trouble that 
 he fain would have given it over in despair : he 
 complained of making but slow progress, if any, 
 and of such frequent backslidings, too, that he was 
 like to rest content with a faulty character in at 
 least that regard. 
 
 On reviewing his efforts, from time to time, es 
 pecially when he chanced to fall into a weary 
 mood, he would be strongly tempted to relax 
 them, and to let his more pardonable faults go ; 
 
GETTING ALONG. 123 
 
 arguing to himself that nobody liked a perfect 
 character, even if one were within the reach of 
 man, and that a well-meaning person ought to let 
 just a few faults remain, if only to keep his 
 friends in countenance. So hard a matter is it to 
 live strictly up to the law of perfection, for so 
 much as the term of a single day. 
 
 On the subject of Order, he pronounced himself 
 beyond the reach of the arm of discipline. He 
 had little or no hope for himself on that score. 
 "When he had grown old, he was made aware of 
 his sad deficiency in this respect, as his memory 
 was not at hand to make up for it ; but in regard 
 to the other virtues of his list, he left his emphatic 
 testimony that, though he fell far short of the per 
 fection at which he aimed, he nevertheless was 
 made " a better and a happier man" by attempting 
 it than if he had not tried at all ; which reminded 
 him that those who strove to make their hand 
 writing perfect by imitating the engraved copies, 
 though they never made as perfect copies as the 
 originals, still came nearer to the excellence of the 
 standard than if they had never made any attempt 
 to reach it, and greatly improved their hand by 
 the means. 
 
 Franklin placed it on record, in his seventy? 
 
124 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 ninth year, that to this "artifice" as he termed 
 his self-discipline with the aid of his little book, 
 he owed, under God s blessing, the constant fe 
 licity of his life. To Temperance he declared 
 that he owed his good health and what was left 
 him of a good constitution ; to Industry and Fru 
 gality, the comfortable circumstances in which he 
 early found himself, as well as the reputation 
 which he enjoyed in the world; and to Sincerity 
 and Justice the confidence which his countrymen 
 reposed in him and the many honorable employ 
 ments they entrusted to him; while to the whole 
 body, or mass, of these virtues, feeble as was his 
 hold on them at the best, he ascribed that even 
 temper and cheerful habit in conversation which 
 ever attracted to him the company of the young. 
 
 In pursuing his course of moral culture, while 
 he strove to be truly religious, he avoided all the 
 creeds of his time ; and the reason he gave was 
 simply this, that "being fully persuaded of the 
 utility and excellency of his (my) method, and 
 that it might be serviceable to people in all reli 
 gions, and intending some time to publish it, he 
 (I) would not have any thing in it that should 
 prejudice any one, of any sect, against it." 
 
 He did purpose to write a little book on these 
 
GETTING ALONG. 125 
 
 several virtues, showing the advantages of posses 
 sing and the mischiefs of being without them, to 
 be styled " The Art of Virtue ;" and he thought 
 it would have accomplished vastly more good than 
 mere exhortation, since it indicated the means and 
 manner of obtaining virtue, but he never found 
 the right opportunity to write and publish his 
 commentary. The many hints he had jotted down 
 to make use of, were laid away till his old age ; 
 his close occupation in early life and his constant 
 public employment later in life preventing his car 
 rying out his plan. But the central idea he pro 
 posed to treat of in his little commentary, would 
 have been this, as stated in his own language ; 
 " that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are 
 forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful." 
 And he would have proceeded to reason that it 
 was, therefore, every one s interest to be virtuous, 
 who wished to be happy even in this world. He 
 would have further labored to convince young 
 persons " that no qualities are so likely to make 
 a poor man s fortune as those of probity and 
 integrity." 
 
 There were but twelve Virtues set down in his 
 catalogue, at first ; but being one day informed by 
 a Quaker friend that people generally thought him 
 n* 
 
126 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 proud, and even insolent and overbearing when 
 conducting an argument, he formed a resolution 
 to try and cure himself of this vice if it could pos 
 sibly be done ; so he added Humility to his list, 
 and appended the broadest possible meaning and 
 signification to the word. By recurring to his list 
 of virtues, it will be seen that Humility stands 
 last on the list, added in consequence of the 
 frank suggestion of his Quaker friend. 
 
 To carry out his resolution to keep down every 
 appearance of undue pride, he made a rule never 
 to be too strong in making his own assertions, or 
 to venture upon openly contradicting others. Even 
 in the usual discussions in the Junto, he forbore 
 to use language that implied a fixed opinion, dis 
 carding from his phrases such positive words as 
 "certainly" and "undoubtedly," and employing 
 in their place such words as "I conceive", "I ap 
 prehend," and "I imagine," or "It so appears to 
 me at present." 
 
 When he wished to correct in another what he 
 felt certain to be an error, instead of going at him 
 with a flat contradiction he began by remarking 
 that, under certain circumstances perhaps his 
 opinion would be right, but in the present case 
 there appeared to him to be some difference, and 
 
GETTING ALONG. 127 
 
 so on. By practising this style of speech for a time, 
 he discovered that it began to have a marked influ 
 ence over his manners, and that he could indulge 
 quite freely in conversation with others, on every 
 variety of topic, with a great deal of positive 
 pleasure. This very modesty made room for his 
 opinions, whereas a dogmatic and dictatorial style 
 of speaking would have debarred him from a 
 hearing at once. By his conciliatory manner, too, 
 he succeeded in winning over to his views many 
 a person who would otherwise have stood out and 
 combated both himself and them. It was but 
 another illustration of the old fable of the Sun 
 and the North "Wind, experimenting on the trav 
 eller in his cloak. 
 
 For more than fifty years, beginning with his 
 thirtieth year, he records that no one had heard a 
 dogmatical expression escape him. He ascribed 
 it to this habit, next perhaps to that of integrity, 
 that he obtained an influence with his fellow- 
 citizens at so early a day : he was a member of 
 the public councils, and, though a bad speaker 
 and halting in his language, he rarely failed to 
 carry his point. 
 
 And this leads him to speak of pride ; of which 
 he says with marked emphasis "Disguise it, 
 
128 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much, as 
 one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now 
 and then peep out and show itself." He never 
 dared think he had himself overcome it, for 
 then he would only have been proud of hia 
 humility. 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 129 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 
 
 HIS continual reading was not without its 
 results, for he read with an object, and not 
 in a desultory manner. He jotted down 
 such thoughts as struck him on the subject of 
 History, and they are preserved. His reflections 
 on one topic, in particular, led him to construct a 
 creed for his own use, which is thus expressed in 
 few words : 
 
 " That there is one God, who made all things. 
 
 " That He governs the world by his providence. 
 
 " That He ought to be worshipped by adora 
 tion, prayer, and thanksgiving. 
 
 "But the most acceptable service to God, is 
 doing good to man. 
 
 " That the soul is immortal. 
 
 "And that God will certainly reward virtue and 
 punish vice, either here or hereafter." 
 
 He would have the sect founded on the above 
 
130 BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. 
 
 creed spread at first among young men, and single 
 men ; each person who was initiated into the same 
 should not only subscribe to the creed, but should 
 also have gone faithfully through the thirteen 
 weeks examination and practice, according to the 
 schedule described in the previous chapter ; the so 
 ciety was to be kept secret for a while, and its seve 
 ral members should look around their young men 
 friends to find those to whom it would be perfectly 
 safe and proper to communicate the scheme. They 
 were to style themselves " The Society of the Free 
 and Easy;" free from vice by the practice of the 
 virtues, and, by the practice of industry and fru 
 gality free from debt, which puts one under con 
 straint, and makes him a sort of slave to his 
 creditors. 
 
 Franklin did not make very much headway with 
 his new society, on account of the strict attention 
 he was forced to pay at this time to his business ; 
 and the number of his public employments after 
 ward made it impossible for him to take up the 
 scheme which he always believed an excellent 
 one and carry it forward to a wide and successful 
 operation. 
 
 He published, in the year 1732, a little work 
 which would have given him undying fame among 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 131 
 
 his countrymen, had he written and compiled no 
 thing else ; and that was his Almanac, known as 
 "Poor Richard." It was at first published under 
 the assumed name of Richard Saunders ; but as it 
 was repeated year by year, it finally received the 
 name of " Poor Richard s Almanac," and had a 
 life, all together, of about a quarter of a century. 
 His plan was, in making it up, to entertain people 
 while he instructed them; and he brought his 
 shrewd wisdom and irresistible mother-wit to bear 
 upon his project with wonderful success. "Poor 
 Richard" came to be in such demand that he sold 
 every year as many as ten thousand copies, and 
 reaped a generous profit from his labor. It was 
 one of those productions which fitted exactly into 
 the wants of the times, and therefore became at 
 once popular. 
 
 Seeing how eagerly it was read, and that there 
 was no locality within reach to which it did not 
 penetrate, as a welcome friend, he conceived the 
 idea of engrafting upon it, as a mere Almanac, & 
 body of homely and quaint sentiments and mot 
 toes, filled with the meat of meaning, which could 
 not so easily be found by the common people any 
 where else. It became, therefore, a sort of library 
 of wisdom, a compendium of common sense, 
 
132 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 a storehouse of wise and homely proverbs, to 
 which everybody could go, and freely help him 
 self to such as he wanted. As he described the 
 contents himself, he says " I filled all the little 
 spaces that occurred between the remarkable days 
 in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly 
 by such as inculcated industry and frugality as the 
 means of procuring wealth and thereby securing 
 virtue ; it being more difficult for a man in want 
 to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those 
 proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to stand up 
 right." 
 
 It is not to be thought, however, that the prov 
 erbs uttered each year by " Poor Richard" were 
 the coin of Franklin s brain ; they contained, on 
 the contrary, the wisdom of many ages and many 
 nations. Franklin assembled them into a con 
 nected discourse, which he prefixed to the Alma 
 nac of 1757, as a wise and shrewd old man s har 
 angue to the people gathered at an auction ; and 
 by thus bringing these bits of sage counsel to 
 gether, he believed he could make a greater 
 * impression. 
 
 Nor was he at fault in his calculation. He 
 enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing the piece copied 
 in all the newspapers of the country, and printed 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 133 
 
 again on large sheets of paper in England, where 
 they were stuck up on the walls of the dwellings. 
 It was translated into French, and large numbers of 
 the printed sheets were purchased by the clergy and 
 gentry to distribute among their poor parishioners 
 and tenants. The effect of it was such in the 
 province of Pennsylvania that it was believed it 
 put a stop, in a degree, to the use of foreign lux 
 uries, in consequence of which there was a great 
 deal more money kept at home than was ever 
 known before. 
 
 A few of the more current proverbs and " wise 
 saws" are given here, from this famous produc 
 tion. It is to be remembered, however, that they 
 are taken from the lips (in imagination) of a white- 
 haired old man who is attending an auction sale 
 of a broken merchant s goods, and to whom the 
 bystanders put the questions "Pray, Father 
 Abraham, what think ye of the times ? Won t 
 these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How 
 shall we ever be able to pay them ? What would 
 you advise us to ?" The old man stood up and 
 answered them " If you d have my advice, I ll 
 give it to you in short ; for a word to the wise is 
 enough, and many words won t fill a bushel/ as 
 Poor Richard says." 
 
 12 
 
134 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 The old man goes on to speak of the taxes ; and 
 tells his listeners that if those laid by the govern 
 ment were the only ones we had to pay, they would 
 get along very well ; they were taxed twice as 
 much by their idleness, three times as much by 
 their pride, and four times as much by their folly. 
 And, upon this, he quotes Poor Richard as say 
 ing " God helps those who help themselves." 
 " Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor 
 wears ; while the key often used is always bright." 
 "Dost thou love life ? then do not squander time, 
 for that s the stuff life is made of." " The sleep 
 ing fox catches no poultry, and there will be sleep 
 ing enough in the grave." " Lost time is never 
 found again ; and what we call time enough, al 
 ways proves little enough." " Sloth makes all 
 things difficult, but industry all easy." "He that 
 rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce over 
 take his business at night ; while Laziness travels 
 so slow that Poverty soon overtakes him." "Drive 
 thy business ; let not that drive thee." 
 
 And the old man tells them further, that nothing 
 is mended by the wishing ; it must needs come by 
 work. There is no use in wishing the times were 
 better; we make them better, if we bestir our 
 selves. "Industry needs not wish," as Poor 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 135 
 
 Richard says. "He that lives upon hope will die 
 fasting." "There are no gains without pains." 
 "He that hath a trade, hath an estate : and he 
 that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and 
 honor." "At the workingman s house hunger 
 looks in, but dare not enter." "Industry pays 
 debts, but despair increaseth them." "Diligence 
 is the mother of good luck;" and "God gives all 
 things to industry; then plow deep while slug 
 gards sleep, and you will have corn to sell and 
 keep." " One to-day is worth two to-morrows." 
 " Handle your tools without mittens." " The cat 
 in gloves catches no mice." " Continual dropping 
 wears away stones, and by diligence and patience 
 the mouse ate into the cable, and light strokes fell 
 great oaks." 
 
 When the old man is asked if we are to afford 
 ourselves no leisure, he answers in proverbs again 
 "Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain 
 leisure; and since thou art not sun of a minute, 
 throw not away an hour." "A life of leisure and 
 a life of laziness are two things." "Troubles 
 spring from idleness, and grievous toils from need 
 less ease ; many without labor would live by their 
 own wits only ; but they break for want of stock." 
 " Fly pleasures, and they will follow you ; the dil- 
 
136 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 igent spinner has a large shift." But one must 
 needs be settled and steady, or all his industry 
 goes for little or nothing ; there, as Poor Richard 
 says, "Three removes are as bad as a fire." 
 "Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. M 
 "If you would have your business done, go; if 
 not, send." "The eye of the master will do more 
 work than both his hands." " Want of care does 
 us more damage than want of knowledge." "Not 
 to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse 
 open." "If you would have a faithful servant, 
 and one that you like, serve yourself." "A little 
 neglect may breed a great mischief." "For want 
 of a nail, the shoe was lost ; for want of a shoe, 
 the horse was lost ; and for want of a horse, the 
 rider was lost ; being overtaken and slain by the 
 enemy all for want of care about a horse-shoe 
 nail." 
 
 Then he talks to his listeners upon Frugality, 
 showing them that they must practice frugality if 
 they would make their industry successful. And 
 he proceeds to quote Poor Richard as saying "A 
 fat kitchen makes a lean will." "If you would 
 be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting." 
 " What maintains one vice would bring up two 
 chfldren." "Beware of little expense; a small 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 137 
 
 leak will sink a great ship." "Who dainties love 
 shall beggars prove." " Fools make feasts, and 
 wise men eat them." 
 
 Speaking to the people about coming to an auc 
 tion sale to purchase goods because they expected 
 to find them cheap, the old man warns them that, 
 if they do not look out, they will find their goods 
 to be evils; and he reminds them again of what 
 Poor Richard says, "Buy what thou hast no need 
 of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries." 
 And again, " It is foolish to lay out money in a 
 purchase of repentance." " Silks and satins, scar 
 lets and velvets put out the kitchen fire." "For 
 one poor person, there are a hundred indigent." 
 " A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gen 
 tleman on his knees." On the subject of small 
 spendings for needless things, the old man quotes 
 Poor Richard as saying "A child and a fool im 
 agine twenty shillings and twenty years can never 
 be spent; but always be taking out of the meal- 
 tub, and never putting in, soon comes to the bot 
 tom." "When the well is dry, they know the 
 worth of water." "If you would know the value 
 of money, go and try to borrow some ; for he that 
 goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing." "Pride is 
 as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more 
 
 12* 
 
138 BEFJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 saucy." "It is easier to suppress the first desire 
 than to satisfy all that follow it." "Pride that 
 dines on vanity, sups on contempt." And again, 
 " Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with 
 Poverty, and supped with Infamy." 
 
 On the subject of running in debt, the old man 
 scatters the pearls of his proverbs among the 
 crowd in this wise : " The second vice is lying ; 
 the first is running in debt." "Lying rides on 
 debt s back." "It is hard for an empty sack to 
 stand upright." " Creditors have better memories 
 than debtors;" and, once more, "Creditors are a 
 superstitious sect, great observers of set days and 
 times." " Those have a short Lent, who owe 
 money to be paid at Easter." "For age and want 
 save while you may, ISTo morning sun lasts a 
 whole day." And telling the cr6wd about him 
 that gain may be temporary and uncertain, but 
 expense is ever constant and certain, he quotes 
 Poor Richard as saying " It is easier to build two 
 chimneys than to keep one in fuel." "Rather go 
 to bed supperless than rise in debt." 
 
 And after exhorting them not to trust, either 
 to industry, frugality, and prudence altogether, 
 which can help no one without the attendant 
 blessing of Heaven, he concludes his pithy and 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 139 
 
 impressive address with a handful of summary 
 injunctions, whic/i may he called the marrow of 
 the matter, thus: "And now, to conclude, Ex 
 perience keeps a dear school ; hut fools will learn 
 in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we 
 may give advice, hut we cannot give conduct, as 
 Poor Richard says. However, rememher this, 
 They that will not he counselled cannot he 
 helped, as Poor Richard says; and, farther, that 
 If you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap 
 your knuckles. 
 
 And thus the old gentleman ended his har 
 angue. But he says that the people assembled 
 at the auction went on and hought just as if he 
 had not spoken to them at all, paying no heed to 
 his proverbs and precepts. 
 
 "We have given this sample of "Poor Richard," 
 "because it was such a famous affair in its day, and 
 its name lives after it. Probahly no hook, large 
 or small, printed in America through the whole 
 of the last century, had such influence over the 
 popular mind. Its shrewd wisdom Commended it 
 to all thoughtfully-inclined persons, while its dry 
 humor and story-telling counsels attracted and 
 impressed those who would have been reached 
 by no other style of address. 
 
140 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Franklin employed his newspaper, too, in im 
 parting the same sort of moral instruction. Some 
 times he printed choice extracts from Addisoii s 
 Spectator, arid at other times he enlivened its 
 columns with short pieces which he had first 
 composed and read to the Junto ; among the rest, 
 imaginary dialogues, discourses, and essays. At 
 this time, he was not yet thirty years of age. 
 
 He never used his columns for spreading scan 
 dal ; it was his opinion that personal altercations 
 and ahuse were become too common, and reflected 
 only disgrace on the community ; and he made a 
 worthy effort to put an end to the practice and to 
 hold up a better example. Oftentimes he was 
 urged by one and another to print in the paper 
 some attack which they wished to make on other 
 persons ; and when he denied them their request, 
 they would bring up the illustration of the stage 
 coach, saying that a newspaper was just like that, 
 in which any one who paid had a right to a place; 
 but he stopped further importunities by telling 
 them that if they wished, he would print their 
 pieces separately, and they might take as many 
 copies as they wanted. 
 
 He sent off one of his journeymen to Charles 
 ton, in 1733, where he heard a printer was 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 141 
 
 wanted, supplying him with a press. The agree 
 ment was, that Franklin was to pay one-third the 
 expense of the business, and have one-third of the 
 profits. The man did not make returns of his 
 business with any regularity, and after a time 
 died, leaving matters entirely unsettled and loose 
 between them ; but his wife, who was born and 
 bred in Holland, and who had learned how to 
 keep accounts, took charge of the affairs of her 
 late husband, and sent him a plain statement of 
 past transactions as well as regular business 
 reports every three months afterward. So 
 successfully did she manage the business, she 
 brought up a family of children with credit, and 
 finally bought out Franklin s share in the concern 
 and set up her son at the head of it. 
 
 About this time, he had an adventure with a 
 Presbyterian minister who had lately come to 
 Philadelphia to preach. He was a young man, 
 with a fine voice, who drew to himself a crowd 
 of admiring hearers from the different denomina 
 tions by his extemporaneous addresses. His dis 
 courses pleased Franklin too, from the fact that 
 they were not of a dogmatical cast, but held up 
 continually the need of "good works." Some of 
 the Fiore "orthodox" Presbyterians, with the 
 
142 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 older ministers, not liking his doctrine, brought 
 him before the Synod on a charge of preaching 
 heretical doctrines, and desired to have him 
 silenced. Franklin took up for him with much 
 zeal, writing and talking for him, and laboring to 
 build up a party which would sustain him. But 
 finding, as he relates, that, " though an elegant 
 preacher, he was but a poor writer," he wrote for 
 him two or three pamphlets together with a piece 
 in the newspaper. But while the contest raged, 
 it turned out that one of his adversaries remem 
 bered to have somewhere read a part of one of 
 the most admired sermons which he had preached ; 
 and, on looking the matter up, it turned out that 
 he had been preaching a discourse, or the greater 
 part of one, from a British clergyman, which had 
 been before published in one of the Reviews. 
 The friends of the young minister were sickened 
 with this discovery, and at once abandoned him 
 and his cause in disgust. But this was not the 
 case with Franklin; with his usual shrewdness, 
 he stuck by him, giving as a reason that he was 
 much more in favor of his giving them good dis 
 courses, though composed by another, than poor 
 ones composed by himself! But the case went 
 against him, nevertheless. Before he left the 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 143 
 
 town, the young minister frankly confessed to 
 Franklin that he had not only stolen that sermon, 
 but all his sermons, in the same way: his memory 
 being such that he was able to retain and repeat 
 any sermon after a single reading only. Franklin 
 left the congregation soon after the minister went, 
 and never worshipped with it again, though he 
 paid over his subscription for the support of its 
 ministers for many years. 
 
 To qualify himself for such positions in life as 
 he might be placed in, in the future, he began to 
 study the languages about this time, and led off 
 with the French; and he very soon became so 
 much a master of that tongue as to be able to 
 read the books in it with ease and readiness. He 
 next went upon Italian. A friend happened to 
 be studying it at the same time, who used to often 
 beg Franklin to play chess with him : but finding 
 the game was taking up too much of his time, he 
 told his friend he would play no more except on 
 this condition, that the one who won the game 
 should have the right to impose on the other a 
 stated task, either in the grammar, which was to 
 be learned by heart, or in translating, the same 
 to be performed by the time of the next meeting. 
 They were so evenly matched at the game that, 
 
144 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 
 as Franklin said, they fairly "beat one another into 
 that language." "With a little pains and industry, 
 he in time acquired sufficient knowledge of Span 
 ish to read books written in that tongue like 
 wise. 
 
 After having thus, gone into modern languages, 
 he was greatly surprised, on looking into a Latin 
 Testament, to find that he already understood 
 more of that language than he had imagined. 
 He had had a year s instruction in a Latin School, 
 in his youth, but never pursued his early acquaint 
 ance with the tongue ; he was now encouraged, 
 however, to go at the study once more, and found 
 his way made smooth by his previous success with 
 the more modern languages. From which fact ho 
 came to the conclusion that we generally pursue 
 just the wrong course in the study of the lan 
 guages, by beginning with the Latin. His judg 
 ment was, that it was better to begin with the 
 French, and proceed to the Italian and the Latin. 
 For if the young student should never proceed 
 farther than French, that language he would 
 afterwards find of use to him ; but if, beginning 
 with Latin, he stopped with that, his attainment 
 would be of no practical value. 
 
 By this time he had been absent from Boston, 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 145 
 
 his native place, ten long years; changes had 
 taken place in that period, and, among the rest, 
 he found himself in easy circumstances. He de 
 termiued to go and make a visit to his relatives 
 at the East. He said he never could afford the 
 expense of such a journey hefore now. He says 
 nothing of his visit to Boston, however, but men 
 tions an incident which occurred at Newport, 
 Rhode Island, where he stopped on his return to 
 see his brother James, from whom he had run 
 away years before. Their meeting was cordial 
 and affectionate, all their former differences 
 having been forgotten. The brother was still 
 engaged in the printing business there, but his 
 health was giving way, and he was looking for 
 the approach of his end. "Weighed down with 
 this apprehension, he requested his brother Ben 
 jamin to take home his son with him, then a lad 
 of but ten years, and bring him up to the printing 
 business. This he promised to do, and did do : 
 although he sent the boy to school for a few years 
 before putting him to work in the office. While 
 the lad was thus engaged learning his trade, his 
 mother was carrying on the business at Newport 
 to the best of her skill ; and when he had finally 
 qualified himself to be a printer, his Uncle Benja- 
 
 13 
 
146 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 min furnished him with an assortment of new 
 types, and enabled him to take the business at 
 Newport off his mother s hands and carry it on 
 himself. Franklin felt that in this way he made 
 amends for the loss and trouble to which he sub 
 jected his older brother, when he ran away from 
 him to Philadelphia. 
 
 In the year 1736, he lost a little son, but four 
 years old, by the small-pox. He had never been 
 inoculated, which made it very difficult for the 
 father to forgive himself for his neglect. 
 
 The same year, he was chosen Clerk of the Gen 
 eral Assembly. There was no opposition to him 
 that year ; though when his name was proposed 
 for the same office, the next year, a new member 
 of the Assembly got up and made a long and loud 
 speech against him, having a candidate of his own 
 to bring forward. Franklin was chosen, however. 
 His pay as Clerk was of some assistance to him at 
 that time ; but the interest for his business which 
 an acquaintance with the members enabled him to 
 make, was better than all. They voted that he 
 should do about the whole of the House printing. 
 the votes, the laws, the paper money, and thft 
 other public jobs, great and small, which proved 
 very profitable. The member who had risen and 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 147 
 
 opposed him for the clerkship Franklin was desir 
 ous of appeasing, for he was a gentleman of for 
 tune, well educated, and possessed of talents that 
 were likely to give him influence over the House 
 in the future. Instead, however, of fawning upon 
 him, he tried a trick of innocent flattery ; hearing 
 that he had a certain rare and curious book in his 
 library, he wrote him a note, saying that he heard 
 the gentleman had such a book, and requesting 
 the favor of its loan for a few days. The book 
 was lent him, of course ; Franklin returned it in 
 about a week, with many thanks, which he ex 
 pressed with care in another note. The gentle 
 man came over and spoke to him the next time 
 the house met, a thing he had never done be 
 fore, accosting him with great civility. The result 
 of it was, he ever afterwards showed a willing 
 ness to serve Franklin in such way as he could, 
 and they struck up a friendship that lasted until 
 death. 
 
 The postmaster-general of the provinces, Gov 
 ernor Spotswood, late Governor of Virginia, was 
 not altogether satisfied with his Philadelphia 
 deputy, and in 1737 he removed him and appointed 
 Franklin to his place. The former incumbent had 
 been guilty of negligence in sending in his office 
 
148 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 accounts, and of want of exactness in drawing 
 them up. Franklin accepted the office without 
 hesitation, and found it of great help to him every 
 way. The salary it returned him was by no means 
 large, but it afforded him a good many favorable 
 opportunities to supply his newspaper with cor 
 respondence and advertisements both, while it also 
 enabled him to increase his circulation. The op 
 position paper began to decline as the Gazette 
 advanced ; but Franklin remembered his resolve, 
 taken when he was in "the day of small things" 
 himself, not to treat a rival as scurvily as the for 
 mer post-master had treated him. He therefore 
 permitted the post-riders to carry the other papers 
 just as freely as they did his own. 
 
 His mind now turned more actively to public 
 matters than ever. He began with paying atten 
 tion to small affairs ; but by doing his duty to 
 those well and thoroughly, he qualified himself 
 for that wider field to which he was destined not 
 long afterward to be called. First ; he looked into 
 the city watch business. The constables of the 
 different wards took turns in managing it. Each 
 summoned a certain number of housekeepers to 
 go around the town with him during the night. 
 "We have to smile, recalling these primitive cus- 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 149 
 
 toms and contrasting them with the day and night 
 police system of the present time. 
 
 Franklin found, on investigation, that such as 
 chose to pay the constable six shillings a year to 
 be excused, which sum was popularly thought to 
 go for hiring substitutes, could be let off entirely. 
 But that sum he found to be a great deal more 
 than sufficient to hire all the substitutes that were 
 wanted, the amount left over furnishing the con 
 stable taking it a handsome little profit; the only 
 money which the latter spent being for a little 
 drink, with which he used to hire such men to 
 patrol the streets along with him as the respecta 
 ble portion of the citizens did not choose to mix 
 with. Besides, they did not walk their rounds, 
 either ; they would collect at some place, and pass 
 the night in tippling. 
 
 The matter was first brought up by Franklin in 
 the Junto. He wrote a paper on it, setting forth 
 the wretched way in which watch was kept for the 
 town, but showing up more especially the injus 
 tice of exacting the sum of six shillings per head 
 from every person who expected to derive benefit 
 from the assessment; for a poor widow, whose 
 whole property might not amount to more than 
 fifty pounds, was taxed just as much toward sup- 
 
150 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 porting the watch as the merchant who had thou 
 sands of pounds worth of goods in his stores. 
 He proposed, instead of this, the hiring of proper 
 men to serve at the business constantly ; and his 
 plan was, to pay them their wages by taxing prop 
 erty, rather than persons. The idea took well with 
 the Junto, and was communicated to all the other 
 clubs which had sprung from it and were still con 
 nected with it. And although, as a distinct plan, 
 it was not immediately carried into execution, it 
 nevertheless set matters in such a train that after 
 a time the people of Philadelphia settled upon it 
 as a fixed policy ; and great good came from it to 
 all interests. 
 
 Franklin likewise paid attention, at this time, 
 to the causes of fires, and the best modes of pre 
 venting as well as extinguishing them. He wrote 
 a paper on the subject, and published it in the Ga 
 zette. It took well with the people at large, and 
 led to the formation of a company of citizens for 
 the rapid extinguishment of fires, or what we 
 should now style a "fire company." Thirty in 
 all joined it at first, whose business was to be not 
 only the speedy putting out of fires but the saving 
 of goods also, when in danger. Each member 
 was required to keep at hand a certain number of 
 
BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 151 
 
 leather buckets, in good order and fit for use, to 
 gether with strong bags and baskets for removing 
 goods ; and all were to be brought to every fire 
 that broke out. About once a month they passed 
 a social evening together, engaged chiefly in talk 
 ing on fires and the readiest way to overcome their 
 destructiveness. 
 
 So well were the citizens pleased with the new 
 idea, they banded together to form other compa 
 nies ; and at length the greater part of the men 
 of property in town were included in one or an 
 other of these most useful organizations. At least 
 fifty years after Franklin formed the first associa 
 tion, then known as the " Union Fire Associa 
 tion," it was still in existence ; and at that time 
 all but one, besides Franklin, were dead. The 
 fines which were levied found them in ladders, fire 
 hooks, and engines ; and for the long period of 
 half a century, so excellent was the system, the 
 city never lost by fire more than two houses at a 
 time. 
 
152 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GEORGE WHITFIELD SOLDIERING A PHILOSOPHER. 
 
 THE famous preacher, George "Whitfield, 
 came to Philadelphia in 1739, from Ireland. 
 His fame as a revival preacher had gone be 
 fore him. In the course of his life, he crossed the 
 Atlantic a great many times, for a map of that 
 generation, and seemed drawn to the people of 
 America by very strong ties. When he first made 
 his appearance in Philadelphia, the clergy permit 
 ted him to hold forth in their churches ; but after 
 a time they fell out with him for some reason, and 
 he was obliged to assemble his auditory in the 
 open fields. 
 
 People of every denomination and belief flocked 
 to hear him. He called assemblies about him, to 
 listen to his masterly harangues, such as the men 
 of that day had never beheld. They gathered at the 
 sound of his voice in battalions, by the thousands 
 and tens of thousands. Franklin used to wonder 
 
GEORGE WHITFIELD. 153 
 
 how they had patience to listen to him, when he 
 was continually flinging the most savage denuncia 
 tions in their faces, and telling them that by nature 
 they were "half beasts and half devils." But 
 there was an almost weird magnetism about this 
 remarkable man, holding others spell-bound by 
 the very tones of his voice. His declamatory 
 power was indescribable. The effect immediately 
 produced upon the popular mind it is not easy to 
 reproduce in narrative. Everybody seemed to 
 have suddenly become deeply concerned for his 
 soul. The town dropped its habit of indifference 
 and levity, and put on an air of the most serious 
 thoughtfulness. Franklin describes it "it seemed 
 as if all the world were growing religious, so that 
 one could not walk through the town in an even 
 ing without hearing psalms sung in different fami 
 lies of every street." 
 
 After a time, it was found inconvenient to con 
 tinue these monster meetings in the open air, on 
 account of the inclement weather as well as for 
 other reasons ; and it was proposed to build a 
 house of some sort, that should accommodate all 
 who wished to hear the new apostle. Money was 
 very speedily contributed, in sums sufficient to 
 purchase ground and erect a building one hun- 
 
154 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 dred feet long and seventy broad ; and the citizens 
 fell to the work with such zeal that it was com 
 pleted long before they had any of them believed 
 it possible. The whole property was placed in 
 the hands of trustees, the condition being that it 
 should be used for the accommodation " of any 
 preacher of any religious persuasion," who might 
 ever wish to speak to the people of Philadelphia. 
 The design was, to accommodate the people 
 rather than the sects; so that, as Franklin ex 
 pressed it, " even if the Mufti of Constantinople 
 were to send a missionary to preach Mahometan- 
 ism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service." 
 
 "Whitfield went south, as far as Georgia, after 
 leaving Philadelphia, preaching as he went. He 
 collected crowds around him wherever he stopped 
 to exhort, and left impressions that outlasted even 
 the generation which listened to his tumultuous 
 words. After going among the people of the 
 then new colony of Georgia and becoming 
 thoroughly acquainted with their situation, he 
 was deeply impressed with the fact that they 
 were in an almost helpless condition, and re 
 solved to come back and solicit charity on their 
 behalf. The preacher s plan was to build an 
 orphan asylum for the numbers of poor children 
 
GEORGE WHITFIELD. IOC 
 
 that were left destitute by the misfortunes of their 
 parents ; and large and generous collections were 
 immediately sent in on behalf of this project. 
 
 It appears that the early colonists of Georgia 
 were made up of broken-down London shop 
 keepers and insolvent debtors : men who could 
 do nothing more for themselves or their families 
 at home, and of whom still less might be expected 
 abroad, especially in a wilderness. Many of these 
 settlers had been taken from the common jails in 
 the old country, and were of fixed and unchange 
 able habits of idleness. Such a class of persons, 
 on being set down in the woods with their 
 families, could hardly be expected to hew their 
 way through the surrounding roughness to com 
 fort and plenty. In consequence of this inability 
 to help themselves, therefore, they perished by 
 scores, leaving a crowd of miserable children 
 behind to be assisted by charity or to die. 
 
 Whitfield s plan, on his return to Pennsylvania, 
 was to provide a grand asylum for these children 
 of want, and he had, as already mentioned, col 
 lected large sums for that purpose in Philadel 
 phia. Franklin lent his sympathy to the project, 
 but he thought it better that the building in 
 question should be erected in Philadelphia thao 
 
156 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 off in Georgia, and that the children should be 
 brought North. There was another considera 
 tion : if it were to be built in Georgia, a large 
 number of mechanics would have to go out there 
 from Philadelphia, and Franklin was averse to 
 letting so valuable an element of their own colony 
 go away. He therefore refused to contribute a 
 cent to the project, Whitfield meantime just as 
 stoutly refusing to listen to his suggestion to build 
 the asylum at Philadelphia. 
 
 While thus resolute against giving the great 
 preacher anything to help him on, Franklin 
 pleasantly narrates a characteristic incident that 
 concerns each of the parties to it about equally : 
 "I happened soon after to attend one of his 
 (Whitfi eld s) sermons, in the course of which I 
 perceived he intended to finish with a collection ; 
 and I silently resolved he should get nothing 
 from me. I had, in my pocket, a handful of 
 copper money, three or four silver dollars, and 
 five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded, / began to 
 soften, and concluded to give the copper. An 
 other stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of 
 that, and determined me to give the silver ; and 
 he finished so admirably, that / emptied my pocket 
 wholly into the collector s dish, gold and all. At this 
 
GEORGE WHITFIELD. 157 
 
 sermon there was also one of our club, who, being 
 of my sentiments respecting the building in 
 Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be 
 intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets 
 before he came from home. Towards the conclu 
 sion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong 
 inclination to give, and applied to a neighbor, 
 who stood near him, to lend him some money for 
 the purpose. The request was fortunately made 
 to perhaps the only man in the company who had 
 the firmness not to be affected by the preacher. 
 His answer was, l At any other time, friend Hop- 
 kinson, I would lend to thee freely; but not now ; 
 for thee seems to be out of thy right senses. 
 
 Franklin says there was a suspicion with some 
 that Mr. Whitfield would apply the contributions 
 he obtained to his own uses; but, for himself, he 
 never harbored such a thought. He was more or 
 less intimate with the great preacher, and printed 
 his sermons and journals for him; and he believed 
 him to be a thoroughly honest man, incapable of 
 taking any such mean advantage of his position. 
 Their friendship was sincere, and lasted as long 
 as both lived. Whitfield used to put up prayers 
 for Franklin s conversion, but the latter says he 
 
 never had the satisfaction of believing that his 
 U 
 
158 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 prayers were heard." To illustrate the character 
 of their friendship, Franklin relates the following 
 anecdote : " Upon one of his arrivals from Eng 
 land at Boston, he wrote to me that he should 
 come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where 
 he could lodge when there, as he understood his 
 old friend and host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to 
 Germantown. My answer was, You know my 
 house; if you can make shift with its scanty 
 accommodations, you will be most heartily wel 
 come. He replied, that if I made that kind offer 
 for Christ s sake, I should not miss of a reward. 
 And I returned, Don t let me be mistaken ; it 
 was not for Christ s sake, but for your sake. 
 
 According to Franklin s account, the great 
 preacher had a loud and clear voice, and articu 
 lated every word so perfectly that he could be 
 heard and understood a great ways. One evening, 
 while he was preaching from the Court House 
 steps in the middle of Market street, Franklin had 
 the curiosity to test the power of his voice, which 
 he did in the following ingenious manner. Both 
 Market and Second streets were filled to a consid 
 erable distance. Franklin was on the further edge 
 of the crowd in Market street, and kept retreating 
 gradually toward the river. He could bear WTiit- 
 
GEORGE WHITFIELD. 159 
 
 field s voice with distinctness until he came near 
 Front street, where the noise of that street obscured 
 it. With this basis of calculation, he imagined a 
 semicircular space, of which a direct line from 
 himself to the preacher should be the radius, 
 filled with people ; and, by allowing two square 
 feet to each person, he calculated that he could be 
 heard by more than thirty thousand people. This 
 estimate inclined him to believe the stories which 
 had been told of Whitfield s having preached to 
 twenty-five thousand people in the fields. 
 
 Franklin found he could soon detect one of his 
 new discourses from an old one ; the latter was 
 much better delivered, owing to the practice ob 
 tained in repeating it so many times. He says 
 that " every accent, every emphasis, every modu 
 lation of voice was so perfectly well turned and 
 well placed, that, without being interested in the 
 subject, one could not help being pleased with the 
 discourse, a pleasure of much the same kind 
 with that received from an excellent piece of 
 music." 
 
 The printing business of Franklin was rapidly 
 increasing, and he was becoming a man of means 
 and a substantial citizen. He now saw the actual 
 fruits of frugality, industry, and perseverance. 
 
160 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 His plans had thus far resulted just as he would 
 have had them. He writes of himself that he 
 now experienced the truth of an old remark, "that ? 
 after getting the first hundred pounds, it is more 
 easy to get the second," money having a wonder 
 ful faculty of multiplying itself. He engaged at 
 this time in several partnerships, having found the 
 one in South Carolina so profitable. Such of his 
 workmen as had behaved well he sent off into 
 other colonies, and helped them to establish print 
 ing-houses ; the larger part of them turned out 
 prosperously, being able, at the end of the term 
 of their engagement (six years), to purchase the 
 types of Franklin for themselves. In no single 
 partnership of this sort did he find himself with a 
 quarrel on his hands; they were all carried on, 
 and all ended, amicably. The great reason for 
 this good fortune he ascribed to the fact that, in 
 making engagements of this sort, every part of 
 the contract was clearly laid down and so well 
 understood in the first place, that there was no 
 possibilities of any future falling out. And this 
 point Franklin especially enjoins upon all persons 
 who are thinking of forming partnerships ; " for," 
 says he, " whatever esteem partners may have for, 
 or confidence in, each other at the time of the 
 
SOLDIERING. 161 
 
 contract, little jealousies and disgusts may arise, 
 with ideas of inequality in the care and burden, 
 business, etc., which are attended often with breach 
 of friendship and of the connection ; perhaps with 
 lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences." 
 
 There were two prime wants in the Pennsylva 
 nia colony, at this time, which Franklin turned 
 his attention to, in the hope of having them 
 speedily supplied ; there was no militia system, 
 and no college. The one was of the first import 
 ance as a matter of defence for the colony in these 
 troubled times, and the other was needed for the 
 proper education of youth. In the year 1743, 
 he drew up a plan for founding an academy, and 
 made an effort to obtain a teacher ; but the scheme 
 was laid aside for that year, and, in the following- 
 year, he brought forward with success his plans 
 for establishing a " Philosophical Society." 
 
 Spain was at war with Great Britain at this time, 
 and France had just joined her; this state of affairs 
 led the first citizens of Pennsylvania colony to 
 look around and see how they could ward off dan 
 ger from their boundaries. The Governor of the 
 colony, Thomas, had urged the Assembly (which 
 was composed of Quakers) in vain to pass a mili 
 tia law and make provision for defence ; and 
 
162 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Franklin resolved to try voluntary contributions. 
 For this purpose he printed a pamplet, to which 
 he gave the name PLAIN TRUTH ; and in the course 
 of it he set forth their helpless condition and 
 urged the need of immediate steps for defence, 
 adding that in a few days he should propose an 
 association to the people at large. 
 
 The pamphlet produced just the right effect. 
 The citizens without hesitation called upon the 
 author for his plan of association. He drew it up 
 hastily in connection with a few friends, and called 
 a general town meeting in the big building which 
 had been erected for liberal preaching. He had 
 previously prepared a number of copies of his new 
 plan, and placed pens and ink about the room 
 where access could readily be had to them. Then 
 after addressing the people on the subject, he 
 caused copies of his draft to be circulated, and 
 called on the people to subscribe their names with 
 out reserve. On counting up these names, after 
 the meeting adjourned, it was found that twelve 
 hundred men had subscribed to the new agree 
 ment; and after sending it abroad over the coun 
 try, the plan received the signatures of more than 
 ten thousand colonists ! 
 
 This was a good beginning. The " Plain Truth" 
 
SOLDIERING. 163 
 
 pamphlet had thus far done a noble work. This 
 large body of men provided themselves as soon as 
 they could with arms, formed themselves into com 
 panies, chose officers, and met every week for drill. 
 The women, not to be outdone in patriotism, made 
 silk colors for the several companies, painting and 
 working upon them such devices and mottoes as 
 Franklin supplied them with. 
 
 The officers of the regiment which w^as formed 
 in Philadelphia, met and chose Franklin their 
 Colonel. He felt that he was not qualified for the 
 post, and desired them to appoint a Mr. Lawrence 
 a gentleman of influence in his place, which 
 they finally did. The first thing to be done, after 
 this, w r as the erection of a battery below the town 
 and mounting it with cannon. The problem was, 
 how to supply the cannon. Franklin, whose wits 
 seemed always about him, proposed a lottery for 
 the purpose of defraying the expense of building 
 the battery ; and the tickets were soon taken up, 
 and the work on the battery speedily begun. The 
 defenses were merely of logs, filled in with earth. 
 
 The citizens bought some cannon in Boston : 
 and sent to London for some ; when they sent over 
 to the latter place, they put in their claims before 
 the Proprietaries of the province, hoping to in- 
 
164 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 duce them to offer their assistance to the young 
 settlement also. Col. Lawrence, Franklin, and 
 two other gentlemen meanwhile went to New 
 York, commissioned to ask of Gov. Clinton, in 
 the name of the association, a few pieces of can 
 non, as many as they could get from him. At 
 first, the Governor plumply refused ; but he was 
 again plied with their requests, while at dinner 
 with his Council, where much good old Madeira 
 was drunk, and he relented so far as to consent 
 to loan six. The wine still going round, he agreed 
 to let ten go ; and, at last, becoming still more 
 mellow, he consented to part with eighteen. They 
 were good pieces, eighteen-pounders, and mounted 
 on carriages. They were taken forthwith across 
 to Philadelphia, mounted on the battery, and all 
 ready for the approach of an enemy. A watch 
 was kept up by the signers to the military associa 
 tion, every night during the continuance of the 
 war ; and Franklin took his turn with the rest, in 
 pacing his weary walk beneath the stars. It was 
 his first experience as a common soldier. 
 
 Seeing of what worth he was in the community, 
 the Governor and Council immediately took him 
 into their confidence, and freely consulted him in 
 every instance where they believed they could fur- 
 
SOLDIERING. 165 
 
 ther the plans of the military organization. "With 
 his many other suggestions, he proposed that a 
 Fast Day should be observed, as was the custom, 
 at stated times in New England. He would have 
 them ask the blessing of Heaven on their under 
 taking. The Governor not being familiar with 
 the forms, and the Secretary being just as ignorant 
 of them, recourse was had to Franklin, who drew 
 the proclamation after the New England style ; 
 it was next translated into German and scattered 
 through the province. 
 
 Some of his friends feared that Franklin s ac 
 tivity in these war matters would make him un 
 popular with the Quakers, who were practically 
 peace men, and who had a large majority in the 
 Assembly. One young man, who had friends in 
 that body, and wished to be elected to the Clerk 
 ship himself, came and told him that it was deter 
 mined to defeat him at the next session; and 
 rather than see him disgraced in that way, he 
 coolly advised him to resign. Franklin informed 
 him, in reply, that he had once heard, or read, of 
 a public man who made it a rule never to ask for 
 an. office, and never to refuse it when offered him. 
 "I approve," said he, "of this rule, and shall 
 practice it with a small addition ; I shall never 
 
166 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 ask, never refuse, and never resign an office/ This 
 was plump and plain ; and his mousing competitor 
 must have gone away satisfied. Franklin, how 
 ever, was chosen Clerk at the next session ; they 
 could find no other reason for defeating him than 
 his connection with the war association, and they 
 did not care to put their action on that ground. 
 His testimony goes to show, in fact, that Quakers 
 would fight on the defensive, at any rate. 
 
 He relates one anecdote which illustrates their 
 peculiar feeling at that time. At a meeting of 
 their Fire Company, the same which he had 
 originated or set on foot, it was proposed to take 
 the sixty pounds which "belonged to the company 
 and invest it in lottery tickets for the erection of 
 the battery below the town. The matter had to 
 be laid over for discussion till the next meeting. 
 In the fire company were thirty members, twenty- 
 two of whom were Quakers. The eight outside 
 ones were very punctual at the meeting, although 
 they had no idea of carrying Quakers enough with 
 them to make up a majority for the project. Only 
 one Quaker, however, appeared to oppose the 
 scheme ; he was sorry the thing had been brought 
 up, for the Friends were all against it, and the fire 
 company was in danger of being broken up by it 
 
SOLDIERING. 167 
 
 He was answered, however, that nothing was 
 easier than for the Quakers to vote down the rest, 
 us they clearly outnumbered them, and the will 
 of the majority would of course be submitted to. 
 At last the hour came for bringing the matter to a 
 vote. Mr. Morris admitted that the rules allowed 
 them to do it, but there were a number not then 
 present, who intended to come in and vote against 
 it, and it would be only fair to give them time to 
 assemble. Just at this moment, a servant came 
 in and communicated to Franklin that a couple 
 of gentlemen below would like to speak with him. 
 He went down and found two members of the 
 company, Quakers. They told him there were 
 eight of them in a tavern close at hand, and that 
 they were all of them ready to come in and vote 
 for the proposal if it should be necessary, although 
 they would prefer not to be called upon if it could 
 be managed without them, since it would make 
 trouble for them with their friends. 
 
 Franklin went back up stairs feeling easier ; for 
 now he knew that he could carry a majority with 
 him in any case. He could afford to be magnani 
 mous, therefore, and agreed to wait another hour, 
 knowing well enough that a majority of his op 
 ponents would never come in. Mr. Morris ad 
 
168 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 mittcd that this second delay was extremely fair. 
 But after much waiting it was found that not one 
 of his side came in, and of course there was no 
 need of sending for the men at the tavern. So at 
 the expiration of the hour the motion was put and 
 carried, by a vote of eight to one ! This showed 
 how peaceful even Quakers were, when a war 
 pinch came. 
 
 The Quaker, too, who placed the sixty pounds in 
 Franklin s hands to purchase the lottery tickets 
 with, Mr. Logan, w T rote a pamphlet in favor of 
 defensive war. In the course of his many conver 
 sations with Franklin, he told him the following 
 anecdote of his old master, William Penn, hear 
 ing directly on that point: He came over from 
 England with him when a young man, as his Sec 
 retary. As it was in a time of war, the ship they 
 came in was chased by an armed vessel which was 
 supposed to be an enemy. The captain made 
 ready for defending his craft, but told Penn and 
 his company of Quakers that, as he did not expect 
 any help from them during the conflict, they were 
 at liberty to retire into the cabin. All of them 
 complied with the suggestion, except young Lo 
 gan ; he preferred to stay on deck and assist at 
 the defence ; and the officer appointed him to a 
 
SOLDIERING. 169 
 
 place at one of the guns. But it turned out that 
 the enemy was no enemy, and there was therefore 
 no fighting to do. When, however, the young 
 Secretary went below to communicate the news to 
 William Penn, the latter administered to him a 
 stern rebuke for doing as he had done, remain 
 ing upon deck and offering to take a part in the 
 defence ; and reminded him that it was contrary 
 to the principles of the Friends. Logan did not 
 exactly like to be rebuked in this style by his 
 master, before all the company. So he answered 
 to him " I being thy servant, why did thee not 
 order me to come down ? But thee was willing 
 enough that I should stay and help to fight the 
 ship, when thee thought there was danger !" 
 
 Franklin was many times amused, while in the 
 Assembly, to observe the little subterfuges and 
 excuses they resorted to, in order to help on the 
 Crown in matters of war, when called on for aid j 
 they were patriotic at heart, but peaceful on prin 
 ciple ; they hated to refuse the government, and 
 still would not offend one another by transgress 
 ing their own religious rules : whenever the As 
 sembly, therefore, which was by a large majority 
 Quaker, voted money for the defence of the pro 
 vince, it always took pains to word the grant as 
 
 15 
 
170 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 "for the King s use," but making no mention 
 how it was to be applied. "When powder was 
 wanted for the garrison at Louisburg, and New 
 England begged it of Pennsylvania, they refused 
 to grant money to buy powder, because that was 
 an article of war; but they roguishly voted to 
 place three thousand pounds in the hands of the 
 Governor, and appropriate it for the purchase of 
 bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. Some of tho 
 Council, with the hope of embarrassing the Gov 
 ernor, advised him not to accept provision, as that 
 was not what he had asked from the Assembly; 
 but he said he should do it nevertheless, " for I 
 understand very well their meaning ; other grain 
 is gunpowder." And the "other grain" was 
 bought by him for New England, and no objection 
 made to it, either. 
 
 Had the proposal before the fire company to 
 invest the company s money in lottery tickets 
 failed to pass, Franklin said he should have 
 moved to purchase a fire engine with it ; and, if 
 that plan had passed, he should have bought a 
 "great gun," which is a fire engine, beyond a 
 doubt. 
 
 Having invented, only three or four years 
 before, an open stove for the better warming of 
 
A PHILOSOPHER. 171 
 
 rooms and the saving of fuel, he prose nted his 
 model to his friend, Robert Grace, who owned a 
 furnace and found the casting of the stove plates 
 very profitable, the stoves being in active demand. 
 In order to extend the sale of his new stove still 
 more, he wrote and published a pamphlet, styled 
 "An Account of the new-invented Pennsyl- 
 vanian Fire-places," &c., &c. The pamphlet had 
 an excellent effect in the direction intended. The 
 Governor was so well pleased with the construc 
 tion of the stove, from merely reading its descrip 
 tion in the pamphlet, that he offered to give 
 Franklin a patent, with the sole right to sell all 
 the stoves manufactured under it, for three years 
 to come ; but the latter declined the gift, in 
 obedience to a rule which he says ever weighed 
 with him on such occasions, "that, as we enjoy 
 great advantages from the inventions of others, 
 we should be glad of an opportunity to serve 
 others by any invention of ours ; and this we 
 should do freely and generously." 
 
 The "Franklin Stove" was known to the 
 people of the present generation, and remained 
 an ornament in many a parlor and living-room 
 until coal so generally superseded the use of 
 wood. 
 
172 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 We may now consider Franklin well started on 
 his career as a Philosopher. In the succeeding 
 chapter, we shall show how he applied his invent 
 ive talent and acute observation to the devising 
 of various schemes by which his fellow-citizens 
 would be made more comfortable and happy. 
 
GETTING FAME. 173 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GETTING FAME. 
 
 AS soon as the war was over, Franklin gave 
 over all further thought about the Asso 
 ciation, of course ; and the next plan to 
 which he turned his attention was the establish 
 ment of an Academy. To bring the matter 
 before the public, he first associated himself with 
 a number of friends from the Junto, and next 
 published a pamphlet, styled " Proposals relating 
 to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. * 
 By distributing this freely among the people, 
 without cost, he prepared their minds for the 
 proposal which he was all ready to make to them ; 
 which was, to start a subscription for opening and 
 supporting an academy, the sums subscribed by 
 each person to be paid in yearly instalments for 
 five years. He believed that he could raise more 
 money by dividing the burden in this way. Nor, 
 
 15* 
 
174 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 indeed, was his calculation out of the way, for he 
 secured about five thousand pounds. 
 
 He did not bring himself forward as the author 
 of the scheme, and therefore secured for it more 
 immediate favor. The subscribers chose twenty- 
 four trustees to carry the plan out, and appointed 
 the Attorney- General, Mr. Francis, and himself, 
 to draft a proper Constitution. All signed the 
 articles, teachers were hired, and the school 
 opened without further delay. 
 
 This was in the year 1749. The pupils came 
 in so fast that it was found necessary to find 
 larger quarters for them; and the committee were 
 looking for a place to erect a building upon, when 
 the large structure erected for the Whitfield meet 
 ings was suggested to them, and arrangements 
 soon completed for its occupancy. Franklin 
 chanced to be a member of the Board of Trustees 
 for the Church and the Academy both; and he 
 was the more convenient agent for carrying out 
 the transaction. The Church trustees were ready 
 to dispose of the property, because the enthusiasm 
 which was first excited over the project had been 
 by this time far spent, and for the additional 
 reason that they (the trustees) could not raise 
 money enough to pay the ground rent with regu- 
 
GETTING FAME. 175 
 
 larity; and Franklin brought about a cession of 
 the property to the trustees of the new Academy, 
 on condition that the latter should discharge this 
 debt, and likewise keep open in the building a 
 hall for occasional preachers, as was the original 
 intention, and, furthermore, support a free school 
 for the instruction of poor children. 
 
 The property changed hands with this under 
 standing, and the great building at once under 
 went many changes. The high hall was con 
 verted into stories, and rooms were constructed, 
 above and below, for the convenience of the 
 scholars. The entire labor came on Franklin s 
 shoulders, buying materials, agreeing with the 
 workmen, and overseeing the operations. But 
 he got through it successfully, and the scholars 
 were all moved in. 
 
 He was arrived at a condition of decided pros 
 perity by this time, and could well give his time 
 to public business of this sort. Only the year 
 before he had taken a capable and trusty partner, 
 David Hall by name, who had already been in his 
 employ for four years ; and he found, by this new 
 arrangement, that all the business was taken off 
 his hands, Mr. Hall assuming full charge of the 
 printing-office and paying him over his share of 
 
176 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 
 
 the profits of the establishment. They went on 
 together in this manner for eighteen years, and 
 success attended them through, the whole of that 
 long term. With the leisure which was now at 
 his disposal, he gave much attention to the inter 
 ests of the Academy. A charter of incorporation 
 was obtained from the Governor, and land was 
 ceded by the Proprietaries of the province, and 
 money contributed by friends in England ; the 
 Assembly also gave its aid, and in due time this 
 beginning resulted in what is known as the Uni 
 versity of Pennsylvania. Franklin continued one 
 of its trustees for forty years ; and he lived to see 
 many of its pupils filling important stations and 
 adorning the State to which they owed their birth 
 and education. 
 
 He had just begun to feel easy in the assurance 
 that he had now fortune enough to secure to him 
 all the leisure he wanted for the prosecution of 
 his philosophical studies, to which he intended to 
 devote the remainder of his life. He had pur 
 chased the apparatus of Dr. Spence, who was 
 come over from England to lecture in Philadel 
 phia, and entered upon his electrical experiments 
 with great enthusiasm. So far, very well: bat 
 the public, seeing that he had this leisure on his 
 
GETTING FAME. 177 
 
 hands, coveted it of him ; they meant to lay hold 
 of his time and talents both, and make them 
 serviceable for the general good. 
 
 He was called into almost every branch of 
 public life. By the Governor he was made a 
 Justice of the Peace ; the city corporation made 
 him at first a member of the Common Council, 
 and afterwards an Alderman ; and the citizens at 
 large elected him to represent them in the 
 Assembly. He was grateful for the last post: 
 for he confessed that he had become tired, long 
 ago, of hearing the debates in his clerk s seat, 
 without the privilege of taking part in them, and 
 he felt that his power and influence would very 
 much expand by the new gift. His ambition, too, 
 was not a little flattered by the election, for he 
 considered that, starting from what he styled his 
 " low beginnings," it was a great thing for him. 
 But, better than all, he was glad to know he was 
 held in such esteem by his countrymen. 
 
 After sitting as Justice for a few times, he 
 found that his limited knowledge of law hardly 
 allowed him to act in that capacity, and he accord 
 ingly withdrew from it, offering by way of excuse 
 that he was called upon to attend to his duties aa 
 
178 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 a legislator. He took his seat in the House, and 
 his son was appointed Clerk. 
 
 In the following year, he was appointed by the 
 House, together with the Speaker, a Commis 
 sioner to make a treaty with the Indians at Car 
 lisle. Arriving at that place among them, the 
 Commission ordered that the red men should 
 have not a drop of liquor sold them, as they were 
 very apt to get drunk and to become disorderly. 
 The Indians made sore complaint about it ; and, 
 to quiet them, they were told that, if they would 
 keep sober while the treaty was under discussion, 
 they should have plenty of rum afterwards. This 
 agreement was faithfully carried out. But when 
 they got their rum at last, the business having all 
 been finished, they made a famous powwow over it. 
 There were nearly a hundred of them in all, 
 men, women, and children, and they lodged in 
 cabins, erected in the form of a square, just out 
 side the town. 
 
 The Commissioners heard a wild noise among 
 them in the evening, and walked over to see what 
 was the cause of it. They found their red breth 
 ren had kindled a large bonfire in the middle of 
 the square, around which they were dancing, and 
 
GETTING FAME. 179 
 
 yelling, and quarrelling. Men and women were 
 mixed together, and all were drunk. Franklin 
 said that " their dark-colored bodies, half-naked, 
 seen only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, run 
 ning after and beating one another with fire 
 brands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, 
 formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of 
 hell that could well be imagined." The Com 
 missioners found they could do nothing with 
 them, and therefore went back to their lodgings. 
 About midnight, they were startled by thunder- 
 ings at their door, which turned out to be the 
 Indians, come for more rum ; but no notice was 
 taken of them. 
 
 They were conscious that they had done wrong, 
 however, and the next day sent over three of their 
 oldest counsellors with an apology. The one who 
 spoke for the others acknowledged their fault, but 
 he laid it to the rum ; and then, wishing to say a 
 good word for the rum, gave the following ex 
 planation : " The Great Spirit, who made all 
 things, made everything for some use ; and what 
 ever use he designed anything for, that use it 
 should always be put to. "Now, when he made 
 rum, he said, Let this be for the Indians to ge: 
 drunk with ! and it must be so." 
 
180 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Franklin was appealed to, in the year 1751, to 
 aid in establishing a hospital in Philadelphia, for 
 the reception and cure of poor sick persons, 
 whether they happened to belong to the province 
 or were strangers. A subscription had already 
 been set on foot for it, but thus far little had been 
 accomplished ; the plan was a novelty in the 
 country, and few had sufficient confidence in it 
 to give it a start. At length Franklin was ap 
 proached on the subject. He was told that no 
 public measure could be carried through unless 
 he was at the bottom of it. Everybody who had 
 been addressed upon this hospital scheme, wished 
 to know first what Franklin thought about it. 
 People would commit themselves to nothing 
 until they heard from him. 
 
 So he took hold, and, after his usual method, 
 began by writing brief articles on the subject for 
 the newspapers. The subscriptions increased at 
 once ; yet not fast enough to warrant the success 
 of the plan without help from the Assembly. 
 He therefore drew a petition to that body. The 
 country members had no relish for the project; 
 their objection was, that it would only be of ser 
 vice to the city, and that the citizens should defray 
 the expense. They even doubted if the inhabit- 
 
GETTING FAME. 181 
 
 ants of Philadelphia were in favor of the plan 
 themselves ; but Franklin assured them they were 
 greatly mistaken, for he had no doubt about rais 
 ing at least two thousand pounds by voluntary con 
 tributions. They were faithless, but he went for 
 ward with his plan. The bill of incorporation 
 was drawn with the condition, that when the con 
 tributors to the stock should organize and raise 
 two thousand pounds, and satisfy the Speaker of 
 the Assembly that that sum had been raised, 
 then the Speaker was authorized and required to 
 draw on the provincial treasurer for two thousand 
 pounds more, in two yearly payments, "for the 
 founding, building and finishing of the hospital." 
 The money raised by the contributors was to be 
 put at interest, and the income applied to the ac 
 commodation of the sick poor in the hospital. On 
 this condition the bill was passed. E~o difficulty 
 was found in raising the whole sum desired, for 
 every contributor felt that for each pound that he 
 gave the province was to give another. 
 
 A handsome building was speedily erected for 
 the hospital, and the project went into practical 
 and successful operation immediately afterward. 
 Franklin said that none of his subsequent " politi 
 cal manoeuvres" gave him more pleasure; and 
 
 16 
 
182 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 none furnished him more readily with excuses for 
 using a little cunning. 
 
 Next came to him a clergyman with a request 
 that he would help him in getting up a subscrip 
 tion for huilding a new meeting-house. He at 
 once refused ; he was not willing to make himself 
 disagreeable to his fellow-citizens by dunning 
 them for alms. The clergyman then wished him 
 to furnish him with a list of the names of the most 
 generous and willing givers ! But Franklin 
 thought and thought correctly that a man s 
 generosity should not make him an object to be 
 worried by beggars, and he refused. Finally, 
 seeing he could get no more, the man asked him 
 for his advice. " That I will give you," answered 
 Franklin. "In the first place, I advise you to ap 
 ply to all those who you know will give some 
 thing ; next, to those who you are uncertain 
 whether they will give anything or not, and show 
 them the list of those who have given ; and lastly, 
 do not neglect those who you are sure will give 
 nothing, for in some of them you may be mis 
 taken." The man laughed, thanked him, and 
 promised to do as he bade him. He very soon 
 raised a large sum from his beggings, and a hand 
 some church was erected by the means. 
 
GETTING FAME. 183 
 
 The next public matter which urged itself upon 
 his attention was the condition of the streets. His 
 mind was active respecting everything that con 
 cerned the great body of his fellow-citizens. The 
 streets of Philadelphia were laid at right-angles, 
 giving the whole city a beautiful regularity. But 
 they had never been paved, and in wet weather 
 were difficult to traverse with carriages, owing to 
 the thickness of the mud. Living himself near 
 Jersey market, he had noticed with much uneasi 
 ness that the people frequenting the place, to pur 
 chase provisions, were obliged to stand in the 
 mud; but while standing or walking inside the 
 market, where was a long strip of brick pavement, 
 they were at once dry and comfortable. 
 
 Seeing what accumulations were brought to the 
 pavement from the street, he was led to hire a 
 poor man to sweep it twice each week, sweeping 
 the dirt from before the neighbors doors likewise, 
 paying him sixpence a month for each house. 
 Once more he had resort to writing and printing, 
 and placed in each house a paper, setting forth the 
 advantages of this outside cleanliness ; and in a 
 few days he went around to see how many persons 
 would subscribe to an agreement to pay these six 
 pences for sweeping. The greater part of those 
 
184 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 called on agreed to the plan, and the pavement 
 around their houses was kept so clean as to attract 
 the attention of the people of the city at large. Out 
 of this little manoeuvre sprang a scheme to pave 
 the whole city, for which the inhabitants were 
 very willing to be taxed. 
 
 Franklin drew up a bill for that purpose, just 
 before he went to England, in 1757, and introduced 
 it into the Assembly. It was not passed, however, 
 until after he had left, and then with alterations ; 
 but one of them was a proposal to light the streets, 
 as well as to pave them. The lighting was done 
 by an individual, who placed a lamp above his own 
 door that the people might see for themselves the 
 advantage of the plan. They were at that time 
 supplied with globe lamps from London ; but 
 Franklin subsequently improved the form of them. 
 His improvement consisted in making the lamps 
 with four flat panes, with a long funnel to draw 
 up the smoke, and holes at the bottom to admit 
 the air for draught. They were thus kept clean, 
 and continued bright till morning, not clouding 
 up with smoke in a few hours like the London 
 lamps; and if they were broken, only a single 
 pane had to fee replaced, instead of an entirely 
 new lamp. 
 
GETTING FAME. 18f) 
 
 ID this, and in other ways. Franklin made him 
 self continually useful to his fellow-citizens. He 
 would see them surrounded with as many comforts 
 as providence could secure ; and to that end his 
 observation was always awake, and his faculties 
 on the alert to second such suggestions as occurred 
 to him. He looked after the streets, the pave 
 ments, the lamps, the public institutions ; the in 
 habitants felt that they had a willing servant in so 
 excellent a citizen. He conducted his experiments 
 in philosophy at the same time, and continually 
 made advancement in his scientific studies. What 
 he had to communicate to the public through his 
 newspaper was given in brief and pithy appeals, 
 each of them stuffed out with an anecdote, or 
 shrewdly wise saying, which moved the popular 
 mind much sooner than if written in the form of 
 a speech or a sermon. No man knew better than 
 Franklin how to turn his talents and his time to 
 practical account. 
 
 He had been employed by the Postmaster-Gene 
 ra, of America, for some time previous to 1753, as 
 his comptroller to regulate the business of a good 
 many offices, and to keep the accounts of the offi 
 cers always under his eye ; and as that officer died in 
 the year just named, Franklin, along with William 
 
 16* 
 
186 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Hunter, was appointed by a commission from the 
 Postmaster-General of England to succeed him. 
 Up to that time, the American office had never 
 paid a pound of revenue into the general office of 
 the parent country ; and, to pay the new appointees 
 their salary, they were to be allowed six hundred 
 pounds a year between them, provided the office 
 would yield that amount of profits. 
 
 To bring about a remunerative state of things, 
 they were obliged to resort to many expedients. 
 They were forced to make improvements of every 
 sort, and the first cost of the same was so great 
 that they were out of pocket by it, at the end of 
 the first four years, to the amount of more than 
 nine hundred pounds. After that, however, the 
 money began to come in ; and during the time 
 Franklin administered its affairs, it was made to 
 pay three times as much revenue to the Crown as 
 the post-office of Ireland. 
 
 His business in connection with the post-office 
 sent him forth on various journeys. That very 
 year he travelled to ~New England, and was honored 
 with the title of Master of Arts by Harvard Uni 
 versity. But Yale College, in New Haven, had 
 been before Harvard with a similar merited com 
 pliment. In this way, he says, " without studying 
 
GETTING FAME. 187 
 
 in any college, I came to partake of their honors." 
 They were conferred on him for his discoveries in 
 electricity, and his additions to that branch of 
 natural philosophy. 
 
 His philosophical reputation took its rise from 
 an accidental meeting in Boston, in the year 
 1746, with a Dr. Spence from Scotland, who had 
 brought over with him certain instruments with 
 the design of lecturing and experimenting on 
 electricity. This man was not very expert at his 
 business, yet what Franklin saw was sufficient to 
 surprise and delight him. Not long after he re 
 turned to Philadelphia, their library association 
 received a glass tube as a present from Mr. Peter 
 Collinson, of London, Fellow of the Royal Society, 
 with an account of the manner of using it for ex 
 periments of that character. Franklin eagerly 
 improved the opportunity offered to repeat what 
 had so pleased him, in Boston ; and after much 
 practice, he was able to perform not only what he 
 had seen there, but likewise those experiments of 
 which accounts had been written him from Eng 
 land, and to originate several new ones himself. 
 These electric phenomena were the wonder of the 
 day; his house was continually thronged with 
 
188 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 persons, come to see the astonishing things that 
 were performed. 
 
 Finding this a little more of a burden than he 
 cared to shoulder alone, he adroitly managed to 
 divide it up among others, and by this means to 
 make more rapid progress with his experiments. 
 He had a number of glass tubes blown at the glass 
 house in Philadelphia, similar to the one sent 
 them from London, and furnished them to his 
 friends. The person who proved most serviceable 
 to him was a neighbor named Hinnersley, who 
 happened to be out of business, and whom Frank 
 lin encouraged to make exhibition of the experi 
 ments for money. He was an ingenious person 
 withal, and just such an one as would be likely to 
 spread the fame of these wonderful novelties in 
 scientific discovery. Franklin wrote for him a 
 couple of lectures, sketching the experiments with 
 their explanations in order. He had an elegant 
 apparatus constructed for himself, in which all of 
 Franklin s roughly formed machines were neatly 
 made by regular instrument makers. His lectures 
 drew large audiences, and pleased all. He de 
 livered them in all the chief towns and cities of 
 the colonies, and, as Franklin expresses it, "picked 
 up some money." It was found that in the West 
 
GETTING FAME. 189 
 
 India Islands, however, owing to the moisture of 
 the atmosphere, the experiments could be made 
 only with much difficulty. 
 
 The next thing done by Franklin and his little 
 knot of scientific students, was to send back word 
 to England, to Mr. Collinson, who had presented 
 them with the tube and an account of its use in 
 producing electrical phenomena, the result thus 
 far of their doings. Accordingly, Franklin wrote 
 him several letters, filled with recitals of their ex 
 periments at Philadelphia. Mr. Collinson pro 
 cured them to be read before the Royal Society ; 
 but none of the members of that very learned body 
 thought them of importance, or even of interest, 
 sufficient to merit publication in their regular 
 " Transactions." There was one paper, in particu 
 lar, that caused actual mirth among those connois 
 seurs in science : it was one which Franklin had 
 drawn up for Mr. Khmersley, his neighbor and 
 the lecturer, in which he maintained that elec 
 tricity was the same thing with lightning. Frank 
 lin had sent a copy of it to a friend of his in Lon 
 don, who was a member of the Royal Society; all 
 the response he was able to get respecting it was 
 that it had been read before the members and 
 laughed down. 
 
190 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 "When Dr. Fothergill read these American ac 
 counts, however, he saw, as by instinct, the great 
 value of them, and advised to their printing. Mr. 
 Collinson then handed them to Cave, to be pub 
 lished in the Gentleman s Magazine ; but it was 
 thought best by him to put them forth in a distinct 
 pamphlet, to which Dr. Fothergill wrote the pre 
 face. The additions which were afterwards added 
 to this first account swelled the pamphlet to the 
 size of a quarto volume, which passed through 
 many editions. 
 
 These discoveries, however, failed to attract 
 much attention in England for a long time, owing, 
 no doubt, to the neglect they received at the hands 
 of the Royal Society ; but a copy of the pam 
 phlet, with its additions, happened to fall into 
 the hands of Count Buffon, a philosopher of 
 great fame not only in France but throughout 
 Europe, who prevailed on M. Dubourg to trans 
 late them into French, and to have the whole 
 printed in Paris. The Abbe Collet was the pre 
 ceptor in natural philosophy to the royal family, 
 and had made many experiments in reference to 
 electricity, which were the basis of a theory then 
 generally accepted. To such a person Franklin s 
 startling discoveries were, of course, not at all ac- 
 
GETTING FAME. 191 
 
 ceptable, since they tended to overthrow his whole 
 theory and impair his reputation with the public 
 as a philosopher. He was actually offended at the 
 publication of Franklin s pamphlet. He would 
 not believe that any experiments of the sort had 
 ever been made in America, but preferred to think 
 that his enemies at Paris had fabricated these ac 
 counts on purpose to oppose his system. But 
 being assured, some time afterward, that there 
 really was such a person at Philadelphia as Benja 
 min Franklin, and that he had made these experi 
 ments and discoveries relative to electricity, he 
 wrote and printed a series of letters for the public 
 eye, but ostensibly addressed to Franklin, in which 
 he defended his own theory of electricity, denied 
 the truth of Franklin s experiments, and scouted 
 the inferences which the latter drew from them. 
 
 Franklin at one time thought of writing and 
 publishing a reply to this volume of the Abbe s ; 
 but, on reflection, it occurred to him that, at best, 
 it would be but a war of words, while the facts, as 
 set down in his pamphlet, would speak for them 
 selves. If these facts could not be verified, on one 
 side of the Atlantic as well as the other, then they 
 could not be defended ; the only way would be, 
 to keep on multiplying the facts, and let then) 
 
192 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 make their own way. Besides, even having tht, 
 advantage of truth on his side, he felt sure that a 
 controversy carried on in two different languages 
 was liable to much looseness, and the chances 
 therefore were that it would end in dissatisfaction 
 to themselves and disgust to the public. He went 
 on with his experiments, therefore, instead of 
 spending his time in unprofitable discussion, and 
 in this respect proved the wisdom of which he was 
 really possessed. 
 
 His silence never caused him regret. It was not 
 necessary for him to defend his book, or to come 
 to the rescue of his facts. The volume was soon 
 translated into the Italian, German, and Latin 
 languages, and its doctrines were gradually adopted 
 by the philosophers of Europe, in preference to 
 those held by the Abbe Collet, M. Le Roy, a 
 friend of Franklin, and a member of the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences, of France, took up the pen 
 in defence of the new discoveries and theories 
 of the latter, completely refuting the Abbe, and 
 rendering any further attention at Franklin s 
 hands unnecessary. 
 
 There was one thing that helped to bring the 
 book of Franklin into immediate notice, and to 
 give it even celebrity ; that was the brilliant sue- 
 
GETTING FAME. 193 
 
 cess of one of the experiments which were set 
 down in it, which was tried by Messieurs De Lor 
 and Dalibard, at Marly, for drawing down light 
 ning from the clouds. So bold an experiment, 
 and one unheard of before, challenged the pro- 
 foundest curiosity of scientific men and excited 
 the unbounded admiration of all who heard of it. 
 Nothing was talked of, at the time, but this one 
 absorbing matter. M. De Lor likewise had an 
 apparatus for trying philosophical experiments, 
 and was in the habit of lecturing. In his lectures 
 on Electricity, he undertook to repeat what then 
 went by the name of the " Philadelphia Experi 
 ments." When once they had been performed in 
 the presence of the French King and his Court, 
 all Paris flocked afterwards to witness them. 
 
 The experiment of drawing down the lightnings 
 from the heavens, which was to demonstrate that 
 they and electricity were one and the same sub 
 stance, it was ordained that Franklin should make, 
 with the simple means which were at his command ; 
 and the story of it belongs in this very place. He 
 had gone far enough to be assured that in many 
 points they closely resembled one another; one 
 final test only remained to be made. 
 
 What attracts us more than all to his character? 
 
 17 
 
194 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 too, in spite of what flippant modern writers say 
 of his penurious maxims and saving habits, is the 
 perfect openness of it, lying exposed, as it did, to 
 the advantage or the criticism of all. He kept no 
 part of it selfishly in reserve. "While he was con 
 ducting the great experiment to which we allude, 
 he never sought to shut out the light that had 
 already reached him from the eyes of other in 
 quirers, but published his ideas as fast as they 
 occurred to him, and freely invited all other 
 students of philosophy to pursue the same object 
 with himself. 
 
 His original plan for drawing the electric fluid 
 from the clouds was by raising insulated bars of 
 iron to great heights in the air. On this hint, the 
 experimenters in England and France practised 
 with metallic bars, but nothing decisive came of 
 it. At length the true mode occurred to him. 
 Like all of the grand discoveries of the age, it 
 was effected through the simplest means. He 
 made a kite of silk, choosing that rather than 
 paper because the rain would not harm it, to which 
 he fixed a slender barb, or point, of iron. The 
 string by which the kite was held was also of silk, 
 and at the end of the string, just below his hand, 
 hung a key. 
 
GETTING FAME. 195 
 
 "With so simple an instrument as this, he went 
 out into the suburbs of Philadelphia one day when 
 a thunder storm was coming over the town, and 
 set his kite flying toward the clouds. What great 
 results, in the line of discoveries, hung on that 
 single little experiment! The lightning in the 
 clouds soon caught his point of iron at the head 
 of the kite, and, traversing the kite, found its 
 swift way along the rudely constructed silken 
 string. He could himself see that the fibres of 
 silk were raised by the subtle contact. Now came 
 the moment of his great anxiety and his triumph. 
 Applying his knuckle to the key which hung from 
 the end of the string, he drew from it a living 
 spark ! Again and again he did so, and each time 
 with similar success. He then charged a vial 
 which he had at hand with the fluid, drawing it 
 from the clouds through the key, and found it 
 would explode gunpowder, set spirits of wine on 
 fire, and perform all other tricks which were per 
 formed by electricity itself. 
 
 The experiment was a success. The printer- 
 philosopher had made a discovery from which 
 consequences of the most important character 
 were to be secured to the human family. His 
 
196 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 pleasure it is no part of our task to attempt to 
 describe. 
 
 To this account of his great experiment with 
 the kite should he added a recital of some of the 
 various little electrical amusements with which he 
 relaxed his mind in the intervals of his severer 
 studies, and entertained the friends who were in 
 the hahit of frequenting his house. One of these 
 was "the Magic Pistol," an instrument which he 
 charged with inflammable air, stopped with a cork, 
 and fired by means of a charged rod near the 
 pistol s mouth. On drawing the rod, the electric 
 spark flew in, and the inflammable air was set on 
 fire. Out went the cork with a sharp report, 
 hitting any object against which it might be aimed. 
 
 Another was a set of toys, composed of little 
 dogs made of elder pith, with straw feet and tails. 
 He would place these little fellows upon the table, 
 and, taking a large tumbler, or receiver, which 
 had been charged with the fluid, clapped it sud 
 denly over them. Upon this they all began to 
 dance and skip about, and to make attempts to 
 run up the sides of the glass, as if to get out. 
 These Franklin used to call his " dancing dogs." 
 
 Still another was a plate of tin, cut into the 
 form of a star, and secure to the end of a, prime 
 
GETTING FAME. 197 
 
 conductor. On putting out the caadles, and 
 making a turn or two of the jar, the fluid danced 
 and shimmered at all the angles of the cut tin- 
 plate, and made a light as "beautiful as it is possible 
 to conceive. He called this toy "the electric 
 star." 
 
 Another was more ingenious than the foregoing, 
 and intended to illustrate a well-known Scripture 
 story. He had a large picture of a man dressed in 
 purple and fine linen, and behind it stood concealed 
 an electrical jar. A little way off was a small 
 brass pillar, and by it lay a ragged beggar. Sus 
 pended from the ceiling, and reaching down to 
 the table on which stood the jar, was the picture 
 of a boy, beautiful, and of an angelic expression. 
 The picture of the man who was dressed in purple 
 and fine linen he called Dives ; while that of the 
 beautiful boy he named the Son of Dives ; the 
 poor man reclining at the base of the post he called 
 Lazarus. His trick was to make Dives, who had 
 in his imaginary lifetime refused to help Lazarus, 
 now administer comfort and aid to him through 
 his son. In order to do this, he charged the con 
 cealed jar with electricity. This drew the youth 
 to it, who, on being charged with the fluid, flew 
 in great haste to the brass pillar at the foot of which 
 17* 
 
198 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 lay Lazarus, and there discharged his whole burden. 
 On being thus relieved, he once more hastened 
 back to the jar behind Dives, although to the 
 spectator he only appeared to approach Dives 
 himself, where he got his second load, which he 
 emptied at the feet of Lazarus as before. After 
 he had equalized the quantity of electric fluid 
 between them, by thus taking from one and giving 
 to the other, he rested satisfied. This toy he 
 named "Dives and Lazarus." 
 
 The Royal Society of London by this time took 
 up the serious consideration of the letters he had 
 some time before sent over to them, but which 
 had been until then superciliously neglected. They 
 felt obliged to do so from very shame, in order to 
 keep abreast with the new discoveries ; the Paris 
 Society had received and considered them with 
 enthusiasm, and its London associate was forced 
 to do what it had so long and so ignorantly refused 
 to do. 
 
 They paid Franklin the compliment of choosing 
 him a member; excused him from paying the 
 customary fees ; and presented him with the Cop 
 ley gold medal for 1753, which was accompanied 
 with a highly complimentary speech by the Presi 
 dent of the Society, Lord Macclesfield. 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 199 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AS A MILITARY MAN. 
 
 THE lords of trade in the mother country 
 sent over orders, in 1754, that a Congress of 
 Commissioners from the several colonies 
 should be held at Albany, to confer with the chiefs 
 of the Six Nations, Indian tribes in central and 
 western K"ew York, about the defence of the 
 country of both peoples against the expected in 
 vasion of France. "War with France was just 
 then apprehended by Great Britain, which after 
 wards did break out, and became a protracted 
 contest on this side of the Atlantic for the posses 
 sion of the continent. It lasted some seven years, 
 and is known in history as the old French and 
 Indian "War. 
 
 The Governor of Pennsylvania named four per 
 sons to constitute the commission for that colony, 
 among whom was Benjamin Franklin. They took 
 with them presents for the Indians, and met with 
 
200 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 the commissioners from the other cohnies, at 
 Albany, about the middle of June. They stopped 
 in New York on their way to Albany, and Frank 
 lin laid before two gentlemen of wide experience 
 in public affairs in that city Mr. James Alexander 
 and Mr. Kennedy, a plan which he had devised 
 for an Union of all the colonies under one government, 
 for the common defence and other purposes. This 
 was, in fact, the quiet suggestion which proved the 
 forerunner of the great federative movement made 
 twenty years later. It seemed as if there then lay 
 in Franklin s brain the germ of the scheme which 
 was to secure the independence of the colonies. 
 
 On reaching Albany, his plan for an union having 
 met the approbation of the two gentlemen named, 
 he lost no time in presenting it to the Congress. 
 He found that other commissioners had likewise 
 projected plans of a similar character. The first 
 step taken, therefore, was to put it to a vote 
 whether such an union should be formed ; and it 
 was decided in the affirmative without a dissenting 
 vote. Upon this, a committee of one from each 
 colony was raised, to consider the several plans 
 which were brought in, and duly report upon 
 them. The committee gave Franklin s plan the 
 preference over the others, and reported it back to 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 201 
 
 the Congress with a few amendments. As this 
 plan of union is become an important matter in 
 our history as a nation, room may be claimed here 
 for a statement of its features, and its history. 
 
 In the first place, the general government of the 
 colonies thus united was to be administered by a 
 President-General, who should receive his appoint 
 ment and support from England. $Text, a grand 
 Council was to be elected by the colonial assem 
 blies, which were the direct representatives of the 
 people. The Congress took it up and debated it, 
 at the same time that the Indian business was 
 under discussion. All. the objections possible to 
 raise against it were brought up, discussed, and 
 finally removed; and at length the scheme was 
 adopted by the body of commissioners, and copies 
 of it were ordered to be sent to the Board of 
 Trade in London, as well as to the Assemblies of 
 the various colonies. 
 
 The assemblies refused to adopt it, because they 
 thought it gave too much power over colonial affairs 
 to the crown ; while the English government re 
 fused its sanction to the measure, because it deemed 
 the scheme much too democratic, leaving more power 
 in the hands of the people of the colonies than was 
 consist ert with the supreme control of the mother 
 
202 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 government. It was not adopted by the Board of 
 Trade, nor did that body recommend it to the favor 
 of the king. But in place of it, they projected 
 another scheme, which they professed to believe a 
 much better one. It was as follows : that the 
 Governors of the provinces, together with a stated 
 number of members of their Councils, should 
 meet whenever they thought best, and order troops 
 to be raised, forts to be built, and draw on the 
 treasury of Great Britain for money to defray the 
 expense; and the money thus drawn from the 
 English treasury was to be paid back again by a 
 tax laid by Parliament on the American provinces. 
 In the winter of 1754-5, Franklin was in Boston, 
 and exchanged views often with Governor Shirley 
 on the plans both of the Congress and of Great 
 Britain. The letters which passed between them 
 form a part of the most interesting history of that 
 important period. Franklin was always inclined 
 to believe that his proposed plan was the safe and 
 proper one, because it was so strongly liked and 
 opposed. He thought it would have been better 
 for the country if it had then been adopted; for 
 the colonies, united in this way, would have been 
 strong enough to take care of themselves ; there 
 would have been no need of bringing over troops 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 203 
 
 from England; and, in that way, the pretext 
 which was afterwards raised in Great Britain for 
 taxing the colonies could never have existed, 
 and the long and weary war which ensued in con 
 sequence of the tax, would have been wholly 
 avoided. But, says Franklin, moralizing on this 
 point, "the best public measures are seldom 
 adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the 
 occasion." The plan of union, as proposed by 
 Franklin, met with the approbation of the Governor 
 of Pennsylvania, however, who spoke. of it "as 
 appearing to be drawn up with great clearness and 
 strength of judgment;" and he recommended it 
 to the Assembly " as well worthy of their closest 
 and most serious attention." But in Franklin s 
 absence, it was unfairly brought up by a member, 
 who, by artful management, procured it to be con 
 demned by the House. 
 
 Stopping in "New York on his way to Boston, he 
 met there the newly appointed Pennsylvania 
 Governor, just come over from Europe, Governor 
 Morris, with whom he had had a previous familiar 
 acquaintance. Governor Hamilton had resigned 
 his office, tired of the disputes that were set agoing 
 by his instructions from the Proprietors, who re 
 sided in England. Governor Morris asked Frank- 
 
204 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 lin if lie might anticipate for himself as unquiet 
 and troublesome an administration. "No," said 
 the latter; "you may, on the contrary, have a 
 very comfortable one, if you will only take care 
 not to enter into any dispute with the Assembly." 
 "My dear friend," was the reply of Morris, "how 
 can you advise my avoiding disputes ? You know 
 I love disputing ; it is one of my greatest pleasures. 
 However, to show the regard I have for your 
 counsel, I promise you I will, if possible, avoid 
 them." And on this general practice of disputa 
 tion, let us here quote the words of so wise a man 
 as Dr. Franklin. He says that Morris " had some 
 reason for loving to dispute, being eloquent, an 
 acute sophister, and therefore generally successful 
 in argumentative conversation. He had been 
 brought up to it from a boy, his father, as I have 
 heard, accustoming his children to dispute with 
 one another for his diversion while sitting at table 
 after dinner; but I think the practice was not 
 wise, for, in the course of my observation, those 
 disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are 
 generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get 
 victory sometimes, but they never get good will, 
 which would be of more use to them." 
 
 Gov. Morris soon got into disputes with the As- 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 205 
 
 sembly, however, in spite of his promises to Frank 
 lin. The latter heard of it, as soon as he reached 
 Few York on his way home. After he got back, 
 he took his own seat in the Assembly, and was 
 straightway placed on every committee which was 
 appointed for drawing up replies to the Governor s 
 messages and speeches. Both the messages* and 
 the replies were, as Franklin confesses, "often 
 tart, and sometimes indecently abusive ;" and inas 
 much as the Governor knew very well who drew 
 them up, it would have been natural to expect 
 that when they met they would have flown at one 
 another s throats. Such was by no means the 
 case, however ; on the contrary, they often dined 
 together. The Governor was personally one of 
 the best natured of men. 
 
 While this public quarrel was at its height, they 
 met one day in the street. Said the Governor 
 " Franklin, you must go home with me and spend 
 the evening ; I am to have some company that you 
 will like." And he took him by the arm, and led 
 him to his house. Over their wine, after supper, 
 while indulging in a strain of frolicsome talk, the 
 Governor said that he was much taken with Sancho 
 Panza s idea, who replied, when he was told that 
 a government was about to be given to him, that 
 
 18 
 
206 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 he hoped it would be a government of blacks ; 
 for then, if he could not agree with his people, he 
 could sell them. One of the Governor s friends, 
 who sat next Franklin at the table, said to him 
 " Franklin, why do you continue to side with those 
 damned Quakers ? Had you not better sell them ? 
 the Proprietor would give you a good price." 
 Franklin replied " The Governor has not yet 
 blacked them enough." And the latter went on to 
 comment, that he had indeed labored hard to 
 blacken the Assembly in all his messages, but 
 they wiped off his coloring as fast as he laid it on, 
 and placed it thick on his own face, in return ; so 
 that, finding he was in a way of being negrofied 
 himself, he grew sick of his government and 
 quitted the province. 
 
 Now that war was really at their doors, the 
 Massachusetts Bay Colony projected an expedi 
 tion against Crown Point ; and in order to secure 
 aid and co-operation, they sent Mr. Quincy to 
 Pennsylvania, and Mr. Pownall, who was after 
 ward Governor, to New York. Franklin being 
 in the Assembly, and being a native of the same 
 colony with Mr. Quincy, he was able to do a good 
 deal for him. The latter applied to him at once 
 for advice and assistance. Franklin helped him 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 207 
 
 to draw up an address to the Assembly, and it was 
 well received by that body. They voted ten thou 
 sand pounds in aid of the expedition, the money to 
 be laid out in provisions. But the Governor re 
 fused his signature to the bill, unless the estates 
 of the Proprietaries were exempted from taxation. 
 This Proprietary interest and influence will be ex 
 plained shortly. Mr. Quincy tried hard to induce 
 the Governor to assent to the bill, but to no pur 
 pose. Franklin then devised a plan for getting 
 along without him ; which was, by orders on the 
 Loan Office, which the Assembly had a legal right 
 to draw. Just then, there happened to be no 
 money in the office; and Franklin proposed that 
 the orders should be payable in a year, at five per 
 cent, interest. 
 
 This was at once adopted by the Assembly. 
 These orders were very rapidly taken up by per 
 sons having money to invest; for their money was 
 at once put upon interest; and the printed orders 
 which they held were as readily passed from hand 
 to hand as if they had been bank notes. And so 
 the aid for which Mr. Quincy had come from Mas 
 sachusetts was all rendered at last, and he went 
 back with a heart full of joy to his own people. 
 Before going, however, he returned thanks to the 
 
208 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 House in a handsomely written address. He ever 
 after entertained for Franklin the sincerest friend 
 ship. 
 
 "War having broken out, and Great Britain hav 
 ing refused to countenance the union of the colo 
 nies, of course the government was obliged to send 
 over here the troops which it would not permit 
 the colonies to raise among themselves. The 
 famous General Braddock was therefore shipped 
 to America, with a couple of regiments of English 
 troops. He landed at Alexandria, in Virginia, 
 and marched with his force from that place to 
 Fredericktown, in Maryland. Both places have 
 become very well known to all readers since the 
 war of the Great Rebellion, in this country. The 
 Pennsylvania Assembly feared that he, or his mas 
 ters, had conceived a strong prejudice against 
 them, and sent off Franklin to meet and confer 
 with him ; not as an authorized agent of theirs, 
 but rather as Postmaster-General of the colonies, 
 professing to desire an arrangement with him for 
 the best mode of sending intelligence from the 
 army to the several Governors with the greatest 
 despatch. Franklin was to assume that he would 
 require to have a correspondence with them, and 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 209 
 
 the expense of it they of course proposed to pay 
 themselves. 
 
 He set out, therefore, with his son in company, 
 and met General Braddock at Fredericktown, 
 waiting for the wagons to come in for which he 
 had sent around among the settlers in the back 
 parts of Maryland and Virginia. He was with 
 the General several days ; dined with him ; and 
 improved the time to remove his prejudices by 
 acquainting him with what the Assembly had done 
 before he and his troops arrived, and what they 
 were still willing to do to advance his plans. Just 
 as Franklin was about to depart, the wagons came 
 in to headquarters. There were but twenty-five 
 of them in all, and not every one of those was 
 worth anything for his purpose. So great was the 
 General s astonishment, he declared that nothing 
 could be done, and that the expedition would have 
 to be abandoned. His officers were of the same 
 opinion. They could not get along with less than 
 one hundred and fifty wagons ; and it was very 
 natural for them to blame their government for 
 sending them into a country where no transporta 
 tion was provided them. 
 
 Franklin said to the officers that he wished they 
 had been landed in Pennsylvania, because in that 
 
 18* 
 
210 BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 
 
 country nearly every farmer had his wagon. Brad- 
 dock seized hold of the suggestion at once. " Then 
 you/ said he to Franklin, "who are a man of in 
 fluence there, can probably procure them for us ; 
 and I beg you will undertake it." The terms were 
 talked of between them. Franklin stated them 
 on paper. They were at once agreed to. He 
 posted to Lancaster, and published them there as 
 an advertisement. The effect was direct. In this 
 advertisement, he told the people that one hun 
 dred and fifty four-horse wagons, and fifteen hun 
 dred saddle, or pack, horses were wanted; and 
 that he should be at Lancaster and York for 
 stated periods, to agree with them for said wagons 
 and teams, on terms which he announced, the 
 wagons to earn so many shillings per day, the 
 horses so many, and the pay for seven days to be 
 given in advance. 
 
 Thus was Franklin become an army contractor. 
 He authorized his son "William to enter into simi 
 lar contracts in an adjoining county. 
 
 In addition to this advertisement, he issued to 
 the inhabitants of York, Lancaster, and Cumber 
 land an address, setting forth the condition of 
 affairs with the army at Frederick, informing them 
 that it nad been the intention of Gen. Braddock 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 211 
 
 to send out parties of soldiers to take from the far 
 mers by force the wagons and horses which were 
 wanted, and appealing to them by every considera 
 tion to come forward and show their loyalty for 
 their own government and country. " The King s 
 business," said he, "must be done. So many 
 brave troops, come so far for your defence, must 
 not stand idle through your backwardness to 
 do what may be Treasonably expected from you. 
 "Wagons and horses must be had. Violent mea 
 sures will probably be used ; and you will be left 
 to seek a recompense where you can find it, and 
 your case, perhaps, be little pitied or regarded." 
 He further told them that he was obliged to send 
 the General word of his success within fourteen 
 days ; and if they did not come promptly to the 
 rescue, a body of soldiers would immediately enter 
 the province to go about the work of impress 
 ment. 
 
 He received eight hundred pounds of General 
 Braddock to make purchases with, and advanced 
 two hundred himself; and in two weeks, wagons 
 and horses were on their way to the camp. The 
 farmers, knowing nothing of Gen. Braddock, in 
 sisted that Franklin should sign the bonds for 
 the performance of the contract; which he did. 
 
212 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Franklin likewise got up a subscription in the As 
 sembly for the officers in this expedition through 
 the wilderness, and furnished them with twenty 
 parcels of comforts, which were packed upon as 
 many horses, each parcel being intended as a pre 
 sent for every officer, and containing a stated 
 quantity of sugar, tea, coffee, chocolate, vinegar, 
 cheese, butter, wine, spirits, hams, tongue, and so 
 forth. They felt very grateful to him, and the 
 Colonels of both regiments expressed to him the 
 thanks of the officers under them. Gen. Braddock 
 was also pleased with Franklin s prompt agency 
 in getting him wagons, and paid his accounts with 
 out delay. Franklin was busily employed in for 
 warding supplies to his army, according to request, 
 until the news came of his most unexpected de 
 feat; at that time he had advanced of his own 
 money, for provisions, fully a thousand pounds. 
 Luckily, as he admits, the bills were paid before 
 the disaster, with the exception of a small remain 
 der ; that he never got. 
 
 Franklin thought Braddock a brave man, as 
 did every one who knew him ; but he held too 
 high notions about the valor of British regulars 
 on the one hand, and too mean ones of Americans 
 and Indians on the other. An Indian interpreter 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 213 
 
 joined him on his march against Fort Duquesne, 
 with a body of a hundred Indians, who might 
 have been of great use to him as guides and scouts ; 
 but he paid but little attention to them, thinking 
 their services of no value, and they quietly left 
 him and his army to their fate. He told Franklin, 
 one day, what he intended to do, as confident in 
 his feelings as if he could walk over the continent 
 unmolested. Said he, "after taking Fort Du 
 quesne, I am to proceed to Niagara ; and, having 
 taken that, to Frontenac, if the season will allow 
 time, and I suppose it will; for Duquesne can 
 hardly detain me above three or four days ; and 
 then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to 
 Niagara." Franklin was not so sanguine; and 
 pointed out to him the danger to be apprehended 
 from ambuscades in the wilderness, arid the lia 
 bility to his long column of being cut into many 
 parts by the Indians before one part could come 
 to the relief of the other. But Braddock smiled 
 at Franklin s ignorance, answering him that " these 
 savages might strike dread in the hearts of the 
 American militia, but never would move the dis 
 ciplined troops of Britain." How dearly he paid 
 for his boasting ! Franklin was sure of his own 
 opinion, yet did not feel qualified to combat that of 
 
214 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 an experienced military man; so lie said nothing 
 more. 
 
 The story of Braddock s expedition against 
 Fort Duquesne must be told here in few words. 
 He had pushed on through the wilderness, his 
 troops cutting their narrow roads in some places 
 as they went, until they came within ahout nine 
 miles of the place. A part of the army had crossed 
 a river, and waited until the other part came over 
 this brought them all in one body, and in an open 
 place in the wilderness : and then the enemy 
 opened on them with a murderous fire from an 
 ambuscade, every bush, tree, log, and rock con 
 cealing an unerring marksman. Until this deadly 
 fire was opened, General Braddock had no idea 
 that the foe were anywhere near him. 
 
 The guard was instantly thrown into disorder, 
 and the troops were hurried forward to their relief, 
 making their way precipitately among the crowded 
 wagons, baggage, and horses. Then a fire as sud 
 denly broke forth upon their flank. The officers 
 formed very conspicuous marks for the fire of the 
 secreted foe, because they were on horseback ; and 
 they fell to the ground as fast as they could be 
 sighted by the enemy. TKe troops were huddled 
 together in a body, and heard no orders from 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 215 
 
 their officers ; all they did, therefore, was to stand 
 still and be shot down. In this way, fully two- 
 thirds of them were slaughtered. They after 
 wards what were left of them were struck with 
 a panic, and fled in great terror. The drivers took 
 a horse apiece from their teams, mounted, and 
 rode hastily away; and thus all the wagons, 
 artillery, stores, and provisions were left behind 
 for the enemy. 
 
 General Braddock was wounded, and brought 
 away after much trouble and risk. His secretary 
 was killed at his side; and out of eighty-six 
 officers sixty-three were killed and wounded. Out 
 of the eleven hundred men who had been picked 
 from the whole army and sent forward, the re 
 mainder having been left behind to follow with 
 the heavier portion of the stores, provisions, and 
 baggage, seven hundred and fourteen were killed ! 
 The survivors fled back to the camp, and commu 
 nicating the panic, hastened along until they 
 reached the towns and cities of the settlements 
 again. The enemy did not all together exceed 
 four hundred, of French and Indians; yet the 
 whole body of the English troops fled in affright, 
 though they numbered over a thousand. They 
 ought to have hurried back, and tried to recover 
 
216 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 their lost advantages ; instead of thai, all the re 
 maining stores were destroyed by them where they 
 were, and the troops went on, in spite of the re 
 quests of the Governors of Maryland, Virginia, 
 and Pennsylvania that they should post themselves 
 on the frontiers, not resting until the officers 
 arrived safely in Philadelphia. The Americans 
 had a much smaller opinion of the British regulars, 
 after that, than even the regulars had of them. 
 
 General Braddock, after being brought off the 
 field, was entirely silent the first day, and did not 
 speak until night; then he said "Who would 
 have thought it?" All the next day, too, he was 
 speechless ; and at the last he merely said " We 
 shall know how to deal with them another time," 
 and died a few minutes after. 
 
 The owners of the wagons and horses, as soon 
 as it was known that all were lost, came upon 
 Franklin for their value, although the same were 
 only hired, not bought, for the use of the army. 
 He had a good deal of trouble with them, and was 
 much perplexed with lawsuits. Commissioners 
 were, after a time, appointed to examine the 
 accounts, and to pay them. Had Franklin 
 been forced to pay them, it would have ruined 
 him. 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 217 
 
 Some persons in Philadelphia tried to get up a 
 plan for a grand display of fireworks, to be let off 
 as soon as the capture of Fort Duquesne should be 
 made known. Franklin dissuaded them from it, 
 for reasons which he gave them, and saved them 
 from much mortification. 
 
 Franklin was very active, at this time and sub 
 sequently, in organizing a volunteer militia, and 
 had carried a bill in aid of the measure through 
 the House, leaving the Quakers at liberty to enlist 
 or not. He wrote an imaginary dialogue on the 
 matter, bringing forward all the objections he 
 could to the measure, and answering them 
 again. 
 
 The Governor, Morris, prevailed on him to take 
 charge of the northwest frontier, where the enemy 
 swarmed in great numbers, and to construct a line 
 of forts there, and raise a sufficient number of 
 troops. He soon got together between five and 
 six hundred men. His son was his aid-de-camp, 
 who had served in the preceding war against 
 Canada, and by his experience in the field was of 
 great use to his father. The Indians had burned 
 a Moravian village, called Guadenhutten, and 
 slaughtered all the inhabitants ; but as it was 
 thought to be a good place for erecting one of his 
 
 19 
 
218 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 forts, he assembled his companies at Bethlehem, 
 which was the chief settlement of the Moravians, 
 designing to march thither. The people of that 
 village were all in arms, and ready for the Indians. 
 They helped Franklin in getting off his expe 
 dition, supplying him with wagons, stores, and 
 cattle. 
 
 He divided his force into three parts, sending 
 one to the upper, and another to the lower waters 
 of the Minisink, while he went himself with the 
 third to Guadenhutten. He had marched hut a 
 few miles, when a rain set in. There were no 
 houses for a long distance, and they found no 
 shelter until they came to the barn of a German 
 farmer, into which they all huddled, tired and 
 thoroughly wet. They could not have defended 
 themselves with any effectiveness had they been 
 attacked ; for their guns were good for but little, 
 and the men could not keep the locks dry, either. 
 A party of eleven farmers who had borrowed guns 
 of them to go back and recover cattle which the 
 Indians had stolen, were killed with one excep 
 tion. The one who escaped came back and told 
 that they could not fire off their guns, because the 
 priming was wet. 
 
 They reached Guadenhutten the next day, and 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 219 
 
 constructed a hut for shelter, the first thing. They 
 did not carry tents, as troops on the march do 
 now. They next buried the dead farmers, their 
 "bodies not having been properly interred by the 
 frightened people of the settlement. On the next 
 morning the fort was planned and marked out. 
 It was to be four hundred and fifty-five feet in 
 circumference, and defended with palisades, each 
 a foot in diameter. The men fell to chopping 
 trees for this purpose with great zeal. A pine 
 of fourteen inches in diameter two men would fell 
 in six minutes. A trench was dug all around the 
 fort, three feet deep, into which the palisades were 
 planted. They took the wagon-bodies from the 
 wheels, and used the latter to draw the palisades 
 from the woods ; each wagon thus furnishing four 
 wheels, they had twice as many carriages as they 
 otherwise would. 
 
 The palisades were set up strongly, and a plat 
 form erected all around them for the garrison to 
 stand upon and fire at the Indians through the 
 loop-holes. A swivel was mounted, which they 
 discharged forthwith, to let the savages know what 
 they might expect if they came too near. The 
 fort was completed in a week, although it rained 
 hard every other day. The men were kept so close 
 
220 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 at work, they had no time to be discontented. 
 This reminded Franklin of an old sea captain, who 
 gave orders, when his hands were out of work, 
 that they should scour the anchor. 
 
 By-and-bye, they took courage from seeing no 
 Indians, and made excursions for some distance 
 outside. They found where the Indians had con 
 cealed themselves to watch their proceedings, on 
 the neighboring hills. Franklin speaks of the 
 ingenuity of the Indians in building their fires so 
 as to keep their feet warm, yet so as not to betray 
 themselves to the people in the fort. 
 
 His chaplain complained to him that the men 
 could not be made to attend prayers daily. As a 
 gill of rum was furnished them with their regular 
 rations, Franklin advised him to give out that the 
 rum would be distributed right after prayers. He 
 acted on the advice, and had no more trouble with 
 inattention to worship. Hardly had Franklin got 
 the fort stored with provisions when the Governor 
 summoned him home to attend a session of the 
 Assembly. His friends also wrote pressing letters 
 for his return. He had completed three forts, and, 
 as the people of the region were contented to re 
 main on their farms under protection of these 
 forts, he resolved to return. Colonel Clapham, of 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 221 
 
 New England, took command, and Franklin gave 
 him a commission. The soldiers escorted him 
 back as far as Bethlehem, where he slept in a bed 
 for the first time since he had been gone. He said 
 he could hardly go to sleep, the first night, it was 
 so different from his hard lodging on the floor of a 
 hut, with only a blanket or two. He made many 
 inquiries about the customs of the Moravians, 
 during the few days he stayed at Bethlehem, 
 showing that his active mind was ever awake to 
 the acquisition of knowledge. 
 
 "When he got back to Philadelphia, he found 
 the volunteer soldiery movement going on as well 
 as . he could have wished. The officers of the 
 several companies met and elected Franklin their 
 Colonel, which office he accepted, this time. Thus 
 he became, for a brief period, Colonel Franklin. 
 He was at the head of about twelve hundred men, 
 including a company of artillerymen with six brass 
 field pieces ; they had become so expert as to be 
 able to fire them at the rate of twelve times a 
 minute. When Colonel Franklin reviewed his 
 regiment for the first time, they marched with him 
 to the door of his house, and insisted on firing a 
 salute in his honor. The discharges knocked 
 down several pieces of his delicate electrical appa- 
 
 19* 
 
222 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 ratus; and he moralized, upon this occurrence, 
 that his newly found honors were scarcely less 
 brittle. He had occasion to make a journey into 
 Virginia, soon after, and the officers of his regi 
 ment took it into their heads that it would be a 
 good idea to escort their Colonel out of town. 
 Thirty or forty of them, in uniform and on horse 
 back, rode up to his door just as he was about 
 getting upon his own horse, astonishing him with 
 their appearance. He felt a little "flat" when he 
 saw what they would do, but could not stop them. 
 Some busybody wrote an account of it to the 
 Proprietor, who felt exceedingly wroth over it, 
 declaring that no such honor had ever been paid 
 to himself while in the province, nor even to the 
 Governor ; and that it was due to no less a person 
 than the prince royal. A great deal of bad blood 
 was excited against Franklin in the heart of the 
 Proprietor, who brought charges against him 
 before the ministry, and, among them, that he 
 alone stood in the way of the king s service in 
 Pennsylvania. He likewise tried to influence 
 the Postmaster-General to deprive him of his 
 office. * 
 
 The Governor seriously proposed to Franklin 
 that he should set out with a second expedition 
 
AS A MILITARY MAN. 223 
 
 against Fort Duquesne, after Braddock s defeat, 
 and would have commissioned him a General ; but 
 Franklin had a poor opinion of his own military 
 abilities, and did not accept an offer with which 
 so many men would feel flattered. He thought 
 he knew better of his own capacities than the 
 Governor could know for him. 
 
224 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE, 
 
 WHEN" Governor Denny, the new Gov 
 ernor, came over from England, he 
 brought with him the medal which the 
 Iioyal Society had voted to present Franklin, and 
 bestowed it on him at a public entertainment 
 which the city gave the Governor by way of wel 
 come. He told Franklin in private that he had 
 been urged in London to make his acquaintance 
 on his arrival, and to seek his advice. And he had 
 much to say to him about cultivating harmony 
 between the Proprietor and the Province, hoping 
 that all former disputes with the Assembly would 
 be dropped, and that he would readily lend his 
 own influence to that end. They had this private 
 talk in another room, while the company were at 
 the table ; and as they remained a long time, some 
 of those present sent out to them a decanter of 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 225 
 
 Madeira, which Franklin said the Governor par 
 took liberally of, and piled up promises and 
 pledges as fast as he tossed off bumpers of the 
 wine. 
 
 Franklin made answer to his proposals in a spirit 
 of perfect independence; telling him that his 
 means placed him above the necessity of depend 
 ing on the favors of proprietaries, and that, as a 
 member of the Assembly, he could not accept any 
 such; that he never need fear his opposition to 
 his measures, provided they were calculated to 
 benefit the people; and that he thanked the 
 Governor for his expressions of regard for him, 
 and would do as much as he could to make his 
 administration easy, if he did not bring over with 
 him instructions similar to the odious ones of his 
 predecessor. 
 
 On the assemblage of the Legislature, however, 
 owing to the Governor s instructions which he had 
 brought with him from England, a war broke out 
 between him and that body without much delay ; 
 and Franklin took an active part in the opposition, 
 as he had done before. Still the Governor and he 
 had no quarrel personally. They often went to 
 gether, and, as he was both a man of letters and 
 a man of the world, his conversation was pleasing 
 
226 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 and instructive. Among other items of intelli 
 gence which he brought to Franklin, he told him 
 that his old friend Ealph was still living, and that 
 he was then considered one of the best political 
 writers in England ; he had taken part in the dis 
 pute between Prince Frederick and the king, and 
 enjoyed a pension of three hundred pounds a year. 
 His fame as a poet, however, was small, and Pope 
 had ridiculed him in the Dunciad ; but his prose 
 was as good as any man s. 
 
 At this point of time, Franklin appears as the 
 colonial agent first of Pennsylvania, and after 
 wards of other colonies, in England. It was a 
 work that engrossed many of the best years of his 
 life, giving him opportunities for employing his 
 natural talents for diplomacy to the best advantage. 
 All his previous life was but a preparation for this 
 which was to come. He had amassed what might 
 be thought a sufficient fortune, and his fame as a 
 philosopher and discoverer had gone before him 
 over Europe. His experience as a legislator was 
 calculated to stand him in good stead before the 
 parliaments of the old world; while his minute 
 knowledge of colonial affairs, of the conduct and 
 character of the Indians on the frontier, and of the 
 real ability of the men of his own country as 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 227 
 
 material for war, was of the first consequence to 
 him in the turmoil of the events he was sum 
 moned to pass through. 
 
 Owing to the continued troubles between the 
 Assembly and the proprietaries, and the persist 
 ency with which the latter sought to cripple the 
 free action of the people of the province in all 
 matters, the latter determined to petition the king 
 directly against their would-be tyrants, and ap 
 pointed Franklin their agent to go to England to 
 present the petition. It appears that the House 
 had passed a bill, and sent it to the Governor for 
 his signature, granting sixty thousand pounds for 
 the king s use, and ten thousand of it subject to 
 the orders of Lord Loudoun, then General. The 
 Governor refused absolutely to let the bill become 
 a law. 
 
 Franklin engaged his passage to London with 
 Captain Morris, who sailed a packet out of New 
 York, and sent all his stores for the passage on 
 board. A sea voyage was a very different affair, 
 it need not be said, from what it is now. Just as he 
 was leaving, Lord Loudoun arrived in Philadel 
 phia, on purpose to try and bring about a recon 
 ciliation between the Assembly and the Governor, 
 so that His Majesty s service might not suffer 
 
228 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 harm from their differences. He made an appoint 
 ment for the Governor and himself to meet him 
 on the subject. They came together, and went 
 over the merits of the case. Franklin urged the 
 side he had always taken before the Assembly; 
 while the Governor argued for the binding cha 
 racter of his instructions, and showed that hia 
 ruin would follow their disobedience; yet he 
 showed that he might consent to disregard them 
 if he could but receive orders to that effect from 
 Lord Loudoun. The latter, however, scarcely 
 dared give his consent, and he finally went so far 
 over to the views of the Governor as to tell 
 Franklin that he would better use all his influence 
 with the Assembly to provide for the defence of 
 the frontier themselves, for, as for himself, he 
 would not consent to spare a single one of the 
 king s troops for that purpose. 
 
 The matter was soon after arranged by Franklin 
 between the Assembly and the Governor, and he 
 proceeded on his voyage. But, on arriving in New 
 York, he found that the packet on which he was 
 to go had sailed with all his stores. He thus lost 
 these, receiving in return nothing but the thanks 
 of Loudoun, while the latter took all the credit of 
 the compromise to himself. 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 229 
 
 Franklin found that Lord Loudoun had gone 
 on to New York before him. He, of course, had 
 control over the sailing of the packets, since he 
 was to send dispatches by them to his government. 
 There were two vessels then in port, one of which 
 he said would sail very soon.* Franklin wished 
 him to name the day, so that he might lose as 
 little time as need be. His lordship told him she 
 would sail the Saturday following ; but he added, 
 confidentially, that if he should be on board by 
 the Monday morning following, it would be time 
 enough. Franklin was hindered by the ferry, and 
 did not reach the vessel until noon of Monday. 
 When he arrived, what was his surprise to find 
 that she would not sail until the next day ! 
 
 And so the matter went on ; day succeeding day, 
 and still the vessel not ready to depart. It was all 
 owing to the natural indecision of Loudoun s 
 character. Franklin came to New York to take 
 passage about the first of April ; it was very near 
 the last of June before he took his departure. 
 The General s letters were always to be ready to 
 morrow, and to-morrow; but one packet after an 
 other arrived and wras detained by his orders, 
 until there were four of them waiting to carry his 
 despatches to his government. The merchants 
 
 20 
 
230 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 were in a fever over the delay, for they had sent 
 out orders by the vessels for their autumn goods, 
 which required despatch in order to make their 
 trade worth any thing to them. They were anxious 
 about their letters, too, and were subjected to the 
 payment of heavy rates of insurance besides, it 
 being war time. But their urgency availed nothing. 
 Whoever waited on his lordship to see what was 
 the cause of the delay, found him at his desk, 
 plunged in the industrious preparation of his 
 despatches. 
 
 All the passengers who were to sail finally went 
 down to Sandy Hook, where they awaited the 
 movements of the fleet ; there they were compelled 
 to remain for six weeks, using up their sea stores 
 and being obliged to purchase more. The fleet 
 set sail at length for Louisburg, with the General 
 on board, with intent to reduce and capture that 
 place ; he kept the several packet boats dancing 
 attendance on him all the way, to be ready to take 
 his despatches when he should have made them 
 up. In this way he compelled them to hover for 
 five days around the fleet, and then the ship on 
 which Franklin was received permission to depart 
 for England. The other packets were detained 
 still longer; in fact, he took them down near 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 231 
 
 Louisburg with him, then changed his mind about 
 attacking the place, and finally turned and went 
 back to New York again. The passengers were 
 incensed to a high degree, and swore all manner 
 of revenge upon him for such treatment. 
 
 When Lord Loudoun was first sent over by the 
 ministry to take charge of the war against the 
 French and Indians, and to supersede Gen. Shir 
 ley, the citizens of New York gave him an enter 
 tainment, at which Shirley was himself present. 
 Franklin was invited to attend likewise. He 
 chanced to be placed near Gen. Shirley, whom he 
 observed to have been seated in a very low chair, 
 the crowd compelling them to send out and bor 
 row chairs. Franklin remarked the fact to the 
 General, saying " They have given you a very 
 low seat." "No matter, Mr. Franklin," said he, 
 " I find a low seat the easiest." Loudoun s foolish 
 flourish before Louisburg, which resulted in no 
 thing, lost the country Fort George, and placed 
 the colonies in a situation of greater danger than 
 before. 
 
 The voyage to England proved, after all, to be 
 a pleasant one. Franklin amused himself with 
 computations respecting the speed of the ship, and 
 experimental calculations of the best mode of sail- 
 
232 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 ing "her; and lie afterwards set down his own re 
 flections on the matter, throwing out many a hint 
 which has, since his day, been made much of by 
 builders of ships. Their vessel was several times 
 chased by French privateers during the passage, 
 but they managed to outsail everything of a hos 
 tile character. When they arrived off the coast, 
 they came frightfully near being wrecked on the 
 rocks at midnight, owing to the carelessness of 
 the man on the watch ; but by the great skill of 
 the captain, who was roused from his sleep below, 
 they wore round the rocks, and went on shore at 
 Falmouth the next forenoon. Franklin had his 
 son with him, and set out forthwith for London, 
 stopping by the w r ay only to see Stonehenge, on 
 Salisbury Plain, and some antiquities at Wilton. 
 
 He arrived in London, the accredited agent of 
 the American Colonies, on the 27th of July, 1757. 
 He was in his fifty-second year. Thirty years be 
 fore, he had landed there under very different cir 
 cumstances ; now he came bringing with him the 
 respect and confidence of all at home, and to be 
 welcomed by a wide European fame, which had 
 gone before him. For his writings and discove 
 ries as a politician and a philosopher, he was most 
 cordially met by statesmen and men of scienca 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 233 
 
 fie received attention and respect at the hands of 
 ail men. He was already a member of the lioyal 
 Society, which was a sufficient passport into the 
 best circles. Peter Collinson, another member of 
 that society, who had been his correspondent for 
 some time in England, invited him to his house, 
 where he remained until he took lodgings a few 
 doors from the Strand, at Mrs. Stevenson s. Some 
 of his Pennsylvania friends had recommended this 
 lady s house to him as an excellent place to board, 
 and he continued there during the whole of his 
 stay in England, which was fifteen years. He be 
 came greatly attached to the family, and speaks 
 frequently of them in his letters. Some of his 
 best papers on philosophy were written for the 
 instruction of his landlady s daughter, Miss Mary 
 Stevenson, who early attracted him by her inquir 
 ing mind and habits of study. 
 
 Among the acquaintances of former days and 
 other places which he renewed in London, was 
 that 6f Gov. Shirley, once of Massachusetts ; they 
 were at once intimate again. But the most of his 
 new friends were among scientific men and philoso 
 phers, his taste for politics being kept down by 
 his fondness for studies in philosophy. As soon 
 as his arrival in England was known, letters came 
 
 20* 
 
234 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 to him from all over the continent, written by men 
 distinguished in the walks of science, testifying 
 their respect and admiration both for himself and 
 his attainments. 
 
 His first misfortune, however, after his arrival, 
 was to be prostrated with sickness, which kept 
 him at home for nearly two months. It was occa 
 sioned by a cold and a fever, producing much 
 pain in his head, and frequently delirium. Before 
 he could get relief, which was obtained only 
 by cupping and the free use of Peruvian bark, 
 he became so much reduced as to be very low 
 indeed. 
 
 When he did get out again, he addressed him 
 self first of all to the business on which he had 
 been sent. He waited on the Proprietaries, and 
 laid before them the instructions with which he 
 came armed from the Pennsylvania Assembly. The 
 former received his statements in a bad temper, 
 refusing to do in any wise differently from what 
 they were now doing by the Governors ; they held 
 that they had the right to interpret the colonial 
 charters for themselves, and to send out instruc 
 tions for the Governors accordingly. Yet they 
 promised to consider the remonstrance he pre 
 sented Franklin left them without the hope of 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 235 
 
 making any impression, and settled it in his mind 
 to appeal very soon to a higher tribunal. 
 
 The Proprietaries in question were two sons of 
 the famous William Penn, Thomas and Richard 
 Penn. They were beforehand with Franklin, and 
 used all their influence to throw obstacles in the 
 way of his plan. The officers of the Crown, too, 
 were averse to his design, from fear of a diminu 
 tion of the prerogative of the Crown ; and they 
 were the ones to whom the whole question was to 
 be finally submitted. Then there was a latent 
 prejudice against the Quakers of Pennsylvania for 
 being so backward with the war, and for even op 
 posing it altogether. The papers took up the 
 story also, and labored hard to excite all the pre 
 judice possible against his errand. 
 
 He waited patiently for an opportunity to stem 
 the torrent, which was not long in offering. One 
 of the newspapers reported, as coming through 
 letters from Philadelphia, that the Assembly was 
 doing nothing but quarrel with the Governor, 
 while the Indians swarmed all around on the fron 
 tier ; and that they would vote no money for relief 
 except on such conditions that the Governor could 
 not accept it. In other words, the Quakers were 
 charged with obstinately standing in the way of 
 
236 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 all progress. Franklin sent a letter to the pub 
 lisher of the paper, signed by his son, denying the 
 whole of it; and to show how unfairly he was 
 treated, he was compelled to pay for the insertion 
 of the letter, although it just as much belonged 
 to the printer to give it to the public as to have 
 published the original charges. That letter shed 
 a new light on the whole subject of the province 
 of Pennsylvania ; and as for the opposition of the 
 Quaker population to a defensive war, it was 
 shown that in no instance had they permitted their 
 religious principles to obstruct measures for the 
 protection of the province. It proved, also, that 
 the Assembly had voted more than a half million 
 of dollars already, since the war began, besides 
 being at the expense of erecting forts, raising and 
 equipping soldiers, fitting out a ship-of-war for 
 cruising off the coast, and setting on foot a suc 
 cessful expedition against the Indians; and laid 
 down the proposition that the Proprietaries alone 
 Btood in the way of the harmony of the govern 
 ment and the happiness of the people. 
 
 But no impression was yet made by Franklin. 
 To expedite his business according to the proper 
 forms, he must first go before the Board of Trade 
 with his case, who would in turn report their 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 237 
 
 opinion to the Privy Council. If lie could not 
 succeed "here, he meant to present the matter 
 directly to Parliament. European politics were 
 so mixed at this time, that colonial affairs went 
 begging for attention. He saw how much longer 
 he was likely to be kept from home than he had 
 expected, and wrote to his wife, January 21st, 
 1758, "I begin to think I shall hardly return be 
 fore this time twelve months. I am for doing 
 effectually what I came about ; and I find it re 
 quires both time and patience." He found much 
 solace, in his perplexing delays, in the society and 
 conversation of cultivated men j but, after all, he 
 writes that, " at this time of life, domestic com 
 forts afford the most solid satisfaction, and my un 
 easiness at being absent from my family, and long 
 ing desire to be with them, make me often sigh in 
 the midst of cheerful company." 
 
 He relaxed no effort to push the business along ; 
 there were the lawyers on his own side to supply 
 with the facts of the case, and smaller items to be 
 kept constantly in mind. For a whole year, how 
 ever, nothing seemed to hav^e been done. That 
 first summer was given up to travelling over Eng 
 land. He w T as at the Commencement at Cam 
 bridge by invitation, where he was received with 
 
238 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 marked attention by the heads of the University. 
 He hunted out the town where his father was 
 born, and excavated all the traditions possible to 
 be had respecting his ancestors; consulting the 
 oldest inhabitants, parish registers, and old tomb 
 stones. He found the daughter of his father s 
 eldest brother, a lady advanced in years. His 
 father s native town was Ecton ; and there had his 
 father, grandfather, and great-grandfather lived 
 before him. The old home place was a decayed 
 stone building, but known even then as the 
 " Franklin House." 
 
 The wife of the parish rector told him a great 
 deal about his family, and carried him out into 
 the graveyard and pointed out several of the grave 
 stones, which were so covered with moss that she 
 ordered the man to scrub it off with a hard brush 
 and a basin of water. 
 
 Going to Birmingham, he found several of his 
 wife s relations. When he returned to London 
 from his tour, his passion for hunting genealogies 
 as strong as before, he wrote that he had "found 
 out a daughter of his father s only sister, very old 
 and never married; a good, clever woman, but 
 poor ; though vastly contented with her situation, 
 and very cheerful." All his relatives were in 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 239 
 
 humble life, and some of them very pcior ; it was 
 his pleasure to hunt them up, claim relationship, 
 and do something to make them remember him. 
 
 The papers had been busy, in his absence, swell 
 ing the current of popular prejudice against his 
 cause ; and he was advised to use their columns 
 in its defence. Accordingly, early in the follow 
 ing year (1759), he came out with a carefully pre 
 pared work, entitled the " Historical Review of 
 Pennsylvania." It was not published with his 
 name, yet he received all the abuse it called forth. 
 It was written with great ability and clearness, 
 and was a complete defence of the Assembly and 
 people of Pennsylvania against the assumptions 
 of the Proprietaries. In giving the story of the 
 politics of the province, he reflected with much 
 severity upon the public conduct both of William 
 Penn and his descendants. Through all the attacks 
 which were made on him as the author of the 
 work, he never denied that he did write it, leav 
 ing others to infer what they chose. He after 
 wards denied it, however, in a letter to David 
 Hume, but in such a way as to leave no doubt 
 that it was all compiled and written by his per 
 sonal direction. 
 
 The ministry had been changed just before his 
 
240 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 arrival in England, Mr. Pitt being made Prime 
 Minister. Franklin persistently sought an intro 
 duction to this remarkable man, but in vain. He 
 afterwards said, in alluding to this difficulty, that 
 Mr. Pitt " was then too great a man, or too much 
 occupied in affairs of greater moment." Franklin 
 interested himself deeply in the politics of the 
 time, and was just the man to advise the ministry 
 wisely about American affairs. Indeed, it was 
 by his advice that the conquest of Canada was 
 adopted as a ministerial measure, and successfully 
 carried out. Though he could not get the ear of 
 Pitt, yet his suggestions made Pitt s ministry a 
 powerful and brilliant one; for, in obedience to 
 them Wolfe won his famous victory at Quebec, 
 immortalizing his own name and perpetuating the 
 power of his country. 
 
 In after years, when Pitt was the " great Com 
 moner," and stood up in Parliament in eloquent 
 defence of the liberties of the colonies, he sought 
 Franklin s acquaintance, relying upon him for 
 much of that information which gave his speeches 
 such weight and so much of their power. 
 
 Little was done for Pennsylvania during 1759. 
 A new Governor was sent out by the Proprietaries, 
 Mr. Hamilton, who had held the office before, 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 241 
 
 They gave him their explicit instructions, from 
 which he vainly tried, before leaving, to make 
 them deviate. 
 
 That summer he went to Scotland, taking his 
 son with him. Distinguished men in that country 
 met him with great respect and cordiality, and 
 among them occur such names as those of Lord 
 Kames, David Hume, and Dr. Robertson. He 
 had been honored with the title of LL. D., some 
 time before, by the University of St. Andrews. 
 He wrote afterwards to Lord Kames, alluding to 
 this visit and the pleasure it gave him : " On the 
 whole, I must say, I think the time we spent there 
 was six weeks of the densest happiness I have met 
 with in any part of my life." So strongly was he 
 attracted to Scotland, he declared that, but for his 
 connections elsewhere, it would be just the coun 
 try he would like of all others to live in. The 
 " freedom of the city" was presented him while in 
 Edinburgh, "as a mark" to quote from the 
 record " of the affectionate respect which the 
 Magistrates and Council have for a gentleman, 
 whose amiable character, greatly distinguished for 
 usefulness to the society which he belongs to, and 
 love to all mankind, had long ago reached them 
 across the Atlantic Ocean." 
 21 
 
212 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 It consumed three years to finish the business 
 on which he had come to England, till June, 
 1760 ; but it was finally settled to the perfect satis 
 faction of Franklin and the Assembly, and to the 
 great disappointment of the grasping Proprieta 
 ries. The famous Lord Mansfield assisted in 
 drawing up the report of the Board of Trade, 
 which approved of the act of the Pennsylvania 
 Assembly. 
 
 The war with France was now coming to an 
 end, and terms of peace were generally talked of 
 among the public men. In the progress of the 
 war, which was but a struggle between the two 
 powers for the control of the American continent, 
 England had wrested from France Canada, 
 Guadaloupe, and other parts of the West and East 
 Indies, and Africa; the question was, what and 
 how much it would be sound policy to think of 
 holding. Some were for retaining Canada, and 
 some for keeping Guadaloupe. Knowing at least 
 as much as any of them about the controversy, 
 Franklin did not hesitate to take a part in it him 
 self, and to measure opinions and reasonings with 
 Buch writers as Burke and the Earl of Bath. 
 
 He put forth a tract, though without his name, 
 entitled "The Interest of Great Britain Con- 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 243 
 
 Bidered ;" and argued strongly for the retention of 
 Canada. He had urged its conquest before, and 
 rejoiced when it had fallen into the hands of 
 British power. His views on this subject were 
 those of a statesman ; for, said he, " if we keep it 
 (Canada), all the country from the St. Lawrence 
 to the Mississippi will in another century be filled 
 with British people." 
 
 The pamphlet produced a marked impression, 
 not less upon the public mind than upon the 
 ministry. Canada, at any rate, was kept fast. 
 
 During the summer of 1760, according to his 
 custom while he lived in England, he travelled 
 through the northern part of England, intending 
 to extend his tour to Scotland and Ireland ; but 
 he returned through Cheshire and Wales to Bris 
 tol and Bath. He found, on his return, that the 
 Pennsylvania Assembly had placed in his hands 
 the money which Parliament had paid back to 
 that province and Delaware, for their outlays 
 during the war, a sum amounting to some thirty 
 thousand pounds for the first year; this he was 
 requested to invest in the public stocks, and other 
 wise. By his management of this responsible 
 business he gave the utmost satisfaction to hit 
 constituents. The Governor and Proprietaries 
 
244 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 both labored to prevent his being appointed to do 
 this work, but the Assembly persisted, maintain 
 ing its confidence in him throughout. 
 
 The next summer (1761), he passed over to the 
 continent; and then began a new epoch in his 
 public life. He visited all the chief cities and 
 towns of Holland and Flanders, and stored his 
 mind with hints that would be of use to him in the 
 future. His studies were naturally interrupted by 
 these changes ; yet he was always eager to perform 
 philosophical experiments whenever he could do 
 so. One of his experiments, at this time, was 
 upon the very peculiar properties said to exist in 
 a stone called tourmalin ; and another was to prove 
 the theory, then just started, that cold could be 
 produced by evaporation. His experiments in re 
 lation to the latter were of remarkable interest. 
 He showed, from them, how it was possible for a 
 man to freeze to death in a hot day of summer. 
 On the principle of evaporation, too, he- explained 
 why one s body is never heated above ninety de 
 grees, let the heat around him be as great as it 
 may. He paid a visit to the salt mines of England, 
 on his return to that country, and threw out many 
 interesting and original suggestions on the cause 
 of the salt in the sea ; it was his own opinion, and 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 245 
 
 contrary to the general one, that all the water on 
 the globe was salt at first, and that the fresh water 
 to be found in the springs and rivers was the result 
 of distillation. As for the rock salt found in 
 mines, instead of imparting its own qualities to 
 the sea he thought it was itself drawn from the 
 sea, and therefore that the sea is fresher to-day 
 than at the beginning. 
 
 He had always been fond of music, from his 
 youth up, and he pursued it as a science as well as 
 an accomplishment. He furnished critical remarks 
 on the old Scotch songs, which were much com 
 mended by some of the first men of Scotland as 
 being extremely acute. He also offered some 
 views on the defects of modern music, supporting 
 them with criticisms on one of the compositions 
 of Handel. 
 
 "When in London, he first saw the famous mu 
 sical glasses, a set of tumblers which gave forth 
 music by rubbing the wet fingers around their 
 rims. The invention was but a rude one then, at 
 best ; it was necessary first to arrange the glasses 
 on the table, and to tune them by pouring in 
 water until the right note was obtained for each 
 one of them. Franklin thought he could improve 
 on this contrivance, and made the attempt. He 
 21* 
 
246 BENJAMIN FRANKLIIT. 
 
 succeeded in making a compact instrument where 
 were several parts and pieces before, and in en 
 larging the compass of the notes. "When complete, 
 he named it the Armonica. 
 
 It was a hemisphere in shape, with a socket to 
 fix it on a spindle. The glasses were then arranged 
 on this spindle according to their size, the tones 
 corresponding to the size of the glasses. Then the 
 spindle was fixed in a case horizontally, and turned 
 by a wheel. The person performing on it applied 
 his wet finger to the glasses as they turned round. 
 This novel instrument became very popular in its 
 day, and one lady went to the principal cities of 
 Europe performing on it in public, accompanying 
 it with her voice. 
 
 Early in the year 1762, Franklin now formally 
 recognized as DR. Franklin, made ready to re 
 turn home. He was strongly urged to remain in 
 London permanently, and send for his family to 
 come over; and a friend even wrote a letter to 
 Mrs. Franklin, in Philadelphia, laboring to obtain 
 her consent. But she resisted, like her husband. 
 His services were already spoken for by another 
 people, soon to become a nation by themselves. 
 There is no doubt that he would have bettered 
 himself pecuniarily by complying with the request; 
 
FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 247 
 
 but he was already looking in another direction 
 for the great work of his life. 
 
 Edinburgh and Oxford Universities both com 
 plimented him with the title of Doctor of Laws, 
 before leaving. Mr. Hume expressed his sincere 
 regret at the thought of losing him out of Eng 
 land. Said he " America has sent us many good 
 things, gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, indigo, &c. ; 
 but you are the first philosopher, and indeed the 
 first great man of letters, for whom we are be 
 holden to her." 
 
 He was jealously watched in all his movements 
 by the Proprietaries, while in England ; but they 
 acknowledged that they found no cause of com 
 plaint in his conduct, from beginning to end. He 
 was scrupulous in performing the duties for which 
 he had been sent over, yet he gave no occasion 
 for dissatisfaction in his private conduct. 
 
 In the latter part of August he set sail to return, 
 having been absent from home a little more than 
 five years. He addressed a letter to his friend 
 Lord Kames, of Scotland, on the eve of going on 
 shipboard, declaring that he could not leave that 
 happy island and his many friends in it without 
 extreme regret, though he was about going to a 
 
248 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 country and a people that he loved. In his own 
 words, he fancied he felt "like those who are 
 leaving this world for the next; grief at the part 
 ing; fear of the passage; hope of the future." 
 He reached his home in Philadelphia on the first 
 of November. 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 
 
 HE received, on his return home, the thanks 
 of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the 
 warm congratulations of his friends. He 
 had been elected to the Assembly every year 
 during his absence, and took his seat immediately 
 on his return. The public thanks were voted to 
 him for his eminent services to America, as well 
 as to Pennsylvania. 
 
 His private affairs needed his attention sadly. 
 As Postmaster-General for the colonies still, he 
 travelled for five months of 1763, as far as New 
 Hampshire to the east, making a journey of some 
 sixteen hundred miles, north and south. His 
 daughter travelled with him, he driving for him 
 self in a light carriage. They likewise took a 
 saddle horse along with them, which his daughter 
 rode from Rhode Island to Philadelphia. He was 
 
250 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 cordially greeted by his old friends in NQW York, 
 Rhode Island, and Boston. 
 
 His health was none too good at this time, 
 which compelled him to favor himself on his 
 journey as much as possible. The people with 
 whom he stopped, too, urged him to eat and drink 
 a great deal more than he wanted, which led him 
 to write his sister in Boston, after reaching home 
 again, " I am (at home) allowed to know when I 
 have eat and drank enough, am warm enough, and 
 to sit in a place that I like." He recovered his 
 health in due time, and went into active life again. 
 
 The western tribes of Indians soon banded to 
 gether and began to commit barbarities upon the 
 people of the frontier settlements, especially of the 
 Middle States. Troops were raised to repel and 
 punish them without delay. The Assembly of 
 Pennsylvania voted money and appointed com 
 missioners to spend it for war purposes; and 
 Franklin was one of the commissioners. A horrible 
 massacre of inoffensive and friendly Indians oc 
 curred, and a regiment of men was raised to go 
 out from Philadelphia and repel the further ad 
 vances of the rioters. Franklin was one of three 
 or four to address them on behalf of the Assembly. 
 The object of the interview was gained, but none 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 251 
 
 of the bloody murderers of the Indians were ever 
 brought to punishment. 
 
 John Penn was sent over as new Governor, in 
 October, 1763. He addressed the Assembly with 
 fair words, which for a time promised harmony 
 between them; but upon that body s framing a 
 militia law, at his own recommendation, which 
 reserved to the several companies of a regiment 
 the power to choose their own officers, subject 
 afterwards to the Governor s selection from their 
 choice, ill feelings sprang up again, and disputes 
 of a larger sort soon followed. The subject of a 
 land-tax came up; and the Governor quarrelled 
 with the Assembly on that. The object of this 
 tax was as a basis, or security, for emitting bills 
 of credit, with which to pay the expenses of the 
 war with the Indians. The borders were even 
 then threatened by the savages, and rather than 
 give up safety itself the Assembly yielded to the 
 Governor. But a more bitter feeling toward him 
 than before was the consequence. 
 
 They resolved to petition the king, without any 
 further delay, that he would take the government 
 of the province out of the hands of the Proprie 
 taries into his own. Dr. Franklin came forward 
 with one of his effective pamphlets "Coo] 
 
252 BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 
 
 Thoughts on the Present Situation of Public 
 Affairs." He probed the matter to the bottom, 
 and showed the necessity of changing the entire 
 government, so that the proprietary power in it 
 should cease. After a vacation of seven weeks, 
 the Assembly met again (May 14th). Petitions to 
 the king for an immediate change of government 
 came in from all quarters, signed by more than 
 three thousand names. The House took a vote, 
 and resolved to sustain the cause of the petitions. 
 Dr. Franklin drew up still another petition to the 
 king, on behalf of the House. 
 
 The subject was debated, pro and con, with 
 much feeling and spirit. The Speaker, Mr. Mor 
 ris, resigned his seat rather than put his official 
 signature to the petition, and the House at once 
 elected Dr. Franklin to his place. He, of course, 
 signed it without delay. The famous John Dick 
 inson made an eloquent speech against the peti 
 tion, which was published, with a severely personal 
 preface. Another member, Galloway, published 
 his speech on the other side, to which a preface 
 full of humor arid sarcasm was contributed by Dr. 
 Franklin. After a great deal of warm argument, 
 the petitions were sent over to the provincial agent 
 in London, with instructions how to proceed. 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 253 
 
 But just at that critical time happened to come 
 up in the Assembly the new and startling proposal 
 of the British Ministry to raise money for defray 
 ing the expenses of the late war, by imposing 
 stamp duties on the colonies. The news caused 
 great excitement all over the country. At once 
 the Pennsylvania Assembly protested against the 
 measure through their London agent. Dr. Frank 
 lin, as Speaker, signed this protest as the last act 
 of his speakership. 
 
 A new election came off for members of Assem 
 bly in the fall, and by the combination of all the 
 interests on the other side Dr. Franklin was de 
 feated. The men who thought to have their 
 revenge on him in this way found that it would 
 have been more for their interest to have turned 
 in and elected, instead of defeating, him; for 
 being out of public office now, for the first time 
 in fourteen years, the Assembly surprised his 
 enemies by appointing him a special agent to the 
 Court of Great Britain, to take charge of the 
 petition for a change of government, and to look 
 after the general interests of the province. The 
 chagrin of the men who had combined to defeat 
 him in a popular election exceeded all description; 
 it took the form of downright rage. 
 
 22 
 
254 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 There was no money in the treasury to defray 
 the expenses of a special agent, and it was voted 
 to provide for them in the next money bill that 
 should be passed by the Assembly. A few mer 
 chants came forward, in this emergency, and in 
 two hours raised eleven hundred pounds, which 
 they freely loaned to the public for this purpose. 
 Franklin left home for Europe twelve days after 
 he received the new appointment, on the 7th of 
 November, 1764, escorted to Chester, below Phila 
 delphia, by a cavalcade of three hundred citizens. 
 At Chester he was to go on board vessel. The 
 kind feeling shown him on his departure overcame 
 him : he prayed that Heaven would bless his dear 
 friends and u all Pennsylvania." The vessel being 
 hindered a little, he took occasion to write back a 
 letter of advice to his daughter, suggesting that 
 she should not give his political enemies, in his 
 absence, any cause to interpret her own conduct 
 to his prejudice, and to be very circumspect at all 
 times. And he added " Go to church constantly, 
 whoever preaches. The act of devotion in the 
 Common Prayer Book is your principal business 
 there, and, if properly attended to, will do more 
 towards amending the heart than sermons gene 
 rally can do." Yet he would not have her despise 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 255 
 
 the sermons, even when she disliked those who 
 preached them ; "for the discourse/ said he, "is 
 often much better than the man, as sweet and clear 
 waters come through very dirty earth." 
 
 He went on shore at Portsmouth after a voyage 
 of thirty days, whence he pushed on to London 
 without delay, and took lodgings as before at Mrs. 
 Stevenson s. "When they heard in Philadelphia 
 of his safe arrival out, they rang the bells for joy. 
 
 His first duty, as special agent, was to oppose 
 the passage of the Stamp Act by Parliament. 
 The father of the scheme was George Grenville, 
 and with his name it will always be associated. 
 The colonists denied that Parliament had any 
 right to tax them, since they were not represented 
 in that body ; and it was a principle of the British 
 Constitution that no man should be taxed save by 
 himself or his representatives. The same principle 
 was recognized in the charters which were given 
 to the colonies. It was argued, on our side, that 
 Parliament could not violate it ; but the Ministry 
 had gone too far to turn back now, and so the 
 Stamp Act was passed, though protested against 
 by the colonies and opposed by their agents in 
 London. 
 
 Writing home on the event to Charles Thomson, 
 
256 BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. 
 
 Franklin said " Depend upon it, my good neigh 
 bor, I took every step in my power to prevent the 
 passing of the Stamp Act. Nobody conld be more 
 concerned and interested than myself to oppose it 
 sincerely and heartily. But the tide was too 
 strong against us. The nation was provoked by 
 American claims of independence, and all parties 
 joined by resolving in this act to settle the point. 
 "We might as well have hindered the sun s setting. 
 That we could not do. But since it is done, my 
 friend, and it may be long before it rises again, 
 let us make as good a night of it as we can. "We 
 may still light candles. Frugality and industry 
 will go a great way towards indemnifying us. 
 Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than 
 kings and Parliaments. If we can get rid of the 
 former, we may easily get rid of the latter." 
 
 The passage of the Stamp Act produced great 
 excitement in America, and the colonies at once 
 instructed their agents in England to labor for its 
 repeal. The men who had been appointed to dis 
 tribute the stamps were treated with all sorts of 
 indignities, and finally compelled to resign their 
 posts. None of the stamped paper sent over was 
 permitted to be landed, but was finally sent back 
 again. Early the next year, 1766, such was the 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 257 
 
 opposition to the measure in America, the subject 
 came up before Parliament again. Grenville had 
 been displaced, in the meantime, by the Marquis 
 of Buckingham. It was proposed to repeal the 
 act, in obedience to the piles of petitions from the 
 colonies. The proposal drew out a warm discus 
 sion, during which Dr. Franklin was summoned 
 before the bar of the House, to acquaint that body 
 with the real state of things in America. 
 
 Both sides put him questions freely, and he 
 answered impromptu. He did not know before 
 hand what questions they were going to ask him, 
 and he could not therefore prepare his answers; 
 but those answers could not have been more hap 
 py and effective. The impression he made on the 
 mind of the House was remarkable. They could 
 not fail to admire his perfect self-possession, his 
 thorough knowledge of the matter inquired about, 
 his dignity, and the propriety of his phrases. The 
 members knew not whether to be lost in admira 
 tion or astonishment. It was a remarkable scene, 
 and has always been recalled as perhaps the most 
 memorable in Dr. Franklin s eventful life. They 
 asked him if the Americans would pay the stamp 
 duty if it were to be modified somewhat : " No, 
 never," said he, " unless compelled by force of 
 
 22* 
 
258 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 arms." He was asked how they would receive 
 another tax: " Just as they do this," was his an 
 swer, "they will never pay it." He told the 
 House, in reply to other questions, that his coun 
 trymen would never buy British manufactured 
 goods again, unless this act was repealed; that 
 they would never grow tired of non-importation ; 
 that he knew them as well as any one, and they 
 had materials enough for their wants, and the in 
 dustry to work them up ; they could and would 
 make their own clothes ; it was once their pride 
 to indulge in the fashions and manufactures of 
 Great Britain, but it was their glory now to " wear 
 their old clothes over again till they can make 
 new ones." 
 
 The stamp act was repealed, after a long and 
 furious debate ; but the sting was left behind, in 
 what is known as the Declaratory Act, which 
 affirmed that " Parliament had a right to bind the 
 colonies in all cases whatsoever." This operated 
 to cloud the satisfaction which the repeal of the 
 stamp act had given the colonies. Yet they made 
 the most of their victory, and to Franklin s per 
 sonal influence and endeavors was it chiefly due. 
 They could have sent to England on their business 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 259 
 
 no man, who would have done for them what he 
 did. 
 
 He went over to Germany in the summer of 
 1766, and paid a visit to Gottingen, among other 
 places. The Universities took up much of his 
 attention. On his return to London, he bent his 
 energies again to the work for which he had come 
 over, a change of government for Pennsylvania ; 
 but, although he succeeded in engaging the seri 
 ous attention of the ministry in his plan, nothing 
 was actually done in consequence chiefly of the 
 unsettled condition of affairs in the colonies. 
 When the -Revolution came, this and other im 
 portant questions finally settled themselves. 
 
 The nature of the relation of the colonies to the 
 mother country next engrossed his attention, and 
 he began to write upon it to his friends in Eng 
 land and at home. What he wrote here had great 
 weight with minds already engaged in discussing 
 the same topic. He agreed that the union might 
 be made a perfect one, if the colonies were allowed 
 to send representatives to Parliament; but it be 
 longed now to Parliament to propose it. " The 
 time has been," said he, u when the colonies might 
 have been pleased with it; they are now indif- 
 
260 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 fereut about it ; and, if it is much longer delayed, 
 they too will refuse it." 
 
 There was a season of quiet for him after the 
 repeal of the stamp act, and he improved it for 
 travel. He went to Paris in the autumn of 1767, 
 in company with his friend Sir John Pringle, and 
 took letters of introduction from the French Am 
 bassador in London to many eminent persons, who 
 received him with cordial respect and esteem. He 
 was presented to the King and the Royal Family. 
 Men of science greeted him warmly. His dis 
 coveries in electricity had made him known to 
 them several years before, where they were more 
 truly appreciated than in any other portion of 
 Europe. He little thought, as did any one else, 
 that this first visit to Paris was to prepare the way 
 for his second appearance at the great capital, 
 where he was to perform those distinguished ser 
 vices for a nation which would treasure his name 
 to the latest generation. 
 
 Mr. Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 had set in force a revenue act in the interval, which 
 had given great cause of offence to the inhabitants 
 of Massachusetts more particularly. "When he 
 got back to London from Paris, news came of 
 popular disturbances in Boston. They disliked 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 261 
 
 the appointment of customs commissioners, and 
 the making of the salaries of their provincial offi 
 cers dependent on the Crown instead of, as before, 
 on the Assembly of the province. The people of 
 Boston had come together in town meeting, and 
 voted resolves of high spirit. They likewise drew 
 up a paper, and passed it around among the in 
 habitants, pledging themselves each to the other 
 to do all they could to promote industry and home 
 manufactures, and, after a certain time, not to buy 
 such articles as were named in the paper and im 
 ported from abroad. The friends of the ministry 
 looked on these doings as little less than rebellion ; 
 while the friends of the colonies themselves could 
 find no ground on which to defend them. Dr. 
 Franklin stepped in with another of his timely 
 publications to allay the excitement, entitled 
 " Causes of the American Discontents before 
 1768." This he handed to the editor of the Lon 
 don Chronicle to publish in that paper; but the 
 editor took the edge all off before it appeared, 
 which led Franklin to say that the man had 
 " drawn the teeth and pared the nails" of his arti 
 cle, so that it could " neither scratch nor bite." 
 Yet it was a judicious and happy effort of the 
 American agent, and did much good in showing 
 
262 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 that the discontents in Boston were only the 
 natural result of the treatment of the colonies for 
 a long course of years. 
 
 The ministry again changed in 1768, Lord Hills- 
 borough becoming Secretary of State for America, 
 an office created especially for the care of the 
 colonies. His control over American affairs was 
 almost entire. He was upright and honest, but 
 opinionated and obstinate. He treated Franklin 
 with much civility at first, holding frequent con 
 versations with him on American affairs ; but even 
 then Franklin foretold a breach between the two 
 countries. A story was started in England, at the 
 time, and repeated by his political enemies in 
 Pennsylvania, that Franklin was in quest of an 
 office under the ministry, for which he was even 
 willing to sell the confidence his countrymen had 
 reposed in him ; but his letters about that time 
 are sufficient to stamp such rumors with the mark 
 of falsehood. His friends talked of his being 
 made Governor of Pennsylvania, in case their 
 form of government was changed ; while some of 
 the most influential inhabitants of Massachusetts 
 province expressed a desire that he should succeed 
 Sir Francis Bernard as their Governor, who had 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 263 
 
 done little but give them trouble from the begin 
 ning. 
 
 He was about to return home again, his own 
 affairs requiring his attention ; and he felt per 
 suaded that his presence was of no service, since 
 he could do nothing which the regular agent 
 could not as well do without him. Just then he 
 received the appointment of agent for the colony 
 of Georgia ; and he deemed it best to wait for the 
 arrival of his instructions. This delayed him 
 until other matters crowded in to prolong his stay 
 much beyond all his calculations. It was in the 
 fall of that year that he was invited to dine, with 
 fifteen other gentlemen, with the King of Den 
 mark who was then in London. 
 
 He never lost his interest in his philosophical 
 inquiries and studies, and, among other sugges 
 tions, he wrote home to urge the colonists to plant 
 mulberry trees and raise silkworms, as a profitable 
 branch of domestic industry. This, perhaps, was 
 as much from his desire that his countrymen 
 should produce their own clothing as from any 
 other ; for he repeatedly addressed them in favor 
 of holding out against the importation or use of 
 British commodities. As the petitions of the 
 colonists produced no effect with Parliament or 
 
264 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 the ministry, he advised them to prepare to sup 
 port themselves. 
 
 Late in the year, he received the agency of the 
 New Jersey colony also, of which his son was the 
 Governor. The boundary between East and West 
 Jersey was left to his care, with other matters. 
 He had occasion, just at that time, to express his 
 views upon the probability of the colonies becom 
 ing quiet again ; but from the first he solemnly 
 declared that nothing would satisfy and pacify the 
 people of America but a clear repeal of all the 
 laws designed to collect a revenue from them 
 without their consent. 
 
 Parliament took the matter up with all serious 
 ness, in the month of April, 1770. The ministry 
 were persuaded of the determination of the colo 
 nies, after three years holding out, to withhold 
 their trade as long as the new revenue laws were 
 on the books, and they concluded to wipe them 
 all out, abolishing taxes of every sort for the 
 Americans except a tax on tea. It was in no 
 sense, however, a movement for redressing the 
 wrongs of which the colonists complained ; but a 
 stroke of commercial policy alone. The duty on 
 the single article of tea, too, was calculated to let 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 265 
 
 the people of this country feel that Parliament was 
 still supreme. 
 
 The effect was to exasperate and arouse the 
 colonists more than ever. Dr. Franklin was in 
 continual correspondence with the home govern 
 ments, and with his friends, and some of his let 
 ters were secretly obtained and sent back to Eng 
 land to the ministers. It was thrown out that he 
 would lose his office as Postmaster-General, in 
 return for what he had written home about the 
 ministry. The papers abused and traduced him, 
 probably hoping to force him to resign ; but that 
 he would not do : he thought that as he had, by 
 close attention and unwearied industry, made the 
 post-office revenues worth what they were, he 
 would fix upon the ministry the odium of turning 
 him out of office, and not relieve them voluntarily 
 of such a load himself. 
 
 As these letters made a great deal of talk in 
 their day, it would be as well to know what he 
 had to say about their authorship. " It was true," 
 said he, "I did write them, and they were written 
 in compliance with another duty, that to my coun 
 try ; a duty quite distinct from that of Postmas 
 ter." He said that he had behaved in this matter 
 just as he did a few years before on a similar oc- 
 
 23 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 easion, when the ministry were "ready to hug" 
 him for the help he rendered them. Even if they 
 did remove him from office, he would not there 
 fore change his political opinions. He did not 
 hold that, because he held an office under the 
 ministry, he was obliged to act with the ministry 
 in all matters. His rule was, " never to turn aside 
 in public affairs through views of private interest ; 
 but to go straight forward in doing what appears 
 to me right at the time, leaving the consequences 
 with Providence." 
 
 Massachusetts likewise appointed him her agent, 
 at this stage of affairs, well knowing his sentiments 
 through the letters which were written by him to 
 some of the leading men of the province. This 
 appointment nettled Lord Hillsborough more than 
 all. The ministry had had more trouble, thus far, 
 with Massachusetts than with any other colony ; 
 aod to find Franklin, after having presented the 
 protests of several of the other colonies, accredited 
 as the agent of Massachusetts likewise, was a little 
 too much for their temper. Lord Hillsborough 
 broke out in a fit of anger, when Franklin went 
 to present his credentials, and the scene became 
 an Interesting one, to say the least. He denied 
 the fact of Franklin s appointment as agent at all. 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 267 
 
 Franklin answered him, coolly and calmly, that 
 his letters had been brought by the last ships. 
 Hillsboro ugh denied that such an agency could be 
 entrusted to any man without the assent and co 
 operation of the Governor ; on this point, Frank 
 lin took issue, showing that the Colonial Assem 
 blies always had appointed such agents as they 
 chose, and without asking the consent or caring 
 for the opposition of any royal Governor whatever. 
 He finally handed Hillsborough the proof of 
 his appointment, in the form of the vote of the 
 House appointing him, saying to him as he did so 
 " Will your Lordship please to look at it ?" He 
 took the paper, but did not deign to open it; 
 breaking out into angry declamation, he denounced 
 the whole system of appointing agents, and said 
 that he would have nothing to do with one of 
 them unless they were regularly appointed and 
 their appointment approved by the Governor. 
 And after more talk of the same sort, and expos 
 tulations by Franklin, he handed back the latter 
 his papers without any further examination of 
 them. It was very rude of his Lordship ; but it 
 incited Franklin to tell him, as he was leaving his 
 presence, that it was of little consequence whether 
 the appointment was recognized by him or not, 
 
268 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 for he was persuaded no agent whatever could be 
 of any use there to the colonies. 
 
 Dr. Franklin was at this time the special agent 
 in London of four colonies, and he was closely en 
 gaged with their affairs. In the following year, 
 1771, he found leisure for another tour, which he 
 made in England. He found this annual recrea 
 tion necessary for the preservation of his health, 
 which was beginning to suffer somewhat from his 
 excessive confinement to business when in Lon 
 don. He went, this year, to Leeds, to Manchester, 
 and to Litchfield, at each of which places he met 
 distinguished men, whom he assisted about their 
 philosophical experiments, and with whom he was 
 in correspondence on scientific studies for years 
 afterward. During this summer tour, he went 
 into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland ; he had not 
 been in the last named country before. All par 
 ties offered him most respectful welcome. At 
 Dublin he met Lord Hillsborough, and dined with 
 him at the Lord Lieutenant s. Hillsborough 
 pressed him to stop at his house on his northward 
 journey, which he could not well refuse. He spent 
 four days there, and was treated with surprising 
 civility, after the recent scene which had occurred 
 between them. He took the distinguished Ameri- 
 
FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 269 
 
 can agent out to ride over the country in his phae 
 ton, and even threw his own overcoat over his 
 shoulders, lest he should take cold from exposure. 
 Franklin was at a loss how to explain it. 
 
 The Irish Parliament received him with honor, 
 inviting him to a seat within the bar. In Scotland 
 he renewed his old friendships, staying with Lord 
 Kames and David Hume. He felt more strongly 
 attached to Scotland and its people than ever. He 
 employed his influence to procure from Edinburgh 
 University honorary degrees for Dr. Cooper, Presi 
 dent Stiles, and Professor Winthrop, of Harvard 
 College. 
 
 He met his son-in-law, Richard Bache, on his 
 return to England, never having seen him before, 
 though he had been the husband of his daughter 
 for four years ; and he wrote home that he was 
 much pleased with him and his connections. He 
 also paid a visit to Dr. Shipley, Bishop of Asaph, 
 for whom he had conceived a very warm friend 
 ship, and whom he used to call the "good Bishop." 
 At his house, he began the composition of his 
 autobiography, which he never finished. His 
 country seat was in Hampshire, and his family- 
 circle exceedingly attractive. Franklin continued 
 
 23* 
 
270 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 to correspond with the Bishop and one of his 
 daughters as long as they both lived. 
 
 Even then he seriously thought of going home 
 again to Pennsylvania ; he was grown tired and 
 disgusted with the delays of his business, and be 
 come quite willing to leave a position full of an 
 noyance and productive of no sort of public good. 
 He was in his sixty-seventh year now, and wrote 
 home to his son that he grew homesick ; he was 
 also afraid of the infirmities of age coming sud 
 denly upon him, so as to prevent his returning home 
 altogether. " I have also," said he, " some im 
 portant affairs to settle before my death, a period 
 I ought now to think cannot be far distant." He 
 loved his friends in England very strongly, and 
 could have contented himself to live and die with 
 them, but that he also loved so well the country 
 from which he had been so long an exile. 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 271 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 LORD HILLSBOROUGH did not treat Franklin 
 very handsomely, after his return to London, 
 notwithstanding his cordial manner at his 
 country home; he refused to see him several 
 times, and his servant once used insulting language 
 before the door, while Franklin sat waiting in the 
 carriage. He never called on his lordship again, 
 but, as he expressed it, " we have only abused one 
 another at a distance." 
 
 A popular controversy sprung up on the rela 
 tive value of pointed and blunt conductors, about 
 this time, in which Dr. Franklin necessarily took 
 a part. He showed the public, by a series of ex 
 periments, that pointed were far safer than the 
 blunt, because they insensibly draw the electricity 
 from the clouds, while the latter cannot always 
 carry off the entire amount of the fluid presenting 
 
272 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 itself, which, therefore leads to an explosion. In 
 the height of the discussion, the king changed 
 the pointed conductors on the queen s palace for 
 blunt ones ; but Franklin thought that settled 
 nothing, either way. So far as he was himself 
 concerned, he could have wished that he would 
 reject them altogether, as of no use; "for," added 
 he, " it is only since he thought himself and family 
 safe from the thunder of Heaven, that he dared to 
 use his own thunder in destroying his innocent 
 subjects." To make fun of the whole matter, the 
 following epigram, among other things, was pub 
 lished : 
 
 " While you, great GEORGE, for safety hunt, 
 And sharp conductors change for blunt, 
 
 The Empire s out of joint ; 
 Franklin a wiser course pursues, 
 And all your thunder fearless views, 
 
 By keeping to the point." 
 
 The story of the various steps that led to the 
 final outbreak between the inhabitants of the 
 colonies and the mother country is too long to be 
 inserted in a biography of this kind ; it is enough 
 merely to sketch the part which Franklin took in 
 the various proceedings which finally culminated 
 in revolt and revolution. 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 273 
 
 Lord Hillsborough was removed from the charge 
 of the American Department, and Lord Dartmouth 
 appointed in his place. Franklin handed Lord 
 Dartmouth, at their first interview, a petition from 
 the Massachusetts Assembly to the king. It was 
 respecting their Governor s (Hutchinson) receiving 
 his salary from the Crown instead of from the 
 people, as heretofore ; a practice against all former 
 custom, and bringing into contempt the ancient 
 prerogative of the Assembly. Lord Dartmouth 
 advised that it should not be presented to the king 
 just then, on account of former irritation. Dr. 
 Franklin showed him why he thought the present 
 was as fit as any other time for the purpose, but 
 concluded at last not to press the matter, but to 
 send home an account of the conversation held 
 between them upon it. 
 
 Next came news to the people of Massachusetts 
 that the salaries of the Judges, as well as that of 
 the Governor, had been made dependent on the 
 Crown. The inhabitants of Boston at once held 
 a town meeting, and drew up a strong protest, 
 asserting that it was but another link in the chain 
 which was forging for their bondage. They voted 
 that copies of the bold and energetic resolutions 
 which were passed by them should be sent to all 
 
274 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 the other towns in the province, with an invitation 
 to them to hold similar meetings, and express 
 their sentiments with equal freedom. The Massa 
 chusetts Governor was greatly incensed at these 
 proceedings of the people, and, in his letters to 
 England, laid the whole blame on Franklin. lie 
 openly charged to the Ministry that these claims 
 of the colonies "were prepared in England in a 
 more full manner than ever before, with a manifest 
 design and tendency to revive a flame which was 
 near expiring." He also charged that it was the 
 design to make a stand for these claims in Massa 
 chusetts first, and afterwards in the other colonies. 
 Franklin was called by him " the great director in 
 England" of the whole plan. 
 
 It is sufficient, however, to offer a general denial 
 to all such charges. While Hutchinson was making 
 them, the friends of Franklin were complaining 
 of his being lukewarm in their interest. Still, he 
 held fast to all his old opinions on the relations of 
 the two countries, and advised the colonies not to 
 consent to part with a single right that belonged 
 to them. But he probably did not suit all the 
 enthusiastic ones, by reason of his wise modera 
 tion ; he always proposed to them to make haste 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 275 
 
 slowly, knowing that events must work with them 
 instead of against them. 
 
 He republished the doings of the people of 
 Boston, as soon as they reached him in London, 
 and wrote a preface for the pamphlet. The temper 
 of his own production made friends and hearers 
 for the rest of the publication. Pretty soon after, 
 the Massachusetts Assembly met and passed 
 similar resolutions, which they forwarded to Dr. 
 Franklin to present to the king. He repaired to 
 Lord Dartmouth as soon as he received them, and 
 told him the case would admit of no more delay ; 
 his Lordship promised to deliver the petition, 
 therefore, to his Majesty. 
 
 Dr. Franklin not only wrote and published, at 
 this time, the preface to the doings of the in 
 habitants of Boston, already spoken of, but like 
 wise a couple more articles, to which, however, he 
 did not put his name ; they caused wide remark, 
 and are known by the titles of "Rules for Re 
 ducing a Great Empire to a Small One," and "An 
 Edict by the King of Prussia." They were full 
 of dry humor, which produced more effect than 
 could have been secured by any other style of 
 composition. In the summer of 1773, while absent 
 in the country again, he beguiled his time with 
 
276 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 abridging the Book of Common Prayer, of which 
 a handsome edition was printed, though it never 
 came into use. 
 
 In the latter part of the year 1772, he had pro 
 cured and sent to Massachusetts certain letters 
 which were written by Governor Hutchinson and 
 Lieutenant-Governor Oliver of that province to a 
 certain member of Parliament. They were private 
 letters, but they dealt with public affairs in the 
 colonies. They represented that all the troubles 
 on this side were fomented by a few restless and 
 intriguing spirits, but that they could be put an 
 end to by employing a military force that should 
 overawe these leaders. Franklin sent over these 
 very important letters from motives of the purest 
 patriotism, believing that his countrymen should 
 know what was said. He said himself of the 
 letters, when he forwarded them "I am not at 
 liberty to tell through what channel I received it 
 (the correspondence) ; and I have engaged that it 
 should not be printed, nor copies taken of the 
 whole or any part of it ; but I am allowed to let 
 it be seen by some men of worth in the province, 
 for their satisfaction only." 
 
 Franklin was greatly vilified and abused in 
 England for having forwarded these letters to 
 
STEPS TO THE KEVOLUTION. 277 
 
 America. But they produced the effect that was 
 intended. They were handed round among the 
 first men of Massachusetts, and Mr. John Adams, 
 afterwards President, but then a country lawyer, 
 carried them in his pocket while travelling a court 
 circuit. The provincial Assembly passed a vote 
 of condemnation upon the letters, averring that 
 they were calculated only to make mischief and 
 sow the seeds of discord. They also voted to 
 petition the king for the instant removal of both 
 Hutchinson and Oliver. Franklin received this 
 petition on its arrival ; and as Lord Dartmouth 
 was absent at the time in the country, he sent it 
 to him. It was soon presented to the king. 
 Governor Hutchinson s letters having meantime 
 been published in Boston, they found their way in 
 type very soon to London. The discovery of their 
 loss from the papers of the gentleman to whom 
 they were originally addressed excited suspicion 
 against a certain other gentleman who alone was 
 known to have been permitted access to them, and 
 a duel grew out of it. 
 
 At this juncture, Dr. Franklin thought it neces 
 sary to come forward with his own statement. 
 He publicly took upon himself the responsibility 
 of having sent the obnoxious letters to America, 
 
 24 
 
278 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 which he did merely to screen an innocent gentle 
 man to whom suspicion was wrongly directed ; 
 and the natural consequence was that all tongues 
 and pens were instantly turned against him. A 
 chancery suit was instituted against him also, but 
 was finally abandoned. 
 
 Presently he received a summons to appear 
 before the Privy Council, who were considering 
 the Massachusetts Assembly petition for the re 
 moval of their Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. 
 The petition was read in his hearing, and then he 
 was questioned as to what he had to say in its 
 favor. After some conversation, it appeared that 
 Hutchinson and Oliver had engaged counsel to 
 defend them. To this Franklin objected, saying 
 that he did not understand that counsel was to be 
 employed against the petition, and that he did not 
 conceive any point of law involved which required 
 a lawyer s arguments; he held it, rather, to be "a 
 question of civil and political jurisprudence," 
 which could readily be decided by the facts in 
 hand. As the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor 
 had counsel, he desired that the Assembly should 
 have counsel likewise ; to procure which, and 
 allow time for preparation, the space of three 
 weeks was granted. 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 279 
 
 All sorts of stories were bi uited about London 
 in relation to the bluff reception Franklin had 
 met with before the Council, and to the way the 
 Solicitor-General, who was the counsel for Hutch- 
 inson and Oliver, had treated him. Franklin 
 engaged two distinguished barristers for the 
 Assembly. The result of the hearing was, their 
 Lordships dismissed the petition, characterizing it 
 as "groundless, vexatious, and scandalous, and 
 calculated only for the seditious purpose of keep 
 ing up a spirit of clamor and discontent in the 
 provinces." This Report was approved by the 
 king, who thereupon dismissed the petition. 
 Could a more ingenious way have been devised 
 for alienating and exasperating a brave and high- 
 spirited people, who certainly were as much en 
 titled to the common birthright of freemen as 
 their own kin who chanced to live in England ? 
 
 On the very next day, Franklin was officially 
 notified of his removal from the office of Deputy 
 Postmaster-General for the colonies. He had 
 looked for this, yet it made him ii. dignant when 
 the base return finally came. He kept down his 
 feelings, however, resolved to remain in perfect 
 control of his temper, and knowing that when he 
 lost that he would part with his power to be of 
 
280 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 further service to his countrymen. After this he 
 kept away from the ministry, wishing to have 
 nothing more to do with them. It was his inten 
 tion to return immediately home ; but, as before, 
 circumstances prevented. This was in the autumn 
 of 1774, and he was sixty-eight years of age. 
 
 Hearing that the colonies were about to assemble 
 in a Continental Congress, he waited in patience 
 to learn what step would be taken by them next. 
 The arrival of Josiah Quincy, Jr., in England, 
 son of his old friend in Massachusetts, brought 
 him much comfort and consolation ; he got the 
 latest advices by him about the feeling of his 
 countrymen. He was just the man to put him in 
 possession of the most secret sentiments and de 
 signs of the American leaders. For some four 
 months, he and Dr. Franklin enjoyed one another s 
 society almost daily. 
 
 The Doctor was getting ready to leave England 
 as early as possible the next year, with fondest 
 hopes of once more joining the delightful family 
 circle from which he had been separated for ten 
 years, when the sad intelligence of his wife s 
 sudden death reached him. She was stricken with 
 paralysis, and survived the shock but five days. 
 They had been man and wife forty-four years, and 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 281 
 
 their married life had been one of perfect harmony. 
 He wrote of her, many years after her death, to a 
 young lady, "Frugality is an enriching virtue; 
 a virtue I never could acquire myself; but I was 
 once lucky enough to find it in a wife, who there 
 fore became a fortune to me." 
 
 In December of that year (1774), about the 
 middle of the month, he received from America 
 the petition of the first Continental Congress to 
 King George, accompanied with a letter from the 
 President of that new body to all the colonial 
 agents in London, desiring them to present the 
 petition. The other agents, with the exception 
 of two beside Franklin, declined acceding to the 
 request, in consequence of having received no 
 instructions from their several colonies. But these 
 three Franklin, Bollan, and Lee, carried the 
 petition to Lord Dartmouth, who kept it in his 
 hands one day, and then engaged to deliver it. 
 He afterwards informed them that it had been re 
 ceived by the king, who would at once lay it before 
 Parliament for consideration. It was done, but 
 no allusion whatever was made to it in the king s 
 speech. The agents asked to be heard in support 
 of it at the bar of the House, but were refused 
 the privilege. It was soon after rejected by a de- 
 
 24* 
 
282 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 cided vote. In the course of the debate, the 
 colonists were spoken of with contempt, and an 
 armed force was threatened to keep them in sub 
 jection. 
 
 Franklin saw that a rupture could not long be 
 avoided, if matters went on in this way. He 
 visited Lord Chatham (the elder Pitt) at his coun 
 try place by invitation, where a free conversation 
 was held on American affairs; his Lordship ex 
 pressing the highest esteem and the sincerest 
 sympathy for the people of the colonies, and 
 hoping that they would continue firm, and remain 
 united in the defence of their rights. Something 
 passed between them relative to the desire of the 
 colonists for independence ; but Franklin assured 
 his Lordship that no such thing had for once been 
 seriously thought of. Yet he knew too well that 
 the treatment which the Ministry were visiting 
 upon the Americans would surely force them to 
 independence at last. 
 
 Two of his influential friends, seeing what a 
 critical turn matters were taking, urged him to 
 come forward and make one more effort to bring 
 about a reconciliation ; they assured him that the 
 Ministers were not all of one mind, but that some 
 of them really desired a restoration of the old 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 283 
 
 friendship. They asked him to draw up a plaii 
 of agreement, such as would be acceptable both to 
 himself and the colonists. He consented after a 
 time to do so, and, at their next meeting, handed 
 them a paper containing the heads of seventeen 
 different articles, styled by him Hints, which could 
 readily be thrown into the form of a compact. 
 When they read them, they raised objections to 
 some of the articles, and had their doubts about 
 others; but they made copies, and promised to 
 show them around in ministerial circles, where 
 they enjoyed intimacies. 
 
 Franklin had an interview on America, likewise, 
 with Lord Howe, who was very anxious that he 
 should effect a reconciliation if possible. He went 
 to the seat of Lord Chatham, too, who spoke in 
 high praise of the proceedings of Congress, say 
 ing that by reason of their calm, wise, and mode 
 rate conduct, they formed "the most honorable 
 assembly of statesmen since those of the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans in the most virtuous times. * 
 He also passed a night at the residence of Lord 
 Camden, who held similar opinions on American 
 affairs with those of Chatham. 
 
 When he got back to London from this little 
 visit, Lord Howe assured him that both Lord 
 
284 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 tforth and Lord Dartmouth were disposed to bring 
 about an accommodation, and asked him his 
 opinion of sending over a Commissioner to 
 America to inquire into the grievances of the 
 colonists, and to agree on some terms of pacifica 
 tion. Franklin said he thought well of it. Lord 
 Howe s sister, who was present, remarked that 
 she wished he was himself going to America as 
 Commissioner, instead of the General to command 
 the armies there. His Lordship had perused the 
 Hints which Franklin had before drawn up as a 
 basis of pacification, and took a copy of them out 
 of his pocket : but he said that the proposal was 
 much too hard to be accepted. He therefore 
 wished that Franklin would make another effort 
 and offer. This the latter promised to do, though 
 he did not believe it would be of any more avail. 
 He did accordingly frame another proposition, 
 based on the petition of Congress to the King, 
 and sent the same to Lord Howe, who communi 
 cated it to persons of high standing in the minis 
 terial party. 
 
 Hearing from Lord Stanhope that Chatham was 
 going to offer a motion in the House of Lords the 
 next day, and that he desired him to be present, 
 he determined not to miss the opportunity. The 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 285 
 
 very next day, January 20th, 1775, he received a 
 message from Lord Chatham himself, asking him 
 to be there. He was punctual, and met Chatham 
 as expected. Lord Chatham remarked to him 
 that his presence at the debate that day would be 
 of more service to America than his own. Taking 
 Franklin by the arm, he conducted him by the 
 passage to the door opening near the throne. A 
 door-keeper came up and told him that none could 
 be taken in by that door except the eldest sons or 
 brothers of peers ; upon which his Lordship, who 
 was lame from gout, limped back with him to the 
 door near the bar. A knot of gentlemen stood 
 around, waiting for the peers who were to intro 
 duce them to the floor. Chatham handed him 
 over to the door-keepers, saying in a voice which 
 all could hear, " This is Dr. Franklin, whom I 
 would have admitted into the House." The door 
 opened with no further delay. Those who saw 
 Franklin with Lord Chatham, but did not know 
 of there being any commerce between them, were 
 rather confounded, and fell to wondering what it 
 meant. They had not long to wait in order to 
 find out. 
 
 Lord Chatham rose very soon and moved that 
 the troops be withdrawn from Boston ; the motion 
 
286 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 was debated with warmth, but finally lost. Lord 
 Chatham told the House that his motion was only 
 introductory to a plan of reconciliation which he 
 had it in mind to bring forward. That plan he 
 did show to Franklin, a week after this debate, 
 and asked him to consider it at his leisure. The 
 latter raised several objections to it; but as it did 
 not altogether satisfy Chatham, either, it was 
 thought best that it should, at any rate, be brought 
 before the House of Lords, if only to open the way 
 for a reconciliation on some other basis. 
 
 It was so submitted, on the 1st of February. Dr. 
 Franklin was admitted to the House as before. 
 The audience was large and profoundly interested. 
 Lord Chatham made one of his most noble efforts 
 in behalf of it, and in favor of adopting some just 
 measures for an immediate and permanent recon 
 ciliation with the colonies. His speech was so 
 grand, so full of power, so overflowing with his 
 matchless eloquence, it has become historical. 
 But in spite of all he could do, assisted by the 
 powerful talents of such men as Lord Camden, 
 Lord Temple, and others, the bill was lost by a 
 majority of two to one. Lord Sandwich, who 
 assailed it, was especially abusive and passionate. 
 He said he would not believe it proceeded from a 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 287 
 
 peer of the realm, but lie rather believed it to be 
 the work of some man from the other side of the 
 Atlantic. He turned upon Dr. Franklin, who waa 
 leaning on the bar at the time, and, looking 
 straight at him, savagely remarked that "he 
 fancied he had in his eye the person who drew it 
 up, one of the bitterest and most mischievous 
 enemies this country had ever known." Lord 
 Chatham instantly took the whole responsibility 
 of it upon himself. He was the more willing to 
 own its authorship, since several of them professed 
 to think so meanly of it ; for if it was so weak, 
 he should be unwilling that any one else should 
 be censured for it. He further stated, that it had 
 been reckoned his vice heretofore, " not to be apt 
 to take advice ; but he made no scruple to declare, 
 that, if he were the first minister of this country, 
 and had the care of settling this momentous 
 business, he should not be ashamed of publicly 
 calling to his assistance a person so perfectly ac 
 quainted with the whole of American affairs as 
 the gentleman alluded to and so injuriously re 
 flected on ; one, he was pleased to say, whom all 
 Europe held in high estimation for his knowledge 
 and wisdom, and ranked with our Bayles and 
 
288 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Newtons ; who was an honor, not to the EnglisL 
 nation only, but to human nature !" 
 
 His "Hints" were considered and talked about, 
 on this side and that, subsequently to the rejection 
 of Lord Chatham s bill by the House of Lords ; 
 but nothing promised to result from it all. There 
 were two or three persons, certainly, among the 
 Ministry, each of whom wanted to be sent to 
 America as a Commissioner to adjust the diffi 
 culties ; and several plans were tried for the sake 
 of getting Franklin to subscribe to just points 
 enough to warrant their appointment in that 
 capacity ; but the American sage kept the rights 
 and interests of his countrymen in mind rather 
 than the personal ambition of certain public men 
 in England. For ten long years he had held 
 steadfastly to the important work on which he was 
 despatched to England; and he displayed an 
 amount of enthusiasm and a persistency of pur 
 pose that was truly wonderful, when it is con 
 sidered that he had been separated from his coun 
 trymen so long, and had few or no opportunities 
 to understand exactly how they felt, or how com 
 mon was the disposition to resist openly. He of 
 course was regularly apprised of what was trans 
 piring in the colonies; but he needed personal 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 289 
 
 contact with his countrymen to kindle his patriot 
 ism to that glow at which it would most effectively 
 aid him in his purposes. Under the circumstances, 
 therefore, he did what it seems no other man of 
 his time could have done for America. He laid 
 the claims of the colonies on a foundation so 
 broad and deep that neither the prejudices of 
 ministers nor the passions of the populace could 
 shake them. 
 
 His work in England had drawn to a close. 
 There was nothing more for him to do. His 
 friends were more his friends than ever, and they 
 sent him back across the ocean with every expres 
 sion of esteem and attachment. He left word with 
 two of the other agents that it was barely possible 
 that he might return on business for Pennsylvania 
 in the autumn, but not again for Massachusetts, 
 
 He set sail from England on the 21st of March, 
 1775, being now sixty-nine years old; and he ar 
 rived at Philadelphia on the 5th of May. The 
 battles of Lexington and Concord those opening 
 scenes of the seven years drama were fought 
 while he was upon the ocean. He beguiled the 
 long time of his voyage with writing an account 
 of his efforts while in England to prevent a col 
 lision between the mother country and her colo- 
 
 25 
 
290 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 nies, and to perpetuate their former friendship. 
 And he lost no opportunity, either, to experiment 
 philosophically while on the deep. He discov 
 ered that the water in the Gulf stream is warmer 
 than the water on either side of it; a matter 
 which he explained after philosophical methods. 
 
 On the very next day after he arrived home, the 
 Pennsylvania Assembly chose him a delegate to 
 the second Continental Congress, which was held 
 in Philadelphia on the 10th of the month. The 
 news of the 19th of April, at Lexington and Con 
 cord, had aroused the colonists from one end of 
 the land to the other. Franklin wrote to Dr. 
 Priestly at once, that "the breach between the 
 two countries is grown wider, and in danger of 
 becoming irreparable." 
 
 He was with those who were foremost in the 
 Congress to unite now in open resistance to Eng 
 land. He believed that the time for protests and 
 petitions was passed. The Congress did send over 
 another petition, though there was strong opposi 
 tion to the step ; still, all were ready to keep the 
 door open for reconciliation as late and long as 
 possible. Franklin was now an active member of 
 Congress, though in his seventieth year, besides 
 serving as Chairman of the Committee of Safety, 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 291 
 
 appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly. The 
 latter was a position which required constant labor 
 and care. For eight months he served upon this 
 committee with all the laborious zeal of a young 
 man. He wrote " My time was never more fully 
 employed; in the morning at six, I am at the 
 Committee of Safety, which committee holds till 
 near nine ; when I am at Congress, and that sits 
 till four in the afternoon." Young men, in these 
 days, do not usually work any harder than that. 
 
 He was before the general sentiment in the mat 
 ter of a separate and independent government, 
 and on the 21st of July he presented a plan of a 
 confederacy of the colonies to the Congress. No 
 action was then had upon it, but it formed the 
 groundwork of operations in that direction, about 
 a year later. It amounted, in fact, to a declara 
 tion of independence. Congress proceeded to 
 establish a general post office system, the old one 
 being destroyed by the hostile relations of the 
 two countries ; and Franklin was made Postmaster- 
 General, with a salary of a thousand dollars a year. 
 He was empowered to make what post-routes and 
 appoint such postmasters under him as he chose. 
 In the raising and organization of the army, which 
 was the first matter before Congress, he performed 
 
292 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 excellent and timely service. He was placed, too, 
 on a number of important committees, on all of 
 which he served industriously. He was a member 
 of the Secret Committee of Congress, among 
 others ; whose duty it was to obtain cannon, mus- 
 kets, and ammunition, as well as to procure every 
 variety of military supplies and afterward dis 
 tribute them among the troops and such armed 
 vessels as were in the Continental service. It re 
 quired great caution and foresight to import these 
 necessary articles of war, and steer clear of sub 
 jecting them to the capture of the enemy s vessels 
 which were cruising everywhere. 
 
 He likewise turned his hand to a plan for emit 
 ting paper currency ; but his suggestions were not 
 all adopted by the Congress, which doubtless was 
 the cause of the depreciation of that currency after 
 a short trial. "When Washington took command 
 of the American army at Cambridge, Dr. Franklin 
 was sent, with Benjamin Harrison and Thomas 
 Lynch, to the camp, to devise a plan for the great 
 est possible efficiency of the army. The meeting 
 between these distinguished persons took place at 
 "Washington s headquarters on the 18th day of 
 October ; and the several colonies of !N"ew Eng- 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 293 
 
 land were represented. The interview was pro 
 longed through, several days ; and the result 
 reached proved satisfactory to the committee and 
 to General Washington. 
 
 He had been elected a member of the Pennsyl 
 vania Assembly in his absence, so that when he 
 returned he found himself obliged to attend daily 
 upon the Assembly, the Congress, and the Com 
 mittee of Safety for Pennsylvania ; but he gave 
 Congress the preference when the hours of meet 
 ing interfered. On the 29th of November, Con 
 gress appointed a Committee of Secret Correspond 
 ence, for the purpose of keeping up regular com 
 munication with those who favored America in 
 Europe, whether in England, Scotland, and Ire 
 land, or on the continent. Dr. Franklin was, of 
 course, assigned an important place on this com 
 mittee. He forthwith laid a train by which the 
 committee could at. an early day receive intelli 
 gence of what was going on in Europe. He was 
 very industrious with his always serviceable pen 
 in this direction. 
 
 A plan was set on foot to induce the people of 
 the Canadas to take part in the Congress ; but it 
 soon fell through. The Canadians and the oolo- 
 25* 
 
294 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 nists could not be expected to become sudden 
 friends, after past experiences, on no better basis 
 than that of a common hatred of the measures of 
 Great Britain. But Congress sent a commission 
 to Canada, composed of Dr. Franklin, Samuel 
 Chase, and Charles Carroll, to look after the army 
 operations which were going forward in that quar 
 ter, and to promise the people of Canada all the 
 help they wanted in setting up a government for 
 themselves. 
 
 They left on the 20th of March, 1776, but did 
 not arrive in Montreal until the last of April. The 
 roads were in such condition that they could not 
 travel any faster. And it was a very inopportune 
 time, too, when they did arrive ;, for the American 
 army, under Montgomery and Arnold, had begun 
 their retreat after the disaster before Quebec, and 
 it was not to be supposed that the Canadians cared 
 to treat with the new commissioners on such a 
 subject, just then, if, indeed, they ever had been 
 ready to treat. Dr. Franklin was exposed to the 
 most inclement weather during the journey, being 
 compelled to sleep out in the woods in some parts 
 of it ; and this, for a man of seventy, might be 
 thought rather hard usage. He remained two 
 
STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 295 
 
 weeks in Montreal, and then turned his steps 
 homeward again, leaving the other commissioners 
 behind. He reached Albany after much trouble, 
 and went thence in the private carriage of General 
 Schuyler to New York, and finally arrived home 
 in the fore-part of June. 
 
296 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER XTIT. 
 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE. 
 
 HE now gave his whole time to his duties 
 as a member of Congress. The subject 
 of independence was broached, and imme 
 diately arrested general attention. All things 
 were ripe for the movement. Virginia directed 
 her delegates to propose it in the Congress. Her 
 request was obeyed by the famous Richard Henry 
 Lee. The debate drew out the fact that the greater 
 part of that body was prepared to take the final 
 step towards independence. In that immortal 
 debate, such men as John Dickinson, John Adams, 
 Roger Sherman, Livingston, and Lee participated. 
 A committee was selected to draw up a Declara 
 tion of Independence, which consisted of John 
 Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Sherman, and Living 
 ston. Jefferson drafted the Declaration, but 
 Franklin and Adams made a few verbal altera- 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 297 
 
 tions. It was debated for three days, and on the 
 4th of July passed by an emphatic vote. "While 
 the members were signing their names to the new 
 Declaration, Hancock, whose bold hand seems to 
 overshadow all the rest, made the remark " We 
 must be unanimous; there must be no pulling 
 different ways ; we must all hang together." 
 "Yes," said Franklin, "we must, indeed, all hang 
 together, or most assuredly we shall all hang sepa 
 rately." 
 
 In the measures taken immediately after to set 
 an effective government in operation, Dr. Frank 
 lin took a profound interest, and his talents were 
 always at the command of the Congress. The im 
 portant letters, documents, schemes, and discus 
 sions with which his name was intimately con 
 nected, are more numerous than is popularly 
 thought. 
 
 Congress having at length decided to make an 
 attempt to form foreign alliances, the. colonies 
 being now an independent power, the first thought 
 was to make approaches to France ; the general 
 instinct was, that she would see that such an 
 alliance against England would be for her interests 
 every way. Accordingly, three commissioners 
 were appointed to reside near the Court of France, 
 
298 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 and attend to the interests of the American colo 
 nies. They were Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and 
 Arthur Lee. Deane was in France already, en 
 gaged in procuring and sending out munitions of 
 war; Lee was in England, where Franklin left 
 him ; and Franklin would have but to cross the 
 seas to make the trio complete. 
 
 On the 26th of October, 1776, he took his de 
 parture from Philadelphia, to perform the crown 
 ing public services of his life. His two grandsons 
 went in his company. On the following day they 
 went aboard the ship Reprisal, carrying sixteen 
 guns. He had placed all the money he could 
 raise before leaving home between three and four 
 thousand pounds at the disposal of Congress. 
 The vessel was chased by British cruisers, but not 
 overhauled. The captain took two British prizes, 
 however, off the French coast. 
 
 Dr. Franklin was set on shore at Auray, whence 
 he went by land to Nantes, a distance of seventy 
 miles. Here he sought rest from the fatigue of 
 his voyage and journey at a country seat near by. 
 Nobody knew beforehand of his coming. Even 
 the fact of his appointment was kept secret by 
 Congress. After eight days he set out for Paris, 
 arriving there on the 21st of December. There 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 299 
 
 was a great deal of talk in all circles in the French 
 capital, when it was known that he had arrived in 
 the country, and all parties puzzled their wits to 
 make out in exactly what capacity he had come. 
 Mr. Deane was already in Paris, and Mr. Lee ar 
 rived the next day. Dr. Franklin soon took lodg 
 ings at Passy, a pretty little village near Paris, 
 where he continued to make his home for the 
 whole time he was in France. 
 
 His antecedent life had prepared the way for 
 his cordial reception. He was long before known 
 as a philosopher, as the author of "Poor Richard," 
 and for his frank but bold conduct in the face of 
 the English ministry, while the American cause 
 still claimed a hearing before Parliament and the 
 King. The people of Paris looked on him as a 
 sage, and paid him the fall reverence due such an 
 exalted character. It was said of the effect pro 
 duced by his coming, that " diplomatic etiquette 
 did not permit him often to hold interviews with 
 the ministers, but he associated with all the 
 distinguished personages who directed public 
 opinion." The people of France took him as a 
 personal representative of his countrymen, and 
 regarded his serene countenance as like their own. 
 He was described as joining " to the demeanor of 
 
300 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 Phocion the spirit of Socrates." The old and the 
 young made common court to him, and esteemed 
 it almost a royal privilege to gain admission to his 
 house at Passy. He did not have to put himself 
 to much trouble to negotiate ; " his virtues and his 
 renown negotiated for him." 
 
 His portraits were to be seen everywhere. His 
 venerable looking head was on medallions of every 
 variety, of sizes suitable to be set in snuff-box 
 lids, or worn in rings. He had worn a huge wig, 
 while in England, agreeably to the fashion of the 
 times ; but he put it off, after he went to France, 
 and wore a fur cap on his head in place of it. 
 After a time, he went without this; and in the 
 best portrait which was ever painted of him, that 
 by Duplessis, he shows none but his own hair, 
 sparse on the top of his head, but flowing down 
 freely over his shoulders. He likewise wore 
 spectacles, a little later in life, whenever he went 
 from home. 
 
 The business of the Commissioners was to offer 
 a plan to the French Court for a treaty of com 
 merce with the American nation, and to try and 
 obtain, at the cost of the United States, eight 
 line-of-battle ships ; also to borrow money, obtain 
 and send forward military supplies, and fit out 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 301 
 
 armed vessels under the new flag of the United 
 States, should the French government offer no 
 objection. 
 
 But while France was willing to help the 
 colonies, it was not for her interest just then to 
 break with England. The Commissioners made 
 a great many valuable friends, though but little 
 visible headway in their business. The people of 
 France were much more demonstrative than the 
 ministry. The news of the reverses in America, 
 too, did not have the effect to make very enthusi 
 astic friends for the colonists, at that particular 
 time. Canada was cleared of our troops ; the 
 battle of Long Island had been fought and lost to 
 us ; the British had compelled us to evacuate New 
 York; and General Howe was in possession of 
 forts "Washington and Lee, on the Hudson. Wash 
 ington was retreating with the ragged remnants 
 of an army through JSTew Jersey, and the people 
 of the country through which he passed were 
 losing their faith in the cause. Congress, too, had 
 fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore. To ask 
 France to step out before the world at such a time 
 and become the open friend of our falling fortunes, 
 much less to become the voluntary champion of 
 
 26 
 
302 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 our cause, would have been preposterous, if not a 
 token of insanity. 
 
 For all that, the Commissioners received secret 
 intimations and pledges of sympathy and support 
 from the Ministry, though they were not permitted 
 to hold audience with the King. It was likewise 
 told them that two millions of livres would come 
 to them soon, through a private hand, to be used 
 on behalf of the United States. The pretence 
 was that the money was the free contribution of a 
 few generous individuals, who entertained a deep 
 sympathy with the American cause, and did not 
 ask that the money should be repaid until after 
 peace was declared. But the truth was, the money 
 came from the royal treasury ; and so the Com 
 missioners understood it. And knowing this, and 
 realizing also what was the determination among 
 their countrymen to hold out until independence 
 was achieved, Franklin and his associates felt sure 
 that France would in good time come out and 
 openly side with America. 
 
 In the early autumn of 1777, General Burgoyne 
 was captured, with all his army, by the northern 
 army under General Gates ; and this put a brighter 
 face on matters at once. The Commissioners im 
 proved the fortunate occasion to present the Court 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 303 
 
 with an account of the new state of things, and to 
 urge again their proposal for a treaty. The King 
 and Ministry had been waiting for just such a 
 fortunate change in American affairs, and were 
 ready now to make a favorable response to the 
 American agents. M. Gerard, the Secretary of 
 the King s Council, waited on them, and assured 
 them that, by the advice of his Council, the King 
 had resolved to acknowledge the independence of 
 the United States, and to enter into a treaty of 
 friendship and commerce with them. The King 
 further desired to assure them that he wished to 
 take no sort of advantage of the present condition 
 of the United States, to exact terms which they 
 would not care to comply with in more prosperous 
 times, but that he wished to deal with them on 
 fair and equal terms, being resolved to aid them in 
 their efforts to establish an independent nation lay 
 every means at his command. It was to be ex 
 pected, of course, that war with England would 
 grow out of it ; but he exacted no indemnities on 
 that account, only desiring the United States to 
 make a pledge not to surrender their entire inde 
 pendence in any treaty of peace which they might 
 make with England, nor ever return to subjection 
 again to British rule. 
 
804 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 The new treaty was signed on the 6th day of 
 February, 1788, and a messenger was sent over at 
 once with the tidings to America, where it was 
 received with tokens of universal joy and grati 
 tude. To the address, perseverance, skill, and 
 personal popularity of Dr. Franklin the people of 
 the United States felt that they owed this most 
 desirable result. 
 
 The independence of America having thus been 
 proclaimed, of course the Court could no longer 
 decline to give an audience to its agents and com 
 missioners. They made their public appearance 
 at Versailles accordingly. In the accounts which 
 were given of this notable ceremony, Franklin is 
 spoken of as being accompanied by a large number 
 of Americans and foreigners, led by curiosity to 
 witness the scene. "His age," says one, "his 
 venerable aspect, the simplicity of his dress, 
 everything fortunate and remarkable in the life of 
 this American, contributed to excite public atten 
 tion. The clapping of hands and other expressions 
 of joy indicated that warmth of enthusiasm which 
 the French are more susceptible of than any other 
 people." When he crossed the. court to pass to 
 the office cf the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 
 crowd waited for him until he came in sight, when 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 305 
 
 they greeted him with acclamations. Whenever 
 he made his public appearance in Paris, he was 
 the recipient of similar attentions. At so fashion 
 able a Court as that of France, he was made 
 rather more of by reason of his republican dress. 
 Madame Campan wrote of his appearance " His 
 straight, unpowdered hair, his round hat, his 
 brown cloth coat, formed a singular contrast with 
 the laced and embroidered coats and perfumed 
 heads of the courtiers of Versailles." 
 
 He had an interview with Yoltaire, who had 
 expressed a desire to see the illustrious American. 
 Voltaire complimented Dr. Franklin by opening 
 and carrying on the conversation in English. 
 
 During the ten months he had been waiting to 
 be recognized by the government of France as the 
 agent of a new nation over the seas, a number of 
 foreign officers had applied to him for letters 
 recommending them to Congress, or to General 
 Washington ; and the volume soon swelled to such 
 a size as to be truly embarrassing. The contents 
 of these letters were as various as possible ; they 
 set forth the wonderful exploits of the writers, or 
 enclosed certificates and recommendations of men 
 of rank and military commanders. Franklin 
 jould only answer to them all that he had no 
 
 26* 
 
306 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 offices in the army to bestow, and no power to 
 engage officers for the American army, but it was 
 to no purpose. He wrote almost in despair to a 
 friend, " You can have no idea how I am harassed. 
 All my friends are sought out, and teased to tease 
 me. Great officers of rank in all departments, 
 ladies, great and small, besides professed solic 
 itors, worry me from morning till night." 
 
 But in the case of the young Marquis de La 
 fayette he proceeded differently; he recommended 
 him to Congress and his countrymen at once, and, 
 in conjunction with Mr. Deane, signed a letter to 
 Congress, in which it was stated that he (Lafayette) 
 was " gone to America in a ship of his own, ac 
 companied by some officers of distinction, in order 
 to serve in our armies. He is exceedingly beloved, 
 and everybody s good wishes attend him. * * * 
 He has left a beautiful young wife, and, for her 
 sake particularly, we hope that his bravery and 
 ardent desire to distinguish himself will be a little 
 restrained by the General s prudence, so as not to 
 permit his being hazarded much except on some 
 important occasion." 
 
 On the 14th of September, 17T8, Congress ap 
 pointed him Minister Plenipotentiary to the French 
 Court. He had veil deserved so distinguishing a 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 307 
 
 mark of the public confidence. It was the crown 
 ing part of his long public career. He was 
 seventy-two years old; an age when most men 
 think they should be snug at home, perhaps 
 tenants of the chimney corner. 
 
 As Minister, his duties became at once very 
 much more weighty than as one of the three com 
 missioners ; yet he was able, notwithstanding his 
 age, to perform them with regularity and efficiency. 
 He had political enemies, who let pass no occasion 
 to criticise the manner in which he performed his 
 official duties; but his calm frame of mind and 
 placid temper were not disturbed by their fault 
 finding. He discharged the offices incumbent on 
 him, at any rate, with such perfect acceptance as 
 to maintain for himself and his country the steady 
 favor of the King and Ministry, who never re 
 fused to grant one of his requests, though they 
 were made with embarrassing frequency, and 
 generally pertained to money. It was one of his 
 own admissions afterward, that the Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs, Count de Yergennes, always ful 
 filled his promises; and that not one of the large 
 number of drafts which were drawn on him by 
 Congress, during the war, was allowed to go to 
 protest, or to pass the time of payment. 
 
308 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 He received several proposals, while Minister, 
 to act as mediator for a peace between the mother 
 country and the colonies, on condition that 
 America should concede certain commercial privi 
 leges to England which she did not to France ; 
 but that sort of condition was entirely out of the 
 question. He was addressed, also, on the subject 
 by a secret agent under an assumed name, who 
 laid before him a plan of reconciliation, and a form 
 of government for America in the future. The 
 writer took occasion to disparage France as much 
 as he could, and to assure Franklin that America 
 would find her fickle and false ; and then, as if to 
 impress Franklin with the power and determina 
 tion of England, he added, that Parliament would 
 never acknowledge the independence of the 
 colonies, nor would the people of England ever 
 submit to such an act. He declared that the 
 British title to the empire was perfect, and that 
 the present generation, and their successors after 
 them, would insist upon that title forever. Frank 
 lin always thought this secret agent of the British 
 government was really in Paris all the time, 
 though he dated his letter from Brussels. And 
 supposing that he was acting in the interest of the 
 British Ministry, he replied in a manner which he 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 309 
 
 thought would best meet the case. The answer is 
 one of his finest specimens of combined ridicule, 
 sarcasm, pungency, and strong thought. 
 
 While serving in a public and political capacity, 
 Franklin had drawn to him a large number of 
 friends, composed of the most distinguished men 
 not only of Paris but of France ; men known in 
 scientific, literary, and political circles above the 
 other men of their time. "When he attended the 
 meetings of the French Academy, he was always 
 received by the members with most marked 
 attention. 
 
 He had his thoughts about him always for in 
 ventions, improvements, and plans of whatever 
 sort, which were calculated, as he believed, to 
 prove of benefit to the human race. He was in 
 all respects a man of philanthropy and progress. 
 The famous Captain Cook being about to return 
 from a voyage of discovery, Dr. Franklin sent a 
 circular letter to the captains of American cruisers, 
 requesting them not to capture, or even to detain, 
 much less to plunder the vessel of anything which 
 they might find on board, in case they should fall 
 in with it. Captain Cook being an Englishman, 
 and Franklin being Foreign Minister of a power 
 with which England was then at war, an act of 
 
310 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 such a character could not go without its influence ; 
 and accordingly, when Captain Cook s "Voyage" 
 was published, the Board of Admiralty sent a copy 
 to Dr. Franklin, accompanied with a letter from 
 Lord Howe which informed him that it was pre 
 sented with the King s personal approval. A 
 medal, struck in honor of Captain Cook hy the 
 Royal Society, was also sent him. 
 
 Paul Jones, the " father of the American Navy," 
 likewise presented himself before him, in connec 
 tion with a plan which had been formed for fitting 
 out a squadron of vessels to make a descent on 
 the coast of England. There was to be a land 
 force connected with the expedition, which La 
 fayette would command ; Jones would be in com 
 mand of the squadron. This scheme, however, 
 fell through. Jones soon after won immortal re 
 nown by fighting the frigate JSerapis with the Bon 
 Homme Eichard, off the English coast; the affairs 
 of his cruise required adjustment afterwards, espe 
 cially his trouble with the French Captain Landais, 
 who was second in command ; and this delicate 
 business devolved upon Dr. Franklin. 
 
 With all his public duties and his social de 
 mands, he never neglected the pursuit of his 
 studies in philosophy. Sir Humphrey Davy says 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 311 
 
 of some of his researches and writings " By very 
 small means he established very grand truths. * 
 * * He has written equally for the uninitiated 
 and for the philosopher ; and he has rendered his 
 details amusing as well as perspicuous, elegant as 
 well as simple. Science appears in his language 
 in a dress wonderfully decorous, the best adapted 
 to display her native loveliness. He has in no 
 instance exhibited that false dignity by which 
 philosophy is kept aloof from common applica 
 tions ; and he has sought rather to make her a 
 useful inmate and servant in the common habita 
 tions of man, than to preserve her merely as an 
 object of admiration in temples and palaces." 
 Higher praise could not be written. It was Frank 
 lin s part to bring down the mysteries of science 
 to the comprehension of the people. 
 
 While still Minister to France, and after he had 
 been approached by a British agent, a member of 
 Parliament, on the subject of reconciling the colo 
 nies with the mother country even at the expense 
 of the friendship of France, the Englishman wrote 
 him, just as he was leaving Paris for London, 
 " If tempestuous times should come, take care of 
 your own safety ; events are uncertain, and men 
 are capricious." Franklin replied to him, "I 
 
312 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 thank you for your kind caution; but, having 
 nearly finished a long life, I set but little value 
 upon what remains of it. Like a draper, when 
 one chaffers with him for a remnant, I am ready 
 to say, As it is only a fag end, I will not differ 
 with you about it; take it for what you please. 
 Perhaps the best use such an old fellow can be put 
 to, is to make a martyr of him." 
 
 The respect paid to Franklin by the French peo 
 ple, as well as by the Court and the men of let 
 ters, was well calculated to gratify even the vanity 
 of the young nation which he represented. His 
 portraits and medals were to be seen everywhere. 
 Over and around his head on the medals was im 
 pressed the noble, but wholly deserved, inscription 
 of Turgot, "Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque 
 tyrannis:" which is translated, "He snatched 
 the lightning from heaven, and the sceptre from 
 tyrants." 
 
 There were stories set on foot, after a time, that 
 he was too compliant to the French Court, and 
 that America would fare better if she put on a 
 more bold manner. Mr. John Adams, afterwards 
 Minister to Great Britain, was of this opinion. 
 The talk that was made over it soon led to sug 
 gestions in Congress whether another might not 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 313 
 
 with advantage be appointed to Dr. Franklin s 
 place. The French Minister in the United States, 
 M. De la Luzerne, wrote to Count de Yergennes, 
 Foreign Minister of France, " Congress is filled 
 with intrigues and cabals respecting the recall of 
 Dr. Franklin, which the delegates from Massachu 
 setts insist on by all sorts of means." The Count 
 wrote back in reply, " If you are questioned re 
 specting our opinion of Dr. Franklin, you may say, 
 without hesitation, that we esteem him as much 
 for his patriotism as for the wisdom of his con 
 duct. * * * We are of opinion that his recall 
 would be very inconvenient in the present state 
 of things, and it would be the more disagreeable 
 to us, inasmuch as he would perhaps be succeeded 
 by a character unquiet, exacting, difficult, and less 
 ardently attached to the cause of his country." 
 
 Dr. Franklin was of the last service to the 
 United States in procuring loans of money with 
 which to carry on the war. The French govern 
 ment had loaned us already about th^ree millions 
 of livres a year. In 1781, he increased that loan 
 to four millions, besides a subsidy of six millions, 
 which was a "gift outright to America." Even 
 after that, Col. Laurens came over to Paris to 
 solicit further aid still. Dr. Franklin joined with 
 
 27 
 
314 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 him in making the request, and was to a degree 
 successful. The King could do nothing more from 
 the government treasury, but he promised to guar 
 antee the interest of a loan in Holland, the debt 
 not to exceed ten millions of livres. 
 
 He was at this time seventy-five years old, and 
 he formed his plans to withdraw from public life 
 altogether. In writing to the President of Con 
 gress on the subject, he said, " I have passed my 
 seventy-fifth year; and I find that the long and 
 severe fit of the gout, which I had the last winter, 
 has shaken me exceedingly, and I am yet far from 
 having recovered the bodily strength I before en 
 joyed. I do not know that my mental faculties 
 are impaired ; perhaps I shall be the last to dis 
 cover that ; but I am sensible of great diminution 
 in my activity. * * * I find, also, that the 
 business is too heavy for me, and too confining. 
 The constant attendance at home, which is neces 
 sary for receiving and accepting your bills of ex 
 change, to answer letters, and perform other parts 
 of my employment, prevents my taking the air 
 and exercise which my annual journeys formerly 
 used to afford me, and which contributed much to 
 the preservation of my health." 
 
 He had been in public life now for fifty years ; 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 315 
 
 and he confessed that he had, in that time, enjoyed 
 honor enough to satisfy any reasonable ambition. 
 He craved nothing but repose and rest ; and he 
 hoped Congress would at once grant his request 
 and send some one else to take his place. He did 
 not propose, however, to return home at once, for 
 the fatigues of the last sea voyage had nearly over 
 come his strength ; but he thought he would stay 
 in France until after peace was declared, and per 
 haps for the remainder of his life. Whatever ex 
 perience he had already gained there, he was 
 ready to turn over- to his successor. 
 
 Congress was not ready fo listen to his proposal. 
 That body was just making up a commission to 
 negotiate a peace with Great Britain, the surren 
 der of Cornwallis at Yorktown having virtually 
 decided the contest, and Dr. Franklin was named 
 with four other gentlemen to join Mr. Adams. He 
 therefore continued to hold his office. Having 
 been already addressed in the British interest on 
 the subject of a reconciliation, he was now plied 
 with insidious proposals most industriously. 
 They tried to influence him to agree, for one 
 thing, on a ten years truce, during which America 
 was not to assist France, while England was to 
 carry on war against that power. Franklin de- 
 
316 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 nounced such a proposal as the depth of perfidy. 
 To sunder the ties that held France and the United 
 States together, England was ready to make the 
 last endeavor. She offered tempting baits for that 
 purpose alike to France and the United States ; 
 but none of them were efficient to work the result 
 desired. The entire independence of the United 
 States was the great matter which both were 
 resolved to secure. 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 317 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 
 
 HI S domestic relations at the pleasant little 
 village of Passy were of the most delight 
 ful character. The family of M. Brillon, 
 in which he made his home, treated him as one 
 of their own number, and with sentiments of affec 
 tionate reverence. The neighbors all delighted in 
 his genial society, and he was an object of uni 
 versal love. 
 
 The subject of animal magnetism came up be 
 fore the public mind, during the latter part of Dr. 
 Franklin s mission, and he gave much attention to 
 it as one of the wonders of the time ; but he was 
 not led to put any faith in its reality and truth as 
 a new discovery. 
 
 The people of England having become at length 
 tired of the war, they clamored for its termination ; 
 
 and the ministry were obliged to yield. In order 
 27* 
 
318 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 to meet the changed aspect of affairs, Congress 
 had promptly appointed the five commissioners 
 spoken of, Dr. Franklin being one, to meet at 
 Paris and be ready to receive any proposals which 
 the British ministry might be disposed to make. 
 There were four leading points insisted on by 
 Congress : 1st, the independence of the United 
 States ; 2d, a settlement of the boundaries between 
 the remaining British colonies and the United 
 States; 3d, a contraction of the boundaries of 
 Canada to their condition before the bill which 
 was passed by Parliament for the punishment of 
 Massachusetts ; and, 4th, the free use of the New 
 foundland Banks for fishing. 
 
 These points were all discussed at great length, 
 after the negotiating parties were met. The 
 British commission labored hard to have this 
 point yielded, and that point modified; but the 
 American commissioners were inflexible. The 
 articles being all arranged, they were signed on 
 the 30th of November, 1782, at Paris, Franklin 
 being seventy-six years of age at the time. This 
 body of an agreement was the basis of the treaty 
 which was afterwards concluded, and likewise 
 signed at Paris, on the 3d day of September, 1783. 
 This transaction was the token of the close ef the 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 319 
 
 Revolution, and of the birth of a new nation into 
 the world. 
 
 Dr. Franklin wrote to a friend concerning this 
 event in history, that it was one he hardly ex 
 pected to live to see. "A few years of peace," 
 said he, " well improved, will restore and increase 
 our strength ; but our future safety will depend 
 on our union and our virtue." 
 
 The remainder of his residence in France, after 
 the signing of the treaty of peace with Great 
 Britain, was but a continuation of the agreeable 
 life he had been leading there from the first. As 
 Minister, the last public act of his career was put 
 ting his hand to a treaty with Prussia, which he 
 did in 1785. 
 
 Congress was at last ready to yield to his solicit 
 ations to be relieved of his official position, and 
 sent over Mr. Thomas Jefferson to Paris to suc 
 ceed him at the Court of Versailles. He had lived 
 for eight and a half years in France, and served 
 his countrymen with fidelity and singleness of 
 purpose. Leaving his native land when she had 
 only resolved on independence, it was his earnest 
 wish to return and witness the change in her con 
 dition. If he should be so fortunate as to cross 
 
320 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 the seas in safety, he hoped to pass the short 
 remainder of his life in tranquillity and peace. 
 
 After taking an affectionate and impressive 
 leave of his numerous friends, he embarked at 
 Havre for Southampton on the last of July, 1785 ; 
 and after a very brief stay in England, set sail for 
 the United States. In his Journal is to be found 
 the following record of his arrival on his native 
 shores : 
 
 "WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH. With the flood 
 in the morning, came a light breeze, which brought 
 us above Gloucester Point, in full view of dear 
 Philadelphia ! when we again cast anchor to wait 
 for the health officer, who, having made his visit, 
 and finding no sickness, gave us leave to land. 
 My son-in-law came in a boat to us ; we landed at 
 Market street wharf, where we were received by 
 a crowd of people, with huzzas, and accompanied 
 with acclamations quite to my door. Found my 
 family well. God be praised for his mercies !" 
 
 He at once went to live with his daughter, his 
 wife being some time dead. "I am again sur 
 rounded by my friends," wrote he to another, 
 " with a fine family of grand-children about my 
 knees, and an affectionate, good daughter and 
 Bon-in-law to take care of me." It was his sincere 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 321 
 
 wish, after having seen fifty years of public ser 
 vice, to be allowed the remainder of his days for 
 repose and reflection ; but the needs of his coun 
 trymen hardly allowed that ; he was in perpetual 
 demand, if not in positive action, then in council. 
 
 Hardly had he become settled once more in his 
 new domestic state, before he was elected to the 
 Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. 
 After that, he was made President of the province, 
 an office equal to that of Governor. Aged as 
 he was, he still felt himself so completely in 
 possession of his faculties as not to hesitate about 
 assuming the new gifts imposed on him. He 
 shrank from nothing to which he was adequate. 
 To the last, his faculties were bright and elastic. 
 
 As President, he could hold the office for three 
 years ; and for the succeeding four years he would 
 be ineligible. "While yet in possession of this 
 office, he was likewise elected a member of the 
 convention for framing a Constitution of the 
 United States, which assembled in Philadelphia, 
 in May, 1787. At that time he was in his eighty- 
 second year! Men of that age do not, now-a- 
 days, go about such weighty business as framing 
 the fundamental law for a country. One is sur 
 prised to find how vigorous his mind was, and 
 
322 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 how tenacious still of work. Long after the time 
 when other men are generally through their life- 
 work, and their lives also, Dr. Franklin was occu 
 pied with a task which would have challenged the 
 employment of the energy of their youth. He 
 made short but pithy speeches before the Conven 
 tion on the several points debated ; and, after the 
 work was finished in that body, lent his further 
 efforts to make the Constitution acceptable to his 
 countrymen. He did not approve of every article 
 of that great instrument himself; but he yielded 
 to the opinions and sentiments of others, in return 
 for their yielding in a degree to his own. 
 
 His life, from this time, may be considered 
 rather a private than a public one. He lived, at 
 that period, in Market street ; his house was de 
 scribed as standing " up a court, at some distance 
 from the street." Dr. Cutler, of Massachusetts, a 
 famous botanist, who visited him at home in his 
 old age, wrote in his journal of the sage, "We 
 found him in his garden, sitting upon a grass plot, 
 under a very large mulberry tree, (this was in 
 July, 1787) with several other gentlemen and two 
 or three ladies. When Mr. Gerry introduced me, 
 he rose from his chair, took me by the hand, ex 
 pressed his joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 323 
 
 city, and begged me to seat myself close to him. 
 His voice was low, but his countenance open, 
 frank, and pleasing. I delivered to him my letters. 
 After he had read them, he took me again by the 
 hand, and, with the usual compliments, introduced 
 me to the other gentlemen, who were most of them 
 members of the Convention. 
 
 " Here we entered into a free conversation, and 
 spent our time most agreeably, until it was quite 
 dark. The tea-table was spread under the tree ; 
 and Mrs. Bache, who is the only daughter (Sarah) 
 of the Doctor, and lives with him ; served it out to 
 the company. She had three of her children 
 about her. They seemed to be exceedingly fond 
 of their grandpapa" 
 
 " After it was dark, we went into the house, and 
 he invited me into his library, which is likewise 
 his study. It is a very large chamber, and high- 
 studded. The walls are covered with book-shelves, 
 filled with books; besides, there are four large 
 alcoves, extending two-thirds the length of the 
 chamber, filled in the same manner. * * * He 
 showed us a glass machine for exhibiting the 
 circulation of the blood in the arteries and veins 
 of the human body. * * * Another great 
 curiosity was a rolling press, for taking the copies 
 
324 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 of letters, or any other writing. * * * He alsc 
 showed us his long artificial arm and hand, for 
 taking down and putting up books on high shelves, 
 which are out of reach; and his great arm-chair, 
 with rockers, and a large fan placed over it, with 
 which he fans himself, keeps off the flies, &c., 
 while he sits reading, with only a small motion of 
 the feet. * * * Over his mantel, he has a pro 
 digious number of medals, busts, and casts in wax, 
 or plaster of Paris, which are the effigies of the 
 most noted characters in Europe." 
 
 His talk was chiefly on science, and especially 
 on philosophy. The rest of the company talked 
 politics. His visitor records that his conversation 
 betrayed extensive knowledge, a bright and ready 
 memory, and a perfect clearness of all the mental 
 faculties, notwithstanding his age. His manners 
 were easy, and calculated to make all persons con 
 tented in his presence. His vein of humor showed 
 just as freshly as in earlier days. He talked and 
 chatted with great freedom, keeping the conversa 
 tion always alive. 
 
 He was drawing near, however, to the close of 
 his long and useful life. There was little else for 
 him to do in the world. His days were well spent. 
 During the last two or three years of his life he 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 325 
 
 was a continual sufferer from inward pain, which 
 gave him warning, perhaps, of his end. But the 
 end was still delayed. Not until 1790, in the 
 month of April, was he assailed with the disease 
 which was the immediate cause of his decease. 
 He had been obliged to keep his bed, for the 
 greater part of a twelvemonth previously ; and, in 
 the intervals of his pain, he entertained himself 
 with reading and his friends with conversation. 
 His faculties were all this time perfectly clear, and 
 his kindness and goodness of heart as much to be 
 remarked as ever. He originated pleasantries 
 after the old way, and was as ready as formerty 
 with his anecdotes. 
 
 A little more than two weeks before his death, 
 he was overtaken with feverish symptoms, which 
 attracted no special attention for two or three 
 days ; but he soon afterward was afflicted with a 
 cough, and his breathing became laborious. Once 
 or twice he groaned, which drew from him the 
 remark that he was afraid he did not bear the 
 pain as he ought. He expressed his gratitude for 
 the many blessings he had received at the hands 
 of Heaven, that he had been raised from such a 
 low and small beginning to his high rank and 
 consideration among men. He could not but be- 
 
 28 
 
326 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 lieve that his present afflictions were sent to wean 
 him from a world in which he was no longer fit 
 to act the part assigned him. 
 
 For five days in all, he lay in this state ; at the 
 end of which time his pain and all difficulty of 
 breathing had left him. His friends even felt 
 encouraged that his life would be prolonged. But 
 it was a vain hope. A trouble of the lungs made 
 itself apparent now, from which his respiration 
 gradually became so oppressed as to be checked 
 altogether. He finally passed away in a lethargic 
 state, at eleven o clock at night, on the 17th of 
 April, 1790. He had reached the advanced age 
 of eighty-four years and three months. 
 
 The intelligence of his death called forth ex 
 pressions of sorrow and sympathy alike from 
 America and Europe. Congress passed resolutions 
 appropriate to the event, and so did the National 
 Assembly of France. Other bodies, both scientific 
 and political, added their testimony to the universal 
 appreciation of his life and character. 
 
 Of his religious views many inquiries have been 
 made, and assertions of his lack of faith in Divine 
 Power have been in circulation. Skeptics have 
 claimed him as belonging to their class, and 
 sticklers for mere creeds have discarded him as of 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 327 
 
 no worth to them. That Franklin was a pro- 
 toundly religious man, his long life abundantly 
 attests. Only five weeks before his death, he 
 answered to the questions of Dr. Stiles, President 
 of Yale College, "I believe in one God, the 
 Creator of the universe ; that he governs it by his 
 Providence ; that he ought to be worshipped ; that 
 the most acceptable service we can render to Him 
 is doing good to His other children ; that the soul 
 of man is immortal, and will be treated with 
 justice in another life respecting its conduct in 
 this. * * * As to Jesus of Nazareth, my 
 opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think 
 his system of morals and his religion, as he left 
 them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like 
 to see ; but I apprehend it has received various 
 corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the 
 present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to 
 his divinity ; though it is a question I do not dog 
 matize upon, having never studied it." 
 
 In none of his writings does Franklin say aught 
 against religion, but rather inculcates it as a rule 
 for the life. He kept the company of such a man 
 as Whitfield, who used to lodge at his house. He 
 was a liberal contributor to the building of 
 churches and the support of ministers. He early 
 
328 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 in life composed a book of prayers; and he 
 abridged the Book of Common Prayer, to which 
 he wrote a Preface. While in France, a skeptical 
 writer, supposed to be Thomas Paine, showed him 
 his work against religion in manuscript; arid 
 Franklin advised him to burn it. In his letter of 
 advice to his daughter, written while waiting on 
 board ship before sailing for England, he inculcated 
 the duty of attending divine worship with regu 
 larity. 
 
 In the Convention for framing the Constitution, 
 too, after that body had been in session some four 
 or five weeks, it being apparently impossible to 
 make any headway with business, he rose and 
 proposed that the daily sessions be opened with 
 prayer. He said, in support of his motion, " In 
 the beginning of the contest with Britain, when 
 we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers 
 in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, 
 sir, were heard; and they were graciously an- 
 swereu. * * * And have we now forgotten 
 that powerful Friend ? or do we imagine we no 
 longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a 
 long time ; and, the longer I live, the more con 
 vincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs 
 in the affairs of men. And, if a sparrow cannot 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 329 
 
 fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable 
 that an empire can rise without his aid ? We have 
 been assured, sir, that, i except the Lord build the 
 house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly 
 believe this ; and I also believe, that, without his 
 concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political 
 building no better than the builders of Babel." 
 His motion was not adopted, however, the Con 
 vention seeming to think, with the exception of 
 three or four members, that prayers were " un 
 necessary." 
 
 Dr. Franklin was ever a friend and advocate of 
 the cause of education. He renewed, in the last 
 days of his life, the earnestness with which he set 
 about the establishment of the Academy in Phila 
 delphia, some forty years before. But he advo 
 cated the study of the English, and other modern 
 tongues, before putting the learner upon the dead 
 languages. To stop in this day to study Greek 
 and Latin he thought as useless as to wear broad 
 cuffs with buttons, after gloves began to be worn, 
 and to continue the use of the cocked hat after 
 umbrellas were introduced. 
 
 In the relief of his pains, he busied himself with 
 writing a variety of short papers, showing that his 
 mental vigor and freshness still remained. One 
 
 28* 
 
330 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 of these papers was upon the license of the press, 
 in assailing individuals; another compared the 
 conduct of the anti-Federalists to that of the Jews ; 
 and he also gave some little time to the writing 
 of his own memoirs, which he hoped, while in 
 Europe, to have leisure to finish on settling down 
 once more at home. He likewise drew up a plan 
 for improving the condition of the free blacks. 
 Indeed, it is said that the last public act of his life 
 was to sign his name, as President of the Abolition 
 Society of Pennsylvania, to a memorial of the 
 society to Congress ; and the last paper he ever 
 wrote was upon that particular topic. The paper 
 in question was a sort of parody of a speech by a 
 member of Congress from Georgia, in favor of 
 negro slavery. Dr. Franklin represents Sidi Me- 
 hemet Ibrahim as making a speech in the divan 
 of Algiers, in opposition to the petition of a sect 
 called Erika, who desired the abolition of piracy 
 and slavery. Ibrahim brings forward exactly the 
 same arguments and sentiments in his speech, in 
 favor of enslaving Europeans, that had been used 
 by the Georgia member of Congress. 
 
 He was a warm personal friend of "Washington 
 to the last He wrote him, in September of the 
 year preceding his death, congratulating him on 
 
CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 331 
 
 the growing strength of the new government 
 under his personal administration ; and he went 
 on to say "For my own personal ease, I should 
 have died two years ago ; but, though those years 
 have been spent in excruciating pain, I am pleased 
 that I have lived them, since they have brought 
 me to see our present situation. I am now finish 
 ing my eighty-fourth year, and probably with it 
 my career in this life ; but in whatever state of 
 existence I am placed hereafter, if I retain any 
 memory of what has passed here, I shall with it 
 retain the esteem, respect, and affection, with 
 which I have long been, my dear friend, yours 
 most sincerely." Franklin was the first person 
 whom "Washington called on, when he came from 
 his farm in Virginia to take his seat in the Con 
 vention which framed the Constitution; and he 
 was just as attentive, on passing through Phila 
 delphia afterwards, to be invested in New York 
 with the august Presidential office. 
 
 The funeral services over the body of Dr. Frank 
 lin were attended by more than twenty thousand 
 persons. The bells of the city were all muffled 
 and tolled. The flags on the shipping were hung 
 at half-mast. And when the rites of sepulture 
 were over, the discharge of cannon made the fact 
 
332 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 impressive to the hearts of all who heard their 
 thunders. The sage and philosopher was buried 
 by the side of his wife, in the Christ Church 
 Cemetery, of Philadelphia. Both graves are 
 covered with a slab of marble, perfectly plain, as 
 he had directed in his will ; and the only inscrip 
 tion upon the same was the record of their names 
 arid the year of his decease. Over the place of 
 his birth, in Boston, in Milk Street, has been 
 erected a fine granite store, on the high brow of 
 which are chiselled the two or three words that 
 mark that as the spot of Franklin s nativity. The 
 city of Boston has erected a fine bronze statue of 
 him in City Hall Square, where one may gaze 
 at the significant attitude of the philosopher to his 
 heart s content and improvement. "What is a little 
 remarkable about the expression of the face, if it 
 were a happy accident on the part of the designer, 
 one side of it betrays the character of the philoso 
 pher and sage, and the other the worldly-wise 
 man and the man of shrewd humor. 
 
 In person, Dr. Franklin was of what is styled 
 a strong build, and short rather than tall. He 
 grew a little fleshy as he grew older. His com 
 plexion was light, and his eyes were of that in 
 evitable gray which is a puzzle to all other eyes 
 
CLOSE OP HIS CAREER. 333 
 
 for the depth and variety of its expression. He 
 was inclined to be silent in a mixed company, but 
 in the presence of his friends he was genial and 
 free. His conversation was frank and winning, 
 and enriched with the results of his experience 
 and observation, his humor and shrewd sagacity, 
 his engaging anecdotes and sensible reflections. 
 He possessed a sound judgment, remarkable sa 
 gacity, and held calm command at all times over 
 his passions. What secured for him success in 
 whatever he set about, he was wise enough never 
 to let either his vanity or his prejudices stand in 
 his way ; he was never in his own light. With 
 such balance of his faculties, he was able to direct 
 them upon any single object, and touch the results 
 he aimed at. For humanity and genuine philan 
 thropy, no American can be placed before him; 
 he was always doing good, his long life through, 
 by precept, by example, and with such means aa 
 a kind Providence had placed at the disposal of 
 his benevolence. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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