BENJAMIN
 
 TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 BY 
 
 E. LAWRENCE DUDLEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "THE ISLE OF WHISPERS," 'THE GHOST SHIP" 
 ETC. 
 
 "Then came a man endowed with every art 
 To serve his country ; to allay its fears ; 
 
 His name, beloved by every loyal heart, 
 
 Beams like a beacon down the flood of years.' 
 
 THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO. 
 Cleveland, O. New York, N. Y.
 
 PUNTED IK THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1915, 
 Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1915. Reprinted 
 August, 1935.
 
 
 8RIF 
 URL 
 
 ' 
 
 THE author wishes to acknowledge his indebted- 
 ness to Paul Leicester Ford's "The Many-sided 
 Franklin," to Sydney George Fisher's "The True 
 Benjamin Franklin," to Franklin's admirable Auto- 
 biography, and to James Parton's excellent " Life 
 and Times of Benjamin Franklin," for much of the 
 material contained in this book.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PACK 
 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 FRANKLIN THE APPRENTICE 12 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 FRANKLIN THE RUNAWAY 20 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN . . r .28 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 40 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE JUNTO . . .46 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 55 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 63
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 73 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 84 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 98 
 
 CHAPTER ^XII 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND . . . .no 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 THE PAXTON MASSACRE 121 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 128 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 140 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 152 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 162
 
 CONTENTS ix 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 FAG* 
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 175 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY-MAKER 189 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 200 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 THE FAREWELL TO FRANCE 214 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 FRANKLIN THE GOVERNOR 223
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY 
 
 MORE than two hundred years ago there was 
 born in Boston a baby who was destined to become 
 the foremost man of his time. He became famous 
 not only as a statesman but as a scientist as well, 
 for that baby was our own Benjamin Franklin. 
 He was born on Sunday, January 17, 1706, and 
 was baptized in the famous old church the 
 Old South Church just across the street from 
 his birthplace. He was carried there by his father 
 through deep snow, and was named Benjamin 
 after his father's brother, who was then living in 
 England. Later the brother came to this country 
 and became the favorite uncle of his little namesake. 
 
 Benjamin's father, Josiah, was the youngest of 
 four brothers, and had been born and bred in 
 England, in the little village of Ecton, about 
 sixty miles from London. It is a curious fact 
 
 B I
 
 2 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 that only a few miles away was situated the Manor 
 of Sulgrave, the estate of the Washington family, 
 from whom our George Washington was descended. 
 But these latter were gentlefolk, while the Frank- 
 lins were of the farmer and small tradesman class. 
 And until 1755, when Benjamin Franklin, then a 
 man of forty-nine, first met George Washington 
 in the camp of General Braddock in this country, 
 it is not likely that the two families had ever held 
 any communication with each other. 
 
 For centuries the eldest son of the Franklin 
 family had inherited the thirty-acre farm and the 
 small stone dwelling-house and forge lying on 
 the outskirts of Ecton, and there had plied the 
 family trade of blacksmith, while the other sons 
 were apprenticed out to other occupations. Josiah, 
 being the youngest son, learned the trade of dyer, 
 and for a time lived in Banbury, in England. 
 About 1685, however, he decided to emigrate 
 to this country, and with his wife and three small 
 children undertook the long and tedious voyage to 
 Boston. 
 
 The city was then about fifty years old, and 
 had between five and six thousand inhabitants. 
 Most of the townsfolk belonged to the stern 
 Puritan type and lived simple lives with but few 
 comforts and pleasures. There was always a
 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY 3 
 
 certain amount of bustle and movement along 
 the water front, where the foreign ships unloaded 
 their cargoes, and where the news of the world, 
 often months old, could be gathered from the 
 sailors. But in the narrow, twisting streets 
 which ran up into the town, everything was sedate 
 and quiet ; and beyond the limits of the city there 
 was an almost unbroken wilderness. Tribes of 
 Indians still lived in the surrounding country, 
 coming into town to barter skins for beads and 
 knives and bright- colored cloth; and in times of 
 famine even wild animals, driven in by hunger, 
 prowled the streets in search of food. 
 
 Here Franklin's father established himself. But 
 finding that there was little chance to succeed in 
 his trade of dyer, he soon turned to the more 
 thriving business of tallow chandler and soap 
 boiler. In those days it was the custom for 
 tradesmen to mark their places of business by some 
 special object; and to show where he sold his 
 soap and candles Josiah fixed upon the sign of 
 the Blue Ball. The identical ball, about the 
 size of a cocoanut, and bearing the name of Josiah 
 Franklin in faded letters, hung at the corner of 
 Union and Hanover streets for over one hundred 
 and fifty years, and was to be seen as late as the 
 time of the Civil War. It was to a house on this
 
 4 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 corner that Josiah moved from his home on Milk 
 Street a short time after Benjamin was born. 
 
 Benjamin's mother was Josiah Franklin's second 
 wife, and the daughter of one of the early settlers 
 of the island of Nantucket. Her maiden name was 
 Abiah Folger. Benjamin himself was the thir- 
 teenth child in a family of seventeen, and the tenth 
 and youngest son. Indeed, he tells us with some 
 pride that he was " the youngest son of the youngest 
 son" for five generations, and states that it was 
 nothing uncommon to have twelve or fourteen at 
 his father's table every day. 
 
 Of his earliest years there is little or no record. 
 One incident, however, although there is some 
 doubt as to whether it really happened, has become 
 so famous that it is worthy of mention. He re- 
 lated it himself years afterward in the form of a 
 fable. 
 
 On a holiday, he tells us, his friends filled his 
 pockets with coppers, and he went directly to a 
 shop where they sold toys for children. Being 
 charmed by the sound of a whistle which he heard 
 another boy blowing, he bought one at the shop, 
 giving all his money for it. Much pleased with 
 his purchase, he went whistling all over the house, 
 to the delight of himself, but to the great annoy- 
 ance of his family. Finally his brothers and sisters
 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY 5 
 
 and cousins, learning the price he had paid for the 
 whistle, told him that he had given four times as 
 much as it was worth, and reminded him of all the 
 good things he might have bought with the money, 
 laughing at him so much that he cried with vex- 
 ation. This event, he tells us, was afterward of 
 use to him, for he remembered the lesson always; 
 so that often, when he was tempted to buy some 
 unnecessary thing, he would say to himself, "Don't 
 give too much for the whistle." 
 
 At the age of eight he was placed in the Boston 
 Grammar School, his father at that time intending 
 to make a minister of him; but before the year 
 had come to a close his father had decided that the 
 expense of educating him for the Church would be 
 too great for his small means ; and though Benja- 
 min had risen to the head of his class and stood in 
 line for speedy promotion, he was taken from the 
 Grammar School and sent to a school kept by Mr. 
 George Brownwell, noted for his skill in teaching 
 writing and arithmetic. Here Benjamin remained 
 for a year and learned to write a good hand, but 
 failed entirely in arithmetic. At the end of that 
 time, when only ten years old, he was taken out of 
 school by his father to help him in his business, 
 and for two years he cut candlewicks, filled candle 
 molds, attended shop, and ran errands.
 
 He disliked his work and no doubt welcomed his 
 rare hours of leisure, when he could take part in 
 the sports of his comrades. Like most boys who 
 live on the coast, Benjamin soon became skilled in 
 the management of boats, and was the acknowl- 
 edged leader in all feats of swimming. In this 
 latter sport he showed his talent for invention by 
 making two oval palettes, each about ten inches 
 long and six broad, with a hole for the thumb, 
 similar to the palettes used by painters. When 
 swimming he pushed the edges of these palettes 
 forward and struck the water with their flat sur- 
 faces as he drew them back. He tells us that he 
 swam faster by means of these palettes, but that 
 they tired his wrists. 
 
 Another experiment, however, proved more 
 successful. Let him describe it in his own words : 
 {t l amused myself one day with flying a paper 
 kite ; and approaching the bank of a pond which 
 was near a mile broad, I tied the string to a stake, 
 and the kite ascended to a very considerable height 
 above the pond, while I was swimming. In a little 
 time, being desirous of amusing myself with my 
 kite, and enjoy at the same time the pleasure of 
 swimming, I returned, and loosing from the stake 
 the string with the little stick which was fastened 
 to it, went again into the water, where I found that,
 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY 7 
 
 lying on my back and holding the stick in my hands, 
 I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very 
 agreeable manner. Having then engaged another 
 boy to carry my clothes around the pond to a place 
 which I pointed out to him on the other side, I 
 began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried 
 me quite over without the least fatigue, and with 
 the greatest pleasure imaginable. I was only 
 obliged occasionally to halt a little in my course 
 and resist its progress, when it appeared that by 
 following it too quick I lowered the kite too much ; 
 by doing which occasionally I made it rise again." 
 
 By this time Boston had grown considerably. 
 Hardly a week passed without the arrival of some 
 vessel from Europe. We can easily imagine how 
 Benjamin, together with other town boys, would 
 haunt the Long Wharf, watch the great ships come 
 to anchor in the harbor, and listen to the tales of 
 shipwreck and piracy which the newly landed 
 sailors might tell. For those were days when the 
 seas were infested with pirates, and it was a dan- 
 gerous undertaking to make a voyage. 
 
 Whether it was his love of adventure, or his 
 dislike for the tallow chandler's trade, or both, at 
 this time he developed a strong desire to go to sea. 
 
 How much the unexpected return of an older 
 brother, who had sailed away nine years before
 
 8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 and had been given up for lost, had to do toward 
 strengthening this wish, we do not know. It is not 
 hard to imagine the breathless interest with which 
 young Benjamin listened to his brother's thrilling 
 adventures in India and the Far East. Little 
 wonder he longed to go to sea. 
 
 But Benjamin's father objected to his going to 
 sea, and in this stand he was probably aided by 
 his brother Benjamin, the "Uncle Benjamin" after 
 whom the boy had been named. This uncle had 
 come to America hi 1715, and was then living in 
 the same house with his namesake. He was a 
 quiet, studious man, with a fondness for writing 
 verses. It was from him that young Benjamin 
 acquired much of his early knowledge and his love 
 for books and reading. The elder man had in- 
 vented a system of shorthand, by means of which 
 he took down sermons while they were being 
 preached in church. This system he taught the 
 boy ; but, as Benjamin tells us later, he was never 
 able to master it. It must have been a good deal 
 of a task to take down the long sermons then 
 preached. 
 
 Uncle Benjamin's "poetry books" are still in 
 existence, and in them are several poems addressed 
 to his nephew. The earliest was written when 
 the boy was only four or five years of age, and is
 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY 9 
 
 said to have been inspired by a report that Ben- 
 jamin had shown an inclination for warlike affairs. 
 It runs as follows : 
 
 "Believe me, Ben, it is a dangerous trade, 
 The sword has many marred as well as made ; 
 By it do many fall, not many rise 
 Makes many poor, few rich, and fewer wise ; 
 Fills towns with ruin, fields with blood ; beside 
 'Tis sloth's maintainer, and the shield of pride. 
 Fair cities, rich to-day in plenty flow, 
 War fills with want to-morrow, and with woe." 
 
 When young Benjamin had served his father 
 two years, the latter, probably still fearing that his 
 son might slip off and ship on some vessel, decided 
 to apprentice him to a more agreeable trade, and 
 together they visited the various workshops of the 
 town. Benjamin tells us that he watched the 
 workmen with interest, and ever after it was a 
 pleasure to him to see a good mechanic handle his 
 tools. None of the trades, however, seems to have 
 attracted him strongly. Finally it was decided 
 that he should go for a few days into the shop of 
 his cousin Samuel, the son of his Uncle Benjamin, 
 who was a cutler, and see whether this business 
 was to his liking. 
 
 Evidently it was not distasteful to him; but 
 before he could become his cousin's apprentice,
 
 io BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 there was a large premium to be paid. This pre- 
 mium was a sum of money which every apprentice 
 wishing to be taught a trade had to pay to the 
 master who taught him. In the cutlery business 
 it amounted to almost one hundred dollars. His 
 cousin refused to take Benjamin for less ; and the 
 latter, being unable to raise such an amount, was 
 finally forced to return to his old occupation of 
 candle-making. 
 
 It was then, for the first time, apparently, that 
 the idea of making a printer out of him occurred 
 to his father. James Franklin, an older brother 
 of the boy, had learned the trade in London, and 
 had lately returned to Boston where he had set up 
 a printing-shop of his own. It was to this brother 
 that Benjamin, then twelve years old, was finally 
 apprenticed. 
 
 In those days when a boy was apprenticed he had 
 to sign a paper which bound him to his master 
 while he learned his master's trade, and in which 
 he promised to serve his master faithfully, keep 
 his master's secrets, and do his lawful commands. 
 This paper was called an indenture. In the one 
 which Benjamin signed he bound himself to his 
 brother until he was twenty-one a period of 
 nine years. How he ran away long before this 
 period had expired will appear later. But now it
 
 FRANKLIN THE BOY n 
 
 is enough to remember that Benjamin Franklin 
 was at last beginning to learn the business with 
 which his name has been so closely connected, and 
 through which he was to gain at least a part of 
 his great fame.
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 FRANKLIN THE APPRENTICE 
 
 IN the year 1718 a printing-house was a very 
 different thing from what it is to-day. There were 
 no typesetting machines, no great presses, no 
 clatter and roar of machinery. The work was 
 done entirely by hand, in small shops of two or 
 three rooms. The master and the apprentice 
 stood side by side at the cases setting the type, 
 and when a page was finished they printed it on a 
 small hand-press, not much larger than the ordi- 
 nary letterpress of to-day. The work was slow, 
 the hours long, and the things that were printed 
 were usually dull and tiresome. The few story- 
 books then in existence were published in Eng- 
 land ; and the printers of this country had to 
 depend on sermons and other such serious writings 
 as the authors of the colonies could produce. 
 
 During the first years of his apprenticeship this 
 was the sort of thing that Benjamin helped to set 
 up and print in his brother's shop "in Queen Street 
 near the Prison, over against Mr. Mills's Schools." 
 
 12
 
 FRANKLIN THE APPRENTICE 13 
 
 As an occupation, it certainly was dull enough, 
 but it was more to his liking than the tallow 
 chandler's trade, and in a short time he had made 
 great progress in learning the business. 
 
 His spare hours, which came only after the shop 
 had closed at night and before it opened again in 
 the morning, he reserved for study and reading. 
 In those days there were no public libraries, while 
 good books were expensive and few in number. 
 One of his earliest and most prized possessions was 
 John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and this, it 
 is said, he afterward sold in order to buy a collec- 
 tion of historical works in forty little volumes. 
 Whether he sold these in turn to buy other volumes 
 is not known. 
 
 Once established in his brother's business, he 
 made friends with the apprentices in the nine or 
 ten booksellers' shops then in Boston, and through 
 them he was able to borrow volumes from their 
 masters' shelves. Often he sat up in his room the 
 greater part of the night reading when the book, 
 borrowed in the evening, had to be returned early 
 the next morning so that it might not be missed. 
 
 Inspired, perhaps, by his Uncle Benjamin's ex- 
 ample, there was a short time in his thirteenth 
 year when he took to writing verses. It was the 
 custom then, as it continued to be for years after-
 
 14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ward, to describe passing events in a sort of dog- 
 gerel poetry. These compositions were sold in the 
 shops and on the streets, and some of them became 
 very popular. Only two of Benjamin's were 
 printed, both of them by his brother. One, "The 
 Lighthouse Tragedy," described a shipwreck which 
 had occurred not long before ; it narrated at great 
 length the drowning of the captain of the ill-fated 
 vessel and his two daughters. "The other, a sailor's 
 song, gave a thrilling account of a battle with pi- 
 rates, in which Blackbeard, the most famous pirate 
 of that day, had been defeated and taken prisoner. 
 These ballads, which Benjamin himself took out 
 on the streets to sell, made quite a success. His 
 brother wished him to continue writing them, but 
 his father ridiculed them and discouraged him by 
 telling him that verse-makers were generally beg- 
 gars. "So," says Benjamin, very wisely, "I es- 
 caped being a poet, most probably a very bad one." 
 
 He persisted, however, in his efforts to perfect 
 himself in writing prose, and for the next few years, 
 with the aid of an English grammar and an odd 
 volume of Addison's "Spectator," he worked 
 faithfully at his self-appointed task. 
 
 His lack of spare tune was always a hindrance, 
 but in his sixteenth year he hit upon a scheme 
 whereby he gamed the greater part of the noon
 
 FRANKLIN THE APPRENTICE 15 
 
 hour for study. A man named Tryon had written 
 a book recommending people to do without meat 
 and live entirely on a vegetable diet. This volume 
 fell into Benjamin's hands, and he decided to follow 
 its ideas. As his brother's apprentice, it was 
 James Franklin's duty to board and lodge Ben- 
 jamin, whose refusal to eat meat, and whose de- 
 mand for other sorts of food, caused some incon- 
 venience. Finally Benjamin told his brother that 
 if he would give him half the money paid for his 
 board he would board himself. James gladly con- 
 sented. Benjamin found that, with care, he could 
 save half of the stipulated allowance, which gave 
 him additional money for buying the coveted 
 books. But there was still another advantage, 
 for now he could take his simple dinner with him 
 hi the morning ; and by eating it at the printing- 
 shop, while the others went home, he could have 
 nearly the whole hour to himself. 
 
 It was about this time that James Franklin 
 decided to start a fortnightly newspaper. In 1719 
 he had been given the job of printing the Boston 
 Gazette, a paper owned by the postmaster of Bos- 
 ton, and the third newspaper ever issued in Amer- 
 ica. But the contract lasted only a little while; 
 and James, who had bought the type and supplies 
 necessary to turn out the paper, suddenly found
 
 16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 himself left in the lurch. In August, 1721, there- 
 fore, in spite of the protests of his friends, who 
 thought the undertaking too risky, he published 
 the first number of the New England Courant. 
 
 From the first the paper appears to have pros- 
 pered. James gathered around him a group of 
 clever young men who contributed articles and 
 witty comments on current events. It was the 
 custom of these men to meet at the printing-house 
 and discuss the next issue. Hearing their talk 
 and the praise with which their contributions were 
 received, Benjamin himself was led to try his hand 
 at writing something for the paper. 
 
 Fearing that his brother would not print any 
 contribution by him, he wrote it in the form of a 
 letter, disguising his handwriting; and on a cer- 
 tain night, after every one had left, he slipped it 
 quietly under the door of the printing-house. The 
 next day, as he worked in the shop, he could hear 
 the little band of contributors discussing his article 
 and wondering who the author, "Mrs. Silence 
 Dogood," might be. It is not hard to imagine his 
 pride when the article appeared in the next issue 
 of the Courant; and when, in the same issue, he 
 saw a notice to the effect that, "As the favour of 
 Mrs. Dogood's Correspondence is acknowledged 
 by the Publisher of this Paper, lest any of her Let-
 
 FRANKLIN THE APPRENTICE 17 
 
 ters should miscarry, he desires they may be de- 
 liver'd at his Printing-Office, or at the Blue Balls 
 in Union Street, and no questions will be ask'd of 
 the Bearer." 
 
 In the first letter "Mrs. Dogood" announced 
 that "she" intended once a fortnight to present 
 the readers of the Courant with a short "Epistle," 
 and this promise was carried out to the number of 
 fourteen articles. At the end of that time Ben- 
 jamin's small store of subjects had run out, and he 
 finally confessed his secret to his brother. These 
 letters are his first contribution to journalism. 
 
 Not long after, however, James Franklin and 
 his paper became involved with the authorities. 
 About this time vaccination for smallpox had 
 been introduced in England, and shortly after 
 the colonies had learned of this means of preven- 
 tion. The ministers of Boston, and especially the 
 famous Cotton Mather, had welcomed the idea and 
 adopted it. The writers for the Courant, who from 
 the beginning had poked fun at the ministers, at 
 once attacked the new discovery. The ministers 
 replied, and for months the wordy war waged be- 
 tween them. Finally, in June, 1722, after the 
 appearance of an article in the Courant, which 
 criticized the government of the colony, the author- 
 ities intervened and threw James Franklin into 
 c
 
 i8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 prison. He remained in jail a month, and was only 
 released when he had apologized humbly. 
 
 During the time of his brother's imprisonment 
 Benjamin managed the printing-shop and con- 
 ducted the Courant. But neither he nor the little 
 knot of contributors appear to have been frightened 
 by the government's attitude, for the paper con- 
 tinued to assail the government and the ministers 
 with greater bitterness than before. 
 
 Six months later, however, in January, 1723, 
 the authorities again stepped in ; and this time they 
 forbade James to print or publish the Courant or 
 any other pamphlet or paper of like nature until 
 it had first been examined by the Secretary of the 
 Province. 
 
 It may easily be imagined what dismay this news 
 caused in the little printing-shop. It was at last 
 decided that the paper should be issued in Ben- 
 jamin's name instead of in that of his brother. 
 Furthermore, in order to avoid the charge that he 
 was continuing to print the Courant under the 
 name of his apprentice, James canceled the boy's 
 indentures and returned them to him, causing 
 him, however, to sign new indentures which were 
 to be kept secret. 
 
 The first issue of the Courant bearing Benjamin 
 Franklin's name as publisher appeared in Febru-
 
 FRANKLIN THE APPRENTICE 19 
 
 ary, 1723 ; and until some time in the late summer 
 or early autumn of that year, when Benjamin, 
 then only seventeen years old, quarreled with 
 his brother and left him forever, he continued to 
 publish the paper. 
 
 For a long time there had been serious differ- 
 ences between the two brothers. James was 
 harsh and overbearing; Benjamin, a youth of 
 spirit, naturally resented it. Bitter disputes oc- 
 curred. It was after one of these quarrels, more 
 violent than usual, that Benjamin, a lad of sev- 
 enteen, hot with anger at James's insults, took 
 advantage of his canceled indentures and left his 
 brother's service. 
 
 To revenge himself, James went to the other 
 printing-shops in Boston and gave such a poor 
 account of his brother that later, when Benjamin 
 applied to the masters for work, they all refused 
 to employ him. 
 
 With the doors of his trade shut against him, 
 Benjamin decided to try his fortunes elsewhere. 
 He secured a berth on a vessel bound for New 
 York, selling some of his precious books to pay the 
 passage money; and some time in August or 
 September, 1723, with all his belongings packed 
 in a single chest, he set sail from Boston.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 FRANKLIN THE RUNAWAY 
 
 THE voyage from Boston to New York was made 
 safely in three days. Only one incident connected 
 with it has come down to us. While the vessel 
 was becalmed for a short time off Block Island 
 the sailors amused themselves by fishing for cod. 
 Benjamin, who still clung to his vegetable diet, 
 looked on disapprovingly. He regarded the taking 
 of life for the sake of obtaining food as something 
 akin to murder. Later, however, when the fish 
 were being cooked and he smelt their appetizing 
 odor, he was very much tempted to break his rule 
 and eat his share. For a while he struggled 
 against the temptation. Then it suddenly occurred 
 to Him that when the fish had been opened he had 
 seen smaller fish in their stomachs. If they ate 
 one another, he thought to himself, why should 
 I not eat them? Satisfied by his argument, he 
 joined the others of the company at dinner and 
 made a hearty meal which included fish ! 
 
 New York was then smaller than Boston. It 
 
 20
 
 FRANKLIN THE RUNAWAY 21 
 
 was a compact little town, with gabled roofs, 
 cobblestone sidewalks, and narrow crooked lanes 
 for streets. Its inhabitants were still chiefly 
 Dutch; and to such an extent had they carried 
 their love for cleanliness that some unknown wit, 
 in speaking of the pavements, declared that the 
 stones which formed them were swept so thoroughly 
 that they stood up sharp and prominent, to the 
 great inconvenience of those who were not ac- 
 customed to them. The Philadelphian hi New 
 York, he wrote, walked the streets with painful 
 caution, as though his feet were lamed with the 
 gout; while the New Yorker shuffled along the 
 smooth pavements of Philadelphia "like a parrot 
 on a mahogany table." 
 
 At the time of Benjamin's arrival in New York 
 there was not a single bookstore in the city, and 
 only one printing-office. The owner of this shop, 
 William Bradford, had been the first printer in 
 Pennsylvania, but had left Philadelphia after a 
 quarrel with the authorities. Benjamin applied 
 to him for work, but Bradford had nothing to offer. 
 He told the boy, however, that his son Andrew, 
 in Philadelphia, had lately lost his apprentice, 
 and might employ him. A little discouraged, but 
 still undaunted, Benjamin took the old man's 
 suggestion and immediately embarked on a ves-
 
 22 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 sel bound for Amboy, in the province of New 
 Jersey. 
 
 It was a crazy old boat with rotten sails, manned 
 by only one boatman. As they crossed New York 
 Bay a squall struck them, tearing their sail to 
 pieces and driving them over toward the Long 
 Island shore. In the midst of the storm a drunken 
 Dutchman, the only other passenger, fell over- 
 board. Benjamin caught him by his hair and 
 managed to drag him on board again. A little 
 sobered by his ducking, the Dutchman pulled a 
 book out of his pocket and handed it to Benjamin, 
 asking the latter to dry it for him. It proved 
 to be Benjamin's old favorite, Bunyan's " Pil- 
 grim's Progress," printed in Dutch. 
 
 The boat, now beyond the control of the boat- 
 man, continued to sweep on toward the shore. 
 The surf was too high for them to land, and finally 
 they were forced to cast anchor. Some people 
 appeared on the beach and called to them, but 
 the thunder of the waves was too loud for them to 
 be heard. Seeing canoes on the shore, Benjamin 
 and the boatman made signs for the people to 
 come out and fetch them; but the people either 
 did not understand or did not care to risk their 
 lives in such a gale and finally went away. 
 
 This ended all hope of getting ashore that night.
 
 FRANKLIN THE RUNAWAY 23 
 
 Benjamin and the boatman, creeping into the tiny 
 cabin, lay down beside the drunken Dutchman and 
 got what sleep they could, while the spray, breaking 
 over the boat, leaked through the planking and 
 soaked them to the skin. 
 
 In the morning the wind had gone down, and be- 
 fore sunset they were able to reach Amboy. They 
 had been thirty houis on the water without food. 
 
 That evening Benjamin found himself rather 
 feverish. He had heard somewhere that cold 
 water was an excellent remedy for fever, and so 
 drank several glasses before he went to bed. In 
 the morning the fever had entirely disappeared, 
 and he started out bravely on his long walk of 
 fifty miles across New Jersey. 
 
 He headed toward Burlington, a little town on 
 the Delaware River, where he hoped to get a boat 
 to take him to Philadelphia ; but it rained so hard 
 all day that he stopped at a little inn at noon, 
 and remained there for the night. 
 
 Now, for the first time, he began to wish he had 
 not left home. His clothes, poor enough when he 
 started from Boston, had become shabby and worn 
 from the ram and exposure. He had very little 
 money, and no immediate prospect of earning any 
 more. He was going to a city where he was an 
 absolute stranger. To dishearten him still more,
 
 24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 he found from the questions asked him by the 
 people at the inn that he was suspected of being a 
 runaway servant. 
 
 Afraid of being arrested, he left the inn the next 
 morning as early as he could, and walked all day, 
 arriving at another inn, about ten miles from Bur- 
 lington, that evening. Here he spent the night, 
 and reached Burlington the following forenoon. 
 
 It was Saturday ; and he discovered to his dis- 
 appointment that the regular boat had already 
 left for Philadelphia, and that there would be no 
 other until Tuesday. Not knowing what to do, 
 he went to the house of an old woman from whom 
 he had bought a piece of gingerbread, and asked 
 her advice. She invited him to stay with her ; and 
 when he accepted gladly she gave him a dinner of 
 "ox-cheek," for which she would not take a penny. 
 
 He believed that he would have to remain in 
 Burlington for several days. Instead, that very 
 evening, as he walked along the bank of the river, 
 a boat appeared, bound for Philadelphia. There 
 were already several passengers aboard, and Ben- 
 jamin joined them. 
 
 As there was no wind, they were forced to row. 
 About midnight, Philadelphia not having yet been 
 sighted, some of the passengers insisted that they 
 must have passed the city in the darkness. Fancy
 
 FRANKLIN THE RUNAWAY 35 
 
 passing Philadelphia without knowing it! Yet 
 this would have been quite possible in that day, 
 since Philadelphia was then a small settlement and 
 all its lights were put out early. At any rate, 
 the men refused to row any further ; and as none 
 of the company neither crew nor passengers 
 knew where they were, it was decided to wait 
 until daylight. They turned into a creek, and 
 landing near an old fence, tore down the rails 
 and made a fire of them, for it was October and 
 the night was chilly. 
 
 At the first streak of dawn one of the company 
 recognized the place as the mouth of Cooper's 
 Creek, and as soon as they put out into the river 
 again they spied Philadelphia a few miles away. 
 An hour's row brought them to the city, where 
 they landed at Market Street Wharf between eight 
 and nine o'clock on Sunday morning. 
 
 Benjamin went ashore immediately. He was 
 in his working clothes and dirty from his journey. 
 His pockets were stuffed out with shirts and 
 stockings. He knew no one in the town, nor 
 where to find a lodging. He was fatigued from 
 traveling, rowing, and the want of rest. He 
 was very hungry as well, and his whole stock of 
 money consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a 
 shilling in coppers.
 
 26 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The latter he gave to the crew of the boat for 
 his passage, perhaps for the privilege of rowing ! 
 and then walked up the street, gazing about 
 him. Near the market-house, he met a boy with 
 bread. Learning from the boy where the bread 
 came from, he went to a baker's shop on Second 
 Street and purchased three great puffy rolls. 
 With one of these under each arm, and eating the 
 third, he continued up Market Street as far as 
 Fourth Street. On the way he passed the house 
 of Mr. Read, whose young daughter, Deborah, 
 was standing in the doorway. She smiled at his 
 awkward appearance, little dreaming that in 
 later years she was to be his wife ! 
 
 Reaching Fourth Street, then on the outskirts 
 of the city, he turned south to Chestnut Street, 
 and returned to the river front, still eating his roll. 
 
 He paused near the wharf where he had landed, 
 and took a drink of water from the river. Then, 
 having satisfied his hunger, he gave his remaining 
 two rolls to a woman and her child who had come 
 down the river with him, and who were waiting at 
 the wharf to continue their journey. 
 
 It was then perhaps ten o'clock, and turning 
 again up Market Street, he found that it was now 
 filled with neatly dressed people, all going in the 
 same direction. Benjamin joined them, and soon
 
 FRANKLIN THE RUNAWAY 27 
 
 arrived at the principal meetinghouse of the 
 Quakers, situated at the corner of Second and 
 Market streets. Following the throng into the 
 building he found a seat, and after looking around 
 a while, and hearing nothing said, fell fast asleep 
 in his corner. On and on he slept until some one 
 gently woke him and told him that the meeting 
 was over. 
 
 It was now noon, and high time for him to seek 
 a lodging. He again walked down toward the river, 
 and meeting a young Quaker whose face he liked, 
 he asked to be directed to an inn. The young 
 man pointed out "The Three Mariners" tavern. 
 
 "There," he said, "is one place that entertains 
 strangers, but if thee will walk with me I will 
 show thee a better." 
 
 He then led Benjamin along the wharves to an 
 inn called "The Crooked Billet." Here Benjamin 
 obtained food and lodging. After dinner he lay 
 down without undressing, and slept until he was 
 called for supper; and after supper he went to 
 bed again and again slept soundly. Thus ended his 
 first day, and a sleepy one, in Philadelphia, the city 
 which was to be his home for the remainder of 
 his long life.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 
 
 EARLY the next morning Benjamin repaired to 
 Andrew Bradford's shop, where, to his surprise, 
 he found old Mr. Bradford, whom he had met in 
 New York and who had arrived in Philadelphia 
 more quickly than Benjamin, for he had traveled 
 on horseback. But here again disappointment 
 awaited him, for Andrew had no employment to 
 give him. After a short talk the elder Mr. Brad- 
 ford offered to introduce him to one Samuel Keimer 
 who had lately opened a small printing-shop in 
 the city and might be in want of assistance. 
 
 They proceeded at once to Keimer's office, where 
 they discovered the latter busily engaged in com- 
 posing an elegy on a young man of some promi- 
 nence in the town who had lately died. He bore 
 the curious name of Aquila Rose. Keimer's 
 manner of composing his verses was to set them up 
 in type just as they came into his head, without 
 first writing them down on paper. There was 
 only one case of type; and the elegy was so 
 
 28
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 29 
 
 long it was likely to require all of it. There was no 
 written version to be set in type, so Keimer could 
 have no help in setting it up. Benjamin tried to 
 put the press of which Keimer appeared to 
 know nothing into some sort of working order, 
 and then, promising to come back and print the 
 elegy as soon as it was set up, returned to Andrew 
 Bradford's shop, where he obtained temporary 
 lodging. A few days later Keimer sent for him. 
 Here are the opening lines of this curious old poem : 
 
 AN ELEGY 
 
 On the much lamented death of the ingenious 
 and well-beloved 
 
 AQUILA ROSE 
 
 Clerk to the Honourable Assembly at Philadelphia, who died 
 the twenty-fourth of the fourth month. 
 
 1723. Aged 28. 
 
 What mournful accents thus accost mine ear, 
 What doleful echoes hourly thus appear ! 
 What sighs from melting hearts proclaim aloud 
 The solemn mourning of this numerous crowd. 
 In sable characters the news is read, 
 Our Rose is withered, and our Eagle's fled, 
 In that our dear Aquila Rose is dead. . . . 
 
 There are a hundred or more lines in which the 
 poet describes at great length the birth, education,
 
 30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 emigration, courtship, accomplishments, and ulti- 
 mate happy destiny of the departed Aquila. 
 
 Meanwhile some extra work had been thrown in 
 Keimer's way, and when the elegy was printed 
 he took Benjamin into his regular employment. 
 Benjamin found him poorly equipped for his trade. 
 Keimer was something of a scholar and could set 
 type with a fair degree of facility, but he knew 
 nothing of presswork; so Benjamin, who had re- 
 ceived a good training in this branch of the busi- 
 ness, took the printing under his special charge. 
 
 He still lodged with Andrew Bradford; but 
 Keimer, displeased at the thought of his assistant 
 living under the roof of a rival printer, sought 
 other quarters for him, and finally procured him a 
 room in Mr. Read's house near Fourth and Market 
 streets. Mr. Read's daughter, Deborah, was the 
 young girl who had smiled at Benjamin as he had 
 passed by on his first walk through the city on 
 that memorable Sunday morning. But his chest, 
 which he had sent around from New York by sea, 
 had now arrived, and he was able to appear be- 
 fore her in more presentable clothes. 
 
 Through Mr. Read, Mr. Bradford, and his 
 employer, Benjamin soon began to make acquaint- 
 ances, especially among the young people of the 
 town, and he spent many pleasant evenings in
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 31 
 
 their company. His chief friends were Charles 
 Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James Ralph, three 
 youths employed as clerks, all of them great readers 
 and fond of discussing literature. They all had 
 tried their hands at writing, and one of them, 
 Ralph, had ambitions of becoming a poet. 
 
 At one of their gatherings it was arranged that 
 each should write a poem and submit it for criti- 
 cism at their next meeting. A day or two before 
 the day of the meeting Ralph called on Benjamin 
 privately and, showing him his production, asked 
 his opinion of it. Benjamin praised it, and told 
 Ralph that he had been too busy to write anything 
 himself. Ralph then suggested that Benjamin 
 take the poem and pass it off as his own. 
 
 "Osborne," he said, "will never allow the least 
 merit in anything of mine, but makes a thousand 
 criticisms out of mere envy. He is not so jealous 
 of you. ... I will pretend not to have had time 
 and so produce nothing. We shall then see what 
 he will say to it." 
 
 Benjamin, always fond of a joke, assented to 
 the proposition, and copied out the poem so that 
 it would appear in his own handwriting. 
 
 At the meeting Watson's and Osborne's per- 
 formances were read and criticized. Ralph ap- 
 plauded the latter's poem especially, and con-
 
 32 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 fessed regretfully that he had been unable to 
 prepare anything. Benjamin was then called on. 
 He was apparently very bashful and asked to 
 be excused, but they would accept no excuses. 
 He must read his production. He did. And 
 Watson and Osborne, joining in its praise, gave up 
 the contest. 
 
 Ralph alone attempted some criticisms, but 
 Osborne told him frankly that he was as poor a 
 critic as he was a poet! At their next meeting 
 Ralph confessed the trick which had been played, 
 and Osborne in turn became the laughingstock. 
 
 Meanwhile an incident occurred which was to 
 have a far-reaching effect on Benjamin's fortunes. 
 Robert Holmes, his brother-in-law, was master 
 of a vessel which traded between Boston and 
 Delaware. Arriving at Newcastle, some forty 
 miles below Philadelphia, he learned that Ben- 
 jamin was in the latter city and wrote him, telling 
 him of his family's anxiety at his absence, and 
 assuring him of their good will if he would return. 
 Benjamin answered his letter by thanking him for 
 his advice, and stating his reasons for quitting 
 Boston in such a way as to convince Holmes that 
 he was in the right and his friends in Boston were 
 in the wrong. 
 
 Sir William Keith, governor of the province
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 33 
 
 of Pennsylvania, was then staying at Newcastle, 
 and Holmes showed him Benjamin's letter. The 
 governor was greatly pleased at the way it was 
 written, and much surprised when he learned Ben- 
 jamin's age. He told Holmes that Benjamin 
 should be encouraged and that he would do all 
 in his power to aid him. 
 
 A few days later, while Keimer and Benjamin 
 were working near the window of the printing-shop, 
 they spied Sir William and another gentleman 
 who afterward turned out to be Colonel French 
 of Newcastle cross the street and knock at the 
 door. Keimer, thinking it was a visit to him, ran 
 immediately and let them in. The governor, 
 however, asked for Benjamin, and on being in- 
 troduced to him, paid him many compliments and 
 invited him to a near-by tavern where he and Colo- 
 nel French were going to have a glass of Madeira. 
 Benjamin was astounded, while Keimer stared at 
 the governor with eyes popping out of his head. 
 Benjamin accepted the invitation, however; and 
 over the wine Sir William proposed his setting up 
 for himself in Philadelphia. Both the governor 
 and Colonel French assured him that he should 
 have their support and influence in procuring the 
 printing of both provinces. Benjamin explained 
 that he had no capital and doubted whether his
 
 34 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 father would assist him. But the governor prom- 
 ised to give him a letter to Josiah Franklin, in 
 which he would recommend the latter to advance 
 him the required amount. It was finally concluded 
 that Benjamin should go to Boston on the first 
 vessel that sailed. Meantime the whole matter 
 was to be kept a secret, and he was to continue 
 to work for Keimer as usual. 
 
 Some time passed, however, before he could get 
 passage, and it was early in May, 1724, before he 
 landed in Boston. He had been absent more than 
 seven months, and his family received him with 
 open arms. 
 
 When Benjamin presented his letter from Sir 
 William, his father did not take kindly to the 
 suggestions contained in it, and finally, after some 
 weeks, decided not to grant the governor's re- 
 quests. To Josiah's mind, Benjamin was still 
 too young to be intrusted with the management of 
 a business so important and for which the prep- 
 aration must be so expensive. He did, however, 
 promise Benjamin that he would aid him later, 
 and see that he was properly established when he 
 was twenty-one. 
 
 Benjamin returned to Philadelphia and reported 
 his lack of success to the governor. The latter 
 declared that Benjamin's father was too prudent.
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 35 
 
 "Since he will not set you up," he continued, "I 
 will do it myself. Give me an inventory of the 
 things necessary to be had from England and I 
 will send for them. You shall repay me when you 
 are able. I am resolved to have a good printer 
 here, and I am sure you must succeed." 
 
 This was said with such apparent cordiality 
 that Benjamin could find no reason for doubting 
 Sir William's good intentions, and immediately 
 set about preparing a list of things necessary for 
 the stocking of a small printing-house. It would 
 cost about five hundred dollars. Sir William 
 approved it and suggested to Benjamin that he 
 himself go to England to purchase the supplies. 
 "And while there," he said, "you may make 
 acquaintances and establish correspondences in 
 the bookselling and stationery way." 
 
 Benjamin agreed that the trip might be of great 
 value to him. 
 
 "Then," said Sir William, "^get yourself ready 
 to go with Annis." 
 
 Annis was the captain of the London-Hope, the 
 annual ship running between London and Philadel- 
 phia; and as some months must pass before she 
 sailed, Benjamin returned to his work in Keimer's 
 shop. 
 
 In the meantime Keimer had conceived the
 
 36 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 notion of formulating a new religion, and he tried 
 to persuade Benjamin to join it. Keimer was to 
 preach the doctrines, and Benjamin, whose powers 
 of argument Keimer had already tested, was to 
 confute all opponents. Two of the essentials of the 
 religion were to wear one's beard at full length and 
 to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath. Benjamin 
 disliked them both, but agreed to them, providing 
 Keimer would adopt his new doctrine, the doctrine 
 of eating no meat. Although he was a great 
 glutton, Keimer consented, and for three months 
 they lived on a vegetable diet. Then Keimer 
 declared he could stand it no longer. He invited 
 Benjamin and some friends to a dinner of roast pig. 
 The pig, however, was cooked ahead of time, and 
 Keimer, unable to resist the temptation, ate the 
 whole of it before his guests arrived! This, so 
 far as Benjamin was concerned, ended his connec- 
 tion with the new "religion." 
 
 The time for the departure of the London-Hope 
 arrived, and Benjamin called at the governor's 
 house to take his leave, and to receive the letters 
 of introduction and the money which Sir William 
 had promised him. He was told that the governor 
 was busy and could not see him. He called a 
 second time, and a second time he received the 
 same answer. Finally, when the ship was on the
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 37 
 
 point of sailing, the governor's secretary informed 
 him that Sir Wilh'am had business in Newcastle, 
 where the London-Hope was to stop, and would 
 there deliver to him the letters and funds sufficient 
 for his trip. 
 
 Benjamin, doubting nothing, sailed with the ship 
 to Newcastle, and proceeded at once to the gov- 
 ernor's lodgings. Once more he was told that Sir 
 William could not see him, and that the letters 
 and money would be sent to him on board. Ben- 
 jamin returned to the ship, a little puzzled at the 
 governor's attitude, but still trustful. 
 
 A few hours later Colonel French came aboard 
 with the governor's dispatches and delivered them 
 to the captain. Benjamin, supposing that his 
 own letters were among them, asked the captain's 
 permission to sort them out from the rest. The 
 captain refused, saying that they were all to- 
 gether in one bag and that he had no time to hunt 
 them up ; but promising Benjamin that he would 
 be allowed to pick them out before they reached 
 England. Benjamin was satisfied, and they pro- 
 ceeded on their voyage. j 
 
 They had a rough but otherwise uneventful 
 passage. When they arrived in the English 
 Channel the captain gave Benjamin his promised 
 opportunity to examine the dispatch-bag for the
 
 38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 governor's letters ; but, to his surprise and dismay, 
 Benjamin found none marked with his name or in 
 his care. He picked out several, however, that 
 he thought might be his, especially one directed to 
 Basket, the king's printer, and another addressed 
 to a well-known stationer ; so, immediately upon the 
 ship's arrival in London, he waited upon the latter, 
 delivering him the letter as from Governor Keith. 
 
 "I don't know Governor Keith," said the 
 stationer; then, opening the letter, "Oh, this is 
 from Riddlesden!" he cried. "I have lately 
 found him a complete rascal, and 1 will have nothing 
 to do with him." And returning the letter to 
 the astonished and dismayed Benjamin, he swung 
 on his heel and left him to serve a customer. 
 
 It was then, for the first time, that Benjamin 
 began to doubt the governor's sincerity. Among 
 the passengers on board the London-Hope there had 
 been a Mr. Denham, a Quaker merchant of Phila- 
 delphia; and Benjamin now sought him out and 
 asked his advice. Mr. Denham told him that in 
 all probability the governor had written no letters 
 at all for him, and had certainly given him no 
 money, since he had no money to give. No one, 
 continued Mr. Denham, who knew Sir William 
 placed any faith in him. He was noted for making 
 promises which were never fulfilled.
 
 FRANKLIN THE JOURNEYMAN 39 
 
 Astounded and thoroughly disheartened at 
 what he had heard, Benjamin discussed the situa- 
 tion with his new friend and confessed that he 
 did not know what to do. Mr. Denham advised 
 him to get employment in some printing-house 
 in London. 
 
 "Among the printers here," said he, "you will 
 improve yourself, and when you return to America 
 you will be able to set up to greater advantage." 
 
 Poor Benjamin, at his wits' end, and with scarcely 
 enough money to pay for his return passage, 
 finally decided to adopt the friendly suggestion.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 
 
 IN the hope of bettering his fortune, Benjamin's 
 friend James Ralph had accompanied him to Eng- 
 land. He had spent all his money on his passage, 
 and Benjamin had only about fifty dollars left. 
 They decided that it was cheaper to live together 
 and so took lodgings in a narrow old street called 
 Little Britain, at three shillings and sixpence a 
 week. 
 
 It would have been interesting to see the two 
 young strangers as they wandered about the big 
 city of London. No greater contrast could have 
 been found than that between our two young men. 
 Benjamin was slow and hesitating in speech, 
 solemn and often grave in his manner, intent only 
 on making his way in the world and becoming a 
 successful man of business; while Ralph was 
 gay and sprightly, an excellent talker, handsome, 
 and very much at his ease. Of the two he appeared 
 to have the better chance to succeed. 
 
 But Benjamin had the advantage of knowing a 
 40
 
 THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 41 
 
 trade; and within a few days he was able to se- 
 cure a position in Palmer's printing-house. Ralph 
 sought in vain for employment. His first idea was 
 to join a troup of actors, but no manager would 
 take him. Then he proposed to a publisher to start 
 a weekly paper something like the " Spectator." 
 The publisher would not listen to him; and 
 finally he tried to get odd jobs of copying legal 
 papers for lawyers, but failed even in that. Mean- 
 while, he borrowed from Benjamin and depended 
 on him to pay his bills. 
 
 For some months the two youths lived from hand 
 to mouth. Then Ralph heard of a position as 
 schoolmaster in a country school and decided to 
 take it, leaving his friend without even offering 
 to repay his loans. 
 
 While he was at Palmer's printing-house Benjamin 
 wrote a little pamphlet called "A Dissertation on 
 Liberty and Neccessity, Pleasure and Pain." A 
 copy fell into the hands of a surgeon named Lyon, 
 who sought out the young author and made his 
 acquaintance. He took Benjamin to "The Horns," 
 a tavern in Cheapside, and introduced him to Dr. 
 Mandeville, a writer and well-known wit. The 
 latter was the leading spirit in a little club of literary 
 men who assembled at the tavern. Through him 
 and Lyon, Benjamin made many friends and
 
 42 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 listened with delight to their conversation; and 
 though only twenty years old he took part in their 
 discussions and was treated almost as an equal. 
 
 It happened that he had brought with him from 
 America a purse made of asbestos. This curious 
 material was then a great rarity and not many 
 persons in England knew very much about it. 
 Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum 
 and a great collector of curiosities, heard of the 
 purse, and called upon Benjamin to see it. He was 
 so interested in it that he at once paid the lad a 
 good price for it, and took him to his house in 
 Bloomsbury Square, where he entertained him 
 handsomely. 
 
 Thus Benjamin, with his wonderful ability to 
 charm and attract, soon found himself well sup- 
 plied with friends. But in money affairs he was 
 not so successful, and he had been in London al- 
 most a year before he began to think of laying 
 a little money aside. He no longer had James 
 Ralph to take care of; and, in the hope of more 
 profitable work, he left Palmer's shop and secured 
 a position in Watts's printing-house. This was a 
 much larger establishment and employed more 
 than fifty workmen. 
 
 In those days it was the custom of printers to 
 drink great quantities of beer during their working
 
 Repro*uetd from farfi " Tbe Many Sidrd franklin " through the covrttiy aflti 
 Century Company. 
 
 PRESS AT WHICH FRANKLIN WORKED IN WATTS'S PRINTING- 
 OFFICE, LONDON.
 
 THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 43 
 
 hours. "My companion at the press," says Ben- 
 jamin, "drank every day a pint before breakfast, 
 a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a 
 pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, 
 a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and an- 
 other when he had done his day's work." Benjamin 
 considered it a detestable practice, and drank only 
 water himself. At first the workmen laughed at 
 him and called him "the Water- American." But 
 when he proved to them that he was stronger than 
 they were, they began to wonder and could not 
 understand how he could keep his strength with- 
 out drinking beer. He tried to convince them 
 that there was more nourishment in a pennyworth 
 of bread than in a whole quart of beer, and finally 
 persuaded a number of them to give up the drinking 
 habit. 
 
 At Watts's printing-house he made the ac- 
 quaintance of a young workman named Wygate 
 and won his admiration by teaching him to swim 
 in two lessons. Wygate came from a good family 
 and had been better educated than most printers. 
 It chanced that a party of his friends from the coun- 
 try were then stopping in London. He introduced 
 Benjamin to them and they went on many little 
 excursions together. One day, as they were 
 returning from a trip on the Thames, Benjamin,
 
 44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 at their request, stripped, and leaping into the river, 
 swam from Chelsea to Blackfriars, a distance of 
 four miles. They were astonished at his skill, 
 especially at some feats which he performed both 
 on and under the water. Wygate, who wished 
 to become as great a master of the sport, grew 
 more attached to him than ever. 
 
 It was shortly after this incident that he pro- 
 posed to Benjamin that they should leave Watts's 
 employment and travel over Europe together, 
 supporting themselves by their trade. Benjamin 
 rather liked the idea ; but Mr. Denham, to whom 
 he mentioned it, advised him to return to Phila- 
 delphia, and offered him a position as clerk in his 
 store. The salary, two hundred and fifty dollars 
 a year, was less than Benjamin was getting as a 
 printer, but there was greater chance for advance- 
 ment ; so Benjamin, who had grown tired of Lon- 
 don and his life there, finally accepted the mer- 
 chant's offer. 
 
 Mr. Denham was already making preparations to 
 return, and the lad entered his employment at 
 once, giving up, forever as he supposed, the trade of 
 printer. 
 
 He had said good-by to his friends and was al- 
 most ready to sail when Sir William Wyndham, a 
 former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a very
 
 THE FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 45 
 
 influential man in London, sent for him. Ben- 
 jamin knew him only by name. Surprised at the 
 summons, he responded immediately. Sir William 
 told him that he had heard of his skill in swimming 
 and wished to have his two sons taught. He 
 offered to pay Benjamin liberally, but as neither 
 of Sir William's sons had yet arrived in London, 
 and as Benjamin's stay was uncertain, the latter 
 was forced to refuse. It occurred to him, however, 
 that if he were to remain in England and open a 
 swimming-school he might earn a great deal of 
 money ; and if the suggestion had been made to 
 him sooner, it is possible that he might never have 
 returned to America. 
 
 He and Mr. Denham sailed from Gravesend on 
 July 23, 1726, and landed in Philadelphia on 
 October n, after a voyage of eighty- two days. 
 
 Benjamin had spent about eighteen months in 
 London. Most of that time he had worked hard 
 and saved little. He had by no means improved 
 his fortune, but had made some valuable friends, 
 and had acquired a knowledge of men and of the 
 world which was to be of immense advantage to 
 him.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE JUNTO 
 
 ON his arrival in Philadelphia Benjamin found 
 several changes. Sir William Keith was no longer 
 governor, while Keimer had moved his shop into 
 larger quarters, had supplied it with stationery 
 and new type, had a number of workmen under 
 him, and appeared to be very prosperous. 
 
 Mr. Denham took a building in Water Street, 
 where he opened his store. Benjamin attended 
 diligently to the business, learned how to keep 
 accounts, and in a short time became an excellent 
 salesman. He enjoyed his new work and he was 
 fond of his employer, who took him to live with 
 him and treated him like a son. The next few 
 months passed very happily. Mr. Denham spoke 
 of giving him an interest in the business; there 
 was even talk of making him a partner. The 
 future appeared bright indeed, and Benjamin had 
 every reason to believe that his troubles were over, 
 when suddenly, in February, 1727, both he and 
 Mr. Denham were taken seriously ill. Benjamin 
 recovered, but his benefactor died; and the lad 
 once more found himself without employment. 
 
 46
 
 THE JUNTO 47 
 
 His account of his own sickness is rather amus- 
 ing. "My distemper," he says, "was a pleurisy, 
 which very nearly carried me off. I suffered a 
 good deal, gave up the point in my own mind, and 
 was rather disappointed when I found myself re- 
 covering, regretting in some degree, that I must 
 now, sometime or other, have all that disagreeable 
 work to do over again." 
 
 It was in connection with this illness that he is 
 supposed to have written his famous epitaph on 
 himself. It runs as follows:
 
 48 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 For a time Benjamin tried to find employment 
 as a merchant's clerk. Then Keimer made him 
 an offer to take over the management of his print- 
 ing-house; and the lad, tempted by the high 
 wages, decided to accept the position. There were 
 five men and a boy in the shop. Although Ben- 
 jamin soon discovered that Keimer's intention was 
 to have him train these raw hands and then get 
 rid of him, he went on with his work cheerfully, 
 put the printing-house in order, and kept the other 
 workmen to their tasks. 
 
 It was not long before he had a chance to show 
 his ingenuity. Keimer ran out of type ; and, as it 
 would take a long time to procure fresh fonts from 
 England, Benjamin decided to make them him- 
 self. He had never cast type, but he had seen 
 it done in London. After some little difficulty he 
 succeeded in fashioning a mold, using the old type 
 as puncheons and striking the letters off in lead. 
 Thus, in a^sense, he became the first type-founder 
 in America. 
 
 But his activities did not stop there. Besides 
 his other duties, he made the ink, acted as ware- 
 houseman, and was Keimer's right-hand man and 
 adviser; while on several occasions he even tried 
 his skill at engraving. 
 
 In spite of his ability it soon became apparent
 
 THE JUNTO 49 
 
 that Keimer was only waiting for an opportunity 
 to dispense with his services. He began by treating 
 Benjamin gruffly and rudely, assuming the airs of 
 a master toward him, and finding fault with every- 
 thing. The lad bore it patiently, thinking that 
 business troubles were partly to blame, though the 
 time came when even he could stand the man's 
 harshness no longer. A trifling incident caused 
 another separation. 
 
 One day as Benjamin was working in the shop 
 there was some disturbance outside. He put 
 his head out of the window to see what was the 
 matter. Keimer, who happened to be in the street, 
 called to him to get back to his work and mind 
 his own business. The man spoke angrily and in 
 such a loud voice that he drew the attention of 
 the neighbors, and Benjamin found himself the 
 center of all eyes. He was indignant at being 
 treated so shamefully in public, but Keimer, in- 
 stead of apologizing, came into the printing-house 
 and continued the quarrel. Benjamin answered 
 him with spirit; and Keimer immediately gave 
 him the three months' notice to quit which had been 
 agreed upon between them. His only wish, he con- 
 cluded, was that he could get rid of Benjamin sooner. 
 Benjamin told him that his wish was unnecessary, 
 and, taking his hat, walked out of the shop at once.
 
 50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 In the evening Hugh Meredith, one of Rentier's 
 workmen, came to see him at his lodgings. Mere- 
 dith was of Welsh parentage and about thirty 
 years of age. He was an honest, sensible fellow, 
 and something of a reader, but a little too fond of 
 drink. Benjamin had cured him of this habit 
 to some extent, and in consequence the man had 
 conceived a great liking for him. 
 
 Meredith now proposed that he and Benjamin 
 should go into partnership and set up a shop of 
 their own. 
 
 "My time," he said, "will be out with Keimer 
 in the spring. By then we may have our press 
 and type from London." His father, he added, 
 would advance them the necessary funds. 
 
 Benjamin agreed to the proposition; and the 
 supplies were ordered from England, Meredith's 
 father promising to pay the bill. Meanwhile Ben- 
 jamin was to pick up what odd work he could. 
 
 For a few days he remained idle. Then, much 
 to his surprise, he received a very civil message 
 from Keimer, asking him to return. It appeared 
 that the Province of New Jersey was about to have 
 some paper money engraved and printed. Keimer, 
 knowing Benjamin's skill as an engraver, wished 
 to secure his services in order to get the work. 
 Meredith persuaded the lad to accept Keimer's
 
 THE JUNTO 51 
 
 offer; and once more Benjamin went back to his 
 old employer. 
 
 Again he displayed his inventiveness by building 
 a copperplate press for the New Jersey work. 
 This was the first copperplate press ever made in 
 America. 
 
 When everything was ready, he and Keimer went 
 to Burlington, where the work was to be done, and 
 stayed there three months, printing the paper 
 money. A committee had been appointed to at- 
 tend to the work and see that no more bills were 
 printed than the law directed ; and through these 
 men Benjamin made the acquaintance of some of 
 the principal people of the province. Among 
 his new friends were the Secretary of New Jersey, 
 the Surveyor-General, and several members of 
 the Assembly. They all appeared more interested 
 in him than in Keimer, and invited him to their 
 homes, introduced him to their friends, and 
 showed him many kindnesses. In later years 
 some of them were of great assistance to Benjamin 
 in procuring him work. So, once again, his ability 
 to make friends and to keep them stood him in 
 good stead. 
 
 He and Keimer returned to Philadelphia in the 
 spring of 1728; and shortly after the press and 
 type, ordered from England, arrived. Benjamin and
 
 52 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Meredith made a friendly settlement with Keimer 
 and left him, to set up their own establishment. 
 
 It was during this period that Benjamin formed 
 his famous club called the Junto. It was made up 
 of young men of his own age ; the membership was 
 limited to twelve ; and its object was the mutual 
 improvement of its members. Properly speak- 
 ing, it was a debating society. It met every Friday 
 evening, at first at a tavern, but later at the home 
 of one of its members, Robert Grace, "a gentle- 
 man," Benjamin says, "of some fortune, generous, 
 lively, and witty, a lover of punning and of his 
 friends." 
 
 One of the rules of the club was that its existence 
 should be kept a secret. This was to keep unde- 
 sirable persons from applying for admission. A 
 candidate, when qualifying for the club, was 
 made to stand up, and, laying his hand upon his 
 breast, declare that he had no particular disrespect 
 for any member of the Junto ; that he loved man- 
 kind in general of whatever profession or religion ; 
 that he thought no person ought to be harmed in 
 his body, name, or goods, for his opinions or for 
 his outward form of worship; and that he loved 
 truth for truth's sake, and would try impartially 
 to find and receive it himself and communicate 
 it to others.
 
 THE JUNTO 53 
 
 Some of the questions which they debated have 
 been preserved and show the wide range of sub- 
 jects which were discussed. Here are a few of them : 
 "How may the phenomena of vapors be ex- 
 plained?" "Can any particular form of govern- 
 ment suit all mankind ? " "What is the reason that 
 the tides rise higher in the Bay of Fundy than in 
 the Bay of Delaware? " "What is the reason that 
 men of the greatest knowledge are not the most 
 happy?" "How may the possession of the Lakes 
 be improved to our advantage?" "How may 
 smoky chimneys be best cured?" "Why does 
 the flame of a candle tend upwards in a spire?" 
 
 Besides the Friday night gatherings the club 
 met once a month during the pleasant season of 
 the year at "some proper place across the river, 
 for bodily exercise." And at least once every 
 summer the members dined together, cracked 
 jokes, and sang the jovial songs of the day. 
 
 In spite of the secrecy which surrounded it, 
 rumors of the club's existence got abroad, and 
 applications for membership began to pour in. 
 Benjamin was opposed to increasing the number of 
 members, but suggested that each member should 
 form a separate club of his own, and thus extend 
 the good influence of the Junto. His suggestion 
 was acted upon ; and five or six clubs were formed.
 
 54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 They were called by such names as the Vine, the 
 Union, and the Band; but how successful they 
 were, and how long they lasted, is unknown. 
 
 The Junto itself remained in existence for more 
 than forty years. All his life Franklin showed 
 great fondness for it. In letters written in 1765-66, 
 while he was abroad, he calls it "the good old 
 club," and wishes " to be remembered affectionately 
 to the Junto." But what makes this club of partic- 
 ular importance is the fact that out of it grew the 
 American Philosophical Society, an association 
 which still exists in Philadelphia and numbers among 
 its members learned men from all over the world. 
 As with the Junto, its principal object is the pur- 
 suit of knowledge ; but, unlike the Junto, its pro- 
 ceedings are not kept secret ; for its many publica- 
 tions are valued everywhere for their depth and 
 learning. It is the oldest society of its kind in 
 America, and the most famous. And Benjamin 
 Franklin, the founder and leading spirit of the 
 Junto from which it sprang, had the honor of 
 being its first president.
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 FRANKLIN THE PRINTE* 
 
 IN 1728 Pennsylvania was the largest and most 
 thriving colony in America, and Philadelphia the 
 most important city. There were two causes for 
 this. In the first place William Perm, the founder 
 of the colony, had placed all of the religious sects 
 on an equality and had insisted on absolute reli- 
 gious freedom ; and secondly, the people enjoyed 
 peace with the Indians. Emigrants from Europe 
 were quick to realize these advantages, and flocked 
 to Pennsylvania in crowds. 
 
 For a long time Philadelphia itself remained 
 what Perm wished it to be "a green country 
 place." It stretched for about a mile along the 
 Delaware River, and ran back half a mile or so into 
 the country. The houses were either of stone or 
 brick ; each house stood apart from its neighbors 
 and each had its own garden and trees. The cows 
 of the inhabitants grazed together on the pasture 
 lands lying on the outskirts of the town. It is said 
 that peaches were so plentiful that the pigs were 
 
 55
 
 56 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 fed on them. Surely these were lucky pigs, for 
 Pennsylvania peaches are famous to-day for their 
 size and fine flavor. 
 
 The people used the ground floors of their dwell- 
 ing houses for shops, and lived in the upper stories ; 
 a wooden beehive, ship, anchor, crown, or some 
 similar device being hung over the front door as the 
 distinguishing sign of the store. The streets were 
 laid out at right angles to each other; and along 
 the middle of the sidewalks ran a narrow flagging 
 as a pavement, with rows of neatly painted posts 
 stretching on either side. 
 
 In this large, shady village for that was what 
 Philadelphia really was Franklin and Meredith 
 set up their new printing-shop. The house was 
 on Market Street. They paid a hundred dollars 
 a year rent, and relet the greater part of the build- 
 ing to a glazier named Thomas Godfrey, who lived 
 in the upper stories with his family. 
 
 Scarcely had they opened their doors when a 
 friend of Franklin's brought in a young country- 
 man whom he had found on the street looking 
 for a printer. The young firm did his work, for 
 which they were paid five shillings. It was indeed 
 a small sum, but, said Franklin later, "being our 
 first fruits, and coming so seasonably, it gave me 
 more pleasure than any crown I have since earned."
 
 FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 57 
 
 It was not long, however, before other work was 
 given them. Joseph Breintnal, a member of the 
 Junto, was a man of influence with the Quakers, 
 and through them he procured for the young men 
 the printing of forty sheets giving the history of 
 their sect. The price to be paid was very low, but 
 it was a matter of pride with Franklin to get the 
 work done quickly, and he set up a sheet a day 
 until the whole forty were finished. To do this he 
 was often obliged to work at night, and sometimes 
 he did not get to bed until nearly midnight, long 
 after the rest of the town was asleep. 
 
 Franklin's industry and close attention to his 
 trade were soon noticed and spoken of by the towns- 
 people, and they began to bring him odd jobs of all 
 kinds. 
 
 It had long been his desire to publish a news- 
 paper, and now that he was in business for himself 
 he began to make his plans toward founding one. 
 Andrew Bradford's paper, the Mercury, was the 
 only news sheet then printed in Philadelphia, and 
 this was so poor that the chance for establishing a 
 rival paper and making a success of it appeared 
 excellent. While Franklin was perfecting his 
 scheme, George Webb, one of Keimer's workmen, 
 applied to him for a position. Franklin told him 
 that he hoped to be able to employ him soon, and
 
 58 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 in strict confidence explained to Webb his scheme 
 for the projected paper. Webb revealed the secret 
 to Keimer, who clutched at the idea and decided 
 to issue a paper of his own. He engaged Webb to 
 help him print it, and on December 24, 1728, the 
 first number of the journal appeared. It was called 
 by the pompous name of the Universal Instructor 
 in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette. 
 
 Franklin was naturally indignant at Webb's act, 
 and after Keimer's paper had been running a month 
 he hit upon a clever scheme to draw the public's 
 attention from its weekly issues. Remembering 
 his success in Boston with his "Letters of Mrs. 
 Silence Dogood," he began a similar series in Brad- 
 ford's paper, the Mercury, and signed them "Busy- 
 Body." Joseph Breintnal and other members of 
 the Junto helped him in writing them, and they soon 
 began to make a great stir in the city. Keimer 
 took offense at one of them, which he thought re- 
 ferred to himself, and answered it in his paper. 
 Franklin replied in the Mercury, and turned the 
 tables so neatly on his old employer that all the 
 advantage was on his side. 
 
 Through Franklin's articles the Mercury's circu- 
 lation increased while the number of Keimer's 
 subscribers grew less and less. Finally he had 
 only ninety, and, unable to carry on his paper any
 
 FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 59 
 
 longer, he was only too glad to sell it to Franklin 
 and Meredith for a very small sum. On October 
 2, 1729, the first number, edited by Franklin, was 
 issued. He changed the style of the paper com- 
 pletely, cut out a lot of dry and uninteresting 
 articles which Keimer had copied from books in 
 order to fill space, substituted in their place news 
 items and matters of general interest, and short- 
 ened the long and nonsensical name of the journal 
 to the Pennsylvania Gazette. 
 
 The success of the paper was immediate. When 
 only three numbers had appeared the young pub- 
 lishers announced that they had met with sufficient 
 encouragement to induce them to continue the 
 paper and increase their facilities for obtaining 
 news. "We shall from time to time," they stated, 
 "have all the noted Publick Prints from Great 
 Britain, New England, New York, Maryland and 
 Jamaica, besides what News may be collected from 
 private Letters and Informations; and we doubt 
 not of continuing to give our Customers all the 
 Satisfaction they expect from a Performance of 
 this Nature." 
 
 This announcement shows the difficulty in ob- 
 taining news. With no wireless, cable, or tele- 
 graph, and with only occasional mails, the editors 
 of papers had a hard time collecting information,
 
 60 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 and sometimes foreign news was six months old 
 before it was published in America. It was Frank- 
 lin's object to get the news and print it as quickly 
 as possible, and he succeeded so well that the Penn- 
 sylvania Gazette soon became the only real news- 
 paper in this country. 
 
 For years Bradford had done the public printing 
 for the colony. In 1729 he printed the "Gov- 
 ernor's Address " as usual, but he did it so badly and 
 incorrectly that Franklin struck off an edition of 
 his own, and sent a copy to each of the thirty mem- 
 bers of the Assembly. As a result he was given 
 .the printing for the Assembly for the coming year ; 
 and when, a little later, a new issue of paper money 
 was decided upon, the work of engraving and print- 
 ing it was also turned over to him. 
 
 But in spite of growing business the young firm 
 still remained in debt. It had cost them a thou- 
 sand dollars to set up their shop. Owing to some 
 misfortunes, Meredith's father had been able to 
 advance only half of this sum. The remainder 
 they owed to the merchant who had imported their 
 supplies for them, and this man, becoming impa- 
 tient at their delay in paying him, finally started 
 suit. 
 
 It was at this juncture that help appeared from 
 an unexpected quarter. William Coleman and
 
 FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 61 
 
 Robert Grace, two members of the Junto, came to 
 Franklin separately and offered to advance him 
 sufficient money to enable him to take over the 
 whole business and buy Meredith out. Franklin 
 told them that he could not propose a separation 
 as long as Meredith wished to continue his partner. 
 But it happened that Meredith himself had begun 
 to realize that he was a failure in the printing trade, 
 and suggested to Franklin that they dissolve the 
 firm. Franklin accepted the proposal, borrowed 
 five hundred dollars from each of his two friends, 
 paid off Meredith's father and the merchant who 
 had sued them, and, his own master at last, went 
 on with the business alone. 
 
 Meanwhile Franklin had quite lost his heart to 
 a charming young widow, a Mrs. Rogers, who was 
 no other than the Deborah Read whom he had 
 known and admired as a young girl ; and on Sep- 
 tember i of the year 1730 they were married. 
 Mrs. Franklin proved to be a thrifty, industrious 
 wife, and soon became of great help to her husband. 
 She took care of the house, tended the tiny shop, 
 bought rags for the paper-mill, stitched pamphlets, 
 folded newspapers, and did a thousand and one 
 little things to aid him in his business. 
 
 At first they were very poor and lived simply. 
 "My breakfast," says Franklin, "was, for a long
 
 62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 time, bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a 
 twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon ; 
 but mark how luxury will enter families, and make 
 a progress in spite of principle; being called one 
 morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl, 
 with a spoon of silver. They had been bought for 
 me without my knowledge by my wife, and had 
 cost her the enormous sum of three-and-twenty 
 shillings; for which she had no other excuse or 
 apology to make, but that she thought her hus- 
 band deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as 
 well as any of his neighbors." 
 
 This, of course, was later, when he was well es- 
 tablished in business and had money at his com- 
 mand ; but it shows the thrift and frugality which 
 marked his whole life, and to which his wife, in a 
 great measure, contributed. 
 
 It was while he was still almost penniless that 
 he drew up the plan for his second great project 
 for the advancement of learning the foundation 
 of a public subscription library. Of this we shall 
 learn more in the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 
 
 IT had been the custom for members of the Junto 
 to keep what books they owned in the club room, 
 where they might be used by the other members. 
 One end of the room was set aside for books, and 
 soon they had a very respectable library; but 
 when some of the books became injured and torn 
 from rough handling, their owners refused to allow 
 them to remain in circulation any longer and took 
 them away. It was then that Franklin conceived 
 the idea of a public circulating library probably 
 the first of its kind in the world. 
 
 His plan was to raise enough money by subscrip- 
 tion for the purchase of books abroad, and then 
 have each subscriber pay two dollars and a half a 
 year for the increase of the library. The sub- 
 scriber, on his side, was to be allowed to borrow 
 what books he wished for reading in his own home. 
 Franklin fixed the initial subscription at ten dollars ; 
 but, though the amount was small, he had great 
 difficulty in securing subscribers ; and it was not 
 
 63
 
 64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 until March, 1732, that fifty names had been ob- 
 tained and all the money collected. 
 
 A list of books was immediately made out and 
 sent to England, and in October the first ship- 
 ment arrived. The books were placed in the Junto 
 room, a librarian was appointed, and the infant 
 library was formally opened. 
 
 It was a success from the beginning, and soon 
 had to move to larger quarters. During the sec- 
 ond year of its existence Franklin himself acted as 
 librarian, and printed a catalogue of the books. 
 For this, and for other printing, he was excused from 
 paying his annual dues for two years. He found 
 the institution of immense benefit to him. "This 
 library," he says, "afforded me the means of im- 
 provement by constant study, for which I set apart 
 an hour or two each day and thus repair'd in some 
 degree the loss of the learned education my father 
 once intended for me. Reading was the only 
 amusement I allow'd myself." 
 
 Other libraries of a similar character soon sprang 
 up all over the country. To-day they are num- 
 bered by the thousands. The original library 
 "The Library Company of Philadelphia," as it is 
 called still exists in Philadelphia. It is the larg- 
 est and best library in that city. With its branches 
 it contains more than 240,000 volumes. The parent
 
 POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 65 
 
 of all public libraries, it is a lasting monument to 
 Benjamin Franklin's foresight, public spirit, and 
 energy. 
 
 It was in December of this same year, 1732, that 
 he issued the first number of his famous almanac. 
 In those days almost every printer in America ap- 
 pears to have published an almanac. It was a part 
 of his business, and generally a source of profit. 
 Besides giving the days of the week and of the 
 month, as modern calendars do, the almanacs gave 
 the changes of the moon, the dates of eclipses, the 
 positions of the planets and other stars, and even 
 attempted to foretell the weather. 
 
 Until Franklin's almanac appeared there was no 
 attempt to include in them any wit and humor. 
 They were serious pamphlets, and acted as guides 
 to the people, especially to the farmers. They 
 were generally published under the name of some 
 man of learning who had furnished or was sup- 
 posed to have furnished the material for them. 
 
 Franklin wrote his own, but took the name of 
 Richard Saunder, or Saunders, an English scholar 
 of the seventeenth century, and called his publi- 
 cation "Poor Richard's Almanac." As an almanac 
 it was neither better nor worse than the other half 
 dozen publications of a similar kind then printed 
 in Pennsylvania; but what made it far superior
 
 66 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 to them were the quaint and witty sayings and 
 maxims scattered through its pages. Their in- 
 troduction into a pamphlet of that character was 
 something entirely original, and came about in a 
 curious way. "Observing," says Franklin, "that 
 it [the almanac] was generally read, scarce any 
 neighborhood in the province being without it, I 
 consider'd it as a proper vehicle for conveying in- 
 struction among the common people, who bought 
 scarcely any other books ; I therefore filled all the 
 little spaces that occurr'd between the remarkable 
 days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, 
 chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality." 
 Here again his spirit of thrift and economy stood 
 him in good stead, and suggested the idea of using 
 the blank spaces in his almanac for the insertion 
 of proverbs and sayings, many of which have since 
 become world-famous. 
 
 They were not all of his own invention. He 
 himself admits that they were taken from many 
 sources and were "the wisdom of many ages and 
 nations." Yet every one of them bears the mark 
 of his own peculiar individuality and wit ; and in 
 some instances he even improved on the originals. 
 
 Here, at random, are a few of the best known of 
 them : "A word to the wise is enough." "Three 
 may keep a secret if two of them are dead." "It
 
 POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 67 
 
 is hard for an empty sack to stand upright." 
 "Deny self for self's sake." "Keep thy shop and 
 thy shop will keep thee." "Forewarned, fore- 
 armed." "Diligence is the mother of good luck." 
 "Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys 
 it." "God heals, and the doctor takes the fee." 
 "He that can have patience can have what he 
 will." "Let thy discontents be thy secrets." 
 "He that falls in love with himself, will have no 
 rivals." "Onions can make even heirs and widows 
 weep." "He that would have a short Lent, let 
 him borrow money to be repaid at Easter." " There 
 are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, 
 and ready money." 
 
 The almanac was an immediate success. Three 
 editions of the first issue were sold in a month, and 
 the average sale for the whole twenty-five years, 
 during which Franklin edited it was never under 
 ten thousand copies. As a preface to his almanac 
 for 1758, the last one he personally published, he 
 collected most of the best known of Poor Richard's, 
 sayings and formed them into a sort of connected 
 discourse, supposed to be the speech of a wise old 
 man to the people attending an auction sale. It 
 was a brilliant piece of writing, and before long was 
 copied and quoted everywhere. Even to-day it is 
 one of the most popular things in American liter-
 
 68 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ature. There have been no less than seventy-five 
 editions of it in English, fifty-six in French, eleven 
 in German, and nine in Italian ; and it has been 
 translated into almost every language in the world, 
 including Russian and Chinese. 
 
 The immense sale of the first issue of the alma- 
 nac gave Franklin, for the first time in his life, a 
 little extra money. A part of this he spent in send- 
 ing one of his best workmen to Charleston, South 
 Carolina, where there was no printer, and setting 
 him up in business there. Under the agreement 
 Franklin received one third of the profits. The 
 scheme proved so successful that later he made 
 similar arrangements with several other of his 
 workmen, and not only enabled them to start 
 in business for themselves, but established print- 
 ing presses in parts of the country which until 
 then had none. 
 
 Meanwhile the Pennsylvania Gazette had pros- 
 pered, and was the leading newspaper of the col- 
 ony. Measured by modern standards its news 
 would seem meager ; but compared with other 
 journals of the day it stands in a place by itself. 
 Its superiority is shown by the fact that the Mer- 
 cury and other of its contemporaries did not scruple 
 to steal from its columns. The following statement, 
 printed in his paper, is a good example of the
 
 POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 69 
 
 humorous way in which Franklin called his rivals 
 to account : 
 
 " When Mr. Bradford publishes after us, and has Occasion 
 to take an Article or two out of the Gazette, which he is 
 always welcome to do, he is desired not to date his Paper a 
 Day before ours, (as last Week in the Case of the Letter 
 containing Kelsey's Speech &c.) lest distant Readers should 
 imagine we take from him, which we always carefully 
 avoid." 
 
 He was so encouraged by the success of the 
 Gazette that three years after he had bought it he 
 started the publication of a fortnightly paper in 
 German. It was called the Philadelphische Zeitung, 
 and was for the benefit of the many Germans who 
 had settled in Pennsylvania ; and though it never 
 had the circulation of the Gazette, it was of consid- 
 erable profit to its owner, and had the distinction 
 of being the first paper printed in a foreign language 
 in America. 
 
 Aside from its news and its breezy, up-to-date 
 articles on matters of general interest, there was 
 still another cause for the prosperity of the Gazette. 
 This was its advertisements. Before Franklin's 
 time advertisements in the papers were few, and 
 related generally to runaway servants and sales of 
 lands and goods. Franklin advertised everything, 
 and was so successful that the advertisements alone
 
 70 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 in the Gazette took up four or five pages a space 
 unheard of in either the colonies or England. 
 
 As a rule advertisements are stupid things to 
 read ; but Franklin knew how to make them in- 
 teresting and amusing, and many of those he wrote 
 are full of humor. This is especially true of such 
 as relate to himself or to his family. The follow- 
 ing refers to a pet horse or pony belonging to his 
 young son William : 
 
 "Strayed, about two Months ago, from the Northern 
 Liberties of this City, a small bay Mare, branded IW on 
 the near Shoulder and Buttock. She being but little and 
 barefooted, cannot be supposed to be gone far; therefore 
 if any of the Town-Boys find her and bring her to the 
 Subscriber, they shall, for their Trouble, have the Liberty 
 to ride her when they please, from 
 
 "WILLIAM FRANKLIN." 
 
 Another advertisement refers to the loss of his 
 wife's prayer-book ; and the finder is admonished, 
 with humor and force, that its speedy return is 
 expected : 
 
 "Taken out of a pew in the Church, some months since," 
 it reads, "a Common Prayer Book, bound in red, gilt, and 
 lettered D. F. on each cover. The person who took it is 
 desired to open it, and read the Eighth Commandment, 
 and afterwards return it into the same pew again ; upon 
 which no further notice will be taken."
 
 POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC 71 
 
 A third shows Franklin's generosity in lending 
 books and the trouble he had in having them re- 
 turned to him : 
 
 "The Person that borrowed B. Franklin's Law-Book of 
 this Province, is hereby desired to return it, he having forgot 
 to whom he lent it." 
 
 And in still another advertisement Franklin 
 informs his readers that "He has in his Hands the 
 2d vol. of Cowley's Works, in Octavo, of which he 
 does not know the Owner." 
 
 Besides these, and many similar ones, the Gazette 
 was filled with advertisements relating to his bus- 
 iness, and the wares that he had for sale at his 
 printing-office ; and from the number and variety 
 of the articles, he must have carried a curious 
 assortment of goods in his little shop. In one 
 issue we read that there has been 
 
 "Just imported, another Parcel of 
 SUPER FINE CROWN SOAP," 
 
 which "is cut in exact and equal cakes neatly put 
 up, and sold at the New Printing Office at is per 
 cake;" while another notice informs us that the 
 "Widow Read" (his wife's mother) has "removed 
 from the upper End of High street to the New 
 Printing-Office near the Market," where she "con-
 
 72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 tinues to make and sell her excellent Family Salve 
 or Ointment, for Burns or Scalds, (Price is an 
 Ounce)" and "At the same Place may be had 
 Lockyer's Pills at 3d a Pill." 
 
 At various other times he advertises " Very good 
 lampblack;" "Very good chocolate;" "Very 
 good Sack at 65 per Gallon;" "Linseed Oil;" 
 "Compasses and Scales;" "Seneka Rattlesnake 
 Root, with directions to use it in the Pleurisy &c. ; " 
 "A very neat new fashion'd vehicle or four-wheel'd 
 chaise, very convenient to carry weak or other sick 
 persons young or old;" "Good Rhode Island 
 Cheese and Cod Fish ; " " Very good Iron Stoves ; " 
 "Choice Bohea Tea;" "A New Fishing Net;" 
 besides books, pamphlets, and stationery supplies 
 of every description. 
 
 It must have been a strange little shop with all 
 these things for sale in it; but Franklin was 
 always quick to grasp an opportunity, and he 
 turned many an honest penny in his numerous 
 ventures. It was this practical insight, coupled 
 with his extraordinary energy and common sense, 
 that made him the successful man of affairs, and 
 enabled him, during the twenty-odd years of his 
 active business career, to acquire a comfortable 
 fortune.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 
 
 WELL established in business, and with the 
 foundations of his fortune securely laid, Franklin 
 turned his attention to the needs of the city, and 
 of his fellow townsmen, and soon began to take a 
 leading part in public affairs. From 1728 until 
 about 1756 a period which marked his contin- 
 uous residence in Philadelphia he was identified 
 with practically every important reform. In many 
 cases he conceived them himself, and carried them, 
 almost unaided, to successful conclusions. 
 
 His usual way of procedure was to read, at a 
 meeting of the Junto, an article dealing with the 
 reform proposed. When the matter had been 
 thoroughly discussed, he would communicate the 
 plan to the clubs in correspondence with the Junto ; 
 and, finally, he would publish the complete idea in 
 the Gazette. 
 
 In this way he started public discussion which 
 resulted in abolishing the "town watch." This 
 was a poor and inefficient organization. The con- 
 
 73
 
 74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 stable of each ward of the city summoned a number 
 of householders to patrol the streets with him at 
 night. Those who chose could be excused by pay- 
 ing a dollar and a half a year. This was supposed 
 to pay for the hire of a substitute, but in reality 
 it went into the constable's pocket, and the streets 
 at night were left unguarded. To remedy this 
 evil Franklin suggested that proper men be hired 
 as regular constables, and that the householders 
 be taxed, according to the value of their properties, 
 to pay for them. At first there was great opposi- 
 tion to his idea, but in time it was approved and 
 adopted, and the first step was taken toward found- 
 ing a permanent police force in Philadelphia. 
 
 In a similar manner he was instrumental in es- 
 tablishing a volunteer fire department, and he 
 himself formed the Union Fire Company, the first 
 of its kind in Philadelphia. Each member was 
 obliged to keep ready and in good order six leather 
 buckets and two strong bags, for carrying goods 
 out of burning houses ; to go at once to every fire 
 with at least half of his buckets and bags ; and to 
 do his utmost to help put out the flames. This 
 company remained in active service as late as 1791, 
 and at that time headed the list of numerous other 
 fire companies in the city, having thirty members, 
 one engine, two hundred and fifty buckets, thir-
 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 75 
 
 teen ladders, two hooks, and one eighty-foot rope, 
 -but no "bags"! 
 
 In 1736 Franklin was appointed clerk of the 
 Pennsylvania Assembly, and in the following year 
 he was made deputy-postmaster of Philadelphia. 
 Neither of these positions was very important, but 
 they gave him an excellent training for the great 
 public posts which he was to hold later. 
 
 In connection with his work as clerk of the 
 Assembly, an anecdote is told which shows the 
 extraordinary activity of his mind. During the 
 sessions there were many hours when he had to sit 
 in idleness, listening to debates in which he could 
 take no part ; but instead of dozing, as many of 
 his predecessors had done, he occupied his time by 
 making "Magical Squares." This was a sort of 
 mathematical pastime, very popular in his day, 
 and involved a great deal of thought and ingenuity. 
 Franklin became exceedingly skillful at it, and de- 
 vised "Squares" far more complicated and intri- 
 cate than any that had been made before. His 
 most wonderful one the one which he himself 
 humorously described as the "most magically 
 magical of any magical square ever made by any 
 magician" he planned and drew up in a single 
 evening. Here is one, not quite so "magical," 
 perhaps, but sufficiently complicated to show the
 
 7 6 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 cleverness of its famous maker. Its ingenuity 
 will be very evident to anyone who follows the 
 directions, and makes the many additions that 
 are suggested. 
 
 52 
 
 61 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 29 
 
 36 
 
 45 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 62 
 
 51 
 
 46 
 
 35 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 S3 
 
 60 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 21 
 
 28 
 
 37 
 
 44 
 
 ii 
 
 6 
 
 59 
 
 54 
 
 43 
 
 38 
 
 27 
 
 22 
 
 55 
 
 58 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 23 
 
 26 
 
 39 
 
 42 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 57 
 
 56 
 
 4i 
 
 40 
 
 25 
 
 24 
 
 50 
 
 63 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 18 
 
 3i 
 
 34 
 
 47 
 
 16 
 
 i 
 
 64 
 
 49 
 
 48 
 
 33 
 
 32 
 
 17 
 
 Its properties are described in Franklin's own 
 words : 
 
 i. That every straight row (horizontal or vertical) of 
 8 numbers added together, makes 260, and half each row 
 half of 260.
 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 77 
 
 2. That the bent row of 8 numbers, ascending and 
 descending diagonally, viz. from 16 ascending to 10, and 
 from 23 descending to 1 7 ; and every one of its parallel 
 bent rows of 8 numbers make 260. Also the bent row 
 from 52 descending to 54, and from 43 ascending to 45; 
 and every one of its parallel bent rows of 8 numbers make 
 260. Also the bent row from 45 to 43, descending to the 
 left, and from 23 to 17, descending to the right, and every 
 one of its parallel bent rows of 8 numbers, make 260. 
 Also the bent row from 52 to 54, descending to the right, 
 and from 10 to 16, descending to the left, and every one of 
 its parallel bent rows of 8 numbers, make 260. Also the 
 parallel bent rows next to the above mentioned, which are 
 shortened to 3 numbers ascending, and 3 descending, &c., 
 as from 53 to 4 ascending, and from 29 to 44 descending, 
 make, with the 2 corner numbers, 260. Also the 2 num- 
 bers 14, 61 ascending, and 36, 19 descending, with the lower 
 4 numbers situated like them, viz., 50, i, descending, and 
 32, 47, ascending, make 260. And, lastly, the 4 corner 
 numbers, with the 4 middle numbers, make 260. 
 
 It was made only to fill in a few idle hours, but 
 it proved valuable training for the mind. Indeed, 
 Franklin never let slip an opportunity for self- 
 improvement. Another incident of this period, re- 
 lated by himself, shows how he made the game of 
 chess serve his ends. 
 
 "I had begun," he says, "in 1733 to study languages; 
 I soon made myself so much a master of the French as to 
 be able to read the books with ease. I then undertook the
 
 78 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Italian. An acquaintance who was also learning it, us'd 
 often to tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this 
 took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at 
 length refused to play any more, unless on this condition, 
 that the victor in every game should have a right to impose 
 a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or 
 in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquish'd was to per- 
 form upon honour, before our next meeting. As we play'd 
 pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language." 
 
 The subject of education always interested him. 
 Almost entirely self-taught, he realized the benefit 
 of an early and thorough schooling. In those days 
 Philadelphia had no school of any importance and 
 no college. It was natural, therefore, that he 
 should try to supply the want. In 1743 he drew 
 up a scheme for establishing an academy, and 
 endeavored to interest his friends and the public 
 in it. But the time was badly chosen. England 
 was at war with Spain and France. Massachusetts 
 and some of the other New England colonies had 
 already made preparations to defend themselves, 
 and were even fitting out expeditions to aid their 
 mother country. Everywhere there was a general 
 feeling of alarm. Franklin soon realized the use- 
 lessness of trying to push his project at such a time, 
 and, laying it aside temporarily, turned his atten- 
 tion to a more pressing matter the defense of 
 Pennsylvania.
 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 79 
 
 Of all the colonies, Pennsylvania was the only 
 one that had done nothing toward arming herself 
 against a possible invasion. The Quaker doctrine 
 against war, and the Quaker influence in the As- 
 sembly, were the two reasons for this. Franklin 
 tried to awaken the Assembly to a sense of their 
 danger. Failing in that, he wrote a pamphlet 
 called "Plain Truth," in which he set forth the 
 alarming condition of affairs, and appealed to the 
 people for help. 
 
 The pamphlet made a tremendous stir, and 
 shortly after its appearance he was asked to draw 
 up a plan for a volunteer association for defense. 
 He did so, and calling a public meeting of the citi- 
 zens, aroused them to such enthusiasm that twelve 
 hundred at once enrolled themselves in the associ- 
 ation. Within a few days almost every man in 
 the province who was not a Quaker had joined. 
 Companies were formed, arms procured, and before 
 long Pennsylvania had an army of more than ten 
 thousand men to put in the field. 
 
 Franklin was elected colonel of the Philadelphia 
 regiment, but resigned in favor of a Mr. Lawrence, 
 and then turned his energies toward raising money 
 for building a fort to guard the Delaware River. 
 When the fort was finished, it was discovered 
 that there were no cannon with which to equip it.
 
 8o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Franklin procured some old guns from Boston as a 
 temporary defense, and had a shipment of cannon 
 ordered from London; but fearing that they 
 would arrive too late, he and several of his friends 
 were sent to try to borrow some cannon from 
 Governor Clinton of New York. 
 
 Eighteen cannon were borrowed, brought to 
 Philadelphia, and mounted in the fort, where they 
 remained while the war lasted. Franklin took 
 his turn with the rest of the militia and, as a 
 common soldier, helped to guard the fort and the 
 city. 
 
 Happily for Philadelphia, no invasion took place. 
 Peace was declared in 1748, and the Pennsylvania 
 militia (Jisbanded. Franklin's share in the defense 
 of the province, and the important part which he 
 had taken in assuring its safety, won him the con- 
 fidence and trust of the people ; and they came to 
 regard him as their leader and adviser in times of 
 trouble. 
 
 Freed from his military duties, he again took up 
 the project of founding a school, and, following his 
 custom, wrote a pamphlet setting forth his scheme, 
 which he called "Proposals relating to the Educa- 
 tion of Youth in Pennsylvania." A copy of this 
 pamphlet was sent to each of the subscribers of the 
 Gazette. When Franklin thought sufficient time
 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 81 
 
 had elapsed for his idea to bear fruit, he opened a 
 subscription for the building of his school, and 
 through his influence and good management 
 twenty-five thousand dollars were collected. With 
 this comfortable sum to start on, the Philadelphia 
 Academy was opened toward the end of 1749. 
 
 Pupils applied in such numbers that soon it was 
 found necessary to move to larger quarters; and 
 a building which had been erected for religious and 
 public meetings was procured and altered to ac- 
 commodate the school. Three years later a charity 
 school was added, where a hundred free pupils were 
 taught reading, writing, and arithmetic; and in 
 1779, just thirty years after it had been founded, 
 the Academy was elevated to the dignity of a col- 
 lege, and became the present University of Penn- 
 sylvania. Franklin lived to see it reach its final 
 triumphant stage, and remained one of its trustees 
 until a year or so before his death. 
 
 Another project which had been conceived by 
 his friend Dr. Thomas Bond, and which he aided 
 greatly, both by collecting subscriptions and by 
 persuading the Assembly to appropriate money 
 for it, was the establishment of a hospital in Phila- 
 delphia. The idea was a novel one in America, 
 and Franklin had a hard time in convincing the 
 people of the need for such an institution. He 
 G
 
 82 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 kept at them, however, with his usual perseverance ; 
 and in 1755, before a mighty concourse of the 
 townspeople, the corner stone of the Pennsylvania 
 Hospital was laid. 
 
 This hospital, grown to a size and importance 
 far beyond its founders' fondest dreams, still 
 stands upon its original site at Eighth and Pine 
 streets, and, like most of the projects in which 
 Franklin had a share, is the best known and best 
 regulated of its kind in Philadelphia. 
 
 The question of paving the streets next claimed 
 his attention. Living as he did near the principal 
 market, he had good cause to complain of the mud 
 and dirt which collected in the roadways, making 
 them almost impassable in rainy weather. Through 
 his efforts the street leading to the market was 
 finally paved with stone. It proved a convenience 
 to every one ; and when the people saw how clean 
 the street and the pavements could be kept, they 
 insisted that all the streets of the city should be 
 paved in the same way. 
 
 Franklin was asked to present the matter to the 
 Assembly. He drafted the act, and though he had 
 left on his first mission to England before the law 
 was passed, it was through his help and exertions 
 that the people obtained this much-needed im- 
 provement.
 
 FRANKLIN THE CITIZEN 83 
 
 Meanwhile, in the midst of all these activities, 
 and with his mind filled with projects for the wel- 
 fare of the city, Franklin still found time for study 
 at home, and for carrying on experiments with 
 air and electricity which were to make his name 
 famous throughout the world.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 
 
 FROM his earliest years Franklin appears to have 
 had a fondness for science and scientific subjects. 
 It was his favorite hobby, and he was always 
 studying some phenomenon of nature, reading 
 up the latest discoveries in natural philosophy, 
 or making his own experiments to prove or dis- 
 prove some new theory. What first turned his 
 mind to science it is impossible to say. Very 
 probably it arose from his eagerness to acquire 
 knowledge. This was almost a passion with him ; 
 and throughout his early life it was his happy lot 
 to be thrown constantly in the company of learned 
 men. As a boy, it will be recalled, he associated with 
 the "ingenious men" who helped his brother 
 publish the New England C our ant; during his stay 
 in England he made friends with Dr. Mandeville, 
 Sir Hans Sloane, and other noted scientists ; and 
 on his return to Philadelphia he had formed the 
 Junto, where points of "Morals, Politics, or Natural 
 Philosophy" were discussed by the members. 
 
 84
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 85 
 
 One of the subjects debated by the club, "How 
 may smoky chimneys be best cured?" was of 
 great interest to Franklin; and in 1742 he not 
 only supplied an answer to the question, but solved 
 the much greater problem of heating a room com- 
 fortably, by inventing the "Pennsylvania Fire- 
 Place," or, as it is better known, "the Franklin 
 Stove." The principle upon which this stove 
 worked was simple. The heat, rising from an open 
 fireplace, was made to come down again before 
 going out through the chimney, and so heated the 
 other currents of air in the room. "I suppose," 
 says Franklin, "our ancestors never thought of 
 warming rooms to sit in; all they proposed was 
 to have a place to make a fire in, by which they 
 might warm themselves when cold." In describing 
 the virtues of his invention, he adds that "your 
 whole room is equally warm, so that people need 
 not crowd so close round the fire, but may sit near 
 the window, and have the benefit of the light for 
 reading, writing, needlework, &c. They may sit 
 with comfort in any part of the room, which is a 
 very considerable advantage in a large family." 
 
 One can scarcely realize what a boon this in- 
 vention of Franklin's was to the people of his day., 
 There were no furnaces, no stoves, nothing but 
 open fireplaces, which warmed only one's face
 
 86 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 and hands, while the cold air nipped at one's back 
 and heels. Franklin could probably have made a 
 fortune out of his "Fire-Place." Indeed, the 
 governor of the province was so pleased with it 
 that he offered to issue a patent on it, which would 
 have given its inventor the sole right to sell it 
 for a long term of years. Franklin, however, 
 refused to take it, on the principle, as he generously 
 says, "that, as we enjoy great advantages from the 
 inventions of others, we should be glad of an 
 opportunity to serve others by any inventions of 
 ours." 
 
 An ironmonger in London, it appears, had no 
 such generous ideas. Adding a few small improve- 
 ments, he secured a patent on the stove, and pass- 
 ing it off as his own, made a considerable sum of 
 money from the sale of it in England. It is 
 characteristic of Franklin that he never took any 
 action against the man, nor contested his right to 
 the patent. 
 
 In the winter of 1746-47 Franklin began the study 
 of electricity. A year or two before, great interest 
 in this subject had been roused by the perfection 
 of the Leyden jar, and lecturers went about the 
 country displaying the apparatus, and giving their 
 half-terrified, half-fascinated audiences electrical 
 shocks. Franklin met one of these men during
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 87 
 
 a visit to Boston and was extremely interested in 
 the experiments performed. On his return to 
 Philadelphia he found that Peter Collinson, a 
 member of the Royal Society in England, and the 
 man who purchased the books for the Philadelphia 
 Library, had sent, with his last shipment of books, 
 one of the newly devised glass tubes for the genera- 
 tion of electricity. These tubes were about two 
 and a half feet long and as thick as a man could 
 conveniently hold hi his hand. The electricity was 
 generated by rubbing the tube briskly with a piece 
 of cloth, and then touching it to the Leyden jar 
 or other object to be charged. This was the only 
 means then known for manufacturing electricity. 
 Franklin immediately became fascinated with 
 it, and, procuring other tubes from the glassworks, 
 soon had all his acquaintances rubbing them. To 
 most of them it was merely a new toy, but to Frank- 
 lin and to three of his close friends, Ebenezer 
 Kinnersley, Thomas Hopkinson, and Philip Syng, 
 electricity became the object of study and investi- 
 gation for many years. They worked both sepa- 
 rately and together, testing experiments already 
 known and trying many new ones of their own 
 invention. They set fire to rum and brandy with 
 the electric spark, lighted candles by it, performed 
 amusing tricks with a spider made of burnt cork,
 
 88 
 
 and finally, after many attempts, produced what 
 was probably the first electrical battery. It was 
 composed of eleven panes of window glass inclosed 
 in thin leaden plates and supported by a silken 
 cord, with wires and chains connecting them. The 
 glass was soon found to be too cumbersome, and 
 they replaced it by Ley den jars, which were easier 
 to handle and capable of storing more power. It 
 was during these early stages of their experiments 
 that Philip Syng contrived a machine for generating 
 electricity. This did away with the slow and tire- 
 some method of rubbing the tubes with cloths and 
 was of immense benefit to the four investigators. 
 Franklin far outshone them all, both in the depth 
 of his observations and in the boldness of his 
 experiments. It was a quality of his mind to 
 improve on everything that he took up ; and dur- 
 ing the first winter of his study in this new vein 
 he threw aside the old idea as to the nature of 
 electricity, and proved that it was collected, and 
 not created, by friction ; that the power itself 
 was "really an element diffused among, and at- 
 tracted by, other matter, particularly by water 
 and metals." From these assertions he arrived 
 at the conclusion that electricity remains in a 
 positive and negative, or, as he himself called it, 
 a plus and a minus state. This explained why
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 89 
 
 the electric spark leaped from the charged, or 
 positive, object to the uncharged, or negative, one ; 
 and accounted for many other electrical phenomena 
 until then not understood. It is the accepted 
 theory to-day, and its discovery marked the begin- 
 ning of modern knowledge of electricity. We have 
 long since ceased to treat the mysterious fluid as 
 a curiosity, for it is now recognized as a powerful 
 and useful force. 
 
 In the autumn of 1748 Franklin formed a part- 
 nership with his foreman, David Hall, who took 
 over the running of the printing-shop. The ar- 
 rangement promised to give Franklin all the time 
 he wished to pursue his electrical studies. This, 
 however, was not to be the case, for "the public," 
 he writes, "now considering me as a man of lei- 
 sure, laid hold of me for their purposes ; " and with- 
 in a very few months he was appointed a justice 
 of the peace, chosen one of the City Council, and 
 finally elected a member of the Assembly. He ac- 
 cepted all three offices, but soon resigned from that 
 of justice of the peace, on the plea that he had not 
 sufficient knowledge of the law. The other posts 
 he continued to hold, and moving to the southeast 
 corner of Second and Race streets, then a "re- 
 tired" part of the town, devoted his spare hours 
 to his electrical studies.
 
 90 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 For the time being he gave up his experiments 
 with electrical machines, and set to work to discover 
 what place, if any, electricity had in nature. 
 Other men had suggested that lightning and elec- 
 tricity were the same thing, but no one had yet 
 proved it. To do this became Franklin's object, 
 and during the winter of 1 748-49 and all of the fol- 
 lowing summer he was busily engaged making 
 observations and drawing inferences from them. 
 An extract from his notes of that period shows 
 with what patience and acuteness he gathered 
 his facts, and with what wonderful keenness and 
 intelligence he arrived at his deductions. "Elec- 
 trical fluid," the notes read, "agrees with lightning 
 in these particulars: i. Giving light. 2. Color 
 of the light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. Swift mo- 
 tion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack 
 or noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting in water or 
 ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. De- 
 stroying animals. 10. Melting metals, n. Firing 
 inflammable substances. 12. Sulphurous smell. 
 The electric fluid is attracted by_ points. We do 
 not know whether this property is in lightning. 
 But since they agree in all the particulars wherein 
 we can already compare them, is it not probable 
 they agree likewise in this?" 
 
 The substance of these notes is contained in a
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 91 
 
 series of observations which he drew up early in 
 1749, and which he enlarged later in what is prob- 
 ably the most celebrated of all his articles on elec- 
 tricity, called "Opinions and Conjectures concern- 
 ing the Properties and Effects of the Electrical 
 Matter, and the means of preserving Buildings, 
 Ships, &c., from Lightning, arising from Experi- 
 ments and Observations made at Philadelphia, 
 
 I749-" 
 
 In this paper he put forth two suggestions which 
 made his name famous both in Europe and America. 
 They are contained in two brief paragraphs. After 
 describing an experiment by which a pointed wire 
 was made to act as a conductor of electricity, he 
 continues : "May not the knowledge of this power 
 of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, 
 churches, ships, &c., from the stroke of lightning, 
 by directing us to fix, on the highest part of those 
 edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle, 
 and gilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot of 
 those rods a wire down the outside of the building 
 into the ground, or down round one of the shrouds 
 of a ship, and down her side till it reaches the water ? 
 Would not these pointed rods probably draw the 
 electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came 
 nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from 
 that most sudden and terrible mischief?"
 
 92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Here, in two sentences, he sets forth the idea 
 which he afterward developed in his world-re- 
 nowned invention of the lightning-rod ; but when 
 he wrote it was still only an idea and had not been 
 put to the test. Indeed, he had not yet even suc- 
 ceeded in proving scientifically the identity of 
 lightning with electricity; but he was absolutely 
 convinced of it himself ; and in his second sugges- 
 tion he describes the way in which it could be 
 established beyond doubt. "To determine the 
 question, whether the clouds that contain lightning 
 are electrified or not," he says, "I would propose an 
 experiment to be tried where it may be done 
 conveniently. On the top of some high tower or 
 steeple, place a kind of sentry-box . . . big 
 enough to contain a man and an electrical stand. 
 From the middle of the stand let an iron rod rise 
 and pass bending out of the door, and then upright 
 twenty or thirty feet, pointed very sharp at the 
 end. If the electrical stand be kept clean and dry, 
 a man standing on it, when such clouds are passing 
 low, might be electrified and afford sparks, the rod 
 drawing fire to him from a cloud. If any danger 
 to the man should be apprehended (though I think 
 there would be none), let him stand on the floor of 
 his box, and now and then bring near to the rod 
 the loop of a wire that has one end fastened to the
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 93 
 
 leads, he holding it by a wax handle; so that 
 sparks, if the rod is electrified, will strike from the 
 rod to the wire and not affect him." 
 
 Unfortunately, there was no steeple in Philadel- 
 phia where Franklin could try this experiment 
 himself; and in July, 1750, he sent the pamphlet 
 containing the suggestions, together with a lot of 
 other data on electricity, to his friend Peter Col- 
 linson in London. Collinson, realizing the impor- 
 tance of the papers, had them printed under the 
 name of "New Experiments and Observations in 
 Electricity, made at Philadelphia, in America." 
 He presented a copy to the Royal Society, where 
 it was read and caused a great stir. 
 
 By some fortunate chance a copy fell into the 
 hands of a well-known French scientist, the Count 
 de Buffon. He immediately had it translated into 
 French, and during the summer of 1751 had it 
 published in Paris. It had an enormous sale. 
 Scientists took up Franklin's theories and tried 
 to prove or disprove them as the case might be. 
 His name became familiar to every learned man in 
 Europe. King Louis XV had some of the most 
 noted of the experiments performed in his presence, 
 and ordered a letter to be written to the Royal 
 Society, expressing his admiration of Franklin's 
 queries. But even greater fame was awaiting
 
 94 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Franklin. In the spring of 1752 the Count de 
 Buffon and two of his fellow-scientists caused the 
 apparatus suggested by the Philadelphian to be 
 erected on a hill in the little town of Marly in 
 France; and here on May 10, in the midst of a 
 thunderstorm, they succeeded in drawing elec- 
 tricity from the clouds. Franklin's idea that 
 electricity and lightning were the same thing was 
 proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 The Royal Society, on learning of the Count de 
 Buffon's complete success, unanimously elected 
 Franklin a member of their body and voted him a 
 medal. 
 
 Meanwhile, quite unconscious of the honors 
 which were being heaped on him abroad, Franklin 
 was quietly pursuing his studies in Philadelphia; 
 and while the Count de Buffon was carrying on his 
 experiments at Marly, Franklin conceived the idea 
 of attempting similar experiments by means of a 
 kite. 
 
 The kite was made of silk with a sharp-pointed 
 wire fixed to the upright stick of the framework. 
 To the end of the cord which held the kite a silk 
 ribbon was tied, and where the cord and the ribbon 
 joined a metal key was fastened. The person fly- 
 ing the kite stood under a shelter so that the silk 
 ribbon would not get wet. This he held in his
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 95 
 
 hand, and as soon as the thunder clouds passed 
 over the kite he would be able to draw sparks from 
 the key. 
 
 It was June before Franklin had an opportunity 
 to test his kite. The probable place where the 
 experiment was made was a desolate bit of common 
 near what is now Eighth and Race streets. Fear- 
 ing that he might be laughed at, Franklin told no 
 one what he was going to do, and on the approach 
 of a thunderstorm he stole away from his house 
 with only his son William to help him. They 
 managed, with some difficulty, to get the kite up, 
 and then stood in the open door of an old ruined 
 cowshed to see what would happen. 
 
 For a time nothing happened. The heavy clouds 
 passed over the kite, but no sign of a spark appeared 
 from the key. Franklin began to think that his 
 theory was wrong, and that all his work for the 
 past few years was wasted. He had given up hope, 
 and was almost ready to go home, when suddenly 
 he saw the fibers of the hempen cord which held 
 the kite stiffen and rise, as a person's hair is said 
 to rise with fright. Trembling with excitement 
 he touched his knuckle to the key. There was a 
 crack, a flash, and he felt the unmistakable thrill 
 of electricity run through him ! Almost afraid to 
 believe in his success, he applied the key to a Leyden
 
 96 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 jar which he had brought with him ; and when he 
 thought it was charged, he touched it with his fingers. 
 The shock he received dispelled his last doubts ! 
 
 The next ship from Europe brought news of the 
 Count de Buffon's experiments at Marly, and 
 Franklin suddenly found himself famous both at 
 home and abroad. 
 
 He received his new honors with great modesty. 
 It was not until October four months after his 
 memorable discovery that he sent to Collinson 
 any account of his tests with the kite, and even 
 then he described the incident as a possible exper- 
 iment, and without suggesting in any way that he 
 had attempted it himself. 
 
 In the meanwhile, however, he had made his 
 discovery serve a useful purpose, and had turned 
 the first of his famous "suggestions" into a reality 
 by inventing the lightning-rod. The use of it 
 spread rapidly ; but there were those who believed 
 it a dangerous thing, and asserted that the accumu- 
 lation of electricity in the earth was the direct 
 cause of the earthquake which occurred in 1755. 
 Even as late as 1770 a clergyman in Boston stated 
 solemnly that "as lightning is one of the means of 
 punishing the sins of mankind, and of warning 
 them from the commission of sin, it is impious to 
 prevent its full execution."
 
 FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 97 
 
 In England there was an amusing discussion as 
 to whether the pointed ends favored by Franklin, or 
 blunt ends, should be used. George III favored 
 blunt ends, and ordered them to be substituted for 
 the pointed ends then on Kew Palace. The king's 
 decision was ridiculed by some clever wit in the 
 following stanza : 
 
 "While you, great George, for safety hunt, 
 And sharp conductors change for blunt, 
 
 The nation's out of joint. 
 Franklin a wiser course pursues, 
 And all your thunder fearless views, 
 
 By keeping to the point." 
 
 Franklin's most important discoveries are con- 
 nected with electricity ; but every branch of nat- 
 ural science was of interest to him, and he studied 
 and wrote about light, heat, fire, air, the sun spots, 
 the stars, the tides, the wind, waterspouts, rain- 
 fall, ventilation, sound, and a dozen other subjects. 
 
 He was one of the foremost scientists of his day, 
 and might have been the greatest of all time if 
 politics and the duties of public life had not claimed 
 him and turned his energies into other channels.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 
 
 FRANKLIN took his seat in the Pennsylvania 
 Assembly at a time when ill feeling between that 
 body and the proprietaries of the province was 
 reaching a crisis. These proprietaries, as they were 
 called, were Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of 
 William Penn, founder of the colony. Upon their 
 father's death and that of their brother John, they 
 had succeeded to huge estates in Pennsylvania; 
 and, like William Penn, were practically rulers of 
 the colony. Both lived in England, but had a 
 governor to represent them in Pennsylvania, and 
 no act of the Assembly could be made a law with- 
 out the governor's assent. This led to endless 
 disputes, as the governor could do nothing without 
 the Penns' permission ; and the two proprietaries 
 were more concerned in preserving their own inter- 
 ests than in advancing those of the province. 
 
 Franklin sided very strongly with the people, 
 and the services which he rendered them in the 
 Assembly were numerous and important. No 
 
 9 8
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 99 
 
 record of public debates was ever kept, but if it 
 had been, his share in them would have been small ; 
 for, as he himself declares, "I was a bad speaker; 
 never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in the 
 choice of words, hardly correct in language, and 
 yet I generally carried my point." 
 
 He depended upon intelligence and force of 
 argument, where other men depended upon or- 
 atory; and his advice and suggestions always 
 commanded attention and respect. 
 
 As the value of his services became more and 
 more apparent, he was called upon to assist the 
 colony in outside affairs. 
 
 In 1752 he was appointed a member of a com- 
 mission to meet the Indians and form a new treaty 
 with them-. The meeting took place at Carlisle, 
 Pennsylvania; and through Franklin's adroitness 
 and tact the treaty was made to the satisfaction 
 of both the Indians and the colonists. 
 
 A year later the postmaster-general of America 
 died, and Franklin and a man named William 
 Hunter were appointed by the government in 
 England to fill his place. In those days the postal 
 system in the colonies was very primitive. There 
 were no mail coaches, the mail being carried en- 
 tirely on horseback. The post roads along which 
 the carriers traveled were often mere bridle paths
 
 ioo BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 cut through the forests. Only the larger cities 
 lying along the coast between Boston and Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina, had post offices, and letters 
 addressed to persons living inland were taken to 
 their destinations by any chance travelers who hap- 
 pened along. There was one mail a week between 
 New York and Philadelphia in summer, and one 
 every two weeks during the winter ; while a person 
 writing from Philadelphia to Boston had to wait a 
 month and a half for a reply. 
 
 With his usual energy Franklin immediately set 
 about improving the entire system. He increased 
 the number of mails between important cities; 
 caused the post roads to be widened and straight- 
 ened, reduced the rates of postage, charged for 
 the carrying of newspapers, which until then had 
 been delivered free, and generally put the whole 
 service upon a more modern footing. Under his 
 management the post office not only paid expenses, 
 but, for the first time, yielded the government a 
 small revenue. 
 
 While he was still perfecting his mail system, 
 war with the French was again threatened; and 
 he was sent to represent Pennsylvania at a confer- 
 ence of the colonies held in the old Dutch town of 
 Albany, in New York. The object of this confer- 
 ence was to form some plan for mutual defense
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 101 
 
 against the French. On the trip to Albany Frank- 
 lin drew up a scheme for the union of the colonies, 
 which he presented to the meeting, and which was 
 generally approved. The government in England, 
 however, thought it gave the colonies too much 
 power and made them too independent, so it came 
 to nothing. Curiously enough, it was very similar 
 to the plan suggested for the union of the states 
 after the Revolution, and the one which was finally 
 adopted. 
 
 The conference in Albany broke up without 
 accomplishing anything, and Franklin returned 
 to Philadelphia. This was in the summer of 1754. 
 In the spring of the following year the quarrel be- 
 tween the Assembly and the proprietaries broke 
 out afresh over the question of taxation. The 
 proprietaries were willing that the colonists should 
 pass laws taxing themselves as much as they chose, 
 but refused to allow the governor to give his con- 
 sent to any law which made the Penns' own large 
 estates subject to taxation. The Assembly, on 
 their side, refused to pass any law which exempted 
 the proprietaries' lands from being taxed with the 
 rest. It was at a time when war was about to be 
 declared and money was badly needed, but neither 
 side would give ground, and the quarrel grew more 
 and more bitter.
 
 102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 In the midst of the dispute the French and 
 Indian War broke out, and word was received that 
 General Braddock, who was then in Maryland 
 preparing to march on the enemy, had heard that 
 Pennsylvania had refused to supply funds for the 
 army, and was much enraged at this lack of loyalty. 
 Franklin was immediately sent to Braddock's 
 camp to explain the situation to him. Joining 
 the governor of New York and the governor of 
 Massachusetts, who had been summoned to confer 
 with the general, Franklin set out on horseback. 
 The three proceeded south as quickly as they could, 
 sleeping each night at some stately and well-kept 
 mansion on their road, and riding by day through 
 woods and fields in the balmy April weather. 
 
 When they reached the camp Franklin's first 
 mission was to remove from Braddock's mind the 
 doubts which he had as to Pennsylvania's loyalty. 
 This he accomplished with such success that the 
 general asked his advice about the country and its 
 inhabitants, and even persuaded him to assist in 
 preparing the army for its long march. The thing 
 which hampered Braddock most was lack of trans- 
 portation. In both Maryland and Virginia there 
 was a scarcity of wagons; after scouring the 
 countryside, he had managed to find only twenty- 
 five. Franklin undertook to supply his wants
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 103 
 
 from Pennsylvania; and in twenty days he had 
 one hundred and fifty wagons, two hundred and 
 fifty-nine pack horses, and a large quantity of hay 
 and oats at the general's disposal. Braddock 
 thanked him again and again, commended him 
 for what he had done, and later mentioned him 
 with warm admiration in his dispatches home. 
 
 It was during his visit to Braddock's camp that 
 Franklin first met a young man who was then only 
 an officer on the general's staff, but who was soon 
 to become one of the most famous men of this 
 country. That man was George Washington. 
 
 Braddock's troops set out on their march 
 against the French, and Franklin journeyed back 
 to Philadelphia. No one doubted the success of 
 the expedition. They were trained troops, there- 
 fore they could not be beaten by Indians. In 
 Philadelphia preparations were made to celebrate 
 the coming victory, and a subscription was begun 
 for a display of fireworks. When, therefore, the 
 news of Braddock's disastrous defeat was brought 
 to the city, it was received in stunned silence. 
 No one could believe it possible ; but the remnant 
 of Braddock's troops, broken and panic-stricken, 
 soon arrived in the city and confirmed the tidings. 
 The English had been completely routed, and 
 Pennsylvania lay at the mercy of the enemy.
 
 104 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 This was in July. During August, September, 
 and October the Assembly and the governor con- 
 tinued their wrangling over the question of taxing 
 the proprietaries' estates, and no law was passed 
 to raise money for the defense of the colony. 
 
 In September the French and their Indian 
 allies began to advance into the frontier counties 
 of the province ; and by the first of November 
 tales of war and the destruction of villages reached 
 the city almost every day. Meanwhile, through 
 the efforts of Franklin, the facts of the quarrel 
 between the governor and the Assembly had be- 
 come known in England; and the Penns, fearing 
 that the king might be persuaded to take their 
 estates away from them, ordered the governor 
 to add five thousand pounds twenty-five thou- 
 sand dollars to any amount which the Assembly 
 might vote for purposes of defense. Franklin 
 advised the Assembly to accept the money, and 
 pass the necessary laws for raising by taxation ad- 
 ditional funds for defense. This the Assembly 
 did, voting the large sum of sixty thousand pounds 
 three hundred thousand dollars and exempt- 
 ing, under protest, the lands belonging to the 
 Penns. 
 
 Franklin was made one of the war commissioners, 
 and immediately began to buy arms and provi-
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 105 
 
 sions, recruit men, and make preparations for 
 sending them to the front. Late in November 
 word came that the Moravian village of Guaden- 
 hutten had been burned by the Indians and its 
 people massacred. This was in Northampton 
 County, not more than seventy miles from Phila- 
 delphia. Now thoroughly alarmed for the safety 
 of the city, the governor asked Franklin to lead 
 a party to the rescue of the outlying settlements. 
 Franklin consented, and toward the middle of 
 December set out at the head of about five hundred 
 men. 
 
 The march through the rough and thinly popu- 
 lated country was difficult in the extreme. The 
 weather was bad, the roads little more than forest 
 tracks choked with mud; supplies were scarce 
 and sometimes impossible to obtain. It took the 
 little army almost a month to reach Bethlehem, 
 the chief town of the county, and distant from 
 Philadelphia only fifty miles. Here Franklin re- 
 mained a few days, reassuring the people, and 
 sending out detachments into the neighboring 
 country to reconnoiter and erect stockades. 
 
 To what dangers they were exposed is shown by 
 an incident which took place while they were 
 marching from Bethlehem to Guadenhutten. Just 
 before they left Bethlehem eleven farmers, who had
 
 io6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 been driven from their homes by the Indians, came 
 to Franklin and asked for firearms. They wished 
 to return to their farms and rescue their cattle. 
 Franklin gave each one a gun and ammunition, 
 and the men departed. Shortly after they had 
 started it began to rain. In the midst of the 
 storm they met a party of Indians. The farmers 
 tried to fire at them, but their guns were soaked 
 and would not go off. The Indians, closing in on 
 them, killed all but one, who managed to escape. 
 Warned by their fate, Franklin advanced toward 
 Guadenhutten with great caution. His scouts, 
 ranging the woods, found traces of the Indians on 
 every side; but the little army was allowed to 
 proceed without interruption, and arrived at the 
 ruined village in safety. Here a stockade was 
 marked out and work on it immediately begun. 
 Within five days one log fort was completed, and 
 before very long two others were finished in the 
 country near by. 
 
 Secured against surprise, Franklin sent out small 
 parties to scour the country. They met no In- 
 dians, but found many places on the surrounding 
 hills where they had evidently posted spies to 
 watch the army's proceedings. 
 
 Franklin made his men as comfortable as he 
 could in their rough quarters, and settled down to
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 107 
 
 spend the winter in the wilderness. Toward the 
 end of January, however, word arrived from Phila- 
 delphia that the governor was on the point of sum- 
 moning the Assembly, and that the old quarrel 
 was likely to be renewed. Both Franklin's friends 
 and the governor were anxious for him to return. 
 He left the army in charge of Colonel Clapham, a 
 soldier of experience, and, journeying back to 
 Philadelphia by easy stages, reached that city 
 about the middle of February, 1756, after two 
 months' service in the field. 
 
 He found the Assembly and the governor once 
 more at swords' points. It had been discovered 
 that the five thousand pounds given by the pro- 
 prietaries was not an outright gift, but was to be 
 collected as best it might be from those of the 
 Penns' tenants who were behind in their rent. 
 This enraged the Assembly, and the old dispute 
 about taxing the Penns' estates was revived with 
 great bitterness. The remainder of the winter 
 was spent in useless quarreling; and, as on pre- 
 vious occasions, the Assembly adjourned without 
 accomplishing anything. Worn out by ceaseless 
 wrangling, the governor, Robert Morris, sent his 
 resignation to England, and Captain William 
 Denny was appointed by the Penns to fill his place. 
 He arrived in Philadelphia about the middle of
 
 io8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 August, and was welcomed by the people, who 
 looked upon him as their deliverer. But they were 
 soon undeceived. He was as bound by his instruc- 
 tions from the Penns as Governor Morris had 
 been. He and the Assembly could not agree on 
 anything. 
 
 By December the people had grown desperate. 
 There was no money in the treasury ; the Indians 
 were again menacing the outlying districts; and 
 the frontier was unprotected. Realizing that some- 
 thing must be done at once, the Assembly passed 
 an act exempting as before the Penns' estates from 
 taxation, but taxing beer and liquors in their place. 
 They had every reason to believe that the governor 
 would consent to this law, and sent it to him for 
 his signature. But to their surprise and anger the 
 governor refused to sign. A committee from the 
 Assembly went to see him. He told them that 
 his instructions forbade him to approve the law 
 as it stood. There would have to be many changes 
 made in it. The committee tried to persuade him, 
 but without success; and he finally sent the act 
 back to the Assembly with a statement that he 
 would not allow it to pass; and, as there was no 
 one to judge between himself and the Assembly, 
 he would immediately send the reasons for his 
 action to the king.
 
 FRANKLIN THE SOLDIER 109 
 
 The Assembly received his message in blank 
 amazement. They were afraid that the governor's 
 attitude would leave them worse off than they 
 were before. Several days were spent in discussing 
 the new situation, and finally they decided to 
 follow the governor's example and appeal to the 
 king. Franklin and an old gentleman named 
 Isaac Norris were appointed to go to England and 
 present their grievances. Norris pleaded his 
 advanced age ; but Franklin accepted the mission, 
 and toward the end of June, 1757, after innumerable 
 delays, he and his son William, who had been 
 commissioned to accompany him, set out from New 
 York on their long journey across the sea.
 
 CHAPTER XH 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND 
 
 ON this voyage to England an incident occurred 
 which shows Franklin's keenness of observation. 
 One day he noticed that the wakes of two of the 
 ships which were accompanying his vessel were 
 remarkably smooth, while everywhere else the 
 water was quite rough. Puzzled, he called the 
 captain's attention to the circumstance, and asked 
 him the meaning of it. 
 
 "I suppose," said the captain, "that the cooks 
 have just been emptying their greasy water through 
 the scuppers, and that it has greased the sides 
 of the ships a little." 
 
 Franklin was not disposed to take the explanation 
 seriously; but some years afterward, as he was 
 walking beside a pond which happened to be ruffled 
 by the wind, he remembered the incident, and, pro- 
 curing a cruet of oil, dropped a little of it on the 
 water. "It spread itself," he says, "with surpris- 
 ing swiftness upon the surface; but the effect of 
 smoothing the waves was not produced ; for I had
 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND in 
 
 applied it first on the leeward side of the pond, 
 where the waves were greatest ; and the wind drove 
 my oil back upon the shore. I then went to the 
 windward side, where they began to form ; and there 
 the oil, though not more than a teaspoonful, pro- 
 duced an instant calm over a space several yards 
 square, which spread amazingly, and extended 
 itself gradually till it reached the lee side, making 
 all that quarter of the pond, perhaps half an acre, 
 as smooth as a looking-glass. After this I contrived 
 to take with me, whenever I went into the country, 
 a little oil in the upper hollow joint of my bamboo 
 cane, with which I might repeat the experiment as 
 opportunity should offer, and I found it constantly 
 to succeed." 
 
 The most important of these experiments was 
 made at the seaport of Portsmouth, in England, 
 in the presence of a few naval officers and members 
 of the Royal Society, and resulted in the general 
 recognition of the power of oil to quiet the sea. 
 
 To return, however, to his mission to England. 
 He and his son landed at Falmouth about the 
 middle of July, and set out immediately for Lon- 
 don, where they arrived on July 26, 1757. 
 
 The appearance of Franklin now was in striking 
 contrast with the raw-boned, youthful Franklin 
 of nineteen who had landed in London thirty-two
 
 112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 years before. Then he was penniless and without 
 work ; now he was rich, with a servant for himself, 
 a negro for his son, and a carriage of his own to 
 convey him wherever he wished to go. Then he 
 had been sent to London under false pretenses ; 
 now he was the accredited agent of one of the 
 largest and most important colonies in America, 
 with full power to look after her affairs. Then he 
 had no friends; now he was a member of the 
 Royal Society, and one of the most famous men in 
 Europe. All the learned scientists hastened to 
 call on him; letters of congratulation came from 
 electricians in Holland, Germany, France, and Italy; 
 he was received and entertained everywhere. 
 
 Comfortably settled in his lodgings, he at once 
 took up the business upon which he had been sent. 
 A meeting was arranged between him and the 
 proprietaries at Thomas Perm's house in Spring 
 Garden. Franklin explained at great length the 
 Assembly's attitude and the grievances of the 
 people. The Penns listened in a haughty way, 
 but would agree to nothing. They asked him to 
 put his complaints down on paper. He did so. 
 They said they would give the matter their atten- 
 tion. Franklin had to be satisfied with this ; but 
 he felt sure that the proprietaries would do nothing, 
 and so tried to gain his end by other means.
 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND 113 
 
 Following an old custom of his, he had his son 
 William write articles for the papers, giving the 
 true state of affairs in Pennsylvania. When these 
 articles had attracted some notice, he foDowed 
 them up by a large volume containing the complete 
 history of the disputes between the Assembly and 
 the governors, from William Penn to Governor 
 Denny. This work was also written by his son, 
 but under the elder Franklin's guidance. When 
 the book was published, Franklin saw that copies 
 of it were sent to all the influential statesmen in 
 England; and before long he had the pleasure of 
 knowing that it was awakening public sympathy 
 for the people of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Meanwhile nothing had been heard from the 
 Penns. A year passed before they finally took 
 any notice of his complaints, and then they did 
 not reply to him, but sent their answer direct to 
 Governor Denny in Philadelphia. In this answer 
 they denied all of Franklin's claims, and refused 
 to grant any concessions whatever. The document 
 had no apparent effect, either on the Assembly, 
 which still placed implicit confidence in Franklin, 
 or on Franklin himself, who continued to work 
 for the interest of the colony in his own wise way. 
 
 He widened the circle of his friends, made the 
 acquaintance of noblemen and members of Parlia-
 
 114 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ment, and, by letting them know the facts of the 
 case, won many of them over to his side. He 
 even tried to obtain an audience with the great 
 William Pitt, the Secretary of State, and the most 
 powerful man in all England; and though he 
 failed in this, he became known to some of Pitt's 
 secretaries, and through them he reached the great 
 man's ear. 
 
 Meantime a very important event had taken 
 place in Philadelphia. Governor Denny, grown 
 weary of his continuous disputes with the Assembly, 
 had at last been persuaded to ignore his instruc- 
 tions, and to give his consent to a law which taxed 
 the Penns' estates equally with other lands in the 
 colony. This law was for the purpose of raising 
 one hundred thousand pounds half a million 
 dollars for the defense of the province, and it 
 provided that the money should be printed and 
 issued. It was passed early in 1758, when Franklin 
 had been about eight months in England. 
 
 Now, one of the conditions under which the 
 Penns held Pennsylvania was that all laws passed 
 by the Assembly and consented to by the governor, 
 should be sent to England for the approval of the 
 king. There was a committee in London called 
 "The Right Honorable the Lords of Committee of 
 his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council for
 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND 115 
 
 Plantation Affairs," who advised the king as to 
 whether he should approve the laws or not. 
 
 The law taxing the Perms' estates was forwarded 
 to England sometime in 1758 ; but it was not until 
 the spring of 1760 almost two years later 
 that it came up before the Committee. The 
 Perms, enraged at their governor's act, employed 
 lawyers to oppose the law. Franklin engaged 
 lawyers to defend it. The matter was argued at 
 great length before the Committee, who finally 
 decided in the Penns' favor, and ordered that the 
 law should not be allowed. 
 
 Franklin received the decision of the Committee 
 just as he was preparing to set out for a tour of 
 Ireland. He had his chests and saddle-bags un- 
 packed at once, and took up the apparently hope- 
 less task of having the report set aside. 
 
 He first explained to the Committee the ruinous 
 consequences which would result to the province 
 if the law was not passed, since the money which it 
 authorized had not only been printed and issued, 
 but a great deal of it had already been spent. He 
 assured them that if they would let the law stand 
 he would guarantee that the Assembly would pass 
 another law removing the objectionable features. 
 There were two special objections raised by the 
 Penns, and mentioned in the Committee's report.
 
 Ii6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The first was that the law would permit all the 
 unsurveyed waste lands of the proprietaries to be 
 taxed ; the second was that it would now be possible 
 for the surveyed waste lands of the proprietaries 
 to be taxed higher than property of the same de- 
 scription owned by other persons. Franklin prom- 
 ised that these objections would be taken into 
 consideration by the Assembly when it passed the 
 new law. The Committee, won over by his offer 
 and the force of his arguments, withdrew their old 
 report and issued another, in which the original 
 law was allowed to remain, providing the objec- 
 tions were removed as Franklin suggested. 
 
 It is very probable that he knew at the time that 
 these objections had no foundation in fact. At 
 any rate, the Assembly never passed the second 
 law; and when, at the request of the governor, a 
 committee was appointed to inquire into the 
 objections, it was found that the unsurveyed lands 
 of the Penns had never been taxed, and that their 
 surveyed lands were taxed no higher than other 
 lands of like character. Thus, by his shrewdness 
 and tact, Franklin gave the colonists the law for 
 which they had been struggling so bitterly, and 
 won a complete victory over the Penns. 
 
 During the long years of waiting before the 
 matter was finally settled, he had plenty of leisure
 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND 117 
 
 for his own affairs. He employed it in study, in 
 writing, and in traveling in England and Scotland, 
 and was everywhere received with open arms. 
 
 In the summer of 1758 he spent a few days at 
 the University of Cambridge, where he met the 
 principal professors, and with them performed 
 numerous experiments with the recently-invented 
 thermometer. In the spring of the following year 
 he was given the degree of Doctor by the Univer- 
 sity of St. Andrews, in Scotland, a title by which 
 he was always afterward known. He visited this 
 university also, and was welcomed with great 
 honor and respect. 
 
 In his lodgings in London he set up his electrical 
 apparatus and entertained his hosts of friends with 
 his famous experiments. His machine for generat- 
 ing electricity was the best and most powerful then 
 in existence, and is said to have been capable of 
 producing a spark nine inches long. 
 
 At some of the later gatherings at his lodgings 
 he exhibited a musical instrument called the 
 armonica, which he had practically invented him- 
 self, and on which he played very creditably. It 
 was made of a number of half spheres of glass 
 tuned to the different notes of the piano. They 
 were set revolving by means of a wheel and a 
 pedal. The player sat before them and produced
 
 Ii8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the notes by placing his moistened fingers on the 
 revolving rims. The idea was suggested to Frank- 
 lin by seeing a friend of his produce a musical 
 tone by rubbing his finger around the edge of a 
 glass bowl. 
 
 Before he had even thought of perfecting the 
 armonica, he was quite a good performer on the 
 guitar, the harp, and the violin; and there is 
 some reason to believe that he even tried his hand 
 at composing music himself. 
 
 Of his writings during this period, probably the 
 most famous was a pamphlet which he wrote shortly 
 after General Wolfe's daring capture of Quebec 
 from the French. The question arose whether 
 England should retain Canada or the so-called 
 Sugar Islands of Guadeloupe as a part of the terms 
 of peace. Franklin's pamphlet was called "The 
 Interest of Great Britain Considered, with regard 
 to her Colonies, and the acquisitions of Canada 
 and Guadeloupe." He was in favor of the English 
 retaining Canada, and the sound arguments which 
 he advanced are said to have influenced the govern- 
 ment when it finally decided his way. 
 
 Mention has already been made of his experi- 
 ments with the thermometer at Cambridge. The 
 perfection of this instrument had interested scien- 
 tists everywhere in the question of heat; and
 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND 119 
 
 during his residence in England Franklin attempted 
 many experiments to test the effect of heat upon 
 different colors as well as upon woolens and other 
 materials for clothing. One of these he describes 
 very interestingly in a letter to a friend. 
 
 "I took," he says, "a number of little square pieces of 
 broadcloth from a tailor's pattern-card, of various colors. 
 There were black, deep blue, lighter blue, green, purple, 
 red, yellow, white, and other colors, or shades of colors. 
 I laid them all out upon the snow in a bright sunshiny morn- 
 ing. In a few hours (I cannot now be exact as to the time) 
 the black, being warmed most by the sun, was sunk so low 
 as to be below the stroke of the sun's rays ; the dark blue 
 almost as low, the lighter blue not quite so much as the dark, 
 the other colors less as they were lighter; and the quite 
 white remained on the surface of the snow, not having 
 entered it at all. . . . May we not learn from hence, that 
 black clothes are not so fit to wear hi a hot sunny climate 
 or season, as white ones?" 
 
 This principle is well established to-day, and 
 recognized by every one when having clothes made 
 for hot or cold weather; but Franklin was the 
 first to discover it, and suggest its usefulness to 
 the world. 
 
 With his victory over the proprietaries, his 
 work abroad was practically ended. He remained 
 about a year and a half longer, however, taking 
 care of some unimportant matters for the colony
 
 120 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 and visiting his countless acquaintances and friends. 
 Before he finally left, two events took place which 
 were the cause of much pleasure and satisfaction, 
 both to himself and to his son. Oxford, the oldest 
 and most famous university in England, following 
 the example of St. Andrews, presented him with 
 the degree of Doctor, in recognition of his services 
 to science and philosophy; and shortly after, 
 through the influence of some of his powerful 
 friends, the important post of governor of New 
 Jersey was granted to his son. 
 
 Loaded down with these additional honors, 
 Franklin set sail for home the last of August, 1762, 
 and reached Philadelphia in the autumn of the 
 same year.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 THE PAXTON MASSACRE 
 
 PEACE between England and France was for- 
 mally declared on February 10, 1763. So far 
 as the two countries were concerned this ended 
 the French and Indian War, but it did not end the 
 troubles with the Indians themselves. All along 
 the outlying settlements, from Niagara to Florida, 
 the savages continued to burn villages, murder 
 families, and lay waste farms and homes. 
 
 Pennsylvania suffered more than other colonies. 
 From the early spring of 1763 to the following 
 winter all the western part of the province was 
 overrun by Indians. 
 
 Among some of the people living in that region 
 it was the opinion that the trouble was caused 
 by the Quakers' policy of making friends with 
 the savages. The idea spread rapidly; and by 
 December the anger of the settlers along the 
 western frontier had been roused to fever heat. 
 
 Near the town of Lancaster there was a small 
 village of Indians, the remnant of one of the tribes 
 
 121
 
 122 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 which had made the original treaty with William 
 Penn. They did not belong to hostile bands, but 
 had always lived peaceable lives, and had remained 
 friendly with the whites. On December 14 a 
 party of heavily armed horsemen from the neigh- 
 boring district of Paxton descended upon the little 
 Indian village at dawn, killed and scalped every 
 Indian in it, and burned the place to the ground. 
 It chanced that about fourteen of the inhabitants 
 escaped. These were hastily gathered together 
 by the magistrates of the surrounding country 
 and placed in the workhouse in Lancaster for 
 safe keeping. Two weeks later the same band of 
 horsemen rode into Lancaster, forced their way 
 into the workhouse, and massacred these Indians 
 with even more brutality than they had shown 
 toward the others. 
 
 Franklin, aroused by the atrocity, wrote a strong 
 pamphlet denouncing the act. Many sided with 
 him, but the general feeling appeared to be in favor 
 of the settlers ; and all efforts to arrest the band of 
 horsemen proved fruitless. 
 
 While the deed was still fresh in people's minds, 
 a party of friendly Indians, one hundred and forty- 
 five in number, were brought to Philadelphia by a 
 Moravian missionary, and lodged there for safety. 
 The news was sent to the Paxton district ; and a
 
 THE PAXTON MASSACRE 123 
 
 band of several hundred, armed with hatchets and 
 rifles, set out for Philadelphia. The city was 
 terror-stricken. John Penn, the son of one of the 
 proprietaries, was the newly appointed governor. 
 He had been in the country only a few months 
 and felt himself incapable of coping with the situa- 
 tion. Like the governors before him, he turned 
 to Franklin for help, and even made his headquarters 
 in the latter's house. 
 
 Following his method of a few years before, 
 Franklin again formed an association for defense, 
 and managed to raise a regiment of a thousand men. 
 
 Meanwhile the Paxton party had arrived at 
 Germantown, only a few miles from the city. 
 There was a hurried consultation between the 
 governor and his council, at the end of which 
 Franklin and three other citizens rode out to meet 
 the invaders and try to placate them. The regi- 
 ment, ready to march at any moment, remained 
 drawn up in the city. The barracks where the 
 Indians had been sent was closely guarded. Every 
 instant the city expected to be attacked. In the 
 mean time, however, Franklin had succeeded in 
 his mission. He not only convinced the leaders 
 of the Paxtons that the Indians were too well 
 protected to be taken, but actually persuaded 
 them to give up their expedition and turn back.
 
 124 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Practically alone, he had saved the city from 
 invasion and riot; but there were those who 
 believed that the Paxton band were right in wish- 
 ing to kill off the Indians, and, as Franklin himself 
 says, "I became a less man than ever; for I had, 
 by this transaction, made myself many enemies 
 among the populace." 
 
 He might also have added that he had made 
 enemies among the richer classes, including the 
 governor's party, and even the governor himself; 
 for Penn, instead of being grateful to Franklin 
 for his timely assistance, now openly sided with 
 those who favored the massacre of the Indians at 
 Lancaster, and refused absolutely to take Franklin's 
 advice and order the arrest of the Paxton band. 
 So, through his desire for justice, and his friendship 
 for the inoffensive and friendly Indians, Franklin 
 found a strong party arrayed against him; but 
 his friends were still in power in the Assembly; 
 and when they met for the regular session, early 
 in 1764, they were ready for the struggle which 
 was about to take place. As usual the trouble 
 arose over certain laws to which the governor 
 would not give his consent; one, drawn up by 
 Franklin himself, granted to the militia regiments of 
 the colony the right to vote for their own officers, 
 instead of allowing the governor to appoint them,
 
 THE PAXTON MASSACRE 125 
 
 as had previously been the case; another, an act 
 to raise money for defense, brought up once more 
 the disputed question of taxing the proprietaries' 
 estates. The law, as passed by the Assembly, 
 taxed the Penns' lands equally with others, but 
 the governor, in spite of the king's decision to the 
 contrary, insisted that they should be taxed at 
 a lower rate, and refused to sign the act. 
 
 After a heated debate the Assembly decided to 
 consult the people as to whether they should not 
 petition the king to remove the proprietaries and 
 make Pennsylvania a royal province. They ad- 
 journed on March 20, and during the next seven 
 weeks meetings were held, the question was dis- 
 cussed, and numerous petitions were signed all over 
 the colony. When the Assembly met again on 
 May 14, there were three thousand names in favor 
 of a change of government, and only three hundred 
 in favor of the Penns. The Assembly immediately 
 passed a resolution to appeal to the king to resume 
 the government of the province in his own name, 
 and shortly after it adjourned. 
 
 In those days the members of the Assembly 
 were elected for one year only, the election occur- 
 ring on the first of October. All that summer the 
 feeling between Franklin's party and that opposing 
 him ran high. Every one knew that the point at
 
 126 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 issue was whether proprietary rule should end 
 or not; and Franklin's strong leaning toward 
 converting Pennsylvania into a royal province, 
 together with his defense of the Indians, made 
 Governor Penn and his side very bitter against 
 him. Franklin and a man named Galloway were 
 the candidates named to represent the city on 
 what was called "the Old Ticket." 
 
 On Election Day the voting place was opened 
 at nine in the morning, and the steps leading to it 
 were so crowded with voters that it took each of 
 them a quarter of an hour to reach the voting place. 
 The voting continued all day and well into the 
 night. By three o'clock the next morning "the 
 New Ticket" men, the party opposing Franklin, 
 suggested that the polls be closed. Franklin's 
 party objected, as they had many old and crippled 
 voters who were not able to stand in the crowd 
 and were just then being brought up in chairs and 
 stretchers to vote. These men, about two hundred 
 in all, voted between three and six o'clock in the 
 morning. Meanwhile the other side, taking alarm, 
 had sent horsemen and footmen to Germantown 
 and other near-by towns to gather voters of their 
 own ; and by nine o'clock these began to pour in. 
 The voting did not end until three in the after- 
 noon, at which time the New Ticket party had
 
 THE PAXTON MASSACRE 127 
 
 succeeded in procuring five hundred additional 
 votes ; and Franklin and Galloway were defeated 
 by the narrow margin of twenty-five. 
 
 It was the first and only time in his life that 
 Franklin ever failed to win a public office, and in 
 this instance it was perhaps very fortunate that 
 he did fail ; for his party, again in control of the 
 Assembly, immediately appointed him to act as 
 their agent in England, and present to the king 
 their petition asking for a change of government. 
 
 On November 7, 1764, Franklin left Philadel- 
 phia. Three hundred citizens on horseback es- 
 corted him to Chester, on the Delaware River, where 
 his ship was awaiting him. 
 
 There, with cheers and good wishes ringing in 
 his ears, he set sail. A month later he reached 
 London and at once took up his old lodgings in 
 Craven Street. When the news of his safe arrival 
 was learned in Philadelphia, his friends made it 
 an occasion for festivities; and the church bells 
 were rung until nearly midnight.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 
 
 So far as the petition to the king was concerned, 
 Franklin was never able to accomplish anything. 
 In the ten years between 1765 and 1775, when the 
 troubles which resulted in the Revolution reached a 
 climax, he tried at various times to get the govern- 
 ment to take the matter up, but so many other im- 
 portant things relating to all the colonies were then 
 stirring the people that the petition sank into 
 insignificance. 
 
 He had been in England only a few weeks when 
 the famous Stamp Act came before Parliament. 
 This Stamp Act was a law which forced the colonists 
 to pay a tax directly to the English government. 
 The tax was to be placed on all legal documents, 
 newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements, and even 
 almanacs. Stamps were used, and were pasted on 
 the paper taxed ; hence the name of the Stamp Act. 
 
 Until then the colonies had been allowed to pass 
 their own laws as to taxation, and to use the money 
 so raised for their own purposes. This was the 
 
 128
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 129 
 
 first time that the English government had inter- 
 fered ; and as none of the colonies was represented 
 in Parliament, the indignation of the people was 
 immediately roused. 
 
 Before the passage of the law, Franklin and 
 agents in London for other colonies did their ut- 
 most to persuade the head of the party in power, 
 Mr. Grenville and his friends, to withdraw the 
 act. Franklin was particularly strong in his argu- 
 ments, although neither he nor the other agents 
 nor any one in England, for that matter foresaw 
 the troubles that would result. In spite of his 
 protests the law was passed ; and Grenville, hop- 
 ing to please the people in Pennsylvania, asked 
 Franklin to name some honest and responsible 
 man as the officer to distribute the stamps and 
 receive the tax hi that province. Franklin sug- 
 gested John Hughes, a merchant of Philadelphia, 
 a member of the Assembly, and one of his intimate 
 friends. 
 
 Hughes was appointed. Unaware of the rising 
 storm in America, Franklin thought he had con- 
 ferred an honor upon his old acquaintance; but 
 when, in July of 1765, the news of the people's 
 indignation and wrath began to reach London, he 
 realized that he had made Hughes one of the most 
 detested men in the whole colony.
 
 130 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 From the very first the colonists determined to 
 oppose the tax. At every meeting held throughout 
 the country resolutions were passed to that effect, 
 and the people pledged themselves to buy no more 
 goods made in England, to try to grow their own 
 wool, and to wear only the clothes which they them- 
 selves could make. When the document appoint- 
 ing Hughes arrived, the people turned on him. He 
 was shunned by every one ; both he and his house 
 were threatened with attack ; and rather than run 
 the risk of being mobbed and having his property 
 destroyed, he resigned his position. 
 
 Even Franklin himself did not escape public 
 disapproval. The bells, which had announced 
 his arrival in England, were muffled and tolled dis- 
 mally, to show how deeply the people were incensed. 
 They even called him a traitor and a turncoat. 
 His enemies, seizing the opportunity to arouse 
 sentiment against him, had pamphlets and carica- 
 tures, representing him as unfaithful to his trust, 
 printed and circulated. There was even a time 
 when the new house on Market Street, which his 
 wife had had built during his absence, was in danger 
 of being raided by the angry mob. 
 
 From the instant the news of the colonists' 
 determination to fight the tax reached his ears, 
 until Parliament opened in December, Franklin
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 131 
 
 bent every energy toward getting the Stamp Act 
 repealed. He succeeded so well that Parliament 
 itself decided that the true state of affairs in 
 America should be looked into ; and for six weeks 
 the members heard evidence and examined wit- 
 nesses relating to the colonies and their grievances. 
 
 Franklin was one of the principal and most 
 important witnesses. His knowledge of facts, 
 and his experience as a member of the Pennsylvania 
 Assembly, gave his statements the force of truth, 
 while his native wit and humor enabled him con- 
 stantly to turn the tables on the men opposing 
 him. As an acquaintance, the Rev. George 
 Whitefield, wrote of him: "Our worthy friend, 
 Dr. Franklin, has gained immortal honor by his 
 behavior. . . . The answer was always found 
 equal if not superior to the questioner. He stood 
 unappalled, gave pleasure to his friends, and did 
 honor to his country." 
 
 The immediate result of his examination was the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act, which took place a few 
 days after the hearing of witnesses was closed. 
 Franklin's delight at the happy outcome of the 
 matter was unbounded. Although he may have 
 appeared to submit to the act in the beginning, it 
 was through his perseverance and courage that 
 the law was abolished ; and when the news of his
 
 132 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 success reached America, he was again hailed as 
 the hero of the colonies. Even his old enemies in 
 Philadelphia forgot their grudges and assisted in 
 celebrating his victory. Governor Penn and the 
 mayor of Philadelphia gave a party for three hun- 
 dred gentlemen at the State House, at which they 
 drank his health and sang his praises. The city 
 was illuminated in his honor ; and on the occasion 
 of the king's birthday a great banquet was given 
 on the banks of the Schuylkill River, followed 
 by a procession in which the principal object was 
 a huge barge named FRANKLIN. 
 
 With his work satisfactorily ended, he sent in 
 his resignation as agent to the Assembly, and asked 
 their leave to return to Philadelphia; but they 
 refused to allow him to give up his position, and 
 immediately appointed him to serve for another 
 year. 
 
 The joy of the Americans, however, was short- 
 lived. Scarcely more than a year later the Eng- 
 lish government again took up the question of 
 taxing the colonies, and passed the celebrated law 
 which taxed tea and other goods sent to the prov- 
 inces from England. The tax was small, and in 
 itself of little account; but the colonists, still 
 smarting under the sting of the Stamp Act, re- 
 fused to pay it, and declared that they would oppose
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 133 
 
 it to the end. Like the Stamp Act, it was taxation 
 without representation, and entirely unfair and 
 unjust. Riots took place in Boston and else- 
 where. People gave up using tea and all the other 
 articles subject to the tax. 
 
 Franklin, in spite of his previous success, was now 
 powerless to stop the passage of this law. He used 
 every argument that he could think of to persuade 
 the government not to anger the colonists again; 
 but this time the party in power was pledged to 
 put the matter through and would not listen to 
 him. His own opposition to the tax, and the cour- 
 ageous way in which he was ready to meet it, are 
 well expressed in his own words: "I have some 
 little property in America," he writes; "I will 
 freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound to 
 defend my right of giving or refusing the other 
 shilling ; and, after all, if I cannot defend that right, 
 I can retire cheerfully with my little family into 
 the boundless woods of America, which are sure to 
 afford freedom and subsistence to any man who 
 can bait a hook or pull a trigger." These were 
 brave words for a man of sixty-one ! 
 
 Following the custom which he pursued during 
 his previous stay in England, Franklin spent a 
 great part of his summers in traveling. It was dur- 
 ing this summer of 1767, shortly after the new tax
 
 134 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 law had been passed, that he paid his first visit 
 to Paris. Sir John Pringle, the queen's physician, 
 and one of Franklin's closest friends in England, 
 accompanied him. They traveled by post chaise 
 from London to Dover, crossed the English Channel 
 to Calais, and from there journeyed by carriage to 
 Paris. Owing to the fame of his experiments in 
 electricity, his name was well known in France, 
 and he found a hearty welcome awaiting him. He 
 was even introduced at the French Court. 
 
 "We went to Versailles last Sunday," he writes in a 
 letter, "and had the honor to be presented to the king, 
 Louis XV ; he spoke to both of us very graciously and very 
 cheerfully, is a handsome man, has a very lively look, and 
 appears younger than he is. In the evening we were at 
 the Grand Convert where the family sup in public. The 
 table was half a hollow square, the service gold." 
 
 When any of the royal family made a sign that 
 they wished a drink, two attendants came from 
 an inner room, one bearing wine, the other water. 
 Each man drank a little of what he had brought 
 before presenting it to the guest. 
 
 "Their [the diners'] distance from each other," Franklin 
 continues, "was such as that other chairs might have been 
 placed between any two of them. An officer of the court 
 brought us up through the crowd of spectators, and placed 
 Sir John so as to stand between the queen and Madame
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 135 
 
 Victoire. The king talked a good deal to Sir John, asking 
 many questions about our royal family ; and did me too the 
 honor of taking some notice of me." 
 
 No doubt the incident reminded Franklin of an 
 old saying of his father's, who, in his instructions 
 to the boy, frequently repeated the proverb of 
 Solomon, " Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, 
 he shall stand before kings." In Franklin's case 
 the words were literally fulfilled; and before he 
 died he had not only "stood before" George II and 
 George III of England, Louis XV and Louis XVI 
 of France, and Emperor Joseph of Austria, five 
 kings in all, but he had sat down with one, the 
 king of Denmark, to dinner. 
 
 The trip to Paris lasted only a month, but it 
 gave Franklin an insight into French manners and 
 customs which was to be of immense value to him 
 later on. 
 
 On his return to England all hope of averting 
 the trouble between the mother country and the 
 colonies appeared to be at an end, and he was pre- 
 paring to leave for home, when, in the spring of 
 1768, the newly founded colony of Georgia made 
 him her English agent. The next year New Jersey 
 followed the example of Georgia, and in 1770 
 Massachusetts, his native province, honored him 
 in the same way. A young man named Arthur
 
 136 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Lee was appointed by Massachusetts to act as a 
 substitute in case Franklin should be away from 
 London or should return home. 
 
 It was in connection with his appointment as 
 agent for Massachusetts that a very disagreeable 
 incident occurred. As was the custom, he called 
 on Lord Hillsborough, the minister who had charge 
 of American affairs, to announce his appointment 
 and present his commission. Lord Hillsborough 
 insisted that he was not properly appointed. 
 Franklin showed him his commission. Lord Hills- 
 borough refused to recognize it, since it had not 
 been consented to by the governor of Massachu- 
 setts, and he declared that no agent could be elected 
 without the governor's consent. This was some- 
 thing new to Franklin. He asked for his commis- 
 sion, which Lord Hillsborough was still holding ; 
 and when it was returned to him, he begged his Lord- 
 ship's pardon for taking up so much of his time. 
 
 "It is, I believe," he continued, "of no great importance 
 whether the appointment is acknowledged or not, for I have 
 not the least conception that an agent can at present be of 
 any use to any of the colonies. I shall therefore give your 
 Lordship no further trouble." 
 
 Franklin withdrew, knowing that his last chance 
 of getting the colonists' grievances before the govern- 
 ment had been taken away. Refused recognition
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 137 
 
 as agent, there was nothing he could do except 
 write pamphlets and articles for the papers, in the 
 hope that the English people themselves might be 
 led to see the unfair way in which the colonies 
 were being treated ; but they appear to have taken 
 very little interest in the dispute, and his labors were 
 wasted. It was at this time that he first began 
 to realize what the outcome of the quarrel would 
 be; and in a letter written to the Assembly of 
 Massachusetts, in May, 1771, he foretells the revolt 
 of the colonies and their final break with England. 
 In this year a curious incident took place. A 
 bookseller with whom Franklin dealt sent word 
 that he had a collection of books which he thought 
 might interest him. Franklin found that the books 
 were thirty volumes of bound pamphlets, printed 
 in 1715. Each volume had notes and comments 
 written by a previous owner on the margins of 
 the pages. Something familiar in the penmanship 
 caught his eye ; and on examining it closer he dis- 
 covered that it was the handwriting of his Uncle 
 Benjamin, the favorite uncle of his boyhood. The 
 books had evidently belonged to this uncle and had 
 been sold by him when he went to live in Boston, 
 fifty-six years before. "The oddity," says Frank- 
 lin, "is that the bookseller, who could suspect 
 nothing of any relation between me and the col-
 
 138 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 lector, should happen to make me the offer of 
 them." Needless to say Franklin purchased the 
 books. 
 
 Among his important discoveries of this period 
 was the fact that repeated breathing of the atmos- 
 phere poisons it. He proved this by breathing 
 through a tube into a deep glass mug, and then 
 putting a lighted candle into the mug. The candle 
 was instantly extinguished, and could not be made 
 to burn in the mug until the bad air had been puri- 
 fied. From this experiment he drew the conclusion, 
 now so well known to all, that fresh air was necessary 
 for the preservation of health. He was one of the 
 first to condemn the practice of sleeping in rooms 
 with closed windows, and insisted on having bed- 
 rooms, sick rooms, and especially hospitals, prop- 
 erly ventilated. 
 
 In the world of science and learning Franklin 
 was now, as he had been for years past, in the 
 foremost rank. He was a valued member of nearly 
 every learned association and club in all Europe. 
 He was a manager of the Royal Society, and presi- 
 dent of the recently-founded American Philo- 
 sophical Society. He was one of the few foreign 
 members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 
 France. His writings on philosophical and scien- 
 tific subjects were read everywhere. Already
 
 FRANKLIN THE AGENT 139 
 
 three editions of his works had been published in 
 Paris, and in 1773 a new edition of them came out 
 in England. 
 
 He was the one American who had won recog- 
 nition and an enviable name for himself in Europe 
 the only man, probably, who might have healed 
 the breach between England and the colonies. 
 Yet, in spite of his fame and his world-wide repu- 
 tation for clear-headed intelligence and common 
 sense, the English government paid no heed to 
 his warnings; and, as the storm gathered and 
 broke, he was among the first to feel its brunt.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 
 
 TOWARD the end of 1772, while talking to a 
 member of Parliament about the situation in 
 America, Franklin happened to remark that all 
 of the offensive acts and measures which had been 
 passed against the colonies had originated in Eng- 
 land. The member of Parliament denied this, 
 declaring that many of them had been inspired 
 and even demanded by some of the leading Amer- 
 icans themselves. When Franklin doubted the 
 truth of such a statement, his friend offered to 
 give him absolute proof. 
 
 A few days later he put in Franklin's hands a 
 packet of letters written by Thomas Hutchinson, 
 who was then governor of Massachusetts, and by 
 other men of prominence in New England, to Wil- 
 liam Whately, a member of Parliament who had 
 lately died. There were thirteen letters in all, 
 and they had evidently been handed about and 
 read by many persons, for when Franklin received 
 them they were much soiled and torn. They were 
 
 140
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 141 
 
 not private letters in any sense, but had been 
 written for the express purpose of being shown in 
 public. Franklin read them through in amaze- 
 ment. What the member of Parliament had told 
 him was true. Hutchinson and other men had 
 grossly misstated the colonists' side of the question, 
 and had not only grossly misrepresented the col- 
 onists' contentions, but had suggested the means 
 by which those contentions could be set at naught. 
 They had even asked for the quartering of troops 
 in Boston to enforce obedience to the new laws, an 
 act which had roused the fury of Massachusetts, 
 and which later was one of the principal causes for 
 that colony's joining in the Revolutionary War. 
 
 Realizing the importance of letting the Mas- 
 sachusetts Assembly know the contents of these 
 letters, Franklin asked permission to copy them. 
 The member of Parliament would not consent to 
 that, but gave Franklin leave to send the originals 
 to Boston; and on December 2, 1772, Franklin 
 inclosed them in his batch of official communi- 
 cations. They were read by the members of the 
 Massachusetts Assembly with utter disgust; and 
 in June of the year following, when the Assembly 
 met, a petition was drawn up requesting the king 
 to remove both Governor Hutchinson and Andrew 
 Oliver, his lieutenant governor. This petition was
 
 142 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 sent to Franklin and was forwarded by him to Lord 
 Dartmouth, the man who had succeeded Lord 
 Hillsborough as the minister in charge of American 
 affairs. 
 
 Meanwhile, in spite of Franklin's instructions, 
 the letters had been published in Boston. Copies 
 of them soon found their way to London and were 
 printed in most of the leading newspapers. 
 
 Curiosity was at once aroused as to how the 
 letters had been secured; and Thomas Whately, 
 the brother of William Whately, was immediately 
 suspected. He denied all knowledge of them, and 
 charged John Temple, a former lieutenant gover- 
 nor of New Hampshire, with having stolen them. 
 There was some reason for this charge. Upon his 
 death William Whately had left all his letters and 
 communications to his brother Thomas; and on 
 several occasions the latter had allowed Temple to 
 go over them. It was proved later, however, that 
 Temple was innocent, and knew no more about 
 the letters than Thomas Whately himself. 
 
 Enraged at Whately's accusation, Temple sent 
 him a challenge. Whately accepted it, agreeing 
 to fight the duel without seconds. The two men 
 met at dawn the next morning, December n, 
 1773, m th e Ri Q g f Hyde Park. Temple had a 
 sword and a brace of pistols ; Whately had only a
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 143 
 
 sword. The former suggested starting the duel 
 with the pistols, and offered one to Whately. They 
 fired at each other without any result, and then 
 fell to with their swords. Temple, who had some 
 skill at fencing, soon discovered that Whately knew 
 nothing about the use of his weapon, and tried to 
 stop the duel by wounding his sword arm; but 
 Whately laid about him so wildly that Temple 
 could not deliver his thrust. When he finally did, 
 Whately caught the sword in his left hand; and 
 the blade, instead of killing him, entered his left 
 side, giving him a severe but not a dangerous 
 wound. Whately muttered that he was willing to 
 stop ; but Temple, who was very deaf, did not 
 hear him and stabbed him again. This ended the 
 fight ; and Whately, though twice wounded, was 
 able to stagger to a carriage and be driven home. 
 Rumors of the duel were soon noised about. Tem- 
 ple was accused of giving Whately his second 
 wound after the latter had fallen, and of continu- 
 ing the fight after Whately had asked him to stop. 
 Temple defended himself by publishing a long de- 
 scription of the duel in one of the leading news- 
 papers, in which he excused his conduct on the 
 ground of his deafness, and again solemnly denied 
 the charge that he had taken the letters, or knew 
 anything about them.
 
 144 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 This account was the first intimation that Frank- 
 lin had of the affair. He had been visiting in the 
 country during the quarrel between Temple and 
 Whately, and had returned to London only after 
 the duel had been fought. He immediately wrote 
 a letter to the newspapers explaining that neither 
 Whately nor Temple had had anything to do with 
 taking the letters, since they had never been in 
 either man's possession, and admitting frankly that 
 he himself had procured them and sent them to 
 Boston. Who had given them to him, and how 
 they had been obtained, he refused to tell ; and to 
 this day the name of the member of Parliament 
 who turned them over to him has never been 
 discovered. 
 
 He believed that his explanation had ended the 
 matter; but the party in power, who had come 
 to fear him, now saw a chance to disgrace him, and 
 they made the most of it. His letter had appeared 
 on December 26, 1773. On January 8, 1774, two 
 weeks later, he received notice that the Committee 
 for Plantation Affairs would, on the Tuesday fol- 
 lowing, consider the petition from Massachusetts 
 asking for the removal of the governor and the 
 lieutenant governor. The matter had been put 
 aside for so long that Franklin grew suspicious at 
 this sudden revival of it, and when he attended
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 145 
 
 the meeting he found that his suspicions were only 
 too well founded. Governor Hutchinson and 
 Oliver had, through their agent, employed Alex- 
 ander Wedderburn, a grasping and unprincipled 
 lawyer, to represent them. The proceedings had 
 scarcely begun before the question of the letters 
 was brought up, and Wedderburn stated to the 
 Committee that he proposed to find out how the 
 Massachusetts Assembly came into possession of 
 them, and through whose hands. Realizing the 
 trap which had been set for him, Franklin asked 
 that the matter be adjourned until he could engage 
 a lawyer to defend his side. The Committee 
 granted him three weeks. 
 
 On January 29, 1774, the Committee met again 
 in a building called the Cockpit. The room where 
 the hearing was held was about the size of an or- 
 dinary parlor, with an open fireplace at one end, and 
 a long table running the length of the room at 
 which the members of the Committee sat. Every- 
 one else had to stand. 
 
 Franklin had engaged the services of John Dun- 
 ning, one of the leading lawyers of England, and, 
 leaving the case entirely in his attorney's hands, 
 chose a position beside the fireplace, where he 
 remained during the whole meeting. "He stood," 
 writes one who was present, " conspicuously erect, 
 L
 
 146 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 without the smallest movement of any part of his 
 body. The muscles of his face had been previously 
 composed, so as to afford a placid, tranquil expres- 
 sion of countenance, and he did not suffer the 
 slightest alteration of it to appear." 
 
 The room was crowded. There were present 
 no less than thirty-five members of the King's 
 Privy Council, besides hosts of Americans and 
 friends of Franklin. The proceedings were opened 
 by the Clerk of the Committee, who first read the 
 petition, then the resolutions of the Massachusetts 
 Assembly upon which the petition had been drawn, 
 and finally the famous letters themselves. 
 
 Mr. Dunning spoke briefly, but eloquently, in 
 favor of the petition. Then Wedderburn began. 
 For fifteen minutes he praised Governor Hutch- 
 inson and what he had done for Massachusetts; 
 then he turned on Franklin, and not only accused 
 him of causing all the trouble between Hutchinson 
 and the Massachusetts Assembly, but charged 
 him with having stolen the letters, and sending 
 them to Boston in the hope that he might be ap- 
 pointed governor in Hutchinson's place. These 
 false and outrageous statements took up the 
 greater part of his speech, and were greeted by 
 many members of the Committee with bursts 
 of laughter and delight.
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 147 
 
 When Wedderburn had finished, Mr. Dunning 
 replied to him, but he had been standing three 
 hours and was quite worn out; his voice was 
 hardly more than a whisper. Besides, nothing 
 that he could say would have helped. The Com- 
 mittee had probably decided against the petition 
 before the meeting; and when they issued their 
 report they laid great stress upon the fact that the 
 letters had been "surreptitiously obtained," and 
 contained nothing unworthy of the men who had 
 written them. They refused absolutely to remove 
 either Hutchinson or Oliver, or to grant any other 
 of the Assembly's requests. Smarting under Wed- 
 derburn's insults, but with his conscience clear 
 and his face calm, Franklin left the room and 
 returned to his lodgings. This was on Saturday; 
 on the following Monday he received official notice 
 that he was dismissed as deputy postmaster-gen- 
 eral of America. No reasons were given, but he 
 knew only too well that the government had taken 
 this means of showing him that its triumph was 
 complete. 
 
 Wedderburn may have succeeded in injuring 
 him in the eyes of the English, but he had made 
 him a hero and a martyr in the eyes of the colonists ; 
 and when the news reached Philadelphia the ef- 
 figies of Hutchinson and Wedderburn were carried
 
 148 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 by a hooting mob through the streets and burnt, 
 while everywhere people pledged themselves to 
 send their letters by private messengers and make 
 no more use of the public mails. 
 
 There remained little for Franklin to do in 
 London. He was a discredited man with those 
 in power; some of the hostile newspapers even 
 demanded his arrest. His own particular friends, 
 however, stood by him faithfully; and he went 
 about in their society and attended the meetings 
 of the Royal Society and his other clubs very 
 much as he had done before. Realizing that he 
 could be of no more use to the colonies, he once 
 more set about making his preparations to return 
 home, and was almost ready to sail when the news 
 of the gathering of the first American Congress 
 reached London. This Congress was composed of 
 men from all the thirteen colonies, and had been 
 formed to protest against the stand of the English 
 government. Franklin's friends in England and 
 America advised him to put off his departure until 
 Congress had met, since he might be able to aid 
 them in London. He agreed, risking the very 
 real danger of arrest rather than lose a last chance 
 to heal the breach between the two countries ; but 
 his sacrifice was useless. The petition which 
 Congress finally sent was presented by him and
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 149 
 
 two other colonial agents, and was refused without 
 a hearing. 
 
 While he was waiting for news of the fate of the 
 petition, several men of prominence in London, 
 among whom were Lord Howe and a member of 
 Parliament named David Barclay, approached 
 him secretly on the subject of effecting a reconcil- 
 iation between the colonies and England, and sug- 
 gested that Franklin should draw up a list of propo- 
 sitions to which the colonists would agree. He 
 was assured that the party in power was disposed 
 to listen to any reasonable demands. 
 
 Franklin drew up the list, but was told that the 
 government would not consent to some of its 
 provisions. He drew up another, and still another, 
 finally pledging himself to pay out of his own 
 pocket for the tea destroyed at the "Boston Tea 
 Party" ; but objections were raised to all of them, 
 and at last, when the party in power found that it 
 could not make him back down in his demands, it 
 tried to bribe him by offering him a "proper con- 
 sideration" for his services, and giving him a 
 solemn promise of "subsequent rewards." He 
 refused the offer indignantly, and the secret 
 negotiations between him and the government 
 came to an end. 
 
 The presentation of the petition from Congress
 
 150 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 was Franklin's last official act in England. Shortly 
 after it had been dismissed, he received the sad 
 news of his wife's death in Philadelphia; and a 
 month or so later, still firm in his belief that his 
 arrest had been ordered, he slipped quietly out of 
 London and proceeded cautiously to Portsmouth, 
 where, on March 21, 1775, he set sail for home. 
 
 An incident which happened during his last days 
 in England serves to show how deeply he felt for 
 the colonies in their troubles, and how eager he was 
 to use every means possible to put them before the 
 English in their right light. 
 
 While visiting at a nobleman's house the talk 
 turned to the subject of fables. Some one re- 
 marked that the day of fables was past, and that 
 no one could find an animal, bird, or fish, about 
 which he could write a fable with any success. 
 Every one agreed except Franklin, who had re- 
 mained silent during the discussion. One of those 
 present asked his opinion. He replied that he 
 believed the subject was inexhaustible. 
 
 "Can you think of one now?" asked the gentle- 
 man. 
 
 Franklin answered that he could. "If your 
 Lordship will give me a pen, ink, and paper," he 
 continued, "I believe I can furnish you with one 
 in a few minutes."
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 151 
 
 The articles were brought. He retired to a 
 corner of the room and began to write. In a very 
 short time he returned and handed the paper to 
 one of the noblemen. This is what he had written : 
 
 " Once upon a time, an eagle scaling round a farmer's 
 barn, and espying a hare, darted down upon him like a 
 sunbeam, seized him in his claws, and remounted with him 
 in the air. He soon found that he had a creature of more 
 courage and strength than a hare, for which, notwithstand- 
 ing the keenness of his eyesight, he had mistaken a cat. 
 The snarling and scrambling of the prey was very inconven- 
 ient, and, what was worse, she had disengaged herself from 
 his talons, grasped his body with her four limbs, so as to 
 stop his breath, and seized fast hold of his throat with her 
 teeth. ' Pray,' said the eagle, ' let go your hold and I will 
 release you.' ' Very fine,' said the cat, ' I have no fancy to 
 fall from this height and be crushed to death. You have 
 taken me up, and you shall stoop and let me down.' The 
 eagle thought it necessary to stoop accordingly." 
 
 The eagle, of course, represented England, the 
 cat, the colonies; and the fable described so 
 correctly the situation between the two countries, 
 that even those who were against him had to admit 
 its justice, and joined in congratulating Franklin 
 heartily on his ingenious performance.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 
 
 ON May 5, 1775, the vessel in which Franklin 
 had crossed the ocean anchored off Philadelphia. 
 He landed in the evening, and went at once to the 
 house in Market Street which his wife had had 
 built for him, but which he had never seen. Here 
 he found his daughter, Sarah Bache, and her 
 husband, Richard Bache, awaiting him. 
 
 His arrival was announced in all the leading 
 newspapers. One of them, the Pennsylvania 
 Packet, made it the occasion for addressing to 
 Franklin the following flattering lines : 
 
 " Welcome ! once more 
 
 To these fair western plains thy native shore. 
 Here live beloved, and leave the tools at home 
 To run their length, and finish out their doom. 
 Here lend thine aid to quench their brutal fires, 
 Or fan the flame which Liberty inspires, 
 Or fix the grand conductor that shall guide 
 The tempest back and 'lectrify their pride. 
 Rewarding Heaven will bless thy cares at last, 
 And future glories glorify the past." 
 152
 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 153 
 
 Not only were the verses overflowing with his 
 praise, but the title also lauded him as " the friend 
 of his country and of mankind." 
 
 Probably the first news that he heard was that 
 of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which 
 had been fought only two weeks before. These 
 battles marked the real beginning of the Revolu- 
 tion ; and everywhere, from New Hampshire to 
 Georgia, the colonies were calling the people to 
 arms. 
 
 Franklin had arrived at an opportune moment, 
 and was immediately drawn into the thick of 
 affairs. On the morning following his return, 
 the Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously resolved 
 that he be "added to the deputies appointed by 
 this House on the part of Pennsylvania, to attend 
 the Continental Congress expected to meet on the 
 loth instant in this city." 
 
 Already the delegates from the different colonies 
 were beginning to pour in for the meeting. The 
 members from South Carolina arrived first, landing 
 from the ship which had brought them from 
 Charleston. The day after, more than five hun- 
 dred citizens went out to meet the delegates from 
 North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Dela- 
 ware, among whom were Patrick Henry and 
 George Washington, and escorted them back to
 
 154 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the city; and the next day the men representing 
 New Jersey, New York, and New England rode 
 into Philadelphia from the north. When the Con- 
 gress finally met, almost all of the sixty-three 
 members were present. 
 
 Franklin's work in this Congress was very much 
 like the work he had done when he was a member 
 of the Assembly. He made few speeches, and drew 
 up virtually none of the important acts and res- 
 olutions ; but in this one session he served on no 
 less than ten committees, and before anything 
 important was decided upon, his counsel was al- 
 ways sought and his advice taken. He was the 
 one man in whose prudence and common sense 
 every one trusted. Indeed, at this time, before 
 Washington, Jefferson, and the other famous 
 patriots and statesmen had come to the front, 
 he was the greatest and best-beloved man in all 
 America; and, curiously enough, was even called 
 the "Father of his Country," a title by which 
 Washington is now universally known. 
 
 One of the first committees upon which Franklin 
 served had been appointed to devise a postal 
 system. The plan which he suggested was ap- 
 proved by Congress, and he was unanimously 
 elected postmaster-general of the colonies. This 
 office carried more power with it, and was of
 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 155 
 
 greater importance, than his old position under 
 the English government; and it was no doubt 
 a source of great satisfaction to him to realize 
 that it had been given him only a year and a half 
 after his uncalled-for dismissal. 
 
 The chiefs of the post office were always allowed 
 to send their letters free of charge, and instead of 
 using stamps they wrote their names on the en- 
 velopes. When acting for the English govern- 
 ment Franklin had inscribed his letters, "Free, 
 B. Franklin." Now, with his usual keen sense 
 of humor, he changed the position of the words, 
 and wrote instead "B free Franklin." 
 
 Besides his numerous duties in Congress, he 
 was also a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, 
 and chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of 
 Safety. Upon this committee rested the task of 
 calling out and drilling the troops, providing 
 ammunition and supplies, and generally preparing 
 the province for defense. So thoroughly did 
 Franklin carry out his work, that before the end 
 of the year the banks of the Delaware River bris- 
 tled with forts and batteries, while a fleet of small 
 gunboats, propelled by oars, guarded the ap- 
 proaches of the city day and night. 
 
 The amount of work which he accomplished in 
 those hot months is almost incredible. "In the
 
 156 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 morning at six," he wrote to Dr. Priestley, an 
 English friend, "I am at the Committee of Safety. 
 . . . which committee holds till near nine, when I 
 am at the Congress, and that sits till four in the 
 afternoon." After that there were countless con- 
 sultations, committee meetings, and discussions 
 of all sorts until bedtime. Yet in spite of these 
 labors and in spite of his age, he was now sixty- 
 nine, he appears to have kept in excellent health 
 and spirits; and when on August i, Congress ad- 
 journed for a few weeks, instead of taking a rest, 
 he paid a visit to his son, William, who was still 
 governor of New Jersey, and lived in Perth Amboy, 
 in that province. 
 
 As it happened, this was the last time that 
 Franklin was ever to visit his son. William 
 Franklin was a strong supporter of the English, and 
 during the few days that his father spent with him, 
 their discussions were many and heated. They 
 parted friends, but soon after William Franklin 
 came out publicly in favor of the king, and became 
 very active in the party opposing the colonists. 
 From that time forth all relations between him and 
 his father were broken off. 
 
 Congress met again on September 13. Bad 
 news awaited the members. Washington, who had 
 been placed in command of the little American
 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 157 
 
 army in New England, sent word that he had 
 neither clothing, money, nor supplies of any kind, 
 and that his men were beginning to leave him. 
 Franklin, Thomas Lynch of South Carolina, and 
 Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, all members of 
 Congress, were appointed by that body to go to 
 Cambridge, where Washington then was, and try 
 to devise some plan for taking care of the army. 
 The three commissioners left Philadelphia on 
 October 4, and arrived in Cambridge thirteen 
 days later. Before starting out Franklin resigned 
 from both the Assembly and the Committee of 
 Safety, giving his advanced age as the reason. 
 He also wrote along letter to Dr. Priestley, in which, 
 in a humorous but very striking way, he showed 
 how little the English had accomplished toward 
 subduing the Americans. "Britain," he said, "at 
 the expense of three millions, has killed one hun- 
 dred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is 
 twenty thousand pounds a head ; and at Bunker's 
 Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of which she 
 lost again by our taking post on Ploughed Hill. 
 During the same time sixty thousand children have 
 been born in America. From these data Dr. 
 Price's mathematical head will easily calculate 
 the time and expense necessary to kill us all, and 
 conquer our whole territory."
 
 158 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The commissioners met Washington and his 
 officers, and sat for four days, during which time 
 the plans for the establishment and support of 
 the army were successfully drawn up and com- 
 pleted. As always, Franklin took a leading part 
 in the arrangements; and many of the most 
 valuable ideas were suggested by him. So, in a 
 measure, he shared in the honor of founding the 
 first regular army in the United States. 
 
 After remaining a few days in the company of 
 Washington, the commissioners journeyed back to 
 Philadelphia, having been gone only six weeks. 
 
 Again bad news awaited them. A royal proc- 
 lamation had been issued in England declaring 
 that the colonies were in a state of rebellion ; and 
 a short time after its appearance Parliament had 
 passed a law called the Prohibitory Act, which 
 sanctioned the killing of the Americans, the de- 
 struction of their property, and all the other acts 
 of violence which had been committed against 
 them both on sea and land. Taken together, 
 these acts amounted to a declaration of war. 
 From the instant he heard of them, Franklin 
 refused to recognize the English government, and 
 was heart and soul in favor of independence for 
 the colonies. Toward the end of the earlier session 
 of Congress, he had submitted a plan for the union
 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 159 
 
 of the states; but the time was not then ripe for 
 so bold a measure, and nothing had come of it. 
 Now he advanced it again, and labored for it 
 incessantly, winning over many of the more 
 lukewarm members by his persistent efforts. 
 
 It was generally realized that the Americans, 
 unaided, would never be able to carry on a success- 
 ful war against England. France and Spain were 
 known to be friendly to the colonies; and late in 
 November of this year, 1775, a committee, of which 
 Franklin was one, was appointed by Congress to 
 send agents to foreign countries and learn their 
 attitudes toward the Americans. This committee 
 was called the Secret Committee ; and on account 
 of his long residence abroad, and the many friends 
 he had made there, Franklin took charge of the 
 greater part of the work. 
 
 He wrote letters to Mr. Dumas, an acquaintance 
 who resided in Holland ; to Arthur Lee, his former 
 assistant as agent for Massachusetts, who was still 
 living in London ; and to Don Gabriel de Bourbon, 
 a Spanish prince, with whom he had once carried 
 on an extensive correspondence on literary matters, 
 asking them all to discover, if possible, how the 
 foreign governments felt toward this country. 
 These letters were given to Thomas Story, a special 
 messenger, who was employed to take them to
 
 160 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 their destination, receive the reports of the gentle- 
 men to whom they were addressed, and return as 
 speedily as he could with their replies. A short 
 time after Monsieur Penet, a French merchant 
 who was on his way home, was intrusted by the 
 committee with a large order for arms, ammuni- 
 tion, and clothing, which he was to have filled in 
 France and shipped back to America. He also 
 took with him a batch of letters from Franklin 
 to some of his French friends, among whom was 
 Dr. Dubourg, the translator of Franklin's works, 
 and a man of prominence in Paris. 
 
 Not satisfied with these first efforts, the Secret 
 Committee soon adopted bolder methods, and 
 early in 1776 began making preparations for send- 
 ing a special agent to France, armed with authority 
 to deal directly with the French government. 
 The man selected to go was Silas Deane, a man 
 who knew a great deal about American affairs. 
 Before he left Franklin gave him a list of instruc- 
 tions, telling him exactly how to proceed in his 
 negotiations. His visit to France was to be kept 
 an absolute secret ; and to insure his dispatches to 
 Congress from being read, he was given a quantity 
 of invisible ink and specially prepared paper, with 
 orders to write ordinary business letters signed 
 "Timothy Jones" on one half of the sheet, while
 
 FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 161 
 
 he reserved the remainder for his real communica- 
 tion, written in the invisible ink. Silas Deane 
 sailed in April and arrived in France in June, long 
 before any news had been heard from Story. 
 
 It was while the preparations for Deane's depar- 
 ture were in progress that sad tidings came of the 
 failure of the Continental Army to capture Quebec. 
 The attempt had been made on December 31, 
 1775. General Montgomery had been killed and 
 General Benedict Arnold had been wounded. 
 
 Remembering what good results had come from 
 sending a committee to Cambridge, Congress 
 resolved to pursue the same methods, and ap- 
 pointed Franklin and two Maryland members, 
 Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll, as commis- 
 sioners, with instructions to proceed at once to 
 Montreal, meet Benedict Arnold, and do every- 
 thing that was possible to insure the safety of the 
 army and the success of the American cause. 
 They were even authorized to treat with Canada 
 and try to persuade the people to join the colonies 
 in their war for independence. 
 
 It was late in March, 1776, when the three com- 
 missioners left Philadelphia, and, accompanied by 
 John Carroll, Charles Carroll's brother, set out on 
 their long and fatiguing journey to the north.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 
 
 AFTER a journey of two days the commissioners 
 reached New York. Here they went on board a 
 sloop which had been awaiting them, and started 
 up the Hudson River for Albany. It took them five 
 days to make the trip. They spent two days in 
 Albany, discussing affairs with General Schuyler 
 and General Thomas, who had charge of the town, 
 and then, escorted by two officers, traveled in a 
 large country wagon to Saratoga, thirty-two miles 
 away. The ride was a very tiresome one, and al- 
 most more than the aged Franklin could stand. 
 
 "At Saratoga," he wrote home, "I begin to apprehend 
 that] I have undertaken a fatigue which, at my time of life, 
 may prove too much for me; so I sit down to write to a 
 few friends by way of farewell." 
 
 A week's rest, however, put him on his feet 
 again, and the commissioners moved on toward 
 the southern end of Lake George. Snow still 
 covered the ground, and the lake was filled with 
 broken ice; but in spite of the difficulties con- 
 
 162
 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 163 
 
 fronting them, they determined to push on as 
 quickly as possible. A batteau, or large scow, 
 about thirty-five feet long, had been prepared for 
 them. In this crude boat they embarked, making 
 the journey up Lake George in thirty-six hours. 
 At the northern end of the lake they were met by 
 five yoke of oxen, which dragged the batteau on 
 wheels across the strip of land separating Lake 
 George from Lake Champlain. 
 
 Northward through Lake Champlain they sailed, 
 arriving at the end of it in three days and 
 a half. Here carriages were awaiting them which 
 took them to Montreal. 
 
 "We were received," says John Carroll, "by General 
 Arnold, and a great body of officers and gentry, and saluted 
 by the firing of cannon and other military honors. Being 
 conducted to the General's house, we were served with a 
 glass of wine; while people were crowding in to pay their 
 compliments ; which ceremony being over, we were shown 
 into another apartment, and, unexpectedly, met in it a 
 large number of ladies, most of them French. After drink- 
 ing tea, and sitting some time, we went to an elegant supper, 
 which was followed with the singing of the ladies, which 
 proved very agreeable, and would have been more so if we 
 had not been so fatigued with our journey." 
 
 The commissioners, however, soon learned that 
 Canada would not join the colonies; even their 
 efforts to borrow money for the cause came to
 
 1 64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 naught. The Canadians had expected that the 
 commissioners would bring money with them to 
 pay for the quartering and provisioning of the 
 army; and when they discovered that this was 
 not the case, they became indifferent and refused 
 to aid the Americans in any way. The commis- 
 sioners reported the state of affairs to Congress; 
 and advised that body that if money could not be 
 raised to support the army in Canada, so that it 
 would be respected instead of hated, the only 
 thing to do was to withdraw it across the border 
 into the colony of New York. 
 
 The report had scarcely been dispatched when a 
 messenger arrived with the news that an English 
 fleet had landed troops at Quebec, and put to rout 
 the remnant of the American army stationed there. 
 A hurried council of war was called, at which the 
 commissioners decided not to wait for instructions 
 from Congress, but to withdraw from Canada at 
 once what remained of the army. 
 
 The following day Franklin and John Carroll 
 left for the south to report to Congress, while the 
 other two commissioners remained behind to 
 oversee the transportation of the troops from 
 Canada to the northern end of Lake Champlain. 
 
 Franklin arrived in Philadelphia in the early 
 part of June. He had done everything in his
 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 165 
 
 power to win Canada over to the American side, 
 and though he had failed, it was through no fault 
 of his, but by reason of circumstances over which 
 he had no control, and for which he was in no way 
 responsible. 
 
 He found a new state of affairs awaiting him in 
 Pennsylvania. Congress had passed a law dis- 
 solving all governing bodies whose authority came 
 from the king. The Assembly, coming under 
 this law, had ceased to exist, and delegates had been 
 elected to confer together and decide upon the 
 proper measures to be taken to form a new state 
 government. Out of the twenty-five delegates 
 chosen from Philadelphia Franklin was one. The 
 conference met on June 18, and in five days' 
 time had drawn up a plan for a convention of citi- 
 zens to be elected by the people, to consist of 
 eight members from Philadelphia, and eight from 
 each county. This convention was to agree 
 upon a constitution under which Pennsylvania 
 would be governed. The election was held; and 
 Franklin was not only elected again, but, when 
 the convention met on July 16, he was unani- 
 mously chosen to act as president of the meeting. 
 
 In the meanwhile, however, a great event had 
 taken place in Congress. During Franklin's ab- 
 sence in Canada the question of formally announcing
 
 166 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the independence of the colonies had been debated 
 with great spirit ; and now nearly all of the mem- 
 bers were in favor of it. A few days after his 
 return, Congress elected by ballot a committee of 
 five to draw up a proper declaration. Franklin 
 was chosen a member of it, the other four being 
 Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, John Adams, 
 and Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 In the actual drafting of the famous Declaration 
 of Independence, Franklin had no share. Jefferson 
 wrote it, and afterward read it to Franklin and 
 Adams for their approval. Neither made any 
 corrections, and it was submitted to Congress 
 virtually as Jefferson had drawn it. 
 
 Here it came in for a great deal of criticism, and 
 parts of it were cut out or revised. Provoked at 
 the way in which his work was being mutilated, 
 Jefferson expressed his annoyance to Franklin, 
 who was sitting beside him. Franklin sympathized 
 with him, and told him that, whenever possible, 
 he avoided drawing papers which were to be re- 
 viewed by a public body. 
 
 "I took my lesson," he continued, "from an incident 
 which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman 
 printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed hatter, having 
 served out his time, was about to open shop for himself. 
 His first concern was to have a handsome signboard,
 
 FRANKLIN TH$ COMMISSIONER 167 
 
 with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words : 
 John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sell Hats for ready money, 
 with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would 
 submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first 
 he showed it to thought the word hatter tautologous, be- 
 cause followed by the words, makes hats, which showed 
 he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed 
 that the word makes might as well be omitted, because his 
 customers would not care who made the hats so long as 
 they were good. . . . He struck it out. A third said he 
 thought the words for ready money were useless, as it was 
 not the custom of the place to sell on credit. . . . They 
 were parted with ; and the inscription now stood : John 
 Thompson sells hats. 'Sells hats?' says his next friend; 
 'why, nobody will expect you to give them away. What, 
 then, is the use of that word?' It was stricken out, and 
 hats followed, as there was one painted on the board. So 
 his inscription was reduced ultimately to John Thompson, 
 with the figure of a hat subjoined." 
 
 The Declaration, with its corrections, was finally 
 approved by Congress. When the time came to 
 sign the document, John Hancock, one of the dele- 
 gates from Massachusetts, declared that it was now 
 too late to pull different ways, and that the mem- 
 bers must all hang together. 
 
 "Yes," said Franklin quickly, "we must, indeed, 
 all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all 
 hang separately!" 
 
 Franklin's work in connection with the great
 
 168 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 document was not of the sort to attract much public 
 attention. He had discussed it with his friends, 
 debated it with members of Congress, fought for it 
 quietly but courageously for months ; and on that 
 memorable Fourth of July, 1776, when it was read 
 to the assembled citizens for the first time, there 
 was no one in all that throng who heard it with a 
 deeper thrill and a greater sense of gratitude than 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Congress employed the remainder of that summer 
 in deciding upon the terms for the union of the 
 newly-founded states. Franklin labored hard over 
 the matter, and many of his suggestions were 
 embodied in the final plan. At the same time he 
 was presiding over the Pennsylvania Convention, 
 and though his work in Congress kept him away 
 from many of the sittings, he was on hand when 
 most of the important debates took place. He was 
 also a member of the committee appointed to de- 
 vise a seal for the United States. Jefferson and 
 John Adams were the other two members. The 
 seal which they finally suggested, however, was of 
 elaborate design, and was not adopted by Congress. 
 
 The days immediately following the reading of 
 the Declaration of Independence were full of stir 
 and excitement. The king's arms were removed 
 from shops, taverns, and government buildings.
 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 169 
 
 The ones in the State House were pulled down be- 
 fore a great crowd of spectators, laid upon a bon- 
 fire of tar barrels, and, with great solemnity, burnt. 
 A steady stream of troops passed through the city 
 on their way to New Brunswick, in New Jersey, 
 the rendezvous of the army. Boatloads of soldiers 
 sailed up the Delaware River toward Trenton and 
 other points north. Scarcely a day passed without 
 some messenger arriving with news from the front. 
 It was toward the middle of July that Congress 
 received the first tidings of the arrival of Lord 
 Howe at Sandy Hook, with a fleet of one hundred 
 and twenty vessels. This was the same Lord 
 Howe with whom Franklin had entered into 
 negotiations in London. His first act was to send 
 on shore a declaration to all the royal governors, 
 announcing that he had been authorized to grant 
 pardons, providing the colonies would give up the 
 independent stand they had taken. The messen- 
 ger who bore this declaration to Congress bore also 
 a personal letter to Franklin, in which Lord Howe 
 asked Franklin's assistance in preserving peace 
 between America and England. Franklin read 
 the letter to Congress. The members instructed 
 him to answer it. He did so, stating that if Lord 
 Howe were ready to treat with the United States 
 as a sovereign country, it might not be too late to
 
 170 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 come to an understanding; but that the Amer- 
 icans would never again submit to being governed 
 by England. 
 
 This letter was delivered to Lord Howe on board 
 his flagship in New York Harbor; and three 
 weeks later he wrote once more to Franklin, 
 assuring him of his friendship and regretting that 
 he could not count on Franklin's aid. To this 
 letter Franklin returned no answer. 
 
 A few weeks later Lord Howe paroled General 
 Sullivan, who had been taken prisoner, and sent 
 him to Congress with a message that he would like 
 to confer with some of the members. He gave his 
 solemn promise that he would regard them as pri- 
 vate gentlemen, and meet them at any place they 
 might appoint. 
 
 After a three days' debate it was finally decided 
 to send Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John 
 Adams as a committee to learn what sort of terms 
 Lord Howe had to propose. Franklin wrote to 
 Lord Howe suggesting either "the governor's 
 house at Amboy, or the house on Staten Island, 
 opposite Amboy," as the place for the meeting. 
 Lord Howe chose the house on Staten Island. 
 
 The committee were two days making the jour- 
 ney to Amboy. The roads were crowded with 
 troops, all marching to join Washington and aid
 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 171 
 
 in the defense of New York. It was difficult for 
 the three men to get food and lodging at the tav- 
 erns along the route. At New Brunswick, where 
 they spent the second night, the inn at which they 
 stopped was so full that Adams and Franklin had 
 to sleep in the same bed. The room was only a 
 little larger than the bed, and had only one small 
 window. Adams closed it. 
 
 "Oh!" said Franklin, "don't shut the window. 
 We shall be suffocated." 
 
 Adams said that he was afraid of the night 
 air. 
 
 "The air within the room," Franklin answered, 
 "will soon be worse than that without doors. 
 Come, open the window and come to bed, and I 
 will convince you. I believe you are not ac- 
 quainted with my theory of colds." 
 
 Adams, obeying, got into bed; and Franklin 
 began a long discourse on air, cold, and breathing, 
 which proved so soothing that Adams fell asleep 
 in the midst of it. Franklin also was asleep long 
 before he had exhausted his subject. 
 
 The next day they arrived at Amboy opposite 
 Staten Island. Here they found that Lord Howe 
 had dispatched a boat to meet them. In the boat 
 was a British officer who had been sent as a hostage 
 to insure their safe return. The committee unan-
 
 172 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 imously agreed that they would trust Lord Howe 
 without a hostage, and invited the officer to go 
 with them in the boat. 
 
 On Staten Island a regiment of Hessian troops 
 had been drawn up to receive them. When Lord 
 Howe saw his officer in the boat, he cried out, 
 
 "Gentlemen, you pay me a very high compli- 
 ment, and you may depend upon it, I will consider 
 it the most sacred of things." 
 
 He shook hands very cordially with Franklin, 
 was introduced to the other gentlemen, and then 
 escorted the party to the old stone mansion where 
 the interview was to take place. 
 
 Refreshments had been prepared in a large room 
 decorated for the occasion with green branches and 
 moss. Here for half an hour they chatted agree- 
 ably, while they ate and drank. When the meal 
 was finished the servants cleared the table, and 
 the formal "interview" began. 
 
 From the beginning it was evident that no 
 agreement could be reached. Lord Howe was 
 authorized to treat with the Americans only as 
 subjects of England. None of the committee 
 would enter into any understanding with Great 
 Britain except as the representatives of an inde- 
 pendent country. On both sides the discussion 
 was conducted with the greatest courtesy and
 
 FRANKLIN THE COMMISSIONER 173 
 
 politeness, but neither party would give in, so the 
 interview ended exactly where it began. 
 
 Lord Howe escorted his guests back to their 
 boat, said good-by to them, and gave orders that 
 they be landed on the New Jersey shore. A few 
 days later the committee presented its report of 
 the interview to Congress, which instructed them 
 to have it published in the newspapers. This was 
 done, and no further notice of it was taken. 
 
 It was some time in September before any news 
 was received from France. Meanwhile, the battle 
 of Long Island had been fought and lost, and New 
 York had fallen. People began to wonder whether 
 the struggle for independence was not doomed. 
 In the midst of this gloom and depression, a letter 
 of many pages arrived from Dr. Dubourg, Frank- 
 lin's friend in Paris. It was addressed to Franklin, 
 but it contained information of such importance 
 that he made haste to present it to Congress. In 
 it Dr. Dubourg not only assured him of his own 
 assistance, but guaranteed the support of France. 
 Already supplies were being bought for the Amer- 
 icans, and measures taken toward the purchase of 
 guns and ammunition. Several of the powerful 
 ministers had been interviewed and had expressed 
 themselves as being in sympathy with the Amer- 
 ican cause.
 
 174 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Thrilled with joy and hope, Congress decided to 
 honor the French nation by sending over a larger 
 and more important embassy, the members of 
 which were to be elected by ballot. The election 
 took place on September 26. On the first vote 
 Franklin was chosen unanimously. Thomas Jef- 
 ferson and Silas Deane received the next highest 
 number of votes ; but on account of the ill health 
 of his wife Jefferson was forced to resign, and 
 Arthur Lee was appointed to fill his place. 
 
 When Franklin was told that he had been 
 elected, he turned to Dr. Rush, who was sitting 
 beside him, and said, 
 
 "I am old and good for nothing; but as the 
 storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, 'I am 
 but a fag end, and you may have me for what you 
 please.' " 
 
 A man of seventy, he had just been elected to 
 fill a difficult post, and the greatest and most 
 important work of his whole life still lay before 
 him.
 
 CHAPTER XVm 
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 
 
 ON October 27, 1776, Franklin, accompanied 
 by his two young grandsons, William Temple 
 Franklin, the son of his son William, and Benjamin 
 Franklin Bache, the son of his daughter, Sarah 
 Bache, sailed from Marcus Hook, a small town on 
 the Delaware River below Philadelphia. The 
 vessel which carried them was the Reprisal, a fast 
 sloop of war belonging to the infant navy of the 
 United States. Captain Wickes commanded her. 
 Franklin and his grandsons went on board secretly, 
 since it was thought best to keep his mission from 
 the knowledge of the British ; and as soon as they 
 had embarked the Reprisal weighed anchor and 
 headed toward the sea. 
 
 One of Franklin's last acts before leaving Phil- 
 adelphia was to lend Congress about twenty thou- 
 sand dollars, all the money he could, at the moment, 
 gather together from his personal fortune. 
 
 The cargo of the Reprisal consisted of fifteen 
 thousand dollars' worth of indigo, which was to 
 
 175
 
 176 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 go toward paying the expenses of the embassy. 
 There was very little ready money in the United 
 States at that time, and the only way Congress 
 had of paying for supplies furnished by France 
 was to give their value in tobacco, indigo, cotton, 
 and merchandise of various kinds. 
 
 During the voyage across the ocean the Reprisal 
 was chased by the enemy's warships several times. 
 The captain beat to quarters and made ready for 
 battle, but his orders were to escape without fight- 
 ing, if possible; and in each case he managed to 
 elude his pursuers. The weather was stormy all 
 the way across, but in spite of rough seas Franklin 
 was able to get the daily temperature of the water, 
 and verify some experiments, made on previous 
 voyages, as to the warmth of the Gulf Stream. 
 
 As they neared the French coast they fell in 
 with some English merchantmen, and, capturing 
 two of them, carried them into port. The Reprisal 
 arrived in Quiberon Bay, on the coast of Brittany, 
 on November 29, and on December 3 Franklin 
 and his grandsons were landed at Auray, a neigh- 
 boring seaport. Franklin was very much fatigued 
 by the voyage, but refused to remain in Auray. A 
 post chaise was procured from Vannes, a town 
 some distance away, and the party pushed on 
 toward the city of Nantes.
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 177 
 
 "The carriage," Franklin says in the little journal which 
 he kept, "was a miserable one, with tired horses, the evening 
 dark, scarce a traveler but ourselves on the road; and to 
 make it more comfortable, the driver stopped near a wood 
 we were to pass through, to tell us that a gang of eighteen 
 robbers infested that wood, who but two weeks ago had 
 robbed and murdered some travelers on that very spot." 
 
 Franklin and his party, however, came through 
 safely, and arrived at Nantes on December 7. 
 This city was one of the great seaports of France. 
 Monsieur Penet, the French merchant whom the 
 Secret Committee had commissioned to buy stores 
 for the Americans, lived there, and had already 
 begun to ship supplies to the United States. 
 
 Franklin remained in Nantes several days, rest- 
 ing, and receiving hosts of friends and visitors. 
 Then, thoroughly recovered from his fatigue, he 
 continued his journey to Paris, where he arrived 
 on December 21. 
 
 The enthusiasm with which the French people 
 greeted him was truly remarkable. No doubt it 
 was due in part to his fame as a scientist, and to 
 his "Poor Richard's" sayings, which had already 
 been translated three times into French ; but his 
 own personality and charm, together with the 
 mystery surrounding his mission, and the general 
 feeling of sympathy toward the young American 
 nation, added greatly to his reputation; and
 
 178 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 within a very short time he became the best-known 
 and most popular man in the whole of France. 
 This enviable reputation he retained during the 
 entire period of his residence in that country. 
 
 "His name," says John Adams, when writing about him a 
 few years later, "was familiar to government and people, 
 to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as 
 well as plebeians, to such a degree that there was scarcely 
 a peasant or a citizen, a valet-de-chambre, coachman or 
 footman, a lady's chambermaid, or a scullion in a kitchen, 
 who was not familiar with it, and who did not consider him 
 a friend to human kind." 
 
 V 
 
 Honors were showered upon him everywhere. 
 When he passed through the streets to any public 
 function, crowds welcomed him with acclamations. 
 He was received in the best houses, entertained by 
 the nobility, and visited by the most prominent 
 statesmen, scientists, and writers of the day. 
 
 Portraits, medallions, medals, engravings, and 
 busts to the number of a hundred and more were 
 made of him. There was not a print shop in 
 France that did not have his picture on view. In 
 a letter to his daughter, Mrs. Bache, written in 
 1779, three years after his arrival in Paris, he 
 alludes humorously to this fact. 
 
 After describing a certain medallion about which she had 
 inquired, he goes on: "A variety of others have been made
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 179 
 
 since of different sizes ; some to be set in the lids of snuff- 
 boxes, and some so small as to be worn in rings; and the 
 numbers sold are incredible. These, with the pictures, 
 busts, and prints (of which copies upon copies are spread 
 everywhere) , have made your father's face as well known as 
 that of the moon, so that he durst not do anything that would 
 oblige him to run away, as his phiz would discover him 
 wherever he should venture to show it. It is said by learned 
 etymologists, that the name doll, for the images children 
 play with, is derived from the word IDOL. From the 
 number of dolls now made of him, he may be said, in that 
 sense, to be i-doll-ized in this country." 
 
 Five days after Franklin's arrival in Paris, he, 
 with Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, the other mem- 
 bers of the embassy who had joined him there, was 
 formally presented to the Count de Vergennes, 
 French minister for foreign affairs. Deane had 
 already had numerous interviews with the count, 
 and had received his assurances of the good will of 
 the French government; but as yet France did 
 not feel that she could help the United States 
 openly, and all the supplies which had already 
 been sent to America had been shipped quietly 
 and as though coming from private parties and 
 not from the government itself. Lord Stormont, 
 the English ambassador to France, had been very 
 active in trying to stop the ships from sailing, and 
 had even complained to the French government.
 
 i8o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Under these circumstances the Count de Ver- 
 gennes had to move cautiously; and when the 
 American envoys presented their commission and 
 asked France to lend America eight ships of the 
 line to strengthen her small navy, he could only 
 repeat his assurance of France's friendship, and 
 give vague promises of assistance. A few days 
 later, however, when the envoys' requests had been 
 submitted to him in writing, the count told them 
 that the government would lend the United States 
 two million francs, four hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, without interest, providing the transaction 
 was kept a secret. 
 
 The envoys joyfully accepted the offer, and in 
 January, 1777, sent the first instalment of five 
 hundred thousand francs to Congress. 
 
 Franklin spent his first few weeks in France with 
 Silas Deane in Paris, but the noise and bustle of 
 the city, together with the constant flow of visitors, 
 tired him greatly; so when Monsieur de Chau- 
 mont, a wealthy Frenchman, and a stanch supporter 
 of the American cause, urged him to occupy a part 
 of his large house in the neighboring village of 
 Passy, Franklin accepted gratefully. It was in 
 this house, only two miles from Paris, that Frank- 
 lin lived during the remainder of his stay in France. 
 Monsieur de Chaumont refused absolutely to allow
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 181 
 
 him to pay any rent, saying that, when the war 
 was over, if Congress wished to compensate him, 
 it might grant him a piece of the land in the great 
 country which he had helped to set free. 
 
 Franklin sent his younger grandson, Benjamin 
 Franklin Bache, a boy of eight years, to school in 
 the neighborhood. It had been his intention to 
 have William Temple Franklin, who was then 
 eighteen, study law; but the stress of work was 
 too great for Franklin to do alone, and he finally 
 determined to keep his elder grandson with him as 
 his private secretary. 
 
 The winter of 1777 was an anxious season for 
 the envoys. General Burgoyne with an army of 
 ten thousand men had set out from England to 
 reenforce the British troops in America; and the 
 meager news which came from the United States 
 was anything but reassuring. After the capture 
 of New York the enemy had invested the surround- 
 ing country, overrun New Jersey, and were advanc- 
 ing upon Philadelphia. France refused to give 
 any further aid to the Americans until she could 
 be certain of the success of their cause. For a 
 time Franklin and his colleagues began to believe 
 that they might be ambassadors without any 
 country to represent. Then, in the spring, came 
 the welcome tidings of the crossing of the Delaware
 
 182 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 and the capture of Trenton by Washington, and 
 immediately the enthusiasm of the French was 
 revived. 
 
 In May the Marquis de La Fayette fitted out a 
 vessel at his own expense and set sail for the 
 United States. It became the fashion for young 
 Frenchmen of all classes to go out to America and 
 fight. Every day Franklin was besieged with 
 applications, many of which showed so much 
 eagerness and zeal that he had not the heart to 
 refuse them. 
 
 The arrival in April of the American sloop of 
 war Lexington also served to raise the envoy's 
 hopes. The Reprisal, which had brought Frank- 
 lin over, had been cruising around in European 
 waters for months, capturing prizes and sending 
 them to Nantes and other French seaports. Now, 
 with the Lexington, and a small cutter named the 
 Dolphin, she was sent out by the envoys to inter- 
 cept the fleet of ships laden with linen which were 
 due to sail from Belfast in June. The three vessels 
 sailed entirely around Ireland; and though they 
 failed to come up with the linen ships, they man- 
 aged to capture or sink sixteen English merchant- 
 men. They took their prizes into Nantes; but 
 Lord Stormont protested to the French govern- 
 ment, and the Count de Vergennes was forced to
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 183 
 
 order the vessels to leave the harbor. The English 
 ambassador had made similar protests against the 
 Reprisal before; but Captain Wickes, following 
 his former practice, coolly outwitted the English. 
 He invited a party of French shipowners on board 
 his ship, took them and all the prizes outside the 
 harbor, and there sold the captured boats to the 
 Frenchmen. When the vessels returned to Nantes 
 they came back as French vessels, and Lord Stor- 
 mont could say nothing. Whether Franklin sug- 
 gested this procedure or not is unknown; in its 
 cleverness of thought it at least bears the marks of 
 his inspiration. 
 
 In a similar matter Franklin was very deeply 
 involved. Through a secret agent the envoys 
 purchased a fast sailing vessel from the English, 
 and had her sent to the French port of Dunkirk, 
 where she was fitted out as a ship of war. She was 
 called the Surprise. Captain Gustavus Conyng- 
 ham was put in command of her. His first capture 
 was the packet which carried the mails between 
 England and Holland. He took her into Dunkirk 
 and forwarded the mails to the envoys in Paris. 
 Enraged at the way he had been previously tricked, 
 Lord Stormont now protested so violently that the 
 French government was forced to take active 
 measures, and arrested Captain Conyngham and
 
 184 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 his crew, confiscated the Surprise, and let the 
 packet go free. 
 
 The envoys meanwhile had procured another 
 vessel called the Revenge. Through their efforts 
 Captain Conyngham and his men were released 
 from prison and put in charge of her. Captain 
 Conyngham let it be known that he was going to 
 make a trading voyage to Norway, sent ashore his 
 guns and most of his crew, and took on board a 
 cargo of merchandise. In order to insure his 
 peaceful behavior, the French government took 
 the bond of Hodge and Allen, American merchants 
 living in Dunkirk. 
 
 Captain Conyngham, setting sail, remained 
 outside the harbor until nightfall, when a barge 
 brought out his guns and crew, and he slipped 
 away. A few days later two English warships 
 appeared at Dunkirk to take the captain and his 
 vessel to England, only to find that they had gone. 
 
 Lord Stormont immediately notified the Count 
 de Vergennes and the latter ordered the arrest of 
 Hodge. He was confined in the Bastille, in Paris, 
 for six weeks, where he was lodged as comfortably 
 as he would have been at home ; and when the feel- 
 ing against him had somewhat died down, on the 
 application of Franklin he was released. Captain 
 Conyngham not only made good his escape, but,
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 185 
 
 after many adventures, managed to take the 
 Revenge safely to America. 
 
 So the summer and the autumn of 1777 passed 
 away. By July there were as many as twelve 
 American agents in Europe. Most of them had 
 been sent to represent Congress in different coun- 
 tries, but, so far, France was the only nation that 
 would recognize the United States even secretly, 
 and most of the agents were living in Paris. On 
 Sundays they usually dined at Franklin's house in 
 Passy, where, with their secretaries and Franklin's 
 grandsons, they sometimes made as large a party 
 as twenty. In spite of their common interest in 
 the welfare of the United States, however, and 
 their outward show of friendliness, they were 
 generally at odds with one another. Arthur Lee, 
 one of the three envoys, caused most of the trouble. 
 He was of a suspicious, jealous nature, always 
 ready to believe anything bad about any one, and 
 envious of everybody who was honored above 
 himself. On his side were William Lee, his brother, 
 and Ralph Izard, a wealthy resident of South 
 Carolina, both men of his own type. Throughout 
 the whole period of their residence in France, these 
 men or their friends were opposing objections to 
 every move of Franklin and his party, and even 
 wrote letters full of insinuations against them to
 
 i86 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Congress. At first they directed their malice at 
 Silas Deane, but later Franklin himself came in 
 for a share of it; and it was one of the most 
 difficult tasks of his mission to placate them and 
 keep them in good humor, so that the business of 
 the United States might be carried on. 
 
 Inspired by the success of the Reprisal and the 
 Lexington, the envoys ordered a frigate to be built 
 for them in Holland; but long before she was 
 finished the Reprisal had foundered at sea, the 
 Lexington had been captured by the English ship 
 of war Alert, and Franklin's high hopes of striking 
 another blow at English commerce were dashed to 
 the ground. 
 
 Again the envoys faced an anxious period of 
 waiting. For some time no news had come from 
 America, and they had no means of finding out 
 how the war was progressing. A British fleet had 
 blockaded the port of Nantes, so that none of the 
 vessels loaded with supplies for the United States 
 could set sail. Besides, their money was getting 
 low. Under these circumstances, Franklin and his 
 associates determined to appeal to King Louis XVI, 
 asking him to recognize the independence of the 
 United States, and grant them a loan of fourteen 
 million francs. As part payment they offered to 
 sell him the frigate being built in Holland.
 
 THE MISSION TO FRANCE 187 
 
 On October i the appeal was presented. Weeks 
 passed before an answer was received. The 
 king agreed to purchase the frigate and grant a 
 loan of three million francs, but refused to ac- 
 knowledge the independence of the United States. 
 
 Scarcely had the envoys time to congratulate 
 themselves on this partial success, when news came 
 of the taking of Philadelphia by General Howe, 
 Lord Howe's brother ; and to the anxieties of his 
 position Franklin had added the anxiety for the 
 safety of his daughter and friends. It was months 
 before he heard that Mrs. Bache and her family had 
 escaped from the city, and that Captain Andre, 
 the English officer who was afterwards arrested 
 and shot as a spy, had been quartered in his house. 
 Yet even with these new troubles and perplexities 
 to worry him, his wit was as sparkling as ever, 
 and when an Englishman remarked to him that 
 Howe had taken Philadelphia, he answered quickly, 
 
 "I beg your pardon, sir; Philadelphia has taken 
 Howe." 
 
 How true this statement proved to be was shown 
 later when Washington shut the British up in 
 Philadelphia for many months. 
 
 This was the condition of affairs toward the end 
 of November, 1777. In the beginning of December 
 a rumor reached Passy that an American vessel
 
 i88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 had landed at Nantes, and that Mr. Austin, a 
 special messenger, was speeding toward Paris with 
 important dispatches. All the American agents 
 and officials hastened out to Passy to await the 
 coming of the messenger. When he arrived their 
 impatience was so great that they rushed out of 
 the house to meet him, Franklin in the lead. 
 
 "Sir," he demanded, "is Philadelphia taken?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Austin. 
 
 His worst fears realized, Franklin clasped his 
 hands silently, and turned back toward the house. 
 
 "But, sir," cried Austin after him, "I have 
 greater news than that. General Burgoyne and 
 his whole army are prisoners of war!"
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY MAKER 
 
 As soon as the news of General Burgoyne's 
 defeat was made known to the French government, 
 it sent word to the envoys by Monsieur Gerard, 
 secretary of the king's council and under secretary 
 for foreign affairs, that it would consider their 
 proposals for an alliance with France. Franklin's 
 joy knew no bounds. This was what he had been 
 laboring for ever since he had arrived, and now, 
 at the moment when he thought all hope was gone, 
 the king himself was proposing an alliance. 
 
 On December 12, six days after the news had 
 reached Passy, the envoys drove out to Versailles 
 and had a long conference with the Count de 
 Vergennes, in which he renewed the proposal, 
 and desired the envoys to draw up the terms of 
 the treaties. On December 17, Monsieur Gerard 
 again called on the envoys and gave them the final 
 assurance that the treaties would be made, and 
 that the independence of the United States would 
 be recognized and maintained. A courier had been 
 
 189
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 sent to the court of Spain to learn that nation's 
 attitude, and as soon as he returned the matter 
 could be immediately put through. 
 
 The next six weeks were taken up with consul- 
 tations, interviews, and discussions over the terms 
 of the alliance. As usual, Arthur Lee did his ut- 
 most to hamper the proceedings, objecting to 
 various clauses, and showing his envy and suspi- 
 cions when anything was done without his con- 
 currence; but at last, on February 6, 1778, the 
 papers were signed by the envoys and by Mon- 
 sieur Gerard, representing the French government. 
 
 There were really three treaties. The first one, 
 called the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, bound 
 both countries to trade fairly with each other and 
 remain friends. The second, called the Treaty 
 of Alliance, recognized the independence of the 
 United States, and stated that its purpose was to 
 maintain effectually the liberty and sovereignty 
 of that country, both in matters of government 
 and of commerce. This treaty was to be enforced 
 only in case France, by aiding America, should be 
 dragged into a war with England, and contained 
 a provision that "neither of the two parties shall 
 conclude either truce or peace with Great Britain 
 without the formal consent of the other first ob- 
 tained." The third treaty was a secret one, in-
 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY MAKER 191 
 
 tended to allow Spain to join the alliance if she 
 should desire to do so. 
 
 Monsieur Gerard wished to keep the matter 
 secret until the treaties had been formally ratified 
 by Congress ; but during the negotiations Franklin, 
 following a custom of his, had sent Mr. Austin to 
 England to notify his friends and others there who 
 favored the American cause ; and on February 17, 
 only eleven days after the treaties had been signed, 
 the fact was announced in the House of Commons 
 by Charles Fox. It was at the very moment when 
 Lord North, the premier, was trying to get Parlia- 
 ment to grant America what Franklin had de- 
 manded during the last days of his residence in 
 London ; and the proceedings in Parliament had 
 to be dropped, France having beaten England by 
 almost two weeks. 
 
 When the treaties were signed, Dr. Bancroft, 
 one of the Americans present, noticed that Franklin 
 wore the same suit that he had worn in London 
 on the day when Wedderburn had made his out- 
 rageous charges against him in the Cockpit. He 
 mentioned the coincidence to Franklin, but the 
 latter only smiled and refused to admit that 
 he had worn the suit in remembrance of his in- 
 juries. 
 
 An amusing incident which occurred during the
 
 192 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 negotiations shows Franklin's keen wit and tact 
 in keeping the peace between his colleagues. One 
 day a large cake was sent to the rooms in which 
 the envoys were working. It was addressed to 
 "Le Digne Franklin" (the worthy Franklin). 
 
 Mr. Deane, when he saw the inscription, turned 
 to Franklin and said, "As usual, Doctor, we have 
 to thank you for our accommodation, and to 
 appropriate your present to our joint use." 
 
 "Not at all," replied Franklin; "this must be 
 intended for all the commissioners, only these 
 French people cannot write English. They mean, 
 no doubt, Lee, Deane, Franklin." 
 
 In spite of the French government's desire to 
 keep the alliance a secret until Congress had been 
 heard from, the envoys were very anxious to have 
 the treaties publicly announced, and finally pre- 
 vailed upon the Count de Vergennes and Mon- 
 sieur Gerard to grant their request. 
 
 In order that the United States might be recog- 
 nized as an independent country, it was necessary 
 for the envoys to be presented at the French 
 Court; and March 20 was the day fixed for this 
 important event. 
 
 Etiquette required those appearing before the 
 king to wear wigs. Franklin ordered one, and in 
 due time the hairdresser brought it to Passy to
 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY MAKER 193 
 
 be tried on. He pulled and tugged, but no amount 
 of effort would make it fit Franklin's head. 
 
 "Perhaps it is too small," suggested Franklin 
 at length. 
 
 The wigmaker declared that it was impossible, 
 and then, flying into a sudden rage, he flung the 
 wig to the ground. 
 
 "No, Monsieur," he cried angrily; "it is not 
 the wig that is too small, it is your head that is 
 too large!" And swinging on his heel he left the 
 room in a towering passion. 
 
 It was too late to order another wig, and so 
 Franklin decided to break all rules and go to court 
 without one. He also decided to leave off the 
 sword and the chapeau, or hat, which was carried 
 under the arm on such occasions ; and dressed in a 
 suit of black velvet, with white ruffles at his wrists 
 and neck, white silk stockings and silver buckles, 
 he entered his coach at Passy on the eventful morn- 
 ing, and, attended by a retinue of servants, was 
 driven to Versailles, where the other envoys and a 
 great crowd of Americans joined him. It is said 
 that the court chamberlain, who guarded the 
 doors of the palace, hesitated a moment before 
 admitting him ; but his dignified bearing and cap- 
 tivating manners won him the instant admiration 
 of the court.
 
 194 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The Count de Vergennes escorted the envoys 
 and their friends to the king's antechamber; and 
 they were soon ushered into the king's dressing- 
 room, where Franklin and his colleagues were pre- 
 sented to the king. 
 
 Louis XVI received them very graciously, as- 
 suring them of his friendship for the United States, 
 and expressing his satisfaction at the way the 
 envoys had conducted themselves during their 
 residence in France. 
 
 The envoys were then taken across the wide 
 courtyard of the palace and presented to the 
 members of the king's cabinet, the crowd clapping 
 and cheering them with great fervor. After a 
 magnificent dinner at the Count de Vergennes' 
 residence, at which many of the nobility were 
 present, they were conducted to the queen's 
 apartments, where they found Marie Antoinette 
 and the royal family playing cards. Franklin 
 was particularly honored by the queen, who asked 
 him to stand near her, and took occasion to speak 
 to him in very friendly terms. 
 
 Hearing of the envoys' reception at court, 
 Lord Stormont left Paris the next morning and 
 returned to England. This meant that war be- 
 tween England and France was close at hand ; 
 but so unpopular was Lord Stormont that many
 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY MAKER 195 
 
 looked upon his departure with a feeling of re- 
 lief. 
 
 On the following day the envoys were present 
 at a levee of the queen, and they then paid visits of 
 state to the different members of the royal family. 
 On this occasion they were entertained at dinner 
 by Monsieur Gerard. 
 
 After the treaties had been made public, France 
 lost no time in giving substantial aid to the United 
 States. Early in April, not more than two weeks 
 after the envoys had been presented at court, 
 a fleet of French war vessels sailed for America. 
 They carried with them Monsieur Gerard, who had 
 been appointed a special ambassador to the United 
 States; and on the same ship went Silas Deane, 
 who, through the efforts of Arthur Lee and his 
 party, had been recalled by Congress. On the 
 day Silas Deane left Paris, John Adams landed at 
 Bordeaux to fill his place. 
 
 On April 29 of this year, 1778, the famous 
 public meeting between Franklin and Voltaire, 
 the great French dramatist and poet, took place. 
 It was at a session of the Academy of Sciences at 
 which Franklin and Voltaire were present. During 
 a lull in the proceedings a cry arose from the au- 
 dience that the two illustrious men should be in- 
 troduced. When this was done they bowed to
 
 196 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 each other; but the people still clamored, so the 
 two great philosophers shook hands. Even then 
 those present were not satisfied and kept shout- 
 ing, "You must embrace, French fashion." 
 With that, as John Adams related afterward, 
 "the two aged actors upon this great theater of 
 philosophy and frivolity embraced each other by 
 hugging one another in their arms, and kissing 
 each other's cheeks; and then the tumult sub- 
 sided." 
 
 In this same year, about the middle of February, 
 Captain John Paul Jones arrived at Brest with the 
 ship Ranger. He had been sent over by Congress 
 to take command of the frigate which the envoys 
 were having built in Holland ; but by the time he 
 had reached France the vessel had been sold to 
 the king. He set out in the Ranger; and after a 
 most successful cruise, in which he captured the 
 British frigate Drake, he returned to Brest sometime 
 in May. Here he was welcomed by the French 
 as a hero; but Arthur Lee, who had conceived 
 the idea that Jones had not treated him with the 
 respect due to his position, did everything in his 
 power to hamper and annoy him; and when 
 Jones presented a bill for five thousand dollars 
 to pay for his expenses, Lee refused absolutely to 
 pay it.
 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY MAKER 197 
 
 Franklin, however, remained Jones's firm friend, 
 and a few weeks later wrote to Jones that the 
 French government wished to put him in command 
 of the frigate which it had purchased from the 
 envoys, and suggested that Jones come to Paris 
 and arrange the matter. In his letter Franklin 
 stated particularly that neither Adams nor Lee, 
 the other two envoys, knew anything of this prop- 
 osition, and advised Jones to keep it secret. 
 Indeed, from this time on, the French government 
 insisted on dealing with Franklin alone, and only 
 recognized Lee when it had to a fact which 
 made Lee even more envious and bitter than he 
 had been before. 
 
 Jones went to Paris and had many interviews 
 with Franklin and the French ministers. Every- 
 thing seemed favorable, and he returned to Brest, 
 where he was to await the arrival of the ship. 
 Month after month went by, and still the vessel 
 did not come. At first she was not finished, and 
 then, when she was ready, some of the French 
 naval officers became jealous that a stranger should 
 be put in command of her, and raised objections 
 to the appointment of Jones. Franklin did every- 
 thing he could to further the latter's interests, 
 but was unable to obtain anything more than 
 promises.
 
 198 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 It was at this stage that Jones, who had given 
 up all hope of success, happened one day to pick 
 up an old copy of " Poor Richard's Almanac." One 
 of the proverbs caught his eye. "If you would 
 have your business done, go," he read; "if not, 
 send." 
 
 He took the advice, and without delay went to 
 Versailles, where, after stating his case, he obtained 
 leave to purchase a ship and engage a crew. As a 
 compliment to Franklin and " Poor Richard's 
 Almanac," from which he had drawn his inspiration, 
 he called the vessel which he purchased the Bon 
 Eomme Richard; and when, about the middle of 
 August, he sailed for a cruise in English waters, 
 four other ships of war were put under his command 
 and he was given the rank of commodore. 
 
 Meanwhile the trouble between the envoys had 
 been growing worse and worse. Although a 
 zealous patriot, Adams had sided with Arthur Lee 
 and his party, and Franklin found himself al- 
 most alone. Lee's feeling toward him amounted 
 now to open enmity, and he took no pains to con- 
 ceal it, even writing letters to Congress, denounc- 
 ing Franklin and insinuating that personal gain 
 was the motive for most of his official acts. At 
 last the situation became intolerable for every one 
 concerned ; and each of the three envoys, together
 
 FRANKLIN THE TREATY MAKER 199 
 
 with William Lee and Ralph Izard, wrote home, 
 describing the state of affairs in Paris, and 
 advising Congress to revoke the commission 
 which the envoys held and appoint one man sole 
 ambassador. 
 
 Congress thought well of the idea; and, to the 
 surprise and disgust of the Lee party, chose Frank- 
 lin as the ambassador, or sole plenipotentiary, as 
 he was called. LaFayette, who had leave of ab- 
 sence from the United States, brought the new 
 commission to France with him, and delivered it 
 to Franklin in February, 1779. John Adams re- 
 turned to America, while Arthur Lee, who had been 
 appointed the American representative in Spain, 
 still held that position, although as yet Spain had 
 not seen fit to recognize the United States. 
 
 The Count de Vergennes and other government 
 officials who had grown to detest Lee and his 
 party, were joyful at the news; and in April, as 
 soon as Franklin had recovered from a painful 
 attack of the gout, he was again presented at 
 court. 
 
 The presentation was attended with greater 
 ceremony and splendor than before ; and it is even 
 said that a lady of the court placed a wreath upon 
 his head in token of the love and esteem in which 
 he was held.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 
 
 THE next few years of Franklin's life in Paris 
 were chiefly employed in borrowing money from 
 France ! Congress looked to him to supply the 
 United States with funds, and he seldom failed 
 them. During his whole term of office as envoy 
 and plenipotentiary, he managed to obtain from 
 the French government, either as a loan or as a free 
 gift, the immense sum of twenty-six million francs. 
 His success in this respect was mainly due to his 
 wonderful charm of manner, and his no less wonder- 
 ful tact. He was a born courtier and diplomat; 
 indeed, he was the greatest, if not the only 
 real, diplomat whom this country has ever pro- 
 duced. 
 
 In 1779 Congress commissioned him to pur- 
 chase a sword for LaFayette and present it to him 
 as a gift from the United States. When finished 
 it cost over one thousand dollars. Franklin sent 
 it to LaFayette by his grandson, William Temple 
 Franklin. In the letter which accompanied it
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 201 
 
 Franklin paid a graceful tribute to the young 
 French general who had done so much for the cause 
 of independence. 
 
 "By the help of the exquisite artists France affords," 
 he graciously wrote, "I find it easy to express everything 
 but the sense we have of your worth and our obligations to 
 you. For this, figures and even words are found insuf- 
 ficient." 
 
 It was shortly after this incident that Franklin 
 and LaFayette, by their joint efforts, persuaded 
 the French government to send troops to the 
 United States to aid the Americans. These 
 soldiers were of immense benefit to Washington, 
 and helped materially in bringing the Revolution 
 to a successful conclusion. 
 
 Of his private life during these years volumes 
 might be written. His house at Passy was the 
 meeting-place of most of the great scientists and 
 learned men of France. There was scarcely a day 
 when some one of distinction did not call upon 
 him, and his many dinner parties and recep- 
 tions were attended by the most intelligent persons 
 of every rank. Always of a sociable disposition, 
 he charmed every one with his conversation and 
 wit; and no small part of the success which 
 marked his work for the United States was owing 
 to the hosts of close personal friends whom he
 
 202 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 made and kept, and the loyalty and enthusiasm 
 for the American cause with which he inspired 
 them. 
 
 Among his scientific writings of this period was 
 a paper on the aurora borealis. This was read 
 before the Royal Academy of Sciences in the 
 spring of 1779, and gained for its author much 
 renown, both in learned and in social circles. 
 
 The best of his lighter and purely humorous 
 writings also date from this time. He wrote 
 them for the amusement of his friends, and gener- 
 ally read them himself at the little gatherings which 
 met either at his house, or at that of some ac- 
 quaintance. Among the best known of these latter 
 writings are, "The Petition of the Left Hand," 
 "The Handsome and Deformed Leg," "Morals 
 of Chess," and the famous "Dialogue between 
 Franklin and the Gout," in which "Madame 
 Gout," after warning Franklin that he himself is 
 to blame for that very painful disease, ends by 
 giving him many sharp twinges of it. 
 
 It is very probable that these stories and witti- 
 cisms were written by him in English and later 
 translated by some friend into French. At any 
 rate, they were circulated widely over the whole 
 of Paris, and repeated by every one as the latest 
 specimen of Franklin's humor.
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 203 
 
 Of his personal appearance at this time he him- 
 self has left an amusing description. It occurs 
 in one of the first letters that he wrote after his 
 arrival in France. "Figure me in your mind," 
 he says, "as jolly as formerly, and as strong and 
 hearty, only a few years older ; very plainly dressed, 
 wearing my thin gray straight hair, that peeps out 
 under my only coiffure, a fine fur cap, which comes 
 down my forehead almost to my spectacles." 
 
 The fur cap he soon discarded, but the spectacles 
 he wore to the end of his days. Until he arrived 
 in France he had carried two pairs, one for reading 
 and one for seeing objects at a distance. These 
 he found inconvenient ; and in Paris he combined 
 the two in a single pair, and invented what would 
 now be called bifocal glasses, the upper half of each 
 glass being made for long distance, and the lower 
 half for reading, writing, and the like. 
 
 Another account of Franklin is given by his 
 friend the Abbe Morellet: 
 
 "His conversation," writes the Abb6, "was exquisite 
 a perfect good nature, a simplicity of manners, an upright- 
 ness of mind that made itself felt in the smallest things, 
 an extreme gentleness, and, above all, a sweet serenity that 
 easily became gayety ; such was the society of this great 
 man, who has placed his country among the number of in- 
 dependent states, and made one of the most important 
 discoveries of the age."
 
 204 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 An anecdote of this period affords a good ex- 
 ample of his quick and never-failing gift of repartee. 
 He was invited to all the parties and functions 
 given by the court. At these festivities he often 
 met the old Duchess de Bourbon, who, like Frank- 
 lin, was very fond of chess. One day, while they 
 were playing, she happened to put her king in 
 prize, and Franklin promptly took it. 
 
 "Ah," she said, "we do not take kings so." 
 
 "We do in America," answered Franklin. 
 
 There were many fe"tes given in his honor. The 
 most celebrated was the one devised by the Count 
 and Countess d'Houdetot in the spring of 1781, 
 at their chateau near Paris. It was a fe"te cham- 
 pe'tre, a sort of garden party, and at the dinner, 
 which formed the main part of the entertainment, 
 each guest in turn recited original verses in Frank- 
 lin's honor. When the meal was over he was taken 
 into the grounds and presented with a small 
 Virginia locust tree, which his host and hostess 
 requested him to plant in the garden. After he 
 had obeyed their wishes, the countess recited some 
 further verses commemorating the event; and 
 then, to the accompaniment of a band of music, 
 the assembled guests sang a song in praise of the 
 famous philosopher. The proceedings of the fete, 
 together with the verses, were printed and dis-
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 205 
 
 tributed in Paris, and afterward reprinted in the 
 United States. 
 
 But all this praise did not blind him to the fact 
 that old age was close at hand. It was at this time 
 that he sent in his resignation to Congress. Several 
 severe attacks of the gout had made him fear for 
 his health, and the infirmities of age were creeping 
 over him. He was now seventy-five years old, 
 fifty years of which he had spent in the service of 
 the public, and he thought it was high time for him 
 to relinquish his post in favor of some younger man. 
 
 Congress, however, thought otherwise, and not 
 only refused to accept his resignation, but, when 
 the time was ripe, it made him one of the commis- 
 sioners to take up the question of peace with Eng- 
 land. John Adams and John Jay were among those 
 appointed to act with him. 
 
 For several years secret agents had been coming 
 over from England to see Franklin and discuss 
 the prospects for peace, but nothing had resulted 
 from these conferences. After the surrender of 
 Cornwallis at Yorktown, however, the English 
 began to realize that all hope of conquering the 
 United States was gone. The surrender occurred 
 on October 17, 1781, and from that time on the 
 English government was very anxious to bring 
 the war to a close.
 
 206 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The first serious attempt to negotiate peace came 
 in January, 1782; and the English tried to make 
 separate agreements with France and the United 
 States, but each nation refused indignantly to 
 enter into any understanding with their common 
 enemy without the concurrence of the other. 
 
 In March of this year, the party in England that 
 had been in favor of the war was driven out of 
 power, and the men who had been on the side of 
 the Americans, and were stanch friends and sup- 
 porters of Franklin, were put into office. Among 
 these were Edmund Burke, Charles Fox, and Lord 
 Shelburne ; and as soon as the change of ministry 
 was effected, they began to negotiate for peace 
 in good earnest. 
 
 Unfortunately, at this time there were two sec- 
 retaries for foreign affairs in England. Charles 
 Fox was one, having charge of what was called the 
 southern department, which included France. 
 Lord Shelburne, the other, was the head of the 
 northern department, which included the United 
 States. The result of this absurd arrangement 
 was that neither Lord Shelburne nor Charles Fox 
 could treat with both France and America; and 
 each had to send over his own special commissioner 
 to Paris, one to enter into negotiations with the 
 Count de Vergennes, the other with Franklin,
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 207 
 
 Mr. Grenville was Charles Fox's representative, Mr. 
 Oswald, Lord Shelburne's; and the natural sus- 
 picion arose that England was again trying to make 
 separate terms of peace with France and America. 
 
 The matter dragged on through the spring of 
 1782, without any result. Then, in June, John 
 Jay, one of Franklin's fellow-commissioners, ar- 
 rived in Paris, and Franklin, who had been carrying 
 on the negotiations done, was seized with a severe 
 attack of influenza which laid him up for several 
 months. One of the principal points upon which 
 Franklin had insisted, during these first attempts 
 to conclude peace, was the cession of Canada to the 
 United States; and if he had been able to come 
 to terms with England at that time, it is very prob- 
 able that the latter country would have agreed 
 to his demand. As it was, he was not well enough 
 to continue his work until the summer was almost 
 over, and by that time there were other condi- 
 tions and problems to face. 
 
 The horrors of Indian warfare, and the treatment 
 to which the Americans had been subjected during 
 the war, had concerned him greatly; and during 
 this year he brought the matter to the minds of 
 the French and English in a very clever way. 
 When he had first taken up his residence in Passy 
 he had installed a small printing-press in his house.
 
 208 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 On this he had printed many of his humorous 
 writings his "bagatelles," as he called them. 
 Now he turned the press to a more serious use. 
 He wrote and printed what was supposed to be a 
 supplement of the Boston Independent Chronicle, an 
 imaginary newspaper which he allowed the public 
 to think was published in the United States. In 
 this supplement he stated certain facts relating to 
 the barbarous manner in which the war had been 
 carried on. The principal article mentioned a 
 large number of scalps that had been captured 
 from the Indians by an American officer, and that 
 were to have been sent as a special gift to George 
 III. Following this grewsome account there came 
 a letter purporting to have been written by John 
 Paul Jones to Sir Joseph Yorke, the English am- 
 bassador to Holland. Sir Joseph had publicly 
 charged Jones with being a pirate, and the letter 
 was Jones's defense to the charge. 
 
 "A pirate," it read, "is defined to be hostis humani ge- 
 neris (an enemy to all mankind). It happens, Sir, that I am 
 an enemy to no part of mankind, except your nation, the 
 English ; which nation, at the same time, conies much more 
 within the definition, being actually an enemy to, and at 
 war with, one whole quarter of the world. ... A pirate 
 makes war for the sake of rapine. This is not the kind of 
 war I am engaged in against England. Ours is a war in 
 defense of liberty, the most just of all wars; and of our
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 209 
 
 Properties, which your nation would have taken from us 
 without our consent, in violation of our rights, and by an 
 armed force. Yours, therefore, is a war of rapine; of 
 course a piratical war; and those who approve of it, and 
 are engaged in it, more justly deserve the name of pirates 
 which you bestow on me." 
 
 There were other shorter articles and a few 
 advertisements, to give the "supplement" an ap- 
 pearance of genuineness. Franklin saw that copies 
 of it were distributed throughout France and 
 England, where it created an immense stir. No 
 one appeared to have doubted that it was a real 
 newspaper, and only one man ever guessed the 
 authorship of the Jones letter. This man was the 
 celebrated English wit and critic, Horace Walpole, 
 who, in writing to a friend, asked, "Have you seen 
 in the papers an excellent letter by Paul Jones to 
 Sir Joseph Yorke ? Elle nous dit bien des verites [it 
 tells us many truths]. I doubt poor Sir Joseph 
 cannot answer them ! Dr. Franklin himself, I 
 should think, was the author. It is certainly from 
 a first-rate pen, and not a common man-of-war." 
 
 By the middle of August England had discovered 
 the suspicions of the French government and the 
 American commissioners, and had sought to mend 
 matters by recalling Grenville and appointing an- 
 other agent, Alleyne Fitzherbert, in his place.
 
 210 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 This man was to treat with France in conjunction 
 with Oswald, who was empowered to treat with 
 the United States. A new difficulty arose, how- 
 ever. In Oswald's commission the United States 
 were not once referred to by that name, but were 
 called the "Colonies or Plantations." John Jay 
 imagined that this was a ruse on the part of the 
 English, and meant that they would not recognize 
 the independence of the United States. Both 
 Franklin and the Count de Vergennes tried to 
 persuade him out of this notion, but were unsuccess- 
 ful. Finally, after a month of delay, the English 
 government sent a new commission to Oswald in 
 which the United States were mentioned by that 
 name, and then John Jay consented to discuss 
 terms with the English. 
 
 During the month of October conferences were 
 held almost every day, but little, if anything, 
 was accomplished. On October 26 John Adams 
 joined Franklin and Jay, and a month later Henry 
 Laurens, another commissioner, arrived in Paris. 
 Thomas Jefferson, the last member of the commis- 
 sion, did not land in France until the matter was 
 finished. 
 
 From the date of Adams's arrival, affairs moved 
 faster. Parliament was to meet in a month, and 
 if some sort of terms were not agreed upon by that
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 211 
 
 time, it was feared that the party that favored 
 peace might be driven from power. There were 
 three points in dispute : the extent of the bounda- 
 ries of the United States, the right to fish off the 
 Newfoundland Banks, and the compensation which 
 the United States should pay to those in America 
 who had been on the English side, and whose 
 property had been taken or destroyed by the 
 Americans. 
 
 After a great deal of discussion, the English 
 commissioners finally agreed to the demands of 
 the Americans as to the fishing rights and the 
 boundaries, ceding to the United States the whole 
 of that territory which is now the state of Maine ; 
 but they insisted that the English sympathizers 
 in America, or " tories " as they were called, should 
 be paid for their losses. 
 
 The matter stood in this shape at the end of 
 November. On the 28th the commissioners met 
 and debated, but came to no decision. On the 
 2Qth they met again; and when it was apparent 
 that no progress could be made, Adams suggested 
 that a courier be sent to England for further in- 
 structions. 
 
 "If that is the case," said Franklin, "he ought 
 to carry something respecting a compensation to 
 the sufferers in America."
 
 212 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 He produced a paper from his pocket and began 
 to read it. It was in the form of an agreement, 
 and bound England to pay the Americans for all 
 the losses they had sustained at the hands of the 
 British. This article, Franklin stated, he intended 
 to have inserted as a part of the treaty. 
 
 The English commissioners were speechless. 
 In dollars and cents the damage done by the Eng- 
 lish in the United States far exceeded the losses of 
 the tones, and England would have to pay a 
 much larger sum than the Americans. Oswald 
 and Fitzherbert realized the clever trap that Frank- 
 lin had set for them, and asked leave to withdraw 
 for consultation. When they returned they an- 
 nounced that the question of compensating the 
 tories would be dropped, and that they were willing 
 to agree to the terms as proposed by the United 
 States. The treaty was then read over, and on 
 the next day, November 30, 1782, the document 
 was formally signed. 
 
 This was only a preliminary treaty, and neither 
 Franklin nor the other American commissioners 
 had seen fit to notify the Count de Vergennes of 
 its contents until after it had been signed. The 
 Count was very much put out that the United 
 States should have entered into the agreement 
 without the consent of France; and for several
 
 FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMAT 213 
 
 weeks there was a decided coolness between him 
 and the commissioners. Franklin, however, man- 
 aged to soothe him; and on January 18, 1783, 
 the Count and Mr. Fitzherbert agreed upon the 
 preliminary articles of peace between France and 
 England in the friendliest way possible. 
 
 From this time until the following September 
 the terms of the final treaty were talked over and 
 debated, but neither the English government nor 
 the American commissioners could come to any 
 understanding, and at length the preliminary treaty 
 was adopted as the final one. It was signed in 
 Paris, on September 3, 1783 ; and on the same 
 day, as soon as the Count de Vergennes had re- 
 ceived word of the fact, the treaty between France 
 and Great Britain was signed at Versailles. So, 
 after almost two years of discussion and arguments, 
 the negotiations were at last brought to a successful 
 close.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE FAREWELL TO FRANCE 
 
 IN 1782, shortly after the signing of the prelim- 
 inary treaty, Franklin again sent in his resignation. 
 No answer was received from' Congress; and 
 after the final treaty was signed, Franklin once 
 more wrote to that body stating that he wished to 
 be relieved of his post. A year and a half was to 
 pass before Congress finally permitted him to 
 return. 
 
 In the meanwhile Franklin was engaged in 
 entering into treaties with other nations in Europe, 
 all of which he concluded successfully for the United 
 States. 
 
 The war was now at an end, and many English- 
 men came over to travel in France. Franklin was 
 then probably the most famous man on the whole 
 continent; and it became the common and cour- 
 teous thing to make a pilgrimage to Passy and call 
 upon him. He had a continuous stream of visitors 
 from morning until night. John Baynes, a young 
 English lawyer, has left an interesting account of 
 
 214
 
 THE FAREWELL TO FRANCE 215 
 
 Franklin's appearance and mode of life. "Dr. 
 Franklin's house," he says, "is delightfully situated 
 and seems very spacious; and he seemed to have 
 a great number of domestics. We sent up the 
 letter, and were then shown up into his bedchamber, 
 where he sat in his nightgown, his feet wrapped up 
 in flannels, and resting on a pillow, he having for 
 three or four days been much afflicted with the 
 gout. ... I never enjoyed so much pleasure in 
 my life, as in the present conversation with this 
 great and good character. He looked very well, 
 notwithstanding his illness, and, as usual, wore 
 his spectacles." 
 
 The invention of the balloon, in 1782, by 
 the Frenchman, Montgolfier, interested Franklin 
 greatly, and he not only subscribed liberally toward 
 the advancement of the new science, but watched 
 the experiments with keen delight. "The progress 
 made in the management of balloons," he wrote to 
 a friend, "has been rapid. Yet I fear it will hardly 
 become a common carriage in my time, though, 
 being easiest of all witures [vehicles], it would be 
 extremely convenient to me, now that my malady 
 forbids the use of old ones over a pavement." 
 
 Indeed, at this time he was a constant sufferer 
 from gout and other complaints. For weeks at a 
 stretch he could not bear the slightest motion, and
 
 216 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 had to remain continuously at home. It was even 
 thought for a time that he would not be able to 
 stand the journey to America, and would have to 
 finish out the remainder of his days in France. 
 
 In 1784 occurred the famous inquiry into mes- 
 merism. Mesmerism, as it was understood in that 
 day, was not the scientific thing that we now 
 know, but was a sort of fraud created by a man 
 named Mesmer, who, in 1778, had established him- 
 self in Paris, and claimed to be able to cure all 
 diseases by magnetic influence. He became im- 
 mensely rich in the practice of his pretended cure, 
 and the French government finally decided to 
 investigate it. Mesmer himself managed to escape 
 the inquiry, but Deslon, his most successful pupil, 
 agreed to submit himself to the investigation. 
 
 The government appointed a commission com- 
 posed of four of the most prominent doctors of the 
 Faculty of Paris, and five members of the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences, of whom Franklin was one. 
 They went into the subject very thoroughly, tak- 
 ing the whole of the summer of 1784 for their 
 examination. Many of the experiments were 
 performed in Franklin's house and garden at Passy, 
 where, on account of Franklin's infirmities, the 
 commissioners frequently assembled to discuss the 
 matter and decide upon their report. When it was
 
 THE FAREWELL TO FRANCE 217 
 
 filed in August, it exposed the fraud and proved 
 conclusively that the pretended cures had all been 
 brought about by the imagination of the patients, 
 and not by any of the magnetic powers which 
 Mesmer and his followers claimed to possess. As 
 a result of the findings of the commission, Mesmer 
 and his pupils were driven out of Paris and quickly 
 disappeared from France. 
 
 Old and feeble as Franklin had become, his 
 intellect was as keen as ever, and some of his best 
 essays date from this period. Among them were 
 his famous article on "The Savages of North 
 America" and his "Information to those who 
 would remove to America." A striking example 
 of his wit is contained in an incident which hap- 
 pened at this time, and though some doubt has 
 since arisen as to the truth of the anecdote, it is 
 still well worth relating. 
 
 A dinner was given to the French and the Eng- 
 lish ambassadors, at which Franklin was present. 
 When the time for the toasts arrived the English 
 ambassador was called on first. 
 
 "To England," he said, "the sun, whose bright 
 beams enlighten and fructify the remotest corners 
 of the earth." 
 
 The French ambassador was called on next. 
 Not wishing to be outdone, he proposed the toast,
 
 218 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 "To France the moon, whose mild, steady, and 
 cheering rays are the delight of all nations, consol- 
 ing them in darkness." 
 
 When Franklin's turn came he rose and said, 
 "To George Washington the Joshua, who com- 
 manded the sun and moon to stand still, and they 
 obeyed him!" 
 
 It was during his stay in France that a new town 
 in Massachusetts was named Franklin in his honor. 
 He was very much pleased at the compliment, and 
 when the Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, pastor of the 
 town church, asked him to donate a certain sum 
 for the steeple which the townspeople proposed to 
 have built, Franklin advised them to save the 
 expense of a steeple, and presented them with a 
 fine collection of books instead. 
 
 This town in Massachusetts was the first one to 
 be named after him. To-day almost every big 
 city in the United States has a Franklin Park, or a 
 Franklin Square, or a Franklin Street ; and there 
 is hardly a state in the Union that has not a county, 
 city, town, or village which bears his name. In 
 the index of any large atlas it will be seen that, in 
 our country alone, the name Franklin appears 
 nearly one hundred times. In Passy the street in 
 which his house stood is called after him to this day. 
 
 On May 2, 1785, Franklin at last received
 
 THE FAREWELL TO FRANCE 219 
 
 word that his resignation had been accepted by 
 Congress, and he immediately began to make 
 preparations for his return to Philadelphia. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, who had been for some 
 months in Paris, was appointed to fill his position. 
 
 "You replace Dr. Franklin, I hear," said the 
 Count de Vergennes to Jefferson. 
 
 "I succeed him," graciously replied Jefferson. 
 "No one can replace him." 
 
 This was the feeling throughout France; and 
 as the time for his departure drew near, ministers, 
 nobles, and the common people all vied to do him 
 honor. It was the custom for the king to present 
 his portrait to each foreign ambassador upon his 
 leaving for home. The portrait presented to 
 Franklin was encircled by four hundred and eight 
 diamonds and cost about ten thousand dollars. 
 
 Shortly before he left, Franklin was seized with 
 a very severe attack of the gout, complicated with 
 other ailments, and could not stand even the mo- 
 tion of a carriage. In consequence of this he had 
 to give up the customary visit to Versailles to bid 
 farewell to the king and queen. His original in- 
 tention had been to sail down the river Seine to 
 Havre, where he could take passage for America ; 
 but it was the middle of the summer before he was 
 ready to leave, and by that time the river was so
 
 220 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 low as to make navigation on it difficult and tedi- 
 ous. In this dilemma Queen Marie Antoinette 
 came to his aid. She sent him one of her own 
 litieres, a sort of couch or litter carried between 
 two large mules ; and in this comfortable convey- 
 ance, accompanied by his two grandsons, and one 
 or two friends, he left Paris on July 12, 1785. 
 
 His last official act in France was the signing of a 
 treaty between Prussia and the United States. It 
 contained a provision securing the property of pri- 
 vate individuals against seizure and destruction 
 in time of war a subject upon which Franklin 
 felt very deeply and which had never been in any 
 treaty before. Denmark and Portugal were now 
 the only two countries who were not bound by 
 treaty to the United States ; and in almost every 
 negotiation Franklin had taken part. 
 
 His little party traveled leisurely through France, 
 stopping at the chateaux of nobles or the houses of 
 friends every night, and being entertained every- 
 where. The journey lasted six days. After a 
 short rest in Havre, they crossed the English Chan- 
 nel to Southampton. Here they spent several 
 days, scores of Franklin's old friends in England 
 flocking from all quarters to bid him farewell. 
 Among his visitors was his son William, whom he 
 had not seen for ten years. The meeting was
 
 THE FAREWELL TO FRANCE 221 
 
 affectionate on both sides, and before Franklin 
 sailed he had the pleasure of knowing that the 
 breach between them was completely healed. 
 
 His condition had improved to such an extent 
 that he was able to indulge in his favorite pastime 
 of bathing. "I went at noon," he wrote in his 
 diary, "to bathe in Martin's salt water hot bath, 
 and, floating on my back, fell asleep, and slept 
 near an hour by my watch, without sinking or 
 turning ! A thing I never did before, and should 
 hardly have thought possible." 
 
 It would have been a feat, indeed, for any one to 
 perform, but for an old man in his eightieth year 
 to accomplish it and live to tell the tale was noth- 
 ing less than marvelous. 
 
 It had been his intention to spend his time dur- 
 ing the voyage home in continuing his Autobiogra- 
 phy, which he had begun in England hi 1771 ; but 
 his health and spirits had continued to show such 
 improvement that he turned to more difficult 
 work, and during the seven weeks of the voyage 
 he wrote three scientific essays. Together they 
 made about one hundred printed pages. One of 
 them discussed the problem of smoky chimneys 
 and how they could be cured; another gave a 
 minute description of his smoke-consuming stove; 
 and the third and longest was a masterly article
 
 222 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 on navigation. In this essay he suggests an appli- 
 ance which is now universally used in marine 
 construction. "While on the topic of sinking," 
 he says, "one cannot help recollecting the well- 
 known practice of the Chinese, to divide the hold 
 of a great ship into a number of separate chambers 
 by partitions, tight calked, so that, if a leak should 
 spring in one of them, the others are not affected 
 by it; and though that chamber should fill to a 
 level with the sea, it would not be sufficient to sink 
 the vessel." To-day such "chambers" are known 
 as water-tight compartments. 
 
 On September 13 the ship sailed into Delaware 
 Bay, and the next morning, with a favoring wind 
 and on a flood tide, she arrived opposite Philadel- 
 phia. An immense throng had assembled at Mar- 
 ket Street Wharf to welcome the party, and as 
 Franklin stepped ashore he was greeted with the 
 cheers and acclamations of the multitude. 
 
 On that same spot, sixty-two years before, he 
 had first set foot in the city ; but what a contrast 
 there was between the hungry, friendless lad who 
 had walked up Market Street on that chill Sunday 
 morning, and this great philosopher and diplomat, 
 whose name and fame had spread over two con- 
 tinents, and whose triumphant return was the 
 signal for public rejoicing !
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FRANKLIN THE GOVERNOR 
 
 FRANKLIN found Pennsylvania in the midst of 
 political strife. There were then two parties in 
 the state. One, called the Republicans, favored 
 having two governing bodies in the legislature, 
 something like the Senate and the House of Rep- 
 resentatives in our present Congress. The other, 
 called the Constitutionalists, were in favor of 
 having only one governing body, as the constitu- 
 tion of the state then provided for. Franklin was 
 a Constitutionalist ; and as the news of his arrival 
 spread through the countryside, he was hailed as 
 the saviour of his party. 
 
 He was very reluctant to enter public life 
 again, but he finally yielded to the persuasions 
 of his friends, and, a week or so after his return 
 home, he consented to serve upon the Executive 
 Council of the state. He was unanimously chosen 
 chairman of the Council. 
 
 The election for governor of the state, or pres- 
 ident, as he was then called, took place in October. 
 
 223
 
 224 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The Executive Council and the Assembly voted 
 for the candidates. There were seventy-seven 
 votes cast, and when they came to be counted it 
 was found that Franklin had received seventy-six. 
 The single vote which he lacked was probably the 
 one which Franklin himself had cast ! 
 
 The inauguration occurred on the same day as 
 the election, a procession of all the officials and 
 notables of the city escorting the new governor to 
 the State House, where he was solemnly sworn in. 
 
 For years it had been one of Franklin's pet 
 theories that state and government officials should 
 be paid no salaries. The salary which he received 
 as governor he used toward founding a college for 
 Germans in the town of Lancaster, and for other 
 public charities and institutions, not touching a 
 penny of it himself . 
 
 During the next two years his life was peaceful 
 and pleasant. He was reflected to the governor- 
 ship in 1786, and again in 1787 ; and he governed 
 the state with a wisdom and intelligence which it 
 has never since known. The people prospered 
 under his rule, and he himself appears to have 
 been benefited physically by the official labors 
 which his position imposed upon him. Except 
 at the sessions of the legislature, his work was 
 not very tiring, and the constant flow of friends
 
 FRANKLIN THE GOVERNOR 
 
 225 
 
 and visitors at his house on Market Street was 
 no doubt a source of great pleasure and enter- 
 tainment to him. 
 
 The addition of a wing to this house occupied 
 much of his leisure time. It was 
 three stories high. The first floor 
 was designed for the meetings of 
 the Philosophical Society; the 
 second he reserved for his library ; 
 and the third was made up of 
 lodging-rooms. In the library he 
 took a special pride. It contained 
 the largest and best-chosen pri- 
 vate collection of books in the 
 country ; and here, in reading and 
 study, he spent all his spare hours. 
 
 He gave his ingenuity full sway 
 in the countless little improve- 
 ments and labor-saving devices 
 which he invented, not only for 
 this room, but for other parts of 
 the house. Finding it troublesome 
 to reach up for books, he had his 
 easy chair built in such a way 
 that by turning up the seat it 
 formed a stepladder, a contrivance 
 in common use to-day. Later, FRAMCUM'S CLOCK 
 Q
 
 226 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 he introduced a simpler contrivance which he 
 called his "long arm." It was a stick with an 
 arrangement in the shape of a hand at one end by 
 which he could take books from the highest shelf. 
 Below the grate of the fireplace in the library he 
 had had built a small iron plate or trapdoor, about 
 six inches square, with a hinge and a small ring 
 to raise it by. When this door was lifted, a current 
 of air from the cellar rushed up through the grate 
 and rekindled the fire. 
 
 In his bedroom he had two cords hanging be- 
 side his bed. One was to pull a bell. The other 
 raised an iron bolt, about an inch square and nine 
 or ten inches long, which dropped through staples 
 at the top of the door leading into the room ; and 
 until the bolt was raised the door could not be 
 opened. He also improved the crude mechanism 
 which was then used for copying letters; and in 
 1787, Washington in his diary relates that he 
 "visited a Machine at Dr. Franklin's (called a 
 Mangle) for pressing in place of ironing clothes 
 from the wash, which Machine, from the facility 
 with which it despatches business, is well calculated 
 for Table cloths & such articles as have not pleats 
 & irregular foldings, and might be very useful in 
 large families." Another, and perhaps the most 
 original of his devices, was the vessel or tub in
 
 FRANKLIN THE GOVERNOR 227 
 
 which he took his daily bath. It was composed 
 of copper, and made in the form of a slipper. He 
 sat in the heel with his legs extended into the toe 
 or vamp; and on the instep there was a stand 
 big enough to hold a book, so that he might employ 
 his time in reading or writing as he wished. 
 
 To guard against a recurrence of his old ail- 
 ments, he had a sedan chair made, and during the 
 last year or two of his life he was often carried 
 about in it through the streets. 
 
 In May, 1787, after six years of delay, a conven- 
 tion was finally called in Philadelphia to frame a 
 constitution by which the United States might be 
 governed. Franklin was not originally elected a 
 member, but when some doubt arose as to whether 
 Washington would attend, Franklin's name was 
 added to the Pennsylvania delegation, so that there 
 would be present at least one man whose opinion 
 and advice would be listened to by everybody. 
 
 As it happened, however, Washington did attend, 
 and was chosen president of the convention. 
 Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, one of his first 
 acts was to visit Franklin; and during his whole 
 stay in the city he was much in the company of 
 the aged philosopher Washington aged fifty- 
 five and Franklin aged eighty-one. 
 
 The convention assembled on May 25, 1787.
 
 228 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 A severe rainstorm prevented Franklin from attend- 
 ing on the opening day ; but at the next meeting 
 he was present, and he missed scarcely a day of 
 the remainder of the long four months' session. 
 
 The convention was held behind closed doors, 
 and very little is known of the debates and dis- 
 cussions that took place. It is known, however, 
 that Franklin himself seldom, if ever, spoke from 
 the floor. His feebleness made it impossible for 
 him to stand very long upon his feet, so he wrote 
 out his speeches beforehand, and had some member 
 read them for him. 
 
 For the first two months the convention wrangled 
 over the proper representation of the different 
 states in Congress. If members of Congress were 
 elected according to the size of a state, or according 
 to its population, such small states as Rhode 
 Island and Delaware would have only one or two 
 representatives, while Virginia and Pennsylvania 
 would have fifteen or twenty. Neither Rhode 
 Island nor Delaware would come into any union 
 where it would have only a small chance of being 
 heard, and for a time it looked as though the 
 convention would break up without accomplishing 
 anything. 
 
 At last a committee was chosen to draw up some 
 sort of agreement which would suit both the large
 
 FRANKLIN THE GOVERNOR 229 
 
 and the small states. Franklin was a member of 
 this committee, and suggested the simple plan of 
 having each state represented equally in the Senate, 
 while the number of members which it might send 
 to the House of Representatives should be deter- 
 mined by its population. After heated debates 
 this expedient was adopted ; and Franklin had the 
 signal honor of not only saving the convention 
 from disruption, but of originating a system of 
 representation which was fair to states of all 
 sizes, and which remains to-day one of the most 
 striking features of the Constitution. 
 
 Among the other things which he strongly ad- 
 vocated was that the President of the United 
 States should be elected for a term of seven years, 
 and not be eligible for reelection. The convention 
 finally decided upon the four-year term, and made 
 no mention of reelection; but lately Franklin's 
 idea has found much favor, and it would indeed be 
 curious if, after the lapse of more than a hundred 
 and twenty-five years, his plan were finally adopted. 
 
 His work in the convention was a fitting close 
 to his public career; and the services which he 
 rendered his country in the framing of the Consti- 
 tution would alone have been enough to have won 
 him lasting fame. There is hardly a clause in 
 that great document which does not bear the
 
 230 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 stamp of his advice and approval, while his never- 
 failing wit and tact kept the members in good humor 
 and made the Constitution not only a possibility 
 but a glorious reality. 
 
 When all the terms had been agreed upon, 
 Franklin urged the members to pass the Constitu- 
 tion unanimously; and he spoke to such good 
 effect that even those who were not entirely 
 satisfied with it signed it to a man. 
 
 A typical incident marked the closing scenes of 
 the convention. It is related by James Madison, 
 one of the members, and Franklin's stanch sup- 
 porter throughout the whole proceedings. "While 
 the last members were signing," he says, "Dr. 
 Franklin, looking toward the president's chair, 
 at the back of which a rising sun happened to be 
 painted, observed to a few members near him 
 that painters had found it difficult to distinguish 
 in their art, a rising, from a setting, sun. 'I have,' 
 said he, 'often and often in the course of the 
 session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and 
 fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the pres- 
 ident, without being able to tell whether it was 
 rising or setting; but now, at length, I have the 
 happiness to know that it is a rising and not a 
 setting sun.'" 
 
 On September 17 the convention adjourned.
 
 FRANKLIN THE GOVERNOR 231 
 
 The work for which it had been called together 
 had been accomplished, and now it only remained 
 for the thirteen states to adopt the Constitution. 
 Franklin was untiring in his efforts in this direc- 
 tion, and through his persuasion and influence he 
 won over several of the lukewarm states. When 
 ten states had agreed to accept the provisions of 
 the Constitution, a great parade, followed by a 
 banquet and orations, was given in Philadelphia 
 to celebrate the event; and Franklin, both as a 
 leading member of the convention, and as the 
 governor of Pennsylvania, was one of the most 
 honored and distinguished guests. 
 
 This was probably his last appearance at any 
 great public ceremony. After the convention he 
 served out his third term as governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania ; and then, at the age of eighty-two, he was 
 at last allowed to retire to the leisure and comfort 
 of private life. But even then his immense vitality 
 would not permit him to remain long idle. As 
 soon as he had thrown aside the cares of public 
 office, he began to work upon his half-finished 
 Autobiography ; and although he never completed 
 it, he continued to work on it until a short time 
 before his death. 
 
 The last years of his life were marked with the 
 serenity and peace of a man whose labors are over
 
 232 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 and whose work has been well done. Toward 
 the end there were periods when he suffered a 
 great deal, but he bore the pain with a calmness 
 and bravery truly remarkable. No complaint 
 ever issued from his lips ; and in his library, where 
 he spent the greater part of his time, or in his 
 garden, where he loved to sit in the long summer 
 afternoons with his grandchildren gathered about 
 him, he greeted his hosts of visitors with the quick 
 bright smile and the firm handclasp which had 
 won him friends the world over. 
 
 "Let us sit till the evening of life is spent," he wrote to 
 a friend. "The last hours are always the most joyful. 
 When we can stay no longer, it is time enough then to bid 
 each other good night, separate, and go quietly to bed." 
 
 This was his simple philosophy of life; and al- 
 though his last few years were very precious to 
 him, yet, when the time came, he was ready to go. 
 On April 17, 1790, with his family and his closest 
 friends grouped about him, he died as he had 
 wished to die, quietly, calmly, serenely, and at 
 peace with the world. 
 
 A great scientist, a great philosopher, a great 
 diplomat one of the greatest among the many 
 great men of his day Benjamin Franklin was, 
 above all else, a great American. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America.
 
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