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 AMERICAN STATESMEN 
 
 JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 
 
 IN THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
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Slmttitm Statesmen 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 Cbe firbersitir press, £ambnDrj£ 
 
F5ADB1G ROOM 
 
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 Copyright, 1889 and 1898. 
 By JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 
 
 Copyright, 1898, 
 By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 The editor has often been asked : " Upon what 
 principle have you. constructed this series of lives 
 of American statesmen ? " The query has always 
 been civil in form, while in substance it has often 
 implied that the " principle," as to which inquiry 
 is made, has been undiscoverable by the interro- 
 gator. Other queries, like pendants, have also 
 come : Why have you not included A, or B, or 
 C ? The inference from these is that the querist 
 conceives A, or B, or C to be statesmen certainly 
 not less eminent than E, or F, or G, whose names 
 he sees upon the list. ' Now there really has been 
 a principle of selection ; but it has not been a 
 mathematical principle, whereby the several states- 
 men of the country have been brought to the 
 measuring-pole, like horses, and those of a certain 
 height have been accepted, and those not seeming 
 to reach that height have been rejected. The 
 principle has been to make such a list of men in 
 public life that the aggregation of all their biogra- 
 phies would give, in this personal shape, the history 
 and the picture of the growth and development 
 of the United States from the beginning of that 
 
 295825 
 
vi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 agitation which led to the Eevolution until the 
 completion of that solidarity which we believe has 
 resulted from the civil war and the subsequent 
 reconstruction. / 
 
 In illustration, let me speak of a few volumes. 
 Patrick Henry was hardly a great statesman ; but, 
 apart from the prestige and romance which his 
 eloquence has thrown about his memory, he fur- 
 nished the best opportunity for drawing a picture 
 of the South in the period preceding the Revolu- 
 tion, and for showing why and how the southern 
 colonies, among whom Virginia was easily the 
 leader, became sharers in the strife. 
 
 Benton might possibly have been included upon 
 his own merits. But if there were any doubt 
 upon this point, or if including him would seem to 
 have rendered it proper to include others equally 
 eminent and yet omitted, the reply is that Benton 
 serves the important purpose of giving the best 
 available opportunity to sketch the character of the 
 Southwest, and the political feeling and develop- 
 ment in that section of the country. 
 
 In like manner, Cass was hardly a great states- 
 man, although very active and prominent for a 
 long period. But the Northwest — or what used 
 to be the Northwest not so very long ago — comes 
 out of the wilderness and into the domain of civ- 
 ilization in the life of Cass. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 John Randolph, erratic and bizarre, was not 
 justly entitled to rank among great statesmen. 
 But the characteristics of Congress, as a body, can 
 be brought into better relief in the narrative of his 
 life than in that of any other person of his day. 
 These characteristics were so striking, so essential 
 to an understanding of the history of those times, 
 and so utterly different from the habits and ways 
 of our own era, that an opportunity to present 
 them must have been forced if Randolph had not 
 fortunately offered it. 
 
 These four volumes are mentioned by way of 
 illustration of the plan of the series in some of 
 its less obvious purposes. By the light of the 
 suggestions thus afforded, readers will probably see 
 for themselves the motives which have led to the 
 presence of other volumes. But one further state- 
 ment should be made. It has been the editor's 
 intention to deal with the advancement of the 
 country. When the people have moved steadily 
 along any road, the men who have led them on 
 that road have been selected as subjects. When 
 the people have refused to enter upon a road, or, 
 having entered, have soon turned back from it, the 
 leaders upon such inchoate or abandoned excur- 
 sions have for the most part been rejected. Those 
 who have been exponents of ideas and principles 
 which have entered into the progress and have 
 
viii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 developed in a positive way the history of the 
 nation have been chosen ; those who have unfortu- 
 nately linked themselves with rejected ideas and 
 principles have themselves also been rejected. Cal- 
 houn has been made an exception to this rule, for 
 reasons so obvious that they need not be rehearsed. 
 A Series of Great Failures presents fine oppor- 
 tunities, which will some day attract some enter- 
 prising editor; but that is not the undertaking 
 here in hand. If the men who guided and the men 
 who failed to guide the movement and progress of 
 the country were to stand side by side in this series 
 its size would be increased by at least one third, 
 but probably not so its value. Yet the failures 
 have held out some temptations which it has been 
 difficult to resist. For example, there was Gov- 
 ernor Hutchinson, whose life has since been written 
 by the same gentleman who in this series has 
 admirably presented his great antagonist, Samuel 
 Adams. There was much to be said in favor of 
 setting the two portraits, done by the same hand, 
 side by side. It must be remembered that the 
 cause for the disaffected colonists is argued by the 
 writers in this series in the old-fashioned way, — 
 that is to say, upon the fundamental theory that 
 Great Britain was foully wrong and her cis- Atlantic 
 subjects nobly right. A life of Hutchinson would 
 have furnished an opportunity for showing that, as 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 an unmodified proposition, this is very far from 
 being correct. The time has come when efforts to 
 state the quarrel fairly for both parties are not 
 altogether refused a hearing in the United States. 
 Nevertheless the admission of Hutchinson for this 
 purpose would have entailed too many conse- 
 quences. The colonists did secede and did estab- 
 lish independence ; their action and their success 
 constitute the history of the country; and the 
 leaders of their movement are the persons whose 
 portraits are properly hung in this gallery. The 
 obstructionists, leaders of the defeated party, who 
 failed to control our national destiny, must find 
 room elsewhere. In the same way, Stephen A. 
 Douglas has been left outside the door. Able, 
 distinguished, influential, it was yet his misfortune 
 to represent ideas and policies which the people 
 decisively condemned. Sufficient knowledge of 
 these ideas and policies is obtained from the lives 
 of those who opposed and triumphed over them. 
 The history of non-success needs not the elaborate 
 presentation of a biography of the defeated leader 
 in a series of statesmen. The work of Douglas was 
 discredited ; it does not remain as an active sur- 
 viving influence, or as an integral part amid our 
 modern conditions. Andrew Johnson, also, fur- 
 nished such an admirable opportunity for the dis- 
 cussion of the subject of reconstruction that some 
 
x EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 persons have thought that he should have found 
 a place. But this was impossible unless he were 
 absolutely necessary for this especial purpose ; and 
 fortunately he was not so, since the work could be 
 done in the lives of Seward and Stevens and Sum- 
 ner. Then, if one were willing to contribute to the 
 immortality of a scoundrel, there was Aaron Burr ; 
 but large as was the part which he played for a 
 while in American politics, and near as it came to 
 being very much larger, the presence of his name 
 would have been a degradation of the series. 
 Moreover his career was strictly selfish and per- 
 sonal; he led no party, represented no idea, and 
 left no permanent trace. There was also William 
 H. Crawford, who narrowly missed being Presi- 
 dent, and who was a greater man than many of 
 the Presidents ; but he did miss, and he died, and 
 there was an end of him. There was Buchanan 
 also ; intellectually he had the making of a states- 
 man ; but his wrong-headed blundering is suffi- 
 ciently depicted for the purposes of this series by 
 the lives of those who foiled him. 
 
 These names, again, are mentioned only as indi- 
 cations of the scheme, as explaining some exclu- 
 sions. There are other exclusions, which have 
 been made, not because the individuals were not 
 men of note, but because it seemed that the story 
 of their lives would fill no hiatus among the vol- 
 umes of the completed series. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION jrf 
 
 The editor cannot expect every one to agree with 
 him in the selection which he has made. We all 
 have our favorites in past history as well as in 
 modern politics, and few lists would precisely dupli- 
 cate each other. So the only thing which would 
 seriously afflict the editor with a sense of having 
 made a bad blunder would be, if some one should 
 detect a really gaping chasm, a neglect to treat 
 somewhere among the lives some important item 
 of our national history falling within the period 
 which the series is designed to cover. 
 
 The whole series naturally shapes itself, in a 
 somewhat crude and rough way to be sure, yet by 
 virtue of substantial lines of division, into a few 
 sub-series or groups. The first of these belongs to 
 the Revolutionary period, what may be called the 
 destructive period, since it witnessed the destruc- 
 tion of the long-established political conditions. 
 In this group we find the leaders of the disaffection 
 and revolt : Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, 
 Patrick Henry, and George Washington. Wash- 
 ington, of course, might properly find a place also 
 in the second group ; but for the purposes of sepa- 
 ration he is by preference placed in the first one, 
 because the Revolution was to so great an extent 
 his own personal achievement, his transcendent and 
 crowning glory. 
 
 The second group, constituting the constructive 
 
xu EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 period, comprises the men who were foremost in 
 framing the Constitution, and in organizing and 
 giving coherence and life to the new government 
 and to the nationality thereby created. This is 
 introduced by John Adams. He, like Washington, 
 might properly find a place in both the first and 
 the second groups, but the distinction of the presi- 
 dential office brings him with sufficient propriety 
 into the second. The others in this group are 
 Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, John 
 Jay, and John Marshall. 
 
 The third group follows the overthrow of Feder- 
 alism with its theory of a strongly centralized gov- 
 ernment. This, of course, begins with Thomas 
 Jefferson, who led and organized the new party of 
 the democracy. He is followed by his political 
 disciple, James Madison ; by their secretary of the 
 treasury, Albert Gallatin ; and by James Monroe, 
 John Quincy Adams, and John Randolph. The 
 two last named are hardly to be called Jefferso- 
 nians, but they mark the passage of the nation 
 from the statesmanship of Jefferson to the widely 
 different democracy of Jackson. 
 
 The fourth group witnesses the absorption of the 
 nation in questions of domestic policy. The crude 
 and rough domination of Andrew Jackson opened 
 a new order of things. Men's minds were busied 
 with affairs at home, at first more especially with 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 the tariff, then more and more exclusively with sla- 
 very. This group, besides Jackson, includes Mar- 
 tin Van Buren, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John 
 C. Calhoun, Thomas H. Benton, and Lewis Cass. 
 
 The fifth and closing group is that of the civil 
 war. This of course opens with Abraham Lincoln. 
 The others are William H. Seward, as being a sort 
 of prime minister throughout the period ; Salmon 
 P. Chase, in whose life can properly be discussed 
 the financial policy and the principal legal matters ; 
 Charles Francis Adams, embodying the important 
 topic of diplomatic relations ; Charles Sumner, 
 representing the advanced abolitionist element ; 
 and Thaddeus Stevens, who appears as a tribune, 
 perhaps we may say the leader, in the popular 
 branch of Congress. 
 
 Almost inevitably the series begins with Benja- 
 min Franklin, the first great American, the first 
 man born on this side of the water who was " meant 
 for the universe." His mere existence was a sort 
 of omen. It was absurd to suppose that a people 
 which could produce a man of that scope, in char- 
 acter and intellect, could long remain in a condi- 
 tion of political dependence. It would have been 
 preposterous to have had Franklin die a colonist, 
 and go down to posterity, not as an American, but 
 as a colonial Englishman. He was a microcosm 
 of the coming nation of the United States ; all 
 
xir EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 the better moral and intellectual qualities of our 
 people existed in him, save only the dreamy philo- 
 sophy of the famous New England school of think- 
 ers. It is very interesting to see how slowly and 
 reluctantly, yet how surely and decisively, he came 
 to the point of resistance and independence. He 
 was not like so many, who were unstable and shift- 
 ing. There was no backward step, though there 
 were many painful and unwilling forward ones in 
 his progress. One feels almost as if an apology 
 were needed for writing another life of a man so 
 be-written. Yet there is some reason for doing 
 so ; the chapter concerning his services in France 
 during the Revolution presents the true facts and 
 the magnitude of his usefulness more carefully 
 than, so far as I am aware, it has previously been 
 done. 
 
 As a promoter of the Revolution, Samuel Adams 
 has easily the most conspicuous place. He was an 
 agitator to the very centre of his marrow. He was 
 the incarnation of New England ; to know thor- 
 oughly his career is to know the Massachusetts of 
 that day as an anatomist knows the human frame. 
 The man of the town meeting did more to kindle 
 the Revolution than any other one person. Many 
 stood with him, but his life tells the story and 
 presents the picture. The like service is done for 
 Virginia by Patrick Henry ; and the contrast be- 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 tween the two men is most striking and pictur- 
 esque, yet not more so than the difference between 
 the two sections of the country to which they re- 
 spectively belonged. 
 
 If John Adams had died before he was made 
 President, he also would have been one of this 
 group. But the lustre of his official position pre- 
 vents our placing him in the earlier constellation. 
 Yet, though not more prominent than many others, 
 in fact hardly to be called prominent at all in the 
 events which led up to the Revolution, he became 
 a leader in the first Congress, and it is probable 
 that no one contributed more than he did — possi- 
 bly no one contributed so much — towards forcing 
 the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Washington, though a member of Congress, was 
 by no means conspicuous in the agitation which 
 preceded the actual outbreak of hostilities. His 
 entry in his uniform among his civilian comrades 
 was indeed dramatic; but his important public 
 career really began with his acceptance of the posi- 
 tion of commander in chief. In this capacity he 
 achieved the overthrow of the British supremacy, 
 and brought to a successful close the period of 
 destruction. 
 
 This first group is a small one, for the first Con- 
 gress brought no new men to the front. Indeed, 
 that body lost its own prestige very soon after inde- 
 
xvi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 pendence was declared ; thereafter it was no stage 
 on which new men could win distinction, or men 
 already famous could add to their store ; indeed, 
 members were lucky if they escaped without dimi- 
 nution of their reputations, by very reason of being 
 parts of so nerveless and useless a body. The fact 
 is, that the civilians, after they had set the ball 
 going, did little more. They contributed almost 
 nothing to the Revolution in any practical way 
 during its actual progress. Perhaps they could 
 not ; but certainly they did not. Washington and 
 his officers and soldiers deserve all the credit for 
 making independence a reality instead of an as- 
 sertion. They were not very strenuously or gener- 
 ously backed by the mass of the people after the 
 first fervor was over. The truth is that that grand 
 event was the work of a small body of heroes, who 
 presented freedom and nationality to the people of 
 the thirteen colonies. John Adams and Congress 
 said that the colonists were free, and there left the 
 matter, fundi officio. Washington and the troops 
 took up the business, and actually made colonists 
 into freemen. Those upon whom this dignity and 
 advantage were conferred were, for the most part, 
 content somewhat supinely to allow the new con- 
 dition to be established for them. 
 
 JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 
 
 September, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGHE 
 
 I. Early Years 1 
 
 v II. A Citizen of Philadelphia: Concernment in 
 
 Public Affairs . . . ... 17 
 
 HE. Representative of Pennsylvania in England : 
 
 Return Home 59 
 
 IV. Life in Philadelphia 86 
 
 V. Second Mission to England: I. ... 100 
 
 VI. Second Mission to England: II. . . . 142 
 VII. Second Mission to England : III. The Hutch- 
 inson Letters: The Privy Council Scene; 
 
 Return Home 177 
 
 VIII. Services in the States 204 
 
 IX. Minister to France : I. Deane and Beaumar- 
 
 chais: Foreign Officers .... 220 
 
 X. Minister to France : II. Prisoners : Trouble 
 
 with Lee and others 248 
 
 XI. Minister to France : III. Treaty with France : 
 
 More Quarrels 267 
 
 XII. Financiering 304 
 
 JQII. Habits of Life and of Business: an Adams 
 
 Incident . 337 
 
 XIV. Peace Negotiations: Last Years in France 357 
 XV. At Home : President of Pennsylvania : The 
 
 Constitutional Convention: Death . . 403 
 Index 429 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Benjamin Franklin Frontispiece 
 
 From the original by Jean Baptiste Greuze, in the 
 Boston Public Library. It was painted for Benjamin 
 Franklin as a gift to Richard Oswald, the English com- 
 missioner associated with him in the peace negotiations 
 of 1782. Gardner Brewer of Boston bought the painting 
 in 1872 and presented ,it to the Library. 
 
 Autograph from the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The vignette of Independence Hall is after a drawing 
 in the possession of the American Bank Note Co., Phila- 
 delphia. Page 
 Count Vergennes facing 84 
 
 From the frontispiece to Doniol, " Histoire de la Par' 
 ticipation de la France a l'Establissement des Etats- 
 Unis d'Amerique," Paris, 1886, 5 vols., 4to, vol. i. ; an 
 engraving by Vangelisti, from the original painting by 
 Antoine Frangois Callet. 
 
 Autograph from same book. 
 Lord Hillsborough (Born Wills Hill ; afterwards Mar- 
 quis of Downshire) facing 164 
 
 From a painting by J. Rising, owned by Lord Salisbury. 
 
 Autograph from MS. collection in the New York 
 Public Library, Lenox Building. 
 Paul Jones facing 300 
 
 From the original portrait by C. W. Peale in Independ- 
 ence Hall. 
 
 Autograph from MS. collection in Library of Boston 
 Athenaeum. 
 Sea-Fight between the Serapis and Bon Homme 
 
 Richard facing 302 
 
 Oif Flamborough Head, September 3, 1779. Paul 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Jones's ship, in compliment to the author of " Poor Rich- 
 ard's Maxims," was named " Bon Homme Richard." 
 Captain Pearson, who commanded the Serapis, was 
 knighted for his heroic resistance. Paul Jones, tradition 
 says, on hearing of the honor conferred on Pearson, 
 good-naturedly observed, "If I ever meet him again, 
 I'll make a lord of him." 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
 It is a lamentable matter for any writer to find 
 himself compelled to sketch, however briefly, the 
 early years of Benjamin Franklin. That auto- 
 biography, in which the story of those years is so 
 inimitably told, by its vividness, its simplicity, 
 even by its straightforward vanity, and by the 
 quaint charm of its old-fashioned but well-nigh 
 faultless style, stands among the few masterpieces 
 of English prose. It ought to have served for the 
 perpetual protection of its subject as a copyright 
 more sacred than any which rests upon mere statu- 
 tory law. Such, however, has not been the case, 
 and the narrative has been rehearsed over and 
 over again till' the American who is not familiar 
 with it is indeed a curiosity. Yet no one of the 
 subsequent narrators has justified his undertaking. 
 Therefore because the tale has been told so often, 
 and once has been told so well, and also in order 
 that the stone which it is my lot to cast upon a 
 
2 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 cairn made up of so many failures may at least be 
 only a small pebble, I shall get forward as speed- 
 ily as possible to that point in Franklin's career 
 where his important public services begin, at the 
 same time commending every reader to turn again 
 for further refreshment of his knowledge to those 
 pages which might well have aroused the envy of 
 Fielding and Defoe. 
 
 Franklin came from typical English stock. For 
 three hundred years, perhaps for many centuries 
 more, his ancestors lived on a small freehold at 
 Ecton in Northamptonshire, and so far back as 
 record or tradition ran the eldest son in each gen- 
 eration had been bred a blacksmith. But after 
 ( the strange British fashion there was intertwined 
 with this singular fixedness of ideas a stubborn 
 \/ independence in thinking, courageously exercised 
 C in times of peril. The Franklins were among the 
 early Protestants, and held their faith unshaken 
 by the terrors of the reign of Bloody Mary. By 
 the end of Charles the Second's time they were 
 non -conformists and attendants on conventicles; 
 and about 1682 Josiah Franklin, seeking the 
 peaceful exercise of his creed, migrated to Boston, 
 Massachusetts. His first wife bore him seven 
 children, and died. Not satisfied, he took in sec- 
 ond nuptials Abiah Folger, "daughter of Peter 
 Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, 
 of whom honorable mention is made by Cotton 
 Mather," and justly, since in those dark days he 
 was an active philanthropist towards the Indians, 
 
EARLY YEARS 3 
 
 and an opponent of religious persecution. 1 This 
 lady outdid her predecessor, contributing no less 
 than ten children to expand the family circle. 
 The eighth of this second brood was named Ben- 
 jamin, in memory of his father's favorite brother. 
 He was born in a house on Milk Street, opposite 
 the Old South Church, January 6, old style, 17, 
 new style, 1706. Mr. Parton says that probably 
 Benjamin "derived from his mother the fashion of 
 his body and the cast of his countenance. There 
 are lineal descendants of Peter Folger who strik- 
 ingly resemble Franklin in these particulars ; one 
 of whom, a banker of New Orleans, looks like 
 a portrait of Dr. Franklin stepped out of its 
 frame." 2 A more important inheritance was that 
 of the humane and liberal traits of his mother's 
 father. 
 
 In that young, scrambling village in the new 
 country, where all material, human or otherwise, 
 was roughly and promptly utilized, the unproduc- 
 tive period of boyhood was cut very short. Frank- 
 lin's father speedily resolved to devote him, "as 
 the tithe of his sons, to the service of the church," 
 and so sent him to the grammar school. A droller 
 misfit than Franklin in an orthodox New England 
 pulpit of that era can hardly be imagined; but 
 since he was only seven years old when his father 
 endeavored to arrange his life's career, a misap- 
 preciation of his fitnesses was not surprising. The 
 boy himself had the natural hankering of children 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, i. 27. 2 Ibid. i. 31. 
 
V 
 
 4 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 bred in a seaboard town for the life of a sailor. 
 It is amusing to fancy the discussions between this 
 babe of seven years and his father, concerning his 
 occupation in life. Certainly the babe had not 
 altogether the worst of it, for when he was eight 
 years old his father definitively gave up the notion 
 of making him a preacher of the Gospel. At the 
 ripe age of ten he was taken from school, and set 
 to assist his father in the trade of tallow-chandler 
 and soap-boiler. But dipping wicks and pouring 
 grease pleased him hardly better than reconciling 
 infant damnation and a red-hot hell with the love- 
 liness of Christianity. The lad remained discon- 
 tented. His chief taste seemed to be for reading, 
 and great were the ingenuity and the self-sacrifice 
 whereby he secured books and leisure to read them. 
 The resultant of these several forces was at last 
 a suggestion from his father that he should take 
 up, as a sort of quasi-literary occupation, the trade 
 of a printer. James Franklin, an older brother of 
 Benjamin, was already of that calling. Benja- 
 min stood out for some time, but at last reluctantly 
 yielded, and in the maturity of his thirteenth year 
 this child set his hand to an indenture of appren- 
 ticeship which formally bound him to his brother 
 for the next nine years of his life. 
 
 Handling the types aroused a boyish ambi- 
 tion to see himself in print. He scribbled some 
 ballads, one about a shipwreck, another about 
 the capture of a pirate; but he "escaped being 
 a poet," as fortunately as he had escaped being a 
 
EARLY YEARS 5 
 
 clergyman. James Franklin seems to have trained 
 his junior with such fraternal cuffs and abuse as 
 the elder brothers of English biography and lit- 
 erature appear usually to have bestowed on the 
 younger. But this younger one got his revenges. 
 James published the "New England Courant," 
 and, inserting in it some objectionable matter, was 
 forbidden to continue it. Thereupon he canceled 
 the indenture of apprenticeship, and the newspaper 
 was thereafter published by Benjamin Franklin. 
 A secret renewal of the indenture was executed 
 simultaneously. This "flimsy scheme" gave the 
 boy his chance. Secure that the document would 
 never be produced, he resolved to leave the print- 
 ing-house. But the influence of James prevented 
 his getting employment elsewhere in the town. 
 Besides this, other matters also harassed him. It 
 gives an idea of the scale of things in the little 
 settlement, and of the serious way in which life 
 was taken even at its outset, to hear that this 
 'prentice lad of seventeen years had already made 
 himself "a little obnoxious to the governing party," 
 so as to fear that he might soon " bring himself into 
 scrapes." For the inherited habit of freedom in] 
 religious speculation had taken a new form in 
 Franklin, who was already a free-thinker, and by 
 his "indiscreet disputations about religion" had 
 come to be " pointed at with horror by good people 
 as an infidel and atheist" — compromising, even 
 perilous, names to bear in that Puritan village. Va- 
 rious motives thus combined to induce migration. 
 
6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 He stole away on board a sloop bound for New 
 York, and after three days arrived there, in Octo- 
 ber, 1723. He had but a trifling sum of money, 
 and he knew no one in the strange city. He 
 sought occupation in his trade, but got nothing 
 better than advice to move on to Philadelphia; 
 and thither he went. The story of this journey- 
 ing is delightfully told in the autobiography, with 
 the famous little scene wherein he figures with a 
 loaf under each arm and munching a third while 
 he walks "up Market Street, as far as Fourth 
 Street, passing by the door of Mr. Read, my fu- 
 ture wife's father; when she, standing at the door, 
 saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a 
 most awkward, ridiculous appearance." 
 
 In Philadelphia Franklin soon found opportu- 
 nity to earn a living at his trade. There were 
 then only two printers in that town, ignorant men 
 both, with scant capacity in the technique of their 
 calling. His greater acquirements and ability, 
 and superior knowledge of the craft, soon attracted 
 attention. One day Sir William Keith, gov- 
 ernor of the province, appeared at the printing- 
 office, inquired for Franklin, and carried him off 
 "to taste some excellent Madeira " with himself 
 and Colonel French, while employer Keimer, be- 
 wildered at the compliment to his journeyman, 
 "star'd like a pig poison'd." Over the genial 
 glasses the governor proposed that Franklin should 
 set up for himself, and promised his own influence 
 to secure for him the public printing. Later he 
 
EARLY YEARS 7 
 
 wrote a letter, intended to induce Franklin's father 
 to advance the necessary funds. Equipped with 
 this document, Franklin set out, in April, 1724, 
 to seek his father's cooperation, and surprised his 
 family by appearing unannounced among them, 
 not at all in the classic garb of the prodigal son, 
 but "having a genteel new suit from head to foot, 
 a watch, and my pockets lin'd with near five 
 pounds sterling in silver." But neither his pro- 
 sperous appearance nor the flattering epistle of the 
 great man could induce his hard-headed parent to 
 favor a scheme "of setting a boy up in business, 
 who wanted yet three years of being at man's 
 estate." The independent old tallow-chandler only 
 concluded that the distinguished baronet "must be 
 of small discretion." So Franklin returned with 
 "some small gifts as tokens" of parental love, 
 much good advice as to "steady industry and pru- 
 dent parsimony," but no cash in hand. The gal- 
 lant governor, however, said: "Since he will not 
 set you up, I will do it myself," and a plan was 
 soon concocted whereby Franklin was to go to 
 England and purchase a press and types with 
 funds to be advanced by Sir William. Every- 
 thing was arranged, only from day to day there 
 was delay in the actual delivery to Franklin of the 
 letters of introduction and credit. The governor 
 was a very busy man. The day of sailing came, 
 but the documents had not come, only a message 
 from the governor that Franklin might feel easy 
 at embarking, for that the papers should be sent 
 
8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 on board at Newcastle, down the stream. Ac- 
 cordingly, at the last moment, a messenger came 
 hurriedly on board and put the packet into the 
 captain's hands. Afterward, when during the lei- 
 sure hours of the voyage the letters were sorted, 
 none was found for Franklin. His patron had 
 simply broken an inconvenient promise. It was 
 indeed a "pitiful trick " to "impose so grossly on 
 a poor innocent boy." Yet Franklin, in his broad 
 
 ^tolerance of all that is bad as well as good in 
 human nature, spoke with good-tempered indiffer- 
 ence, and with more of charity than of justice, 
 concerning the deceiver. "It was a habit he had 
 acquired. He wish'd to please everybody; and, 
 having little to give, he gave expectations. He 
 was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty 
 good writer, and a good governor for the people. 
 . . . Several of our best laws were of his plan- 
 
 | ning, and passed during his administration. " 
 
 None the less it turned out that this contemp- 
 tible governor did Franklin a good turn in sending 
 him to London, though the benefit came in a fash- 
 ion not anticipated by either. For Franklin, not 
 yet much wiser than the generality of mankind, 
 had to go through his period of youthful folly, 
 and it was good fortune for him that the worst 
 portion of this period fell within the eighteen 
 months which he passed in England. Had this 
 part of his career been run in Philadelphia its 
 unsavory aroma might have kept him long in ill 
 odor among his fellow townsmen, then little toler- 
 
EARLY YEARS 9 
 
 ant of profligacy. But the "errata" of a jour- 
 neyman printer in London were quite beyond the 
 ken of provincial gossips. He easily gained em- 
 ployment in his trade, at wages which left him a 
 little surplus beyond his maintenance. This sur- 
 plus, during most of the time, he and his comrades 
 squandered in the pleasures of the town. Yet ■ 
 in one matter his good sense showed itself, for 
 he kept clear of drink; indeed, his real nature 
 asserted itself even at this time, to such a degree 
 that we find him waging a temperance crusade 
 in his printing-house, and actually weaning some 
 of his fellow compositors from their dearly loved / 
 "beer." One of these, David Hall, afterward 
 became his able partner in the printing business 
 in Philadelphia. Amid much bad companionship 
 he fell in with some clever men. His friend 
 James Ralph, though a despicable, bad fellow, 
 had brains and some education. At this time, 
 too, Franklin was in the proselyting stage of infi- 
 delity. He published "A Dissertation on Liberty 
 and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," and the pam- 
 phlet got him some little notoriety among the free- 
 thinkers of London, and an introduction to some 
 of them, but chiefly of the class who love to sit in 
 taverns and blow clouds of words. Their society 
 did him no good, and such effervescence was better 
 blown off in London than in Philadelphia. 
 
 But after the novelty of London life had worn 
 off, it ceased to be to Franklin's taste. He began 
 to reform somewhat, to retrench and lay by a little 
 
10 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 money; and after eighteen months he eagerly- 
 seized an opportunity which offered for returning 
 home. This was opened to him by a Mr. Den- 
 ham, a good man and prosperous merchant, then 
 engaged in England in purchasing stock for his 
 store in Philadelphia. Franklin was to be his 
 managing and confidential clerk, with the prospect 
 of rapid advancement. At the same time Sir 
 William Wyndham, ex-chancellor of the exchequer, 
 endeavored to persuade Franklin to open a swim- 
 ming school in London. He promised very aristo- 
 cratic patronage; and as an opening for money- 
 getting this plan was perhaps the better. Franklin 
 almost closed with the proposition. He seems, 
 however, to have had a little touch of homesick- 
 ness, a preference, if not quite a yearning, for the 
 colonies, which sufficed to turn the scale. Such 
 was his third escape; he might have passed his 
 days in instructing the scions of British nobility 
 in the art of swimming! He arrived at home, 
 after a tedious voyage, October 11, 1726. But 
 almost immediately fortune seemed to cross him, 
 for Mr. Denham and he were both taken suddenly 
 ill. Denham died; Franklin narrowly evaded 
 death, and fancied himself somewhat disappointed 
 at his recovery, "regretting in some degree that 
 [he] must now sometime or other have all that 
 disagreeable work to go over again." He seems 
 to have become sufficiently interested in what was 
 likely to follow his decease, in this world at least, 
 to compose an epitaph which has become world- 
 renowned, and has been often imitated : — 
 
EARLY YEARS 11 
 
 THE BODY 
 OF 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 (like the cover of an old book, 
 
 its contents torn out, 
 
 and stript of its lettering and gilding,) 
 
 lies here, food for worms, 
 
 yet the work itself shall not be lost, 
 
 for it will, as he believed, appear once more, 
 
 IN A NEW 
 
 AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION, 
 
 CORRECTED AND AMENDED 
 
 BY 
 
 the Author. 
 
 But there was no use for this graveyard literature ; 
 Franklin got well, and recurred again to his proper 
 trade. Being expert with the composing-stick, 
 he was readily engaged at good wages by his old 
 employer, Keimer. Franklin, however, soon sus- 
 pected that this man's purpose was only to use 
 him temporarily for instructing some green hands, 
 and for organizing the printing-office. Naturally 
 a quarrel soon occurred. But Franklin had proved 
 his capacity, and forthwith the father of one Mere- 
 dith, a fellow journeyman under Keimer, advanced 
 sufficient money to set up the two as partners 
 in the printing business. Franklin managed the 
 office, showing admirable enterprise, skill, and 
 industry. Meredith drank. This allotment of 
 functions soon produced its natural result. Two 
 friends of Franklin lent him what capital he 
 
12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 needed ; he bought out Meredith and had the 
 whole business for himself. His zeal increased; 
 he won good friends, gave general satisfaction, and 
 absorbed all the best business in the province. 
 
 At the time of the formation of the partnership 
 the only newspaper of Pennsylvania was published 
 by Bradford, a rival of Keimer in the printing 
 business. It was "a paltry thing, wretchedly 
 managed, no way entertaining, and yet was profit- 
 able to him." Franklin and Meredith resolved 
 to start a competing sheet; but Keimer got wind 
 of their plan, and at once "published proposals 
 for printing one himself." He had got ahead of 
 them, and they had to desist. But he was igno- 
 rant, shiftless, and incompetent, and after carrying 
 on his enterprise for "three quarters of a year, 
 with at most only ninety subscribers," he sold out 
 his failure to Franklin and Meredith "for a trifle." 
 To them, or rather to Franklin, "it prov'd in 
 a few years extremely profitable." Its original 
 name, "The Universal Instructor in all Arts and 
 Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette," was reduced 
 by the amputation of the first clause, and, relieved 
 from the burden of its trailing title, it circulated 
 actively throughout the province, and further. 
 Number 40, Franklin's first number, appeared 
 October 2, 1729. Bradford, who was postmaster, 
 refused to allow his post-riders to carry any save 
 his own newspaper. But Franklin, whose moral- 
 ity was nothing if not practical, fought the devil 
 with fire, and bribed the riders so judiciously that 
 
 f: 
 
EARLY YEARS 13 
 
 his newspaper penetrated whithersoever they went.^ 
 He says of it: "Our first papers made a quite 
 different appearance from any before in the Pro- 
 vince ; a better type, and better printed ; but 
 some spirited remarks of my writing, on the dis- 
 pute then going on between Governor Burnet and 
 the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal 
 people, occasioned the paper and the manager of 
 it to be much talked of, and in a few weeks 
 brought them all to be our subscribers." Later 
 his articles in favor of the issue of a sum of paper 
 currency were so largely instrumental in carrying 
 that measure that the profitable job of printing 
 the money became his reward. Thus advancing 
 in prestige and prosperity, he was able to dis- 
 charge by installments his indebtedness. "In 
 order to secure," he says, "my credit and char- 
 acter as a tradesman, I took care to be not only 
 in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all 
 appearances to the contrary." A characteristic 
 remark. With Franklin every virtue had its mar- 
 ket value, and to neglect to get that value out of 
 it was the part of folly. 
 
 About this time the wife of a glazier, who occu- 
 pied part of Franklin's house, began match-making 
 in behalf of a "very deserving " girl; and Frank- 
 lin, nothing loath, responded with "serious court- 
 ship." He intimated his willingness to accept the 
 maiden's hand, provided that its fellow hand held 
 a dowry, and he named an hundred pounds sterling 
 as his lowest figure. The parents, on the other 
 
14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 part, said that they had not so much ready money, 
 Franklin civilly suggested that they could get it 
 by mortgaging their house; they firmly declined. 
 The negotiation thereupon was abandoned. "This 
 affair," Franklin continues, "having turned my 
 thoughts to marriage, I look'd round me and made 
 overtures of acquaintance in other places; but 
 soon found that, the business of a printer being 
 generally thought a poor one, I was not to expect 
 money with a wife, unless with such a one as I 
 should not otherwise think agreeable." Finding 
 such difficulties in the way of a financial alliance, 
 Franklin appears to have bethought him of affec- 
 tion as a substitute for dollars; so he blew into 
 the ashes of an old flame, and aroused some heat. 
 Before going to England he had engaged himself 
 to Miss Deborah Read; but in London he had 
 pretty well forgotten her, and had written to her 
 only a single letter. Many years afterward, writ- 
 ing to Catharine Ray in 1755, he said: "The 
 cords of love and friendship ... in times past 
 have drawn me . . . back from England to Phila- 
 delphia." If the remark referred to an affection 
 for Miss Read, it was probably no more trust- 
 worthy than are most such allegations made when 
 lapsing years have given a fictitious coloring to a 
 remote past. If indeed Franklin's profligacy and 
 his readiness to marry any girl financially eligible 
 were symptoms attendant upon his being in love, it 
 somewhat taxes the imagination to fancy how he 
 would have conducted himself had he not been the 
 
EARLY YEARS 15 
 
 victim of romantic passion. Miss Read, mean- 
 while, apparently about as much in love as her 
 lover, had wedded another man, "one Rogers, a 
 potter," a good workman but worthless fellow, who 
 soon took flight from his bride and his creditors. 
 Her position had since become somewhat question- 
 able ; for there was a story that her husband had 
 an earlier wife living, in which case of course her 
 marriage with him was null. There was also a 
 story that he was dead. But there was little 
 evidence of the truth of either tale. Franklin, 
 therefore, hardly knew what he was wedding, a 
 maid, a widow, or another man's wife. Moreover 
 the runaway husband "had left many debts, which 
 his successor might be call'd upon to pay." Few 
 men, even if warmly enamored, would have entered 
 into the matrimonial contract under circumstances 
 so discouraging ; and there are no indications save 
 the marriage itself that Franklin was deeply in 
 love. Yet on September 1, 1730, the pair were 
 wedded. Mrs. Franklin survived for forty years 
 thereafter, and neither seems ever to have regretted 
 the step. "None of the inconveniences happened 
 that we had apprehended," wrote Franklin; "she 
 proved a good^and faithful helpmate ; assisted me 
 much by attending the shop ; we throve together, 
 and have ever mutually endeavored to make each 
 other happy." A sensible, comfortable, satisfac- 
 tory union it was, showing how much better is 
 sense than sensibility as an ingredient in matri- 
 mony. Mrs. Franklin was a handsome woman, 
 
16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 of comely figure, yet nevertheless an industrious 
 and frugal one ; later on in life Franklin boasted 
 that he had "been clothed from head to foot in 
 linen of [his] wife's manufacture." An early con- 
 tribution of his own to the domestic menage was 
 his illegitimate son, William, born soon after his 
 wedding, of a mother of whom no record or tradi- 
 tion remains. It was an unconventional wedding 
 gift to bring home to a bride ; but Mrs. Franklin, 
 with a breadth and liberality of mind akin to her 
 husband's, readily took the babe not only to her 
 home but really to her heart, and reared him as 
 if he had been her own offspring. Mr. Parton 
 thinks that Franklin gave this excellent wife no 
 further cause for suspicion or jealousy. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA: CONCERNMENT IN 
 PUBLIC AFFAIRS 
 
 So has ended the first stage, in the benign 
 presence of Hymen. The period of youth may be 
 regarded as over ; but the narrative thereof, briefly 
 as it has been given, is not satisfactory. One 
 longs to help out the outline with color, to get the 
 expression as well as merely the features of the 
 young man who is going to become one of the 
 greatest men of the nation. Many a writer and 
 speaker has done what he could in this task, for 
 Franklin has been for a century a chief idol of 
 the American people. The Boston boy, the boy 
 printer, the runaway apprentice, the young jour- 
 neyman, friendless and penniless in distant Lon- 
 don, are pictures which have been made familiar to 
 many generations of schoolboys; and the trifling 
 anecdote of the bread rolls eaten in the streets of 
 Philadelphia has for its only rival among Ameri- 
 can historical traditions the more doubtful story 
 about George Washington, the cherry-tree, and the 
 little hatchet. 
 
 Yet, if plain truth is to be told, there was no- 
 thing unusual about this sunrise, no rare tints of 
 
18 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 divine augury ; the luminary came up in every -day 
 fashion. Franklin had done much reading; he 
 had taken pains to cultivate a good style in writing 
 English ; he had practiced himself in dispute ; he 
 had adopted some odd notions, for example vege- 
 tarianism in diet; he had at times acquired some 
 influence among his fellow journeymen, and had 
 used it for good; he had occasionally fallen into 
 the society of men of good social position; he had 
 kept clear of the prevalent habit of excessive 
 drinking ; sometimes he had lived frugally and 
 had laid up a little money; more often he had 
 been wasteful ; he had been very dissolute, and in 
 sowing his wild oats he had gone down into the 
 mud. His autobiography gives us a simple, vivid, 
 strong picture, which we accept as correct, though 
 in reading it one sees that the lapse of time since 
 the occurrences narrated, together with his own 
 success and distinction in life, have not been with- 
 out their obvious effect. By the time he thought 
 it worth while to write those pages, Franklin had 
 been taught to think very well of himself and his 
 career. For this reason he was, upon the one 
 hand, somewhat indifferent as to setting down 
 what smaller men would conceal, confident that 
 his fame would not stagger beneath the burden of 
 youthful wrong-doing ; on the other hand, he deals 
 rather gently, a little ideally, with himself, as old 
 men are wont to acknowledge with condemnation 
 tempered with mild forgiveness the foibles of their 
 early days. It is evident that, as a young man, 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 19 
 
 Franklin intermingled sense with folly, correct 
 living with dissipation, in a manner that must have 
 made it difficult for an observer to forecast the 
 final outcome, and which makes it almost equally 
 impossible now to form a satisfactory idea of him. 
 He is not to be disposed of by placing him in any 
 ready-made and familiar class. If he had turned 
 out a bad man, there would have been abundance 
 in his early life to point the moralist's warning 
 tale ; as he turned out a very reputable one, there 
 is scarcely less abundance for panegyrists to ex- 
 patiate upon. Certainly he was a man to attract 
 some attention and to carry some weight, yet not 
 more than many another of whom the world never 
 hears. At the time of his marriage, however, he 
 is upon the verge of development; a new period 
 of his life is about to begin ; what had been dan- 
 gerous and evil in his ways disappears ; the breadth, 
 originality, and practical character of his mind are 
 about to show themselves. He has settled to a 
 steady occupation; he is industrious and thrifty; 
 he has gathered much information, and may be 
 regarded as a well-educated man; he writes a 
 plain, forcible style ; he has enterprise and shrewd- 
 ness in matters of business, and good sense in all 
 matters, — that is the chief point, his sound sense 
 has got its full growth and vigor, and of sound 
 sense no man ever had more. Very soon he not 
 only prospers financially, but begins to secure at 
 first that attention and soon afterward that influ- 
 ence which always follow close upon success in 
 
20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 practical affairs. He becomes the public-spirited 
 citizen; scheme after scheme of social and public 
 improvement is suggested and carried forward by 
 him, until he justly comes to be one of the fore- 
 most citizens of Philadelphia. The enumeration 
 of what he did within a few years in this small 
 new town and poor community will be found sur- 
 prising and admirable. 
 
 His first enterprise, of a quasi public nature, 
 was the establishment of a library. There were 
 to be fifty subscribers for fifty years, each paying 
 an entrance fee of forty shillings and an annual 
 due of ten shillings. He succeeded only with diffi- 
 culty and delay, yet he did succeed, and the results 
 were important. Later a charter was obtained, 
 and the number of subscribers was doubled. 
 "This," he says, "was the mother of all the North 
 American subscription libraries, now so numerous. 
 . . . These libraries have improved the general 
 conversation of the Americans, made the common 
 traders and farmers as intelligent as most gentle- 
 men from other countries, and perhaps have con- 
 tributed in some degree to the stand so generally 
 made throughout the colonies in defense of their 
 privileges." "Reading became fashionable," he 
 adds. But it was not difficult to cultivate the 
 desire for reading; that lay close to the surface. 
 The boon which Franklin conferred lay rather in 
 setting the example of a scheme by which books 
 could be cheaply obtained in satisfactory abun- 
 dance. 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 21 
 
 From the course of this business he drew one 
 of those shrewd, practical conclusions which aided 
 him so much in life. He says that he soon felt 
 u the impropriety of presenting one's self as the 
 proposer of any useful project that might be \s 
 supposed to raise one's reputation in the smallest 
 degree above that of one's neighbors, when one 
 has need of their assistance to accomplish that 
 project. I therefore put myself as much as I 
 could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a 
 number of friends, who had requested me to go 
 about and propose it." This method he found so 
 well suited to the production of results that he 
 habitually followed it in his subsequent under- 
 takings. It was sound policy; the self-abnegation 
 helped success ; the success secured personal pres- 
 tige. It was soon observed that when "a number 
 of friends " or "a few gentlemen " were represented 
 by Franklin, their purpose was usually good and 
 was pretty sure to be carried through. Hence 
 came reputation and influence. 
 
 In December, 1732, he says, "I first published 
 my Almanack, under the name of Richard Saun- 
 ders" price five pence, thereby falling in with 
 a common custom among the colonial printers. 
 Within the month three editions were sold ; and 
 it was continued for twenty-five years thereafter 
 with an average sale of 10,000 copies annually, 
 until "Poor Kichard " became a nom de plume as 
 renowned as any in English literature. The pub- 
 lication ranks as one of the most influential in the 
 
22 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 world. Its "proverbial sentences, chiefly such as 
 inculcated industry and frugality as the means of 
 procuring wealth and thereby securing virtue," 
 were sown like seed all over the land. The alma- 
 nac went year after year, for quarter of a cen- 
 tury, into the house of nearly every shopkeeper, 
 planter, and farmer in the American provinces. 
 Its wit and humor, its practical tone, its shrewd 
 maxims, its worldly honesty, its morality of com- 
 mon sense, its useful information, all chimed well 
 with the national character. It formulated in 
 homely phrase and with droll illustration what the 
 colonists more vaguely knew, felt, and believed 
 upon a thousand points of life and conduct. In so 
 doing it greatly trained and invigorated the natural 
 mental traits of the people. "Poor Richard " was 
 the revered and popular schoolmaster of a young 
 nation during its period of tutelage. His teach- 
 ings are among the powerful forces which have gone 
 to shaping the habits of Americans. His terse and 
 picturesque bits of the wisdom and the virtue of 
 this world are familiar in our mouths to-day; they 
 moulded our great-grandparents and their children; 
 they have informed our popular traditions; they 
 still influence our actions, guide our ways of 
 thinking, and establish our points of view, with 
 the constant control of acquired habits which we 
 little suspect. If we were accustomed still to 
 read the literature of the almanac, we should be 
 charmed with its humor. The world has not yet 
 grown away from it, nor ever will. Addison and 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 23 
 
 Steele had more polish but vastly less humor than 
 Franklin. "Poor Kichard " has found eternal life 
 by passing into the daily speech of the people, 
 while the "Spectator" is fast being crowded out 
 of the hands of all save scholars in literature. At 
 this period of his life he wrote many short fugitive 
 pieces, which hold some of the rarest wit that an 
 American library contains. Few people suspect 
 that the ten serious and grave-looking octavos, 
 imprinted "The Works of Benjamin Franklin, " 
 hide much of that delightful kind of wit that can 
 never grow old, but is as charming to-day as when 
 it came damp from the press a century and more 
 ago. How much of "Poor Eichard" was actually 
 original is a sifting not worth while to make. 
 Franklin said: "I was conscious that not a tenth 
 part of the wisdom was my own which he ascribed 
 to me, but rather the gleanings that I had made of 
 the sense of all ages and nations." No profound 
 wisdom is really new, but only the expression of 
 it; and all that of "Poor Richard " had been fused 
 in the crucible of Franklin's brain. 
 
 But the famous almanac was not the only pulpit 
 whence Franklin preached to the people. He had 
 an excellent ideal of a newspaper. He got news 
 into it, which was seldom done in those days, and 
 which made it attractive; he got advertisements 
 into it, which made it pay, and which also was a 
 novel feature; indeed, Mr. Parton says that he 
 "originated the modern system of business adver- 
 tising ; " he also discussed matters of public inter- 
 
24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 est. Thus he anticipated the modern newspaper, 
 but in some respects improved in advance upon 
 that which he anticipated. He made his "Ga- 
 zette " a vehicle for disseminating information and 
 morality, and he carefully excluded from it "all 
 libeling and personal abuse." The sheet in its 
 every issue was doing the same sort of work as 
 "Poor Richard." In a word, Franklin was a 
 born teacher of men, and what he did in this way 
 in these his earlier days gives him rank among the 
 most distinguished moralists who have ever lived. 
 
 What kind of morality he taught is well known. 
 It was human; he kept it free from entangling 
 alliances with any religious creed; its foundations 
 lay in common sense, not in faith. His own 
 nature in this respect is easy to understand but 
 difficult to describe, since the words which must 
 be used convey such different ideas to different 
 persons. Thus, to say that he had the religious 
 temperament, though he was skeptical as to all the 
 divine and supernatural dogmas of the religions 
 of mankind, will seem to many a self-contradic- 
 tion, while to others it is entirely intelligible. In 
 his boyhood one gets a flavor of irreverence which 
 was slow in disappearing. When yet a mere child 
 he suggested to his father the convenience of saying 
 grace over the whole barrel of salt fish, in bulk, 
 as the mercantile phrase would be. By the time 
 that he was sixteen, Shaftesbury and Collins, 
 efficiently aided by the pious writers who had en- 
 deavored to refute them, had made him "a real 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 26 
 
 doubter in many points of our religious doctrine ; " 
 and while he was still his brother's apprentice 
 in Boston, he fell into disrepute as a skeptic. 
 Apparently he gathered momentum in moving 
 along this line of thought, until in England his 
 disbelief took on for a time an extreme and objec- 
 tionable form. His opinions then were "that no- 
 thing could possibly be wrong in the world; and 
 that vice and virtue were empty distinctions, no 
 such things existing." But the pamphlet, already 
 mentioned, in which he expressed these views, was 
 the outburst of a youthful free-thinker not yet 
 accustomed to his new ideas; not many years 
 passed over his head before it " appear 'd not so 
 clever a performance as [he] once thought it; " and 
 in his autobiography he enumerates it among the 
 "errata " of his life. 
 
 It was not so very long afterward that he busied 
 himself in composing prayers, and even an entire 
 litany, for his own use. No Christian could have 
 found fault with the morals therein embodied ; but 
 Christ was entirely ignored. He even had the 
 courage to draw up a new version of the Lord's 
 Prayer; and he arranged a code of thirteen rules 
 after the fashion of the Ten Commandments ; of 
 these the last one was: "Imitate Jesus and Soc- 
 rates." Except during a short time just preceding 
 and during his stay in London he seems never to 
 have been an atheist; neither was he ever quite a 
 Christian; but as between atheism and Christian- 
 ity he was very much further removed from the 
 
 
26 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 former than from the latter. He used to call him- 
 self a deist, or theist ; and said that a deist was as 
 much like an atheist as chalk is like charcoal. 
 The evidence is abundant that he settled down into 
 a belief in a personal God, who was good, who 
 concerned himself with the affairs of men, who 
 was pleased with good acts and displeased with 
 evil ones. He believed also in immortality and in 
 rewards in a life to come. But he supported none 
 of these beliefs upon the same basis on which 
 Christians support them. 
 
 Unlike the infidel school of that day he had 
 no antipathy even to the mythological portions of 
 the Christian religion, no desire to discredit it, 
 nor ambition to distinguish himself in a crusade 
 against it. On the contrary, he was always reso- 
 lute to live well with it. His mind was too broad, 
 his habit of thought too tolerant, to admit of his 
 antagonizing so good a system of morals because 
 it was intertwined with articles of faith which he 
 did not believe. He went to church frequently, 
 and always paid his contribution towards the ex- 
 penses of the society; but he kept his commenda- 
 tion only for those practical sermons which showed 
 men how to become virtuous. In like manner 
 the instruction which he himself inculcated was 
 strictly confined to those virtues which promote 
 the welfare and happiness of the individual and 
 of society. In fact, he recognized none other ; that 
 which did not advance these ends was but a spuri- 
 ous pretender to the title of virtue. 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 27 
 
 One is tempted to make many quotations from 
 Franklin's writings in this connection; but two 
 or three must suffice. In 1743 he wrote to his 
 sister: — 
 
 " There are some things in your New England doc- 
 trine and worship which I do not agree with ; but I do 
 not therefore condemn them, or desire to shake your 
 belief or practice of them. We may dislike things that 
 are nevertheless right in themselves. I would only have 
 you make me the same allowance, and have a better 
 opinion both of morality and your brother." 
 
 In 1756 he wrote to a friend : — 
 
 " He that for giving a draught of water to a thirsty 
 person should expect to be paid with a good plantation, 
 would be modest in his demands compared with those 
 who think they deserve Heaven for the little good they 
 do on earth. . . . For my own part, I have not the van- 
 ity to think I deserve it, the folly to expect it, nor the 
 ambition to desire it ; but content myself in submitting 
 to the will and disposal of that God who made me, who 
 hitherto has preserved and blessed me, and in whose 
 fatherly goodness I may well confide. . . . 
 
 " The faith you mention has doubtless its use in the 
 world ; I do not desire it to be diminished, nor would I 
 endeavor to lessen it in any man. But I wish it were 
 more productive of good works than I have generally 
 seen it. I mean real good works, — works of kindness, 
 charity, mercy, and public spirit ; not holiday-keeping, 
 sermon reading or hearing, performing church ceremo- 
 nies, or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and 
 compliments despised even by wise men and much less 
 capable of pleasing the Deity. The worship of God is 
 
% 
 
 28 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 a duty, the hearing arid reading of sermons may be use- 
 ful ; but if men rest in hearing and praying, as too many 
 do, it is as if a tree should value itself in being watered 
 and putting forth leaves, though it never produced any 
 fruit.' , 
 
 Throughout his life he may be said to have very 
 slowly moved nearer and nearer to the Christian 
 faith, until at last he came so near that many of 
 those somewhat nondescript persons who call them- 
 selves "liberal Christians " might claim him as 
 one of themselves. But if a belief in the divinity 
 of Christ is necessary to make a "Christian," it 
 does not appear that Franklin ever fully had the 
 qualification. When he was an old man, in 1790, 
 President Stiles of Yale College took the free- 
 dom of interrogating him as to his religious faith. 
 It was the first time that any one had ever thus 
 ventured. His reply 1 is interesting : " As to 
 Jesus of Nazareth," he says, "I think his system 
 of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, 
 the best the world ever saw, or is like to see." 
 But he thinks they have been corrupted. " I 
 have, with most of the present dissenters in Eng- 
 land, some doubts as to his divinity ; though it is 
 a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never 
 studied it, and think it needless to busy myself 
 with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity 
 of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no 
 harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief 
 has the good consequences, as probably it has, of 
 
 1 Works, x. 192. 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 29 
 
 making his doctrines more respected and more 
 observed; especially as I do not see that the 
 Supreme takes it amiss by distinguishing the un- 
 believers in his government of the world with any 
 peculiar marks of his displeasure." His God was 
 substantially the God of Christianity; but con- 
 cerning Christ he was generally reticent and non- 
 committal. 
 
 Whatever were his own opinions, which un- 
 doubtedly underwent some changes during his life, 
 as is the case with most of us, he never introduced 
 Christianity, as a faith, into any of his moral writ- 
 ings. A broad human creature, with a marvelous 
 knowledge of mankind, with a tolerance as far- 
 reaching as his knowledge, with a kindly liking 
 for all men and women ; withal a prudent, shrewd, 
 cool-headed observer in affairs, he was content to 
 insist that goodness and wisdom were valuable, as 
 means, towards good repute and well-being, as 
 ends. He urges upon his nephew, about to start 
 in business as a goldsmith, "perfect honesty ; " and 
 the reason he gives for his emphasis is, that the 
 business is peculiarly liable to suspicion, and if a 
 man is "once detected in the smallest fraud . . . 
 at once he is ruined." The character of his argu- 
 ment was always simple. He usually began with 
 some such axiom as the desirability of success in 
 one's enterprises, or of health, or of comfort, or 
 oi ease of mind, or a sufficiency of money; and 
 tfoen he showed that some virtue, or collection of 
 virtues, would promote this result. He advocated 
 
I 
 
 30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 honesty upon the same principle upon which he 
 advocated that women should learn to keep ac- 
 counts, or that one should hold one's self in the 
 background in the presentation of an enterprise 
 such as his public library; that is to say, his ad- 
 vocacy of a cardinal virtue, of acquiring a piece 
 of knowledge, or of adopting a certain method 
 of procedure in business, ran upon the same line, 
 namely, the practical usefulness of the virtue, the 
 knowledge, or the method, for increasing the prob- 
 ability of a practical success in worldly affairs. 
 Among the articles inculcating morality which he 
 used to put into his newspaper was a Socratic 
 Dialogue, "tending to prove that whatever might 
 be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not 
 properly be called a man of sense." 
 
 He was forever at this business ; it was his 
 nature to teach, to preach, to moralize. With 
 creeds he had no concern, but took it as his func- 
 tion in life to instruct in what may be described 
 as useful morals, the gospel of good sense, the 
 excellence of common humanity. About the time 
 in his career which we have now reached this ten- 
 dency of his had an interesting development in its 
 relationship to his own character. He "conceiv'd 
 the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral 
 perfection." It is impossible to recite the details 
 of his scheme, but the narration constitutes one of 
 the most entertaining and characteristic parts of 
 the autobiography. Such a plan could not long 
 be confined in its operation to himself alone ; the 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 31 
 
 teacher must teach; accordingly he designed to 
 write a book, to be called "The Art of Virtue," 
 a title with which he was greatly pleased, as in- 
 dicating that the book was to show "the means 
 and manner of obtaining virtue " as contradistin- 
 guished from the "mere exhortation to be good, 
 that does not instruct or indicate the means." 
 A receipt book for virtues! Practical instruc- 
 tions for acquiring goodness ! Nothing could have 
 been more characteristic. One of his Busy-Body 
 papers, February 18, 1728, begins with the state- 
 ment that : " It is said that the Persians, in their 
 ancient constitution, had public schools in which 
 virtue was taught as a liberal art, or science;" 
 and he goes on to laud the plan highly. Perhaps 
 this was the origin of the idea which subsequently 
 became such a favorite with him. It was his 
 
 " design to explain and enforce this doctrine : that 
 vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbid- 
 den, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature 
 of man alone considered; that it was therefore every 
 o*he's interest to be virtuous who wished to be happy 
 even in this world ; and I should . . . have endeavored 
 to convince young persons that no qualities were so 
 likely to make a poor man's fortune as those of probity 
 and integrity." 
 
 Long years afterward, in 1760, he wrote about 
 it to Lord Karnes : — 
 
 " Many people lead bad lives that would gladly lead 
 good ones, but do not know how to make the change. . . . 
 To expect people to be good, to be just, to be temperate, 
 

 32 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 etc., without showing them how they should become so 
 seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the 
 apostle, which consists in saying to the hungry, the cold, 
 and the naked, ' Be ye fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed,' 
 without showing them how they should get food, fire, or 
 clothing. . . . To acquire those [virtues] that are want- 
 ing, and secure what we acquire, as well as those we 
 have naturally, is the subject of an art. It is as pro- 
 perly an art as painting, navigation, or architecture. If 
 a man would become a painter, navigator, or architect, 
 it is not enough that he is advised to be one, that he is 
 convinced by the arguments of his adviser that it would 
 be for his advantage to be one, and that he resolves to 
 be one ; but he must also be taught the principles of the 
 art, be shown all the methods of working, and how to 
 acquire the habit of using properly all the instruments. 
 . . . My ' Art of Virtue ' has also its instruments, and 
 teaches the manner of using them." 
 
 He was then full of zeal to give this instruction. 
 A year later he said: "You will not doubt my 
 being serious in the intention of finishing my ' Art 
 of Virtue.' It is not a mere ideal work. I 
 planned it first in 1732. . . . The materials have 
 been growing ever since. The form only is now 
 to be given." He even says that "experiments" 
 had been made "with success; " one wonders how; 
 but he gives no explanation. Apparently Frank- 
 lin never definitely abandoned this pet design ; one 
 catches glimpses of it as still alive in his mind, 
 until it seems to fade away in the dim obscurity 
 of extreme old age. He said of it that it was 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 33 
 
 only part of "a great and extensive project that 
 required the whole man to execute," and his coun- 
 trymen never allowed Franklin such uninterrupted 
 possession of himself. 
 
 A matter more easy of accomplishment was the 
 drawing up a creed which he thought to contain 
 "the essentials of every known religion," and to 
 be "free of everything that might shock the pro- y 
 fessors of any religion." He intended that this 
 should serve as the basis of a sect, which should 
 practice his rules for self -improvement. It was at 
 first to consist of "young and single men only," 
 and great caution was to be exercised in the admis- 
 sion of members. The association was to be called 
 the "Society of the Free and Easy," "free, as 
 being, by the general practice and habit of the 
 virtues, free from the dominion of vice ; and par- 
 ticularly by the practice of industry and frugality 
 free from debt, which exposes a man to confine- 
 ment and a species of slavery to his creditors." It 
 is hardly surprising to hear that this was one of 
 the very few failures of Franklin's life. In 1788 
 he professed himself "still of the opinion that it 
 was a practicable scheme." One hardly reads it 
 without a smile nowadays, but it was not so out of 
 keeping with the spirit and habits of those times. 
 It indicates at least Franklin's appreciation of the v 
 power of fellowship, of association. No man knew 
 better than he what stimulus comes from the sense 
 of membership in a society, especially a secret 
 society. He had a great fondness for organizing 
 
34 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 men into associations, and a singular aptitude for 
 creating, conducting, and perpetuating such bodies. 
 The Junto, a child of his active brain, became 
 a power in local public affairs, though organized 
 and conducted strictly as a "club of mutual im- 
 provement." He formed it among his "ingenious 
 acquaintance" for the discussion of "queries on 
 any point of morals, politics, or natural philo- 
 sophy." He found his model, without doubt, in 
 the "neighborhood benefit societies," established 
 by Cotton Mather, during Franklin's boyhood, 
 among the Boston churches, for mutual improve- 
 ment among the members. 1 In time there came a 
 great pressure for an increase of the number of 
 members ; but Franklin astutely substituted a plan 
 whereby each member was to form a subordinate 
 club, similar to the original, but having no know- 
 ledge of its connection with the Junto. Thus 
 sprang into being five or six more, "The Vine, 
 The Union, The Band," etc., "answering, in some 
 considerable degree, our views of influencing the 
 public opinion upon particular occasions." When 
 Franklin became interested in any matter, he had 
 but to introduce it before the Junto for discussion ; 
 straightway each member who belonged to any one 
 of the other societies brought it up in that society. 
 Thus through so many active-minded and dispu- 
 tatious young men interest in the subject speedily 
 percolated through a community of no greater size 
 than Philadelphia. Franklin was the tap-root of 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, i. 47. 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 35 
 
 the whole growth, and sent his ideas circulating 
 throughout all the widespreading branches. He 
 tells us that in fact he often used this efficient 
 machinery to much advantage in carrying through 
 his public and quasi public measures. Thus he 
 anticipated more powerful mechanisms of the like 
 kind, such as the Jacobin Club ; and he him- 
 self, under encouraging circumstances, might have 
 wielded an immense power as the creator and 
 occult, inspiring influence of some great political 
 society. 
 
 Besides his didactic newspaper, his almanac even 
 more didactic, the Junto, the subscription library, 
 the Society of the Free and Easy, his system of 
 religion and morals, and his scheme for acquiring 
 all the virtues, Franklin was engaged in many 
 other matters. He learned French, Italian, and 
 Spanish; and in so doing evolved some notions 
 which are now beginning to find their way into the 
 system of teaching languages in our schools and 
 colleges. In 1736 he was chosen clerk to the 
 General Assembly, and continued to be reelected 
 during the next fourteen years, until he was chosen 
 a member of the legislature itself. In 1737 he 
 was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, an 
 office which he found "of great advantage, for, 
 tho' the salary was small, it facilitated the corre- 
 spondence that improv'd my newspaper, increased 
 the number demanded, as well as the advertise- 
 ments to be inserted, so that it came to afford me 
 a considerable income. My old competitor's news- 
 
36 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 paper declined proportionably, and I was satisfied 
 without retaliating his refusal, while postmaster, 
 to permit my papers being carried by the riders." 
 
 Soon afterward he conferred a signal benefit on 
 his countrymen by inventing an u open stove for 
 the better warming of rooms, and at the same time 
 saving fuel," — the Franklin stove, or, as he called 
 it, " the Pennsylvania fireplace." Mr. Parton 
 warmly describes it as the beginning of " the 
 American stove system, one of the wonders of the 
 industrial world." Franklin refused to take out 
 a patent for it, "from a principle which has ever 
 weighed with me on such occasions, viz. : That as 
 we enjoy great advantages from the inventions 
 of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to 
 serve others by any invention of ours; and this 
 we should do freely and generously." This lofty 
 sentiment, wherein the philanthropist got the 
 better of the man of business, overshot its mark ; 
 an ironmonger of London, who did not combine 
 philosophy and philanthropy with his trade, made 
 "some small changes in the machine, which rather 
 hurt its operation, got a patent for it there, and 
 made a little fortune by it." 
 
 A little later Franklin founded a philosophical 
 society, not intended to devote its energies to 
 abstractions, but rather to a study of nature, and 
 the spread of new discoveries and useful know- 
 ledge in practical affairs, especially in the way of 
 farming and agriculture. Franklin always had a 
 fancy for agriculture, and conferred many a boon 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 37 
 
 upon the tillers of the soil. A good story, which 
 may be true, tells how he showed the fertilizing 
 capacity of plaster of Paris. In a field by the 
 roadside he wrote, with plaster, this has been 
 plastered; and soon the brilliant green of the 
 letters carried the lesson to every passer-by. 
 
 In 1743 Franklin broached the idea of an acad- 
 emy ; but the time had not quite come when the 
 purse-strings of well-to-do Pennsylvanians could 
 be loosened for this purpose, and he had no suc- 
 cess. It was, however, a project about which he 
 was much in earnest, and a few years later he 
 returned to it with better auspices. He succeeded 
 in getting it under weigh by means of private sub- 
 scriptions. It soon vindicated its usefulness, drew 
 funds and endowments from various sources, and 
 became the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin 
 tells an amusing story about his subsequent con- 
 nection with it. Inasmuch as persons of several 
 religious sects had contributed to the fund, it was 
 arranged that the board of trustees should consist 
 of one member from each sect. After a while the 
 Moravian died; and his colleagues, having found 
 him obnoxious to them, resolved not to have 
 another of the same creed. Yet it was difficult 1 
 to find any one who did not belong to, and there- 
 fore unduly strengthen, some sect already repre- 
 sented. Finally Franklin was mentioned as being 
 "merely an honest man, and of no sect at all." 
 The recommendation secured his election. It 
 was always a great cause of his success and influ- 
 
38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ence that nothing could be alleged against his cor- 
 rect and respectable exterior and prudent, moderate 
 deportment. 
 
 He now endeavored to reorganize the system, 
 if system it can be called, of the night-watch in 
 Philadelphia. His description of it is pictur- 
 esque : — 
 
 " It was managed by the constables of the respective 
 wards, in turn ; the constable warned a number of 
 housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who 
 chose never to attend paid him six shillings to be ex- 
 cus'd, which was supposed to be for hiring substitutes, 
 but was, in reality, much more than was necessary for 
 that purpose, and made the constableship a place of 
 profit ; and the constable, for a little drink, often got 
 such ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respectable 
 housekeepers did not choose to mix with. Walking the 
 rounds, too, was often neglected, and most of the nights 
 spent in tippling." 
 
 But even Franklin's influence was overmatched 
 by this task. An abuse, nourished by copious 
 rum, strikes its roots deep, and many years elapsed 
 before this one could be eradicated. 
 
 In another enterprise Franklin shrewdly enlisted 
 the boon-companion element on his side, with the 
 result of immediate and brilliant success. He be- 
 gan as usual by reading a paper before the Junto, 
 and through this intervention set the people think- 
 ing concerning the utter lack of any organization 
 for extinguishing fires in the town. In conse- 
 quence the Union Fire Company was soon estab- 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 39 
 
 lished, the first tiling of the kind in the city. 
 Franklin continued a member of it for half a cen- 
 tury. It was thoroughly equipped and efficiently 
 conducted. An item in the terms of association 
 was that the members should spend a social even- 
 ing together once a month. The example was 
 followed; other companies were formed, and fifty 
 years later Franklin boasted that since that time 
 the city had never "lost by fire more than one or 
 two houses at a time ; and the flames have often 
 been extinguished before the house in which they 
 began has been half consumed." 
 
 About this time he became interested in the 
 matter of the public defenses, and wrote a pam- 
 phlet, "Plain Truth," showing the helpless con- 
 dition of Pennsylvania as against the French and 
 their Indian allies. The result was that the peo- 
 ple were alarmed and aroused. Even the Quakers 
 winked at the godless doings of their fellow citi- 
 zens, while the enrollment and drill of a volunteer 
 force went forward, and funds were raised for 
 building and arming a battery. Franklin sug- 
 gested a lottery, to raise money, and went to New 
 York to borrow guns. He was very active and 
 very successful; and though the especial crisis 
 fortunately passed away without use being made 
 of these preparations, yet his energy and efficiency 
 greatly enhanced his reputation in Pennsylvania. 
 
 That Franklin had been prospering in his pri- 
 vate business may be judged from the facts that in 
 1748 he took into partnership David Hall, who 
 
40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 had been a fellow journeyman with him in Lon- 
 don; and that his purpose was substantially to 
 retire and get some "leisure . . . for philoso- 
 phical studies and amusements." He cherished 
 the happy but foolish notion of becoming master 
 of his own time. But his fellow citizens had pur- 
 poses altogether inconsistent with those pleasing 
 and comfortable plans which he sketched so cheer- 
 fully in a letter to his friend Colden in September, 
 1748. The Philadelphians, whom he had taught 
 thrift, were not going to waste such material as 
 he was. "The publick," he found, " now consider- 
 ing me as a man of leisure, laid hold of me for 
 their purposes; every part of our civil govern- 
 ment, and almost at the same time, imposing some 
 duty upon me. The governor put me into the 
 commission of the peace; the corporation of the 
 city chose me of the common council, and soon 
 after an alderman; and the citizens at large chose 
 me a burgess to represent them in the Assembly." 
 This last position pleased him best, and he turned 
 himself chiefly to its duties, with the gratifying 
 result, as he records, that the "trust was repeated 
 every year for ten years, without my ever asking 
 any elector for his vote, or signifying, either di- 
 rectly or indirectly, any desire of being chosen." 
 
 The next year he was appointed a commissioner 
 to treat with the Indians, in which business he had 
 so much success as can ever attend upon engage- 
 ments with savages. He gives an amusing account 
 of the way in which all the Indian emissaries got 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 41 
 
 drunk, and of their quaint apology : that the Great 
 Spirit had made all things for some use; that 
 "when he made rum, he said, ' Let this be for the 
 Indians to get drunk with; ' and it must be so." 
 
 In 1751 he assisted Dr. Bond in the foundation 
 of his hospital. 'The doctor at first tried to carry 
 out his scheme alone, but could not. The tran- 
 quil vanity of Franklin's narration is too good to 
 be lost : " At length he came to me, with the com- 
 pliment that he found there was no such thing as 
 carrying a public-spirited project through, without 
 my being concerned in it. ' For, ' says he, 4 I am 
 often asked by those to whom I propose subscrib- 
 ing, Have you consulted Franklin upon this busi- 
 ness? and what does he think of it? And when I 
 tell them that I have not (supposing it rather out 
 of your line), they do not subscribe, but say they 
 will consider of it.'" It is surprising that this 
 artful and sugar-tongued doctor, who evidently 
 could read his man, had not been more success- 
 ful with his subscription list. With Franklin, at 
 least, he was eminently successful, touching him 
 with a consummate skill which brought prompt re- 
 sponse and cooperation. The result was as usual. 
 Franklin's hand knew the way to every Philadel- 
 phian merchant's pocket. Respected as he was, 
 it may be doubted whether he was always sincerely 
 welcomed as he used to move from door to door 
 down those tranquil streets, with an irresistible 
 subscription paper in his hand. In this case pri- 
 vate subscriptions were eked out by public aid. 
 
42 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The legislature was applied to for a grant. The 
 country members objected, said that the benefit 
 would be local, and doubted whether even the 
 Philadelphians wanted it. Thereupon Franklin 
 drew a bill, by which the State was to give <£2000 
 upon condition that a like sum should be raised 
 from private sources. This was soon done. Frank- 
 lin regarded his device as a novelty and a ruse in 
 legislation. He complacently says: "I do not 
 remember any of my political manoeuvres, the 
 success of which gave me at the time more plea- 
 sure, or wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily 
 excused myself for having made some use of cun- 
 ning." Simple times, in which such an act could 
 be described as a "manoeuvre" and "cunning! " 
 
 He further turned his attention to matters of 
 local improvement. He got pavements laid ; and 
 even brought about the sweeping of the streets 
 twice in each week. Lighting the streets came 
 almost simultaneously; and in connection with 
 this he showed his wonted ingenuity. Globes 
 open only at the top had heretofore been used, 
 and by reason of the lack of draft, they became 
 obscured by smoke early in the evening. Frank- 
 lin made them of four flat panes, with a smoke- 
 funnel, and crevices to admit the air beneath. 
 The Londoners had long had the method before 
 their eyes, every evening, at Vauxhall; but had 
 never got at the notion of transferring it to the 
 open streets. 
 
 For a long while Franklin was employed by the 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 43 
 
 postmaster-general of the colonies as "his comp- 
 troller in regulating several offices and bringing 
 the officers to account." In 1753 the incumbent 
 died, and Franklin and Mr. William Hunter, 
 jointly, were appointed his successors. They set 
 to work to reform the entire postal service of the 
 country. The first cost to themselves was consid- 
 erable, the office falling more than £900 in debt 
 to them during the first four years. But there- 
 afterward the benefit of their measures was felt, 
 and an office which had never before paid any- 
 thing to that of Great Britain came, under their 
 administration, "to yield three times as much clear 
 revenue to the crown as the post-office of Ireland." 
 Franklin narrates that in time he was displaced 
 "by a freak of the ministers," and in happy phrase 
 adds, "Since that imprudent transaction, they 
 have received from it — not one farthing!" In 
 this connection it may be worth while to quote 
 Franklin's reply to a request to give a position to 
 his nephew, a young man whom he liked well, and 
 otherwise aided. "If a vacancy should happen, it 
 is very probable he may be thought of to supply 
 it; but it is a rule with me not to remove any 
 officer that behaves well, keeps regular accounts, 
 and pays duly ; and I think the rule is founded on 
 reason and justice." 
 
 At this point in his autobiography he records, 
 with just pride, that he received the degree of 
 Master of Arts, first from Yale College and after- 
 ward from Harvard. "Thus, without studying in 
 
44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 any college, I came to partake of their honors. 
 They were conferred in consideration of my im- 
 provements and discoveries in the electric branch 
 of natural philosophy." 
 
 An interesting page in the autobiography con- 
 cerns events in the year 1754. There were distinct 
 foreshadowings of that war between England and 
 France which soon afterward broke out, beginning 
 upon this side of the water earlier than in Europe; 
 and the lords of trade ordered a congress of com- 
 missioners from the several colonies to assemble 
 at Albany for a conference with the chiefs of the 
 Six Nations. They came together June 19, 1754. 
 Franklin was a deputy from Pennsylvania; and 
 on his way thither he "projected and drew a plan 
 for the union of all the colonies under one govern- 
 ment, so far as might be necessary for defense and 
 other important general purposes? 3 IF was not 
 altogether a new idea; in 1697 William Penn had 
 suggested a commercial union and an annual con- 
 gress. The journal of the congress shows that on 
 June 24 it was unanimously voted that a union 
 of the colonies was " absolutely necessary for their 
 security and defense." The Massachusetts delega- 
 tion alone had been authorized to consider the 
 question of a union, and they had power to enter 
 into a confederation "as well in time of peace as 
 of war." Franklin had ahead}*- been urging this 
 policy by writings in the "Gazette," and now, 
 when the ideas of the different commissioners were 
 brought into comparison, his were deemed the 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 45 
 
 best. His outline of a scheme, he says, "hap- 
 pen'd to be preferr'd," and, with a few amend- 
 ments, was accordingly reported. It was a league 
 rather than a union, somewhat resembling the 
 arrangement which came into existence for the 
 purposes of the Revolution. But^ it came to no- 
 thing; "its fate," Franklin said, "was singular." 
 It was closely debated, article by article, and hav- 
 ing at length been "pretty unanimously accepted, 
 it came before the colonial assemblies for ratifica- 
 tion." But they condemned it; "there was too l 
 much prerogative in it," they thought. On the 
 other hand, the board of trade in England would 
 not approve it because it had "too much of the 
 democratic." All which led Franklin to "suspect 
 that it was really the true medium." He himself 1 
 acknowledged that one main advantage of it would 
 be "that the colonies would, by this connection, 
 learn to consider themselves, not as so many inde- 
 pendent states, but as members of the same body ; 
 and thence be more ready to afford assistance and 
 support to each other," etc. It was already the 
 national idea which lay, not quite formulated, yet 
 distinct enough in his mind. It was hardly to be 
 expected that the home government would fail to 
 see this tendency, or that they would look upon it 
 with favor. Franklin long afterward indulged 
 in some speculations as to what might have been 
 the consequences of an adoption of his scheme, 
 namely: united colonies, strong enough to defend 
 themselves against the Canadian French and their 
 
46 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Indian allies; no need, therefore, of troops from 
 England; no pretext, therefore, for taxing the 
 provinces; no provocation, therefore, for rebellion. 
 "But such mistakes are not new; history is full 
 of the errors of states and princes. . . . The best 
 public measures are seldom adopted from previous 
 wisdom but forced by the occasion." But this 
 sketch of what might have been sounds over-fan- 
 ciful, and the English were probably right in 
 thinking that a strong military union, with home 
 taxation, involved more of danger than of safety 
 for the future connection between the colonies and 
 the mother country. 
 
 There was much uneasiness, much planning, 
 theorizing, and discussing going on at this time 
 about the relationship between Great Britain and 
 her American provinces; earlier stages of that 
 talk which kept on growing louder, more eager, 
 and more disputatious, until it was swallowed up 
 in the roar of the revolutionary cannon. Among 
 others, Shirley, governor of Massachusetts, con- 
 cocted a scheme and showed it to Franklin. By 
 this an assembly of the governors of all the colo- 
 nies, attended by one or two members of their 
 respective councils, was to have authority to take 
 such measures as should seem needful for defense, 
 with power to draw upon the English treasury to 
 meet expenses, the amount of such drafts to be 
 "re-imbursed by a tax laid on the colonies by act 
 of Parliament." This alarming proposition at 
 once drew forth three letters from Franklin, writ- 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 47 
 
 ten in December, 1754, and afterward published 
 in the "London Chronicle" in December, 1766. 
 His position amounted to this : that the business of 
 self-defense and the expense thereof were matters 
 neither beyond the abilities of the colonies, nor 
 outside their willingness, and should therefore be 
 managed by them. Their loyalty could be trusted; 
 their knowledge must be the best; on the other 
 hand, governors were apt to be untrustworthy, 
 self-seeking, and ignorant of provincial affairs. 
 But the chief emphasis of his protest falls against 
 taxation without representation. He says: — 
 
 " That it is supposed an undoubted right of English- 
 men not to be taxed but by their own consent, given 
 through their representatives. 
 
 " That the colonists have no representative in Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 " That compelling the colonists to pay money without 
 their consent would be rather like raising contributions 
 in an enemy's country, than taxing of Englishmen for 
 their own public benefit. 
 
 " That it would be treating them as a conquered peo- 
 ple, and not as true British subjects." 
 
 And so on ; traversing beforehand the same ground 
 soon to be so thoroughly beaten over by the patriot 
 writers and speakers of the colonies. In a very 
 few years the line of argument became familiar, but 
 for the present Franklin and a very few more were 
 doing the work of suggestion and instruction for 
 the people at large, teaching them by what logic 
 their instinctive convictions could be maintained. 
 
48 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 He further ingeniously snowed that the colonists 
 were already heavily taxed in ways from which 
 they could not escape. Taxes paid by British 
 artificers came out of the colonial consumers, and 
 the colonists were compelled to buy only from 
 Britain those articles which they would otherwise 
 be able to buy at much lower prices from other 
 countries. Moreover, they were obliged to sell 
 only in Great Britain, where heavy imposts served 
 to curtail the net profits of the producer. Even 
 such manufactures as could be carried on in the 
 colonies were forbidden to them. He concluded : — 
 
 " These kinds of secondary taxes, however, we do not 
 complain of. though we have no share in the laying or 
 disposing of them ; but to pay immediate, heavy taxes, 
 in the laying, appropriation, and disposition of which we 
 have no part, and which perhaps we may know to be 
 as unnecessary as grievous, must seem hard measures 
 to Englishmen, who cannot conceive that by hazarding 
 their lives and fortunes in subduing and settling new 
 countries, extending the dominion and increasing the 
 commerce of the mother nation, they have forfeited the 
 native rights of Britons, which they think ought rather 
 to be given to them, as due to such merit, if they had 
 been before in a state of slavery." 
 
 A third letter discussed a proposition advanced 
 by Shirley for giving the colonies representation 
 in Parliament. Franklin was a little skeptical, 
 and had no notion of being betrayed by a kiss. A 
 real unification of the two communities lying upon 
 either side of the Atlantic, and even a close ap- 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 49 
 
 proximation to proportionate representation, would 
 constitute an excellent way out of the present diffi- 
 culties. But he saw no encouragement to hope for 
 this. 
 
 In fact, the project of laying direct internal 
 taxes upon the colonies by act of Parliament was 
 taking firm root in the English mind, and colonial 
 protests could not long stay the execution of the 
 scheme. Even such grants of money as were made 
 by some of the colonial legislatures were vetoed, 
 on the ground that they were connected with en- 
 croachments, schemes for independence, and an 
 assumption of the right to exercise control in the 
 matter of the public finances. 1 The Penns re- 
 joiced. Thomas Penn wrote, doubtless with a 
 malicious chuckle : " If the several assemblies will 
 not make provision for the general service, an act 
 of Parliament may oblige them here." He evi- 
 dently thought that it would be very wholesome 
 if government should become incensed and severe 
 with the recalcitrants. 
 
 During his discussion with Shirley, Franklin 
 had been upon a visit to Boston. He "left New 
 England," he says, "slowly, and with great reluc- 
 tance;" for he loved the country and the people. 
 He returned home to be swept into the hurly-burly 
 of military affairs. War appropriations came hard 
 from the legislature of the Quaker province ; but 
 the occasion was now at hand when come they 
 must. In the autumn of 1755 £60,000 were 
 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 176. 
 
50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 voted, chiefly for defense, and Franklin was one of 
 the committee in charge of the expenditure. The 
 border was already unsafe, and formal hostilities 
 on a large scale were close at hand. France and 
 England must fight it out for the possession of 
 the new continent, which, boundless as it then 
 seemed, was yet not big enough to admit of their 
 both dwelling in it. France had been steadily 
 pressing upon the northern and western frontiers 
 of the British colonies, and she now held Crown 
 Point, Niagara, the fort on the present site of 
 Pittsburg, and the whole valley of the Ohio River. 
 It seemed that she would confine the English to 
 the strip along the coast which they already occu- 
 pied. It is true that she offered to relinquish the 
 Ohio valley to the savages, to be a neutral belt 
 between the European nations on either side of 
 it. But the proposal could not be accepted ; the 
 French were much too clever in managing the 
 Indians. Moreover, it was felt that they would 
 never permanently desist from advancing. Then, 
 too, the gallant Braddock was on his way across 
 seas, with a little army of English regulars. 
 Finally, the disproportion between the English 
 and French in the New World was too great for 
 the former to rest satisfied with a compromise. 
 There were about 1,165,000 whites in the British 
 provinces, and only about 80,000 French in Can- 
 ada. The resources, also, of the former were in 
 every respect vastly greater. These iron facts must 
 tell; were already telling. Throughout this last 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 51 
 
 deadly grapple, now at hand, the French were in 
 desperate earnest. History records few struggles 
 wherein the strength of a combatant was more 
 utterly spent, with more entire devotion, than was 
 the case with these Canadian -French provinces. 
 Every man gave himself to the fight, so literally 
 that no one was left to till the fields, and erelong 
 famine began its hideous work among the scanty 
 forces. The English and Americans, on the other 
 hand, were far from conducting the struggle with 
 the like temper as the French; yet with such 
 enormous advantages as they possessed, if they 
 could not conquer a satisfactory peace in course 
 of time, they ought to be ashamed of themselves. 
 So no composition could be arranged; the Seven 
 Years' War began, and to open it with becoming 
 eclat Braddock debarked, a gorgeous spectacle in 
 red and gold. Yet still there had as yet been in 
 Europe no declaration of hostilities between Eng- 
 land and France ; on the contrary, the government 
 of the former country was giving very fair words 
 to that of the latter; and in America the British 
 professed only to intend "to repel encroachments. " 1 
 Franklin had to take his share of the disasters 
 attendant upon the fatal campaign of Braddock. 
 According to his notion that foolish officer and his 
 two ill-behaved regiments should never, by good 
 rights, have been sent to the provinces at all ; for 
 the colonists, being able and willing to do their 
 own fighting, should have been allowed to under- 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 182. 
 
52 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 take it. But eleven years before this time the 
 Duke of Bedford had declared it a dangerous 
 policy to enroll an army of 20,000 provincials to 
 serve against Canada, "on account of the inde- 
 pendence it might create in those provinces, when 
 they should see within themselves so great an 
 army, possessed of so great a country by right of 
 conquest." This anxiety had been steadily gain- 
 ing ground. The home government did not 
 choose "to permit the union of the colonies, as 
 proposed at Albany, and to trust that union with 
 their defense, lest they should thereby grow too 
 military and feel their own strength, suspicions 
 and jealousies being at this time entertained of 
 them." So it was because the shadow of the 
 Revolutionary War already darkened the visions 
 of English statesmen that the gallant array of sol- 
 diery, with the long train of American attendants, 
 had to make that terrible march to failure and 
 death. 
 
 The Assembly of the Quaker province was sadly 
 perturbed lest this arbitrary warrior, encamped 
 hard by in Virginia, should "conceive violent 
 prejudices against them, as averse to the service." 
 In their alarm they had recourse to Franklin's 
 shrewd wit and ready tongue. Accordingly, he 
 visited Braddock under pretense of arranging for 
 the transmission of mails during the campaign, 
 stayed with him several days, and dined with him 
 daily. There were some kinds of men, perhaps, 
 whom Braddock appreciated better than he did 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 53 
 
 Indians; nor is it a slight proof of Franklin's 
 extraordinary capacity for getting on well with 
 every variety of human being that he could make 
 himself so welcome to this testy, opinionated mili- 
 tary martinet, who in every particular of nature 
 and of training was the precise contrary of the 
 provincial civilian. 
 
 Franklin's own good will to the cause, or his 
 ill luck, led him into an engagement, made just 
 before his departure, whereby he undertook to 
 procure horses and wagons enough for the trans- 
 portation of the ordnance and all the appurte- 
 nances of the camp. It was not a personal con- 
 tract upon his part to furnish these ; he was neither 
 to make any money, nor to risk any; he was 
 simply to render the gratuitous service of indu- 
 cing the Pennsylvania farmers to let out their 
 horses, wagons, and drivers to the general. It 
 was a difficult task, in which the emissaries of 
 Braddock had utterly failed in Virginia. But 
 Franklin conceived the opportunities to be better 
 in his own province, and entered on the business 
 with vigor and skill. Throughout the farming 
 region he sent advertisements and circulars, 
 cleverly devised to elicit what he wanted, and so 
 phrased as to save him harmless from personal 
 responsibility for any payment. Seven days' pay 
 was to be "advanced and paid in hand" by him, 
 the remainder to be paid by General Braddock, or 
 by the paymaster of the army. He said, in clos- 
 ing his appeal: "I have no particular interest in 
 
54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 this affair, as, except the satisfaction of endeavor- 
 ing to do good, I shall have only my labor for my 
 pains." 
 
 But he was not to get off so easily; for, he 
 says, "the owners, . . . alleging that they did 
 not know General Braddock, or what dependence 
 might be had on his promise, insisted on my bond 
 for the performance, which I accordingly gave 
 them." This was the more patriotic because 
 Franklin was by no means dazzled by the pomp 
 and parade of the doughty warrior, but on the 
 contrary, reflecting on the probable character of 
 the campaign, he had "conceived some doubts and 
 some fears for the event." What happened every 
 one knows. The losses of wagons and horses in 
 the slaughter amounted to the doleful sum of 
 .£20,000; "which to pay would have ruined me," 
 wrote Franklin. Nevertheless the demands began 
 at once to pour in upon him, and suits were insti- 
 tuted. It was a grievous affair, and the end was 
 by no means clear. It was easily possible that in 
 place of his fortune, sacrificed in the public ser- 
 vice, he might have only the sorry substitute of a 
 claim against the government. But after many 
 troubled weeks he was at length relieved of the 
 heaviest portion of his burden, through General 
 Shirley's appointment of a commission to audit 
 and pay the claims for actual losses. Other sums 
 due him, representing considerable advances which 
 he had made at the outset in the business, and 
 later for provisions, remained unpaid to the end 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 55 
 
 of his days. The British government in time 
 probably thought the Revolution as efficient as a 
 statute of limitations for barring that account 
 At the moment, however, Franklin not only lost 
 his money, but had to suffer the affront of being 
 supposed even to be a gainer, and to have filled his 
 own pockets. He indignantly denied that he had 
 "pocketed a farthing;" but of course he was not 
 believed. He adds, with delicious humor: "and, 
 indeed, I have since learnt that immense fortunes 
 are often made in such employments." Those, 
 however, were simple, provincial days. In place 
 of the money which he did not get, also of the 
 further sum which he actually lost, he had to sat- 
 isfy himself with the consolation derived from the 
 approbation of the Pennsylvania Assembly, while 
 also Braddock's dispatches gave him a good name 
 with the officials in England, which was of some 
 little service to him. 
 
 A more comical result of the Braddock affair 
 was that it made Franklin for a time a military 
 man and a colonel. He had escaped being a 
 clergyman and a poet, but he could not escape that 
 common fate of Americans, the military title, the 
 prevalence of which, it has been said, makes "the 
 whole country seem a retreat of heroes." It befell 
 Franklin in this wise: immediately after Brad- 
 dock's defeat, in the panic which possessed the 
 people and amid the reaction against professional 
 soldiers, recourse was had to plain good sense, 
 though unaccompanied by technical knowledge. 
 
56 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 No one, as all the province knew, had such sound 
 sense as Franklin, who was accordingly deputed to 
 go to the western frontier with a small volunteer 
 force, there to build three forts for the protection 
 of the outlying settlements. "I undertook," he 
 says, "this military business, though I did not con- 
 ceive myself well qualified for it." It was a ser- 
 vice involving much difficulty and hardship, with 
 some danger ; General Braddock would have made 
 a ridiculous failure of it; Franklin acquitted him- 
 self well. What he afterward wrote of General 
 Shirley was true of himself: "For, tho' Shirley 
 was not bred a soldier, he was sensible and saga- 
 cious in himself, and attentive to good advice from 
 others, capable of forming judicious plans, and 
 quick and active in carrying them into execu- 
 tion." In a word, Franklin's military career was 
 as creditable as it was brief. He was called for- 
 ward at the crisis of universal dismay; he gave 
 his popular influence and cool head to a peculiar 
 kind of service, of which he knew much by 
 hearsay, if nothing by personal experience ; he did 
 his work well; and, much stranger to relate, he 
 escaped the delusion that he was a soldier. So 
 soon as he could do so, that is to say after a few 
 weeks, he returned to his civil duties. But he had 
 shown courage, intelligence, and patriotism in a 
 high degree, and he had greatly increased the 
 confidence reposed in him by his fellow citizens. 
 
 Beyond those active military measures which the 
 exigencies of the time made necessary, Franklin 
 
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 57 
 
 fell in with, if he did not originate, a plan designed 
 to afford permanent protection in the future. 
 This was to extend the colonies inland. His no- 
 tions were broad, embracing much both in space 
 and time. He thought "what a glorious thing it 
 would be to settle in that fine country a large, 
 strong body of religious, industrious people. 
 What a security to the other colonies and advan- 
 tage to Britain by increasing her people, terri- 
 tory, strength, and commerce." He foretold that 
 "perhaps in less than another century" the Ohio 
 valley might "become a populous and powerful 
 dominion, and a great accession of power either to 
 England or France." Having this scheme much 
 at heart, he drew up a sort of prospectus "for set- 
 tling two western colonies in North America;" 
 "barrier colonies " they were called by Governor 
 Pownall, who was warm in the same idea, and sent 
 a plan of his own, together with Franklin's, to the 
 home government. 
 
 It is true that these new settlements, regarded 
 strictly as bulwarks, would have been only a 
 change of "barrier," an advancement of frontier; 
 they themselves would become frontier instead of 
 the present line, and would be equally subject to 
 Indian and French assaults. Still the step was 
 in the direction of growth and expansion ; it was 
 advancing and aggressive, and indicated an appre- 
 ciation of the enormous motive power which lay 
 in English colonization. Franklin pushed it ear- 
 nestly, interested others in it, and seemed at one 
 
58 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 time on the point of securing the charters. But 
 the conquest of Canada within a very short time 
 rendered defensive colonization almost needless, 
 and soon afterward the premonitions and actual 
 outbreak of the Revolution put an end to all 
 schemes in this shape. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE OF PENNSYLVANIA IN ENGLAND : 
 RETURN HOME 
 
 It was not possible to make a world-wide repu- 
 tation in the public affairs of the province of 
 Pennsylvania; but so much fame as opportunity 
 would admit of had by this time been won by 
 Franklin. In respect of influence and prestige 
 among his fellow colonists none other came near 
 to him. Meanwhile among all his crowding occu- 
 pations he had found time for those scientific re- 
 searches towards which his heart always yearned. 
 He had flown his famous kite ; had entrapped the 
 lightning of the clouds; had written treatises, 
 which, having been collected into a volume, " were 
 much taken notice of in England," made no small 
 stir in France, and were "translated into the Ital- 
 ian, German, and Latin languages." A learned 
 French abbe, "preceptor in natural philosophy to 
 the royal family, and an able experimenter," at 
 first controverted his discoveries and even ques- 
 tioned his existence. But after a little time this 
 worthy scientist became "assur'd that there really 
 existed such a person as Franklin at Philadel- 
 phia," while other distinguished scientific men 
 
60 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 of Europe united in the adoption of his theories. 
 Kant called him the Prometheus of modern times. 
 Thus, in one way and another, his name had prob- 
 ably already come to be more widely known than 
 that of any other living man who had been born 
 on this side of the Atlantic. It might have been 
 even much more famous, had he been more free 
 to follow his own bent, a pleasure which he could 
 only enjoy in a very limited degree. In 1753 he 
 wrote : " I am so engaged in business, public and 
 private, that those more pleasing pursuits [phi- 
 losophical inquiries] are frequently interrupted, 
 and the chain of thought necessary to be closely 
 continued in such disquisitions is so broken and 
 disjointed that it is with difficulty I satisfy myself 
 in any of them." Similar complaints occur fre- 
 quently, and it is certain that his extensive philo- 
 sophical labors were all conducted in those mere 
 cracks and crannies of leisure scantily interspersed 
 amid the hours of a man apparently overwhelmed 
 with the functions of active life. 
 
 He was now selected by the Assembly to en- 
 counter the perils of crossing the Atlantic upon 
 an important mission in behalf of his province. 
 For a long while past the relationship between 
 the Penns, unworthy sons of the great William, 
 and now the proprietaries, on the one side, and 
 their quasi subjects, the people of the province, 
 upon the other, had been steadily becoming more 
 and more strained, until something very like a 
 crisis had been reached. As usual in English and 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 61 
 
 Anglo-American communities, it was a quarrel 
 over dollars, or rather over pounds sterling, a 
 question of taxation, which was producing the 
 alienation. At bottom, there was the trouble 
 which always pertains to absenteeism; the pro- 
 prietaries lived in England, and regarded their 
 vast American estate, with about 200,000 white 
 inhabitants, only as a source of revenue. That 
 mercantile community, however, with the thrift 
 of Quakers and the independent temper of Eng- 
 lishmen, had a shrewd appreciation of, and an ob- 
 stinate respect for, its own interests. Hence the 
 discussions, already of threatening proportions. 
 
 The chief point in dispute was, whether or not 
 the waste lands, still directly owned by the pro- 
 prietaries, and other lands let by them at quit- 
 rents, should be taxed in the same manner as like 
 property of other owners. They refused to sub- 
 mit to such taxation ; the Assembly of Burgesses 
 insisted. In ordinary times the proprietaries pre- 
 vailed; for the governor was their nominee and 
 removable at their pleasure; they gave him gen- 
 eral instructions to assent to no law taxing their 
 holdings, and he naturally obeyed his masters. 
 But since governors got their salaries only by 
 virtue of a vote of the Assembly, it seems that 
 they sometimes disregarded instructions, in the 
 sacred cause of their own interests. After a 
 while, therefore, the proprietaries, made shrewd 
 by experience, devised the scheme of placing their 
 unfortunate sub-rulers under bonds. This went 
 
 v 
 
62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 far towards settling the matter. Yet in such a 
 crisis and stress as were now present in the colony, 
 when exceptionally large sums had to be raised, 
 and great sacrifices and sufferings endured, and 
 when little less than the actual existence of the 
 province might be thought to be at stake, it cer- 
 tainly seemed that the rich and idle proprietaries 
 might stand on the same footing with their poor 
 and laboring subjects. They lived comfortably in 
 England upon revenues estimated to amount to 
 the then enormous sum of £20,000 sterling; while 
 the colonists were struggling under unusual losses, 
 as well as enormous expenses, growing out of the 
 war and Indian ravages. At such a time their 
 parsimony, their "incredible meanness," as Frank- 
 lin called it, was cruel as well as stupid. At last 
 the Assembly flatly refused to raise any money 
 unless the proprietaries should be burdened like 
 the rest. All should pay together, or all should 
 go to destruction together. The Penns too stood 
 obstinate, facing the not less resolute Assembly. 
 It was indeed a deadlock! Yet the times were 
 such that neither party could afford to maintain 
 its ground indefinitely. So a temporary arrange- 
 ment was made, whereby of £60,000 sterling to 
 be raised the proprietaries agreed to contribute 
 £5000, and the Assembly agreed to accept the 
 same in lieu or commutation for their tax. But 
 neither side abandoned its principle. Before long 
 more money was needed, and the dispute was as 
 fierce as ever. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND . 63 
 
 The burgesses now thought that it would be 
 well to carry a statement of their case before the 
 king in council and the lords of trade. In Febru- 
 ary, 1757, they named their speaker, Isaac Norris, 
 and Franklin to be their emissaries "to represent 
 in England the unhappy situation of the province," 
 and to seek redress by an act of Parliament. Nor- 
 ris, an aged man, begged to be excused ; Franklin 
 accepted. His son was given leave of absence, in 
 order to attend him as his secretary. During the 
 prolonged and bitter controversies Franklin had 
 been the most prominent member of the Assem- 
 bly on the popular side. He had drawn many of 
 the addresses, arguments, and other papers; and 
 his familiarity with the business, therefore, no 
 less than his good judgment, shrewdness, and tact 
 united to point him out as the man for the very 
 unpleasant and difficult errand. 
 
 A portion of his business also was to endeavor 
 to induce the king to resume the province of Penn- 
 sylvania as his own. A clause in the charter had 
 reserved this right, which could be exercised on 
 payment of a certain sum of money. The colo- 
 nists now preferred to be an appanage of the crown 
 rather than a fief of the Penns. Oddly enough, 
 some of the provincial governors were suggesting 
 the like measure concerning other provinces; but 
 from widely different motives. The colonists 
 thought a monarch better than private individuals, 
 as a master; while the governors thought that 
 only the royal authority could enforce their theory 
 
64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 of colonial government. They angrily complained 
 that the colonies would do nothing voluntarily; a 
 most unjust charge, as was soon to be seen; for 
 in the Seven Years' War the colonists did three 
 quarters of all that was done. What the gover- 
 nors really meant was that the colonies would not 
 raise money and turn it over to other persons to 
 spend for them. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that the prospects for 
 the success of this mission were not good. Almost 
 simultaneously with Franklin's appointment, the 
 House of Commons resolved that "the claim of 
 right in a colonial Assembly to raise and apply 
 public money, by its own act alone, is derogatory 
 to the crown, and to the rights of the people of 
 Great Britain." This made Thomas Penn jubi- 
 lant. "The people of Pennsylvania," he said, 
 "will soon be convinced . . . that they have not 
 a right to the powers of government they claim." 1 
 
 Franklin took his passage in a packet-ship, 
 which was to sail from New York forthwith. But 
 the vessel was subject to the orders of Lord Lou- 
 doun, newly appointed governor of the province of 
 New York, and a sort of military over-lord over 
 all the governors, assemblies, and people of the 
 American provinces. His mission was to organize, 
 to introduce system and submission, and above all 
 else to overawe. But he was no man for the task ; 
 not because his lordship was not a dominant char- 
 acter, but because he was wholly unfit to transact 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 255. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 65 
 
 business. Franklin tried some negotiations with 
 him, and got no satisfaction or conclusion. 
 
 The ship which waited upon the will of this 
 noble procrastinator had a very doubtful future. 
 Every day at nine o'clock his lordship seated him- 
 self at his desk, and stayed there writing indus- 
 triously, hour after hour, upon his dispatches; 
 every day he foretold with much accuracy and 
 positiveness of manner that these would surely be 
 ready, and the ship would inevitably sail, on the 
 next day. Thus week after week glided by, and 
 still he uttered the same prediction, "to-morrow, 
 and to-morrow, and to-morrow." Yet in spite of 
 this wonderful industry of the great man his let- 
 ters never got written, so that, says Franklin, "it 
 was about the beginning of April that I came to 
 New York, and I think it was the end of June 
 before we sail'd." Even then the letters were not 
 ready, and for two days the vessel had to accom- 
 pany his lordship's fleet on the way towards Louis- 
 burg, before she got leave to go upon her own 
 proper voyage. It is entertaining to hear that this 
 same lord, during his stay in America, detained 
 other packets for other letters, until their bottoms 
 got so foul and worm-eaten that they were unsea- 
 worthy. lie was irreverently likened by those 
 who waited on his pleasure to "St. George on the 
 signs, always on horseback, and never rides on." 
 He was at last removed by Mr. Pitt, because that 
 energetic minister said "that he never heard from 
 him, and could not know what was doing." 
 
66 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Escaping at last from a detention more tedious, 
 if less romantic, than any which ever befell Ulys- 
 ses, Franklin steered for England. The vessel 
 was "several times chas'd " by French cruisers, 
 and later was actually within a few lengths of be- 
 ing wrecked on the Scilly rocks. Franklin wrote 
 to his wife that if he were a Roman Catholic 
 he should probably vow a chapel to some saint; 
 but, as he was not, he should much like to vow a 
 lighthouse. At length, however, he came safely 
 into Falmouth, and on July 27, 1757, arrived in 
 London. 
 
 Immediately he was taken to see Lord Gran- 
 ville, president of the council; and his account of 
 the interview is too striking not to be given entire. 
 His lordship, he says, 
 . " received me with great civility ; and after some ques- 
 tions respecting the present state of affairs in America 
 and discourse thereupon, he said to me : ' You Americans 
 have wrong ideas of the nature of your constitution ; you 
 contend that the king's instructions to his governors are 
 not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to regard or 
 disregard them at your own discretion. But these in- 
 structions are not like the pocket instructions given to a 
 minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct on some 
 trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by 
 judges learned in the laws ; they are then considered, 
 debated, and perhaps amended, in council, after which 
 they are signed by the king. They are then, so far as 
 they relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is 
 the legislator of the colonies.' I told his lordship this 
 was new doctrine to me. I had always understood from 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 67 
 
 our charters that our laws were to be made by our 
 assemblies, to be presented indeed to the king for his 
 royal assent ; but that being once given, the king could 
 not repeal or alter them. And as the assemblies could 
 not make permanent laws without his assent, so neither 
 could he make a law for them without theirs. He 
 assured me I was totally mistaken. I did not think so, 
 however ; and his lordship's conversation having some- 
 what alarmed me as to what might be the sentiments of 
 the court concerning us, I wrote it down as soon as I 
 returned to my lodgings." 1 
 
 Granville also defended the recent act of Par- 
 liament laying "grievous restrictions on the export 
 of provisions from the British colonies," the intent 
 being to distress the American possessions of 
 France by famine. His lordship said: "America 
 must not do anything to interfere with Great 
 Britain in the European markets." Franklin 
 replied: "If we plant and reap, and must not 
 ship, your lordship should apply to Parliament for 
 transports to bring us all back again." 
 
 Next came an interview with the proprietaries. 
 Each side declared itself disposed towards "rea- 
 sonable accommodations; " but Franklin supposed 
 that "each party had its own "ideas of what should 
 be meant by reasonable." Nothing came of all 
 this palaver; which only meant that time was being 
 wasted to no better purpose than to show that the 
 two parties were "very wide, and so far from each 
 
 1 Works, i. 295, 296; see also an account, substantially the 
 same, in letter to Bowdoin, January 13, 1772. 
 
68 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 other in [their] opinions as to discourage all hope of 
 agreement." But this had long been evident. The 
 lawyer of the proprietaries was then put forward. 
 He was a "proud, angry man," with a "mortal 
 enmity" toward Franklin; for the two had ex- 
 changed buffets more than once already, and the 
 "proud angry man" had been hit hard. It had 
 been his professional duty, as counsel for the 
 Penns, to prepare many papers to be used by their 
 governor in the course of their quarrels with the 
 Assembly. It had usually fallen to Franklin's 
 lot to draft the replies of the Assembly, and by 
 Franklin's own admission these documents of his, 
 like those which they answered, were "often tart 
 and sometimes indecently abusive." Franklin 
 now found his old antagonist so excited that it 
 seemed best to refuse to have any direct dealings 
 with him. 
 
 The proprietaries then put their interests in 
 charge of Attorney-General Pratt, afterwards 
 Lord Camden, and the Solicitor-General Charles 
 Yorke, afterward lord chancellor. These legal 
 luminaries consumed "a year, wanting eight days " 
 before they were in a condition to impart light; 
 and during that period Franklin could of course 
 achieve nothing with the proprietaries. After all, 
 the proprietaries ignored and insulted him, and 
 made further delay by sending a message to the 
 Assembly of Pennsylvania, wherein they com- 
 plained of Franklin's "rudeness," and professed 
 themselves "willing to accommodate matters," if 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 69 
 
 a "person of candour" should be sent to treat 
 with them. The only reply to their message came 
 in the pointed and intelligible shape of an act 
 "taxing the proprietary estate in common with the 
 estates of the people." Much disturbed, the pro- 
 prietaries now obtained a hearing before the king 
 in council. They requested his majesty to set 
 aside this tax act, and several other acts which 
 had been passed within two years by the Assembly. 
 Of these other acts some were repealed, according 
 to the prayer of the proprietaries; but more were 
 allowed to stand. These were, however, of com- 
 paratively little consequence; the overshadowing 
 grievance for the Penns lay in this taxation of 
 their property. Concerning this it was urged by 
 their counsel that the proprietaries were held in 
 such odium by the people that, if left to the popu- 
 lar "mercy in apportioning the taxes, they would 
 be ruined." The other side, of course, vehemently 
 denied that there was the slightest ground for such 
 a suspicion. 
 
 In June, 1760, the board of trade rendered a 
 report very unfavorable to the Assembly. Their 
 language showed that they had been much affected 
 by the appearance of popular encroachments, and 
 by the allegations of an intention on the part of 
 the colonists "to establish a democracy in place of 
 his majesty's government." Their advice was to 
 bring "the constitution back to its proper prin- 
 ciples ; to restore to the crown, in the person of the 
 proprietaries, its just prerogative; to check the 
 
70 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 growing influence of assemblies, by distinguishing, 
 what they are perpetually confounding, the exec- 
 utive from the legislative power." News of this 
 alarming document reached Franklin just as he 
 was about to start upon a trip through Ireland. 
 It put an end to that pleasure ; he had to set to 
 work on the moment, with all the zeal and by all 
 the means he could compass, to counteract this 
 fulmination. Just how he achieved so difficult an 
 end is not recorded; but it appears that he suc- 
 ceeded in securing a further hearing, in the pro- 
 gress of which Lord Mansfield "rose, and beckon- 
 ing me, took me into the clerk's chambers, . . . 
 and asked me, if I was really of opinion that no 
 injury would be done to the proprietary estate in 
 the execution of the act. I said: Certainly. 
 4 Then,' says he, ' you can have little objection to 
 enter into an engagement to assure that point. ' 
 I answered: None at all." Thereupon a paper 
 of this purport, binding personally upon Franklin 
 and upon Mr. Charles, the resident agent of the 
 province, was drawn up, and was duly executed 
 by them both ; and on August 28 the lords filed 
 an amended report, in which they said that the 
 act taxing the proprietary estates upon a common 
 basis with those of other owners was "fundamen- 
 tally wrong and unjust and ought to be repealed, 
 unless six certain amendments were made therein." 
 These amendments were, in substance, the under- 
 takings entered into in the bond of the colonial 
 agents. Franklin soon afterward had occasion to 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 71 
 
 review this whole business. He showed that of the 
 six amendments, five were immaterial, since they 
 only expressed with greater clearness the intent of 
 the Assembly. He admitted that the sixth was 
 of more consequence. It seems that £100,000 
 had been voted, appropriated, raised, and ex- 
 pended, chiefly for the defense of the colony. The 
 manner of doing this was to issue paper money to 
 this amount, to make it legal tender, and then to 
 retire it by the proceeds of the tax levy. The 
 proprietaries insisted that they could not be com- 
 pelled to receive their rents in this money, and 
 the lords now found for them. Franklin acknow- 
 ledged that herein perhaps the lords were right and 
 the Assembly wrong; but he added this scathing 
 paragraph : — 
 
 " But if he cannot on these considerations quite ex- 
 cuse the Assembly, what will he think of those honour- 
 able proprietaries, who, when paper money was issued 
 in their colony for the common defense of their vast 
 estates with those of the people, could nevertheless wish 
 to be exempted from their share of the unavoidable dis- 
 advantages. Is there upon earth a man besides, with 
 any conception of what is honest, with any notion of 
 honor, with the least tincture in his veins of the gentle- 
 man, but would have blushed at the thought, but would 
 have rejected with disdain such undue preference, if it 
 had been offered him ? Much less would he have strug- 
 gled for it, moved heaven and earth to obtain it, resolved 
 to ruin thousands of his tenants by a repeal of the act, 
 rather than miss of it, and enforce it afterwards by an 
 
72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 audaciously wicked instruction, forbidding aids to his 
 king, and exposing the province to destruction, unless 
 it was complied with. And yet, these are honourable 
 
 men ! " 
 
 This was, however, altogether a subordinate 
 issue. The struggle had really been conducted to 
 determine whether the proprietary estate should be 
 taxed like other estates, and the decision upheld 
 such taxation. This was a complete triumph for 
 the Assembly and their representative. "But let 
 the proprietaries and their discreet deputies here- 
 after recollect and remember," said Franklin, 
 "that the same august tribunal, which censured 
 some of the modes and circumstances of that act, 
 did at the same time establish and confirm the 
 grand principle of the act, namely: 'That the pro- 
 prietary estate ought, with other estates, to be 
 taxed; ' and thereby did, in effect, determine and 
 pronounce that the opposition so long made in 
 various shapes to that just principle, by the pro- 
 prietaries, was ' fundamentally wrong and m- 
 jtutf" 
 
 It was a long while before the Assembly found 
 leisure to attend to that engagement of their agents 
 which stipulated for an investigation to see whether 
 the proprietaries had not been unduly and exces- 
 sively assessed. But at length, after having had 
 the spur of reminder constantly applied to their 
 laggard memories, they appointed a committee to 
 inquire and report concerning the valuations made 
 by the tax-gatherers. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 73 
 
 This committee reported that — 
 " there has not been any injustice done to the proprie- 
 taries, or attempts made to rate or assess any part of 
 their estates higher than the estates of the like kind be- 
 longing to the inhabitants are rated and assessed ; but, 
 on the contrary, . . . their estates are rated, in many 
 instances, below others." 
 
 So the matter ended. 
 
 Franklin had been detained a little more than 
 three years about this business. At its conclusion 
 he anticipated a speedy return home ; but he had 
 to stay yet two years more to attend to sundry 
 matters smaller in importance, but which were ad- 
 vanced almost as slowly. Partly such delay was 
 because the aristocrats of the board of trade and 
 the privy council had not the habits of business 
 men, but consulted their own noble convenience 
 in the transaction of affairs; and partly it was 
 because procrastination was purposely employed 
 by his opponents, who harassed him and blocked 
 his path by every obstacle, direct and indirect, 
 which they could put in his way. For they seemed 
 to hope for some turn in affairs, some event, or 
 some too rapid advance of the popular party in 
 America, which should arouse the royal resentment 
 against the colonists and so militate on their side. 
 Delay was easily brought about by them. They 
 had money, connections, influence, and that famil- 
 iarity with men and ways which came from their 
 residence in England; while Franklin, a stranger 
 on an unpopular errand, representing before an 
 
74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 aristocratic government a parcel of tradespeople 
 and farmers who lived in a distant land and were 
 charged with being both niggardly and disaffected, 
 found that he could make only difficult and uncer- 
 tain progress. He was like one who sails a race 
 not only against hostile winds and tides, but also 
 in strange waters where the shoals and rocks are 
 unknown, and where invisible currents ceaselessly 
 baffle his course. His lack of personal importance 
 hampered him exasperatingly. Thus during his 
 prolonged stay he repeatedly made every effort in 
 his power to obtain an audience of William Pitt. 
 But not even for once could he succeed. A pro- 
 vincial agent, engaged in a squabble about taxing 
 proprietary lands, was too small a man upon too 
 small a business to consume the precious time of 
 the great prime minister, who was endeavoring 
 to dominate the embroilments and intrigues of all 
 Europe, to say nothing of the machinations of his 
 opponents at home. So the subalterns of Mr. Pitt 
 met Franklin, heard what he had to say, sifted it 
 through the sieve of their own discretion, and bore 
 to the ears of their principal only such compends 
 as they thought worthy of attention. 
 
 But the vexation of almost endless delay had its 
 alleviations, apparently much more than enough 
 to offset it. Early in September, 1757, that is 
 to say some five or six weeks after his landing, 
 Franklin was taken very ill of an intermittent 
 fever, which lasted for eight weeks. During his 
 convalescence he wrote to his wife that the agree- 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 75 
 
 able conversation of men of learning, and the 
 notice taken of him by persons of distinction, 
 soothed him under this painful absence from fam- 
 ily and friends; yet these solaces would not hold 
 him there another week, were it not for duty to 
 his country and the hope of being able to do it 
 service. But after the early homesickness wore 
 off, a great attachment for England took its place. 
 He found himself a man of note among scientists 
 there, who gave him a ready welcome and showed 
 a courteous and flattering recognition of his high 
 distinction in their pursuits. Thence it was easy 
 to penetrate into the neighboring circle of litera- 
 ture, wherein he made warm personal friends, 
 such as Lord Karnes, David Hume, Dr. Robertson, 
 and others. From time to time he was a guest at 
 many a pleasant country seat, and at the univer- 
 sities. He found plenty of leisure, too, for travel, 
 and explored the United Kingdom very thoroughly. 
 When he went to Edinburgh he was presented 
 with the freedom of the city; and the University 
 of St. Andrews conferred on him the degree of 
 Doctor of Laws ; later, Oxford did the same. He 
 even had time for a trip into the Low Countries. 
 As months and finally years slipped away, with 
 just enough of occupation of a dignified character 
 to save him from an annoying sense of idleness, 
 with abundant opportunities for social pleasure, 
 and with a very gratifying deference shown 
 towards himself, Franklin, who liked society and 
 did not dislike flattery, began to think the mother 
 
76 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 country no such bad place. For an intellectual 
 and social career London certainly had advan- 
 tages over Philadelphia. Mr. Strahan, the well- 
 known publisher of those days, whom Franklin 
 used affectionately to call Straney, became his 
 close friend, and was very insistent with him that 
 he should leave the provinces and take up a 
 permanent residence in England. He baited his 
 hook with an offer of his son in marriage with 
 Franklin's daughter Sarah. He had never seen 
 Sarah, but he seems to have taken it for granted 
 that any child of her father must be matrimonially 
 satisfactory. Franklin wrote home to his wife 
 that the young man was eligible, and that there 
 were abundant funds in the Strahan treasury, but 
 that he did not suppose that she would be able to 
 overcome her terror of the ocean voyage. Indeed, 
 this timidity on the part of his wife was more than 
 once put forward by him as if it were really the 
 feather which turned the scale in the choice of his 
 future residence. 
 
 Franklin himself also was trying his hand at 
 match-making. He had taken a great fancy to a 
 young lady by the name of Mary Stevenson, with 
 whom, when distance prevented their meeting, he 
 kept up a constant correspondence concerning 
 points of physical science. He now became very 
 pressing with his son William to wed this learned 
 maiden ; but the young man possibly did not hold 
 a taste for science to be the most winning trait in 
 woman; at any rate, having bestowed his affec- 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 77 
 
 tions elsewhere, lie refused to transfer them. So 
 Franklin was compelled to give up his scheme, 
 though with an extreme reluctance, which he 
 expressed to the rejected damsel with amusing 
 openness. Had either of these matrimonial bonds 
 been made fast, it is not improbable that Franklin 
 would have lived out the rest of his life as a friend 
 of the colonies in England. But his lot was 
 otherwise cast; a second time he escaped, though 
 narrowly, the prospect of dying an Englishman 
 and the subject of a king. At the moment he was 
 not altogether glad that matters worked thus. On 
 August 17, 1762, he wrote from Portsmouth to 
 Lord Karnes : — 
 
 " I am now waiting here only for a wind to waft me 
 to America ; but cannot leave this happy island and my 
 friends in it without extreme regret, though I am going 
 to a country and a people that I love. I am going from 
 the old world to the new ; and I fancy I feel like those 
 who are leaving this world for the next : grief at the 
 parting ; fear of the passage ; hope of the future. These 
 different passions all affect their minds at once ; and 
 these have tendered me down exceedingly." 
 
 And six days later, from the same place, he 
 wrote to Strahan: "I cannot, I assure you, quit 
 even this disagreeable place, without regret, as it 
 carries me still farther from those I love, and from 
 the opportunities of hearing of their welfare. The 
 attraction of reason is at present for the other 
 side of the water, but that of inclination will be 
 for this side. You know which usually prevails. 
 
78 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 I shall probably make but this one vibration and 
 settle here forever. Nothing will prevent it, if I 
 can, as I hope I can, prevail with Mrs. F. to 
 accompany me, especially if we have a peace." 
 Apparently the Americans owe a great debt of 
 gratitude to Mrs. Franklin's fearfulness of the 
 untrustworthy Atlantic. 
 
 Before dismissing this stay of Franklin in Eng- 
 land a word should be said concerning his efforts 
 for the retention of Canada by the British, as 
 spoils of war. The fall of Quebec, in the autumn 
 of 1759, practically concluded the struggle in 
 America. The French were utterly spent; they 
 had no food, no money; they had fought with de- 
 sperate courage and heroic self-devotion ; they could 
 honestly say that they had stood grimly in the last 
 trench, and had been slaughtered there until the 
 starved and shattered remnant could not find it in 
 their exhausted human nature longer to conduct 
 a contest so thoroughly finished. In Europe, 
 France was hardly less completely beaten. At 
 the same time the singular position of affairs 
 existed that the triumphant conqueror was even 
 more resolutely bent upon immediate peace than 
 were the conquered. George III., newly come to 
 the throne, set himself towards this end with all 
 the obstinacy of his resolute nature. It became 
 a question of terms, and eager was the discussion 
 thereof. The colonies were profoundly interested, 
 for a question sharply argued was : whether Eng- 
 land should retain Guadaloupe or Canada. She 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 79 
 
 had conquered both, but it seemed to be admitted 
 that she must restore one. It was even then a 
 comical bit of political mathematics to establish 
 anything like an equation between the two, nor 
 could it possibly have been done with reference to 
 intrinsic values. It was all very well to dilate 
 upon the sugar crop of the island, its trade, its 
 fertility, its harborage. Every one knew that 
 Canada could outweigh all these things fifty times 
 over. But into the Guadaloupe scale was dropped 
 a weighty consideration, which was clearly stated 
 in an anonymous pamphlet attributed to William 
 Burke. This writer said : — 
 
 " If the people of our colonies find no check from 
 Canada, they will extend themselves almost without 
 bound into the inland parts. They will increase infi- 
 nitely from all causes. What the consequence will be, 
 to have a numerous, hardy, independent people, possessed 
 of a strong country, communicating little or not at all 
 with England, I leave to your own reflections. By 
 eagerly grasping at extensive territory we may run the 
 risk, and in no very distant period, of losing what we 
 now possess. A neighbor that keeps us in some awe is 
 not always the worst of neighbors. So that, far from 
 sacrificing Guadaloupe to Canada, perhaps, if we might 
 have Canada without any sacrifice at all, we ought not 
 to desire it. There should be a balance of power in 
 America. . . . The islands, from their weakness, can 
 never revolt; but, if we acquire all Canada, we shall 
 soon find North America itself too powerful and too 
 populous to be governed by us at a distance." 
 
80 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 From many other quarters came the same warn- 
 ing predictions. 1 
 
 Franklin watched the controversy with deep 
 interest and no small anxiety. As the argument 
 grew heated he could no longer hold his hand ; he 
 cast into the Canadian scale an able pamphlet, 
 ingenuous in the main if not in all the details. It 
 is not worth while to rehearse what he had to say 
 upon mercantile points, or even concerning the 
 future growth of a great American empire. What 
 he had really to encounter was the argument that 
 it was sound policy to leave Canada in possession 
 of the French. Those who pretended to want 
 Guadaloupe did not so much really want it as they 
 did wish to have Canada remain French. To 
 make good this latter point they had to show, first, 
 that French ownership involved no serious danger 
 to the English possessions: second, that it brought 
 positive advantages. To the first proposition they 
 said that the French had fully learned their les- 
 son of inferiority, and that a few forts on the 
 frontier would easily overawe the hostile Indians. 
 To the second proposition, they elaborated the argu- 
 ments of William Burke. Franklin replied that 
 the war-parties of braves would easily pass by the 
 forts in the forests, and after burning, pillaging, 
 murdering, and scalping, would equally easily 
 and safely return. Nothing save a Chinese wall 
 the whole length of the western frontier would 
 suffice for protection against savages. Then, with 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 363-365. 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 81 
 
 one of those happy illustrations of which he was 
 a master, he said : " In short, long experience has 
 taught our planters that they cannot rely upon 
 forts as a security against Indians ; the inhabitants 
 of Hackney might as well rely upon the Tower of 
 London, to secure them against highwaymen and 
 house-breakers." The admirable simile could nei- 
 ther be answered nor forgotten. 
 
 Concerning the positive desirability of leaving 
 the French as masters of Canada to "check " the 
 growth of the colonies, Franklin indignantly ex- 
 claimed: "It is a modest word, this ' check"* for 
 massacring men, women, and children! " If Can- 
 ada is to be "restored on this principle, . . . will 
 not this be telling the French in plain terms, that 
 the horrid barbarisms they perpetrate with Indians 
 on our colonists are agreeable to us; and that they 
 need not apprehend the resentment of a govern- 
 ment with whose views they so happily concur. " 
 But he had the audacity to say that he was abun- 
 dantly certain that the mother country could never 
 have any occasion to dread the power of the colo- 
 nies. He said: — 
 
 " I shall next consider the other supposition, that their 
 growth may render them dangerous. Of this, I own, 
 I have not the least conception, when I consider that 
 we have already fourteen separate governments on the 
 maritime coast of the continent ; and, if we extend our 
 settlements, shall probably have as many more behind 
 them on the inland side." By reason of the different 
 governors, laws, interests, religions, and manners of 
 
82 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 these, "their jealousy of each other is so great, that, 
 however necessary a union of the colonies has long been, 
 for their common defence and security against their 
 enemies, and how sensible soever each colony has been 
 of that necessity, yet they have never been able to effect 
 such a union among themselves, nor even to agree in re- 
 questing the mother country to establish it for them." 
 If they could not unite for self-defence against the 
 French and the murderous savages, " can it reasonably 
 be supposed there is any danger of their uniting against 
 their own nation, which protects and encourages them, 
 with which they have so many connexions and ties of 
 blood, interest, and affection, and which, it is well 
 known, they all love much more than they love one 
 another ? 
 
 " In short there are so many causes that must operate 
 to prevent it, that I will venture to say a union amongst 
 them for such a purpose is not merely improbable, it is 
 impossible. And if the union of the whole is impossible, 
 the attempt of a part must be madness. . . . When I 
 say such a union is impossible, I mean without the most 
 grievous tyranny and oppression. . . . The waves do 
 not rise but when the winds blow. . . . What such an 
 administration as the Duke of Alva's in the Netherlands 
 might produce, I know not ; but this, I think, I have a 
 right to deem impossible." 
 
 We read these words, even subject to the mild 
 saving of the final sentences, with some bewilder- 
 ment. Did their shrewd and well-informed writer 
 believe what he said ? Was he casting this politi- 
 cal horoscope in good faith? Or was he only 
 uttering a prophecy which he desired, if possible, 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 83 
 
 and for his own purposes to induce others to be- 
 lieve? If he was in earnest, Attorney-General 
 Pratt was a better astrologer. "For all what you 
 Americans say of your loyalty," he said to Frank- 
 lin, "and notwithstanding your boasted affection, 
 you will one day set up for independence." "No 
 such idea," said Franklin, "is entertained by the 
 Americans, or ever will be, unless you grossly 
 abuse them." "Very true," said Pratt; "that I 
 see will happen, and will produce the event." 1 
 Choiseul, the able French minister, expressed his 
 wonder that the "great Pitt should be so attached 
 to the acquisition of Canada," which, being in the 
 hands of France, would keep the "colonies in 
 that dependence which they will not fail to shake 
 off the moment Canada shall be ceded." 2 Ver- 
 gennes saw the same thing not less clearly; and 
 so did many another. 
 
 If Franklin was really unable to foresee in this 
 business those occurrences which others predicted 
 with such confidence, at least he showed a grand 
 conception of the future, and his vision took in 
 more distant and greater facts and larger truths 
 of statesmanship than were compassed by the Brit- 
 ish ministers. Witness what he wrote to Lord 
 Karnes : — 
 
 " I have long been of opinion that the foundations of 
 the future grandeur and stability of the British empire 
 lie in America. ... I am therefore by no means for 
 restoring Canada. If we keep it, all the country from 
 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 380. 2 Ibid. iv. 399. 
 
84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi will in another cen- 
 tury be filled with British people. Britain itself will 
 become vastly more populous by the immense increase 
 to its commerce ; the Atlantic sea will be covered with 
 your trading ships ; and your naval power, thence con- 
 tinually increasing, will extend your influence round the 
 whole globe, and awe the world." 
 
 Whatever regret Franklin may have felt at not 
 being able to remain in England was probably 
 greatly mitigated if not entirely dissipated by the 
 cordial reception which he met with at home. On 
 December 2, 1762, he wrote to Strahan that the 
 reports of the diminution of his friends were all 
 false; that ever since his arrival his house had 
 been full of a succession of them from morning 
 till night, congratulating him on his return. The 
 Assembly honored him with a vote of thanks, and 
 also voted him £3000 towards defraying his ex- 
 penses. It was, of course, much less than he had 
 expended during an absence of nearly six years ; 
 but it seems that he considered that, since much of 
 his time had been passed in the enjoyment of an 
 agreeable leisure, he should bear a corresponding 
 part of the expense. While on the sea he had 
 been chosen unanimously, as indeed had been done 
 in each year of his absence, a member of that 
 body; and he was told that, if he had not got so 
 privately into town, he should have been met by 
 an escort of 500 horsemen. All this must have 
 been very gratifying. 
 
 A different kind of tribute, somewhat indirect, 
 
'fS^^u? 
 
 Of 
 
 the 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 <LifQ\ 
 
REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 85 
 
 but none the less intelligible, was at the same time 
 paid to him by the British government. In the 
 autumn of 1762 his illegitimate son, William 
 Franklin, was appointed governor of New Jersey. 
 This act created a great storm of wrath from some 
 of the provincial aristocratic party, and was ve- 
 hemently railed at as an " indignity," a "dishonor 
 and disgrace," an "insult." After all, it failed 
 of its obvious purpose. The government shot 
 brought down the wrong bird, common carrion, 
 while the one aimed at never swerved in the slight- 
 est from his course. William, whom no one cared 
 for in the least, became a confirmed royalist, and 
 ultimately, as a Tory refugee, for years continued 
 to absorb a pension for which he could return 
 no adequate consideration. So far as Benjamin 
 Franklin was concerned, he' was at first much 
 pleased; but his political views and course were 
 not in the slightest degree affected. On the con- 
 trary, as the scheme developed, and the influence 
 on the younger man became apparent, the final 
 result was an alienation between father and son, 
 which was only partially healed so late as 1784, 
 just before the former returned from Europe for 
 the last time. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 When Franklin came home he was fifty-six 
 years old. By nature he was physically indolent, 
 and fifteen years ago he had given proof of his de- 
 sire for the command of his own time by retiring 
 from a lucrative business. But his forecasting 
 of a tranquil, social career in Philadelphia, with 
 science as his chief and agreeable occupation, was 
 still to continue a day-dream, interrupted only by 
 some thoughts of an English home. "Business, 
 public and private, consumes all my time; I must 
 return to England for repose. With such thoughts 
 I flatter myself, and need some kind friend to put 
 me often in mind that old trees cannot safely be 
 transplanted." Thus he wrote to Mary Steven- 
 son, the young lady whom he had hoped to have 
 as a daughter-in-law. 
 
 His first labor in the provinces came in the 
 shape of a journey about the country to supervise 
 and regulate the postal business. Upon this 
 errand he went 1600 miles, which was no slight 
 matter as travel was conducted in those days. He 
 started in the spring of 1763, and did not get back 
 until November. Upon his return he found him- 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 87 
 
 self at once immersed in public affairs. In Oc- 
 tober, 1763, Governor Hamilton was superseded 
 by John Penn, nephew of the proprietary Thomas 
 Penn. 
 
 " Never," said Franklin, " did any administration 
 open with a more promising prospect than this of Gov- 
 ernor Penn. He assured the people in his first speeches 
 of the proprietaries' paternal regard for them, and their 
 sincere dispositions to do everything that might promote 
 their happiness. As the proprietaries had been pleased 
 to promote a son of the family to the government, it was 
 thought not unlikely that there might be something in 
 these professions ; for that they would probably choose 
 to have his administration made easy and agreeable, and 
 to that end might think it prudent to withdraw those 
 harsh, disagreeable, and unjust instructions, with which 
 most of his predecessors had been hampered. The As- 
 sembly therefore believed fully and rejoiced sincerely. 
 They showed the new governor every mark of respect 
 and regard that was in their power. They readily and 
 cheerfully went into everything he recommended to 
 them." 
 
 Moreover, the first event of public importance 
 after Governor Penn's advent had, in its early 
 stage, the effect of drawing him very closely to 
 Franklin. Some of the settlers on the frontier, 
 infuriated beyond the control of reason by the 
 Indian marauding parties, gathered together for 
 the purpose of slaughter. If they had directed 
 their vengeance against the braves, and even all 
 the occupants of the villages of the wilderness, 
 
88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 they might have been excused though their vindic- 
 tive rage led them to retaliate by the same bar- 
 barities which the red men had practiced towards 
 the whites. Unfortunately, instead of courageously 
 turning their faces towards the forests, they turned 
 their backs in that direction, where only there 
 was any enemy to be feared, and in a safe expedi- 
 tion they wreaked a deadly, senseless, cowardly, 
 and brutal vengeance on an unoffending group 
 of twenty old men, women, and children, living 
 peacefully and harmlessly near Lancaster. The 
 infamous story is familiar in the annals of Penn- 
 sylvania as the "Paxton massacre," because the 
 "Paxton boys," the perpetrators, came from the 
 Scotch -Irish settlement bearing that name. 
 
 Franklin's indignation was great, and he ex- 
 pressed it forcibly in a pamphlet. But many, 
 even of the class which should have felt with him, 
 were in such a temper that they would condemn 
 no act done against an Indian. Encouraged by 
 the prevalence of this feeling, this same band, 
 swelled to a numerous and really formidable force, 
 had the audacity to start for Philadelphia itself, 
 with the avowed purpose of massacring there a 
 small body of civilized Christian Indians, who had 
 fled thither for safety under the charge of their 
 Moravian missionary, and against whom not a 
 complaint could be made. Panic reigned in the 
 City of Brotherly Love, little competent to cope 
 with imminent violence. In the crisis citizens 
 and governor could conceive no more hopeful 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 89 
 
 scheme than an appeal to Franklin, which was 
 made at once and urgently. The governor himself 
 actually took up his residence in Franklin's house, 
 and stayed there till the threat of trouble passed 
 over, speaking, writing, and ordering only at 
 Franklin's dictation, — a course which had in it 
 more of sense than of dignity. The appeal was 
 made in the right quarter. Already profoundly 
 moved in this matter, Franklin was prompt and 
 zealous to save his city from a shameful act, and 
 the Indians from barbarous murder. His efforts 
 soon gathered, and after a fashion organized, a 
 body of defenders probably somewhat more numer- 
 ous than the approaching mob. Yet a collision 
 would have been most unfortunate, whatever the 
 result; and to avert it Franklin took it upon him 
 to go in person to meet the assailants. His 
 courage, coolness, and address prevailed; he suc- 
 ceeded in satisfying the "Paxton boys" that they 
 were so greatly outnumbered that, far from at- 
 tacking others, they could only secure their own 
 safety by instant dispersion. Thus by the re- 
 sources and presence of mind of one man Phila- 
 delphia was saved from a day of which the bloody 
 stain could never have been effaced from her good 
 fame. 
 
 But Franklin seemed for a while to reap more 
 of hostility than of gratitude for his gallant and 
 honorable conduct in this emergency. Governor 
 Penn was an ignoble man, and after the danger 
 was over he left the house, in which he had 
 
90 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 certainly played a rather ignominious part, with 
 those feelings toward his host which a small soul 
 inevitably cherishes toward a greater under such 
 circumstances. Moreover, there were very many 
 among the people who had more of sympathy with 
 the "Paxton boys " than with the wise and humane 
 man who had thwarted them. "For about forty- 
 eight hours," Franklin wrote to one of his friends, 
 "I was a very great man; " but after "the fighting 
 face we put on " caused the insurgents to turn 
 back, "I became a less man than ever; for I had, 
 by this transaction, made myself many enemies 
 among the populace," a fact of which the governor 
 speedily took advantage. But without this episode 
 enmity between Penn and Franklin was inevitable. 
 They served masters whose ends were wide apart; 
 upon the one side avaricious proprietaries of little 
 foresight and judgment, upon the other side a peo- 
 ple jealous of their rights and unwilling to leave 
 to any one else the definition and interpretation of 
 them. 
 
 Soon it became known that the instructions of 
 the new governor differed in no substantial particu- 
 lar from those of his predecessors. The procession 
 of vetoes upon the acts of the Assembly resumed 
 its familiar and hateful march. A militia bill was 
 thus cut off, because, instead of leaving with the 
 governor the nomination of regimental officers, it 
 stipulated that the rank and file should name three 
 persons for each position, and that the governor 
 should choose one of these, — an arrangement bad 
 
< LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 91 
 
 in itself, but perhaps well suited to the habits and 
 even the needs of the province at that time. A 
 tax bill met the like fate, because it did not dis- 
 criminate in favor of the located lands of the pro- 
 prietaries by rating their best lands at no higher 
 valuation than the worst lands of other persons. 
 Soon it was generally felt that matters were as bad 
 as ever, and with scantier chances of improvement. 
 Then "all the old wounds broke out and bled 
 afresh; all the old grievances, still unredressed, 
 were recollected; despair succeeded of seeing any 
 peace with a family that could make such returns 
 to all overtures of kindness." The aggrieved 
 party revived its scheme for a transfer of the gov- 
 ernment from the proprietaries to the crown, and 
 Franklin threw himself into the discussion with 
 more of zeal and ardor than he had often shown. 
 
 While the debates upon this subject waxed hot 
 in the Assembly, it was moved and carried that 
 that body should adjourn for a few weeks, in order 
 that members might consult their constituents and 
 sound the public feeling. During this recess it 
 may be conceived that neither side was slack in its 
 efforts. Franklin for his share contributed a pam- 
 phlet, entitled "Cool Thoughts on the Present 
 Situation of our Public Affairs." "Mischievous 
 and distressing," he said, as the frequent disputes 
 " have been found to both proprietaries and people, 
 it does not appear that there is any prospect of 
 their being extinguished, till either the proprie- 
 tary purse is unable to support them, or the spirit 
 
92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 of the people so broken that they shall be willing 
 to submit to anything rather than continue them." 
 With a happy combination of shrewdness and 
 moderation he laid the blame upon the intrinsic 
 nature of a proprietary government. "For though 
 it is not unlikely that in these as well as in other 
 disputes there are faults on both sides, every glow- 
 ing eoal being apt to inflame its opposite; yet I 
 see no reason to suppose that all proprietary rulers 
 are worse men than other rulers, nor that all peo- 
 ple in proprietary governments are worse people 
 than those in other governments. I suspect, 
 therefore, that the cause is radical, interwoven in 
 the constitution, and so become the very nature, 
 of proprietary governments; and will therefore 
 produce its effects as long as such governments 
 continue." It indicated a broad and able mind, 
 and one well under control, to assume as a basis 
 this dispassionate assertion of a general principle, 
 amid such personal heats as were then inflaming 
 the passions of the whole community. His con- 
 clusion held one of his admirable similes which 
 had the force of argument : " There seems to re- 
 main then but one remedy for our evils, a remedy 
 approved by experience, and which has been tried 
 with success by other provinces; I mean that of 
 an immediate Royal Government, without the in- 
 tervention of proprietary powers, which, like un- 
 necessary springs and movements in a machine, 
 are so apt to produce disorder." 
 
 Further, he held out a bait to the crown : — 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 93 
 
 "The expression, change of government, seems indeed 
 to be too extensive, and is apt to give the idea of a 
 general and total change of our laws and constitution. 
 It is rather and only a change of governor — that is, in- 
 stead of self-interested proprietaries, a gracious king. 
 His majesty, who has no views but for the good of the 
 people, will thenceforth appoint the governor, who, un- 
 shackled by proprietary instructions, will be at liberty 
 to join with the Assembly in enacting wholesome laws. 
 At present, when the king desires supplies of his faithful 
 subjects, and they are willing and desirous to grant them, 
 the proprietaries intervene and say : ' Unless our private 
 interests in certain particulars are served, nothing shall 
 be done.' This insolent tribunal veto has long encum- 
 bered our public affairs and been productive of many 
 mischiefs." 
 
 He then drew a petition "to the king's most 
 excellent majesty in council," which humbly 
 showed "That the government of this province by 
 proprietaries has, by long experience, been found 
 inconvenient, attended by many difficulties and 
 obstructions to your majesty's service, arising from 
 the intervention of proprietary private interests in 
 public affairs, and disputes concerning those in- 
 terests. That the said proprietary government is 
 weak, unable to support its own authority, and 
 maintain the common internal peace of the pro- 
 vince ; great riots have lately arisen therein. . . . 
 And these evils are not likely to receive any 
 remedy here, the continual disputes between the 
 proprietaries and people, and their mutual jeal- 
 ousies and dislikes, preventing." Wherefore his 
 
94 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 majesty was asked to be "graciously pleased to 
 resume the government of this province, . . . 
 permitting your dutiful subjects therein to jenjoy, 
 under your majesty's more immediate care and 
 protection, the privileges that have been granted 
 to them by and under your royal predecessors." 
 
 The result of feeling the public pulse showed 
 that it beat very high and strong for the proposed 
 change. Accordingly the resolution to present the 
 petition was now easily carried. But again the 
 aged speaker, Norris, found himself called upon 
 to do that for which he had not the nerve. He 
 resigned the speakership; Franklin was chosen in 
 his place and set the official signature to the docu- 
 ment. 
 
 Another paper by Franklin upon the same sub- 
 ject, and of considerable length, appeared in the 
 shape of a preface to a speech delivered in the 
 Assembly by Joseph Galloway in answer to a 
 speech on the proprietary side by John Dickinson, 
 which speech, also with a long preface, had been 
 printed. In this pamphlet he reviewed all the 
 recent history of the province. He devoted sev- 
 eral pages to a startling exposition of the almost 
 incredible usage which had long prevailed, whereby 
 bills were left to accumulate on the governor's 
 table, and then were finally signed by him in a 
 batch, only upon condition that he should receive, 
 or even sometimes upon his simultaneously re- 
 ceiving, a considerable douceur. Not only had 
 this been connived at by the proprietaries, but 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 95 
 
 sometimes these payments had been shared be- 
 tween the proprietaries and the governors. This 
 topic Franklin finally dismissed with a few lines 
 of admirable sarcasm: "Do not, my courteous 
 reader, take pet at our proprietary constitution 
 for these our bargain and sale proceedings in 
 legislation. It is a happy country where justice, 
 and what was your own before, can be had for 
 ready money. It is another addition to the value 
 of money, and, of course, another spur to indus- 
 try. Every land is not so blessed." Many quo- 
 tations from this able state paper have already 
 been made in the preceding pages, though it is so 
 brilliant a piece of work that to quote is only to 
 mutilate. Its argument, denunciation, humor, 
 and satire are interwoven in a masterly combina- 
 tion. The renowned "sketch in the lapidary 
 style," prepared for the gravestone of Thomas and 
 Richard Penn, with the introductory paragraphs, 
 constitutes one of the finest assaults in political 
 literature. 1 It is unfortunately impossible to give 
 any adequate idea or even abstract of a document 
 which covers so much ground and with such va- 
 riety of treatment. It had of course a powerful 
 effect in stimulating the public sentiment, and it 
 was especially useful in supplying formidable 
 arguments to those of the popular way of think- 
 ing; drawing their weapons from this armory, 
 they felt themselves invincible. 
 
 1 Franklin's animosity against the Penns was mitigated in later ^/ 
 years. See Franklin's Works, viii. 273. 
 
96 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 But it must not be supposed that all this while 
 Franklin was treading the velvet path of universal 
 popularity, amid the unanimous encouragement 
 of his fellow citizens, and with only the frowns 
 of the proprietary officials to disturb his serenity. 
 By one means and another the proprietaries mus- 
 tered a considerable party in the province, and 
 the hatred of all these men was concentrated upon 
 Franklin with extreme bitterness. He said that 
 he was "as much the butt of party rage and mal- 
 ice," and was as much pelted with hostile prints 
 and pamphlets, as if he were prime minister. 
 Neither was the notion of a royal government 
 looked upon with liking even by all those who were 
 indignant against the present system. Moreover 
 many persons still remained ill disposed towards 
 him by reason of his opinions and behavior dur- 
 ing the Paxton outbreak. The combination against 
 him, made up of all these various elements, felt 
 itself powerful enough for mischief, and found its 
 opportunity in the election to the Assembly occur- 
 ring in the autumn of 1764. The polls were 
 opened on October 1, at nine o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. The throng was dense, and the column of 
 voters could move but slowly. At three o'clock 
 of the following morning, the voting having con- 
 tinued during the night, the friends of the "new 
 ticket," that is to say of the new candidate, moved 
 to close the polls. The friends of the "old ticket" 
 opposed this motion and unfortunately prevailed. 
 They had a "reserve of the aged and lame," who 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 97 
 
 had shunned the crowd and were now brought in 
 chairs and litters. Thus in three hours they 
 increased their score by some two hundred votes. 
 But the other side was not less enterprising, and 
 devoting the same extension of time to scour- 
 ing Germantown and other neighborhoods, they 
 brought in near five hundred additional votes upon 
 their side. It was apparently this strange blun- 
 der of the political managers for the "old ticket" 
 party that was fatal to Franklin, for when the 
 votes were all counted he was found to be beaten 
 by a balance against him of twenty-five. He had 
 therefore evidently had a majority at the hour 
 when his friends prevented the closing of the polls. 
 He "died like a philosopher. But Mr. Galloway 
 agonized in death like a Mortal Deist, who has no 
 Hopes of a Future Existence." 1 
 
 But the jubilation of the proprietary party over 
 this signal victory was soon changed into mourn- 
 ing. For within a few days the new Assembly 
 was in session, and at once took into consideration 
 the appointment of Dr. Franklin as its agent to 
 present to the king in council another petition for 
 a royal government. The wrath of the other side 
 blazed forth savagely. "No measure," their 
 leader, Dickinson, said, was "so likely to inflame 
 the resentments and embitter the discontents of 
 the people." He "appealed to the heart of every 
 member for the truth of the assertion that no man 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, i. 451, quoting Life of Joseph Reed, 
 137. 
 
98 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 in Pennsylvania is at this time so much the object 
 of public dislike as he that has been mentioned. 
 To what a surprising height this dislike is carried 
 among vast numbers" he did "not choose to 
 repeat." He said that within a few hours of the 
 nomination hundreds of the most reputable citizens 
 had protested, and if time were given thousands 
 " would crowd to present the like testimony against 
 [him]. Why then should a majority of this House 
 single out from the whole world the man most 
 obnoxious to his country to represent his country, 
 though he was at the last election turned out of 
 the Assembly, where he had sat for fourteen years ? 
 Why should they exert their power in the most 
 disgusting manner, and throw pain, terror, and 
 displeasure into the breasts of their fellow citi- 
 zens? " The excited orator then threw out a sug- 
 gestion to which this vituperation had hardly paved 
 a way of roses ; he actually appealed to Franklin 
 to emulate Aristides, and not be worse than "the 
 dissolute Otho," and to this end urged that he 
 should distinguish himself in the eyes of all good 
 men by "voluntarily declining an office which he 
 could not accept without alarming, offending, and 
 disturbing his country." "Let him, from a pri- 
 vate station, from a smaller sphere, diffuse, as I 
 think he may, a beneficial light; but let him not 
 be made to move and blaze like a comet, to terrify 
 and to distress." 1 The popular majority in the 
 Assembly withstood Mr. Dickinson's rhetoric, and, 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, i. 451, 452. 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 99 
 
 to quote the forcible language of Bancroft, "pro- 
 ceeded to an act which in its consequences was to 
 influence the world." That is to say, they carried 
 the appointment. Franklin likewise set aside 
 Dickinson's seductive counsels, and accepted the 
 position. 
 
 It is not in human nature to be so extravagantly 
 abused in times of intense excitement, and wholly 
 to hold one's peace. Even the cool temper of Dr. 
 Franklin was incited to a retort ; his defense was 
 brief and dignified, in a very different tone from 
 that of the aspersions to which it replied; and it 
 carries that influence which always belongs to him 
 who preserves moderation amid the passions of a 
 fierce controversy. 1 
 
 1 See, for example, Franklin's Works, iii. 361, 362. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND, I 
 
 Franklin so hastened his preparations that he 
 was ready to depart again for England in twelve 
 days after his election. There was no money in 
 the provincial treasury; but some of the well-to- 
 do citizens, in expectation of reimbursement, raised 
 by subscription £1100. He took only £500. A 
 troop of three hundred mounted citizens escorted 
 him from the city sixteen miles down the river to 
 the ship, and "filled the sails with their good 
 wishes." This parade, designed only as a friendly 
 demonstration, was afterward made a charge 
 against him, as an assumption of pomp and a dis- 
 play of popularity. If it had been deliberately 
 planned, it would have been ill advised; but it 
 took him by surprise, and he could not prevent it. 
 The ship cast anchor in St. Helen's Road, Isle 
 of Wight, on December 9, 1764. He forthwith 
 hastened to London, and installed himself in the 
 familiar rooms at No. 7 Craven Street, Strand. 
 In Philadelphia, when the news came of the safe 
 arrival of this "man the most obnoxious to his 
 country," the citizens kept the bells ringing until 
 midnight. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 101 
 
 So altogether the prospect now seemed agree- 
 able in whatever direction Dr. Franklin chose to 
 look. He was in quarters in which he was at least 
 as much at home as he could feel in his house at 
 Philadelphia; Mrs. Stevenson, his landlady, and 
 her daughter Mary, whom he had sought to per- 
 suade his son to marry, upon the excellent ground 
 of his own great affection for her, not only made 
 him comfortable but saved him from homesick- 
 ness; old and warm friends welcomed him; the 
 pleasures of London society again spread their 
 charms before him. Without the regrets and 
 doubts which must have attended the real emigra- 
 tion which he had been half inclined to make, he 
 seemed to be reaping all the gratification which 
 that could have brought him. At the same time 
 he had also the pride of receiving from the other 
 side of the Atlantic glowing accounts of the esteem 
 in which he was held by a controlling body of 
 those who were still his fellow citizens there. But 
 already there had shown itself above the horizon a 
 cloud which rapidly rose, expanded, and obscured 
 all this fair sky. 
 
 Franklin came to England in the anticipation 
 of a short stay, and with no purpose beyond the 
 presentation and urging of the petition for the 
 change of government. Somewhat less than ten 
 months, he thought, would suffice to finish this 
 business. In fact, he did not get home for ten 
 years, and this especial errand, which had seemed 
 all that he had to do, soon sank into such com- 
 
102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 parative insignificance that, though not actually 
 forgotten, it could not secure attention. He con- 
 scientiously made repeated efforts to keep the 
 petition in the memory of the English ministry, 
 and to obtain action upon it ; but his efforts were 
 vain; that body was absorbed by other affairs in 
 connection with the troublesome American colo- 
 nies, — affairs which gave vastly more perplexity 
 and called for much more attention than were be- 
 coming in the case of provinces that should have 
 been submissive as well-behaved children. Frank- 
 lin himself found his own functions correspond- 
 ingly enlarged. Instead of remaining simply an 
 agent charged with urging a petition which brought 
 him in conflict only with private persons, like 
 himself subjects of the king, he found his position 
 rapidly change and develop until he became really 
 the representative of a disaffected people main- 
 taining a cause against the monarch and the gov- 
 ernment of the great British Empire. It was the 
 "Stamp Act" which effected this transformation. 
 Scarcely had the great war with France been 
 brought to a close by the treaty of 1763, bringing 
 such enormous advantages to the old British pos- 
 sessions in America, before it became apparent 
 that among the fruits some were mingled that were 
 neither sweet nor nourishing. The war had moved 
 the colonies into a perilous foreground. Their in- 
 terests had cost much in men and money, and had 
 been worth all that they had cost, and more; the 
 benefits conferred upon them had been immense, 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 103 
 
 yet were recognized as not being in excess of their 
 real importance, present and future. Worst of 
 all, the magnitude of their financial resources 
 had been made apparent; without a murmur, 
 without visible injury to their prosperity, they 
 had voluntarily raised large sums by taxation. 
 Meanwhile the English treasury had been put to 
 enormous charges, and the English people groaned 
 beneath the unwonted tax burdens which they had 
 to bear. The attention of British financiers, even 
 before the war was over, was turned toward the 
 colonies, as a field of which the productive capa- 
 city had never been developed. 
 
 So soon as peace brought to the government 
 leisure to adjust domestic matters in a thorough 
 manner, the scheme for colonial taxation came to 
 the front. "America . . . became the great sub- 
 ject of consideration ; . . . and the minister who 
 was charged with its government took the lead 
 in public business." 1 This minister was at first 
 Charles Townshend, than whom no man in Eng- 
 land, it was supposed, knew more of the transat- 
 lantic possessions. His scheme involved a stand- 
 ing army of 25,000 men in the provinces, to be 
 supported by taxes to be raised there. In order 
 to obtain this revenue he first gave his care to the 
 revision of the navigation act. Duties which had 
 been so high that they had never been collected he 
 now proposed to reduce and to enforce. This was 
 designed to be only the first link in the chain, but 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 28. 
 
104 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 before he could forge others he had to go out of 
 office with the Bute ministry. The change in the 
 cabinet, however, made no change in the colonial 
 policy; that was not "the wish of this man or that 
 man," but apparently of nearly all English states- 
 men. 
 
 So in March, 1763, George Grenville, in the 
 treasury department, took up the plan which 
 Townshend had laid down. Grenville was com- 
 mercially minded, and his first efforts were in the 
 direction of regulating the trade of the colonies 
 so as to carry out with much more stringency 
 and thoroughness than heretofore three principles : 
 first, that England should be the only shop in 
 which a colonist could purchase ; second, that colo- 
 nists should not make for themselves those articles 
 which England had to sell to them ; third, that the 
 people of different colonies should not trade with 
 each other even to the indirect or possible detri- 
 ment of the trade of either with England. Se- 
 verely as these restrictions bore upon the colonists, 
 they were of that character, as relating to external 
 trade, which no colonist denied to, lie within the 
 jurisdiction of Parliament. But they were not 
 enough ; they must be supplemented ; and a stamp 
 act was designed as the supplement. On March 9, 
 1764, Grenville stated his intention to introduce 
 such a bill at the next session; he needed the 
 interval for inquiries and preparation. It was 
 no very novel idea. It "had been proposed to Sir 
 Robert Walpole; it had been thought of by Pel- 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 105 
 
 ham; it had been almost resolved upon in 1755; 
 it had been pressed upon Pitt ; it seems, beyond a 
 doubt, to have been a part of the system adopted 
 in the ministry of Bute, and it was sure of the 
 support of Charles Townshend. Knox, the agent 
 of Georgia, stood ready to defend it. . . . The 
 agent of Massachusetts favored raising the wanted 
 money in that way." Little opposition was anti- 
 cipated in Parliament, and none from the king. 
 In short, "everybody, who reasoned on the sub- 
 ject, decided for a stamp tax." 1 Never did any 
 bill of any legislature seem to come into being 
 with better auspices. Some among the colonial 
 agents certainly expressed ill feeling towards it; 
 but Grenville silenced them, telling them that he 
 was acting "from a real regard and tenderness" 
 towards the Americans. He said this in perfect 
 good faith. His views both of the law and of the 
 reasons for the law were intelligent and honest; 
 he had carefully gathered information and sought 
 advice ; and he had a profound belief alike in the 
 righteousness and the wisdom of the measure. 
 
 News of what was in preparation in England 
 reached Pennsylvania in the summer of 1764, 
 shortly before Franklin sailed. The Assembly 
 debated concerning it; Franklin was prominent 
 in condemning the scheme; and a resolution pro- 
 testing against it was passed. It was made part 
 of Franklin's duty in London to urge upon Gren- 
 ville these views of Pennsylvania. But when he 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 155. 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 UNlVERSiTY 
 
106 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 arrived he found that the grinding at the mills of 
 government was going on much too evenly to be 
 disturbed by the introduction of any such insig- 
 nificant foreign substance as a colonial protest. 
 Nevertheless he endeavored to do what he could. 
 In company with three other colonial agents he 
 had an interview with Grenville, February 2, 
 1765, in which he urged that taxation by act of 
 Parliament was needless, inasmuch as any requisi- 
 tion for the service of the king always had found, 
 and always would find, a prompt and liberal re- 
 sponse on the part of the Assembly. Arguments, 
 however, and protests struck ineffectually against 
 the solid wall of Grenville's established purpose. 
 He listened with a civil appearance of interest 
 and dismissed his visitors and all memory of their 
 arguments together. On the 13th of the same 
 month he read the bill in Parliament; on the 27th 
 it passed the Commons; on March 8, the Lords; 
 and on March 22 it was signed by a royal com- 
 mission; the insanity of the king saved him from 
 placing his own signature to the ill-starred law. 
 In July Franklin wrote to Charles Thomson : — 
 
 " Depend upon it, my good neighbor, I took every 
 step in my power to prevent the passing of the Stamp 
 Act. Nobody could be more concerned and interested 
 than myself to oppose it sincerely and heartily. But 
 the tide was too strong against us. The nation was 
 provoked by American claims of independence, and all 
 parties joined in resolving by this act to settle the point. 
 We might as well have hindered the sun's setting. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 107 
 
 That we could not do. But since it is down, my friend, 
 and it may be long before it rises again, let us make as 
 good a night of it as we can. We can still light candles. 
 Frugality and industry will go a great way towards in- 
 demnifying us. Idleness and pride tax with a heavier 
 hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of 
 the former, we may easily bear the latter." 
 
 In such a temper was he at this time, and so 
 remained until he got news of the first mutterings 
 of the storm in the colonies. His words show 
 a discouragement and despondency unusual with 
 him ; but what attracts remark is the philosophical 
 purpose to make the best even of so bad a busi- 
 ness, the hopeless absence of any suggestion of a 
 further opposition, and that his only advice is 
 patient endurance. Unquestionably he did con- 
 ceive the matter to be for the time settled. The 
 might of England was an awful fact, visible all 
 around him ; he felt the tremendous force of the 
 great British people; and he saw their immense 
 resources every day as he walked the streets of 
 busy, prosperous London. As he recalled the infant 
 towns and scattered villages of the colonies, how 
 could he contemplate forcible resistance to an edict 
 of Parliament and the king? Had Otis, Adams, 
 Henry, Gadsden, and the rest seen with their 
 bodily eyes what Franklin was seeing every day, 
 their words might have been more tempered. 
 Even a year later, in talk with a gentleman who 
 said that so far back as 1741 he had expressed an 
 opinion that the colonies "would one day release 
 
108 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 themselves from England," Franklin answered, 
 " with his earnest, expressive, and intelligent 
 face: " "Then you were mistaken; the Americans 
 have too much love for their mother country;" 
 and he added that "secession was impossible, for 
 all the American towns of importance, Boston, 
 New York, and Philadelphia, were exposed to the 
 English navy. Boston could be destroyed by 
 bombardment." Near the same time he said to 
 Ingersoll of Connecticut, who was about departing 
 for the colonies : " Go home and tell your country- 
 men to get children as fast as they can." By no 
 means without forebodings for the future, he was 
 yet far from fancying that the time had come when 
 physical resistance was feasible. It seemed still 
 the day for arguments, not for menaces. 
 
 To Franklin in this frame of mind, never 
 doubting that the act would be enforced, there 
 was brought a plausible message from Grenville. 
 The minister desired "to make the execution of 
 the act as little inconvenient and disagreeable to 
 America as possible," and to this end he preferred 
 to nominate as stamp distributers "discreet and 
 reputable " residents in the province, rather than 
 to send over strangers from Great Britain. Ac- 
 cordingly he solicited a nomination from Franklin 
 of some "honest and responsible" man in Phila- 
 delphia. Franklin readily named a trustworthy 
 merchant of his acquaintance, Mr. Hughes. The 
 Stamp Act itself hardly turned out a greater blun- 
 der for Grenville than this well-meant suggestion 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 109 
 
 was near turning out for Franklin. When the 
 Philadelphians got news of the passage of the act, 
 the preparations for its enforcement, the nomi- 
 nation of Mr. Hughes, and the fact that he had 
 been suggested by Franklin, the whole city rose 
 in a wild frenzy of rage. Never was such a sud- 
 den change of feeling. He who had been their 
 trusted companion was now loudly reviled as a 
 false and truckling traitor. He was said to have 
 deserted his own, and to have gone over to the 
 minister's side; to have approved the odious law, 
 and to have asked that a position under it might 
 be given to his friend. The mobs ranging the 
 streets threatened to destroy the new house, in 
 which he had left his wife and daughter. The 
 latter was persuaded to seek safety in Burling- 
 ton; but Mrs. Franklin, with admirable courage, 
 stayed in the house till the danger was over. 
 Some armed friends stood ready to assist if the 
 crisis should come, but fortunately it passed by. 
 All sorts of stories were spread concerning Frank- 
 lin, — even that it was he who had "planned the 
 Stamp Act;" and that he was endeavoring also 
 to get the Test Act introduced into the colonies ! 
 A caricature represented the devil whispering into 
 his ear: "Ben, you shall be my agent throughout 
 my dominions." 
 
 Knowing Franklin's frame of mind, it is easy 
 to fancy the surprise with which he learned of the 
 spirit which had blazed forth in the colonies, and 
 of the violent doings in many places; and we may 
 
110 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 imagine the pain and mortification with which he 
 heard of the opinions expressed by his fellow citi- 
 zens concerning his own action. He said little at 
 the time, so far as we know ; but many years after- 
 wards he gave a narrative of his course in language 
 which was almost apologetic and deprecatory. A 
 pen in his fingers became a sympathetic instru- 
 ment, and betrays sometimes what his moderate 
 language does not distinctly state. The intense, 
 bitter condemnation vented by his constituents, 
 who so lately had been following his lead, but who 
 now reviled a representative who had misrepre- 
 sented them in so vital an affair, cut its way deep. 
 The gap between him and them did indeed 
 seem a wide one. In the colonies there was uni- 
 versal wrath, oftentimes swelling into fury; in 
 some places mobs, much sacking of houses, hang- 
 ings and burnings in effigy ; compulsion put upon 
 king's officers publicly to resign their offices; wild 
 threats and violence; obstruction to the distribu- 
 tion of the stamped paper; open menaces of forci- 
 ble resistance, even of secession and rebellion; a 
 careful estimating of the available armed forces 
 among the colonies; the proposal for a congress 
 of colonies to promote community of action, to 
 protest, and to consult for the common cause; dis- 
 obedient resolutions by legislatures; a spreading 
 of the spirit of colonial union by the general cry 
 of "Join or die; " agreements not to import or 
 use articles of English manufacture, with other 
 sunder ings of commercial relations. Far behind 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 111 
 
 this mad procession, of which the more moderate 
 divisions were marshaled by Otis, Sam Adams, 
 and Gadsden, and soon also by John Adams and 
 Patrick Henry, and by many other well-known 
 "patriots," Franklin appeared to be a laggard in 
 the rear distance, with disregarded arguments and 
 protests, with words of moderation, even counsels 
 of submission, nay, actually with a sort of con- 
 nivance in the measure by the nomination of an 
 official under it. 
 
 Yet the intervening space was not so great as 
 it appeared. There was nothing in the counsels 
 of the reasonable and intelligent "patriots" which 
 was repugnant to Franklin's opinions. So soon as 
 he saw the ground upon which they had placed 
 themselves, he made haste to come into position 
 with them. It was fortunate indeed that the tran- 
 sient separation was closed again before it could 
 lead to the calamity of his removal from his office. 
 For no man or even combination of men, whom it 
 was possible to send from the provinces, could 
 have done them the services which Franklin was 
 about to render. Besides the general power of 
 his mind, he had peculiar fitnesses. He was 
 widely known and very highly esteemed in Eng- 
 land, where he moved in many circles. Among 
 members of the nobility, among men high in office, 
 among members of Parliament, among scientific 
 men and literary men, among men of business 
 and affairs, and among men who made a business 
 of society, he was always welcome. In that city 
 
112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 in which dinners constituted so important an ele- 
 ment in life, even for the most serious purposes, 
 he was the greatest of diners-out; while at the 
 coffee-houses, clubs, and in the old-fashioned tav- 
 ern circles no companion was more highly esteemed 
 than he. He consorted not only with friends of 
 the colonies, but was, and for a long time contin- 
 ued to be, on intimate terms of courteous inter- 
 course also with those who were soon to be de- 
 scribed as their enemies. Each and all, amid this 
 various and extensive acquaintance, listened to 
 him with a respect no tithe of which could have 
 been commanded by any other American then 
 living. The force of his intelligence, the scope of 
 his understanding, the soundness of his judgment, 
 had already been appreciated by men accustomed 
 to study and to estimate the value of such traits. 
 His knowledge of American affairs, of the trade 
 and business of the provinces, of the characteris- 
 tics of the people in different parts of the country, 
 was very great, because of his habit of shrewd 
 observation, of his taste for practical matters, and 
 of his extensive travels and connections as post- 
 master. Add to this that he had a profound affec- 
 tion for the mother country, which was not only a 
 tradition and a habit, but a warm and lively at- 
 tachment nourished by delightful personal experi- 
 ence, by long residence and numerous friendships, 
 by gratifying appreciation of and compliments to 
 himself. No one could doubt his sincerity when 
 he talked of his love for England as a real and 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 113 
 
 influential sentiment. At the same time he was 
 an American and a patriot. Though he had 
 failed to anticipate the state of feeling which the 
 Stamp Act begot, it was his only failure of this 
 kind; generally he spoke the sentiments of the 
 colonists with entire truth and sympathy. He 
 was one who could combine force with modera- 
 tion in the expression of his views, the force being 
 all the greater for the moderation; he had an 
 admirable head to conceive an argument, a tongue 
 and pen to state it clearly and pointedly. He 
 had presence of mind in conversation, was ready 
 and quick at fence ; he was widely learned ; he was 
 a sounder political economist than any member 
 of the English government; above all, he had 
 an unrivaled familiarity with the facts, the argu- 
 ments, and the people on both sides of the con- 
 troversy; he kept perfect control of his temper, 
 without the least loss of earnestness ; and had the 
 rare faculty of being able to state his own side with 
 plain force, and yet without giving offense. Such 
 were his singular qualifications, which soon enabled 
 him to perform the greatest act of his public life. 
 
 Matters came by degrees into better shape for 
 the colonies. In politics any statesman has but 
 to propose a measure to find it opposed by those 
 who oppose him. So what had seemed an uni- 
 versal willingness to levy internal taxes upon the 
 colonies soon lost this aspect. No sooner did the 
 news from the angry colonies bring the scheme 
 into prominence than the assaults upon it became 
 
114 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 numerous, and enemies of Grenville became friends 
 of America. Arguments so obvious and so strong 
 as those against the measure were eagerly made 
 the most of by the opponents of the men who were 
 in office. Among these opponents was Pitt, that 
 formidable man before whom all trembled. Gout 
 had disabled him, but who could tell when he 
 might get sufficient respite to return and deal 
 havoc? Yet in spite of all that was said, the 
 ministry seemed impregnable. Grenville was 
 very able, always of a stubborn temper, and in 
 this especial case convinced to the point of inten- 
 sity that the right lay with him; moreover, he was 
 complete master in Parliament, where his author- 
 ity seemed still to increase steadily. No man 
 was sanguine enough to see hope for the colpnies, 
 when suddenly an occurrence, which in this age 
 could not appreciably affect the power of an Eng- 
 lish premier, snapped Grenville 's sway in a few 
 days. This was only the personal pique of the 
 king, irritated by complaints made by the Duke 
 of Bedford about the favorite, Bute. For such a 
 cause George III. drove out of office, upon grounds 
 of his own dislike, a prime minister and cabinet 
 with whom he was in substantial accord upon the 
 most important public matters then under consid- 
 eration, and although it was almost impossible to 
 patch together any tolerably congruous or com- 
 petent body of successors. 
 
 Pitt endeavored to form a cabinet, but was 
 obliged, with chagrin, to confess his inability. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 115 
 
 At last the Duke of Cumberland succeeded in 
 forming the so-called Rockingham Cabinet, a weak 
 combination, but far less unfavorable than its 
 predecessor towards America. The Marquis of 
 Rockingham, as prime minister, had Edmund 
 Burke as his private secretary; while General 
 Conway, one of the. very few who had opposed the 
 Stamp Act, now actually received the southern 
 department of state within which the colonies were 
 included. Still there seemed little hope for any 
 undoing of the past, which probably would never 
 have been wrung from this or any British ministry 
 so long as all the discontent was on the other side 
 of three thousand miles of ocean. But this was 
 ceasing to be the case. The American weapon of 
 non-importation was proving most efficient. In 
 the provinces the custom of wearing mourning 
 was abandoned ; no one killed or ate lamb, to the 
 end that by the increase of sheep the supply of 
 wool might be greater; homespun was now the 
 only wear ; no man would be seen clad in English 
 cloth. In a word, throughout America there was 
 established what would now be called a thorough 
 and comprehensive "boycott" against all articles 
 of English manufacture. So very soon the man- 
 ufacturers of the mother country began to find 
 themselves the only real victims of the Stamp Act. 
 In America it was inflicting no harm, but rather 
 was encouraging economy, enterprise, and domestic 
 industry; while the sudden closing of so enormous 
 a market brought loss and bankruptcy to many 
 
116 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 an English manufacturer and warehouseman. 
 Shipping, too, was indirectly affected. An outcry 
 for the change of a disastrous policy swelled 
 rapidly in the manufacturing and trading towns; 
 and erelong the battle of the colonists was being 
 fought by allies upon English soil, who were stim- 
 ulated by the potent impulse of self-preservation. 
 These men cared nothing for the principle at 
 stake, nothing for the colonists personally; but 
 they cared for the business by which they sustained 
 their own homes, and they were resolved that the 
 destroying Stamp Act should be got out of their 
 way. Such an influence was soon felt. Death 
 also came in aid of the Americans, removing in 
 good time the Duke of. Cumberland, the merciless 
 conqueror of Culloden, who now was all ready to 
 fight it out with the colonies, and only thus lost 
 the chance to do so. 
 
 Beneath the pressure of these events concession 
 began to be talked of, though at first of course its 
 friends were few and its enemies many. Charles 
 Townshend announced himself able to contemplate 
 with equanimity the picture of the colonies relaps- 
 ing "to their primitive deserts." But the trouble 
 was that little deserts began to spot the face of 
 England; and still the British merchant, who sel- 
 dom speaks long in vain, was increasing his clamor, 
 and did not fancy the prospect of rich trading 
 fields reduced to desolation. In January, 1766, 
 too, the dreaded voice of Pitt again made itself 
 heard in St. Stephen's, sending forth an eloquent 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 117 
 
 harangue for America: "The Americans are the 
 sons, not the bastards, of England. As subjects 
 they are entitled to the common right of represen- 
 tation, and cannot be bound to pay taxes without 
 their consent. Taxation is no part of the govern- 
 ing power. 1 The taxes are a voluntary gift and 
 grant by the Commons alone. In an American tax 
 what do we do? We, your Majesty's Commons 
 of Great Britain, give and grant to your Majesty 
 — what ? Our own property? No ! we give 
 and grant to your Majesty the property of your 
 Majesty's commons in America. It is an absurd- 
 ity in terms." 2 "The idea of a virtual represen- 
 tation of America in this House is the most con- 
 temptible that ever entered into the head of man." 
 "I never shall own the justice of taxing America 
 internally until she enjoys the right of represen- 
 tation." Not very many men in either house of 
 Parliament would go the full logical length of 
 Pitt's argument; but men who held views quite 
 opposite to his as to the lawful authority of Par- 
 liament to lay this tax were beginning to feel that 
 they must join him in getting it out of the way 
 of domestic prosperity in England. It seemed to 
 them a mistaken exercise of an unquestionable 
 right. They were prepared to correct the mistake, 
 which could be done without abandoning the right. 
 
 1 Grenville had laid down the proposition that England was 
 u the sovereign, the supreme legislative power over America," 
 and that " taxation is a part of that sovereign power." 
 
 2 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. v. 385-387. 
 
118 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 As this feeling visibly gained ground the ministry 
 gathered courage to consider the expediency of 
 introducing a bill to repeal the act. Could the 
 king have had his way they would not have sur- 
 vived in office to do so. He would have had their 
 ministerial heads off, as he had stricken those of 
 their immediate predecessors. But efforts which 
 he made to find successors for them were fruitless, 
 and so they remained in places which no others 
 could be induced to fill. Pitt was sounded, to see 
 whether he would ally himself with them; but he 
 would not. Had he been gained the fight would 
 not have come simply upon the repeal of the act as 
 unsatisfactory, but as being contrary to the con- 
 stitution of England. The narrower battle-ground 
 was selected by Rockingham. 
 
 The immediate forerunner in Parliament of the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act was significant. A reso- 
 lution was introduced into the House of Lords, 
 February 3, 1766, that the "king in Parliament 
 has full power to bind the colonies and people of 
 America in all cases whatsoever." The debate 
 which followed showed what importance this 
 American question had assumed in England; the 
 expression of feeling was intense, the display of 
 ability very great. Lord Camden and Lord 
 Mansfield encountered each other; but the former, 
 with the best of the argument, had much the worst 
 of the division. One hundred and twenty-five 
 peers voted for the resolution, only five against it. 
 In the Commons, Pitt assailed the resolution, 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 119 
 
 with no better success than had attended Camden. 
 No one knew how many voted Nay, but it was 
 "less than ten voices, some said five or four, some 
 said but three." 1 Immediately after this assertion 
 of a principle, the same Parliament prepared to 
 set aside the only application of it which had ever 
 been attempted. It was well understood that the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act was close at hand. 
 
 It was at this juncture that Franklin, who had 
 been by no means idle during the long struggle, 
 appeared as a witness in that examination which 
 perhaps displayed his ability to better advantage 
 than any other single act in his life. It was be- 
 tween February 3 and 13, 1766, that he and others 
 were summoned to give testimony concerning the 
 colonies at the bar of the House of Commons sit- 
 ting in committee of the whole. The others have 
 been forgotten, but his evidence never will be. 
 The proceeding was striking; there were some of 
 the cleverest and most experienced men in Eng- 
 land to question him ; no one of them singly was 
 his match ; but there were many of them, and they 
 conducted an examination and a cross-examination 
 both in one; that is to say, those who wished to 
 turn a point against him might at any moment 
 interpose with any question which might suddenly 
 confuse" or mislead him. But no man was ever 
 better fitted than Franklin to play the part of a 
 witness, and no record in politics or in law can 
 compare with the report of his testimony. Some 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. v. 417. 
 
120 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 persons have endeavored to account for, which 
 means of course to detract from, its extraordinary 
 merit by saying that some of the questions and 
 replies had been prearranged; but it does not 
 appear that such prearrangement went further than 
 that certain friendly interrogators had discussed 
 the topics with him so as to be familiar with his 
 views. Every lawyer does this with his witnesses. 
 Nor can it be supposed that the admirable replies 
 which he made to the enemies of America were 
 otherwise than strictly impromptu. He had thor- 
 ough knowledge of the subject; he was in perfect 
 control of his head and his temper ; his extraordi- 
 nary faculty for clear and pithy statement never 
 showed to better advantage; he was, as always, 
 moderate and reasonable; but above all the won- 
 derful element was the quick wit and ready skill 
 with which he turned to his own service every 
 query which was designed to embarrass him; and 
 this he did not in the vulgar way of flippant retort 
 or disingenuous twistings of words or facts, but 
 with the same straightforward and tranquil sim- 
 plicity of language with which he delivered evi- 
 dence for the friendly examiners. Burke likened 
 the proceeding to an examination of a master by a 
 parcel of schoolboys. 
 
 Franklin used to say, betwixt plaint and hu- 
 mor, that it always seemed to him that no one ever 
 gave an abbreviation or an abstract of anything 
 which he had written, without very nearly spoiling 
 the original. This would be preeminently true of 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 121 
 
 an abstract of this examination; abbreviation can 
 be only mutilation. It ranged over a vast ground, 
 — colonial history and politics, political economy, 
 theories and practice in colonial trade, colonial 
 commerce and industry, popular opinions and 
 sentiment, and the probabilities of action in sup- 
 posed cases. His answers made a great stir; they 
 were universally admitted to have substantially 
 advanced the day of repeal. They constituted the 
 abundant armory to which the friends of the colo- 
 nies resorted for weapons offensive and defensive, 
 for facts and for ideas. He himself, with just 
 complacency, remarked: "The then ministry was 
 ready to hug me for the assistance I afforded them." 
 The "Gentleman's Magazine" said: — 
 
 " From this examination of Dr. Franklin the reader 
 may form a clearer and more comprehensive idea of the 
 state and disposition in America, of the expediency or 
 inexpediency of the measure in question, and of the 
 character and conduct of the minister who proposed it, 
 than from all that has been written upon the subject in 
 newspapers and pamphlets, under the titles of essays, 
 letters, speeches, and considerations, from the first 
 moment of its becoming the subject of public attention 
 until now. The questions in general are put with great 
 subtlety and judgment, and they are answered with such 
 deep and familiar knowledge of the subject, such pre- 
 cision and perspicuity, such temper and yet such spirit, 
 as do the greatest honor to Dr. Franklin, and justify the 
 general opinion of his character and abilities." 
 
 Like praises descended from every quarter. 
 
122 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 One interesting fact clearly appears from this 
 examination : that Franklin now fully understood 
 the colonial sentiment, and was thoroughly in 
 accord with it. Being asked whether the colonists 
 " would submit to the Stamp Act, if it were modi- 
 fied, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty 
 reduced to some particulars of small moment," he 
 replied with brief decision : " No, they will never 
 submit to it." As to how they would receive "a 
 future tax imposed on the same principle," he 
 said, with the same forcible brevity: "Just as they 
 do this: they would not pay it." Q. "Can any- 
 thing less than a military force carry the Stamp 
 Act into execution? A. I do not see how a 
 military force can be applied to that purpose. 
 Q. Why may it not? A. Suppose a military 
 force sent into America, they will find nobody 
 in arms. What are they then to do? They 
 cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses 
 to do without them. They will not find a rebel- 
 lion; they may indeed make one. Q. If the 
 act is not repealed, what do you think will be the 
 consequences? A. A total loss of the respect 
 and affection the people of America bear to this 
 country, and of all the commerce that depends on 
 that respect and affection. Q. How can the 
 commerce be affected? A. You will find that if 
 the act is not repealed, they will take a very little 
 of your manufactures in a short time. Q. Is it 
 in their power to do without them? A. The 
 goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 123 
 
 mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as 
 cloth, etc., with a little industry they can make at 
 home; the second they can do without until they 
 are able to provide them among themselves; and 
 the last, which are much the greatest part, they 
 will strike off immediately." This view of the 
 willingness and capacity of the colonists to forego 
 English importations he elsewhere elaborated fully. 
 The English merchants knew to their cost that he 
 spoke the truth. 
 
 With reference to the enforcement of claims in 
 the courts, he was asked whether the people would 
 not use the stamps "rather than remain . . . 
 unable to obtain any right or recover by law any 
 debt? " He replied: "It is hard to say what they 
 would do. I can only judge what other people will 
 think, and how they will act, by what I feel 
 within myself. I have a great many debts due to 
 me in America, and I would rather they should 
 remain unrecoverable by any law than submit to 
 the Stamp Act." 
 
 A few weeks later he wrote: "I have some little 
 property in America. 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 cheer- 
 fully with my 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." The picture of Dr. Franklin, the 
 philosopher, at the age of sixty-one, "cheerfully " 
 
124 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 sustaining his family in the wilderness by the 
 winnings of his rod and his rifle stirs one's sense 
 of humor ; but the paragraph indicates that he was 
 in strict harmony with his countrymen, who were 
 expressing serious resolution with some rhetorical 
 exaggeration, in the American fashion. 
 
 The main argument of the colonies, that under 
 the British constitution there could be no taxation 
 without representation, was of course introduced 
 into the examination; and Franklin seized the 
 occasion to express his theory very ingeniously. 
 Referring to the fact that, by the Declaration of 
 Rights, no money could "be raised on the subject 
 but by consent of Parliament," the subtle ques- 
 tion was put : How the colonists could think that 
 they themselves had a right to levy money for 
 the crown ? Franklin replied : " They understand 
 that clause to relate only to subjects within the 
 realm ; that no money can be levied on them for 
 the crown but by consent of Parliament. The 
 colonies are not supposed to be within the realm; 
 they have assemblies of their own, which are their 
 parliaments." This was a favorite theory with 
 him, in expounding which he likened the colonies 
 to Ireland, and to Scotland before the union. 
 Many sentences to the same purport occur in his 
 writings ; for example : " These writers against the 
 colonies all bewilder themselves by supposing the 
 colonies within the realm, which is not the case, 
 nor ever was." "If an Englishman goes into a 
 foreign country, he is subject to the laws and 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 125 
 
 government he finds there. If he finds no govern- 
 ment or laws there, he is subject there to none, 
 till he and his companions, if he has any, make 
 laws for themselves; and this was the case of the 
 first settlers in America. Otherwise, if they car- 
 ried the English laws and power of Parliament 
 with them, what advantage could the Puritans 
 propose to themselves by going?" "The colonists 
 carried no law with them; they carried only a 
 power of making laws, or adopting such parts of 
 the English law or of any other law as they should 
 think suitable to their circumstances." 1 Radical 
 doctrines these, which he could not reasonably 
 expect would find favor under any principles of 
 government then known in the world. To the 
 like effect were other assertions of his, made some- 
 what later: "In fact, the British Empire is not a 
 single state; it comprehends many." "The sover- 
 eignty of the crown I understand. The sovereignty 
 of the British legislature out of Britain I do not 
 understand." "The king, and not the King, 
 Lords, and Commons collectively, is their sover- 
 eign; and the king with their respective parlia- 
 ments is their only legislator." 2 "The Parliament 
 of Great Britain has not, never had, and of right 
 never can have, without consent given either be- 
 fore or after, power to make laws of sufficient force 
 to bind the subjects of America in any case what- 
 
 1 To same purport, see also Works, iv. 300. 
 
 2 Concerning this theory, see Fiske's The Beginnings of New 
 England, 266. 
 
126 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ever, and particularly in taxation." The singular 
 phrase "the subjects of America" is worth noting. 
 In 1769, still reiterating the same principle, he 
 said: "We are free subjects of the king; and fel- 
 low subjects of one part of his dominions are not 
 sovereigns over fellow subjects in any other part." 
 It is a singular fact that Franklin long cherished 
 a personal regard towards the king, and a faith 
 in his friendly and liberal purposes towards the 
 colonies. Indignation against the Parliament was 
 offset by confidence in George III. Even so late 
 as the spring of 1769, he writes to a friend in 
 America : " I hope nothing that has happened, or 
 may happen, will diminish in the least our loyalty 
 to our sovereign, or affection for this nation in 
 general. I can scarcely conceive a king of better 
 disposition, of more exemplary virtues, or more 
 truly desirous of promoting the welfare of all his 
 subjects. The experience we have had of the 
 family in the two preceding mild reigns, and the 
 good temper of our young princes, so far as can 
 yet be discovered, promise us a continuance of this 
 felicity." Of the British people too he thought 
 kindly^ But for the Parliament he could find no 
 excuse. He admitted that it might be "decent" 
 indeed to speak in the "public papers" of the 
 "wisdom and the justice of Parliament;" never- 
 theless, the ascription of these qualities to the 
 present Parliament certainly was not true, what- 
 ever might be the case as to any future one. The 
 next year found him still counseling that the colo- 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 127 
 
 nies should hold fast to their allegiance to their 
 king, who had the best disposition towards them, 
 and was their most efficient bulwark against "the 
 arbitrary power of a corrupt Parliament." In the 
 summer of 1773, he was seeking excuses for the 
 king's adherence to the principle that Parliament 
 could legally tax the colonies: "when one con- 
 siders the king's situation," with all his ministers, 
 advisers, judges, and the great majority of both 
 houses holding this view, when "one reflects how 
 necessary it is for him to be well with his Parlia- 
 ment," and that any action of his countenancing 
 a doctrine contrary to that of both the Lords and 
 the Commons "would hazard his embroiling him- 
 self with those powerful bodies," Franklin was of 
 opinion that it seemed "hardly to be expected 
 from him that he should take any step of that 
 kind." But this was the last apology which he 
 uttered for George III. He was about to reach 
 the same estimation of that monarch which has 
 been adopted by posterity. Only a very little 
 later he writes : " Between you and me, the late 
 measures have been, I suspect, very much the 
 king's own, and he has in some cases a great share 
 of what his friends call^rmness." Thus tardily, 
 reluctantly, and at first gently, the kindly philoso- 
 pher began to admit to himself and others the truth 
 as to his Majesty's disposition and character. 
 
 Some persons in England, affected by the 
 powerful argument of non-representation, pro- 
 posed that the colonies should be represented in 
 
128 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Parliament; and about the time of the Stamp Act 
 the possibility of such an arrangement was seri- 
 ously discussed. Franklin was willing to speak 
 kindly of a plan which was logically unobjection- 
 able, and which involved the admission that the 
 existing condition was unjust ; but he knew very 
 well that it would never develop into a practicable 
 solution of the problem, and in fact it soon dropped 
 out of men's minds. January 6, 1766, he wrote 
 that in his opinion the measure of an Union, as he 
 shrewdly called it, was a wise one; "but," he said, 
 " I doubt it will hardly be thought so here until it 
 is too late to attempt it. The time has been when 
 the colonies would have esteemed it a great advan- 
 tage, as well as honor, to be permitted to send 
 members to Parliament, and would have asked for 
 that privilege if they could have had the least 
 hopes of obtaining it. The time is now come 
 when they are indifferent about it, and will prob^ 
 ably not ask it, though they might accept it, if 
 offered them ; and the time will come when they 
 will certainly refuse it. But if such an Union 
 were now established (which methinks it highly 
 imports this country to establish), it would prob- 
 ably subsist so long as Britain shall continue a 
 nation. This people, however, is too proud, and 
 too much despises the Americans to bear the 
 thought of admitting them to such an equitable 
 participation in the government of the whole." 1 
 
 1 To same purport, see letter to Evans, May 9, 1766, Works, iii 
 464. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 129 
 
 Haughty words these, though so tranquilly spoken, 
 and which must have startled many a dignified 
 Briton : behold ! a mere colonist, the son of a tal- 
 low chandler, is actually declaring that those puny 
 colonies of simple "farmers, husbandmen, and 
 planters" were already "indifferent" about, and 
 would soon feel in condition to "refuse," repre- 
 sentation in such a body as the Parliament of 
 England; also that it "highly imported" Great 
 Britain to seek amalgamation while yet it could be 
 had! But Franklin meant what he said, and he 
 repeated it more than once, very earnestly. He 
 resented that temper, of which he saw so much on 
 every side, and which he clearly described by say- 
 ing that every individual in England felt himself 
 to be "part of a sovereign over America." 
 
 Men of a different habit of mind of course reit- 
 erated the shallow and threadbare nonsense about 
 " virtual," or as it would be called nowadays 
 constructive, representation of the colonies, liken- 
 ing them to Birmingham, Manchester, and other 
 towns which sent no members to Parliament — as 
 if problems in politics followed the rule of algebra, 
 that negative quantities, multiplied, produce a 
 positive quantity. But Franklin concerned him- 
 self little about this unreasonable reasoning, which 
 indeed soon had an effect eminently disagreeable 
 to the class of men who stupidly uttered it. For 
 it was promptly replied that if there were such 
 large bodies of unrepresented Englishmen, it be- 
 tokened a wrong state of affairs in England also. 
 
130 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 If English freeholders have not the right of suf- 
 frage, said Franklin, "they are injured. Then 
 rectify what is amiss among yourselves, and do not 
 make it a justification of more wrong." 1 Thus 
 that movement began which in time brought about 
 parliamentary reform, another result of this 
 American disturbance which was extremely dis- 
 tasteful to that stratum of English society which 
 was most strenuous against the colonists. 
 
 Still another point which demanded elucidation 
 was, why Parliament should not have the power 
 to lay internal taxes just as much as to levy duties. 
 Grenville said: "External and internal taxes are 
 the same in effect, and only differ in name;" and 
 the authority of Parliament to lay external taxes 
 had never been called in question. Franklin's 
 examiners tried him upon this matter: Can you 
 show that there is any kind of difference between 
 the two taxes, to the colony on which they are 
 laid? He answered: "I think the difference is 
 very great. An external tax is a duty laid on 
 commodities imported; that duty is added to the 
 first cost and other charges on the commodity, and, 
 when it is offered for sale, makes a part of the 
 price. If the people do not like it at that price, 
 they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay for it. 
 But an internal tax is forced from the people with- 
 out their consent, if not laid by their own repre- 
 sentatives. The Stamp Act says, we shall have 
 no commerce, make no exchange of property with 
 
 1 See also to same purport, Works, iv. 157. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 131 
 
 each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor re- 
 cover debts; we shall neither marry nor make our 
 wills; unless we pay such and such sums." It 
 was suggested that an external tax might be laid 
 on the necessaries of life, which the people must 
 have; but Franklin said that the colonies were, or 
 very soon would be, in a position to produce for 
 themselves all necessaries. He was then asked 
 what was the difference "between a duty on the 
 importation of goods and an excise on their con- 
 sumption?" He replied that there was a very 
 material one ; the excise, for reasons given, seemed 
 unlawful. "But the sea is yours; you maintain 
 by your fleets the safety of navigation in it, and 
 keep it clear of pirates; you may have, therefore, 
 a natural and equitable right to some toll or duty 
 on merchandises carried through that part of your 
 dominions, towards defraying the expense you are 
 at in ships to maintain the safety of that carriage." 
 This was a rather narrow basis on which to build 
 the broad and weighty superstructure of the 
 British Custom House; but it was not to be ex- 
 pected that Franklin should supply any better 
 arguments upon that side of the question. It was 
 obvious that Grenville's proposition might lead to 
 two conclusions. He said: External and internal 
 taxation are in principle substantially identical; 
 we have the right to the former ; therefore we must 
 have the right to the latter. It was a quick reply : 
 Since you have not a right to the latter, you can- 
 not have a right to the former. But Franklin, 
 
132 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 being a prudent man, kept within his intrench- 
 ments, and would not hazard increasing the oppo- 
 sition to the colonial claims by occupying this 
 advanced ground. He hinted at it, nevertheless : 
 "At present the colonists do not reason so; but 
 in time they possibly may be convinced by these 
 arguments; " and so they were. 
 
 Franklin also in his examination, and at many 
 other times and places, had something to say as to 
 the willingness of the colonies to bear their full 
 share of public burdens. He spoke with warmth 
 and feeling, but with an entire absence of boast- 
 fulness or rodomontade. He achieved his purpose 
 by simply recalling such facts as that the colonies 
 in the late war had kept 25,000 troops in the field; 
 that they had raised sums of money so large that 
 even the English Parliament had seen that they 
 were exceeding any reasonable estimate of their 
 capacity, and had voted some partial restitution 
 to them ; and that they had received thanks, offi- 
 cial and formal yet apparently sincere, for their 
 zeal and their services. Few Englishmen knew 
 these things. So, too, he said, the Americans 
 would help the mother country in an European 
 war, so far as they could ; for they regarded them- 
 selves as a part of the empire, and really had an 
 affection and loyalty towards England. 
 
 On February 21, 1766, General Conway moved 
 for leave to introduce into the House of Commons 
 a bill to repeal the Stamp Act. The motion was 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 133 
 
 carried. The next day the House divided upon 
 the repealing bill: 275 for repeal, 167 against it. 
 The minority were willing greatly to modify the 
 act; but insisted upon its enforcement in some 
 shape. The anxious merchants, who were gathered 
 in throngs outside, and who really had brought 
 about the repeal, burst into jubilant rejoicing. A 
 few days later, March 4 and 5, the bill took its 
 third reading by a vote of 250 yeas against 122 
 nays. In the House of Lords, upon the second 
 reading, 73 peers voted for repeal, 61 against it. 
 Thirty -three peers thereupon signed and recorded 
 their protest. At the third reading no division 
 was had, but a second protest, bearing 28 signa- 
 tures, was entered. On March 18 the king, whose 
 position had been a little enigmatical, but who at 
 last had become settled in opposition to the bill, 
 unwillingly placed his signature to it, and ever 
 after regretted having done so. 
 
 When the good news reached the provinces 
 great indeed was the gladness of the people. They 
 heeded little that simultaneously with the repeal 
 a resolve had been carried through declaratory of 
 the principle on which the Stamp Act had been 
 based. The assertion of the right gave them at 
 this moment "very little concern," since they 
 hugged a triumphant belief that no further attempt 
 would be made to carry that right into practice. 
 The people of Philadelphia seemed firmly per- 
 suaded that the repeal was chiefly due to the 
 unwearied personal exertions of their able agent. 
 
134 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 They could not recall their late distrust of him 
 without shame, and now replaced it with bound- 
 less devotion. In the great procession which they 
 made for the occasion "the sublime feature was a 
 barge, forty feet long, named FRANKLIN, from 
 which salutes were fired as it passed along the 
 streets." 1 That autumn the old ticket triumphed 
 again at the elections for members of the Assem- 
 bly. Franklin's own pleasant way of celebrat- 
 ing the great event was by sending to his wife " a 
 new gown," with the message, referring, of course, 
 to the anti-importation league: that he did not 
 send it sooner, because he knew that she would not 
 like to be finer than her neighbors, unless in a 
 gown of her own spinning. 
 
 No American will find it difficult to conceive 
 the utter ignorance concerning the colonies which 
 then prevailed in England; about their trade, 
 manufactures, cultivated products, natural re- 
 sources, about the occupations, habits, manners, 
 and ideas of their people, not much more was 
 known than Americans now know concerning the 
 boers of Cape Colony or the settlers of New Zea- 
 land. In his examination before the Commons, in 
 many papers which he printed, by his correspond- 
 ence, and by his conversation in all the various 
 companies which he frequented, Franklin exerted 
 himself with untiring industry to shed some rays 
 into this darkness. At times the comical stories 
 which he heard about his country touched his sense 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, i. 481. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 135 
 
 of humor, with the happy result that he would 
 throw off some droll bit of writing for a news- 
 paper, which would delight the friends of America 
 and make its opponents feel very silly even while 
 they could not help laughing at his wit. A good 
 one of these was the paper in which, he replied, 
 among other things, to the absurd supposition 
 that the Americans could not make their own 
 cloth, because American sheep had little wool, and 
 that little of poor quality : " Dear sir, do not let 
 us suffer ourselves to be amused with such ground- 
 less objections. The very tails of the American 
 sheep are so laden with wool that each has a little 
 car or wagon on four little wheels to support and 
 keep it from trailing on the ground. Would they 
 caulk their ships, would they even litter their 
 horses, with wool, if it were not both plenty and 
 cheap? And what signifies the dearness of labor 
 when an English shilling passes for five and 
 twenty?" and so on. It is pleasant to think that 
 then, as now, many a sober Britisher, with no idea 
 that a satirical jest at his own expense was hidden 
 away in this extravagance, took it all for genuine 
 earnest, and was sadly puzzled at a condition of 
 things so far removed from his own experience. 
 
 Very droll is the account of how nearly a party 
 of clever Englishmen were taken in by the paper 
 which purported to advance the claim of the king 
 of Prussia to hold England as a German province, 
 and to levy taxes therein, supported by precisely 
 the same chain of reasoning whereby Britain 
 
136 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 claimed the like right in respect of the American 
 colonies. This keen and witty satire had a bril- 
 liant success, and while Franklin prudently kept 
 his authorship a close secret, he was not a little 
 pleased to see how well his dart flew. In one of 
 his letters he says : — 
 
 " I was down at Lord le Despencer's when the post 
 brought that day's papers. Mr. Whitehead was there, 
 too, who runs early through all the papers, and tells the 
 company what he finds remarkable. . . . We were chat- 
 ting in the breakfast parlor, when he came running in to 
 us, out of breath, with the paper in his hand. ' Here,' 
 says he, ' here 's news for ye ! Here 's the king of Prus- 
 sia claiming a right to this kingdom ! ' All stared, and 
 I as much as anybody; and he went on to read it. 
 When he had read two or three paragraphs, a gentle- 
 man present said : ' Damn their impudence ! I daresay 
 we shall hear by the next post that he is upon his march 
 with 100,000 men to back this.' Whitehead, who is 
 very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, and looking in 
 my face said, ' I '11 be hanged if this is not some of your 
 American jokes upon us.' " 
 
 Then, amid much laughter, it was admitted to 
 be "a fair hit." Of a like nature was his paper 
 setting out "Rules for reducing a great Empire 
 to a small one," which prescribed with admirable 
 satire such a course of procedure as English min- 
 istries had pursued towards the American pro- 
 vinces. Lord Mansfield honored it with his con- 
 demnation, saying that it was "very able and very 
 artful indeed; and would do mischief by giving 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 137 
 
 here a bad impression of the measures of govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Yet this English indifference to transatlantic 
 facts could not always be met in a laughing 
 mood. It was too serious, too unfortunate, too 
 obstinately persisted in to excite only ridicule. It 
 was deplorable, upon the very verge of war, and 
 incredible too, after all the warnings that had 
 been had, that there should be among Englishmen 
 such an utter absence of any desire to get accurate 
 knowledge. In 1773 Franklin wrote: "The great 
 defect here is, in all sorts of people, a want of 
 attention to what passes in such remote countries 
 as America; an unwillingness to read anything 
 about them, if it appears a little lengthy; and 
 a disposition to postpone a consideration even of 
 the things which they know they must at last 
 consider. " Such ignorance, fertilized by ill will, 
 bore the only fruit which could grow in such soil : 
 abuse and vilification. Yet all the while the 
 upper classes in France, with their eyes well open 
 to a condition of things which seemed to threaten 
 England, were keen enough in their desire for 
 knowledge, translating all Franklin's papers, and 
 keeping up constant communication with him 
 through their embassy. Patient in others of those 
 faults of vehemence and prejudice which had no 
 place in his own nature, Franklin endured long 
 the English provocations and retorted only with a 
 wit too perfect to be personal, with unanswerable 
 arguments, and with simple recitals of facts. But 
 
138 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 we shall see, later on, that there came an occasion, 
 just before his departure, when even his temper 
 gave way. It was not surprising, for the blood- 
 letting point had then been reached by both 
 peoples. 
 
 Franklin's famous examination and his other 
 efforts in behalf of the colonies were appreciated 
 by his countrymen outside of Pennsylvania. He 
 was soon appointed agent also for New Jersey, 
 Georgia, and Massachusetts. The last office was 
 conferred upon him in the autumn of 1770, by no 
 means without a struggle. Samuel Adams, a man 
 as narrow as Franklin was broad, as violent as 
 Franklin was calm, as bigoted a Puritan as Frank- 
 lin was liberal a Free-thinker, felt towards Frank- 
 lin that distrust and dislike which a limited but 
 intense mind often cherishes towards an intel- 
 lect whose vast scope and noble serenity it can- 
 not comprehend. Adams accordingly strenuously 
 opposed the appointment. It was plausibly sug- 
 gested that Franklin already held other agencies, 
 and that policy would advise "to enlarge the num- 
 ber of our friends." It was meanly added that he 
 held an office under the crown, and that his son 
 was a royal governor. Other ingenious, insidious, 
 and personal objections were urged. Fortunately, 
 however, it was in vain to array such points against 
 Franklin's reputation. Samuel Cooper wrote to 
 him that, though the House had certainly been 
 much divided, "yet such was their opinion of your 
 abilities and integrity, that a majority readily 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 139 
 
 committed the affairs of the province at this criti- 
 cal season to your care." By reason of this com- 
 bination of agencies, besides his own personal 
 capacity and prestige, Franklin seemed to become 
 in the eyes of the English the representative of all 
 America. In spite of the unpopularity attaching 
 to the American cause, the position was one of 
 some dignity, greatly enhanced by the respect in- 
 spired by the ability with which Franklin filled it, 
 ability which was recognized no less by the ene- 
 mies than by the friends of the provinces. It was 
 also a position of grave responsibility; and it 
 ought to have been one of liberal emolument, but 
 it was not. The sum of his four salaries should 
 have been <£1200 ; but only Pennsylvania and New 
 Jersey actually paid him. Massachusetts would 
 have paid, but the bills making the appropriations 
 were obstinately vetoed by the royalist governor. 1 
 Yet this matter of income was important to him, 
 and it was at no slight personal sacrifice that he 
 was now serving his country. He had a moderate 
 competence, but his expenses were almost doubled 
 by living thus apart from his family, while his 
 affairs suffered by reason of his absence. For a 
 while he was left unmolested in the postmaster- 
 ship, and in view of all the circumstances it must 
 be confessed that the ministry behaved very well 
 to him in this particular. Rumors which occa- 
 sionally reached his ears made him uncomfortably 
 aware how precarious his tenure of this position 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, iv. 88. 
 
140 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 really was. His prolonged absence certainly gave 
 an abundantly fair pretext for his removal; still 
 advantage was not taken of it. Some of his ene- 
 mies, as he wrote in December, 1770, by plentiful 
 abuse endeavored to provoke him to resign; but 
 they found him sadly "deficient in that Christian 
 virtue of resignation." It was not until 1774, 
 after the episode of the Hutchinson letters and 
 the famous hearing before the privy council, that 
 he was actually displaced. If this forbearance 
 of the ministry was attributable to magnanimity, 
 it stands out in prominent inconsistence with 
 the general course of official life in England at 
 that time. Probably no great injustice would be 
 done in suggesting a baser motive. The ministry 
 doubtless aimed at one or both of two things : to 
 keep a certain personal hold upon him, which 
 might, insensibly to himself, mollify his actions; 
 and to discredit him among his countrymen by 
 precisely such fleers as had been cast against him 
 in the Massachusetts Assembly. More than once 
 they sought to seduce him by offers of office; it 
 was said that he could have been an Under-Secre- 
 tary of state, had he been willing to qualify him- 
 self for the position by modifying his views on 
 colonial questions. More than once, too, gossip 
 circulated in America that some such bargain had 
 been struck, a slander which was cruel and ignoble 
 indeed, when the opportunity and temptation may 
 be said to have been present any and every day 
 during many years without ever receiving even a 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 141 
 
 moment of doubtful consideration. Yet for this 
 the English ministry are believed not to have been 
 wholly responsible, since some of these tales are 
 supposed to have been the unworthy work of 
 Arthur Lee of Virginia. This young man, a stu- 
 dent at one of the Inns of Court in London, was 
 appointed by the Massachusetts Assembly as a 
 successor to fill Franklin's place whenever the lat- 
 ter should return to Pennsylvania. For at the 
 time it was anticipated that this return would soon 
 occur; but circumstances interfered and prolonged 
 Franklin's usefulness abroad during several years 
 more. The heir apparent, who was ambitious, 
 could not brook the disappointment of this delay; 
 and though kindly treated and highly praised by 
 the unsuspicious Franklin, he gave nothing but 
 malice in return. It is perhaps not fully proved, 
 yet it is certainly well suspected by historians, 
 that his desire to wreak injury upon Franklin 
 became such a passion as caused him in certain 
 instances to forget all principles of honor, to say 
 nothing of honesty. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND, II 
 
 In order to continue the narrative of events 
 with due regard to chronological order it is neces- 
 sary to revert to the repeal of the Stamp Act. 
 The repealing act was fully as unpopular in Eng- 
 land as the repealed act had been in America. It 
 was brought about by no sense of justice, by no 
 good will toward the colonists, but solely by reason 
 of the injury which the law was causing in Eng- 
 land, and which was forced upon the reluctant 
 consideration of Parliament by the urgent clamor 
 of the suffering merchants; also perhaps in some 
 degree by a disinclination to send an army across 
 the Atlantic, and by the awkward difficulty sug- 
 gested by Franklin when he said that if troops 
 should be sent they would find no rebellion, no 
 definite form of resistance, against which they 
 could act. The repeal, therefore, though carried 
 by a large majority, was by no means to be con- 
 strued as an acknowledgment of error in an as- 
 serted principle, but only as an unavoidable ad- 
 mission of a mistake in the application of that 
 principle. The repealing majority grew out of a 
 strange coalition of men of the most opposite ways 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 143 
 
 of thinking concerning the fundamental question. 
 For example, Charles Townshend was a repealer, 
 yet all England did not hold a man who was more 
 wedded than was Townshend to the idea of levying 
 internal taxes in the colonies by act of Parliament. 
 The notion had been his own mischievous legacy 
 to Grenville, but he now felt that it had been 
 clumsily used by his legatee. Many men agreed 
 with him, and the prevalence of this opinion was 
 made obvious by the passage, almost simultane- 
 ously, of the resolution declaratory of the right of 
 parliamentary taxation. But the solace of an 
 empty assertion was wholly inadequate to heal 
 the deep wound which English pride had received. 
 The great nation had been fairly hounded into 
 receding before the angry resistance of a parcel of 
 provincials dwelling far away across the sea; the 
 recession was not felt to be an act of magnanimity 
 or generosity or even of justice, but only a bitter 
 humiliation and indignity. Poor Grenville, the 
 responsible adviser of the blundering and unfor- 
 tunate measure, lost almost as much prestige as 
 Franklin gained. It was hard luck for him; he 
 was as honest in his convictions as Franklin was 
 in the opposite faith, and he was a far abler min- 
 ister than the successor charged to undo his work. 
 But his knowledge of colonial facts was very in- 
 sufficient, and the light in which he viewed them 
 was hopelessly false. Franklin had a knowledge 
 immeasurably greater, and was almost incapable 
 of an error of judgment; of all the reputation 
 
144 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 which was won or lost in this famous contest he 
 gathered the lion's share; he was the hero of the 
 colonists; his ability was recognized impartially 
 by both the contending parties in England, and 
 he was marked as a great man by those astute 
 French statesmen who were watching with delight 
 the opening of this very promising rift in the 
 British Empire. 
 
 Anger, like water, subsides quickly after the 
 tempest ceases. As each day in its flight carried 
 the Stamp Act and the repeal more remotely into 
 past history, the sanguine and peaceably minded 
 began to hope that England and the colonies might 
 yet live comfortably in union. It only seemed 
 necessary that for a short time longer no fresh 
 provocation should revive animosities which seemed 
 composing themselves to slumber. The colonists 
 tried to believe that England had learned wisdom; 
 Englishmen were cautious about committing a 
 second blunder. In such a time Franklin was the 
 best man whom his countrymen could have had 
 in England. His tranquil temperament, his warm 
 regard for both sides, his wonderful capacity for 
 living well with men who could by no means live 
 well with each other, his social tact, and the re- 
 spect which his abilities inspired, all combined to 
 enable him now more than ever to fill admirably 
 the position of colonial representative. The effect 
 of such an influence is not to be seen in any single 
 noteworthy occurrence, but is known by a thou- 
 sand lesser indications, and it is unquestionable 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 145 
 
 that no American representative even to this day 
 has ever been held in Europe in such estimation 
 as was accorded to Franklin at this time. He 
 continued writing and instructing upon American 
 topics, but to what has already been said concern- 
 ing his services and opinions abroad, there is no- 
 thing of importance to be added occurring within 
 two or three years after the repeal. While, how- 
 ever, he played the often thankless part of in- 
 structor to the English, he had the courage to 
 assume the even less popular role of a moderator 
 towards the colonists. He made it his task to 
 soothe passion and to preach reason. He did not 
 do this as a trimmer; never was one word of 
 compromise uttered by him throughout all these 
 alarming years. But he dreaded that weakness 
 which is the inevitable reaction from excess; and 
 he was supremely anxious to secure that trustworthy 
 strength which is impossible without moderation. 
 What he profoundly wished was that the "fatal 
 period " of war and separation should be as much 
 as possible "postponed, and that whenever this 
 catastrophe shall happen it may appear to all man- 
 kind that the fault has not been ours." Yet he 
 fell far short of the Christian principle of turning 
 to the smiter the other cheek. He wished the colo- 
 nists to keep a steady front face, and only be- 
 sought them not to rush forward so foolishly fast 
 as to topple over, of which ill-considered violence 
 there was much danger. Of course the usual 
 result of such efforts overtook him. He wrote 
 
146 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 somewhat sadly, in 1768: "Being born and bred 
 in one of the countries, and having lived long and 
 made many agreeable connections of friendship in 
 the other, I wish all prosperity to both ; but I have 
 talked and written so much and so long on the 
 subject, that my acquaintance are weary of hear- 
 ing and the public of reading any more of it, 
 which begins to make me weary of talking and 
 writing; especially as I do not find that I have 
 gained any point in either country, except that of 
 rendering myself suspected by my impartiality ; — 
 in England of being too much an American, and 
 in America of being too much an Englishman." 
 More than once he repeated this last sentence with 
 much feeling. But whatever there was of personal 
 discouragement or despondency in this letter was 
 only a temporary frame of mind. Dr. Franklin 
 never really slackened his labors in a business 
 which he had so much at heart as this of the rela- 
 tionship of the colonies to the mother country. 
 Neither, it is safe to say, did he ever bore any one 
 by what he wrote or by what he said, though his 
 witty effusions in print were usually anonymous, 
 and only some of his soberer and argumentative 
 papers announced their paternity. 
 
 The agony with which the repeal of the Stamp 
 Act was effected racked too severely the feeble 
 joints of the Rockingham ministry, and that ill- 
 knit body soon began to drop to pieces. A new 
 incumbent was sought for the department which 
 included the colonies, but that position seemed to 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 147 
 
 be shunned with a sort of terror; no one loved 
 office enough to seek it in this niche ; no one could 
 expect comfort in a chamber haunted by such rest- 
 less ghosts. Early in July, at the earnest solici- 
 tation of the king, Pitt endeavored not so much to 
 form a new ministry as to revamp the existing 
 one. He partially succeeded, but not without 
 difficulty. The result seemed to promise well for 
 the colonies, since the new cabinet contained their 
 chief friends: Pitt himself, Shelburne, Camden, 
 Conway, names all justly esteemed by America. 
 Yet all these were fully offset by the audacious 
 Charles Townshend, the originator and great 
 apostle of the scheme of colonial taxation, whom 
 Pitt, much against his will, had been obliged to 
 place in the perilous post of chancellor of the 
 exchequer. It was true that Lord Shelburne 
 undertook the care of the colonies, and that no 
 Englishman cherished better dispositions towards 
 them; but he had to encounter two difficulties, 
 neither of which could be overcome. The one was 
 that Townshend' s views were those which soon 
 proved not only to be coincident with those of the 
 king, but also to be popular in Parliament; the 
 other was that, while he had the administration 
 of colonial affairs, Townshend had the function of 
 introducing schemes of taxation. So long as he 
 remained in office he administered all the busi- 
 ness of the colonies in the spirit of liberal reform. 
 No reproach was ever brought against his justice, 
 his generosity, his enlightened views of govern- 
 
148 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ment. But unfortunately all that he had to do, 
 being strictly in the way of administration, such 
 as the restraining over-loyal governors, the amel- 
 ioration of harsh legislation, and universal mod- 
 eration -in language and behavior, could avail 
 comparatively little so long as Townshend, whom 
 Pitt used to call "the incurable," could threaten 
 and bring in obnoxious revenue measures. 
 
 Shelburne had the backing of Pitt ; but, by ill 
 luck, so soon as the cabinet was formed, Pitt 
 ceased to be Pitt, and became the Earl of Chat- 
 ham ; and with the loss of his own name he lost 
 also more than half of his power. Moreover the 
 increasing infirmities of his body robbed him of 
 efficiency and impaired his judgment. He was 
 utterly unable to keep in subordination his reck- 
 less chancellor of the exchequer, betwixt whom 
 and himself no good will had ever existed. On 
 the other hand, this irrepressible Townshend had 
 a far better ally in George III., who sympathized 
 in his purposes, gave him assistance which was 
 none the less powerful for being indirect and 
 occult, and who hated and ingeniously thwarted 
 Shelburne. Moreover, as has been said, it was 
 a popular delusion that Townshend had excep- 
 tionally full and accurate knowledge concerning 
 American affairs. His self-confident air, making 
 assurance of success, won for him one half of the 
 battle by so sure a presage of victory. He lured 
 the members of the House by showing them a 
 considerable remission in their own taxes, pro- 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 149 
 
 vided they would stand by his scheme of repla- 
 cing the deficit by an income from the colonies; 
 and he boldly assured his delighted auditors that 
 he knew "the mode by which a revenue could be 
 drawn from America without offense." He was 
 of the thoughtless class which learns no lesson. 
 He still avowed himself "a firm advocate of the 
 Stamp Act," and with cheerful scorn he "laughed 
 at the absurd distinction between internal and ex- 
 ternal taxes." He did not expect, he merrily said, 
 alluding to the distinction just conferred upon 
 Chatham, to have his statue erected in America. 
 The reports of his speeches kept the colonial mind 
 disquieted. The act requiring the provinces in 
 which regiments were quartered to provide bar- 
 racks and rations for the troops at the public ex- 
 pense was a further irritation. Shelburne sought 
 to make the burden as easy as possible, but 
 Townshend made Shelburne 's duties as hard as 
 possible. Of what use were the minister's liberal- 
 ity and moderation, when the chancellor of the 
 exchequer evoked alarm and wrath by announcing 
 insolently that he was for governing the Americans 
 as subjects of Great Britain, and for restraining 
 their trade and manufactures in subordination to 
 those of the mother country! So the struggle 
 went on within the ministry as well as without it ; 
 but the opponents of royal prejudice were heavily 
 handicapped ; for the king, though stupid in gen- 
 eral, had some political skill and much authority. 
 His ill-concealed personal hostility to his "enemy," 
 
150 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 as he called Shelburne, threatened like the little 
 cloud in the colonial horizon. Nor was it long 
 before Chatham, a dispirited wreck, withdrew him- 
 self entirely from all active participation in affairs, 
 shut himself up at Hayes, and refused to be seen 
 by any one who wished to talk on business. 
 
 On May 13, 1767, colonial agents and mer- 
 chants trading to America were refused admission 
 to hear the debates in the House of Commons. 
 Upon that day Townshend was to develop his 
 scheme. By way, as it were, of striking a key- 
 note, he proposed that the province of New York 
 should be restrained from enacting any legislation 
 until it should comply with the "billeting act," 
 against which it had heretofore been recalcitrant. 
 He then sketched a scheme for an American board 
 of commissioners of customs. Finally he came 
 to the welcome point of the precise taxes which 
 he designed to levy : he proposed duties on wine, 
 oil, and fruits, imported directly into the colonies 
 from Spain and Portugal; also on glass, paper, 
 lead, colors, and china, and three pence per pound 
 on tea. The governors and chief justices, most 
 of whom were already appointed by the king, but 
 who got their pay by vote of the colonial assem- 
 blies, were hereafter to have fixed salaries, to be 
 paid by the king from this American revenue. 
 Two days later the resolutions were passed, direct- 
 ing the introduction of bills to carry out these 
 several propositions, and a month later the bills 
 themselves were passed. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 151 
 
 Meantime the cabinet was again getting very 
 rickety, and many heads were busy with sugges- 
 tions for patching it in one part or another. With 
 Chatham in retreat and the king in the ascendant, 
 it seemed that Townshend had the surest seat. 
 But there is one risk against which even monarchs 
 cannot insure their favorites, and that risk now 
 fell out against Townshend. He died suddenly 
 of a fever, in September, 1767. Lord North suc- 
 ceeded him, destined to do everything which his 
 royal master desired him to do, and bitterly to 
 repent it. A little later, in December, the king 
 scored another success ; Shelburne was superseded 
 in the charge of the colonies by the Earl of Hills- 
 borough, who reentered the board of trade as first 
 commissioner, and came into the cabinet with the 
 new title of secretary of state for the colonies. 
 
 Hillsborough was an Irish peer, with some little 
 capacity for business, but of no more than moder- 
 ate general ability. He also was supposed, alto- 
 gether erroneously, to possess a little more know- 
 ledge, or, as it might have been better expressed, 
 to be shackled with a little less ignorance, con- 
 cerning colonial affairs than could be predicated of 
 most of the noblemen who were eligible for public 
 office. America had acquired so much importance 
 that the reputation of familiarity with its condi- 
 tion was an excellent recommendation for prefer- 
 ment. Franklin wrote that this change in the 
 ministry was "very sudden and unexpected; " and 
 that "whether my Lord Hillsborough's adminis- 
 
152 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 tration will be more stable than others have been 
 for a long time, is quite uncertain ; but as his incli- 
 nations are rather favorable towards us (so far 
 as he thinks consistent with what he supposes the 
 unquestionable rights of Britain), I cannot but 
 wish it may continue." 
 
 It was Franklin's temperament to be hopeful, 
 and he also purposely cultivated the wise habit 
 of not courting ill fortune by anticipating it. In 
 this especial instance, however, he soon found 
 that his hopefulness was misplaced. Within six 
 months he discovered that this new secretary 
 looked upon the provincial agents "with an evil 
 eye, as obstructors of ministerial measures," and 
 would be well pleased to get rid of them as "un- 
 necessary " impediments in the transaction of 
 business. "In truth," he adds, "the nominations, 
 particularly of Dr. Lee and myself, have not been 
 at all agreeable to his lordship." It soon appeared 
 that his lordship had the Irish quickness for taking 
 a keen point of law ; he broached the theory that 
 no agent could lawfully be appointed by the mere 
 resolution of an assembly, but that the appoint- 
 ment must be made by bill. The value of this 
 theory is obvious when we reflect that a bill did 
 not become law, and consequently an appointment 
 could not be completed, save by the signature of 
 the provincial governor. "This doctrine, if he 
 could establish it," said Franklin, "would in a 
 manner give to his lordship the power of appoint- 
 ing, or, at least, negativing any choice of the 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 153 
 
 House of Representatives and Council, since it 
 would be easy for him to instruct the governor 
 not to assent to the appointment of such and such 
 men, who are obnoxious to him; so that if the 
 appointment is annual, every agent that valued his 
 post must consider himself as holding it by the 
 favor of his lordship;" whereof the consequences 
 were easy to be seen. 
 
 There was a lively brush between the noble 
 secretary and Franklin, when the former first pro- 
 pounded this troublesome view. It was in Janu- 
 ary, 1771, that Franklin called upon his lord- 
 ship — 
 
 " to pay my respects . . . and to acquaint him with my 
 appointment by the House of Representatives of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay to be their agent here." But his lordship 
 interrupted : — 
 
 " I must set you right there, Mr. Franklin ; you are 
 not agent. 
 
 " Why, my lord ? 
 
 " You are not appointed. 
 
 " I do not understand your lordship ; I have the ap- 
 pointment in my pocket. 
 
 " You are mistaken ; I have later and better advices. 
 I have a letter from Governor Hutchinson ; he would 
 not give his assent to the bill. 
 
 " There was no bill, my lord ; it was a vote of the 
 House. 
 
 " There was a bill presented to the governor for the 
 purpose of appointing you and another, one Dr. Lee 1 
 think he is called, to which the governor refused his 
 assent. 
 
154 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 "I cannot understand this, my lord; I think there 
 must be some mistake in it. Is your lordship quite 
 sure that you have such a letter ? 
 
 " I will convince you of it directly ; Mr. Pownall will 
 come in and satisfy you." 
 
 So Mr. Pownall, invoked by the official bell, 
 appeared upon the scene. But he could not play 
 his part; he was obliged to say that there was 
 no such letter. This was awkward; but Franklin 
 was too civil or too prudent to triumph in the 
 discomfiture of the other. He simply offered the 
 "authentic copy of the vote of the House" ap- 
 pointing him, and asked if his lordship would 
 "please to look at it." His lordship took the 
 paper unwillingly, and then, without looking at 
 it, said: — 
 
 " An information of this kind is not properly brought 
 to me as secretary of state. The board of trade is the 
 proper place. 
 
 " I will leave the paper then with Mr. Pownall to 
 be — 
 
 " (Hastily.) To what end would you leave it with 
 him? 
 
 " To be entered on the minutes of the board, as usual. 
 
 " (Angrily.) It shall not be entered there. No such 
 paper shall be entered there while I have anything to do 
 with the business of that board. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives has no right to appoint an agent. We shall 
 take no notice of any agents but such as are appointed 
 by acts of Assembly, to which the governor gives his 
 assent. We have had confusion enough already. Here 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 155 
 
 is one agent appointed by the Council, another by the 
 House of Representatives. 1 Which of these is agent for 
 the province ? Who are we to hear in provincial affairs ? 
 An agent appointed by act of Assembly we can under- 
 stand. No other will be attended to for the future, I 
 can assure you. 
 
 " I cannot conceive, my lord, why the consent of the 
 governor should be thought necessary to the appointment 
 of an agent for the people. It seems to me that — 
 
 " ( With a mixed look of anger and contempt.) I 
 shall not enter into a dispute with you, Sir, upon this 
 subject. 
 
 " I beg your lordship's pardon ; I do not mean to 
 dispute with your lordship. I would only say that it 
 appears to me that every body of men who cannot appear 
 in person, where business relating to them may be trans- 
 acted, should have a right to appear by an agent. The 
 concurrence of the governor does not seem to be neces- 
 sary. It is the business of the people that is to be 
 done ; he is not one of them ; he is himself an agent. 
 
 " (Hastily.) Whose agent is he ? 
 
 " The king's, my lord. 
 
 " No such matter. He is one of the corporation by 
 the province charter. No agent can be appointed but 
 by an act, nor any act pass without his assent. Besides, 
 this proceeding is directly contrary to express in- 
 structions. 
 
 " I did not know there had been such instructions. 
 I am not concerned in any offense against them, and — 
 
 1 The agent for the Council, Mr. Bollan, acted in entire accord 
 with Dr. Franklin ; there was no inconsistency between the two 
 offices, which were altogether distinct, neither any clashing be- 
 tween the incumbents, as might be inferred from Lord Hillsbor- 
 ough's language. 
 
156 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 " Yes, your offering such a paper to be entered is an 
 offense against them. No such appointment shall be en- 
 tered. When I came into the administration of Amer- 
 ican affairs I found them in great disorder. By my 
 firmness they are now something mended ; and while I 
 have the honor to hold the seals I shall continue the 
 same conduct, the same firmness. I think my duty to 
 the master I serve, and to the government of this nation, 
 requires it of me. If that conduct is not approved, they 
 may take that office from me when they please : I shall 
 make them a bow and thank them ; I shall resign with 
 pleasure. That gentleman [Mr. Pownall] knows it ; 
 but while I continue in it I shall resolutely persevere in 
 the same firmness." 
 
 Speaking thus, his lordship seemed warm, and 
 grew pale, as if "angry at something or somebody 
 besides the agent, and of more consequence to 
 himself." Franklin thereupon, taking back his 
 credentials, said, speaking with an innuendo aimed 
 at that which had not been expressed, but which 
 lay plainly visible behind his lordship's pallor and 
 excitement : — 
 
 " I beg your lordship's pardon for taking up so much 
 of your lordship's time. It is, I believe, of no great 
 importance whether the appointment is acknowledged or 
 not, for T 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." 
 
 Therewith he made his exit, and went home to 
 write the foregoing sketch of the scene. Certainly 
 throughout so irritating an interview he had con- 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 157 
 
 ducted himself with creditable self-restraint and 
 moderation, yet with his closing sentence he had 
 sent home a dart which rankled. He soon heard 
 that his lordship "took great offense " at these last 
 words, regarding them as "extremely rude and 
 abusive," and as "equivalent to telling him to his 
 face that the colonies could expect neither favor 
 nor justice during his administration." "I find," 
 adds Franklin, with placid satisfaction in the skill 
 with which he had shot his bolt, "I find he did 
 not mistake me." 
 
 So Franklin retained the gratification which 
 lies in having administered a stinging and appre- 
 ciated retort ; a somewhat empty and entirely 
 personal gratification, it must be admitted. Hills- 
 borough kept the substance of victory, inasmuch 
 as he persisted in refusing to recognize Frank- 
 lin as the agent of the Massachusetts Bay. Yet 
 in this he did not annihilate, indeed very slightly 
 curtailed, Franklin's usefulness. It merely signi- 
 fied that Franklin ceased to be an official conduit 
 for petitions and like communications. His weight 
 and influence, based upon his knowledge and pres- 
 tige, remained unimpugned. In a word, it was 
 of little consequence that the lord secretary would 
 not acknowledge him as the representative of one 
 province, so long as all England practically treated 
 him as the representative of all America. 
 
 From this time forth, of course, there was war- 
 fare between the secretary and the unacknowledged 
 agent. Franklin began to entertain a "very mean 
 
158 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 opinion" of Hillsborough's "abilities and fitness 
 for his station. His character is conceit, wrong- 
 headedness, obstinacy, and passion. Those who 
 speak most favorably of him allow all this; they 
 only add that he is an honest man and means well. 
 If that be true, as perhaps it may, I only wish 
 him a better place, where only honesty and well- 
 meaning are required, and where his other quali- 
 ties can do no harm. ... I hope, however, that 
 our affairs will not much longer be perplexed and 
 embarrassed by his perverse and senseless man- 
 agement." But for the present Franklin was of 
 opinion that it would be well "to leave this omnis- 
 cient, infallible minister to his own devices, and 
 be no longer at the expense of sending any agent, 
 whom he can displace by a repeal of the appoint- 
 ing act." 
 
 Hillsborough's theory was adopted by the board 
 of trade, and Franklin therefore remained practi- 
 cally stripped of the important agency for Massa- 
 chusetts. He anticipated that this course would 
 soon put an end to all the colonial agencies; but 
 he said that the injury would be quite as great 
 to the English government as to the colonies, for 
 the agents had often saved the cabinet from intro- 
 ducing, through misinformation, "mistaken mea- 
 sures," which it would afterward have found to 
 be "very inconvenient." He expressed his own 
 opinion that when the colonies "came to be con- 
 sidered in the light of distinct states , as I conceive 
 they really are, possibly their agents may be 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 159 
 
 treated with more respect and considered more as 
 public ministers." But this was a day-dream ; the 
 current was setting in quite the opposite direction. 
 
 In point of fact, Massachusetts seems to have 
 taken no detriment from this foolish and captious 
 bit of chicanery. All the papers and arguments 
 which she had occasion to have presented always 
 found their way to their destination as well as 
 they would have done if Franklin had been ac- 
 knowledged as the quasi public minister, which he 
 conceived to be his proper character. 
 
 Franklin perfectly appreciated that Hillsbor- 
 ough retained his position by precarious tenure. 
 He shrewdly suspected that if the war with Spain, 
 which then seemed imminent, were to break out, 
 Hillsborough would at once be removed. For in 
 that case it would be the policy of the government 
 to conciliate the colonies, at any cost, for the time 
 being. This crisis passed by, fortunately for the 
 secretary and unfortunately for the provinces. 
 Yet still the inefficient and ill-friended minister 
 remained very infirm in his seat. An excuse only 
 was needed to displace him, and by a singular and 
 unexpected chance Franklin furnished that excuse. 
 It was the humble and discredited colonial agent 
 who unwittingly but not unwillingly gave the jar 
 which toppled the great earl into retirement. His 
 fall when it came gave general satisfaction. His 
 unfitness for his position had become too obvious 
 to be denied; he had given offense in quarters 
 where he should have made friends; he had irri« 
 
160 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 tated the king and provoked the cabinet. Frank- 
 lin, with his observant sagacity, quickly divined 
 that George III. was "tired" of Hillsborough and 
 "of his administration, which had weakened the 
 affection and respect of the colonies for a royal 
 government;" and accordingly he "used proper 
 means from time to time that his majesty should 
 have due information and convincing proofs " of 
 this effect of his lordship's colonial policy. 
 
 It was, however, upon a comparatively trifling 
 matter that Hillsborough finally lost his place. It 
 has been already mentioned that many years be- 
 fore this time Franklin had urged the establish- 
 ment of one or two frontier, or "barrier," pro- 
 vinces in the interior. He had never abandoned 
 this scheme, and of late had been pushing it with 
 some prospect of success; for among other encour- 
 aging features he astutely induced three privy 
 councilors to become financially interested in the 
 project. The original purpose of the petitioners 
 had been to ask for only 2,500,000 acres of land; 
 but Hillsborough bade them ask for "enough to 
 make a province." This advice was grossly dis- 
 ingenuous ; for Hillsborough himself afterward 
 admitted that from the beginning he had intended 
 to defeat the application, and had put the memo- 
 rialists " upon asking so much with that very view, 
 supposing it too much to be granted." But they, 
 not suspecting, fell into the trap and increased 
 their demand to 23,000,000 acres, certainly a 
 sufficient quantity to call for serious consideration. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 161 
 
 When the petition came before the board of trade, 
 Lord Hillsborough, who was president of the 
 board, took upon himself the task of rendering 
 a report. To the surprise of the petitioners, who 
 had reason to suppose him well inclined, he re- 
 plied adversely. The region was so far away, he 
 said, that it would not "lie within the reach of 
 the trade and commerce of this kingdom; " so far, 
 also, as not to admit of "the exercise of that 
 authority and jurisdiction . . . necessary for the 
 preservation of the colonies in due subordination 
 to and dependence upon the mother country." 
 The territory appeared, "upon the fullest evi- 
 dence," to be "utterly inaccessible to shipping," 
 and therefore the inhabitants would "probably be 
 led to manufacture for themselves, ... a con- 
 sequence ... to be carefully guarded against." 
 Also part belonged to the Indians, who ought not 
 to be disturbed, and settlements therein would 
 of course lead to Indian wars and to "fighting for 
 every inch of the ground." Further, the occupa- 
 tion of this tract "must draw and carry out a great 
 number of people from Great Britain," who would 
 soon become "a kind of separate and independent 
 people, . . . and set up for themselves," meeting 
 their own wants and taking no "supplies from the 
 mother country nor from the provinces " along the 
 seaboard. At so great a distance from "the seat 
 of government, courts, magistrates, etc.," the ter- 
 ritory would "become a receptacle and kind of 
 asylum for offenders," full of crime itself, and 
 
162 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 encouraging crime elsewhere. This disorderly 
 population would soon "become formidable enough 
 to oppose his majesty's authority, disturb govern- 
 ment, and even give law to the other or first-settled 
 part of the country, and thus throw everything 
 into confusion." Such arguments were as feeble 
 as they were bodeful. The only point which his 
 lordship really scored was in reply to Franklin's 
 theory of the protection against the Indians which 
 these colonies would afford to those on the sea- 
 board. Hillsborough well said that the new 
 settlements themselves would stand most in need 
 of protection. It was only advancing, not elimi- 
 nating, a hostile frontier. 
 
 Evidently it required no very able reasoning, 
 coming from the president of the board, to per- 
 suade his subordinates; and this foolish report 
 was readily adopted. But Franklin was not so 
 easily beaten; the privy council furnished one 
 more stage at which he could still make a fight. 
 He drew up a reply to Lord Hillsborough's paper 
 and submitted it to that body. It was a long and 
 very carefully prepared document ; it dealt in facts 
 historical and statistical, in which the report was 
 utterly deficient; it furnished evidence and illus- 
 tration ; in arguing upon probabilities it went far 
 toward demolishing the theories advanced by the 
 president of the board. The two briefs were laid 
 before a tribunal in which three men sat who 
 certainly ought not to have been sitting in this 
 cause, since Franklin's interest was also their 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 163 
 
 own ; but probably this did not more than coun- 
 terbalance the prestige of official position in the 
 opposite scale. Certainly Franklin had followed 
 his invariable custom of furnishing his friends 
 with ample material to justify them in befriending 
 him. In this respect he always gallantly stood 
 by his own side. The allies whom at any time he 
 sought he always abundantly supplied with plain 
 facts and sound arguments, in which weapons he 
 always placed his chief trust. So at present, what- 
 ever was the motive which induced privy coun- 
 cilors to open their ears to what Franklin had to 
 say, after they had heard him they could not easily 
 decide against him. Nor had those of them who 
 were personally disinterested any great induce- 
 ment to do so, since, though some of them may 
 have disliked him, none of them had any great 
 liking for his noble opponent. So they set aside 
 the report of the board of trade. 1 
 
 Upon this Lord Hillsborough fell into a hot 
 rage, and sent in his resignation. It was gen- 
 erally understood that he had no notion that it 
 would be accepted, or that he would be allowed to 
 leave upon such a grievance. He fancied that he 
 was establishing a dilemma which would impale 
 Franklin. But he was in error ; he himself was 
 impaled. No one expostulated with him ; he was 
 left to exercise "the Christian virtue of resigna- 
 tion " without hindrance. Franklin said that the 
 
 1 A very interesting statement of these proceedings may be 
 found in Franklin's Works, x. 346. 
 
164 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 anticipation of precisely this result, so far from 
 being an obstacle in the way of his own success, 
 had been an additional incitement to the course 
 taken by the council. 
 
 So the earl, the enemy of America, went out; 
 and the colonial agent had shown him the door, 
 with all England looking on. It was a mortifica- 
 tion which Hillsborough could never forgive, and 
 upon four occasions, when Franklin made the 
 conventional call to pay his respects, he did not 
 find his lordship at home. At his fifth call he 
 received from a lackey a very plain intimation 
 that there was no chance that he ever would find 
 the ex-secretary at home, and thereafter he de- 
 sisted from the forms of civility. "I have never 
 since," he said, "been nigh him, and we have 
 only abused one another at a distance." Franklin 
 had fully balanced one account at least. 
 
 So far as the special matter in hand was con- 
 cerned, the worsting of Hillsborough, though a 
 gratification, did not result in the bettering of 
 Franklin and his co-petitioners. April 6, 1773, 
 he wrote: "The affair of the grant goes on but 
 slowly. I do not yet clearly see land. I begin 
 to be a little of the sailor's mind, when they were 
 landing a cable out of a store into a ship, and one 
 of 'em said: ' 'T is a long heavy cable, I wish we 
 could see the end of it. ' ' Damn me, ' says an- 
 other, ' if I believe it has any end ; somebody has 
 cut it off.' " A cable twisted of British red tape 
 was indeed a coil without an end. In this case, 
 
UN '"f?£rv 
 
 Sa 
 
 UlOH 
 
 NIAl 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 165 
 
 before the patent was granted, Franklin had be- 
 come so unpopular, and the Revolution so immi- 
 nent, that the matter was dropped by a sort of 
 universal consent. 
 
 Franklin rejoiced in this departure of Hills- 
 borough as a good riddance of a man whom he 
 thought to be as "double and deceitful" as any 
 one he had ever met. It is possible that, as he 
 had been instrumental in creating the vacancy, he 
 may also have assisted in some small degree in 
 disposing of the succession. One day he was 
 complaining of Hillsborough to a "friend at 
 court," when the friend replied that Hillsborough 
 was wont to represent the Americans "as an un- 
 quiet people, not easily satisfied with any minis- 
 try; that, however, it was thought too much occa- 
 sion had been given them to dislike the present; " 
 and the question was asked whether, in case of 
 Hillsborough's removal, Franklin "could name 
 another likely to be more acceptable " to his coun- 
 trymen. He at once suggested Lord Dartmouth. 
 This was the appointment which was now made, 
 in August, 1772, and the news of which gave 
 much satisfaction to all the "friends of America." 
 For Dartmouth was of kindly disposition, and 
 when previously president of the board of trade 
 had shown a liberal temper in provincial affairs. 
 
 The relationship between Franklin and Lord 
 Dartmouth opened auspiciously. Franklin waited 
 upon him at his first levee, at the close of Octo- 
 ber, 1772, and was received "very obligingly." 
 
166 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Further Franklin was at once recognized as agent 
 for Massachusetts, with no renewal of the caviling 
 as to the manner of his appointment, from which 
 he hopefully augured that "business was getting 
 into a better train." A month later he reported 
 himself as being still "upon very good terms" 
 with the new minister, who, he had "reason to 
 think, meant well by the colonies." So Dart- 
 mouth did, undoubtedly, and if the best of in- 
 tentions and of feelings could have availed much 
 at this stage of affairs, Franklin and his lordship 
 might have postponed the Eevolution until the 
 next generation. But it was too late to counter- 
 act the divergent movements of the two nations, 
 and no better proof could be desired of the degree 
 to which this divergence had arrived than the fact 
 itself that the moderate Franklin and the well- 
 disposed Dartmouth could not come into accord. 
 Each people had declared its political faith, its 
 fundamental theory; and the faith and theory of 
 the one were fully and fairly adverse to those of 
 the other ; and the instant that the talk went deep 
 enough, this irreconcilable difference was sure to 
 be exposed. 
 
 During the winter of 1772-73, following Lord 
 Dartmouth's appointment, a lively dispute arose in 
 Massachusetts between the Assembly and Governor 
 Hutchinson. It was the old question, whether the 
 English Parliament had control in matters of co- 
 lonial taxation. The governor made speeches and 
 said Yea, while the Assembly passed resolutions 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 167 
 
 and said Nay. The early ships, arriving in Eng- 
 land in the spring of 1773, brought news of this 
 dispute, which seemed to have been indeed a hot 
 one. The English ministry were not pleased ; they 
 wanted to keep their relationship with the colonies 
 tranquil for a while, because there was a renewal 
 of the danger of a war with Spain. Therefore 
 they were vexed at the over-zeal of Hutchinson ; 
 and Lord Dartmouth frankly said so. Franklin 
 called one day upon the secretary and found him 
 much perplexed at the "difficulties" into which 
 the governor had brought the ministers by his " im- 
 prudence." Parliament, his lordship said, could 
 not "suffer such a declaration of the colonial As- 
 sembly, asserting its independence, to pass unno- 
 ticed." Franklin thought otherwise : "It is words 
 only," he said; "acts of Parliament are still sub- 
 mitted to there; " and so long as such was the case 
 "Parliament would do well to turn a deaf ear. 
 . . . Force could do no good." Force, it was re- 
 plied, might not be thought of, but rather an act 
 to lay the colonies "under some inconveniences, 
 till they rescind that declaration." Could they 
 by no possibility be persuaded to withdraw it? 
 Franklin was clearly of opinion that the resolve 
 could only be withdrawn after the withdrawal of 
 the speech which it answered, "an awkward oper- 
 ation, which perhaps the governor would hardly 
 be directed to perform." As for an act establish- 
 ing "inconveniences," probably it would only put 
 the colonies, "as heretofore, on some method of 
 
168 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 incommoding this country till the act is repealed ; 
 and so we shall go on injuring and provoking 
 each other instead of cultivating that good will 
 and harmony so necessary to the general welfare." 
 Divisions, his lordship admitted, "must weaken 
 the whole; for we are yet one empire, whatever 
 may be the opinions of the Massachusetts As- 
 sembly." But how to escape divisions was the 
 conundrum. Could his lordship withhold from 
 Parliament the irritating documents, though in 
 fact they were already notorious, and "hazard the 
 being called to account in some future session of 
 Parliament for keeping back the communication 
 of dispatches of such importance? " He appealed 
 to Franklin for advice; but Franklin would 
 undertake to give none, save that, in his opinion, 
 if the dispatches should be laid before Parlia- 
 ment, it would be prudent to order them to lie on 
 the table. For, he said, "were I as much an 
 Englishman as I am an American, and ever so 
 desirous of establishing the authority of Parlia- 
 ment, I protest to your lordship I cannot conceive 
 of a single step the Parliament can take to in- 
 crease it that will not tend to diminish it, and 
 after abundance of mischief they must finally lose 
 it." So whenever the crucial test was applied 
 these two men found themselves utterly at vari- 
 ance, and the hopelessness of a peaceful conclusion 
 would have been obvious, had not each shunned 
 a prospect so painful. 
 
 It must be confessed that, if Lord Dartmouth 
 
I ■ I 
 
 V QF / 
 
 SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 169 
 
 was so pathetically desirous to undo an irrevo- 
 cable past, Dr. Franklin was no less anxious for 
 the performance of a like miracle. Both the 
 statesman and the philosopher would have appre- 
 ciated better the uselessness of their efforts, had 
 their feelings been less deeply engaged. Frank- 
 lin's vain wish at this time was to move the 
 peoples of England and America back to the days 
 before the passage of the Stamp Act. "I have 
 constantly given it as my opinion," he wrote, early 
 in 1771, "that, if the colonies were restored to the 
 state they were in before the Stamp Act, they 
 would be satisfied and contend no farther." Two 
 and a half years later, following the fable of the 
 sibylline books, he expressed the more extreme 
 opinion that "the letter of the two houses of the 
 29th of June, proposing as a satisfactory measure 
 the restoring things to the state in which they 
 were at the conclusion of the late war, is a fair 
 and generous offer on our part, . . . and more 
 than Britain has a right to expect from us. . . . 
 If she has any wisdom left, she will embrace it, 
 and agree with us immediately." 
 
 But the insuperable trouble was that, at the 
 close of the last war and before the passage of the 
 Stamp Act, the controversy upon the question of 
 right had been unborn. Now, having come into 
 being, this controversy could not be laid at rest by 
 a mere waiver; it was of that nature that its 
 resurrection would be sure and speedy. Anything 
 else would have been, of course, the practical vie- 
 
170 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 tory of the colonies and defeat of England ; and 
 the English could not admit that things had 
 reached this pass as yet. If England should not 
 renounce her right, the colonies would always 
 remain uneasy beneath the unretracted assertion 
 of it; if she should never again seek to exercise 
 it, she would be really yielding. It was idle to 
 talk of such a state of affairs; it could not be 
 brought about, even if it were conceivable that 
 each side could be induced to repeal all its acts 
 and resolves touching the subject, — and even this 
 preliminary step was what no reasonable man 
 could anticipate. In a word, when Franklin 
 longed for the restoration of the status quo ante 
 the Stamp Act, he longed for a chimera. A ques- 
 tion had been raised, which was of that kind that 
 it could not be compromised, or set aside, or 
 ignored, or forgotten; it must be settled by the 
 recession or by the defeat of one contestant or the 
 other. Nothing better than a brief period of rest- 
 less and suspicious truce could be gained by an 
 effort to restore the situation of a previous date, 
 even were such restoration possible, since the in- 
 tervening period and the memory of its undeter- 
 mined dispute concerning a principle could not be 
 annihilated. 
 
 Still Franklin persistently refused to despair, 
 so long as peace was still unbroken. Until blood 
 had been shed, war might be avoided. This was 
 no lack of foresight; occasionally an expression 
 escaped him which showed that he fully under- 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 171 
 
 stood the drift of affairs and saw the final out- 
 come of the opposing doctrines. In 1769 he said 
 that matters were daily tending more and more 
 "to a breach and final separation." In 1771 he 
 thought that any one might "clearly see in the 
 system of customs to be exacted in America by 
 act of Parliament, the seeds sown of a total dis- 
 union of the countries, though as yet that event 
 may be at a considerable distance." By 1774 he 
 said, in an article written for an English news- 
 paper, that certain "angry writers" on the Eng- 
 lish side were using "their utmost efforts to 
 persuade us that this war with the colonies (for a 
 war it will be) is a national cause, when in fact it 
 is a ministerial one." But he very rarely spoke 
 thus. It was at once his official duty as well as 
 his strong personal wish to find some other exit 
 from the public embarrassments than by this dire- 
 ful conclusion. Therefore, so long as war did 
 not exist he refused to admit that it was inevi- 
 table, and he spared no effort to prevent it, leaving 
 to fervid orators to declare the contrary and to 
 welcome it; nor would he ever allow himself to 
 be discouraged by any measure of apparent hope- 
 lessness. 
 
 His great dread was that the colonies might go 
 so fast and so far as to make matters incurable 
 before thinking people were ready to recognize 
 such a crisis as unavoidable. He seldom wrote 
 home without some words counseling moderation. 
 He wanted to see "much patience and the utmost 
 
172 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 discretion in our general conduct." It must not, 
 however, be supposed that such language was 
 used to cover any lukewarmness, or irresolution, 
 or tendency towards halfway or temporizing mea- 
 sures. On the contrary, he was wholly and con- 
 sistently the opposite of all this. His moderation 
 was not at all akin to the moderation of Dickinson 
 and such men, who were always wanting to add 
 another to the long procession of petitions and 
 protests. He only desired that the leading should 
 be done by the wise men, so as not to have a 
 Braddock's defeat in so grave and perilous an 
 undertaking. He feared that a mob might make 
 an irrevocable blunder, and the mischievous rabble 
 create a condition of affairs which the real states- 
 men of the provinces could neither mend nor ex- 
 cuse. Certainly his anxiety was not without cause. 
 He warned his country people that there was no- 
 thing which their enemies in England more wished 
 than that, by insurrections, they would give a good 
 pretense for establishing a large military force in 
 the colonies. As between friends, he said, every 
 affront is not worth a duel, so "between the gov- 
 erned and governing every mistake in government, 
 every encroachment on right, is not worth a 
 rebellion." So he thought that an "immediate 
 rupture" was not in accordance with "general 
 prudence," for by "a premature struggle," the 
 colonies might "be crippled and kept down an- 
 other age." No one, however, was more resolute 
 than he that the mistakes and encroachments 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 173 
 
 which had occurred should not be repeated. An 
 assurance against such repetition, he tried to 
 think, might be effected within a reasonably short 
 time by two peaceful influences. One of these 
 was a cessation of all colonial purchases of English 
 commodities; the other was the rapid increase of 
 the visible strength and resources of the colonies. 
 He was urgent and frequent in reiterating his 
 opinion of the great efficacy of the non-purchasing 
 agreements. It is a little odd to find him actually 
 declaring that, if the people would honestly per- 
 sist in these engagements, he "should almost 
 wish" the obnoxious act " never to be repealed;" 
 for, besides industry and frugality, such a condi- 
 tion of things would promote a variety of domestic 
 manufactures. In a word, this British oppression 
 would bring about all those advantages for the 
 infant nation, which, through the medium of the 
 protective tariff, have since been purchased by 
 Americans at a vast expense. Moreover, the 
 money which used to be sent to England in pay- 
 ment for superfluous luxuries would be kept at 
 home, to be there laid out in domestic improve- 
 ments. Gold and silver, the scarcity of which 
 caused great inconvenience in the colonies, would 
 remain in the country. All these advantages 
 would accrue from a course which at the same 
 time must give rise in England itself to a pressure 
 so extreme that Parliament could not long resist 
 it. "The trading part of the nation, with the 
 n manufacturers, are become sensible how necessary 
 
174 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 it is for their welfare to be on good terms with us. 
 The petitioners of Middlesex and of London have 
 numbered among their grievances the unconstitu- 
 tional taxes on America ; and similar petitions are 
 expected from all quarters. So that I think we 
 need only be quiet, and persevere in our schemes 
 of frugality and industry, and the rest will do 
 itself." But it was obvious that, if the measures 
 were not now persisted in until they should have 
 had their full effect, a like policy could never 
 again be resorted to; and Franklin gave it as his 
 belief that, "if we do persist another year, we 
 shall never afterwards have occasion to use " the 
 remedy. 
 
 To him it seemed incredible that the people of 
 America should not loyally persist in a policy of 
 non-importation of English goods. Not only was 
 the doing without these a benefit to domestic in- 
 dustries, but buying them was a direct aid and 
 maintenance to the oppressor. He said : " If our 
 people will, by consuming such commodities, pur- 
 chase and pay for their fetters, who that sees them 
 so shackled will think they deserve either redress 
 or pity? Methinks that in drinking tea, a true 
 American, reflecting that by every cup he contrib- 
 uted to the salaries, pensions, and rewards of the 
 enemies and persecutors of his country, would be 
 half choked at the thought, and find no quantity 
 of sugar sufficient to make the nauseous draught 
 go down." 1 
 
 1 See also letter to Marshall, April 22, 1771, Works, x. 315. 
 
SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND 175 
 
 In this connection he was much "diverted " and 
 gratified by the results of the Stamp Act, and 
 especially of the act laying the duty on tea. The 
 gross proceeds of the former statute, gathered in 
 the West Indies and Canada, since substantial^ 
 nothing was got in the other provinces, was 
 £1500; while the expenditure had amounted to 
 .£12,000! The working of the Customs Act had 
 been far worse. According to his statement, the 
 unfortunate East India Company, in January, 
 1773, had at least £2,000,000, some said £4,000,- 
 000, worth of goods which had accumulated in 
 their warehouses since the enactment, of which the 
 chief part would, in the natural condition of busi- 
 ness, have been absorbed by the colonies. The 
 consequence was that the company's shares had 
 fallen enormously in price, that it was hard 
 pressed to make its payments, that its credit was 
 so seriously impaired that the Bank of England 
 would not help it, and that its dividends had been 
 reduced below the point at and above which it was 
 obliged to pay, and heretofore regularly had paid, 
 £400,000 annually to the government. Many 
 investors were painfully straitened, and not a few 
 bankruptcies ensued. Besides the loss of this an- 
 nual stipend the treasury was further the sufferer 
 by the great expense which had been incurred in 
 endeavoring to guard the American coast against 
 smugglers; with the added vexation that these 
 costly attempts had, after all, been fruitless. 
 Fifteen hundred miles of shore line, occupied by 
 
176 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 people unanimously hostile to the king's revenue 
 officers, presented a task much beyond the capa- 
 bilities of the vessels which England could send 
 thither. So the Dutch, the Danes, the Swedes, 
 and the French soon established a thriving con- 
 traband trade; the American housewives were 
 hardly interrupted in dispensing the favorite 
 beverage; the English merchant's heavy loss 
 became the foreign smuggler's aggravating gain; 
 and the costly sacrifice of the East India Com- 
 pany fell short of effecting the punishment of the 
 wicked Americans. Franklin could not "help 
 smiling at these blunders." Englishmen would 
 soon resent them, he said, would turn out the 
 ministry that was responsible for them, and put in 
 a very different set of men, who would undo the 
 mischief. "If we continue firm and united, and 
 resolutely persist in the non-consumption agree- 
 ment, this adverse ministry cannot possibly stand 
 another year. And surely the great body of our 
 people, the farmers and artificers, will not find it 
 hard to keep an agreement by which they both 
 save and gain." Thus he continued to write so 
 late as February, 1775, believing to the last in 
 the efficacy of this policy. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND, III 
 
 THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS: THE PRIVY COUNCIL 
 
 SCENE: RETURN HOME 
 
 The famous episode of the Hutchinson letters, 
 occurring near the close of Franklin's stay in 
 England, must be narrated with a brevity more in 
 accord with its real historical value than with its 
 interest as a dramatic story. In conversation one 
 day with an English gentleman, Franklin spoke 
 with resentment of the sending troops to Boston 
 and the other severe measures of the government. 
 The other in reply engaged to convince him that 
 these steps were taken upon the suggestion and ad- 
 vice of Americans. A few days later he made good 
 his promise by producing certain letters, signed 
 by Hutchinson, Oliver, and others, all natives of 
 and residents and office-holders in America. The 
 addresses had been cut from the letters; but in 
 other respects they were unmutilated, and they 
 were the original documents. They contained 
 just such matter as the gentleman had described, 
 — opinions and advice which would have com- 
 mended themselves highly to a royalist, but which 
 could have seemed to a patriot in the provinces 
 
178 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 only the most dangerous and abominable treason. 
 Induced by obvious motives, Franklin begged 
 leave to send these letters to Massachusetts, and 
 finally obtained permission to do so, subject to the 
 stipulation that they should not be printed nor 
 copied, and should be circulated only among a 
 few leading men. His purpose, he said, lay in 
 his belief that when the "principal people" in 
 Boston "saw the measures they complained of 
 took their rise in a great degree from the repre- 
 sentations and recommendations of their own 
 countrymen, their resentment against Britain 
 might abate, as mine has done, and a reconcilia- 
 tion be more easily obtained.' ' * Franklin accord- 
 ingly sent over the letters, together with strict 
 injunctions in pursuance of his engagement to the 
 giver of them: "In confidence of your following 
 inviolably my engagement," etc., he wrote. But 
 this solemn instruction was not complied with ; 
 
 1 The importance of establishing the fact that the government's 
 course was instigated by Hutchinson is liable at the present day 
 to be underrated. For his name has fallen into such extreme dis- 
 repute in America that to have been guided by his advice seems 
 only an additional offense. But such was not the case ; Hutchin- 
 son came of old and prominent Massachusetts stock ; he was a 
 descendant of Anne Hutchinson, of polemic fame, and when ap- 
 pointed to office he appeared a man of good standing and ability. 
 The English government had a perfect right to rely upon the 
 soundness of his statements and opinions. Thus it was really of 
 great moment for Franklin to be able to convince the people of 
 Massachusetts that the English measures were in strict conformity 
 with Hutchinson's suggestions. It was an excuse for the English, 
 as it also was the condemnation of Hutchinson, in colonial opinion 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 179 
 
 the temptation was too great for the honor of 
 some among the patriots, who resolved that the 
 letters should be made public despite any pledge 
 to the contrary, and resorted to a shallow artifice 
 for achieving their end. A story was started that 
 authenticated copies of the same papers had been 
 received from England by somebody. There was 
 a prudent abstention from any inquiry into the 
 truth of this statement. "I know," said Frank- 
 lin, "that could not be. It was an expedient to 
 disengage the House." Dishonest as it obviously 
 was, it was successful ; members accepted it as a 
 removal of the seal of secrecy ; and the documents 
 having thus found their way before the Assembly 
 were ordered to be printed. That body, greatly 
 incensed, immediately voted a petition to the king 
 for the removal of the governor and lieutenant- 
 governor, and sent it over to Franklin to be 
 presented. 
 
 The publication of these letters made no little 
 stir. The writers were furious, and of course 
 brought vehement charges of bad faith and dis- 
 honorable behavior. But they were at a loss to 
 know upon whom to visit their wrath. For the 
 person to whom they had written the letters was 
 dead, and they knew no one else who had been 
 concerned in the matter. The secret of the chan- 
 nel of conveyance had been rigidly kept. No one 
 had the slightest idea by whom the letters had 
 been transmitted to Massachusetts, nor by whom 
 they had been received there. To this day it is 
 
180 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 not known by whom the letters were given to 
 Franklin. July 25, 1773, he wrote to Mr. Crush- 
 ing, the speaker of the Assembly, to whom he 
 had inclosed the letters: "I observe that you 
 mention that no person besides Dr. Cooper and 
 one member of the committee knew they came 
 from me. I did not accompany them with any 
 request of being myself concealed; for, believing 
 what I did to be in the way of my duty as agent, 
 though I had no doubt of its giving offense, not 
 only to the parties exposed but to administration 
 here, I was regardless of the consequences. How- 
 ever, since the letters themselves are now copied 
 and printed, contrary to the promise I made, I am 
 glad my name has not been heard on the occasion ; 
 and, as I do not see how it could be of any use to 
 the public, I now wish it may continue unknown ; 
 though I hardly expect it." Unfortunately it 
 soon became of such use to two individuals in 
 England that Franklin himself felt obliged to 
 divulge it; otherwise it might have remained for- 
 ever a mystery. 
 
 Though the addresses had been cut from the 
 letters, yet they had previously been shown to 
 many persons in England, and it soon became 
 known there that they had been written to Mr. 
 William Whately, now dead, but who, when the 
 letters were written, was a member of Parliament 
 and private secretary to George Grenville, who 
 was then in the cabinet. Amid the active sur- 
 mises as to the next link in the chain suspicion 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 181 
 
 naturally attached to Thomas Whately, brother 
 and executor of the dead man, and in possession 
 of his papers. This gentleman denied that he had 
 ever, to his knowledge, had these letters in his 
 hands. Suspicion next attached to Mr. Temple, 
 "our friend," as Franklin described him. He 
 had had access to the letters of William Whately 
 for the purpose of getting from among them cer- 
 tain letters written by himself and his brother; he 
 had lived in America, had been governor of New 
 Hampshire, and later in letters to his friends 
 there had announced the coming of the letters be- 
 fore they had actually arrived. The expression 
 of suspicion towards Temple found its way into a 
 newspaper, bolstered with an intimation that the 
 information came from Thomas Whately. Tem- 
 ple at once made a demand upon Whately to 
 exculpate him. This of course Whately could 
 not do, since he had not inspected the letters 
 taken by Temple, and so could not say of his 
 knowledge that these were not among them. But 
 instead of taking this perfectly safe ground, he 
 published a card stating that Temple had had 
 access to the letters of the deceased for a special 
 purpose, and that Temple had solemnly averred to 
 him, Whately, that he had neither removed nor 
 copied any letters save those written by himself 
 and his brother. This exoneration was far from 
 satisfying Temple, who conceived that it rather 
 injured than improved his position. Accordingly 
 he challenged Whately and the two fought in 
 
182 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Hyde Park ring. The story of the duel, which 
 was mingled of comedy and tragedy, is vividly 
 told by Mr. Parton. Whately was wounded 
 twice, and at his request the fight then ceased. 
 Temple was accused, but unfairly, of having 
 thrust at him when he was down. But it was 
 no conventional duel, or result of temporary hot 
 blood. The contestants were profoundly angry 
 with each other, and were bent on more serious 
 results than curable wounds. It was understood 
 that so soon as Whately should be well, the fight 
 would be renewed. Thus matters stood when 
 Franklin came up to London from a visit in the 
 country, to be astonished by the news of what 
 had occurred, and annoyed at the prospect of what 
 was likely to occur. At once he inserted this 
 letter : — 
 
 To the Printer of the " Public Advertiser : " 
 
 Sir, — Finding that two gentlemen have been unfor- 
 tunately engaged in a duel about a transaction and its 
 circumstances of which both of them are totally ignorant 
 and innocent, I think it incumbent upon me to declare 
 (for the prevention of further mischief, as far as such a 
 declaration may contribute to prevent it) that I alone 
 am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston 
 the letters in question. Mr. Whately could not commu- 
 nicate them, because they were never in his possession ; 
 and for the same reason they could not be taken from 
 him by Mr. Temple. They were not of the nature of 
 private letters between friends. They were written by 
 public officers to persons in public stations on public 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 183 
 
 affairs, and intended to procure public measures ; they 
 were therefore handed to other public persons, who might 
 be influenced by them to produce those measures. Their 
 tendency was to incense the mother country against her 
 colonies, and, by the steps recommended, to widen the 
 breach which they effected. The chief caution expressed 
 with regard to privacy was, to keep their contents from 
 the colony agents, who, the writers apprehended, might 
 return them, or copies of them, to America. That ap- 
 prehension was, it seems, well founded, for the first agent 
 who laid his hands on them thought it his duty to trans- 
 mit them to his constituents. 
 
 B. Franklin, 
 Agent for the House of Representatives of 
 Massachusetts Bay. 
 Craven Street, December 25, 1773. 
 
 The petition, forwarded by the House of Bepre- 
 sentatives of Massachusetts Bay, after they had 
 read the famous letters, recited that the petitioners 
 had "very lately had before them certain papers ," 
 and it was upon the strength of the contents of 
 these papers that they humbly prayed that his ma- 
 jesty would be " pleased to remove from their posts 
 in this government" Governor Hutchinson and 
 Lieutenant-Governor Oliver. Immediately upon 
 receipt of this petition Franklin transmitted it to 
 Lord Dartmouth, with a very civil and concilia- 
 tory note, to which Lord Dartmouth replied in the 
 same spirit. This took place in August, 1773; 
 the duel followed in December, and in the interval 
 Franklin had heard nothing from the petition. 
 
184 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 But when his foregoing letter was published and 
 conned over it seemed that the auspicious moment 
 for the ministry was now at hand, and that it had 
 actually been furnished to them by the astute 
 Franklin himself. There is no question that he 
 had acted according to his conscience, and it seems 
 now to be generally agreed that his conscience did 
 not mislead him. But he had been placed in a 
 difficult position, and it was easily possible to give 
 a very bad coloring to his conduct. There was in 
 this business an opportunity to bring into dis- 
 credit the character of the representative man of 
 America, the man foremost of Americans in the 
 eyes of the world, the man most formidable to the 
 ministerial party; such an opportunity was not to 
 be lost. 1 
 
 1 It must be confessed that the question whether Franklin 
 should have sent these letters to be seen by the leading men of 
 Massachusetts involves points of some delicacy. The very elab- 
 orateness and vehemence of the exculpations put forth by Amer- 
 ican writers indicate a lurking feeling that the opposite side is at 
 least plausible. I add my opinion decidedly upon Franklin's side, 
 though I certainly see force in the contrary view. Yet before one 
 feels fully satisfied he would wish to know from whom these let- 
 ters came to Franklin's hands, the information then given him 
 concerning them, and the authority which the giver might be sup- 
 posed to have over them ; in a word, all the attendant and qual- 
 ifying circumstances and conversation upon which presumptions 
 might have been properly founded by Franklin. Upon these 
 essential matters there is absolutely no evidence. Franklin was 
 bound to secrecy concerning them, at whatever cost to himself. 
 But it is evident that Franklin never for an instant entertained 
 the slightest doubt of the entire propriety of his action, and even 
 in his own cause he was wont to be a fair-minded judge. One 
 gets a glimpse of the other side in the Diary and Letters of his 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 185 
 
 Franklin had anticipated that the " king would 
 have considered this petition, as he had done the 
 preceding one, in his cabinet, and have given an 
 answer without a hearing." But on the afternoon 
 of Saturday, January 8, 1774, he was surprised to 
 receive notice of a hearing upon the petition be- 
 fore the Lords of the Committee for Plantation 
 Affairs, at the Cockpit, on the Tuesday follow- 
 ing, at noon. Late in the afternoon of Monday 
 he got notice that Mr. Mauduit, agent for Hutch- 
 inson and Oliver, would be represented at the 
 hearing on the following morning by counsel. A 
 less sagacious man than Franklin would have 
 scented trouble in the air. He tried to find 
 Arthur Lee; but Lee was in Bath. He then 
 sought advice from Mr. Bollan, a barrister, agent 
 for the Council of Massachusetts Bay, and who 
 also had been summoned. There was no time to 
 instruct counsel, and Mr. Bollan advised to em- 
 ploy none ; he had found " lawyers of little service 
 in colony cases." "Those who are eminent and 
 hope to rise in their profession are unwilling to 
 offend the court, whose disposition on this occasion 
 was well known." The next day at the hearing 
 Mr. Bollan endeavored to speak; but, though he 
 had been summoned, he was summarily silenced, on 
 the ground that the colonial Council, whose agent 
 he was, was not a party to the petition. Franklin 
 then laid the petition and authenticated copies of 
 
 Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., etc., by Thomas Orlando 
 Hutchinson, pp. 5, 82-93, 192, 356. 
 
186 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the letters before the committee. Some objections 
 to the receipt of copies instead of originals were 
 raised by Mr. Wedderburn, solicitor-general and 
 counsel for Hutchinson and Oliver. Franklin 
 then spoke with admirable keenness and skill. 
 He said that he had not conceived the matter to 
 call for discussion by lawyers ; but that it was a 
 "question of civil or political prudence, whether, 
 on the state of the fact that the governors had lost 
 all trust and confidence with the people, and be- 
 come universally obnoxious, it would be for the 
 interest of his majesty's service to continue them 
 in those stations in that province." Of this he 
 conceived their lordships to be "perfect judges," 
 not requiring "assistance from the arguments of 
 counsel." Yet if counsel was to be heard he 
 asked an adjournment to enable him to engage 
 and instruct lawyers. Time was accordingly 
 granted, until January 29. Wedderburn waived 
 his objection to the copies, but both he and Lord 
 Chief Justice De Grey intimated that inquiry 
 would be made as to " how the Assembly came 
 into possession of them, through whose hands and 
 by what means they were procured, . . . and to 
 whom they were directed." This was all irrele- 
 vant to the real issue, which had been sharply 
 defined by Franklin. The lord president, near 
 whom Franklin stood, asked him whether he in- 
 tended to answer such questions. "In that I 
 shall take counsel," replied Franklin. 
 
 The interval which elapsed before the day nomi- 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 187 
 
 nated could not have been very lightsome for the 
 unfortunate agent for the Massachusetts Bay. 
 Not only had he the task of selecting and in- 
 structing competent counsel, but even his self- 
 possessed and composed nature must have beeu 
 severely harassed by the rumors of which the air 
 was full. He heard from all quarters that the 
 ministry and courtiers were highly enraged 
 against him; he was called an incendiary, and the 
 newspapers teemed with invectives against him. 
 He heard that he was to be apprehended and sent 
 to Newgate, and that his papers were to be seized ; 
 that after he had been sufficiently blackened by 
 the hearing he would be deprived of his place; 
 with disheartening news also that the disposition 
 of the petition had already been determined. 1 
 At the same time a subpoena was served upon him 
 at the private suit of Whately, who was under 
 personal obligations to him, but was also a banker 
 to the government. Certainly the heavens threat- 
 ened a cloudburst with appalling thunder and 
 dangerous lightning. 
 
 Upon reflection Franklin was disposed to do 
 without counsel, but Mr. Bollan now became 
 strongly of the contrary opinion. So Mr. Dun- 
 ning and Mr. John Lee were retained. The for- 
 mer had been solicitor-general, and was a man of 
 mark and ability in the profession. When the 
 hearing came on, the Cockpit presented such a 
 spectacle that Franklin felt assured that the whole 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, v. 297, 298. 
 
188 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 affair had been "preconcerted." The hostile 
 courtiers had been "invited, as to an entertain- 
 ment, and there never was such an appearance of 
 privy councilors on any occasion, not less than 
 thirty -five, besides an immense crowd of other 
 auditors." Every one save the privy councilors 
 had to stand from beginning to end of the pro- 
 ceedings. Franklin occupied a position beside 
 the fireplace, where he stood throughout immov- 
 able as a statue, his features carefully composed 
 so that not one trace of emotion was apparent 
 upon them, showing a degree of self-control which 
 was extraordinary even in one who was at once a 
 man of the world and a philosopher, with sixty- 
 eight years of experience in life. Mr. Dunning, 
 with his voice unfortunately weakened by a cold, 
 was not always audible and made little impres- 
 sion. Mr. Lee was uselessly feeble. Wedder- 
 burn, thus inefficiently opposed, and conscious of 
 the full sympathy of the tribunal, poured forth 
 a vile flood of personal invective. Throughout 
 his life he approved himself a mean-spirited and 
 ignoble man, despised by those who used and re- 
 warded his able and debased services. On this 
 occasion he eagerly took advantage of the protec- 
 tion afforded by his position and by Dr. Frank- 
 lin's age to use language which, under such cir- 
 cumstances, was as cowardly as it was false. 
 Nothing, he said, "will acquit Dr. Franklin of 
 the charge of obtaining [the letters] by fraudulent 
 or corrupt means, for the most malignant of pur- 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 189 
 
 poses, unless he stole them from the person who 
 stole them." "I hope, my lords, you will mark 
 and brand the man, for the honor of this country, 
 of Europe, and of mankind." "He has forfeited 
 all the respect of societies and of men. Into what 
 companies will he hereafter go with an unembar- 
 rassed face or the honest intrepidity of virtue? 
 Men will watch him with a jealous eye ; they will 
 hide their papers from him, and lock up their 
 escritoires. He will henceforth esteem it a libel to 
 be called a man of letters, homo trium 2 litera- 
 rum." "But he not only took away the letters 
 from one brother, but kept himself concealed till 
 he nearly occasioned the murder of the other. It 
 is impossible to read his account, expressive of 
 the coolest and most deliberate malice, without 
 horror. Amidst these tragical events, — of one 
 person nearly murdered, of another answerable for 
 the issue, of a worthy governor hurt in his dearest 
 interests, the fate of America in suspense, — here 
 is a man who, with the utmost insensibility of 
 remorse, stands up and avows himself the author 
 of all. I can compare it only to Zanga, in Dr. 
 Young's ' Revenge.' 
 
 ' Know then 't was — I ; 
 I forged the letter, I disposed the picture ; 
 I hated, I despised, and I destroy.' 
 
 I ask, my lords, whether the revengeful temper 
 attributed, by poetic fiction only, to the bloody 
 
 1 A play upon the Latin word, fur, a thief. 
 
190 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 African, is not surpassed by the coolness and 
 apathy of the wily American." 
 
 Such was the torrent of vilification which flowed 
 from the lips of one of the meanest of England's 
 lawyers, and the speaker was constantly encour- 
 aged by applause, and by various indications of 
 gratification on the part of the tribunal before 
 which he argued. Dr. Priestley, who was pre- 
 sent, said that from the opening of the proceed- 
 ings it was evident "that the real object of the 
 court was to insult Dr. Franklin," an object in 
 which their lordships were, of course, able to 
 achieve a complete success. u No person belong- 
 ing to the council behaved with decent gravity, 
 except Lord North," who came late and remained 
 standing behind a chair. It was a disgraceful 
 scene, but not of long duration ; apparently there 
 was little else done save to hear the speeches of 
 counsel. The report of the lords was dated on 
 the same day, and was a severe censure upon the 
 petition and the petitioners. More than this, 
 their lordships went out of their way to inflict a 
 wanton outrage upon Franklin. The question of 
 who gave the letters to him was one which all 
 concerned were extremely anxious to hear an- 
 swered. But it was also a question which he 
 could not lawfully be compelled to answer in these 
 proceedings; it was wholly irrelevant; moreover 
 it was involved in the cause then pending before 
 the lord chancellor in which Franklin was respond- 
 ent. Accordingly, by advice of counsel, advice 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 191 
 
 unquestionably correct, he refused to divulge what 
 their lordships were so curious to hear. Enraged, 
 they said in their report that his "silence" was 
 abundant support for the conclusion that the 
 "charge of surreptitiously obtaining the letters 
 was a true one," although they knew that in law 
 and in fact his silence was wholly justifiable. 
 
 Resolutely as Franklin sought at the time to 
 repress any expression of his natural indignation, 
 there is evidence enough of how deeply he felt 
 this indignity. For example, there is the familiar 
 story of his dress. He wore, at the Cockpit, "a 
 full dress suit of spotted Manchester velvet." 
 Many years afterward, when it befell him, as one 
 of the ambassadors of his country, to sign the 
 treaty of alliance with France, the first treaty ever 
 made by the United States of America, and which 
 practically insured the defeat of Great Britain in 
 the pending war, it was observed by Dr. Bancroft 
 that he was attired in this same suit. The sign- 
 ing was to have taken place on February 5, but 
 was unexpectedly postponed to the next day, 
 when again Franklin appeared in the same old 
 suit and set his hand to the treaty. Dr. Ban- 
 croft says: "I once intimated to Dr. Franklin the 
 suspicion which his wearing these clothes on that 
 occasion had excited in my mind, when he smiled, 
 without telling me whether it was well or ill 
 founded." Having done this service, the suit 
 was again laid away until it was brought forth to 
 be worn at Paris at the signing of the treaty of 
 
192 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 peace with England, a circumstance the more 
 noteworthy since at that time the French court 
 was in mourning. 1 
 
 It appears that Franklin for a time entertained 
 a purpose of drawing up an "answer to the 
 abuses " cast at him upon this occasion. There 
 was, however, no need for doing so, and his reason 
 for not doing it is more eloquent on his behalf 
 with posterity than any pamphlet could be. He 
 said: "It was partly written, but the affairs of 
 public importance I have been ever since engaged 
 in prevented my finishing it. The injuries too 
 that my country has suffered have absorbed pri- 
 vate resentments, and made it appear trifling for 
 an individual to trouble the world with his par- 
 ticular justification, when all his compatriots were 
 stigmatized by the king and Parliament as being 
 in every respect the worst of mankind." 
 
 The proceedings at the Cockpit took place on a 
 Saturday. On the following Monday morning 
 Franklin got a "written notice from the secretary 
 of the general post-office, that his majesty's post- 
 master-general found it necessary to dismiss me 
 from my office of deputy postmaster -general in 
 North America." In other ways, too, the mischief 
 done him by this public assault could not be con- 
 cealed. It published to all the world the feeling 
 of the court and the ministry toward him, and told 
 Englishmen that it was no longer worth while to 
 keep up appearances of courtesy and good wilL 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 508. 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 193 
 
 It put upon him a judicial stigma, which was 
 ample excuse for the enemies of America hence- 
 forth to treat him as both dishonored and dishon- 
 orable. Hitherto his tact and his high character 
 had preserved him in a great measure from the 
 social annoyances and curtailments which he 
 would naturally have suffered as the prominent 
 representative of an unpopular cause. But it 
 seemed now as if his judgment had once and 
 fatally played him false, and certainly his good 
 name and his prestige were given over to his 
 enemies, who dealt cruelly with them. He felt 
 that it was the end of his usefulness, also that his 
 own self-respect and dignity must be carefully 
 preserved; and he wrote to the Assembly of 
 Massachusetts to say that it would be impossible 
 for him longer to act as its agent. From that 
 time he never attended the levee of a minister. 
 The portcullis had dropped; the days of his ser- 
 vice in England were over. 
 
 The conclusion had come painfully, yet it was 
 not without satisfaction that he saw himself free 
 to return home. His affairs had suffered in his 
 absence, and needed his attention now more than 
 ever, since he was deprived of his income from the 
 post-office. Moreover his efforts could no longer 
 be cheered with hopes of success or even of achiev- 
 ing any substantial advantage for his countrymen. 
 He was obliged to admit that the good disposition 
 of Lord Dartmouth had had no practical results. 
 "No single measure of his predecessor has since 
 
194 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 been even attempted to be changed, and, on the 
 contrary, new ones have been continually added, 
 further to exasperate these people, render them 
 desperate, and drive them, if possible, into open 
 rebellion." It had been a vexatious circum- 
 stance, too, that not long before this time he had 
 received a rebuke from the Massachusetts As- 
 sembly for having been lax, as they fancied, in 
 notifying them of some legislation of an injurious 
 character, which was in preparation. "This cen- 
 sure," he said, "though grievous, does not so 
 much surprise me, as I apprehended all along 
 from the beginning that between the friends of 
 an old agent, my predecessor, who thought him- 
 self hardly used in his dismission, and those of a 
 young man impatient for the succession, my situa- 
 tion was not likely to be a very comfortable one, 
 as my faults could scarce pass unobserved." This 
 reference to the malicious and untrustworthy back- 
 biter, Arthur Lee, might have been much more 
 severe, and still amply deserved. The most im- 
 portant acts of his ignoble life, by which alone 
 his memory is preserved, were the slanders which 
 he set in circulation concerning Franklin. Yet 
 Franklin, little suspicious and very magnanimous, 
 praised him as a "gentleman of parts and abil- 
 ity," likely to serve the province with zeal and 
 activity. Probably from this impure Lee fount, 
 but possibly from some other source, there now 
 came a renewal of the rumors that Franklin was 
 to be gained over to the ministerial side by pro- 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 195 
 
 motion to some office superior to that which he 
 had held. The injurious story was told in Bos- 
 ton, where perhaps a few persons believed it to be 
 true of a man who in fact could hardly have set 
 upon his fealty a price so high that the British 
 government would not gladly have paid it, and 
 who heretofore had been, and at this very time 
 again was, tempted by repeated solicitations and 
 the intimations of grand rewards, only to change 
 his mind — a matter so very easy in politics. 
 
 Furthermore, beyond these assaults upon his 
 fidelity, these insults of the privy council, Frank- 
 lin had to contemplate the possibility of personal 
 danger. He was a man of abundant courage, but 
 courage does not make a prison or a gallows an 
 agreeable object in one's horizon. The news- 
 papers alleged that in his correspondence "trea- 
 son " had been discovered. The ministry, as he 
 was directly informed, thought no better of him 
 than did the editors, regarding him as "the great 
 fomenter of the opposition in America," the 
 "great adversary to any accommodation." "It is 
 given out," he wrote, "that copies of several 
 letters of mine to you are sent over here to the 
 ministers, and that their contents are treasonable, 
 for which I should be prosecuted if copies could 
 be made evidence." He was not conscious of any 
 treasonable intention, but treason was a word to 
 make a man anxious in those days, when uttered 
 by the ministry and echoed by the court. Frank- 
 lin was quite aware that, though ministers might 
 
196 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 offer him a tempting place by way of bribe, they 
 would far rather give him "a place in a cart to 
 Tyburn." His friends warned him that his situ- 
 ation was hazardous; that, "if by some accident 
 the troops and the people of New England should 
 come to blows," he would doubtless be seized; 
 and they advised him to withdraw while yet he 
 could do so. Hutchinson frankly avowed that, if 
 his advice were taken, the withdrawal would not 
 be permitted. " But," said Franklin, "I ven- 
 ture to stay," upon the chance of still being of 
 use, "and I confide on my innocence that the 
 worst which can happen to me will be an impris- 
 onment upon suspicion ; though that is a thing I 
 should much desire to avoid, as it may be expen- 
 sive and vexatious, as well as dangerous to my 
 health." So spoke this imperturbable man, and 
 calmly stayed at his post. 
 
 He was still consulted by both sides in Eng- 
 land. In the August following the scene in the 
 privy council chamber, he called upon Lord Chat- 
 ham and had a long and interesting interview. 
 He then said that he attributed the late "wrong 
 politics " to the departure from the old and true 
 British principle, "whereby every province was 
 well governed, being trusted in a great measure 
 with the government of itself." When it was 
 sought to take this privilege from the colonies, 
 grave blunders had inevitably ensued; because, 
 as he admirably expressed it, Parliament insisted 
 upon being omnipotent when it was not omni- 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 197 
 
 scient. In other words, the affairs of the unre- 
 presented colonies were mismanaged through sheer 
 ignorance. It is noteworthy that England has 
 since recognized the necessity of precisely the 
 principle indicated by Franklin for colonial gov- 
 ernment; all her great colonies are now "trusted 
 in a great measure with the government" of 
 themselves, and are consequently "well gov- 
 erned." Franklin further assured his lordship 
 that in all his travels in the provinces he had 
 never once heard independence hinted at as a 
 desirable thing. This gave Chatham much plea- 
 sure ; but perhaps neither of them at the moment 
 reflected how many eventful years had elapsed 
 since Franklin was last journeying in America. 
 He further declared that the colonists were "even 
 not against regulations of the general commerce 
 by Parliament, provided such regulations were 
 bona fide for the benefit of the whole empire, not 
 to the small advantage of one part to the great 
 injury of another." This, by the way, was a 
 good point, which he found very serviceable 
 when people talked to him about the unity of the 
 empire. A genuine unity was just the gospel 
 which he liked to preach. " An equal dispensa- 
 tion," he said, "of protection, rights, privileges, 
 and advantages is what every part is entitled to, 
 and ought to enjoy, it being a matter of no mo- 
 ment to the state whether a subject grows rich 
 and flourishing on the Thames or the Ohio, in 
 Edinburgh or Dublin." But no living English- 
 
198 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 man could accept this broad and liberal doctrine. 
 The notion that the colonies were a dependency 
 and should be tributary to the greater power was 
 universal. It was admitted that they should not 
 be oppressed; but it was believed that between 
 oppression and that perfect unity which involved 
 entire equality there was certainly a middle ground 
 whereon the colonies might properly be established. 
 Lord Chatham expressed in courteous compli- 
 ments the gratification which this visit afforded 
 him. Not long afterward he came gallantly to 
 the defense of Franklin in the House of Lords. 
 It was one day in February, 1775 ; Franklin was 
 standing in full view, leaning on a rail; Lord 
 Sandwich was speaking against a measure of con- 
 ciliation or agreement just introduced by Chat- 
 ham. He said that it deserved "only contempt," 
 and "ought to be immediately rejected. I can 
 never believe it to be the production of any Brit- 
 ish peer. It appears to me rather the work of 
 some American. I fancy I have in my eye the 
 person who drew it up, one of the bitterest and 
 most mischievous enemies this country has ever 
 known." Speaking thus, he looked full at 
 Franklin, and drew upon him the general atten- 
 tion. But Chatham hastened to defend the de- 
 fenseless one. "The plan is entirely my own," 
 he said; "but if I were the first minister, and 
 had the care of settling this momentous business, I 
 should not be ashamed of calling to my assistance 
 a person so perfectly acquainted with the whole 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 199 
 
 of American affairs, one whom all Europe ranks 
 with our Boyles and Newtons, as an honor not to 
 the English nation only but to human nature." 
 This was spirited and friendly; Franklin had a 
 way of making warm and loyal friends. Most men 
 would have rejoiced to be so abused by Sandwich 
 in order to be so complimented by Chatham. 1 
 
 Yet, in spite of the high esteem in which so 
 many Englishmen still held Franklin, an incident 
 occurred at this time which showed very plainly 
 that the term of his full usefulness was indeed 
 over, though not altogether for the reasons which 
 had led him to think so. The fact was that the 
 proverbial last feather which breaks the back had 
 been laid upon him. His endurance had been 
 overtaxed, and he was at last in that temper and 
 frame of mind in which the wisest men are liable 
 to make grave mistakes. He was one day present 
 at a debate in the House of Commons, and found 
 himself, as he says, "much disgusted, from the 
 ministerial side, by many base reflections on 
 American courage, religion, understanding, etc., 
 in which we were treated with the utmost con- 
 tempt, as the lowest of mankind, and almost of a 
 different species from the English of Britain ; but 
 particularly the American honesty was abused by 
 some of the lords, who asserted that we were all 
 knaves, etc." Franklin went home "somewhat 
 irritated and heated," and before he had cooled 
 he wrote a paper which he hastened to show to his 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. v. 220. 
 
200 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 friend Mr. Thomas Walpole, a member of the 
 House of Commons. Mr. Walpole "looked at 
 it and at me several times alternately, as if he 
 apprehended me a little out of my senses." Nor 
 would Mr. Walpole have been altogether without 
 reason, if in fact he entertained such a suspicion. 
 The paper was the memorial of Benjamin Frank- 
 lin to the Earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state. 
 In its first clause it demanded "reparation" for 
 the injury done by the blockade of the port of 
 Boston. Conventional forms of speech were 
 observed, yet there was an atmosphere almost of 
 injurious insolence, entirely foreign to all other 
 productions of Franklin's brain and pen. Its 
 second paragraph recited that the conquests made 
 in the northeast from France, which included all 
 those extensive fisheries which still survive as a 
 bone of contention between the two countries, had 
 been jointly won by England and the American 
 colonies, at their common cost, and by an army 
 in which the provincial troops were nearly equal 
 in numbers to the British. "It follows," the 
 audacious memorialist said, "that the colonies 
 have an equitable and just right to participate in 
 the advantage of those fisheries," and the present 
 English attempt to deprive the Massachusetts 
 people of sharing in them was "an act highly 
 unjust and injurious." He concluded: "I give 
 notice that satisfaction will probably one day be 
 demanded for all the injury that may be done and 
 suffered in the execution of such act; and that the 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 201 
 
 injustice of the proceeding is likely to give such 
 umbrage to all the colonies that in no future war, 
 wherein other conquests may be meditated, either 
 a man or a shilling will be obtained from any of 
 them to aid such conquests, till full satisfaction be 
 made as aforesaid." 
 
 Here was indeed a fulmination to strike an 
 Englishman breathless and dumb with amaze- 
 ment. It put the colonies in the position of a 
 coequal or allied power, entitled to share with 
 Britain the spoils of victory; even in the position 
 of an independent power which could refuse the 
 military allegiance of subjects. English judges 
 would have found abundant treason in this insub- 
 ordinate document. It may soothe common men 
 to see the wise, the serene, the self-contained Dr. 
 Franklin, the philosopher and diplomatist, for 
 once lose his head in a gust of uncontrollable pas- 
 sion. Walpole, though a loyal Englishman, was 
 fortunately his true friend, and wrote him, with 
 a brevity more impressive than argument, that the 
 memorial "might be attended with dangerous 
 consequences to your person and contribute to 
 exasperate the nation." He closed with the sig- 
 nificant sentence: "I heartily wish you a pros- 
 perous voyage and long health." The significant 
 words remind one of the woodcock's feather with 
 which' Wildrake warned the disguised monarch 
 that no time was to be lost in fleeing from Wood- 
 stock. But if the hint was curt, it was no less 
 wise. There was no doubt that it was full time 
 
202 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 for the sage to be exchanging his farewells, when 
 such a point had been reached. The next day, 
 as Franklin relates, Walpole called and said that 
 "it was thought my having no instructions direct- 
 ing me to deliver such a protest would make it 
 appear still more unjustifiable, and be deemed a 
 national affront. I had no desire to make mat- 
 ters worse, and, being grown cooler, took the 
 advice so kindly given me." 
 
 The last business which Franklin had to trans- 
 act on the eve of his departure came in the shape 
 of one of those mysterious and obscure bits of 
 negotiation which are at times undertaken by pri- 
 vate persons who are very "near" to ministers, 
 and who conduct their affairs with impressive 
 secrecy. Just how much this approach amounted 
 to it is difficult to say; no less a person than 
 Lord Howe was concerned in it, and he was 
 undoubtedly in direct communication with Lord 
 North. But whether that potentate really antici- 
 pated any substantial good result may be doubted. 
 Franklin himself has told the story with much 
 particularity, and since it will neither bear cur- 
 tailment nor admit of being related at length, and 
 since the whole palaver accomplished absolutely 
 nothing, the relation will be omitted here. In the 
 course of it the efforts to bribe Franklin were 
 renewed, and briefly rejected by him. Also he 
 met, and established a very friendly personal rela- 
 tion with, Lord Howe, who afterward commanded 
 the British fleet in American waters. 
 
THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 203 
 
 Having discovered the emptiness of this busi- 
 ness, Franklin at last completed his arrangements 
 for his return home. He placed his agencies in 
 the hands of Arthur Lee. His last day in Lon- 
 don he passed with his stanch old friend, Dr. 
 Priestley, and a large part of the time, says the 
 doctor, "he was looking over a number of Ameri- 
 can newspapers, directing me what to extract from 
 them for the English ones; and in reading them 
 he was frequently not able to proceed for the tears 
 literally running down his cheeks." Such was the 
 depth of feeling in one often accounted callous, 
 indifferent, or even untrustworthy in the matter 
 of American relations with England. He felt 
 some anxiety as to whether his departure might 
 not be prevented by an arrest, and made his jour- 
 ney to Portsmouth with such speed and precau- 
 tions as were possible. 1 But he was not inter- 
 rupted, and sailed on some day near the middle of 
 March, 1775. His departure marked an era in 
 the relations of Great Britain with her American 
 colonies. It signified that all hope of agreement, 
 all possibility of reconciliation upon one side or 
 of recession upon the other, were absolutely over. 
 That Franklin gave up in despair the task of 
 preventing a war meant that war was certain and 
 imminent. He arrived in Philadelphia May 5, 
 1775. During his absence his wife had died, and 
 his daughter had married a young man, Richard 
 Bache, whom he had never yet seen. 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 70. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SERVICES IN THE STATES 
 
 From the solitude of the ocean to the seething 
 turmoil which Franklin found in the colonies must 
 have been a startling transition. He had come 
 home an old man, lacking but little of the allotted 
 threescore years and ten. He had earned and 
 desired repose, but never before had he encoun- 
 tered such exacting, important, and unremitting 
 labor as immediately fell to his lot. Lexington 
 and Concord fights had taken place a fortnight 
 before he landed, and the news preceded him in 
 Philadelphia by a few days only. Many feelings 
 may be discerned in the brief note which he wrote 
 on May 16 to Dr. Priestley : — 
 
 " Dear Friend, — You will have heard, before this 
 reaches you, of a march stolen by the regulars into the 
 country by night, and of their expedition back again. 
 They retreated twenty miles in six hours. The gover- 
 nor had called the Assembly to propose Lord North's 
 pacific plan, but before the time of their meeting began 
 the cutting of throats. You know it was said he carried 
 the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other, 
 and it seems he chose to give them a taste of the sword 
 first." 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 205 
 
 To another correspondent he said that "the 
 feeble Americans, who pelted them all the way, 
 could scarcely keep up with " the rapidly retreat- 
 ing redcoats. But the occurrence of bloodshed 
 had an immense meaning for Franklin ; it opened 
 to his vision all the future: an irreconcilable 
 struggle, and finally independence, with a bitter 
 animosity long surviving. He could not address 
 all those who had once been near and dear to him 
 in England as he did the good Dr. Priestley. The 
 letter to Strahan of July 5, 1775, is famous : — 
 
 " Mr. Strahan, — You are a member of Parliament, 
 and one of that majority which has doomed my country 
 to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and 
 murder our people. Look upon your hands ; they are 
 stained with the blood of your relations ! You and I 
 were long friends ; you are now my enemy, and I am, 
 " Yours, B. Franklin." 
 
 But strained as his relations with Strahan were 
 for a while, it is agreeable to know that the es- 
 trangement between such old and close friends was 
 not everlasting. 
 
 To write at length concerning Franklin's ser- 
 vices during his brief stay at home would involve 
 giving a history of the whole affairs of the colo- 
 nies at this time. But space presses, and this 
 ground is familiar and has been traversed in other 
 volumes in this series. It seems sufficient, there- 
 fore, rather to enumerate than to narrate his vari- 
 ous engagements, and thus to reserve more room 
 for less well-known matters. 
 
206 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 On the very day after his return, when he had 
 scarce caught the breath of land, he was unani- 
 mously elected by the Assembly a delegate to the 
 Provincial Congress. It was an emergency when 
 the utmost must be made of time, brains, and 
 men. By subsequent reelections he continued to 
 sit in that body until his departure for France. 
 There was business enough before it : the organ- 
 ization of a government, of the army, of the 
 finances ; most difficult of all, the arrangement of 
 a national policy, and the harmonizing of conflict- 
 ing opinions among men of influence at home. In 
 all that came before the Congress Franklin was 
 obliged to take his full share. He seems to have 
 been upon all the busy and important committees. 
 There were more ardent spirits, greater propelling 
 forces, than he was; but his wisdom was tran- 
 scendent. Dickinson and his followers were bent 
 upon sending one more petition to the king, 
 a scheme which was ridiculed almost with anger 
 by the more advanced and resolute party. But 
 Franklin's counsel was to give way to their 
 wishes, as being the best policy for bringing them 
 later into full accord with the party which was for 
 war. He had no hopes of any other good result 
 from the proceeding; but it also chimed with his 
 desire to put the English as much as possible in 
 the wrong. In the like direction was a clause in 
 his draft of a declaration, intended to be issued 
 by Washington in the summer of 1775. To 
 counteract the charge that the colonies refused to 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 207 
 
 contribute to the cost of their own protection, 
 he proposed that, if Great Britain would abolish 
 her monopoly of the colonial trade, allowing free 
 commerce between the colonies and all the rest of 
 the world, they would pay into the English sink- 
 ing fund £100,000 annually for one hundred 
 years; which would be more than sufficient, if 
 "faithfully and inviolably applied for that pur- 
 pose, ... to extinguish all her present national 
 debt." 
 
 At the close of this document he administered a 
 telling fillip in his humorous style to that numer- 
 ous class who seek to control practical affairs by 
 sentiment, and who now would have had their 
 prattle about the "mother country" outweigh the 
 whole accumulation of her very unmaternal op- 
 pression and injustice. Concerning the allegation 
 of an unfilial ingratitude, he said: "There is 
 much more reason for retorting that charge on 
 Britain, who not only never contributes any aid, 
 nor affords, by an exclusive commerce, any ad- 
 vantages to Saxony, her mother country; but, no 
 longer since than the last war, without the least 
 provocation, subsidized the king of Prussia while 
 he ravaged that mother country, and carried fire 
 and sword into its capital. . . . An example we 
 hope no provocation will induce us to imitate." 
 Had this declaration ever been used, which it 
 was not, the dignity of the grave general who com- 
 manded the American forces would have com- 
 pelled him to cut off this closing snapper from 
 
208 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the lash, amusing as it was. The witty notion 
 had found a more appropriate place in the news- 
 paper article which had dumfounded the guests at 
 the English country house. Commenting upon 
 this, Mr. Parton well says: "Here perhaps we 
 have one of the reasons why Dr. Franklin, who 
 was universally confessed to be the ablest pen in 
 America, was not always asked to write the great 
 documents of the Revolution. He would have 
 put a joke into the Declaration of Independence, 
 if it had fallen to him to write it. . . . His jokes, 
 the circulating medium of Congress, were as help- 
 ful to the cause as Jay's conscience or Adams's 
 fire; . . . but they were out of place in formal, 
 exact, and authoritative papers." 1 
 
 A document which cost Dr. Franklin much 
 more labor than this declaration was a plan for a 
 union of the colonies, which he brought forward 
 July 21, 1115. It was the "first sketch of a plan 
 of confederation which is known to have been 
 presented to Congress." No final action was ever 
 taken upon it. It contained a provision that 
 Ireland, the West India Islands, the Canadian 
 possessions, and Florida might, upon application, 
 be received into the confederation. 
 
 Franklin's duties in Congress were ample to 
 consume his time and strength; but they were far 
 from being all that he had to do. Almost imme- 
 diately after his return he was made chairman of 
 a committee for organizing the postal service of 
 
 1 Life of Franklin, ii. 85. 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 209 
 
 the country. In execution of this duty he estab- 
 lished in substance that system which has ever 
 since prevailed; and he was then at once ap- 
 pointed postmaster-general, with a salary of 
 £1000 per annum. When franking letters he 
 amused himself by changing the formula, "Free: 
 B. Franklin" into "B. Free, Franklin." 
 
 He was next made chairman of the provincial 
 committee of safety, a body which began its sit- 
 tings at the comfortable, old-fashioned hour of six 
 o'clock in the morning. Its duty was to call out 
 and organize all the military resources of Penn- 
 sylvania, and generally to provide for the defenses 
 of the province. It worked with much efficiency 
 in its novel and difficult department. Among 
 other things, Franklin devised and constructed 
 some ingenious "marine chevaux de frise" for 
 closing the river approaches to Philadelphia. 
 
 In October, 1775, he was elected a member of 
 the Assembly of the Province. But this did not 
 add to his labors ; for the oath of allegiance had 
 not yet been dispensed with; he would not take 
 it, and resigned his seat. 
 
 In September, 1775, Franklin, Lynch of South 
 Carolina, and Harrison of Virginia, as a commit- 
 tee of Congress, were dispatched to Cambridge, 
 Massachusetts, to confer with Washington con- 
 cerning military affairs. They rode from Phila- 
 delphia to the leaguer around Boston in thirteen 
 days. Their business was achieved with no great 
 difficulty; but they lingered a few days more in 
 
210 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 that interesting camp, and were absent six weeks. 
 General Greene has recorded how he gazed upon 
 Franklin, "that very great man, with silent ad- 
 miration;" and Abigail Adams tells with what 
 interest she met him whom "from infancy she had 
 been taught to venerate," and how she read in his 
 grave countenance "patriotism in its full lustre" 
 and with it "blended every virtue of a Christian." 
 The phrase was not well chosen to fall from the 
 pen of Mrs. Adams, yet was literally true ; Frank- 
 lin had the virtues, though dissevered from the 
 tenets which that worthy Puritan dame conceived 
 essential to the make-up of a genuine Christian. 
 The time came when 'her husband would not have 
 let her speak thus in praise of Benjamin Franklin. 
 In the spring of 1776 Congress was inconsid- 
 erate enough to impose upon Franklin a journey 
 to Montreal, there to confer with General Arnold 
 concerning affairs in Canada. It was a severe, 
 even a cruel task to put upon a man of his age ; 
 but with his usual tranquil courage he accepted 
 the mission. He met the ice in the rivers, and 
 suffered much from fatigue and exposure ; indeed, 
 the carelessness of Congress was near depriving 
 the country of a life which could not have been 
 spared. On April 15 he wrote from Saratoga: 
 "I begin to apprehend that I have undertaken a 
 fatigue that 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;" and still the real 
 wilderness with all its hardships lay before him. 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 211 
 
 After he had traversed it he had the poor reward 
 of finding himself on a bootless errand. The 
 Canadian enterprise had no possible future save 
 failure and retreat. There was absolutely nothing 
 which he could do in Canada; he was being 
 wasted there, and resolved to get away as soon as 
 he could. Accordingly he made his painful way 
 homeward ; but worn out as he was, he was given 
 scant opportunity to recuperate from this perilous 
 and mistaken journey. The times called upon 
 every patriot to spend all he had of vigor, intel- 
 lect, money, life itself, for the common cause, and 
 Franklin was no niggard in the stress. 
 
 In the spring of 1776 the convention charged 
 to prepare a constitution for the independent 
 State of Pennsylvania was elected. Franklin was 
 a member, and when the convention came together 
 he was chosen to preside over its deliberations. 
 It sat from July 16 to September 28. The con- 
 stitution which it presented to the people estab- 
 lished a legislature of only one house, a feature 
 which Franklin approved and defended. At the 
 close of the deliberations thanks were unanimously 
 voted to him for his services as presiding officer, 
 and for his "able and disinterested advice." 
 
 Yet in spite of abundant acts, like this, of real 
 independence taking place upon all sides, profes- 
 sion of it inspired alarm in a large proportion of 
 the people. Congress even declared formally that 
 independence was not aimed at. Sam Adams, 
 disgusted, talked of forming a New England con- 
 
212 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 federacy, and Franklin approved the scheme and 
 said that in such an event he would cast in his lot 
 with the New Englanders. But the stream ran 
 on in spite of some snags in the current. It was 
 not much later that Franklin found himself one of 
 the committee of five elected by ballot to frame 
 a declaration of independence. Had he been called 
 upon to write the document he would certainly 
 have given something more terse and simple than 
 that rotund and magniloquent instrument which 
 Jefferson bequeathed to the unbounded admiration 
 of American posterity. As it was, Franklin's 
 recorded connection with the preparation of that 
 famous paper is confined to the amusing tale about 
 John Thompson, Hatter, wherewith he mitigated 
 the miseries of Jefferson during the debate; and 
 to his familiar bonmot in reply to Harrison's 
 appeal for unanimity: "Yes, we must indeed all 
 hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang 
 separately." With this rather grim jest upon his 
 lip, he set his signature to one of the greatest 
 documents in the world's history. 
 
 When it came to shaping the machinery of the 
 confederation, the great difficulty, as is well 
 known, lay in establishing a just proportion be- 
 tween the larger and the smaller States. Should 
 they have equal weight in voting, or not? It 
 was a question so vital and so hard to settle that 
 the confederacy narrowly survived the strain. 
 Franklin was decidedly in favor of making the 
 voting value proportionate to the size, measured 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 213 
 
 by population, of the several States. He said: 
 Let the smaller colonies give equal money and 
 men, and then let them have an equal vote. If 
 they have an equal vote without bearing equal 
 burdens, a confederation based on such iniquitous 
 principles will not last long. To set out with an 
 unequal representation is unreasonable. There is 
 no danger that the larger States will absorb the 
 smaller. The same apprehension was expressed 
 when Scotland was united to England. It was 
 then said that the whale had swallowed Jonah; 
 but Lord Bute's administration came in, and then 
 it was seen that Jonah had swallowed the whale. 
 That Scotch favorite was the provocation for many 
 witty sayings, but for none better than this. 
 
 In July, 1776, Lord Howe arrived, in command 
 of the English fleet. He immediately sought to 
 open a friendly correspondence with Franklin. He 
 had played a prominent part in those efforts at 
 conciliation which had come to naught just before 
 Franklin's departure from England; and he now 
 renewed his generous attempt to act as a media- 
 tor. There is no doubt that this nobleman, as 
 kindly as brave, would far rather have reconciled 
 the Americans than have fought them. By permis- 
 sion of Congress Franklin replied by a long letter, 
 not deficient in courtesy of language, but full of 
 argument upon the American side, and in a tone 
 which there was no misconceiving. Its closing 
 paragraph was : — 
 
 "I consider this war against us, therefore, as both 
 
214 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 unjust and unwise ; and I am persuaded that cool, dis- 
 passionate posterity will condemn to infamy those who 
 advised it, and that even success will not save from 
 some degree of dishonor those who voluntarily engaged 
 to conduct it. I know your great motive in coming 
 hither was the hope of being instrumental in a reconcili- 
 ation ; and I believe, when you find that impossible on 
 any terms given you to propose, you will relinquish so 
 odious a command, and return to a more honorable pri- 
 vate station." 
 
 If the Englishman had been hot-tempered, this 
 would probably have ended the correspondence; 
 as it was, he only delayed for a while before 
 writing civilly again. The battle of Long Island 
 next occurred, and Lord Howe fancied that that 
 disaster might bring the Americans to their 
 senses. He paroled General Sullivan, and by him 
 sent a message to Congress : That he and his bro- 
 ther had full powers to arrange an accommoda- 
 tion; that they could not at present treat with 
 Congress as such, but would like to confer with 
 some of its members as private gentlemen. After 
 a long debate it was resolved to send a committee 
 of Congress to meet the admiral and the general, 
 and Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rut- 
 ledge were deputed. Lord Howe received them 
 with much courtesy, and gave them a lunch before 
 proceeding to business. But when luncheon was 
 over and the substance of the errand was reached, 
 it was very shortly disposed of. His lordship 
 opened with a speech of elaborate civility, and 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 215 
 
 concluded by saying that he felt for America as 
 for a brother, and if America should fall he 
 should feel and lament it like the loss of a bro- 
 ther. Franklin replied: "My lord, we will use 
 our utmost endeavors to save your lordship that 
 mortification." But Lord Howe did not relish 
 this Yankee wit. He continued by a long, ex- 
 planatory, conciliatory address. At its close 
 there was necessarily brought up the question of 
 the character in which the envoys came. His 
 lordship thought that the idea of Congress might 
 "easily be thrown out at present." Franklin 
 adroitly settled it: "Your lordship may consider 
 us in any view you think proper. We on our 
 part are at liberty to consider ourselves in our 
 real character. But there is really no necessity 
 on this occasion to distinguish between members 
 of Congress and individuals. The conversation 
 may be held as among friends." Mr. Adams 
 made one of those blunt and pugnacious remarks 
 which, whenever addressed to Englishmen, are 
 sure to endear the speaker to the American 
 nation. Mr. Rutledge laid over it the courtesy 
 of a gentleman ; and then the conference came to 
 the point. 
 
 Lord Howe expressed his majesty's earnest 
 desire for a permanent peace and for the happi- 
 ness of his American subjects, his willingness for 
 a reform and for a redress of grievances. But he 
 admitted that the Declaration of Independence 
 was an awkward obstacle. He asked: "Is there 
 
216 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 no way of treating back of this step of independ- 
 ency?" Franklin replied at some length, 'dos- 
 ing with the words : " Forces have been sent out, 
 and towns have been burnt. We cannot now 
 expect happiness under the domination of Great 
 Britain. All former attachments are obliterated. 
 America cannot return to the domination of 
 Great Britain, and I imagine that Great Britain 
 means to rest it upon force." Adams said : "It 
 is not in our power to treat otherwise than as in- 
 dependent States; and for my own part, I avow 
 my determination never to depart from the idea 
 of independency." Rutledge said: "With regard 
 to the people consenting to come again under the 
 English government, it is impossible. I can 
 answer for South Carolina." Lord Howe re- 
 plied: "If such are your sentiments, I can only 
 regret that it is not in my power to bring about 
 the accommodation I wish." Thus the fruitless- 
 ness of such efforts was made manifest; of all 
 concerned, it is probable that the most amiable of 
 Englishmen was the only one who was disap- 
 pointed at the result. The Americans were by 
 no means displeased at having another and con- 
 clusive proof to convince the doubting ones that 
 reconciliation was an impossibility. 
 
 Franklin's language was expressive of the way 
 in which his mind had worked. Until it came to 
 the "cutting of throats," he had never altogether 
 and avowedly given up hopes that, from the reser- 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 217 
 
 voir of unknown things in the future, something 
 might in time come forth that would bring about 
 a reasonable accommodation. But the first blood- 
 shed effected a change in his feelings as irrevo- 
 cable as that which Hawthorne so subtly repre- 
 sents as having been worked in the nature of 
 Donatello by a violent taking of life. " Bunker's 
 Hill" excited him; the sack of Falmouth affected 
 him with terrible intensity. When the foolish 
 petition of the Dickinson party was sent to Eng- 
 land, he wrote to Dr. Priestley that the colonies 
 had given Britain one more chance of recovering 
 their friendship, "which, however, I think she has 
 not sense enough to embrace; and so I conclude 
 she has lost them forever. She has begun to burn 
 our seaport towns, secure, I suppose, that we shall 
 never be able to return the outrage in kind. . . . 
 If she wishes to have us subjects . . . she is now 
 giving us such miserable specimens of her govern- 
 ment that we shall ever detest and avoid it, as a 
 combination of robbery, murder, famine, fire, and 
 pestilence." His humor could not be altogether 
 repressed, but there were sternness and bitterness 
 underlying it: "Tell our dear, good friend, Dr. 
 Price, who sometimes has his doubts and despond- 
 encies about our firmness, that America is deter- 
 mined and unanimous; a very few Tories and 
 placemen excepted, who will probably soon export 
 themselves. Britain, at the expense of three mil- 
 lions, has killed one hundred and fifty Yankees, 
 
*N 
 
 218 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 this campaign, which is twenty thousand pounds 
 ahead; and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile 
 of ground, half of which she lost again by our 
 taking post at Ploughed Hill. During the same 
 time 60,000 children have been born in America. 
 From these data his mathematical head will easily 
 calculate the time and expense necessary to kill us 
 all, and conquer our whole territory." It was 
 a comical way of expressing the real truth that 
 Britain neither would nor could give enough 
 either of men, or money, or time to accomplish 
 the task she had undertaken. To another he 
 wrote : " We hear that more ships and troops are 
 coming out. We know that you may do us a 
 great deal of mischief, and are determined to bear 
 it patiently as long as we can. But if you flat- 
 ter yourselves with beating us into submission, 
 you know neither the people nor the country." 
 Other men wrote ardent words and indulged in 
 the rhetorical extravagance of intense excitement 
 in those days; Franklin sometimes cloaked the 
 intensity of his feeling in humor, at other times 
 spoke with a grave and self-contained moderation 
 which was within rather than without the facts 
 and the truth. Everything which he said was 
 true with precision to the letter. But his careful 
 statement and measured profession indicate rather 
 than belie the earnestness of his feeling, the 
 strength of his conviction, and the fixedness of 
 his resolution. 
 
SERVICES IN THE STATES 219 
 
 Thus briefly must be dismissed the extensive 
 and important toil of eighteen months, probably 
 the busiest of Franklin's long and busy life. In 
 September, 1776, he was elected envoy to France, 
 and scant space is left for narrating the events of 
 that interesting emoassage. 
 
CHAPTER TX 
 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE, I 
 DEANE AND BEAUMARCHAIS : FOREIGN OFFICERS 
 
 It is difficult to pass a satisfactory judgment 
 upon the diplomacy of the American Revolution. 
 If one takes its history in detail, it presents a dis- 
 agreeable picture of importunate knocking at the 
 closed doors of foreign courts, of incessant and 
 almost shameless begging for money and for any 
 and every kind of assets that could be made use- 
 ful in war, of public bickering and private slan- 
 dering among the envoys and. agents themselves. 
 If, on the other hand, its achievements are con- 
 sidered, it appears crowned with the distinction 
 of substantial, repeated, sometimes brilliant suc- 
 cesses. A like contrast is found in its personnel. 
 Between Franklin and Arthur Lee a distance 
 opens like that between the poles, in which stand 
 such men as Jay and Adams near the one extreme, 
 Izard, William Lee, and Thomas Morris near the 
 other, with Deane, Laurens, Carmichael, Jona- 
 than Williams, and a few more in the middle 
 ground. Yet what could have been reasonably 
 expected? Franklin had had some dealings with 
 English statesmen upon what may be called inter- 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 221 
 
 national business, and had justly regarded himself 
 in the light of a quasi foreign minister. But 
 with this exception not one man in all the colonies 
 had had the slightest experience in diplomatic 
 affairs, or any personal knowledge of the require- 
 ments of a diplomatic office, or any opportunity to 
 gain any ideas on the subject beyond such as a 
 well-educated man could glean from reading the 
 scant historical literature which existed in those 
 days. It was difficult also for Congress to know 
 how to judge and discriminate concerning the 
 material which it found at its disposal. There 
 had been nothing in the careers of the prominent 
 patriots to indicate whether or not any especial 
 one among them had a natural aptitude for di- 
 plomacy. The selection must be made with little 
 knowledge of the duties of the position, and with 
 no knowledge of the responsive characteristics of 
 the man. It was only natural that many of the 
 appointments thus blindly made should turn out 
 ill. After they were made, and the appointees 
 had successfully crossed the ocean through the 
 dangerous gauntlet of the English cruisers, there 
 arose to be answered in Europe the embarrassing 
 question: What these self-styled representatives 
 represented. Was it a nation, or only a parcel of 
 rebels? Here was an unusual and vexatious pro- 
 blem, concerning which most of the cautious royal 
 governments were in no hurry to commit them- 
 selves; and their reticence added greatly to the 
 perplexities of the fledgling diplomats. Nearly 
 
222 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 all cabinets felt it a great temptation to assist the 
 colonies of the domineering mistress of the seas to 
 change themselves from her dependencies into her 
 naval rivals. But the attempt and not the deed 
 might prove confounding; neither could a wise 
 monarch assume with entire complacency the posi- 
 tion of an aider and an abettor of a rebellion on 
 the part of subjects whose grievances appeared 
 chiefly an antipathy to taxation. 
 
 From the earliest moment France had been 
 hopefully regarded by the colonists as probably 
 their friend and possibly their ally. To France, 
 therefore, the first American envoy was dispatched 
 with promptitude, even before there was a decla- 
 ration of independence or an assumption of na- 
 tionality. Silas Deane was the man selected. 
 He was the true Yankee jack-at-all-trades ; he 
 had been graduated at Yale College, then taught 
 school, then practiced law, then engaged in trade, 
 had been all the while advancing in prosperity 
 and reputation, had been a member of the First 
 and Second Congresses, had failed of reelection to 
 the Third, and was now without employment. Mr. 
 Parton describes him as "of somewhat striking 
 manners and good appearance, accustomed to live 
 and entertain in liberal style, and fond of showy 
 equipage and appointment." Perhaps his simple- 
 minded fellow countrymen of the provinces fan- 
 cied that such a man would make an imposing 
 figure at an European court. He developed no 
 other peculiar fitness for his position ; he could not 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 223 
 
 even speak French ; and it proved an ill hour for 
 himself in which he received this trying and diffi- 
 cult honor. By dint of native shrewdness, good 
 luck, and falling among friends he made a fair 
 beginning ; but soon he floundered beyond his 
 depth, committed some vexatious blunders, and 
 in the course of conducting some important busi- 
 ness at last found himself in a position where he 
 had really done right but appeared to have done 
 wrong, without being free to explain the truth. 
 The result was that he was recalled upon a pre- 
 text which poorly concealed his disgrace, that he 
 found even his reputation for financial honesty 
 clouded, and that his prospects for the future 
 were of the worst. He was not a man of suffi- 
 cient mental calibre or moral strength to endure 
 his unmerited sufferings with constancy. After 
 prolonged disappointments in his attempts to set 
 himself right in the opinion of the country, he 
 became embittered, lost all judgment and patriot- 
 ism, turned a renegade to the cause of America, 
 which had wronged him indeed, but rather in 
 ignorance than from malice, and died unrecon- 
 ciled, a broken and miserable exile. Such were 
 the perils of the diplomatic service of the colonies 
 in those days. 
 
 Deane arrived in France in June, 1776. He 
 had with him a little ready money for his imme- 
 diate personal expenses, and some letters of intro- 
 duction from Franklin. It was intended to keep 
 him supplied with money by sending cargoes of 
 
224 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 tobacco, rice, and indigo consigned to him, the 
 proceeds of which would be at his disposal for the 
 public service. He was instructed to seek an 
 interview with de Vergennes, the French minis- 
 ter for foreign affairs, and to endeavor with all 
 possible prudence and delicacy to find out what 
 signs of promise the disposition of the French gov- 
 ernment really held for the insurgents. He was 
 also to ask for equipment for 25,000 troops, am- 
 munition, and 200 pieces of field artillery, all 
 to be paid for — when Congress should be able! 
 In France he was to keep his mission cloaked in 
 secure secrecy, appearing simply as a merchant 
 conducting his own affairs; and he was to write 
 home common business letters under the very 
 harmless and unsuggestive name of Timothy 
 Jones, adding the real dispatch in invisible ink. 
 But these commonplace precautions were ren- 
 dered of no avail through the treachery of Dr. 
 Edward Bancroft, an American resident abroad, 
 who had the confidence of Congress, but who 
 "accepted the post of a paid American spy, to 
 prepare himself for the more lucrative office of a 
 double spy for the British ministers." l Deane, 
 going somewhat beyond his instructions to corre- 
 spond with Bancroft, told him everything. Ban- 
 croft is supposed to have passed the information 
 along to the British ministry, and thus enabled 
 them to interpose serious hindrances in the way 
 of the ingenious devices of the Frenchmen. 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. vs.. 63. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 225 
 
 Before the arrival of Deane the interests of the 
 colonies had been already taken in hand and sub- 
 stantially advanced in France by one of the most 
 extraordinary characters in history. Caron de \ 
 Beaumarchais was a man whom no race save the 
 French could produce, and whose traits, career, 
 and success lie hopelessly beyond the comprehen- 
 sion of the Anglo-Saxon. Bred a watchmaker, 
 he had the skill, when a mere youth, to invent a 
 clever escapement balance for regulating watches ; 
 had he been able to insert it into his own brain he 
 might have held more securely his elusive good 
 fortunes. From being an ingenious inventor he 
 became an adventurer general, watchmaker to the 
 king, the king's mistresses, and the king's daugh- 
 ters, the lover, or rather the beloved, of the wife 
 of the controller of the king's kitchen, then him- 
 self the controller, thence a courtier, and a favor- 
 ite of the royal princesses. Through a clever use 
 of his opportunities he was able to do a great 
 favor to a rich banker, who in return gave him 
 chances to amass a fortune, and lent him money 
 to buy a patent of nobility. This connection 
 ended in litigation, which was near ruining him; 
 but he discovered corruption on the part of the 
 judge, and thereupon wrote his Memorials, of 
 which the wit, keenness, and vivacity made him 
 famous. He then rendered a private, personal, 
 and important service to Louis XV., and soon 
 afterwards another to the young Louis XVI. 
 His capacity for secret usefulness gave him fur- 
 
226 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ther occupation and carried him much to London. 
 There he wrote the "Barber of Seville," and there 
 also he fell in with Arthur Lee and became indoc- 
 trinated with grand notions of the resources and 
 value of the colonies, and of the ruin which their 
 separation must inflict upon England. Further- 
 more, as a Frenchman he naturally consorted with 
 members of the opposition party who took views 
 very favorable to America. With such corrobo- 
 ration of Lee's statements, Beaumarchais, never 
 moderate in any sentiment, leaped to the conclu- 
 sion that the colonies "must be invincible," and 
 that England was "upon the brink of ruin, if her 
 neighbors and rivals were but in a state to think 
 seriously of it." At once the lively and ambi- 
 tious fancy of the impetuous Frenchman spread 
 an extravagant panorama of the possibilities thus 
 opened to England's "natural enemy." He be- 
 came frenzied in the American cause. In long 
 and ardent letters he opened upon King Louis 
 and his ministers a rattling fire of arguments 
 sound and unsound, statements true and untrue, 
 inducements reasonable and unreasonable, fore- 
 castings probable and improbable, policies wise 
 and unwise, all designed to show that it was the 
 bounden duty of France to adopt the colonial 
 cause. The king, with no very able brain at any 
 time, was very young and wholly inexperienced. 
 He gazed bewildered at the brilliant pageantry of 
 Beaumarchais 's wonderful and audacious statecraft, 
 and sensibly sought the advice of his ministers. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 227 
 
 De Vergennes set out his views, in agreement 
 with Beaumarchais. He declared that France 
 now had her opportunity to reduce her dangerous 
 rival to the place of a second-rate power. To 
 this end it was desirable that the rebellion should 
 endure at least one year. The sufferings of the 
 colonists in that period would so embitter them 
 that, even if they should finally be subdued, they 
 would ever remain a restless, dangerous thorn in 
 the side of England, a bond with a heavy penalty 
 effectually binding her to keep the peace. To 
 make sure that neither side should move for peace 
 before this one valuable year of warfare should 
 have been secured, it was the policy of France to 
 maintain a pacific front towards Great Britain, 
 thus relieving her from any fear that the colonies 
 would obtain a French alliance, but clandestinely 
 to furnish the insurgents with munitions of war 
 and money sufficient to enable and encourage 
 them to hold out. 
 
 The wise Turgot, in a state paper marked by 
 great ability, opposed French intervention, and 
 proved his case. Colonial independence was sure 
 to come, a little sooner or later. Yet the reduc- 
 tion of the colonies would be the best possible 
 assurance that England would not break the peace 
 with France, since the colonists, being mutinous 
 and discontented, would give her concern enough. 
 On the other hand, should England fail, as he 
 anticipated that she would, in this war, she would 
 hardly emerge from it in condition to undertake 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
228 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 another with France. As for the colonies them- 
 selves, should they win, the character of the 
 Americans gave augury of their wishing a solid 
 government and therefore cultivating peace. He 
 uttered an admirable dissertation upon the rela- 
 tions between colonies and a parent country, and 
 upon the value of colonies in its bearing upon 
 the present question. In conclusion he gravely 
 referred to the alarming deficit in the French ex- 
 chequer as the strongest of all arguments against 
 incurring the heavy charge of a war not absolutely 
 unavoidable. "For a necessary war resources 
 could be found; but war ought to be shunned as 
 the greatest of misfortunes, since it would render 
 impossible, perhaps forever, a reform absolutely 
 necessary to the prosperity of the state and the 
 solace of the people." The king, to whom these 
 wise words were addressed, lived to receive terri- 
 ble proof of their truth. 
 
 This good advice fell in well with the bent oi 
 Louis's mind. For, though no statesman, he had 
 in this matter a sound instinct that an absolute 
 monarch aiding rebels to erect a free republic was 
 an anomaly, and a hazardous contradiction in the 
 natural order of things. But de Vergennes was 
 the coming man in France, and Turgot no longer 
 had the influence or the popularity to which his 
 ability entitled him. In May, 1776, on an ill day 
 for the French monarchy, but a fair one for the 
 American provinces, this able statesman was 
 ousted from the cabinet. De Vergennes remained 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 229 
 
 to wield entire control of the policy of the king- 
 dom in this business, and his triumph was the 
 great good fortune of the colonies. Yet his de- 
 sign was sufficiently cautious, and strictly limited 
 to the advantage of his own country. France 
 was not to be compromised, and an ingenious 
 scheme was arranged. 
 
 The firm of Roderigue Hortalez & Co. made 
 sudden appearance in Paris. Beaumarchais alone 
 conducted its affairs, the most extraordinary 
 merchant surely who ever engaged in extensive 
 commerce! The capital was secretly furnished 
 by the Spanish and French governments; about 
 §400,000 the firm had to start with, and later the 
 French government contributed $200,000 more. 
 De Vergennes was explicit in his language to 
 Beaumarchais: to Englishmen and Americans 
 alike the affair must be an "individual specula- 
 tion." With the capital given him Beaumarchais 
 must "found a great commercial establishment," 
 and "at his own risk and peril" sell to the colo- 
 nies military supplies. These would be sold to 
 him from the French arsenals ; but he " must pay 
 for them." From the colonies he must "ask 
 return in their staple products." Except that 
 his silent partners might be lenient in demanding 
 repayment Beaumarchais really was to be a mer- 
 chant, engaged in an exceptionally hazardous 
 trade. If he regarded himself in any other light 
 he was soon painfully undeceived; for de Ver- 
 gennes was in earnest. But for the immediate 
 
230 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 present, upon the moment when he had arranged 
 these preliminaries, doubtless fancying the gov- 
 ernment at his back, this most energetic of men 
 plunged into his work with all the ardor of his 
 excitable nature. He flew hither and thither ; got 
 arms and munitions from the government; bought 
 and loaded ships, and was soon conducting an 
 enormous business. 
 
 But it was by no means all smooth sailing for 
 the vessels of Hortalez & Co. ; for Deane arrived, 
 not altogether opportunely, just as Beaumarchais 
 was getting well under weigh. The two were 
 soon brought together, and Deane was told all 
 that was going on, save only the original connec- 
 tion of the French government, which it seems 
 that he never knew. He in turn told all to Dr. 
 Bancroft, and so unwittingly to the English gov- 
 ernment. Thereupon the watchful English cruis- 
 ers effectually locked up the ships of Hortalez 
 in the French harbors. Also Lord Stormont, 
 the English ambassador, harassed the French gov- 
 ernment with ceaseless representations and com- 
 plaints concerning these betrayed shipments of 
 contraband cargoes. At the same time the news 
 from America, coming chiefly through English 
 channels, took on a very gloomy coloring, and 
 lent a certain emphasis, to these protests of the 
 English minister. De Vergennes felt compelled 
 to play out his neutral part even more in earnest 
 than had been intended. He sent to the ports at 
 which Hortalez & Co. had ships very stringent 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 231 
 
 instructions to check unlawful trade, and the offi- 
 cials obeyed in good faith to the letter. Beau- 
 marchais was seriously embarrassed at finding 
 himself bearing in fact the mercantile character 
 which he had supposed that he was only dramati- 
 cally assuming. He had to load his cargoes and 
 clear his ships as best he could, precisely like any 
 ordinary dealer in contraband wares; there was 
 no favoritism, no winking at his breaches of the 
 law. The result was that it was a long while 
 before he got any arms, ammunition, and clothing 
 into an American port. Moreover, the ships from 
 America which were to have brought him pay- 
 ment in the shape of tobacco and other American 
 commodities failed to arrive; his royal copartners 
 declined to make further advances; the ready 
 money was gone, credit had been strained to the 
 breaking point, and a real bankruptcy impended 
 over the sham firm. Thus in the autumn and 
 early winter of 1776 prospects in France wore no 
 cheerful aspect for the colonies. It was at this 
 juncture that Franklin arrived, and he came like 
 a reviving breeze from the sea. 
 
 Long and anxiously did Congress wait to get 
 news from France; not many trustworthy ships 
 were sent on so perilous a voyage, and of those 
 that ventured it only a few got across an ocean 
 "porcupined " with English warships. At last 
 in September, 1776, Franklin received from Dr. 
 Dubourg of Paris, a gentleman with whom his 
 friendship dated back to his French trip in 1767, 
 
232 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 a long and cheering letter full of gratifying intel- 
 ligence concerning the disposition of the court, 
 and throwing out a number of such suggestions 
 that the mere reading them was a stimulus to 
 action. Congress was not backward to respond; 
 it resolved at once to send a formal embassage. 
 Franklin was chosen unanimously by the first bal- 
 lot. "I am old and good for nothing," he whis- 
 pered to Dr. Kush, " 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.'" 1 
 Thomas Jefferson and Deane were elected as col- 
 leagues; but Jefferson declined the service and 
 Arthur Lee was put in his stead. The Reprisal, 
 sloop of war, of sixteen guns, took Dr. Franklin 
 and his grandson on board for the dangerous 
 voyage. It was a very different risk from that 
 which Messrs. Slidell and Mason took nearly a 
 century later. They embarked on a British mail 
 steamship, and were subject, as was proved, only 
 to the ordinary perils of navigation. But had 
 Franklin been caught in this little rebel craft, 
 which had actually been captured from English 
 owners and condemned as prize by rebel tribu- 
 nals, and which now added the aggravating cir- 
 cumstance that she carried an armament sufficient 
 to destroy a merchantman but not to encoun- 
 ter a frigate, he would have had before him at 
 best a long imprisonment, at worst a trial for 
 high treason and a halter. Horace Walpole 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 166. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 233 
 
 gave the news that "Dr. Franklin, at the age of 
 seventy-two or seventy-four, and at the risk of his 
 head, had bravely embarked on board an Ameri- 
 can frigate." Several times he must have con- 
 templated these pleasing prospects, for several 
 times the small sloop was chased by English cruis- 
 ers; but she was a swift sailer and escaped them 
 all. Just before making port she captured two 
 English brigs and carried them in as prizes. 
 
 The reference to Slid ell and Mason, by the 
 way, calls to mind the humorous but accurate 
 manner in which Franklin described the differ- 
 ence between revolution and rebellion. Soon 
 after landing from this hazardous voyage he wrote 
 merrily to a lady friend: "You are too early, 
 hussy, as well as too saucy, in calling me a rebel. 
 You should wait for the event, which will deter- 
 mine whether it is a rebellion or only a revolution. 
 Here the ladies are more civil; they call us les in- 
 surgens, a character which usually pleases them." 
 
 The voyage, though quick, was very rough, and 
 Franklin, confined in a small cabin and "poorly 
 nourished," since much of the meat was too tough 
 for his old teeth, had a hard time of it; so that 
 upon coming on shore he found himself "much 
 fatigued and weakened," indeed, "almost demol- 
 ished." He therefore rested several days at 
 Nantes before going to Paris, where he arrived 
 just before the close of the year. 
 
 The excitement which his arrival in the French 
 capital created was unmistakable evidence of the 
 
234 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 estimate set by Europe upon his abilities. Some 
 persons in England endeavored to give to his voy- 
 age the color of a desertion from a cause of which 
 
 he despaired. " The arch , Dr. Franklin, has 
 
 lately eloped under a cloak of plenipotentiary to 
 Versailles," wrote Sir Grey Cooper. But Ed- 
 mund Burke refused to believe that the man 
 whom he had seen examined before the privy 
 council was "going to conclude a long life, which 
 has brightened every hour it has continued, with 
 so foul and dishonorable a flight." Lord Rock- 
 ingham said that the presence of Franklin in 
 Paris much more than offset the victory of the 
 English on Long Island, and their capture of New 
 York. Lord Stormont, it is said, threatened to 
 leave sans prendre conge, if the "chief of the 
 American rebels " were allowed to come to Paris. 
 The adroit de Vergennes replied that the govern- 
 ment had already dispatched a courier to direct 
 Franklin to remain at Nantes; but since they 
 knew neither the time of his departure nor his 
 route, the message might not reach him. Should 
 he thus innocently arrive in Paris it would be 
 scandalous, inhospitable, and contrary to the laws 
 of nations to send him away. 1 
 
 But while the English were angry, the French 
 indulged in a furore of welcome. They made 
 feasts and hailed the American as the friend of 
 human kind, as the "ideal of a patriarchal repub- 
 lic and of idyllic simplicity," as a sage of anti- 
 
 1 Hale's Franklin in France, i. 73. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 235 
 
 quity; and the exuberant classicism of the nation 
 exhausted itself in glorifying him by comparisons 
 with those great names of Greece and Rome which 
 have become symbols for all private and public 
 virtues. They admired him because he did not 
 wear a wig ; they lauded his spectacles ; they were 
 overcome with enthusiasm as they contemplated 
 his great cap of martin fur, his scrupulously white 
 linen, and the quaint simplicity of his brown 
 Quaker raiment of colonial make. They noted 
 with amazement that his "only defense" was a 
 "walking-stick in his hand." The print-shops 
 were soon full of countless representations of his 
 noble face and venerable figure, set off by all 
 these pleasing adjuncts. The people thronged the 
 streets to see him pass, and respectfully made way 
 for him. He seemed, as John Adams said later, 
 to enjoy a reputation "more universal than that of 
 Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire." 
 
 So soon as all this uproar gave him time to look 
 about him, he established himself at Passy, in a 
 part of the Hotel de Valentinois, which was kindly 
 placed at his disposal by its owner, M. Ray de 
 Chaumont. In this at that time retired suburb 
 he hoped to be able to keep the inevitable but use- 
 less interruptions within endurable limits. Not 
 improbably also he was further influenced, in ac- 
 cepting M. Chaumont 's hospitality, by a motive 
 of diplomatic prudence. His shrewdness and 
 experience must soon have shown him that his 
 presence in Paris, if not precisely distasteful to 
 
236 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the French government, must at least in some 
 degree compromise it, and might by any indiscre- 
 tion on his part easily be made to annoy and vex 
 the ministers. It therefore behooved him to make 
 himself as little as possible conspicuous in any 
 official or public way. A rebuke, a cold recep- 
 tion, might do serious harm; nor was it politic 
 to bring perplexities to those whose friendship he 
 sought. He could not avoid, nor had he any 
 reason to do so, the social eclat with which he 
 was greeted; but he must shun the ostentation of 
 any relationship with men in office. This would 
 be more easily accomplished by living in a quarter 
 somewhat remote and suburban. His retirement, 
 therefore, while little curtailing his intercourse with 
 private society, evinced his good tact, and doubt- 
 less helped his good standing with the ministers. 
 The police record reports that, if he saw them at 
 all, it was secretly and under cover of night. He 
 lived in comfortable style, but not showily, keep- 
 ing a moderate retinue of servants for appearance 
 as much as for use, and a carriage, which was 
 indispensable to him. John Adams charged him 
 with undue luxury and extravagance, but the ac- 
 cusation was ridiculous. 
 
 Very exacting did the business of the American 
 envoys soon become. On December 23, 1776, 
 they wrote to acquaint the Count de Vergennes 
 that they were "appointed and fully empowered 
 by the Congress of the United States of America 
 to propose and negotiate a treaty of amity and 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 237 
 
 commerce between France and the United 
 States;" and they requested an audience for the 
 purpose of presenting their credentials to his 
 excellency. Five days later the audience was 
 given them. They explained the desire of the 
 American colonies to enter into a treaty of alli- 
 ance and of commerce. They said that the colo- 
 nists were anxious to get their ships, now lying 
 at the home wharves laden with tobacco and other 
 products, out of the American harbors, and to 
 give them a chance to run for France. But the 
 English vessels hovered thick up and down the 
 coasts, and the Americans, though able to take 
 care of frigates, could not encounter ships of the 
 line. Would not France lend eight ships of the 
 line, equipped and manned, to let loose all this 
 blockaded commerce which was ready to seek her 
 ports and to fill the coffers of her merchants? 
 Under all the circumstances this was certainly 
 asking too much ; and in due time the envoys were 
 courteously told so, but were also offered a strictly 
 secret loan of $400,000, to be repaid after the 
 war, without interest. 
 
 It appears that Franklin had substantially no 
 concern in the quasi commercial transactions pend- 
 ing at the time of his arrival between Deane and 
 Beaumarchais. Deane himself did not know and 
 could not disclose the details of the relationship 
 between Beaumarchais and the government, which 
 indeed were not explored and made public until 
 more than half a century had elapsed after their 
 
238 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 occurrence. Therefore Franklin saw nothing more 
 than mercantile dealings in various stages of for- 
 wardness, whose extensive intricacies it did not 
 seem worth while for him to unravel at a cost of 
 much time and labor, which could be better ex- 
 pended in other occupations. 1 Deane held all the 
 threads, and it seemed natural and proper to 
 leave this business as his department. So Frank- 
 lin never had more than a general knowledge 
 concerning this imbroglio. 
 
 This leaving all to Deane might have been well 
 enough had not Deane had an implacable enemy 
 in Arthur Lee, who, for that matter, resembled 
 the devil in at least one particular, inasmuch as 
 he was the foe of all mankind. Beaumarchais 
 early in the proceedings had summarily dropped 
 Lee from his confidence and instated Deane in 
 the vacancy. This was sufficient to set Lee at 
 once at traducing, an art in which long experience 
 had cultivated natural aptitude. He saw great 
 sums of money being used, and he was not told 
 whence they came. But he guessed, and upon his 
 guess he built up a theory of financial knavery. 
 Deane had repeatedly assured Beaumarchais that 
 he should receive the cargoes of American produce 
 with promptitude, 2 and he did his best to make 
 these promises good, writing urgent letters to 
 Congress to hasten forward the colonial merchan- 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vi. 199, 205 ; viii. 153, 183 ; Hale's Frank- 
 lin in France, i. 53. 
 
 2 Hale's Franklin in France, i. 45. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 239 
 
 dise. But Arthur Lee mischievously and mali- 
 ciously blocked these perfectly straightforward and 
 absolutely necessary arrangements. For he had 
 conceived the notion that Beaumarchais was an 
 agent of the French court, that the supplies were 
 free gifts from the French government, and that 
 any payments for them to Hortalez & Co. would 
 only go to fill the rascal purses of Deane and 
 Beaumarchais, confederates in a scheme for swin- 
 dling. He had no particle of evidence to sustain 
 this notion, which was simply the subtle concep- 
 tion of his own bad mind ; but he was not the less 
 positive and persistent in asserting it in his letters 
 to members of Congress. Such accounts sadly 
 puzzled that body; and it may be imagined to 
 what a further hopeless degree of bewilderment 
 this gathering of American lawyers and trades- 
 men, planters and farmers, must have been reduced 
 by the extraordinary letters of the wild and fanci- 
 ful Beaumarchais. The natural consequence was 
 that the easier course was pursued, and no mer- 
 chandise was sent to Hortalez. If affairs had 
 not soon taken a new turn in France this error 
 might have had disastrous consequences for the 
 colonies. In fact, it only ruined poor Deane. 
 
 After this unfortunate man had been recalled, 
 and while he was in great affliction at home be- 
 cause he could not get his reputation cleared from 
 these Lee slanders, being utterly unable in 
 America to produce even such accounts and evi- 
 dence as might have been had in France, Franklin 
 
240 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 more than once volunteered to express kindly and 
 emphatically his entire belief in Deane 's integrity. 
 So late as October, 1779, though admitting his 
 lack of knowledge concerning an affair in which 
 he had "never meddled," he still thought Deane 
 "innocent." Finally in 1782, when Deane had 
 become thoroughly demoralized by his hard fate, 
 Franklin spoke of his fall not without a note of 
 sympathy: "He resides at Ghent, is distressed 
 both in mind and circumstances, raves and writes 
 abundance, and I imagine it will end in his going 
 over to join his friend Arnold in England. I had 
 an exceedingly good opinion of him when he acted 
 with me, and I believe he was then sincere and 
 hearty in our cause. But he is changed, and his 
 character ruined in his own country and in this, 
 so that I see no other but England to which he 
 can now retire. He says we owe him about 
 £12,000 sterling." 1 But of this Franklin knew 
 nothing, and proposed getting experts to examine 
 the accounts. He did know very well, however, 
 what it was to be accused by Arthur Lee, and 
 would condemn no man upon that basis ! 
 
 Yet the matter annoyed him greatly. On June 
 12, 1781, he wrote acknowledging that he was 
 absolutely in the dark about the whole business : — 
 
 " In 1776, being then in Congress, I received a letter 
 
 1 See also letter to Morris, March 30, 1782, Works, vii. 419 ; 
 also viii. 225. In 1835 sufficient evidence was discovered to in- 
 duce Congress to pay to the heirs of this unfortunate man a part 
 of the sum due to him. Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 362. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 241 
 
 from Mr. Lee, acquainting me that M. Beaumarchais 
 had applied to him in London, informing him that 
 200,000 guineas had been put into his hands, and was at 
 the disposal of the Congress ; Mr. Lee added that it was 
 agreed between them that he, M. Beaumarchais, should 
 remit the same in arms, ammunition, etc., under the 
 name of Hortalez & Co. Several cargoes were accord- 
 ingly sent. Mr. Lee understood this to be a private aid 
 from the government of France ; but M. Beaumarchais 
 has since demanded from Congress payment of a gross 
 sum, as due to him, and has received a considerable part, 
 but has rendered no particular account. I have, by 
 order of Congress, desired him to produce his account, 
 that we might know exactly what we owed, and for 
 what ; and he has several times promised it, but has not 
 yet done it ; and in his conversation he often mentions, 
 as I am told, that we are greatly in his debt. These 
 accounts in the air are unpleasant, and one is neither 
 safe nor easy under them. I wish, therefore, you could 
 help me to obtain a settlement of them. It has been said 
 that Mr. Deane, unknown to his colleagues, wrote to Con- 
 gress in favor of M. Beaumarchais's demand ; on which 
 Mr. Lee accuses him of having, to the prejudice of his 
 constituents, negotiated a gift into a debt. At present 
 all that transaction is in darkness ; 1 and we know not 
 whether the whole, or a part, or no part, of the supplies 
 he furnished were at the expense of government, the 
 reports we have had being so inconsistent and contradic- 
 tory ; nor, if we are in debt for them, or any part of 
 
 1 Light was first let in upon this darkness by Louis de Lo- 
 m^nie, in his Beaumarchais et Son Temps ; and the story as told 
 by him may t»e read, in a spirited version, in Parton's Life of 
 Franklin, chapters vii. 3 viii. 
 
242 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 them, whether it is the king or M. de Beaumarchais who 
 is our creditor." * 
 
 What chiefly irritated Congress against Deane 
 arid led to his recall was neither his dealings with 
 Beaumarchais nor the slanders of Lee, but quite 
 another matter, in which he certainly showed 
 much lack of discretion. Cargoes of arms and 
 munitions of war were very welcome in the States, 
 but cargoes of French and other European officers 
 were by no means so. Yet the inconsiderate 
 Deane sent over these enthusiasts and adventurers 
 in throngs. The outbreak of the rebellion seemed 
 to arouse a spirit of martial pilgrimage in Eu- 
 rope, a sort of crusading ardor, which seized the 
 Frenchmen especially, but also some few officers 
 in other continental armies. These all flocked to 
 Paris and told Deane that they were burning to 
 give the insurgent States the invaluable assistance 
 of their distinguished services. Deane was little 
 accustomed to the highly appreciative rhetoric 
 with which the true Frenchman frankly describes 
 his own merit, and apparently accepted as correct 
 the appraisal which these warriors made of them- 
 selves. Soon they alighted in swarms upon the 
 American coast, besieged the doors of Congress, 
 and mingled their importunities with all the other 
 harassments of Washington. Each one of them 
 had his letter from Deane, reciting the exagger- 
 ated estimate of his capacity, and worse still each 
 one was armed with Deane' s promise that he 
 
 1 Hale's Franklin in France, i. 53. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 243 
 
 should hold in the American army a rank one 
 grade higher than he had held in his home ser- 
 vice. To keep these unauthorized pledges would 
 have resulted in the resignation of all the good 
 American officers, and in the utter disorganization 
 of the army. So the inevitable outcome was that 
 the disappointed adventurers became furious; that 
 Congress, greatly annoyed, went to heavy ex- 
 penses in sending them back again to Europe, 
 and in giving some douceurs, which could be ill 
 afforded by the giver and were quite insufficient 
 to prevent the recipients from spreading at home 
 their bitter grudge against the young republic. 
 Altogether it was a bad business. 
 
 No sooner was Franklin's foot on French soil 
 than the same eager horde assailed him. But 
 they found a respondent very different from 
 Deane. Franklin had experience. He knew the 
 world and men; and now his tranquil judgment 
 and firmness saved him and the applicants alike 
 from further blunders. His appreciation of these 
 fiery and priceless gallants, who so dazzled the 
 simple-minded Deane, is shown with charming 
 humor in his effort to say a kindly word for his 
 unfortunate colleague. He did not wonder, he 
 said, that Deane, — 
 
 '• being then a stranger to the people, and unacquainted 
 with the language, was at first prevailed on to make 
 some such agreements, when all were recommended, as 
 they always are, as officiers experimejites, braves comme 
 leurs epees, pleins de courage, de talent, et de zele 
 
244 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 pour notre cause, etc., etc. ; in short, mere Caesars, each 
 of whom would have been an invaluable acquisition to 
 America. You can have no conception how we are still 
 besieged and worried on this head, our time cut to pieces 
 by personal applications, besides those contained in 
 dozens of letters by every post. ... I hope therefore 
 that favorable allowance will be made to my worthy 
 colleague on account of his situation at the time, as he 
 has long since corrected that mistake, and daily ap- 
 proves himself, to my certain knowledge, an able, faith- 
 ful, active, and extremely useful servant of the public ; 
 a testimony I think it my duty of taking this occasion to 
 make to his merit, unasked, as, considering my great age, 
 I may probably not live to give it personally in Congress, 
 and I perceive he has enemies." 
 
 But however firmly and wisely Franklin stood 
 out against the storm of importunities he could not 
 for a long time moderate it. He continued to 
 be "besieged and worried," and to have his time 
 "cut to pieces; " till at last he wrote to a friend: 
 "You can have no conception how I am harassed. 
 All my friends are sought out and teased to tease 
 me. Great officers of all ranks, in all depart- 
 ments, ladies great and small, besides professed 
 solicitors, worry me from morning to night. The 
 noise of every coach now that enters my court 
 terrifies me. I am afraid to accept an invitation 
 to dine abroad. . . . Luckily I do not often in 
 my sleep dream of these vexatious situations, or I 
 should be afraid of what are now my only hours of 
 comfort. . . . For God's sake, my dear friend, let 
 this, your twenty -third application, be your last." 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 245 
 
 His plain-spoken replies, however harshly they 
 may have struck upon Gallic sensitiveness, at least 
 left no room for any one to misunderstand him. 
 "I know that officers, going to America for 
 employment, will probably be disappointed," he 
 wrote; "that our armies are full; that there are 
 a number of expectants unemployed and starving 
 for want of subsistence; that my recommendation 
 will not make vacancies, nor can it fill them to the 
 prejudice of those who have a better claim." He 
 also wrote to Washington, to whom the letter 
 must have brought joyous relief, that he dissuaded 
 every one from incurring the great expense and 
 hazard of the long voyage, since there was already 
 an over-supply of officers and the chance of 
 employment was extremely slight. 1 
 
 The severest dose which he administered must 
 have made some of those excitable swords quiver 
 in their scabbards. He drew up and used this 
 
 " MODEL OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION OF A PER- 
 SON YOU ARE UNACQUAINTED WITIJ 
 
 " Sir, — The bearer of this, who is going to America, 
 presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, 
 
 1 As an example of the manner in which Franklin sometimes 
 was driven to express himself, his letter to M. Lith is admirable. 
 This gentleman had evidently irritated him somewhat, and Frank- 
 lin demolished him with a reply in that plain, straightforward 
 style of which he was a master, in which appeared no anger, but 
 sarcasm of that severest kind which lies in a simple statement of 
 facts. I regret that there is not space to transcribe it, but it may 
 be read in his Works, vi. 85. 
 
246 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 though I know nothing of him, not even his name. 
 This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not 
 uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown per- 
 son brings another equally unknown to recommend him ; 
 and sometimes they recommend one another ! As to 
 this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his char- 
 acter and merits, with which he is certainly better ac- 
 quainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him 
 however to those civilities, which every stranger, of 
 whom one knows no harm, has a right to ; and I request 
 you will do him all the good offices and show him all the 
 favor, that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him 
 to deserve. I have the honor to be, &c." 
 
 It would be entertaining to know how many of 
 these letters were delivered, and in what phrases 
 of French courtesy gratitude was expressed for 
 them. Sometimes, if any one persisted, in spite 
 of discouragement, in making the journey at his 
 own cost, and, being forewarned, also at his own 
 risk of disappointment, Franklin gave him a letter 
 strictly confined to the scope of a civil personal 
 introduction. Possibly, now and again, some 
 useful officer may have been thus deterred from 
 crossing the water; but any such loss was com- 
 pensated several hundredfold by shutting off the 
 intolerable inundation of useless foreigners. Nor 
 was Franklin wanting in discretion in the matter; 
 for he commended Lafayette and Steuben by let- 
 ters, which had real value from the fact of the ex- 
 treme rarity of such a warranty from this source. 
 
 Franklin was little given to political prophecy, 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 247 
 
 but it is interesting to read a passage written 
 shortly after his arrival, May 1, 1777 : — 
 
 " All Europe is on our side of the question, as far as 
 applause and good wishes can carry them. Those who 
 live under arbitrary power do nevertheless approve of 
 liberty, and wish for it ; they almost despair of recover- 
 ing it in Europe ; they read the translations of our sep- 
 arate colony constitutions with rapture ; and there are 
 such numbers everywhere who talk of removing to 
 America, with their families and fortunes, as soon as 
 peace and our independence shall be established, that it 
 is generally believed that we shall have a prodigious ad- 
 dition of strength, wealth, and arts from the emigration 
 of Europe ; and it is thought that to lessen or prevent 
 such emigrations, the tyrannies established there must 
 relax, and allow more liberty to their people. Hence it 
 is a common observation here that our cause is the cause 
 of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their lib- 
 erty in defending our own. It is a glorious task as- 
 signed us by Providence, which has, I trust, given us 
 spirit and virtue equal to it, and will at last crown it 
 with success." 
 
 The statesmanship of the time-honored Euro- 
 pean school, ably practiced by de Vergennes, was 
 short-sighted and blundering in comparison with 
 this broad appreciation of the real vastness and 
 far-reaching importance of that great struggle 
 betwixt the Old and the New. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE, II 
 PRISONERS: TROUBLE WITH LEE AND OTHERS 
 
 No sooner had the war taken on an assured 
 character than many quick-eyed and adventurous 
 Americans, and Franklin among the first, saw 
 irresistible temptation and great opportunity in 
 that enormous British commerce which whitened 
 all the seas. The colonists of that day, being a 
 seafaring people with mercantile instincts, were 
 soon industriously engaged in the lucrative field 
 of maritime captures. Franklin recommended the 
 fortifying of three or four harbors into which 
 prizes could be safely carried. Nothing else, he 
 said, would give the new nation "greater weight 
 and importance in the eyes of the commercial 
 states." Privateering is not always described by 
 such complimentary and dignified language, but the 
 practical-minded rebel spoke well of that which 
 it was so greatly to the advantage of his country- 
 men to do. After arriving in France he found 
 himself in a position to advance this business 
 very greatly. Conyngham, Wickes, with others 
 only less famous, all active and gallant men as ever 
 trod a deck, took the neighboring waters as their 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 249 
 
 chosen scene of action, and very soon were stirring 
 up a commotion such as Englishmen had never 
 experienced before. They harried the high, and 
 more especially the narrow, seas with a success 
 at least equal to that of the Alabama, while some 
 of them differed from Semmes and his compeers 
 in being as anxious to fight as the Southern cap- 
 tains were to avoid fighting. Prize after prize 
 they took and carried into port, or burned and 
 sank; prisoners they had more than they knew 
 what to do with ; they frightened the underwriters 
 so that in London the insurance against capture 
 ran up to the ruinous premium of sixty per cent. 
 The Lisbon and the Dutch packets fell victims, 
 and insurance of boats plying between Dover and 
 Calais went to ten per cent. Englishmen began to 
 feel that England was blockaded! We are not 
 so familiar as we ought to be with the interesting 
 record of all these audacious and brilliant enter- 
 prises, conducted with dare-devil recklessness by 
 men who would not improbably have been hanged 
 both as pirates and as traitors, had fortune led to 
 their capture at this moment of British rage and 
 anxiety. 1 
 
 All this cruising was conducted under the 
 auspices of Franklin. To him these gallant rovers 
 looked for instructions and suggestions, for money 
 and supplies. He had to issue commissions, to 
 settle personal misunderstandings, to attend to 
 
 1 In fact, Conyngham, being at last captured, narrowly escaped 
 this fate. 
 
250 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 questions of prize money, to soothe unpaid muti- 
 neers, to advise as to the purchase of ships, and as 
 to the enterprises to be undertaken ; in a word, he 
 was the only American government which these 
 independent sailors knew. The tax thus laid upon 
 him was severe, for he was absolutely without 
 experience in such matters. 
 
 There was one labor, however, in this connec- 
 tion, which properly fell within his department, 
 and in this his privateersmen gave him abundant 
 occupation. It was to stand between them and 
 the just wrath and fatal interference of the French 
 government. Crude as international law was in 
 those days, it was far from being crude enough 
 for the strictly illegitimate purposes of these 
 vikings. What they expected was to buy, equip, 
 man, and supply their vessels in French ports, to 
 sail out on their prize-taking excursions, and, 
 having captured their fill, to return to these same 
 ports, and there to have their prizes condemned, 
 to sell their booty, to refit and re-supply, and 
 then to sally forth again. In short, an English- 
 man would have been puzzled to distinguish a 
 difference between the warlike ports of America 
 and the neutral ports of France, save as he saw 
 that the latter, being nearer, were much the more 
 injurious. But de Vergennes had no notion of 
 being used for American purposes in this jeopard- 
 izing style. He did not mean to have a war with 
 England, if he could avoid it; so he gave to the 
 harbor masters orders which greatly annoyed and 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 251 
 
 surprised the American captains, "extraordinary'' 
 orders, as these somewhat uninstructed sea-dogs 
 described them in their complaining letters to 
 Franklin. They thought it. an outrage that the 
 French minister should refuse to have English 
 prizes condemned within French jurisdiction, and 
 that he should not allow them to refit and to take 
 on board cannon and ammunition at Nantes or 
 Eochelle. They called upon Franklin to check 
 these intolerable proceedings. Their audacious 
 and boundless insolence is very entertaining to 
 read, especially if, in connection therewith, we call 
 to mind the history of the " Alabama outrages." 
 
 Franklin knew, just as well as de Vergennes 
 did, that the French ministry was all the time 
 favoring the privateersmen and cruisers far be- 
 yond the law, and that it was ready to resort to 
 as many devices as ingenuity could concoct for 
 that purpose; also that the Americans by their 
 behavior persistently violated all reason and neu- 
 tral toleration. Nevertheless he stood gallantly 
 by his own, and in one case after another he kept 
 corresponding with de Vergennes under pretense 
 of correcting misrepresentations, presenting re- 
 quests, and arguing points, until, by the time 
 thus gained, the end was achieved. The truth 
 was that Franklin's duty was to get from France 
 just as much aid, direct and indirect, as could be 
 either begged or filched from her. Such orders 
 could not be written down in plain words in his 
 instructions, but none the less they lurked there 
 
252 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 not illegible to him among the lines. He obeyed 
 them diligently. France was willing to go fully 
 
 N as far as she could with safety; his function was 
 to push, to pull, to entice, even to mislead, in 
 
 / order to make her go farther. Perhaps it was 
 a fair game ; France had her interest to see Great 
 Britain dismembered and weakened, but not her- 
 self to fight other people's battles; the colonies 
 had their interest to get France into the fight if 
 they possibly could. It was a strictly selfish in- 
 terest, and was pursued almost shamelessly. The 
 colonial policy and the details of its execution 
 are defensible simply on the basis that nations in 
 their dealings with each other are always utterly 
 selfish and generally utterly unscrupulous. By 
 and by, when it conies to the treating for peace 
 between England and the colonies, we shall find 
 de Vergennes much reviled because he pursued 
 exclusively French interests; but it will be only 
 fair to reflect that little more can be charged 
 against him than that he was playing the game 
 with cards drawn from the same pack which the 
 Americans had used in these earlier days of the 
 war. 
 
 A matter which grew out of privateering gave 
 Franklin much trouble. The American captains, 
 who were cruising on the European side of the 
 Atlantic prior to the treaty of alliance with 
 France, had no place in which to deposit their 
 prisoners. They could not often send them to the 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 253 
 
 States, neither of course could they accumulate 
 them on board their ships, nor yet store them, so 
 to speak, in France and Spain; for undeveloped 
 as were the rules of neutrality they at least for- 
 bade the use of neutral prisons for the keeping 
 of English prisoners of war in time of peace. 
 Meanwhile the colonial captives, in confinement 
 just across the Channel, in the prisons at Ply- 
 mouth and Portsmouth, were subjected to very 
 harsh treatment; and others were even being sent 
 to the fort of Senegal on the coast of Africa, and 
 to the East Indies, whence they could not hope 
 ever to regain their homes. Franklin immediately 
 resolved, if possible, to utilize these assets in the 
 shape of English sailors in the usual course of 
 exchange. A letter was accordingly addressed 
 by him to Lord Stormont, asking whether it 
 would be worth while to approach the British 
 court with an offer to exchange one hundred Eng- 
 lish prisoners in the hands of the captain of the 
 Reprisal for a like number of American sailors 
 from the English prisons. The note was a simple 
 interrogatory in proper form of civility. No an- 
 swer was received. After a while a second letter 
 was prepared, less formal, more forcible in state- 
 ment and argument, and in the appeal to good 
 sense and decent good feeling. This elicited from 
 his lordship a brief response: "The king's ambas- 
 sador receives no applications from rebels, unless 
 they come to implore his majesty's mercy." The 
 commissioners indignantly rejoined: "In answer 
 
254 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 to a letter which concerns some of the most mate- 
 rial interests of humanity, and of the two nations, 
 Great Britain and the United States of America, 
 now at war, we received the inclosed indecent 
 paper, as coming from your lordship, which we 
 return for your lordship's more mature considera- 
 tion." 
 
 The technical position of the English in this 
 business was that the captured Americans were 
 not prisoners of war, but traitors. Their practical 
 position was that captains of American privateers, 
 not finding it a physical possibility to keep their 
 prisoners, would erelong be obliged to let them go 
 without exchange. This anticipation turned out to 
 be correct, and so far justified their refusal; for 
 soon some five hundred English sailors got their 
 freedom as a necessity, without any compensatory 
 freeing of Americans. Each of them gave a sol- 
 emn promise in writing to obtain the release of an 
 American prisoner in return ; but he had as much 
 authority to hand over the Tower of London, 
 and the British government was not so roman- 
 tically chivalrous as to recognize pledges entered 
 into by foremast hands. 
 
 All sorts of stories continued to reach Franklin's 
 ears as to the cruelty which his imprisoned coun- 
 trymen had to endure. He heard that they were 
 penniless and could get no petty comforts; that 
 they suffered from cold and hunger, and were 
 subjected to personal indignities; that they were 
 not allowed to read a newspaper or to write a 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 255 
 
 letter; that they were all committed by a magis- 
 trate on a charge of high treason, and were never 
 allowed to forget their probable fate on the gibbet ; 
 that some of them, as has been said, were deported 
 to distant and unwholesome English possessions. 
 For the truth of these accounts it is not necessary 
 to believe that the English government was inten- 
 tionally brutal ; but it was neglectful and indiffer- 
 ent, and those who had prisoners in charge felt 
 assured that no sympathy for rebels would induce 
 an investigation into peculations or unfeeling be- 
 havior. Moreover there was a deliberate design, 
 by terror and discouragement, to break the spirit 
 of the so-called traitors and persuade them to be- 
 come real traitors by entering the English service. 
 By all these tales Franklin's zeal in the matter 
 of exchange was greatly stimulated. His humane 
 soul revolted at keeping men who were not crimi- 
 nals locked up in wasting misery, when they 
 might be set free upon terms of perfect equality 
 between the contending parties. Throughout his 
 correspondence on this subject there is a magna- 
 nimity, a humanity, a spirit of honesty and even 
 of honor so extraordinary, or actually unique, in 
 dealings between diplomats and nations, that the 
 temptation is irresistible to give a fuller narrative 
 than the intrinsic importance of the subject would 
 warrant. For after all there were never many 
 English prisoners in France to be exchanged ; after 
 a while they might be counted by hundreds, but 
 perhaps they never rose to a total of one thousand. 
 
256 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 There was at this time in England a man to 
 whose memory Americans ought to erect statues. 
 This was David Hartley. He was a gentleman 
 of the most liberal and generous sentiments, an 
 old and valued friend of Franklin, member of 
 Parliament for Hull, allied with the opposition in 
 this matter of the American war, but personally 
 on good terms with Lord North. He had not 
 very great ability; he wrote long letters, some- 
 what surcharged with morality and good-feeling. 
 One would expect to hear that he was on terms of 
 admiring intimacy with his contemporary, the 
 good Mrs. Barbauld. But he had those opportu- 
 nities which come only to men whose excellence of 
 character and purity of motive place them above 
 suspicion, — opportunities which might have been 
 shut off from an abler man, and which he now 
 used with untiring zeal and much efficiency in 
 behalf of the American prisoners. Lord North 
 did not hesitate to permit him to correspond with 
 Franklin, and he long acted as a medium of com- 
 munication more serviceable than Lord Stormont 
 had been. Furthermore Hartley served as .al- 
 moner to the poor fellows, and pushed a private 
 subscription in England to raise funds for secur- 
 ing to them reasonable comforts. There were 
 responsive hearts and purses, even for rebels, 
 among his majesty's subjects, and a considerable 
 sum was collected. 
 
 Franklin's first letter to Hartley on this sub- 
 ject, October 14, 1777, has something of bitter- 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 257 
 
 ness in its tone, with much deep feeling for his 
 countrymen, whose reputed woes he narrates. "I 
 can assure you," he adds, "from my certain know- 
 ledge, that your people, prisoners in America, 
 have been treated with great kindness, having had 
 the same rations of wholesome provisions as our 
 own troops," "comfortable lodgings" in healthy 
 villages, with liberty "to walk and amuse them- 
 selves on their parole." " Where you have thought 
 fit to employ contractors to supply your people, 
 these contractors have been protected and aided 
 in their operations. Some considerable act of 
 kindness towards our people would take off the 
 reproach of inhumanity in that respect from the 
 nation and leave it where it ought with more cer- 
 tainty to lie, on the conductors of your war in 
 America. This I hint to you out of some remain- 
 ing good will to a nation I once loved sincerely. 
 But as things are, and in my present temper of 
 mind, not being over -fond of receiving obligations, 
 I shall content myself with proposing that your 
 government should allow us to send or employ a 
 commissary to take some care of those unfortunate 
 people. Perhaps on your representations this 
 might be obtained in England, though it was 
 refused most inhumanly at New York." 
 
 In December following he had arranged with 
 Major Thornton, "who appears a man of human- 
 ity," to visit the prisons and give relief to the 
 prisoners, and he hopes that Thornton "may 
 obtain permission for that purpose." "I have 
 
268 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 wished," he added, "that some voluntary act of 
 compassion on the part of your government to- 
 wards those in your power had appeared in abat- 
 ing the rigors of their confinement, and relieving 
 their pressing necessities, as such generosity to- 
 wards enemies has naturally an effect in softening 
 and abating animosity in their compatriots, and 
 disposing to reconciliation." Of such unconven- 
 tional humanity was he ! 
 
 Hartley met Franklin's ardent appeals with 
 responsive ardor. May 29, 1778, he writes that 
 he will press the point of exchange as much as he 
 can, "which in truth," he says, "I have done 
 many times since I saw you ; but official depart- 
 ments move slowly here. A promise of five 
 months is yet unperformed." But a few days 
 later, June 5, he is "authorized" to propose that 
 Franklin should send to him "the number and 
 rank of the prisoners, upon which an equal num- 
 ber shall be prepared upon this side for the ex- 
 change." Franklin at once demanded lists from 
 his captains, and replied to Hartley: "We desire 
 and expect that the number of ours shall be taken 
 from Forton and Plymouth, in proportion to the 
 number in each place, and to consist of those who 
 have been longest in confinement." He then 
 made this extraordinary suggestion : " If you think 
 proper to clear all your prisoners at once, and 
 give us all our people, we give you our solemn 
 engagement, which we are sure will be punctually 
 executed, to deliver to Lord Howe in America, 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 259 
 
 or to his order, a number of your sailors equal to 
 the surplus, as soon as the agreement arrives 
 there." It is easy to fancy a British minister 
 thrusting his tongue into his cheek as this simple- 
 minded proposal of the plain -dealing colonist was 
 read to him. The only occasion on which Frank- 
 lin showed ignorance of diplomacy was in assum- 
 ing, in this matter of the prisoners, that honesty 
 and honor were bases of dealing between public 
 officials in international matters. 
 
 He suggested also retaining a distinction be- 
 tween sailors of the navy and of the commercial 
 marine. After repeated applications to the Board 
 of Admiralty, Hartley was only able to reply to 
 all Franklin's proposals that no distinction could 
 be made between the naval and merchant services, 
 because all the Americans were "detained under 
 commitments from some magistrate, as for high 
 treason." 
 
 July 13, 1778, Franklin remitted to Hartley 
 the lists of English prisoners. September 14 he 
 recurs again to the general release: "You have 
 not mentioned whether the proposition of sending 
 us the whole of those in your prisons was agreed 
 to. If it is, you may rely on our sending imme- 
 diately all that come to our hands for the future; 
 or we will give you, [at] your option, an order 
 for the balance to be delivered to your fleet in 
 America. By putting a little confidence in one 
 another, we may thus diminish the miseries of 
 war." Five days later he took a still more ro- 
 
260 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 mantic position: heretofore, he said, the Ameri- 
 can commissioners had encouraged and aided the 
 American prisoners to try to escape; "but if the 
 British government should honorably keep their 
 agreement to make regular exchanges, we shall 
 not think it consistent with the honor of the 
 United States to encourage such escapes, or to 
 give any assistance to such as shall escape." 
 
 Yet at the same time he showed himself fully 
 able to conduct business according to the usual 
 commonplace method. This same letter closes 
 with a threat under the lex talionis: "We have 
 now obtained permission of this government to 
 put all British prisoners, whether taken by conti- 
 nental frigates or by privateers, into the king's 
 prisons; and we are determined to treat such 
 prisoners precisely as our countrymen are treated 
 in England, to give them the same allowance of 
 provisions and accommodations, and no other.'' 
 He was long obliged to reiterate the like menaces. 1 
 
 October 20, 1778, he reverts to his favorite 
 project: "I wish their lordships could have seen 
 it well to exchange upon account ; but though 
 they may not think it safe trusting to us, we shall 
 make no difficulty in trusting to them ; " and he 
 proposes that, if the English will "send us over 
 250 of our people, we will deliver all we have in 
 France ; " if these be less than two hundred and 
 fifty, the English may take back the surplus 
 Americans; but if these be more than two hun- 
 
 1 Hale's Franklin in France, i. 352. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 261 
 
 dred and fifty, Franklin says that he will never- 
 theless deliver them all in expectation that he will 
 receive back an equivalent for the surplus. " We 
 would thus wish to commence, by this first ad- 
 vance, that mutual confidence which it would be 
 for the good of mankind that nations should main- 
 tain honorably with each other, tho' engaged in 
 war." 
 
 November 19, 1778, nothing has been achieved, 
 and he gets impatient: "I have heard nothing 
 from you lately concerning the exchange of the 
 prisoners. Is that affair dropt? Winter is com- 
 ing on apace." January 25, 1779: "I a long 
 time believed that your government were in earnest 
 in agreeing to an exchange of prisoners. I begin 
 now to think I was mistaken. It seems they can- 
 not give up the pleasing idea of having at the end 
 of the war 1000 Americans to hang for high 
 treason." Poor Hartley had been working with 
 all the energy of a good man in a good cause ; but 
 he was in the painful position of having no excuse 
 to offer for the backwardness of his government. 
 
 February 22, 1779, brought more reproaches 
 from Franklin. Months had elapsed since he had 
 heard that the cartel ship was prepared to cross 
 the Channel, but she had never come. He feared 
 that he had been "deceived or trifled with," and 
 proposed sending Edward Bancroft on a special 
 mission to England, if a safe conduct could be 
 procured. At last, on March 30, Hartley had 
 the pleasure of announcing that the exchange ship 
 
262 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 had "sailed the 25th instant from Plymouth." 
 Franklin soon replied that the transaction was 
 completed, and gave well-earned thanks to Hart- 
 ley for his "unwearied pains in that affair." 
 
 Thus after infinite difficulty the English govern- 
 ment had been pushed into conformity with the 
 ordinary customs of war among civilized nations. 
 Yet subsequent exchanges seem to have been 
 effected only after every possible obstacle had 
 been contumaciously thrown in the way by the 
 English and patiently removed by Franklin. The 
 Americans were driven to various devices. The 
 captains sometimes released their prisoners at sea 
 upon the written parole of each either to secure 
 the return of an American, or to surrender him- 
 self to Franklin in France. In November, 1781, 
 Franklin had about five hundred of these docu- 
 ments, "not one of which," he says, "has been 
 regarded, so little faith and honor remain in that 
 corrupted nation." At last, after France and 
 Spain had joined in the war, Franklin arranged 
 that the American captors might lodge their pri- 
 soners in French and Spanish prisons. 
 
 Under flags of truce two cargoes of English 
 sailors were dispatched from Boston to England ; 
 but the English refused to reciprocate. "There 
 is no getting anything from these barbarians," 
 said Franklin, "by advances of civility or hu- 
 manity." Then much trouble arose because the 
 French borrowed from Franklin some English pri- 
 soners for exchange in Holland, and returned to 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 263 
 
 him a like number a little too late for delivery 
 on board the cartel ship, which had brought over 
 one hundred Americans. Thereupon the English- 
 men charged Franklin with "breach of faith,'' 
 and with "deceiving the Board," and put a stop 
 to further exchanging. This matter was, of 
 course, set right in time. But the next point 
 made by the admiralty was that they would make 
 no exchanges with Franklin except for English 
 sailors taken by American cruisers, thus excluding 
 captives taken by the privateersmen. Franklin, 
 much angered at the thwarting of his humane and 
 reasonable scheme, said that they had "given up 
 all pretensions to equity and honor." In his dis- 
 appointment he went a little too far; if he had 
 said "liberality and humanity" instead of "equity 
 and honor " he would have kept within literal 
 truth. To meet this last action on the part of 
 England he suggested to Congress: "Whether it 
 may not be well to set apart 500 or 600 English 
 prisoners, and refuse them all exchange in Amer- 
 ica, but for our countrymen now confined in Eng- 
 land?" 
 
 Another thing which vexed him later was that 
 the English government would not give the Amer- 
 icans an "equal allowance" with the French and 
 Spanish prisoners. He suggested retaliation upon 
 a certain number of English prisoners in America. 
 He himself was constantly remitting money to be 
 distributed to the American prisoners, at the rate 
 of one shilling apiece each week. But he had the 
 
264 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 pain to hear that the wretched fellow, one Digges, 
 to whom he sent the funds, embezzled much of 
 them. "If such a fellow is not damned," he said, 
 "it is not worth while to keep a devil." One 
 prisoner of distinction, Colonel Laurens, captured 
 on his way to France, complained that Franklin 
 did not show sufficient zeal in his behalf. But he 
 made the assertion in ignorance of Franklin's 
 efforts, which for a long while Franklin had reason 
 to believe had been successful in securing kind 
 and liberal treatment for this captive. 
 
 In all this business Franklin ought to have 
 received efficient assistance from Thomas Morris, 
 who held the position of commercial agent for the 
 States at Nantes, and who might properly have 
 extended his functions to include so much of the 
 naval business as required personal attention at 
 that port. But he turned out to be a drunken 
 rascal, active only in mischief. Thereupon, early 
 in 1777, Franklin employed a nephew of his own 
 from Boston, Jonathan Williams, not to supersede 
 Morris in the commercial department, but to take 
 charge of the strictly naval affairs, which were 
 construed to include all matters pertaining to war- 
 ships, privateers, and prizes. This action became 
 the source of much trouble. It was a case of 
 nepotism, of course, which was unfortunate; yet 
 there was an absolute necessity to engage some 
 one for these duties, and there was scant oppor- 
 tunity for choice. During the year that Williams 
 held the office there is no reason to believe that 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE 265 
 
 he did not prove himself both efficient and honest. 
 Robert Morris, however, whose brother Thomas 
 was, and who had obtained for him the commercial 
 office, was much offended, and it was not until in 
 the course of time he received masses of indispu- 
 table evidence of his brother's worthlessness, that 
 he was placated. Then at length he wrote a 
 frank, pathetic letter, in which he acknowledged 
 that he had been misled by natural affection, and 
 that his resentment had been a mistake. 
 
 Arthur Lee also poured the destructive torrent 
 of his malignant wrath over the ill-starred Wil- 
 liams. For William Lee pretended to find his 
 province and his profits also trenched upon. The 
 facts were that he was appointed to the commer- 
 cial agency jointly with Thomas Morris; but 
 shortly afterward he was promoted to the diplo- 
 matic service, and left Nantes for a permanent 
 stay in Paris. He did not formally vacate his 
 agency, but practically he abandoned it by ren- 
 dering himself unable to attend to its duties. So 
 even if by any construction he could have estab- 
 lished a show of right to conduct the naval busi- 
 ness, at least he never was on hand to do so. 
 These considerations, however, did not in the 
 least mitigate the rage of the Lee brethren, who 
 now brought a great variety of charges. Frank- 
 lin, they said, had no authority to make the 
 appointment, and Williams was a knave engaged 
 in a scandalous partnership with Deane to make 
 money dishonestly out of the public business, 
 
266 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 especially the prizes. The quarrel continued un- 
 abated when John Adams arrived, in 1778, as 
 joint commissioner with Franklin and Arthur Lee. 
 At once the active Lee besieged the ear of the 
 newcomer with all his criminations; and he must 
 have found a ready listener, for so soon as the 
 fourth day after his arrival Adams felt himself 
 sufficiently informed to take what was practically 
 judicial action in the matter. He declared upon 
 Lee's side. The two then signed an order for 
 Williams's dismissal, and presented it to Frank- 
 lin. It was discourteous if not insulting behavior 
 to an old man and the senior commissioner; but 
 Franklin wisely said not a word, and added his 
 signature to those of his colleagues. The rest of 
 the story is the familiar one of many cases: the 
 agent made repeated demands for the appointment 
 of an accountant to examine his accounts, and 
 Franklin often and very urgently preferred the 
 same request. But the busy Congress would not 
 bother itself ever so little with a matter no longer 
 of any practical moment. Lee's charges remained 
 unrefuted, though not a shadow of justifiable sus- 
 picion rested upon Franklin's unfortunate nephew. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE, III 
 TREATY WITH FRANCE: MORE QUARRELS 
 
 The enthusiastic reception of Franklin in France 
 was responded to by him with a bearing so cheer- 
 ful and words so encouraging that all the auguries 
 for America seemed for a while of the best. For 
 he was sanguine by nature, by resolution, and by 
 policy ; and his way of alluring good fortune was 
 to welcome it in advance. But in fact there were 
 clouds enough floating in the sky, and soon they 
 expanded and obscured the transitory brightness. 
 Communication between the two continents was 
 extremely slow; throughout the war intervals oc- 
 curred when for long and weary months no more 
 trustworthy news reached Paris than the rumors 
 which got their coloring by filtration through 
 Great Britain. Thus in the dread year of 1777, 
 there traveled across the Channel tales that Wash- 
 ington was conducting the remnant of his forces 
 in a demoralized retreat; that Philadelphia had 
 fallen before Howe; that Burgoyne, with a fine 
 army, was moving to bisect the insurgent colonies 
 from the north. It was very well for Franklin, 
 when told that Howe had taken Philadelphia, to 
 
268 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 reply: "No, sir: Philadelphia has taken Howe." 
 The jest may have relieved the stress of his mind, 
 as President Lincoln used often to relieve his own 
 over-taxed endurance in the same way. But the 
 undeniable truth was that it looked much as if 
 the affair, to use Franklin's words, would prove to 
 be a "rebellion" and not a "revolution." Still, 
 any misgivings which he may have inwardly felt 
 found no expression, and to no one would he ad- 
 mit the possibility of such an ultimate outcome. 
 Late in the autumn of this dismal year he wrote : — 
 
 " You desire to know my opinion of what will prob- 
 ably be the end of this war, and whether our new estab- 
 lishments will not be thereby again reduced to deserts. 
 I do not, for my part, apprehend much danger of so 
 great an evil to us. I think we shall be able, with a 
 little help, to defend ourselves, our possessions, and our 
 liberties so long that England will be ruined by persist- 
 ing in the wicked attempt to destroy them. . . . And I 
 sometimes flatter myself that, old as I am, I may possi- 
 bly live to see my country settled in peace, when Britain 
 shall make no more a formidable figure among the 
 powers of Europe." 
 
 But though Franklin might thus refuse to de- 
 spair for his country, the French ministry were 
 not to be blamed if they betrayed an increased 
 reserve in their communications with men who 
 might soon prove to be traitors instead of ambassa- 
 dors, and if they were careful to stop short of 
 actually bringing on a war with England. It 
 was an anxious period for Franklin when the days 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 269 
 
 wore slowly into months and the months length- 
 ened almost into a year, during which he had no 
 trustworthy information as to all the ominous news 
 which the English papers and letters brought. 
 
 In this crisis of military affairs the anxious 
 envoys felt that the awful burden of their coun- 
 try^ salvation not improbably rested upon them. 
 If they could induce France to come to the rescue, 
 all would be well; if they could not, the worst 
 might be feared. Yet in this mortal jeopardy 
 they saw France growing more guarded in her 
 conduct, while in vain they asked themselves, in 
 an agony, what influence it was possible for them 
 to exert. At the close of November, 1777, they 
 conferred upon the matter. Mr. Deane was in 
 favor of demanding from the French court a direct 
 answer to the question, whether or not France 
 would come openly to the aid of the colonies ; and 
 he advised that de Vergennes should be distinctly 
 told that, if France should decline, the colonies 
 would be obliged to seek an accommodation with 
 Great Britain. But Dr. Franklin strenuously 
 opposed this course. The effect of such a de- 
 claration seemed to him too uncertain ; France 
 might take it as a menace; she might be in- 
 duced by it to throw over the colonies altogether, 
 in despair or anger. Neither would he admit 
 that the case was in fact so desperate; the colonies 
 might yet work out their own safety, with the 
 advantage in that event of remaining more free 
 from any European influence. The soundness of 
 
270 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 this latter argument was afterward abundantly- 
 shown by the history of the country during the first 
 three administrations. Fortunately upon this oc- 
 casion Lee sided with Franklin, and the untimely 
 trial of French friendship was not made. Had it 
 been, it would have been more likely to jeopardize 
 forever than to precipitate the good fortune which, 
 though still invisible, was close at hand. 
 
 It was not until December 4, 1777, that there 
 broke a great and sudden rift in the solid cloudi- 
 ness. First there came a vague rumor of good 
 news, no one at all knew what; then a post-chaise 
 drove into Dr. Franklin's courtyard, and from it 
 hastily alighted the young messenger, Jonathan 
 Loring Austin, whom Congress had sent express 
 from Philadelphia, and who had accomplished 
 an extraordinarily rapid journey. The American 
 group of envoys and agents were all there, gath- 
 ered by the mysterious report which had reached 
 them, and at the sound of the wheels they ran out 
 into the courtyard and eagerly surrounded the 
 chaise. "Sir," exclaimed Franklin, "is Philadel- 
 phia taken?" "Yes, sir," replied Austin; and 
 Franklin clasped his hands and turned to reenter 
 the house. But Austin cried that he bore greater 
 news : that General Burgoyne and his whole army 
 were prisoners of war ! At the words the glorious 
 sunshine burst forth. Beaumarchais, the ecstatic, 
 sprang into his carriage and drove madly for the 
 city to spread the story; but he upset his vehicle 
 and dislocated his arm. The envoys hastily read 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 271 
 
 and wrote; in a few hours Austin was again on 
 the road, this time bound to de Vergennes at 
 Versailles, to tell the great tidings. Soon all 
 Paris got the news and burst into triumphant 
 rejoicing over the disaster to England. 
 
 Austin's next errand was a secret and singular 
 one. Franklin managed throughout his residence 
 in France to maintain a constant communication 
 with the opposition party in England. He now 
 thought it wise to enable them to obtain full infor- 
 mation from an intelligent man who was not many 
 weeks absent from the States. Accordingly he 
 dispatched Austin, using extreme precautions of 
 secrecy, making him "burn every letter which he 
 had brought from his friends in America," but 
 giving him in exchange two other letters, which 
 certainly introduced him to strange society for an 
 American "rebel" to frequent. During his visit 
 he was "domesticated in the family of the Earl of j 
 Shelburne ; placed under the particular protection/ 
 of his chaplain, the celebrated Dr. Priestley; in- 
 troduced" to George IV., then Prince of Wales, 
 with whom was Charles Fox, and was "present at 
 all the coteries of the opposition." Almost every 
 evening he was invited to dinner-parties, at which 
 the company was chiefly composed of members of 
 Parliament, and they plied him with interroga- 
 tions about his country and its affairs, so that, as 
 he reported, "no question which you can conceive 
 is omitted." 1 He answered well, and rendered 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 307. 
 
272 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 service as good as it was singular, for which 
 Franklin was probably the only American who 
 could have furnished the opening. The adventure 
 brings to mind some of the Jacobite tales of Sir 
 Walter Scott's novels. 
 
 One half of the advantages accruing from " Gen- 
 eral Burgoyne's capitulation to Mr. Gates " — 
 such was the Tory euphemism, somewhat ill con- 
 sidered, since it implied that the gallant Brit- 
 ish commander had capitulated to a civilian — was 
 to be reaped in Europe. The excellent Hartley 
 was already benevolently dreaming of effecting an 
 accommodation between the two contestants; and 
 seeing clearly that an alliance with France must 
 be fatal to any such project, he closed a letter on 
 February 3, 1778, to Franklin, by "subjoining 
 one earnest caution and request : Let nothing ever 
 persuade America to throw themselves into the 
 arms of France. Times may mend. I hope they 
 will. An American must always be a stranger in 
 France; Great Britain may for ages to come be 
 their home." This was as kindly in intention as 
 it was bad in grammatical construction; but it 
 was written from a point of view very different 
 from that which an American could adopt. Frank- 
 lin promptly replied : " When your nation is hiring 
 all the cut-throats it can collect, of all countries 
 and colors, to destroy us, it is hard to persuade us 
 not to ask or accept aid from any power that may 
 be prevailed with to grant it; and this only from 
 the hope that, though you now thirst for our blood, 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 273 
 
 and pursue us with fire and sword, you may in 
 some future time treat us kindly. This is too 
 much patience to be expected of us; indeed, I 
 think it is not in human nature." 
 
 A few days later he transposed Hartley's advice, 
 not without irony : " Let nothing induce [the Eng- 
 lish Whigs] to join with the Tories in supporting 
 and continuing this wicked war against the Whigs 
 of America, whose assistance they may hereafter 
 want to secure their own liberties, or whose coun- 
 try they may be glad to retire to for the enjoy- 
 ment of them." Hartley must have had a mar- 
 velous good temper, if he read without resentment 
 the very blunt and severe replies which Franklin 
 a little mercilessly made to the other's ever tem- 
 perate and amiable letters. 
 
 Hartley's advice, if not acceptable, was at least 
 timely. At the very moment when he warned 
 America against taking refuge in the arms of 
 France, the colonists were joyously springing into 
 that international embrace. The victory at Sara- 
 toga had at last settled that matter. On Decem- 
 ber 6, 1777, two days after the news was received,\ 
 M. Gerard called upon the envoys and said that 
 the capacity of the colonies to maintain their in-\ 
 dependence could no longer be doubted, and that 
 the French court would be pleased by a renewal 
 of their proposals for an alliance. On December 8 
 a request for an alliance was placed by young 
 Temple Franklin in the hands of de Vergennes. 
 On December 12 the cabinet met; also Arthur 
 
274 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Lee reports that the envoys went out to Versailles 
 and concealed themselves at an appointed spot in 
 the wood, whither soon came to them de Ver- 
 gennes. In the talk that ensued he said to them 
 everything which a liberal spirit of friendship 
 could suggest, but nothing which was actually 
 positive and binding. For it was necessary, as 
 he explained, first to consult with Spain, whose 
 concurrence was desired; this, however, could be 
 safely counted upon, and a courier was to be dis- 
 patched at once to Madrid. But the return of 
 this messenger was not awaited; for on Decem- 
 ber 17 the commissioners were formally notified 
 that France would acknowledge the independence 
 of the colonies, and would execute with them trea- 
 ties of commerce and alliance immediately upon 
 getting the Spanish reply. In return for her 
 engagements France only asked that, in the prob- 
 able event of a war ensuing between herself and 
 England, the colonies would pledge themselves 
 never to make peace save upon the terms of inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 On January 8, 1778, M. Gerard met the envoys 
 after dark at Mr. Deane's quarters. He informed 
 them that the government had resolved immedi- 
 ately to conclude with the colonies a treaty of amity 
 and commerce; also another treaty, offensive 
 and defensive, and guaranteeing independence, 
 upon the conditions that the colonies would neither 
 make a separate peace, nor one relinquishing their 
 independence. The independence of the thirteen 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 275 
 
 colonies being the king's sole purpose, no assist- 
 ance would be extended for subduing Canada or 
 the English West Indies. As it would probably 
 not be agreeable to the colonies to have foreign 
 troops in their country, the design was to furnish 
 only naval aid. It would be left open for Spain 
 to accede to the treaties at any time. Nothing 
 could have been more agreeable and encouraging 
 than these arrangements, by which France did all 
 the giving and America all the receiving. A few 
 days later Gerard said that the king would not 
 only acknowledge, but would support American 
 independence, and that the condition precluding 
 the Americans from making a separate peace, if 
 France should be drawn into the war, would be 
 waived. 
 
 On January 18 Gerard came to the envoys 
 with drafts which he had prepared for the two 
 treaties, and which he left for them to consider at 
 their leisure. It took them much longer to con- 
 sider than it had taken him to devise these docu- 
 ments. Lee said that the delay was all Franklin's 
 fault; but at least Franklin illumined it by one 
 of his mots. There was sent to the envoys a large 
 cake inscribed: "Le digne Franklin." Deane 
 said that, with thanks, they would appropriate it 
 to their joint use; Franklin pleasantly replied that 
 it was obviously intended for all three, only the 
 French donor did not know how to spell "Lee, 
 Deane, Franklin " correctly. But the uneasy 
 jealousy of Lee suggested a counter-argument: 
 
276 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 "When they remember us," L e., himself and 
 Deane, he said, "they always put you first." Lee, 
 who in his lifetime could never endure being sec- 
 ond to Franklin, must be astounded indeed if, in 
 another existence, he sees the place which judicial 
 posterity has assigned to him ! 
 
 In their discussions concerning the treaty the 
 commissioners fell into a contention over one arti- 
 cle. Their secret instructions directed them to 
 "press" for a stipulation that no export duties 
 should be imposed by France upon molasses taken 
 from the French West Indies into the States; 
 but they were not to let the "fate of the treaty 
 depend upon obtaining it." Of all merchandise 
 imported into the States molasses was the most 
 important to their general trade; it was the "basis 
 on which a very great part of the American com- 
 merce rested." 1 In exchange for it they sent to 
 the islands considerable quantities of pretty much 
 all their products, and they distilled it in enor- 
 mous quantities into rum. Every man who drank 
 a glass of rum seemed to be advancing pro tanto 
 the national prosperity, and the zeal with which 
 those godly forefathers of ours thus promoted the 
 general welfare is feebly appreciated by their de- 
 scendants. All this rum, said John Adams, has 
 "injured our health and our morals;" but "the 
 taste for rum will continue;" and upon this con- 
 viction the commissioners felt obliged to act. Ac- 
 cordingly they proposed that it should be "agreed 
 
 1 Diplomatic Correspondence of the Amer. Rev. i. 156. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 277 
 
 and concluded that , there shall never be any duty 
 imposed on the exportation of molasses that may 
 be taken by the subjects of the United States 
 from the islands of America which belong or may 
 hereafter appertain to his most Christian majesty." 
 But Gerard said that this was "unequal," since 
 the States made no balancing concession. It was 
 not easy to suggest any "concession of equal im- 
 portance on the part of the United States," and 
 so "after long consideration Dr. Franklin pro- 
 posed "this: "In compensation of the exemption 
 stipulated in the preceding article, it is agreed 
 and concluded that there shall never be any duties 
 imposed on the exportation of any kind of mer- 
 chandise, which the subjects of his most Christian 
 majesty may take from the countries and posses- 
 sions, present or future, of any of the thirteen 
 United States, for the use of the islands which 
 shall furnish molasses." 
 
 This pleased Lee as little as the other article 
 had pleased Gerard; for it was "too extensive, 
 and more than equivalent for molasses only." 
 He was answered that "it was in reality nothing 
 more than giving up what we could never make 
 use of but to our own prejudice ; for nothing was 
 more evident than the bad policy of laying duties 
 on our own exports." Franklin was of opinion 
 that export duties were "a knavish attempt to get 
 something for nothing; " that the inventor of 
 them had the "genius of a pickpocket." Britain 
 had lost her colonies by an export duty on tea. 
 
278 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Moreover since the States produced no commodity 
 which could not be procured elsewhere, to discour- 
 age consumption of their own and encourage the 
 rivalship of others would be an "absolute folly" 
 against which he would protest even if practiced 
 by way of reprisal. Gerard finally said that he 
 regarded these articles as "reciprocal and equal," 
 that his majesty was "indifferent" about them, 
 and that they might be retained or rejected to- 
 gether, but that one could not be kept without 
 the other. Lee then yielded, and Gerard was 
 notified that both articles would be inserted. He 
 assented. Soon, however, William Lee and Izard, 
 being informed of the arrangement, took Arthur 
 Lee's original view and protested against it. Lee 
 reports that this interference put Franklin "much 
 out of humor," and that he said it would "appear 
 an act of levity to renew the discussion of a thing 
 we had agreed to." None the less, Lee now re- 
 sumed his first position so firmly that Franklin 
 and Deane in their turn agreed to omit both ar- 
 ticles. But they stipulated that Lee should arrange 
 the matter with Gerard, since, as they had just 
 agreed in writing to retain both, they "could not 
 with any consistency make a point of their being 
 expunged," and they felt that the business of a 
 change at this stage might be disagreeable. In 
 fact Lee found it so. When he called on Gerard 
 and requested the omission of both, Gerard replied 
 that the king had already approved the treaty, 
 that it was now engrossed on parchment, and that 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 279 
 
 a new arrangement would entail "inconvenience 
 and considerable delay." But finally, not without 
 showing some irritation at the fickleness of the 
 commissioners, he was brought to agree that Con- 
 gress might ratify the treaty either with or with- 
 out these articles, as it should see fit. This busi- 
 ness cost Franklin, as an annoying incident, an 
 encounter with Mr. Izard, and a tart correspond- 
 ence ensued. 
 
 On February 6 all was at length ready and 
 the parties came together, M. Gerard for France 
 and the envoys for the States, to execute these 
 most important documents. Franklin wore the 
 spotted velvet suit of privy council fame. They 
 signed a treaty of amity and commerce, a treaty 
 of alliance, and a secret article belonging with 
 the latter providing that Spain might become a 
 party to it — on the Spanish manana. There 
 was an express stipulation on the part of France 
 that the whole should be kept secret until after 
 ratification by Congress ; for there was a singular 
 apprehension that in the interval some accommo- 
 dation might be brought about between the insur- 
 gent States and the mother country, which would 
 leave France in a very embarrassing position if 
 she should not be free to deny the existence of 
 such treaties. It was undoubtedly a dread of 
 some such occurrence which had induced the promp- 
 titude and the ever-increasing liberality in terms 
 which France had shown from the moment when 
 the news of Saratoga arrived. Nor perhaps was 
 
280 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 her anxiety so utterly absurd as it now seems. 
 There was some foundation for Gibbon's epigram- 
 matic statement that "the two greatest nations in 
 Europe were fairly running a race for the favor 
 of America." For the disaster to the army on 
 the Hudson had had an effect in England even 
 greater than it had had in France, and Burgoyne's 
 capitulation to "Mr. Gates " had very nearly 
 brought on a capitulation of Lord North's cabinet 
 to the insurgent Congress. On February 17 that 
 minister rose, and in a speech of two hours intro- 
 duced two conciliatory bills. The one declared 
 that Parliament had no intention of exercising 
 the right of taxing the colonies in America. The 
 other authorized sending to the States commis- 
 sioners empowered to "treat with Congress, with 
 provincial assemblies, or with Washington; to 
 order a truce ; to suspend all laws ; to grant par- 
 dons and rewards; to restore the form of con- 
 stitution as it stood before the troubles." 1 The 
 prime minister substantially acknowledged that 
 England's course toward her colonies had been 
 one prolonged blunder, and now she was willing to 
 concede every demand save actual independence. 
 The war might be continued, as it was ; but such 
 a confession could never be retracted. "A dull 
 melancholy silence for some time succeeded to this 
 speech. . . . Astonishment, dejection, and fear 
 overclouded the assembly." 
 
 But a fresh sensation was at hand. Horace 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. 8. ix. 484. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 281 
 
 and Thomas Walpole had obtained private infor- 
 mation of what had taken place in France ; but 
 had cautiously held it in reserve, and arranged 
 that only two hours before the meeting of the 
 House of Commons on that eventful day the Duke 
 of Grafton should tell it to Charles Fox. So now 
 when North sat down Fox rose, indulged in a 
 little sarcasm on the conversion of the ministry to 
 the views of the opposition, and then asked his 
 lordship "Whether a commercial treaty with 
 France had not been signed by the American 
 agents at Paris within the last ten days? 'If so,' 
 he said, ' the administration is beaten by ten days, 
 a situation so threatening that in such a time of 
 danger the House must concur with the proposi- 
 tions, though probably now they would have no 
 eif ect. ' Lord North was thunderstruck and would 
 not rise." But at last, warned that it would be 
 "criminal and a matter of impeachment to with- 
 hold an answer," he admitted that he had heard 
 a rumor of the signature of such a treaty. 1 So 
 the bills were passed too late. 
 
 So soon as their passage was assured, Hartley, 
 "acting on an understanding with Lord North," 2 
 dispatched copies to Franklin. Franklin upon 
 his part, also first having an understanding with 
 de Vergennes, replied that, if peace with the States 
 upon equal terms were really desired, the commis- 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 309. 
 
 2 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. ix. 485 ; Hale's Franklin in France, 
 i. 223. 
 
282 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 sioners need not journey to America for it, for 
 "if wise and honest men, such as Sir George 
 Saville, the Bishop of St. Asaph, and yourself 
 were to come over here immediately with powers 
 to treat, you might not only obtain peace with 
 America but prevent a war with France." About 
 the same time also Hartley visited Franklin in 
 person; but nothing came of their interview, of 
 which no record is preserved. The two bills were 
 passed, almost unanimously. But every one felt 
 that their usefulness had been taken out of them 
 by the other consequences of that event which had 
 induced their introduction. News of them, how- 
 ever, was dispatched to America by a ship which 
 followed close upon the frigate which carried the 
 tidings of the French treaties. If the English 
 ship should arrive first, something might be ef- 
 fected. But it did not, and probably nothing 
 would have been gained if it had. Franklin truly 
 said to Hartley: "All acts that, suppose your 
 future government of the colonies can be no longer 
 significant; " and he described the acts as "two fri- 
 volous bills, which the present ministry, in their 
 consternation, have thought fit to propose, with a 
 view to support their public credit a little longer 
 at home, and to amuse and divide, if possible, our 
 people in America." But even for this purpose 
 they came too late, and stirred no other response 
 than a ripple of sarcastic triumph over such an 
 act of humiliation, which was aggravated by being 
 rejected almost without consideration by Congress. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 283 
 
 So there was an end of conciliation. On March 
 23 the American envoys had the significant dis- 
 tinction of a presentation to the king, who is said 
 to have addressed to them this gracious and royal 
 sentence: "Gentlemen, I wish the Congress to 
 be assured of my friendship. I beg leave also to 
 observe that I am exceedingly satisfied, in particu- 
 lar, with your own conduct during your residence 
 in my kingdom." 1 This personal compliment, if 
 paid, was gratifying; for the anomalous and diffi- 
 cult position of the envoys had compelled them 
 to govern themselves wholly by their own tact and 
 judgment, with no aid from experience or prece- 
 dents. 
 
 The presentation had been delayed by reason 
 of Franklin having an attack of the gout, and the 
 effort, when made, laid him up for some time 
 afterward. It was on this occasion, especially, 
 that he made himself conspicuous by wearing only 
 the simple dress of a gentleman of the day instead 
 of the costume of etiquette. Bancroft says that 
 again he donned the suit of spotted Manchester 
 velvet. He did not wear a sword, but made up 
 for it by keeping on his spectacles; he had a 
 round white hat under his arm, and no wig con- 
 cealed his scanty gray hair. America has always 
 rejoiced at this republican simplicity; but the fact 
 seems to be that it was largely due to chance. 
 Parton says that the doctor had ordered a wig, 
 but when it came home it proved much too small 
 1 Parton 's Life of Franklin, ii. 312. 
 
284 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 for his great head, and there was no time to make 
 another. Hawthorne also repeats the story that 
 Franklin's court suit did not get home in time, 
 and so he had to go in ordinary apparel ; but it 
 "took" so well that the shrewd doctor never 
 explained the real reason. 
 
 On March 13 the Marquis de Noailles, French 
 ambassador at St. James's, formally announced 
 to the English secretary of state the execution of 
 the treaty of amity and commerce; and impu- 
 dently added a hope that the English court would 
 see therein "new proofs" of King Louis's "sin- 
 cere disposition for peace; " and that his Britannic 
 majesty, animated by the same sentiments, would 
 equally avoid everything that might alter their 
 good harmony; also that he would particularly 
 take effective measures to prevent the commerce 
 between his French majesty's subjects and the 
 United States of North America from being inter- 
 rupted. When this was communicated to Parlia- 
 ment Conway asked : " What else have we to do 
 but to take up the idea that Franklin has thrown 
 out with fairness and manliness?" 1 But Frank- 
 lin's ideas had not now, any more than heretofore, 
 the good fortune to be acceptable to English min- 
 isters. Indeed, the mere fact that a suggestion 
 came from him was in itself unfortunate; for the 
 king, whose influence was preponderant in this 
 American business, had singled out Franklin 
 
 1 The reference was to the suggestion made to Hartley for 
 sending commissioners to Paris to treat for peace. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 285 
 
 among all the "rebels" as the object of extreme 
 personal hatred. 1 Franklin certainly reciprocated 
 the feeling with an intensity which John Adams 
 soon afterward noted, apparently with some sur- 
 j:>rise. The only real reply to Noailles's message 
 which commended itself to government was the 
 instant recall of Lord Stormont, who left Paris 
 on March 23, sans prendre conge, just as he had 
 once before threatened to do. On the same day 
 the French ambassador left London, accompa- 
 nied, as Gibbon said, by "some slight expression 
 of ill humor from John Bull." At the end of 
 the month M. Gerard sailed for America, the first 
 accredited minister to the new member of the 
 sisterhood of civilized nations. A fortnight later 
 the squadron of D'Estaing sailed from Toulon for 
 American waters, and two weeks later the English 
 fleet followed. 
 
 Thus far the course of France throughout her 
 relationship with the States had been that of a 
 generous friend. She undoubtedly had been pri- 
 marily instigated by enmity to England; and she 
 had been for a while guarded and cautious; yet 
 not unreasonably so; on the contrary, she had in 
 many instances been sufficiently remiss in regard- 
 ing her neutral obligations to give abundant cause 
 for war, though England had not felt ready to 
 declare it. At the first interview concerning the 
 treaty of commerce de Vergennes had said that 
 the French court desired to take no advantage of 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vi. 39, note. 
 
286 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the condition of the States, and to exact no terms 
 which they would afterward regret, but rather to 
 make an arrangement so based upon the interest 
 of both parties that it should last as long as human 
 institutions should endure, so that mutual amity 
 should subsist forever. M. Gerard reiterated the 
 same sentiments. That this language was not 
 mere French courtesy was proved by the fact that 
 the treaties, when completed, were "founded on 
 principles of equality and reciprocity, and for the 
 most part were in conformity to the proposals of 
 Congress." 1 Each party, under the customs laws 
 of the other, was to be upon the footing of the 
 most favored nation. The transfer of the valu- 
 able and growing trade of the States from Eng- 
 land to France had been assiduously held out as 
 a temptation to France to enter into these treaties ; 
 but no effort was made by France to gain from 
 the needs of the Americans any exclusive privi- 
 leges for herself. She was content to stipulate 
 only that no other people should be granted pre- 
 ferences over her, leaving the States entirely un- 
 hampered for making subsequent arrangements 
 with other nations. The light in which these 
 dealings about the treaties made the French min- 
 ister and the French court appear to Franklin 
 should be remembered in the discussions which 
 arose later concerning the treaty of peace. 2 
 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. ix. 481. 
 
 2 See Franklin's Works, vi. 133. At this time John Adams 
 strongly entertained the same sentiments, though he afterward 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 287 
 
 It may further be mentioned, by the way, that 
 Franklin had the pleasure of seeing inserted his 
 favorite principle : that free ships should make 
 free goods, and free persons also, save only sol- 
 diers in actual service of an enemy. In passing, 
 it is pleasant to preserve this, amid the abundant 
 other testimony to Franklin's humane and ad- 
 vanced ideas as to the conduct of war between 
 civilized nations. 1 The doctrine of free ships 
 making free goods, though promulgated early in 
 the century, was still making slow and difficult 
 progress. Franklin accepted it with eagerness. 
 He wrote that he was "not only for respecting 
 the ships as the house of a friend, though contain- 
 ing the goods of an enemy, but I even wish that 
 ... all those kinds of people who are employed 
 in procuring subsistence for the species, or in 
 exchanging the necessaries or conveniences of life, 
 which are for the common benefit of mankind, 
 such as husbandmen on their lands, fishermen in 
 their barques, and traders in unarmed vessels, 
 shall be permitted to prosecute their several in- 
 nocent and useful employments without interrup- 
 tion or molestation, and nothing taken from them, 
 even when wanted by an enemy, but on paying 
 a fair price for the same." Also to the president 
 
 felt very differently about the sincerity of France. Diplomatic 
 Correspondence of American Revolution, iv. 262, 292. 
 
 1 He was able to give a practical proof of his liberality by fur- 
 nishing a passport to the packets carrying goods to the Moravian 
 brethren in Labrador. Hale's Franklin in France, i. 245. 
 
288 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 of Congress lie spoke of Russia's famous proposal 
 for an "armed neutrality for protecting the liberty 
 of commerce" as "the great public event" of the 
 year in Europe. He proposed that Congress 
 should order their cruisers "not to molest foreign 
 ships, but to conform to the spirit of that treaty 
 of neutrality." Congress promptly voted to re- 
 quest the admission of the States to the league, 
 and John Adams took charge of this business 
 during his mission to Holland. 
 
 Events having thus established the indefinite 
 continuance of the war, the good Hartley, pro- 
 foundly disappointed, wrote a brief note invoking 
 blessings on his "dear friend," and closing with 
 the ominous words, "If tempestuous times should 
 come, take care of your own safety; events are 
 uncertain and men may be capricious." Franklin, 
 however, declined to be alarmed. "I thank you," 
 he said, "for your kind caution, but having nearly 
 finished a long life, I set but little value on what 
 remains of it. Like a draper, when one chaffers 
 with him for a remnant, I am ready to say: 'As 
 it is only the fag end, I will not differ with you 
 about it ; take it for what you please. ' Perhaps 
 the best use such an old fellow can be put to is 
 to make a martyr of him." 
 
 A few weeks after the conclusion of this diplo- 
 matic bond of friendship between the two peoples, 
 Franklin, in the words of Mr. Bancroft, "placed 
 the public opinion of philosophical France con- 
 spicuously on the side of America." Voltaire 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 289 
 
 came back to Paris, after twenty-seven years of 
 voluntary exile, and received such adoration that 
 it almost seemed as if, for Frenchmen, he was 
 taking the place of that God whom he had been 
 declaring non-existent, but whom he believed it 
 necessary for mankind to invent. Franklin had 
 an interview with him, which presented a curious 
 scene. The aged French philosopher, shriveled, 
 bright-eyed, destructive-minded, received the aged 
 American philosopher, portly, serene, the human- 
 est of men, in theatrical French fashion, quoting 
 a passage of English poetry, and uttering over 
 the head of young Temple the appropriate bene- 
 diction, "God and Liberty." This drama was 
 enacted in private, but on April 29 occurred 
 that public spectacle made familiar by countless 
 engravings, decorating the walls of so many old- 
 fashioned American "sitting-rooms" and "best 
 parlors," when, upon the stage of the Academy 
 of Sciences, before a numerous and distinguished 
 audience, the two venerable sages met and saluted 
 each other. "11 faut s'embrasser a la Fran- 
 qaise," shouted the enthusiastic crowd; so they 
 fell into each other's arms, and kissed, after the 
 continental mode. Great was the fervor aroused 
 in the breasts of the classic people of France as 
 they proudly saw upon their soil a new "Solon 
 and Sophocles " in embrace. Who shall say that 
 Franklin's personal prestige in Europe had not 
 practical value for America? 
 
 Silas Deane, recalled, accompanied Gerard to 
 
290 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 America. He carried with him a brief but gener- 
 ous letter from Franklin to the president of Con- 
 gress. 1 At the same time Izard was writing home 
 that Deane's misbehavior had long delayed the 
 alliance with France, and he repeated what he 
 had said in former letters, that "whatever good 
 dispositions were shown by Mr. Lee, they were 
 always opposed and overruled by the two oldest 
 commissioners." The departure of the two gen- 
 tlemen was kept a close secret at Paris, and at 
 the request of de Vergennes especially a secret 
 from Arthur Lee. For the French ministry were 
 well assured that Lee's private secretary was a 
 spy in British pay, and had he got possession of 
 this important bit of news, it would not only have 
 been untimely in a diplomatic way, but it might 
 have given opportunity for British cruisers to 
 waylay a vessel carrying such distinguished pas- 
 sengers. The precaution was justifiable, but it 
 had ill consequences for Franklin, since it natu- 
 rally incensed Lee to an extreme degree, and led 
 to a very sharp correspondence, which still further 
 aggravated the discomfort of the situation. The 
 legitimate trials to which the aged doctor was sub- 
 jected were numerous and severe enough, but the 
 untiring and malicious enmity of Arthur Lee was 
 an altogether illegitimate vexation. 
 
 Mr. Hale in his recent volumes upon Franklin 
 truly says that "it is unnecessary to place vituper- 
 ative adjectives to the credit [discredit?] of Arthur 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vi. 153. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 291 
 
 Lee ; " and in fact to do so seems a work of 
 supererogation, since there probably remain few 
 such epithets in the English language which have 
 not already been applied to him by one writer or 
 another. Yet it is hard to hold one's hand, al- 
 though humanity would perhaps induce us to pity 
 rather than to revile a man cursed with so un- 
 happy a temperament. But whatever may be said 
 or left unsaid about him personally, the infinite 
 disturbance which he caused cannot be wholly 
 ignored. It was great enough to constitute an 
 important element in history. Covered by the 
 powerful authority of his influential and patriotic 
 family at home, and screened by the profound 
 ignorance of Congress concerning men and affairs 
 abroad, Lee was able for a long time to run his 
 mischievous career without discovery or interrup- 
 tion. He buzzed about Europe like an angry 
 hornet, thrusting his venomous sting into every 
 respectable and useful servant of his country, and 
 irritating exceedingly the foreigners whom it was 
 of the first importance to conciliate. Incredible 
 as it seems, it is undoubtedly true that he did not 
 hesitate to express in Paris his deep antipathy to 
 France and Frenchmen ; and it was only the low 
 esteem in which he was held that prevented his 
 singular behavior from doing irreparable injury 
 to the colonial cause. The English newspapers 
 tauntingly ridiculed his insignificance and incapa- 
 city; de Vergennes could not endure him, and 
 scarcely treated him with civility. But his intense 
 
292 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 egotism prevented him from gathering wisdom 
 from such harsh instruction, which only added 
 gall to his native bitterness. He wreaked his 
 revenge upon his colleagues, and towards Franklin 
 he cherished an envious hatred which developed 
 into a monomania. Perhaps Franklin was correct 
 in charitably saying that at times he was "in- 
 sane." He began by asserting that Franklin was 
 old, idle, and useless, fit only to be shelved in 
 some respectable sinecure mission ; but he rapidly 
 advanced from such moderate condemnation until 
 he charged Franklin with being a party to the 
 abstraction of his dispatches from a sealed parcel, 
 which was rifled in some unexplained way on its 
 passage home; 1 and finally he even reached the 
 extremity of alleging financial dishonesty in the 
 public business, and insinuated an opinion that 
 the doctor's great rascality indicated an intention 
 never again to revisit his native land. In all this 
 malevolence he found an earnest colleague in the 
 hot-blooded Izard, whose charges against Frank- 
 lin were unmeasured. "His abilities," wrote this 
 angry gentleman, "are great and his reputation 
 high. Removed as he is at so considerable a 
 distance from the observation of his constituents, 
 if he is not guided by principles of virtue and 
 honor, those abilities and that reputation may 
 produce the most mischievous effects. In my 
 conscience I declare to you that I believe him 
 under no such restraint, and God knows that I 
 speak the real, unprejudiced sentiments of my 
 
 1 Parton's Franklin, ii. 354 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 293 
 
 heart." Such fulminations, reaching the States 
 out of what was then for them the obscurity of 
 Europe, greatly perplexed the members of Con- 
 gress; for they had very insufficient means for 
 determining the value of the testimony given by 
 these absent witnesses. 
 
 It would serve no useful purpose to devote valu- 
 able space to narrating at length all the slander 
 and malice of these restless men, all the cor- 
 respondence, the quarrels, the explanations, and 
 general trouble to which they gave rise. But the 
 reader must exercise his imagination liberally in 
 fancying these things, in order to appreciate to 
 what incessant annoyance Franklin was subjected 
 at a time when the inevitable anxieties and severe 
 labors of his position were far beyond the strength 
 of a man of his years. He showed wonderful 
 patience and dignity, and though he sometimes 
 let some asperity find expression in his replies, he 
 never let them degenerate into retorts. Moreover, 
 he replied as little as possible, for he truly said 
 that he hated altercation; whereas Lee, who re- 
 veled in it, took as an aggravation of all his other 
 injuries that his opponent was inclined to curtail 
 the full luxury to be expected from a quarrel. 
 Franklin also magnanimously refrained from 
 arraigning Lee and Izard to Congress, either pub- 
 licly or privately, a forbearance which these chiv- 
 alrous gentlemen did not emulate. The memo- 
 rial 1 of Arthur Lee, of May, 1779, addressed to 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vi. 363. 
 
294 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Congress, contains criminations enough to furnish 
 forth many impeachments. But Franklin would 
 not condescend to allow his serenity to be dis- 
 turbed by the news of these assaults. He felt 
 "very easy," he said, about these efforts to injure 
 him, trusting in the justice of the Congress to 
 listen to no accusations without giving him an 
 opportunity to reply. 1 Yet his position was not 
 so absolutely secure and exalted but that he suf- 
 fered some little injury at home. 
 
 John Adams, going out to replace Silas Deane, 
 crossed him on the passage, arriving at Bordeaux 
 on March 31, 1778. This ardent New Englander, 
 orderly, business-like, endowed with an insatiate 
 industry, plunged headlong into the midst of af- 
 fairs. With that happy self-confidence charac- 
 teristic of our people, which leads every American 
 to believe that he can at once and without train- 
 ing do anything whatsoever better than it can be 
 done by any other living man no matter how well 
 trained, Adams began immediately to act and to 
 criticise. In a few hours he knew all about the 
 discussions between the various envoys, quasi en- 
 voys, and agents, who were squabbling with each 
 other to the scandal of Paris; in a few days he 
 was ready to turn out Jonathan Williams, unseen 
 and unheard. He was shocked at the confusion 
 in which he saw all the papers of the embassy, 
 and set vigorously about the task of sorting, label- 
 ing, docketing, and tying up letters and accounts; 
 1 To Richard Bache, Franklin's Works, vi. 414. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 295 
 
 it was a task which Franklin unquestionably had 
 neglected, and which required to be done. He 
 was appalled at the "prodigious sums of money" 
 which had been expended, at the further great 
 sums which were still to be paid, and at the lack 
 of any proper books of accounts, so that he could 
 not learn "what the United States have received 
 as an equivalent." He did not in direct words 
 charge the other commissioners with culpable neg- 
 ligence; but it was an unavoidable inference from 
 what he did say. Undoubtedly the fact was that 
 the accounts were disgracefully muddled and in- 
 sufficient; but the fault really lay with Congress, 
 which had never permitted proper clerical assist- 
 ance to be employed. Adams soon found this 
 out, and appreciated that besides all the diplo- 
 matic affairs, which were their only proper con- 
 cern, the commissioners were also transacting an 
 enormous business, financial and commercial, in- 
 volving innumerable payments great and small, 
 loans, purchases, and correspondence, and that 
 all was being conducted with scarcely any aid of 
 clerks or accountants; whereas a mercantile firm 
 engaged in affairs of like extent and moment 
 would have had an extensive establishment with 
 a numerous force of skilled employees. When 
 Adams had been a little longer in Paris, he 
 also began to see where and how "the prodigious 
 sums" went, 1 and just what was the full scope 
 of the functions of the commissioners; then the 
 
 1 Diplomatic Corresp. of Amer. Rev. iv. 249, 251. 
 
296 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 censoriousness evaporated out of his language. 
 He admitted that the neglects of subordinate 
 agents were such that it was impossible for the 
 commissioners to learn the true state of their 
 finances; and he joined in the demand, so often 
 reiterated by Franklin, for the establishment of 
 the usual and proper commercial agencies. The 
 business of accepting and keeping the run of 
 the bills drawn by Congress, and of teasing the 
 French government for money to meet them at 
 maturity, would still remain to be attended to by 
 the ministers in person; but these things long 
 experience might enable them to manage. 
 
 No sooner had Adams scented the first whiff of 
 the quarrel-laden atmosphere of the embassy than 
 he expressed in his usual self-satisfied, impetuous, 
 and defiant way his purpose to be rigidly impar- 
 tial. But he was a natural fault-finder, and by 
 no means a natural peacemaker; and his impar- 
 tiality had no effect in assuaging the animosities 
 which he found. However, amid all the discords 
 of the embassy there was one note of harmony; 
 and the bewildered Congress must have felt much 
 satisfaction in finding that all the envoys were 
 agreed that one representative at the French court 
 would be vastly better as well as cheaper than the 
 sort of caucus which now held its angry sessions 
 there. At worst one man could not be forever at 
 odds with himself. Adams, when he had finished 
 the task of arranging the archives, found no other 
 occupation ; and he was scandalized at the extra- 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 297 
 
 vagance of keeping three envoys. Lee, by the 
 way, had constantly insinuated that Franklin was 
 blamably lax, if not actually untrustworthy, in 
 money matters, though all the while he and his 
 friend Izard had been quite shameless in extorting 
 from the doctor very large sums for their own 
 expenses. When the figures came to be made up 
 it appeared that Franklin had drawn less than 
 either of his colleagues, and much less than the 
 sum soon afterward established by Congress as 
 the proper salary for the position. 1 The frugal- 
 minded New Englander himself now acknowledged 
 that he could "not find any article of expense 
 which could be retrenched," 2 and he honestly 
 begged Congress to stop the triple outlay. 
 
 Franklin, upon his part, wrote that in many 
 ways the public business and the national prestige 
 suffered much from the lack of unanimity among 
 the envoys, and said: "In consideration of the 
 whole, I wish Congress would separate us." Nei- 
 ther Adams nor Franklin wrote one word which 
 either directly or indirectly had a personal bear- 
 ing. Arthur Lee was more frank; in the days 
 of Deane he had begun to write that to continue 
 himself at Paris would "disconcert effectually 
 the wicked measures " of Franklin, Deane, and 
 Williams, and that it was "the one way of re- 
 dressing" the "neglect, dissipation, and private 
 schemes" prevalent in the department, and of 
 
 1 Diplomatic Corresp. of Amer. Rev. iv. 246. 
 
 2 Ibid. 245. 
 
298 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 "remedying the public evil." He said that the 
 French court was the place of chief importance, 
 calling for the ablest and most efficient man, to 
 wit, himself. He suggested that Franklin might 
 be sent to Vienna, a dignified retreat without la- 
 bor. Izard and William Lee wrote letters of like 
 purport; it was true that it was none of their 
 affair, but they were wont to interfere in the busi- 
 ness of the commissioners, as if the French mis- 
 sion were common property. Congress took so 
 much of this advice as all their advisers were 
 agreed upon ; that is to say, it broke up the com- 
 mission to France. But it did not appoint Ar- 
 thur Lee to remain there ; on the contrary, it nom- 
 inated Franklin to be minister plenipotentiary 
 at the French court, left Lee still accredited to 
 Madrid, as he had been before, and gave Adams 
 neither any place nor any instructions, so that he 
 soon returned home. Gerard, at Philadelphia, 
 claimed the credit of having defeated the mach- 
 inations of the "dangerous and bad man," Lee, 
 and congratulated de Vergennes on his relief from 
 the burden. 1 Franklin's commission was brought 
 over by Lafayette in February, 1779. Thus ended 
 the Lee-Izard cabal against Franklin; it was not 
 unlike the Gates-Conway cabal against Washing- 
 ton, save that it lasted longer and was more exas- 
 perating. The success of either would have been 
 almost equally perilous to the popular cause; for 
 the instatement of Lee as minister plenipotentiary 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 383. 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 299 
 
 at the French court would inevitably have led to 
 a breach with France. The result was very grati- 
 fying to Franklin, since it showed that all the ill 
 tales about him which had gone home had not 
 ruined, though certainly they had seriously in- 
 jured, his good repute among his countrymen. 
 Moreover, he could truly say that the office "was 
 not obtained by any solicitation or intrigue," or 
 by "magnifying his own services, or diminishing 
 those of others." But apart from the gratification 
 and a slight access of personal dignity, the change 
 made no difference in his duties; he still combined 
 the functions of loan-agent, consul, naval direc- 
 tor, and minister, as before. Nor was he even 
 yet wholly rid of Arthur Lee. He had, however, 
 the satisfaction of absolutely refusing to honor any 
 more of Lee's or Izard's exorbitant drafts for 
 their personal expenses. 
 
 Shortly after his appointment Franklin sent his 
 grandson to Lee, with a note requesting Lee to 
 send to him such papers belonging to the embassy 
 as were in his possession. Lee insolently replied 
 that he had "no papers belonging to the depart- 
 ment of minister plenipotentiary at the court of 
 Versailles ; " that if Franklin referred to papers 
 relating to transactions of the late joint commis- 
 sion, he had "yet to learn and could not conceive" 
 by what reason or authority one commissioner was 
 entitled to demand custody of them. Franklin 
 replied temperately enough that many of them 
 were essential to him for reference in conducting 
 
300 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the public business, but said that he should be 
 perfectly content to have copies. The captious 
 Lee was still further irritated by this scheme for 
 avoiding a quarrel, but had to accede to it. 
 
 To John Paul Jones Franklin stood in the rela- 
 tion of a navy department. The daring exploits 
 of that gallant mariner form a chapter too fascina- 
 ting to be passed by without reluctance, but limi- 
 tations of space are inexorable. His success and 
 his immunity in his reckless feats seem marvelous. 
 His chosen field was the narrow seas which sur- 
 round Britain, which swarmed with British ship- 
 ping, and were dominated by the redoubtable 
 British navy as the streets of a city are kept in 
 order by police. But the rover Jones, though 
 always close to his majesty's coasts, was too much 
 for all his majesty's admirals and captains. He 
 harried these home waters and captured prizes till 
 he became embarrassed by the extent of his own 
 success; he landed at Whitehaven, spiked the 
 guns of the fort, and fired the ships of the fleet 
 in the harbor beneath the eyes of the astounded 
 Englishmen, who thronged the shore and gazed 
 bewildered upon the spectacle which American 
 audacity displayed for them; he made incursions 
 on the land; he threatened the port of Leith, and 
 would undoubtedly have bombarded it, had not 
 obstinate counter winds thwarted his plans; he 
 kept the whole British shores in a state of fever- 
 ish alarm; he was always ready to fight, and 
 
THE ^ 
 
 
TREATY WITH FRANCE 301 
 
 challenged the English warship, the Serapis, to 
 come out and meet him; she came, and he cap- 
 tured her after fighting so desperately that his 
 own ship, the famous Bon Homme Kichard, named 
 after Poor Richard, sank a few hours after the 
 combat was over. 
 
 All these glorious feats were rendered possible 
 by Franklin, who found the money, consulted as 
 to the operations, issued commissions, attended to 
 purchases and repairs, to supplies and equipment, 
 who composed quarrels, settled questions of author- 
 ity, and interposed to protect vessels and com- 
 manders from the perils of the laws of neutrality. 
 Jones had a great respect and admiration for him, 
 and said to him once that his letters would make 
 a coward brave. The projects of Jones were gen- 
 erally devised in consultations with Franklin, and 
 were in the direct line of enterprises already sug- 
 gested by Franklin, who had urged Congress to 
 send out three frigates, disguised as merchantmen, 
 which could make sudden descents upon the Eng- 
 lish coast, destroy, burn, gather plunder, and levy 
 contributions, and be off before molestation was 
 possible. "The burning or plundering of Liver- 
 pool or Glasgow," he wrote, "would do us more 
 essential service than a million of treasure, and 
 much blood spent on the continent; " and he was 
 confident that it was "practicable with very little 
 danger." This was not altogether in accord with 
 his humane theory for the conduct of war; but 
 so long as that theory was not adopted by one 
 
302 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 side, it could not of course be allowed to handicap 
 the other. 
 
 As if Franklin had not enough legitimate trou- 
 ble in furthering these naval enterprises, an en- 
 tirely undeserved vexation grew out of them for 
 him. There was a French captain Landais, who 
 entered the service of the States and was given 
 the command of a ship in what was dignified by 
 the name of Jones's "squadron." Of all the 
 excitable Frenchmen who have ever lived none 
 can have been more hot-headed than this remark- 
 able man. During the engagement between the 
 Bon Homme Kichard and the Serapis, he sailed 
 up and down besidej the former and delivered 
 broadsides into her 4mtil he was near disabling 
 and sinking the ship of his own commander. The 
 incomprehensible proceeding meant only that he 
 was so wildly excited that he did not know at 
 whom he was firing. Soon he quarreled with 
 Jones; Franklin had to intervene; then Landais 
 advanced all sorts of preposterous demands, which 
 Franklin refused; thereupon he quarreled with 
 Franklin; a very disagreeable correspondence 
 ensued ; Franklin finally had to displace Landais 
 from command of his ship; Landais defied him 
 and refused to surrender command. Then Lee 
 decided to go home to the States in Landais' s 
 ship. When the two got together they stirred up 
 a mutiny on board, and more trouble was made 
 for Franklin. At last they got away, and Landais 
 went crazy during the voyage, was deposed by his 
 
Bon Homme Richard and Serapis 
 
OF TH t - ' 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Sal 
 
> — TREATY WITH FRANCE 303 
 
 officers, and placed in confinement. If the ship 
 had been lost, it would have been a more tolerable 
 loss than many for which the ocean is accountable; 
 but she was not, and Lee got safe ashore to con- 
 tinue his machinations at Philadelphia, and to 
 publish an elaborate pamphlet against Franklin. 
 All this story and the correspondence may be read 
 at length in Mr. Hale's "Franklin in France." 
 It is entertaining and shows vividly the misery 
 to which Franklin was subjected in attending to 
 affairs which were entirely outside of the proper 
 scope of his office. "It is hard," said he, "that 
 I, who give others no trouble with my quarrels, 
 should be plagued with all the perversities of 
 those who think fit to wrangle with one another." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 FINANCIERING 
 
 Whether the financiering of the American 
 Ee volution is to be looked upon in a pathetic or 
 in a comical light must depend upon the mood of 
 the observer. The spectacle of a young people, 
 with no accumulated capital, engaged in support- 
 ing the charge of a mortal struggle against all 
 the vast resources of Britain, has in it something 
 of pathos. But the methods to which this people 
 resorted to raise funds were certainly of amusing 
 simplicity. It was not until the appointment of 
 Robert Morris, in 1781, that a treasury depart- 
 ment came into existence and some slight pretense 
 of system was introduced into the financial affairs 
 of the confederation. During the years prior to 
 that time Congress managed the business matters. 
 But Congress neither had funds nor the power to 
 obtain any. It had an unlimited power for con- 
 tracting debts : absolutely no power for collecting 
 money. It used the former power freely. When 
 creditors wanted payment, requisitions were made 
 upon the States for their respective quotas. But 
 the States were found to be sadly irresponsive; 
 probably the citizens really had not much ready 
 
FINANCIERING 305 
 
 money; certainly they had not enough to pay in 
 taxes the cost of the war ; no civilized state has been 
 able to conduct a war, even a small one, in modern 
 times without using the national credit. But the 
 United States had absolutely no credit at all. It 
 was well enough to exclaim " Millions for defense ; 
 but not one cent for tribute ! " This was rhetoric, 
 not business; and Congress soon found that the 
 driblets which trickled tardily to them in response 
 to their demands on the several States would 
 hardly moisten the bottom of the great exchequer 
 tank, which needed to be filled to the brim. 
 
 Two methods of relief were then adopted, crude, 
 simple, but likely for a time to be efficient; and 
 provided only that within that time the war could 
 be finished, all might go well. One of these 
 methods was to issue irredeemable paper "money; " 
 the other was to borrow real money abroad. The 
 droll part was that both these transactions were 
 audaciously entered upon by a body which had 
 absolutely no revenues at all to pledge as security, 
 which had not a dollar of property, nor authority 
 to compel any living man to pay it a dollar. A 
 more utterly irresponsible debtor than Congress 
 never asked for a loan or offered a promissory 
 note. For the security of a creditor there was 
 only the moral probability that in case of success 
 the people would be honest enough to pay their 
 debts; and there was much danger that the jeal- 
 ousies between the States as to their proportionate 
 quotas might stimulate reluctance and furnish 
 
306 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 excuses which might easily become serious in so 
 unpleasant a matter as paying out hard cash. At 
 home Congress could manage to make its paper 
 money percolate among the people, and could pay 
 a good many American creditors with it; but 
 there were some who would not be thus satisfied, 
 and few European creditors, of course, would 
 meddle with such currency. So to pay these 
 people who would have real money Congress soli- 
 cited loans from other nations. It was like the 
 financiering of a schoolboy, who issues his 10 IPs 
 among his mates, and refers the exacting and 
 business-like tradesman to his father. France was 
 cast for the role of father to the congressional 
 schoolboy for many wearisome years. 
 
 The arrangement bore hard upon the Ameri- 
 can representatives, who, at European courts and 
 upon European exchanges, had the embarrassing 
 task of raising money. It was all very well to 
 talk about negotiating a loan; the phrase had a 
 Micawber-like sound as of real business; but in 
 point of plain fact the thing to be done was to 
 beg. Congress had a comparatively easy time of 
 it; such burden and anxiety as lay upon that body 
 were shared among many; and after all, the 
 whole scope of its duty was little else than to vote 
 requisitions upon the States, to order the printing 
 of a fresh batch of bills, and to "resolve that the 
 Treasury Board be directed to prepare bills of 
 exchange of suitable denominations upon the Hon- 
 orable Benjamin Franklin [or sometimes Jay, or 
 
FINANCIERING 307 
 
 Adams, or another], minister plenipotentiary at 
 
 the court of Versailles, for thousand dollars 
 
 in specie" Having done this, Congress had ful- 
 filled its simple part, and serenely waited for 
 something to turn up. 
 
 The plan which seemed most effective was to 
 send a representative accredited to some foreign 
 government, and instructed to raise money at once. 
 Without wasting time by waiting to see whether 
 he arrived safely, or was received, or was success- 
 ful in his negotiations, the next ship which fol- 
 lowed him brought drafts and bills which he was 
 expected to accept, and at maturity to pay. Hav- 
 ing thus skillfully shifted the laboring oar into 
 his hands Congress bestirred itself no further. 
 Poor Jay, in Spain, had a terrible time of it in 
 this way, and if ever a man was placed by his 
 country in a painful and humiliating position, it 
 was he. He faced it gallantly, but had to be 
 carried through by Franklin. From first to last 
 it was upon Franklin that the brunt fell; he had 
 to keep the country from financial failure as 
 Washington had to save it from military failure ; 
 he was the real financier of the Revolution; with- 
 out him Robert Morris would have been help- 
 less. Spain yielded but trifling sums in re- 
 sponse to Jay's solicitations ; Holland, which was 
 tried by Adams, was even more tardy and unwill- 
 ing, though towards the end some money was got 
 there. Franklin alone, at Paris, could tap the 
 rock and make the waters flow. So upon him 
 
308 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Congress sent in an endless procession of drafts, 
 and compelled him to pay all their foreign bills 
 and indebtedness; he gathered and he disbursed; 
 to him were referred all the drafts upon Jay and 
 others, which they themselves could not pay, and 
 he discharged them one and all. A heavier task 
 never fell upon any man, nor one bringing less 
 recognition; for money matters usually seem so 
 dry and unintelligible that every one shirks in- 
 forming himself about them. We read about the 
 horrors of the winter camp at Valley Forge, and 
 we shudder at all the details of the vivid pic- 
 ture. The anxiety, the toil, the humiliation, which 
 Franklin endured for many winters and many sum- 
 mers in Paris, in sustaining the national credit, do 
 not make a picture, do not furnish material for a 
 readable chapter in history. Yet many a man 
 would far rather have faced Washington's lot than 
 Franklin's. 
 
 I do not intend to tell this tale at length or 
 minutely, for I could trust no reader to follow 
 me in so tedious an enterprise ; yet I must try to 
 convey some notion of what this financiering really 
 meant for Franklin, of how ably he performed it, 
 of what it cost him in wear and tear of mind, of 
 what toil it put upon him, and of what measure 
 of gratitude was due to him for it. It may be 
 worth mentioning by the way that he not only 
 spent himself in efforts to induce others to lend, 
 but he himself lent. Before he embarked for 
 Philadelphia on his French mission, he gathered 
 
FINANCIERING 309 
 
 together all that he could raise in money, some 
 £3000 to X4000, and paid it over as an unse- 
 cured loan for an indefinite period to the Conti- 
 nental Congress. 
 
 It is not probable that from any records now 
 existing the most patient accountant could elicit 
 any statement, even approximating to accuracy, 
 of the sums which Franklin received and paid 
 out. But if such an account could be drawn 
 up, it would only indicate some results in figures 
 which would have little meaning for persons not 
 familiar with the national debts, revenues, and 
 outlays of those times, and certainly would not at 
 all answer the purpose of showing what he really 
 did. The only satisfactory method of giving any 
 passably clear idea on the subject seems to be to 
 furnish some extracts from his papers. 
 
 The ship which brought Franklin also brought 
 indigo to the value of <£3000, which was to 
 serve as long as it could for the expenses of the 
 commissioners. For keeping them supplied with 
 money later on, it was the intention of Congress 
 to purchase cargoes of American products, such 
 as tobacco, rice, indigo, etc., etc., and consign 
 these to the commissioners, who, besides paying 
 their personal bills, were sure to have abundant 
 other means for using the proceeds. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, it so happened that the resources 
 presented by this scheme were already exhausted. 
 In January, 1777, a loan of one million livres 
 had been advanced on a pledge of fifty-six thou- 
 
310 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 sand hogsheads of tobacco to the Farmers General 
 of the French revenue; and the rice and indigo 
 had been in like manner mortgaged to Beaumar- 
 chais. Congressional jugglery could not quite 
 compass the payment of different creditors with 
 the same money, even supposing that the money 
 came to hand. But it did not ; for a long while 
 no cargoes arrived; of those that were dispatched, 
 some were run away with by dishonest ship-mas- 
 ters, some were lost at sea, others were captured 
 by the English, so that Franklin sadly remarked 
 that the chief result was that the enemy had been 
 supplied with these articles for nothing. But he 
 preserved his resolute cheerfulness. "The destroy- 
 ing of our ships by the English," he said, "is 
 only like shaving our beards, that will grow again. 
 Their loss of provinces is like the loss of a limb, 
 which can never again be united to their body." 
 When at last a cargo did arrive, Beaumarchais 
 demanded it as his own, and Franklin at last 
 yielded to his importunities and tears, though 
 having no really sufficient knowledge of his right 
 to it. Later a second vessel arrived, and Beau- 
 marchais endeavored to pounce upon it by process 
 of law. That one also Franklin let him have. 
 Then no more came, and this promising resource 
 seems never to have yielded one dollar for Frank- 
 lin's use. 
 
 Already so early as January 26, 1777, it was 
 necessary to appeal to Thomas Morris, from whom 
 remittances had been expected on account of sales 
 
FINANCIERING 311 
 
 made at Nantes : " You must be sensible how very 
 unbecoming it is of the situation we are in to be 
 dependent on the credit of others. We therefore 
 desire that you will remit with all possible expe- 
 dition the sum allotted by the Congress for our 
 expenses." But the commissioners appealed in 
 vain to this worthless drunkard. 
 
 Strange to say, the instructions given by Con- 
 gress to the commissioners at the time of Frank- 
 lin's appointment said nothing about borrowing 
 money. In view of what he had to do in this 
 way it was a singular omission; but it was soon 
 repaired by letters. In March, 1777, Frank- 
 lin writes to Lee : "We are ordered to bor- 
 row £2,000,000 on interest; " also to "build six 
 ships of war," presumably on credit. In this same 
 month Franklin wrote a paper, which was widely 
 circulated in Europe, in which he endeavored to 
 show that the honesty, the industry, the resources, 
 and the prospects of the United States were so 
 excellent that it would really be safer to lend to 
 them than to England. It was a skillful piece of 
 work, and its arguments had evidently persuaded 
 the writer himself; but they did not induce the 
 money-lenders of the old countries to accept moral 
 qualities and probabilities as collateral security. 
 
 Fair success, however, was soon met with at the 
 court of France, so that the commissioners had 
 the pleasure of assuring Congress that they could 
 safely be depended upon to meet the interest on 
 a loan of 15,000,000, which by this aid Congress 
 
312 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 probably would be able to contract for. But that 
 body had no idea of being content with this! 
 March 17, 1778, Franklin writes to Lee that they 
 have been drawn upon for 180,000 livres, to pay 
 old indebtedness of the army in Canada; also 
 that other bills have been drawn. The number 
 and gross amount of these were not stated in 
 the advices; but the commissioners were ordered 
 to "accept them when they should appear." "I 
 cannot conceive," said Franklin, "what encour- 
 agement the Congress could have had from any 
 of us to draw on us for anything but that interest. 
 I suppose their difficulties have compelled them 
 to it. I see we shall be distressed here by these 
 proceedings," etc., etc. Congress was composed 
 of men far too shrewd to await "encouragement" 
 to draw for money ! 
 
 July 22, 1778, he wrote to Lovell: "When we 
 engaged to Congress to pay their bills for the 
 interest of the sums they could borrow, we did 
 not dream of their drawing on us for other oc- 
 casions. We have already paid of Congress's 
 drafts, to returned officers, 82,211 livres; and 
 we know not how much more of that kind we 
 have to pay, because the committee have never 
 let us know the amount of those drafts, or their 
 account of them never reached us, and they still 
 continue coming in. And we are now surprised 
 with drafts from Mr. B. for 100,000 more. If 
 you reduce us to bankruptcy here by a non-pay- 
 ment of your drafts, consider the consequences. 
 
FINANCIERING 313 
 
 In my humble opinion no drafts should be made 
 on us without first learning from us that we shall 
 be able to answer them." 
 
 Congress could not fairly exact great accuracy 
 from the drawees of its bills, when it never took 
 pains to give notice of the facts of the drawing, 
 of the number of bills drawn, of dates, or amounts; 
 in a word, really gave no basis for account-keep- 
 ing or identification. No more helter-skelter way 
 of conducting business has ever been seen since 
 modern business methods were invented. The sys- 
 tem, if system it may be called, would have been 
 aggravating and confusing enough under any con- 
 dition of attendant circumstances; but it so hap- 
 pened that all attendant circumstances tended to 
 increase rather than to mitigate the difficulties 
 created by the carelessness of Congress. One nat- 
 urally fancies that a nation deals in few and large 
 transactions, that these drafts may have been for 
 inconveniently large sums, but that at least they 
 probably were not numerous. The precise con- 
 trary was the case. The drafts were countless, and 
 often were for very petty amounts, much as if a 
 prosperous merchant were drawing cheques to pay 
 his ordinary expenses. Further, the uncertainty 
 of the passage across the Atlantic led to these 
 bills appearing at all sorts of irregular times; 
 seconds often came to hand before firsts, and 
 thirds before either; the bills were often very old 
 when presented. Knaves took advantage of these 
 facts fraudulently to alter seconds and thirds into 
 
314 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 firsts, so that extreme care had to be taken to 
 prevent constant duplication and even triplication 
 of payments. It would have taken much of the 
 time of an experienced banker's clerk to keep the 
 bill and draft department in correct shape. It is 
 not improbable that Congress lost a good deal of 
 money by undetected rascalities, but if so the fault 
 lay with that body itself, not with Franklin. 
 
 Amid the harassments of these demands, Frank- 
 lin was much vexed by the conduct of Arthur 
 Lee and Izard in drawing money for their own 
 expenses. In February, 1778, each insisted that 
 he should be allowed a credit with the banker, M. 
 Grand, to an amount of <£2000, as each then 
 expected to depart on a mission. Franklin reluc- 
 tantly assented, and was then astonished and in- 
 dignant to find that each at once drew out the full 
 sum from the national account; yet neither went 
 upon his journey. In January, 1779, Izard ap- 
 plied for more. Franklin's anger was stirred; 
 Izard was a man of handsome private property, 
 and was rendering no service in Paris; and his 
 requirements seemed to Franklin eminently unpa- 
 triotic and exorbitant. He therefore refused the 
 request, writing to Izard a letter which is worth 
 quoting, both from the tone of its patriotic appeal 
 and as a vivid sketch of the situation : — 
 
 " Your intimation that you expect more money from 
 us obliges us to expose to you our circumstances. Upon 
 the supposition that Congress had borrowed in America 
 but $5,000,000, and relying on the remittances intended 
 
FINANCIERING 315 
 
 to be sent to us for answering other demands, we gave 
 expectations that we should be able to pay here the in- 
 terest of that sum as a means of supporting the credit of 
 the currency. The Congress have borrowed near twice 
 that sum, and are now actually drawing on us for the 
 interest, the bills appearing here daily for acceptance. 
 Their distress for money in America has been so great 
 from the enormous expense of the war that they have 
 also been induced to draw on us for very large sums to 
 stop other pressing demands ; and they have not been 
 able to purchase remittances for us to the extent they 
 proposed ; and of what they have sent, much has been 
 taken, or treacherously carried into England, only two 
 small cargoes of tobacco having arrived, and they are 
 long since mortgaged to the Farmers General, so that 
 they produce us nothing, but leave us expenses to pay. 
 
 " The continental vessels of war which come to France 
 have likewise required great sums of us to furnish and 
 refit them and supply the men with necessaries. The 
 prisoners, too, who escape from England claim a very 
 expensive assistance from us, and are much dissatisfied 
 with the scanty allowance we are able to afford them. 
 The interest bills above mentioned, of the drawing of 
 which we have received notice, amount to $2,500,000, 
 and we have not a fifth part of the sum in our banker's 
 hands to answer them ; and large orders to us from 
 Congress for supplies of clothing, arms, and ammunition 
 remain uncomplied with for want of money. 
 
 " In this situation of our affairs, we hope you will not 
 insist on our giving you a farther credit with our banker, 
 with whom we are daily in danger of having no farther 
 credit ourselves. It is not a year since you received 
 from us the sum of 2000 guineas, which you thought 
 
316 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 necessary on account of your being to set out immedi- 
 ately for Florence. You have not incurred the expense 
 of that journey. You are a gentleman of fortune. You 
 did not come to France with any dependence on being 
 maintained here with your family at the expense of the 
 United States, in the time of their distress, and without 
 rendering them the equivalent service they expected. 
 
 " On all these considerations we should rather hope 
 that you would be willing to reimburse us the sum we 
 have advanced to you, if it may be done with any pos- 
 sible convenience to your affairs. Such a supply would 
 at least enable us to relieve more liberally our unfortu- 
 nate countrymen, who have long been prisoners, stripped 
 of everything, of whom we daily expect to have nearly 
 three hundred upon our hands by the exchange." 
 
 At this same time Franklin wrote to Congress 
 to explain how it had happened that so large a 
 sum as £4000 had been allowed to these gentle- 
 men; for he feared that this liberality might 
 "subject the commissioners to censure." The 
 explanation was so discreditable to Lee and Izard 
 that it is charitable to think that there was some 
 misunderstanding between the parties. 1 The mat- 
 ter naturally rankled, and in May Franklin wrote 
 that there was much anger against him, that he 
 was charged with "disobeying an order of Con- 
 gress, and with cruelly attempting to distress gen- 
 tlemen who were in the service of their country." 
 
 " They have indeed," he said, " produced to me a re- 
 solve of Congress empowering them to draw . . . for 
 
 1 See Franklin's Works, vi. 294. 
 
FINANCIERING 317 
 
 their expenses at foreign courts ; and doubtless Congress, 
 when that resolve was made, intended to enable us to 
 pay those drafts ; but as that has not been done, and 
 the gentlemen (except Mr. Lee for a few weeks) have 
 not incurred any expense at foreign courts, and, if they 
 had, the 5500 guineas received by them in about nine 
 months seemed an ample provision for it, ... I do not 
 conceive that I disobeyed an order of Congress, and 
 that if I did the circumstances will excuse it. . . . In 
 short, the dreadful consequences of ruin to our public 
 credit, both in America and Europe, that must attend 
 the protesting a single Congress draft for interest, after 
 our funds were out, would have weighed with me against 
 the payment of more money to those gentlemen, if the 
 demand had otherwise been well founded. I am, how- 
 ever, in the judgment of Congress, and if I have done 
 amiss, must submit dutifully to their censure." 
 
 Burgoyne's surrender had a market value; it 
 was worth ready money in France and Spain. 
 Upon the strength of it the former lent the States 
 3,000,000 livres; and the like amount was en- 
 gaged for by Spain. But, says Bancroft, "when 
 Arthur Lee, who was equally disesteemed in Ver- 
 sailles and Madrid, heard of the money expected 
 of Spain, he talked and wrote so much about it 
 that the Spanish government, who wished to avoid 
 a rupture with England, took alarm, and receded 
 from its intention." 1 
 
 In February and March, 1779, came demands 
 from the officers of the frigate Alliance for their 
 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. 8. ix. 480. 
 
318 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 pay; but Franklin was "neither furnished with 
 money nor authority for such purposes." It 
 seemed, however, too hard to tell these gallant 
 fellows, whose perilous and useful service was in 
 European waters, that they could not have a 
 dollar until they should get safely back to the 
 States; so Franklin agreed to pay for one suit of 
 clothes for each of them. But he begged them 
 to be as "frugal as possible," and not make them- 
 selves "expensively fine " from a notion that it was 
 for the honor of the State, which could be better 
 promoted in more sensible ways. 
 
 May 26, 1779, he complains to the committee 
 of foreign affairs that, whereas the commissioners 
 had agreed to find in Paris means of paying in- 
 terest on a loan of 15,000,000, that loan had been 
 doubled, while, on the other hand, they had been 
 "drained by a number of unforeseen expenses," 
 including "orders and drafts " of Congress. "And 
 now," he says, "the drafts of the treasurer of the 
 loans coming very fast upon me, the anxiety I 
 have suffered and the distress of mind lest I 
 "hould not be able to pay them, have for a long 
 time been very great indeed. To apply again to 
 this court for money for a particular purpose, 
 which they had already over and over again pro- 
 vided for and furnished us, was extremely awk- 
 ward." One would think so, indeed! So he fell 
 back on a "general application " made some time 
 before, and received naturally the general answer 
 that France herself was being put to enormous 
 
FINANCIERING 319 
 
 expenses, which were aiding the States as effi- 
 ciently as a direct loan of money could do. The 
 most he could extort was the king's guaranty for 
 the payment of the interest on $3, 000, 000, pro- 
 vided that sum could be raised in Holland. The 
 embarrassing fact was that the plea of poverty 
 advanced by the French government was perfectly 
 valid. Turgot said so, and no man knew better 
 than Turgot. He had lately told the king that 
 even on a peace footing the annual expenditures 
 exceeded the annual receipts of the exchequer by 
 20,000,000 livres; and he even talked seriously 
 of an avowal of national bankruptcy. The events 
 preceding the French Revolution soon proved that 
 this great statesman did not exaggerate the ill 
 condition of affairs. Yet instead of practicing 
 rigid prudence and economy, France had actually 
 gone into a costly war for the benefit of America. 
 It was peculiarly disagreeable to be ceaselessly 
 appealing for money to an impoverished friend. 
 
 Another vexation was found in the way in 
 which the agents of the various individual States 
 soon began to scour Europe in quest of money. 
 First they applied to Franklin, and "seemed to 
 think it his duty as minister for the United States 
 to support and enforce their particular demands." 
 But the foreigners, probably not understanding 
 these separate autonomies, did not relish these 
 requisitions, and Franklin found that he could do 
 nothing. On the contrary, he was hampered in 
 effecting loans on the national credit; for these 
 
320 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 state agents, hurrying clamorously hither and 
 thither, gave an impression of poverty and injured 
 the reputation of the country, which, indeed, was 
 already low enough upon the exchanges without 
 any such gratuitous impairment. 
 
 February 19, 1780, there was an application 
 from John Paul Jones for money for repairs on 
 his ships. Franklin approved keeping the vessels 
 in serviceable condition, but added: u Let me 
 repeat, for God's sake be sparing, unless you 
 mean to make me a bankrupt, or have your drafts 
 dishonored for want of money in my hands to pay 
 them." 
 
 May 31, 1780, he complains that he has been 
 reproached by one of the congressional agents 
 whose unauthorized drafts he had refused. He 
 has been drawn upon by Congress, he says, for 
 much more than the interest, which only he had 
 agreed to furnish, and he has answered every 
 demand, and supported their credit in Europe. 
 " But if every agent of Congress in different parts 
 of the world is permitted to run in debt, and draw 
 upon me at pleasure to support his credit, under 
 the idea of its being necessary to do so for the 
 honor of Congress, the difficulty upon me will be 
 too great, and I may in fine be obliged to protest 
 the interest bills. I therefore beg that a stop 
 may be put to such irregular proceedings." It 
 was a reasonable prayer, but had no effect. Frank- 
 lin continued to be regarded as paymaster-general 
 for the States in Europe. 
 
FINANCIERING 321 
 
 We next hear of his troubles in paying the bills 
 which Congress, according to its usual custom, 
 was drawing upon Jay. They sent Jay to Spain, 
 and told him to borrow money there ; and as soon 
 as they had got him fairly at sea, they began 
 drawing drafts upon him. He soon found him- 
 self, as he said, in a "cruel situation,'' and the 
 torture of mind which he endured and the respon- 
 sibility which he assumed are well known. He 
 courageously accepted the bills, trusting to Provi- 
 dence and to Franklin, who seemed the agent of 
 Providence, to arrange for their payment. Frank- 
 lin did not fail him. One of Jay's earliest letters 
 to Franklin said: "I have no reason as yet to 
 think a loan here will be practicable. Bills on 
 me arrive daily. Be pleased to send me a credit 
 for the residue of our salaries." Five days later: 
 "Bills to the amount of $100,000 have arrived. 
 A loan cannot be effected here." And so on. 
 In April, 1781, his appeal became pathetic: "Our 
 situation here is daily becoming more disagreeable 
 from the want of our salaries; to be obliged to 
 contract debts and live on credit is terrible. I 
 have not to this day received a shilling from 
 America, and we should indeed have been greatly 
 distressed, had it not been for your good offices." 
 An American minister without resources to pay 
 his butcher and his grocer, his servant and his 
 tailor, presented a spectacle which moved Frank- 
 lin to great efforts ! In plain truth, Jay and 
 his secretary, Carmichael, were dependent upon 
 
322 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Franklin for everything; they not only drew on 
 him for their salaries to pay daily household ex- 
 penses, but they sent him lists of the bills accepted 
 by them for the "honor of Congress," and which 
 they had no means of paying. It was fortunate 
 that these two men were willing to incur such 
 peril and anxiety in behalf of this same "honor of 
 Congress," which otherwise would soon have been 
 basely discredited; for that body itself was su- 
 perbly indifferent on the subject, and did not 
 pretend to keep faith even with its own agents. 
 
 Thus matters continued to the end. Congress 
 pledged itself not to draw bills, and immediately 
 drew them in batches. Jay could report to Frank- 
 lin only scant and reluctant promises won from 
 the Spanish court; and small as these engagements 
 were, they were ill kept. Perhaps they could not 
 be kept; for, as Jay wrote, there was "little coin 
 in Egypt," the country was really poor. So the 
 end of it always was that Franklin remained as 
 the only resource for payments, to be made week 
 after week, of all sorts of sums ranging from little 
 bills upon vessels up to great totals of $150,000 
 or 1230,000 upon bankers' demands. Such was 
 the burden of a song which had many more 'woeful 
 stanzas than can be repeated here. 
 
 By way of affording some sort of encouragement 
 to the French court, Franklin now proposed that 
 the United States government should furnish the 
 French fleet and forces in the States with provi- 
 sions, of which the cost could be offset, to the 
 
FINANCIERING 323 
 
 small extent that it would go, against French 
 loans. It seemed a satisfactory arrangement, and 
 France assented to it. 
 
 At the same time he wrote to Adams that he 
 had "long been humiliated with the idea of our 
 running about from court to court begging for 
 money and friendship, which are the more with- 
 held the more eagerly they are solicited, and 
 would perhaps have been offered if they had not 
 been asked. The proverb says, God helps them 
 that help themselves; and the world too, in this 
 sense, is very godly." This was an idea to which 
 he more than once recurred. In March, 1782, 
 in the course of a long letter to Livingston, he 
 said: "A small increase of industry in every 
 American, male and female, with a small diminu- 
 tion of luxury, would produce a sum far superior 
 to all we can hope to beg or borrow from all our 
 friends in Europe." He reiterated the same views 
 again in March, and again in December, and 
 doubtless much oftener. 1 No man was more ear- 
 nest in the doctrine that every individual Ameri- 
 can owed his strenuous and unremitting personal 
 assistance to the cause. It was a practical as 
 well as a noble patriotism which he felt, preached, 
 and exemplified ; and it was thoroughly character- 
 istic of the man. 
 
 What was then the real financial capacity of 
 the people, and whether they did their utmost in 
 the way of raising money to support the Revolu- 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vii. 404 ; viii. 236. 
 
I 
 
 324 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 tion, is a question about which it is easy to express 
 an opinion, but difficult to prove its accuracy by 
 convincing evidence. On the one hand, it is true 
 that the strain was extreme and that much was 
 done to meet it; on the other hand, it is no less 
 true that even beneath this stress the national 
 prosperity actually made a considerable advance 
 during the war. The people as a whole gathered 
 money rather than impoverished themselves. In 
 the country at large the commercial instinct fully 
 held its own in competition with the spirit of 
 independence. There was not much forswearing 
 of little luxuries. Franklin said that he learned 
 by inquiry that of the interest money which was 
 disbursed in Paris most was laid out for "super- 
 fluities, and more than half of it for tea." He 
 computed that £500,000 were annually expended 
 in the States for tea alone. This sum, "annually 
 laid out in defending ourselves or annoying our 
 enemies, would have great effect. With what 
 face can we ask aids and subsidies from our 
 friends, while we are wasting our own wealth in 
 such prodigality? " 
 
 Henry Laurens, dispatched as minister to the 
 Hague in 1780, was captured on the voyage and 
 carried into England. But this little incident 
 mattered not at all to the Congress, which for 
 a long while cheerfully drew a great number of 
 bills upon the poor gentleman, who, held in the 
 Tower of London as a traitor, was hardly in a 
 position to negotiate large loans for his fellow 
 
FINANCIERING 325 
 
 "rebels." In October, 1780, these bills began 
 to flutter down upon Franklin's desk, drawn by 
 a sort of natural gravitation. He felt "obliged 
 to accept them," and said that he should "with 
 some difficulty be able to pay them, though these 
 extra demands often embarrass me exceedingly." 
 
 November 19, 1780, he wrote to de Vergennes 
 announcing that Congress had notified him of 
 drafts to the amount of about 1,400,000 livres 
 (about $280,000). The reply was: "You can 
 easily imagine my astonishment at your request 
 of the necessary funds to meet these drafts, since 
 you perfectly well know the extraordinary efforts 
 which I have made thus far to assist you and 
 support your credit, and especially since you can- 
 not have forgotten the demands you lately made 
 upon me. Nevertheless, sir, I am very desirous 
 of assisting you out of the embarrassed situation 
 in which these repeated drafts of Congress have 
 placed you; and for this purpose I shall endeavor 
 to procure for you, for the next year, the same 
 aid that I have been able to furnish in the course 
 of the present. I cannot but believe, sir, that 
 Congress will faithfully abide by what it now 
 promises you, that in future no drafts shall be 
 made upon you unless the necessary funds are 
 sent to meet them." 
 
 Such a letter, though only gratitude could be 
 felt for it, must have stung the sensitiveness of 
 Franklin, who had already a great national pride. 
 Nor was the pain likely to be assuaged by the 
 
326 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 conduct of Congress; for that body had not the 
 slightest idea of keeping the promises upon which 
 de Vergennes expressed a reliance perhaps greater 
 than he really felt. It is not without annoyance, 
 even now, that one reads that only two days after 
 the French minister wrote this letter, Congress 
 instructed Franklin to do some more begging for 
 clothes, and for the aid of a fleet, and said: 
 "With respect to the loan, we foresee that the 
 sum which we ask will be greatly inadequate to 
 our wants." 
 
 December 2, 1780, Franklin acknowledges "fa- 
 vors," a conventional phrase which seems sarcas- 
 tic. These tell him that Congress has resolved 
 to draw on him "bills extraordinary, to the 
 amount of near 1300,000." These were doubt- 
 less what led to the foregoing correspondence with 
 de Vergennes. In reply he says that he has 
 already engaged himself for the bills drawn on 
 Mr. Laurens, and adds: "You cannot conceive 
 how much these things perplex and distress me; 
 for the practice of this government being yearly 
 to apportion the revenue to the several expected 
 services, any after demands made, which the trea- 
 sury is not furnished to supply, meet with great 
 difficulty, and are very disagreeable to the min- 
 isters." 
 
 A short fragment of a diary kept in 1781 gives 
 a painful vision of the swarm of bills : — 
 
 " Jan. 6. Accepted a number of loan office bills this 
 day, and every day of the past week. 
 
FINANCIERING 327 
 
 " Sunday, Jan. 7. Accepted a vast number of loan 
 office bills. Some of the new drafts begin to appear. 
 
 " Jan. 8. Accepted many bills. 
 
 " Jan. 10th. Informed that my recall is to be moved 
 for in Congress. 
 
 " Jan. 12th. Sign acceptation [qu. " of " ? mutilated] 
 many bills. They come thick. 
 
 " Jan. 15th. Accepted above 200 bills, some of the 
 new. 
 
 "Jan. 17th. Accepted many bills. 
 
 " Jan. 22d. M. Grand informs me that Mr. Williams 
 has drawn on me for 25,000 livres ; . . . I order pay- 
 ment of his drafts. 
 
 " Jan. 24th. A great number of bills. 
 
 " Jan. 26th. Accept bills." 
 
 February 13 he writes a general begging and 
 stimulating letter to de Vergennes. He says that 
 the plain truth is that the present situation in the 
 States "makes one of two things essential to us 
 — a peace, or the most vigorous aid of our allies, 
 particularly in the article of money. . . . The 
 present conjuncture is critical ; there is some dan- 
 ger lest the Congress should lose its influence over 
 the people, if it is found unable to procure the 
 aids that are wanted; " and in that case the oppor- 
 tunity for separation is gone, "perhaps for ages." 
 A few days later he was "under the necessity of 
 being importunate for an answer to the applica- 
 tion lately made for stores and money." De 
 Vergennes replied, in an interview, that Franklin 
 must know that for France to lend the 25,000,000 
 
328 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 livres asked for was "at present impracticable/ 5 
 Also his excellency mentioned other uncomfortable 
 and distasteful facts, but concluded by saying that 
 the king, as a "signal proof of his friendship," 
 would make a free gift of 6,000,000 livres, in 
 addition to 3,000,000 recently furnished for inter- 
 est drafts. But the French court had at last so 
 far lost confidence in Congress that in order to 
 make sure that this money should be applied in 
 aid of the army, and not be vaguely absorbed 
 by committees, a stipulation was inserted that it 
 should be paid only upon the order of General 
 Washington. This was a trifle insulting to Con- 
 gress, and made trouble; and it seems that ulti- 
 mately the sum was intrusted to Franklin. 
 
 Almost immediately afterward he extorted from 
 Necker an agreement that the king of France 
 would guaranty a loan of 10,000,000 livres, if it 
 could be raised in Holland; and upon these terms 
 he was able to raise this sum. Trouble enough 
 the possession of it soon gave him; for the de- 
 mands for it were numerous. Franklin needed 
 it to keep himself solvent in Europe; Congress 
 greedily sought it for America; William Jackson, 
 who was buying supplies in Holland, required 
 much of it there. Franklin was expected to re- 
 peat with it the miracle of the loaves and fishes. 
 2,500,000 livres he sent to the States in the 
 same ship which carried John Laurens. 2,200,000 
 Laurens disposed of in purchasing goods; 1,500,- 
 000 were sent to Holland to be thence sent to the 
 
 . 
 
FINANCIERING 329 
 
 States in another ship, so as to divide the risk. 
 But while he thus took care of others, he himself 
 was drawn upon by Jackson for <£50,000; and at 
 the same time he was expected to provide for all 
 the bills accepted by Laurens, Jay, and Adams, 
 and now rapidly maturing. He sent in haste to 
 Holland to detain the 1,500,000 livres in transitu. 
 "I am sorry," he said, "that this operation is 
 necessary; but it must be done, or the conse- 
 quences will be terrible." 
 
 Laurens and Jackson, however, in Holland, had 
 been actually spending this sum, and more. "I 
 applaud the zeal you have both shown in the 
 affair," said the harassed doctor, "but I see that 
 nobody cares how much I am distressed, provided 
 they can carry their own points." Fortunately 
 the money still lay in the hands of the banker, 
 and there Franklin stopped it; whereupon Jack- 
 son fell into extreme rage, and threatened some 
 sort of a "proceeding," which Franklin said would 
 only be exceedingly imprudent, useless, and scan- 
 dalous. "The noise rashly made about this mat- 
 ter " by Jackson naturally injured American credit 
 in Holland, and especially rendered unmarketable 
 his own drafts upon Franklin. In these straits 
 he journeyed to Paris to see Franklin, represented 
 that his goods were on board ship; that they 
 were articles much needed in America; that they 
 must be paid for, or else relanded and returned, 
 or sold, which would be a public disgrace. So 
 Franklin was prevailed upon to engage for the 
 
330 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 payment, and was "obliged to go with this after- 
 clap to the ministers," a proceeding especially 
 disagreeable because, as he said, "the money was 
 to be paid for the manufactures of other countries 
 and not laid out in those of this kingdom, by 
 whose friendship it was furnished." He was at 
 first "absolutely refused," but in time prevailed, 
 and "hoped the difficulty was over." Not at all! 
 After all this exertion and annoyance, the officers 
 of the ship said she was overloaded, and turned 
 out a large part of the goods, which were accord- 
 ingly put into two other ships; and then Franklin 
 was offered the option of buying these two vessels, 
 of hiring them at a freight scarcely less than their 
 value, or of having the goods again set on shore. 
 He was now "ashamed to show his face to the 
 minister," and was casting about for resources, 
 when suddenly he was surprised by new demands 
 to pay for the goods which he had every reason 
 to believe had already been paid for. This pro- 
 duced such a dispute and complication that the 
 goods remained long in Holland before affairs 
 could be arranged, and the final settlement is not 
 clearly to be made out. 
 
 In the spring of 1781 John Adams was in 
 Holland, and of course Congress was drawing 
 bills upon him, and equally of course he had not 
 a stiver with which to meet them. He had 
 "opened a loan," but so little had fallen into the 
 opening that he was barely able to pay expenses ; 
 30, still of course, he turned to Franklin: "When 
 
FINANCIERING 331 
 
 they [the bills] arrive and are presented I must 
 write to you concerning them, and desire you to 
 enable me to discharge them." He added that it 
 was a "grievous mortification to find that America 
 has no credit here, while England certainly still 
 has so much." Apparently the pamphlet in which 
 Franklin had so convincingly shown that the re- 
 verse of this should be the case had not satisfied 
 the minds of the Dutch bankers. 
 
 In July, 1781, came a broad hint from Robert 
 Morris : " I will not doubt a moment that, at your 
 instance, his majesty will make pressing represen- 
 tations in support of Mr. Jay's application, and 
 I hope that the authority of so great a sovereign 
 and the arguments of his able ministry will shed 
 auspicious influence on our negotiations at Ma- 
 drid." This fulsome language, intended of course 
 to be read to de Vergennes, imposed the gratify- 
 ing duty of begging the French minister to second 
 American begging in Spain. 
 
 In the same month Franklin wrote to Morris 
 that the French were vexed at the purchasing of 
 goods in Holland, and would not furnish the 
 money to pay for them, and he actually suggested 
 a remittance from America! "Otherwise I shall 
 be ruined, with the American credit in Europe." 
 He might have had some motive besides patriotism 
 in thus uniting himself with the credit of his 
 country; for he had been warned that the consul's 
 court in Paris had power even over the persons of 
 foreign ministers in the case of bills of exchange. 
 
332 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 September 12, 1781, he announces triumph- 
 antly that "the remittances . . . which I re- 
 quested are now unnecessary, and I shall finish 
 the year with honor," notwithstanding "drafts on 
 Mr. Jay and on Mr. Adams much exceeding what 
 I had been made to expect." 
 
 He was now informed that Congress would not 
 draw upon other ministers without providing 
 funds, but that they would continue to draw on 
 him "funds or no funds," an invidious distinction 
 which "terrified" him; for he had been obliged 
 to promise de Vergennes not to accept any drafts 
 drawn later than March, 1781, unless he should 
 have in hand or in view funds sufficient to pay 
 them. But before long he began to suspect that 
 Congress could outwit the French minister. For 
 so late as January, 1782, bills dated prior to the 
 preceding April were still coming; and he said: 
 "I begin to suspect that the drawing continues, 
 and that the bills are antedated. It is impossible 
 for me to go on with demands after demands." 
 The next month also found these old bills on 
 Laurens still coming in. Congress never let the 
 ministers know how many bills it was drawing, 
 perhaps fearing to discourage them by so appall- 
 ing a disclosure. Franklin now wrote to Adams : 
 "Perhaps from the series of numbers and the 
 deficiencies one may be able to divine the sum 
 that has been issued." Moreover, he reflects that 
 he has never had any instructions to pay the 
 acceptances of Jay and Adams, nor has had any 
 
FINANCIERING 333 
 
 ratification of his payments ; neither had he " ever 
 received a syllable of approbation for having done 
 so. Thus I stand charged with vast sums which 
 I have disbursed for the public service without 
 authority." The thought might cause some anx- 
 iety, in view of the moral obliquity manifested by 
 Congress in all its financial dealings. 
 
 In November, 1781, came a long letter from 
 Livingston; everything was wanted; but espe- 
 cially the States must have money! December 
 31, a day that often brings reflection on matters 
 financial, de Vergennes sent a brief warning; 
 1,000,000 livres, which had been promised, Frank- 
 lin should have, but not one livre more under any 
 circumstances; if he had accepted, or should ac- 
 cept, Morris's drafts in excess of this sum, he 
 must trust to his own resources to meet his obliga- 
 tions. Accordingly on January 9, 1782, he wrote 
 to Morris: "Bills are still coming in quantities. 
 . . . You will see by the inclosed letter the situa- 
 tion I am at last brought into. ... I shall be 
 able to pay till the end of February, when, if I 
 can get no more money, I must stop." 
 
 Ten days later he writes to Jay that his solicita- 
 tions make him appear insatiable, that he gets no 
 assurances of aid, but that he is "very sensible" 
 of Jay's "unhappy situation," and therefore man- 
 ages to send him 130,000, though he knows not 
 how to replace it. In the sad month of March, 
 1782, Lafayette nobly helped Franklin in the 
 disagreeable task of begging, but to little purpose ; 
 
334 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 for at length there seemed a general determination 
 to furnish no more money to the States. The 
 fighting was over, and it seemed reasonable that 
 the borrowing should be over likewise. 
 
 In February, 1782, Franklin says that Mr. 
 Morris supposes him to have a sum " vastly greater 
 than the fact," and has "given orders far beyond 
 my abilities to comply with." Franklin was re- 
 garded as a miraculous orange which, if squeezed 
 hard enough, would always yield juice ! It could 
 not have been reassuring, either, to have one of 
 the American agents at this time ask to have 
 150,000 livres advanced to him at once; espe- 
 cially since the frankly provident gentleman based 
 his pressing haste upon the avowed fear that, as 
 business was going on, Franklin's embarrassments 
 in money matters were likely to increase. 
 
 February 13, 1782, Livingston wrote a letter 
 which must have excited a grim smile. He com- 
 forts himself, in making more "importunate de- 
 mands," by reflecting that it is all for the good 
 of Finance ! which thought, he says, may enable 
 Franklin to "press them with some degree of dig- 
 nity." Franklin's sense of humor was touched. 
 That means, he says, that I am to say to de Ver- 
 gennes : " Help us, and we shall not be obliged to 
 you." But in some way or another, probably not 
 precisely in this eccentric way, he so managed it 
 that in March he wheedled the French government 
 into still another and a large loan of 24,000,000 
 livres payable quarterly during the year. March 9 
 
FINANCIERING 335 
 
 he informs Morris " pretty fully of the state of our 
 funds here, by which you will be enabled so to 
 regulate your drafts as that our credit in Europe 
 may not be ruined and your friend killed with 
 vexation." 
 
 He now engaged to pay all the drafts which 
 Jay should send to him, so that Jay could extri- 
 cate himself honorably from those dread engage- 
 ments which had been giving that harassed gentle- 
 man infinite anxiety at Madrid. Some of his 
 acceptances had already gone to protest; but 
 Franklin soon took them all up. By the end of 
 March he began to breathe more freely; he had 
 saved himself and his colleagues thus far and 
 now he hoped that the worst was over. He wrote 
 to Morris: "Your promise that after this month 
 no more bills shall be drawn on me keeps up my 
 spirits and affords me the greatest satisfaction." 
 By the following summer the accounts between 
 France and the States were in course of liquida- 
 tion, and Franklin called the attention of Living- 
 ston to the fact that the king practically made 
 the States a further present "to the value of near 
 two millions. These, added to the free gifts be- 
 fore made to us at different times, form an object 
 of at least twelve millions, for which no returns 
 but that of gratitude and friendship are expected. 
 These, I hope, may be everlasting." But liquida- 
 tion, though a necessary preliminary to payment, 
 is not payment, and does not preclude a continu- 
 ance of borrowing; and in August we find that 
 
336 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Morris was still pressing for more money, still 
 drawing drafts, in happy forgetfulness of his 
 promises not to do so, and still keeping Franklin 
 in anxious dread of bankruptcy. By the same 
 letter it appears that Morris had directed Franklin 
 to pay over to M. Grand, the banker, any surplus 
 funds in his hands! "I would do it with plea- 
 sure, if there were any such," said Franklin; but 
 the question was still of a deficit, not of a surplus. 
 December 14, 1782, finds Franklin still at the 
 old task, preferring "the application so strongly 
 pressed by the Congress for a loan of 14,000,000." 
 Lafayette again helped him, but the result re- 
 mained uncertain. The negotiations for peace were 
 so far advanced that the ministers thought it time 
 for such demands to cease. But probably he 
 succeeded, for a few days later he appears to be 
 remitting a considerable sum. Peace, however, 
 was at hand, and in one respect at least it was 
 peace for Franklin as well as for his country, for 
 even Congress could no longer expect him to con- 
 tinue borrowing. He had indeed rendered ser- 
 vices not less gallant though less picturesque than 
 those of Washington himself, vastly more disagree- 
 able, and scarcely less essential to the success of 
 the cause. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS: AN ADAMS 
 INCIDENT 
 
 John Adams wielded a vivid and vicious pen ; 
 he neglected the Scriptural injunction: "Judge 
 not," and he set honesty before charity in speech. 
 His judgments upon his contemporaries were mer- 
 ciless; they had that kind of truthfulness which 
 precluded contradiction, yet which left a sense of 
 injustice; they were at once accurate and unfair. 
 His strictures concerning Franklin are an illustra- 
 tion of these peculiarities. What he said is of 
 importance because he said it, and because mem- 
 bers of the Adams family in successive genera- 
 tions, voluminous contributors to the history of 
 the country, have never divested themselves of 
 the inherited enmity toward Franklin. During 
 Adams's first visit to France the relationship be- 
 tween him and Franklin is described as sufficiently 
 friendly rather than as cordial. December 7, 
 1778, in a letter to his cousin Samuel Adams, 
 John thus described his colleague : — 
 
 " The other you know personally, and that he loves his 
 Ease, hates to offend, and seldom gives any opinion till 
 obliged to do it. I know also, and it is necessary that 
 you should be informed, that he is overwhelmed with a 
 
338 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 correspondence from all quarters, most of them upon 
 trifling subjects and in a more trifling style, with un- 
 meaning visits from Multitudes of People, chiefly from 
 the Vanity of having it to say that they have seen him. 
 There is another thing that I am obliged to mention. 
 There are so many private families, Ladies and gentle- 
 men, that he visits so often, — and they are so fond of 
 him, that he cannot well avoid it, — and so much inter- 
 course with Academicians, that all these things together 
 keep his mind in a constant state of dissipation. If in- 
 deed you take out of his hand the Public Treasury and 
 the direction of the Frigates and Continental vessels that 
 are sent here, and all Commercial affairs, and entrust 
 them to Persons to be appointed by Congress, at Nantes 
 and Bordeaux, I should think it would be best to have 
 him here alone, with such a Secretary as you can confide 
 in. But if he is left here alone, even with such a secre- 
 tary, and all maritime and Commercial as well as polit- 
 ical affairs and money matters are left in his Hands, I 
 am persuaded that France and America will both have 
 Reason to repent it. He is not only so indolent that 
 Business will be neglected, but you know that, although 
 he has as determined a soul as any man, yet it is his 
 constant Policy never to say ' yes ' or ' no ' decidedly 
 but when he cannot avoid it." 
 
 This mischievous letter, not actually false, yet 
 misrepresenting and misleading, has unfortunately 
 survived to injure both the man who wrote it and 
 the man about whom it was written. It is quoted 
 in order to show the sort of covert fire in the rear 
 to which Franklin was subjected throughout his 
 term of service. It is astonishing now, when the 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 339 
 
 evidence is all before us and the truth is attain- 
 able, to read such a description of such a patriot 
 as Franklin, a man who went through labors and 
 anxieties for the cause probably only surpassed by 
 those of Washington, and whose services did more 
 to promote success than did the services of any 
 other save only Washington. How blind was the 
 personal prejudice of the critic who saw Franklin 
 in Paris and could yet suggest that the charge of 
 the public treasury should be taken from him! 
 To whom else would the Frenchmen have unlocked 
 their coffers as they did to him, whom they so 
 warmly liked and admired? John Adams and 
 Arthur Lee and other Americans who endeavored 
 to deal with the French court got themselves 
 so thoroughly hated there that little aid would 
 have been forthcoming at the request of such re- 
 presentatives. It was to Franklin's personal influ- 
 ence that a large portion of the substantial help 
 in men, ships, and especially in money, accorded 
 by France to the States, was due. He was as 
 much the right man in Europe as was Washing- 
 ton in America. 
 
 Nevertheless this attribution of traits, so mali- 
 ciously penned, has passed into history, and though 
 the world does not see that either France or the 
 States had cause "to repent" keeping Franklin in 
 Paris in general charge of affairs, and unwatched 
 by a vigilant secretary, yet all the world believes 
 that in the gay metropolis Franklin was indolent and 
 given over to social pleasures, which flattered his 
 
340 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 vanity. Undoubtedly there is foundation in fact 
 for the belief. But to arrive at a just conclu- 
 sion one must consider many things. The char- 
 acter of the chief witness is as important as that 
 of the accused. Adams, besides being a severe 
 critic, was filled to the brim with an irrepressible 
 activity, an insatiate industry, a restlessness and 
 energy, all which were at this period stimulated 
 by the excitement of the times to an intensity 
 excessive and abnormal even for him. To him, 
 in this condition of chronic agitation, the serenity 
 of Franklin's broad intellect and tranquil nature 
 seemed inexplicable and culpable. But Franklin 
 had what Adams lacked, a vast experience in men 
 and affairs. Adams knew the provinces and the 
 provincials; Franklin knew the provinces and 
 England and France, the provincials, English- 
 men, Frenchmen, and all ranks and conditions of 
 men, — journeymen, merchants, philosophers, men 
 of letters, diplomatists, courtiers, noblemen, and 
 statesmen. The one was an able colonist, the 
 other was a man of the world, of exceptionally 
 wide personal experience even as such. Moreover 
 Franklin's undertakings were generally crowned 
 with a success which justifies us in saying that, 
 however much or little exertion he visibly put 
 forth, at least he put forth enough. Adams some- 
 times was for putting forth too much. Franklin, 
 when he arrived in France, was in his seventy-first 
 year; his health was in the main good, yet his 
 strength had been severely tried by his journey 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 341 
 
 to Canada and by the voyage. He was troubled 
 with a cutaneous complaint, of which he makes 
 light, but which was abundant evidence that his 
 physical condition was far from perfect; he was 
 a victim of the gout, which attacked him frequently 
 and with great severity, so that he was often 
 obliged to keep his bed for days and weeks ; when 
 he was appointed sole minister of the States to 
 France he remarked that there was "some incon- 
 gruity in a plenipotentiary who could neither 
 stand nor go;" later on he suffered extremely 
 from stone and gravel; with all these diseases, 
 and with the remorseless disease of old age gain- 
 ing ground every day, it is hardly surprising that 
 Franklin seemed to the hale and vigorous Adams 
 not to be making that show of activity which 
 would have been becoming in the chief represent- 
 ative of the United States during these critical 
 years. Yet except that he was careless about his 
 papers and remiss in his correspondence, no defi- 
 nite allegations are made against him prior to the 
 treating for peace ; no business of importance was 
 ever said to have failed in his hands, which should 
 be a sufficient vindication of his general efficiency. 
 The amount of labor which was laid upon him was 
 enormous: he did as much business as the man- 
 aging head of a great banking-house and a great 
 mercantile firm combined; he did all the diplo- 
 macy of the United States; he was also their 
 consul-general, and though he had agents in some 
 ports, yet they more often gave trouble than assist- 
 
342 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ance; after the commercial treaty with France 
 he had to investigate French laws and tariffs and 
 give constant advice to American merchants upon 
 all sorts of questions as to statutes, trade, customs, 
 dues, and duties. What he did concerning the 
 warships, the privateers, and the prizes has been 
 hinted at rather than stated ; what he did in the 
 way of financiering has been imperfectly shown; 
 he was often engaged in planning naval operations 
 either for Paul Jones and others in European 
 waters or for the French fleet in American waters. 
 He had for a perpetual annoyance all the captious- 
 ness and the quarrels of the two Lees, Izard, and 
 Thomas Morris. When business had to be trans- 
 acted, as often occurred, with states at whose 
 courts the United States had no representative, 
 Franklin had to manage it ; x especially he was 
 concerned with the business in Spain, whither he 
 would have journeyed in person had his health 
 and other engagements permitted. Moreover he 
 was adviser-general to all American officials of 
 any and every grade and function in Europe ; 
 and much as some of these gentlemen contemned 
 him, they each and all instinctively demanded his 
 guidance in every matter of importance. Even 
 Arthur Lee deferred to him rather than decide 
 for himself ; Dana sought his instructions for the 
 mission to Russia; men of the calibre of Jay and 
 independent John Adams sought and respected 
 
 1 For example, with Norway, with Denmark, and with Por- 
 tugal. 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 343 
 
 his views and his aid, perhaps more than they 
 themselves appreciated. Surely here was labor 
 enough, and even more responsibility than labor; 
 but Franklin's great, well-trained mind worked 
 with the ease and force of a perfectly regulated 
 machine whose smoothness of action almost con- 
 ceals its power, and all the higher parts of his 
 labor were achieved with little perceptible effort. 
 For the matters of account-keeping and letter- 
 writing, he neglected these things; and one is 
 almost provoked into respecting him for so doing 
 when it is remembered that during all the time of 
 his stay in France Congress never allowed to this 
 aged and overtasked man a secretary of legation, 
 or even an amanuensis or a copyist. He had with 
 him his grandson, Temple Franklin, a lad of six- 
 teen years at the time of his arrival in France, 
 and whom it had been intended to place at school. 
 But Franklin could not dispense with his services, 
 and kept this youngster as his sole clerk and assist- 
 ant. It should be mentioned also in this connec- 
 tion that it was not only necessary to prepare the 
 customary duplicates of every document of impor- 
 tance, but every paper which was to be sent across 
 the Atlantic had to be copied half a dozen extra 
 times, in order to be dispatched in as many differ- 
 ent ships, so great were the dangers of capture. 
 It was hardly fair to expect a minister plenipoten- 
 tiary to display unwearied zeal in this sort of 
 work. Adams himself would have done it, and 
 grumbled; Franklin did not do it, and preserved 
 
344 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 his good temper. In conclusion it may be said 
 that, if Franklin was indolent, as in some ways 
 he probably was, he had at least much excuse for 
 indolence, and the jrait showed itself only on 
 what may be called the physical side of his duties; 
 upon the intellectual side, it cannot be denied that 
 during the period thus far traversed he did more 
 thinking and to better purpose than any other 
 American of the day. 
 
 In saying that Franklin was fond of society and 
 pleased with the admiration expressed for him by 
 the ardent and courteous Frenchmen and by other 
 continental Europeans, Adams spoke correctly. 
 Franklin was always social and always a little 
 vain. But much less would have been heard of 
 these traits if the distinction made between him 
 and his colleagues had been less conspicuous and 
 less constant. That men of the size of the Lees 
 and Izard should inflate themselves to the measure 
 of harboring a jealousy of Franklin's preeminence 
 was only ridiculous; but Adams should have had, 
 as Jay had, too much self-respect to cherish such 
 a feeling. It was the weak point in his character 
 that he could never acknowledge a superior, and 
 the fact that the world at large estimated Wash- 
 ington, Franklin, and Hamilton as men of larger 
 calibre than his own kept him in a state of exas- 
 peration all his life. Now the simple truth, forced 
 in a thousand unintended ways upon the know- 
 ledge of all American envoys during the Kevoku 
 tion, was, that in Europe Franklin was a distin- 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 345 
 
 guished man, while no other American was known 
 or cared for at all. Franklin received deference, 
 where others received civility; Franklin was se- 
 lected for attentions, for flattery, for official con- 
 sultations and communications, while his colleagues 
 were " forgotten entirely by the French people." 
 Jay, Dana, and Carmichael accepted this situa- 
 tion in the spirit of sensible gentlemen, but 
 Adams, the Lees, and Izard were incensed and 
 sought an offset in defamation. Compare Carmi- 
 chael' s language with what has been quoted from 
 Adams: he says: "The age of Dr. Franklin in 
 some measure hinders him from taking so active 
 a part in the drudgery of business as his great 
 zeal and abilities would otherwise enable him to 
 execute. He is the Master, to whom we children 
 in politics look up for counsel, and whose name is 
 everywhere a passport to be well received." Still 
 it must have been provoking to be customarily 
 spoken of as "Dr. Franklin's associates." When 
 Franklin was appointed minister plenipotentiary 
 he was obliged to explain that he was not the 
 "sole representative of America in Europe." De 
 Yergennes always wished to deal only with him, 
 and occasionally said things to him in secrecy so 
 close as to be exclusive even of his "associates." 
 Adams honestly admitted that "this court have 
 confidence in him alone." When a favor was to 
 be asked, it was Franklin who could best seek it; 
 and when it was granted it seemed to be vouch- 
 safed to Franklin. In a word, Franklin had the 
 
 
346 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 monopoly of the confidence, the respect, and the 
 personal regard of the French ministry. It was 
 the same way also with the English; when they 
 made advances for conciliation or peace, they too 
 selected Franklin for their communications. 
 
 Adams was not sufficiently familiar with the 
 modes of political life in Europe to appreciate 
 what a substantial value Franklin's social and 
 scientific prestige among the "ladies and gentle- 
 men" and the "academicians" had there. All 
 those tributes which the great "philosopher" was 
 constantly receiving may have been, as Adams 
 said, pleasant food for his vanity, but they were 
 also of practical worth and service, signifying that 
 he was a man of real note and importance in what 
 European statesmen regarded as "the world." 
 If Franklin relished the repast, who among mor- 
 tals would not? And was his accuser a man to 
 have turned his back on such viands, had he also 
 been bidden to the feast of flattery? Franklin's 
 vanity was a simple, amiable, and harmless source 
 of pleasure to himself; it was not of the greedy 
 or envious type, nor did its gratification do any 
 injury to any person or any interest. Jay, a 
 man of generous temper, understood the advantage 
 reaped by the States from being represented at 
 the French court by a man whose greatness all 
 Europe recognized. More than once he bore this 
 testimony, honorable alike to the giver and to him 
 for whom it was given. 1 
 
 1 See, for example, Franklin's Works, vii. 252, note. 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 347 
 
 Pleasant as were many of the features of Frank- 
 lin's residence in France, and skillfully as he may 
 have evaded some of the more irksome labors im- 
 posed upon him, the attraction was not always 
 sufficient to make him reluctant to have done with 
 the place. Its vexations and anxieties wore upon 
 him grievously. He knew that unfriendly repre- 
 sentations concerning him were often made in 
 America, and that these induced some men to 
 distrust him, and caused others to feel anxious 
 about him. He heard stories that he was to be 
 recalled, other stories that there was a cabal to 
 vent a petty ill will by putting an end to the clerk- 
 ship of his grandson. This cut him to the quick. 
 "I should not part with the child," he said, "but 
 with the employment; " and so the ignoble scheme 
 miscarried; for Congress was not ready to lose 
 Franklin, and did not really feel any extreme 
 dread of harm from a lad who, though the son of 
 a loyalist, had grown up under Franklin's personal 
 influence. At times homesickness attacked him. 
 When he heard of the death of an old friend at 
 home he wrote sadly: "A few more such deaths 
 will make me a stranger in my own country." 
 He was not one of those patriots who like to live 
 abroad and protest love for their own country. 
 Generally he preserved the delightful evenness of 
 his temper with a success quite wonderful in a 
 man troubled with complaints which preeminently 
 make the sufferer impatient and irascible. Only 
 once he said, when he was being very unreasonably 
 
348 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 annoyed about some shipping business: "I will 
 absolutely have nothing to do with any new squad- 
 ron project. I have been too long in hot water, 
 plagued almost to death with the passions, vaga- 
 ries, and ill humors and madnesses of other people. 
 I must have a little repose." A very mild out- 
 break this, under all his provocations, but it is 
 the only one of which any record remains. His 
 tranquil self-control was a very remarkable trait; 
 he was never made so angry by all the calumny 
 and assaults of enemies peculiarly apt in the art 
 of irritation as to use any immoderate or undig- 
 nified language. He never retaliated, though he 
 had the fighting capacity in him. Before the 
 tribunal of posterity his patient endurance has 
 counted greatly in his favor. 
 
 By March, 1781, he had definitively made up 
 his mind to resign, and wrote to the president of 
 Congress a letter which was unmistakably earnest 
 and in parts even touching. 1 When this alarming 
 communication was received all the depreciation 
 of the Lees, Izard, and the rest went for nothing. 
 Without hesitation Congress ignored the request, 
 with far better reason than it could show for the 
 utter indifference with which it was wont to regard 
 pretty much all the other requests which Franklin 
 ever made. Its behavior in this respect was in- 
 deed very singular. He recommended his grand- 
 son to it, and it paid absolutely no attention to 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vii. 207 ; the letter is unfortunately too 
 long to quote. See also his letter to Lafayette, Ibid. 237. 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 349 
 
 the petition. He repeatedly asked the appoint- 
 ment of consuls at some of the French ports; it 
 created all sorts of other officials, keeping Paris 
 full of useless and costly "ministers" accredited 
 to courts which would not receive them, but ap- 
 pointed no consul. He urged hard, as a trifling 
 personal favor, that an accountant might be ap- 
 pointed to audit his nephew Williams's accounts, 
 but Congress would not attend to a matter which 
 could have been disposed of in five minutes. He 
 never could get a secretary or a clerk, nor even 
 any proper appointment of, or salary for, his 
 grandson. He seldom got an expression of thanks 
 or approbation for anything that he did, though 
 he did many things wholly outside of his regular 
 functions and involving great personal risk and 
 responsibility. Yet when he really wanted to 
 resign he was not allowed to do so ; and thus at 
 last he was left to learn by inference that he had 
 given satisfaction. 1 
 
 No sooner had Adams got comfortably settled 
 at home than he was obliged to return again to 
 Europe. Franklin, Jay, Laurens, Jefferson, and 
 he were appointed by Congress commissioners to 
 treat for peace, whenever the fitting time should 
 come; and so in February, 1780, he was back in 
 Paris. But peace was still far away in the future, 
 and Adams, meanwhile, finding the intolerable 
 incumbrance of leisure upon his hands, exorcised 
 1 See letter to Carmichael, Works, vii. 285. 
 
350 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the demon by writing long letters to de Vergennes 
 upon sundry matters of interest in American af- 
 fairs. It was an unfortunate scheme. If Nature 
 had maliciously sought to create a man for the 
 express purpose of aggravating de Vergennes, she 
 could not have made one better adapted for that 
 service than was Adams. Very soon there was a 
 terrible explosion, and Franklin, invoked by both 
 parties, had to hasten to the rescue, to his own 
 serious injury. 
 
 On May 31, 1780, in a letter to the president 
 of Congress, Franklin said: "A great clamor has 
 lately been made by some merchants, who say they 
 have large sums on their hands of paper money 
 in America, and that they are ruined by some 
 resolution of Congress, which reduces its value to 
 one part in forty. As I have had no letter ex- 
 plaining this matter I have only been able to say 
 that it is probably misunderstood, and that I am 
 confident the Congress have not done, nor will 
 do, anything unjust towards strangers who have 
 given us credit." Soon afterward Adams got pri- 
 vate information of the passage of an act for the 
 redemption of the paper money at the rate of 
 forty dollars for one in silver. At once he sent 
 the news to de Vergennes. That statesman took 
 fire at the tidings, and promptly responded that 
 foreigners ought to be indemnified for any losses 
 they might suffer, and that Americans alone 
 should "support the expense which is occasioned 
 by the defense of their liberty," and should regard 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 351 
 
 "the depreciation of their paper money only as 
 an impost which ought to fall upon themselves." 
 He added that he had instructed the Chevalier 
 de la Luzerne, French minister to the States, "to 
 make the strongest representations on this sub- 
 ject " to Congress. 
 
 Adams was alarmed at the anger which he had 
 excited, and besought de Vergennes to hold his 
 hand until Franklin could "have opportunity to 
 make his representations to his majesty's minis- 
 ters." But this gleam of good sense was transi- 
 tory, for on the same day, without waiting for 
 Franklin to intervene, he composed and sent to 
 de Vergennes a long, elaborate defense of the 
 course of the States. It was such an argument 
 as a stubborn lawyer might address to a presum- 
 ably prejudiced court ; it had not a pleasant word 
 of gratitude for past favors, or of regret at the 
 present necessity; it was as undiplomatic and ill 
 considered as it certainly was unanswerable. But 
 its impregnability could not offset its gross impru- 
 dence. To exasperate de Vergennes and alienate 
 the French government at that period, although 
 by a perfectly sound presentation, was an act of 
 madness as unpardonable as any crime. 
 
 Upon the same day on which Adams drew up 
 this able, inexcusable brief for his unfortunate 
 client, the Congress, he wrote to Franklin begging 
 him to interfere. On June 29 he followed this 
 request with a humbler note than John Adams 
 often wrote, acknowledging that he might have 
 
352 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 made some errors, and desiring to be set right. 
 On June 30 de Vergennes also appealed to Frank- 
 lin, saying, amid much more: "The king is so 
 firmly persuaded, sir, that your private opinion 
 respecting the effects of that resolution of Con- 
 gress, as far as it concerns strangers and espe- 
 cially Frenchmen, differs from that of Mr. Adams, 
 that he is not apprehensive of laying you under 
 any embarrassment by requesting you to support 
 the representations which his minister is ordered 
 to make to Congress." 
 
 Franklin, receiving these epistles, was greatly 
 vexed at the jeopardy into which the rash zeal of 
 Adams had suddenly plunged the American inter- 
 ests in France. His indignation was not likely 
 to be made less by the fact that all this letter- 
 writing to de Vergennes was a tacit reproach upon 
 his own performance of his duties and a gratuitous 
 intrenchment upon his province. The question 
 which presented itself to him was not whether the 
 argument of Adams was right or wrong, nor 
 whether the distinction which de Vergennes sought 
 to establish between American citizens and for- 
 eigners was practicable or not. This was fortu- 
 nate, because, while Adams in the States had 
 been forced to ponder carefully all the problems 
 of a depreciating paper currency, Franklin in 
 France had neither necessity, nor opportunity, 
 nor leisure for studying either the ethics or the 
 solution of so perplexing a problem. He now 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 353 
 
 hastily made such inquiries as he could among the 
 Americans lately arrived in Paris, but did not 
 pretend "perfectly to understand" the subject. 
 To master its difficulties, however, did not seem 
 essential, because he recognized that the obvious 
 duty of the moment was to say something which 
 might at least mitigate the present wrath of the 
 French ministry, and so gain time for explanation 
 and adjustment in a better state of feeling. He 
 had once laid down to Arthur Lee the principle : 
 " While we are asking aid it is necessary to grat- 
 ify the desires and in some sort comply with the 
 humors of those we apply to. Our business now 
 is to carry our point." Acting upon this rule 
 of conciliation, he wrote, on July 10, to de Ver- 
 gennes : — 
 
 " In this I am clear, that if the operation directed by 
 Congress in their resolution of March the 18th occa- 
 sions, from the necessity of the case, some inequality of 
 justice, that inconvenience ought to fall wholly upon the 
 inhabitants of the States, who reap with it the advantages 
 obtained by the measure ; and that the greatest care 
 should be taken that foreign merchants, particularly the 
 French, who are our creditors, do not suffer by it. This 
 I am so confident the Congress will do that I do not 
 think any representations of mine necessary to persuade 
 them to it. I shall not fail, however, to lay the whole 
 before them." 
 
 In pursuance of this promise Franklin wrote on 
 August 9 a full narrative of the entire matter; it 
 
354 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 was a fair and temperate statement of facts which 
 it was his duty to lay before Congress. 1 Before 
 sending it he wrote to Adams that de Vergennes, 
 "having taken much amiss some passages in your 
 letter to him, sent the whole correspondence to 
 me, requesting that I would transmit it to Con- 
 gress. I was myself sorry to see those passages. 
 If they were the effects merely of inadvertence, 
 and you do not, on reflection, approve of them, 
 perhaps you may think it proper to write some- 
 thing for effacing the impressions made by them. 
 I do not presume to advise you; but mention it 
 only for your consideration." But Adams had 
 already taken his own measures for presenting 
 the case before Congress. 
 
 Such is the full story of Franklin's doings in 
 this affair. His connection with it was limited 
 to an effort to counteract the mischief which an- 
 other had done. Whether he thought that the 
 "inconvenience" which "ought to fall" only on 
 Americans could be arranged to do so, does not 
 appear; probably he never concerned himself to 
 work out a problem entirely outside his own de- 
 partment. As a diplomatist, who had to gain 
 time for angry people to cool down for amicable 
 discussion, he was content to throw out this gen- 
 eral remark, and to express confidence that his 
 countrymen would do liberal justice. So far as 
 he was concerned, this should have been the end 
 of the matter, and Adams should have been grate- 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vii. 110-112. 
 
HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS 365 
 
 ful to a man whose tranquil wisdom and skillful 
 tact had saved him from the self-reproach which 
 he would ever have felt had his well-intentioned, 
 ill-timed act borne its full possible fruit of in jury- 
 to the cause of the States. But Adams, who 
 knew that his views were intrinsically correct, 
 emerged from the imbroglio with an extreme re- 
 sentment against his rescuer, nor was he ever able 
 to see that Franklin did right in not reiterating 
 the same views. He wished not to be saved but 
 to be vindicated. The consequence has been 
 unfortunate for Franklin, because the affair has 
 furnished material for one of the counts in the 
 indictment which the Adamses have filed against 
 him before the bar of posterity. 
 
 It may be remarked here that the few words 
 which Franklin ever let drop concerning paper 
 money indicate that he had given it little thought. 
 He said that in Europe it seemed "a mystery," 
 u a wonderful machine;" and there is no reason 
 why he should have understood it better than 
 other people in Europe. He also said that the 
 general effect of the depreciation had operated as 
 a gradual tax on the citizens, and "perhaps the 
 most equal of all taxes, since it depreciated in the 
 hands of the holders of money, and thereby taxed 
 them in proportion to the sums they held and the 
 time they held it, which is generally in proportion 
 to men's wealth." 1 The remark could not keep 
 a place in any very profound discussion of the 
 
 1 See also Franklin's Works, vii. 343. 
 
356 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 subject; but it should be noted that in this point 
 of view the contention of de Vergennes might be 
 logically defended, on the ground that a foreigner 
 ought not to be taxed like a citizen; but the in- 
 superable difficulty of making the distinction prac- 
 ticable remained undisposed of. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PEACE NEGOTIATIONS: LAST YEARS IN FRANCE 
 
 The war had not been long waging before over- 
 tures and soundings concerning an accommodation, 
 abetted and sometimes instigated by the cabinet, 
 began to come from England. Nearly all these 
 were addressed to Franklin, because all Europe 
 persisted in regarding him as the one authentic 
 representative of America, and because English- 
 men of all parties had long known and respected 
 him far beyond any other American. In March, 
 1778, William Pulteney, a member of Parliament, 
 came under an assumed name to Paris and had 
 an interview with him. But it seemed that Eng- 
 land would not renounce the theory of the power 
 of Parliament over the colonies, though willing 
 by way of favor to forego its exercise. Franklin 
 declared an arrangement on such a basis to be 
 impossible. 
 
 A few months later there occurred the singular 
 and mysterious episode of Charles de Weissen- 
 stein. Such was the signature to a letter dated at 
 Brussels, June 16, 1778. The writer said that in- 
 dependence was an impossibility, and that the Eng- 
 lish title to the colonies, being indisputable, would 
 
358 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 be enforced by coming generations even if the 
 present generation should have to "stop awhile in 
 the pursuit to recover breath; " he then sketched a 
 plan of reconciliation, which included offices or 
 life pensions for Franklin. Washington, and other 
 prominent rebels. He requested a personal inter- 
 view with Franklin, and, failing that, he appointed 
 to be in a certain spot in Notre Dame at a certain 
 hour, wearing a rose in his hat, to receive a written 
 reply. The French police reported the presence 
 at the time and place of a man obviously bent 
 upon this errand, who was traced to his hotel and 
 found, says John Adams, to be "Colonel Fitz- 
 something, an Irish name, that I have forgotten." 
 He got no answer, because at a consultation be- 
 tween the American commissioners and de Ver- 
 gennes it was so decided. But one had been 
 written by Franklin, and though de Weissenstein 
 and Colonel Fitz -something never saw it, at least 
 it has afforded pleasure to thousands of readers 
 since that time. For by sundry evidence Frank- 
 lin became convinced, even to the point of alleging 
 that he "knew," that the incognito correspondent 
 was the English monarch himself, whose letter 
 the Irish colonel had brought. The extraordinary 
 occasion inspired him. It is a rare occurrence 
 when one can speak direct to a king as man with 
 man on terms of real equality. Franklin seized 
 his chance, and wrote a letter in his best vein, a 
 dignified, vigorous statement of the American po- 
 sition, an eloquent, indignant arraignment of the 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 359 
 
 English measures for which George III. more 
 than any other one man was responsible. In 
 language which was impassioned without being 
 extravagant, he mingled sarcasm and retort, state- 
 ment and argument, with a strenuous force that 
 would have bewildered the royal "de Weissen- 
 stein." To this day one cannot read these sting- 
 ing paragraphs without a feeling of disappoint- 
 ment that de Vergennes would not let them reach 
 their destination. Such a bolt should have been 
 sent hotly home, not dropped to be picked up as 
 a curiosity by the groping historians of posterity. 
 
 The good Hartley also was constantly toiling 
 to find some common ground upon which negotia- 
 tors could stand and talk. One of his schemes, 
 which now seems an idle one, was for a long 
 truce, during which passions might subside and 
 perhaps a settlement be devised. Franklin ever 
 lent a courteous ear to any one who spoke the 
 word Peace. But neither this strong feeling, nor 
 any discouragement by reason of American re- 
 verses, nor any arguments of Englishmen ever 
 induced him to recede in the least from the line 
 of demands which he thought reasonable, nor to 
 abate his uncompromising plainness of speech. 
 
 With the outbreak of war Franklin's feelings 
 towards England had taken on that extreme bit- 
 terness which so often succeeds when love and 
 admiration seem to have been misplaced. "I was 
 fond to a folly," he said, "of our British connec- 
 tions, . . . but the extreme cruelty with which 
 
360 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 we have been treated has now extinguished every 
 thought of returning to it, and separated us for- 
 ever. You have thereby lost limbs that will never 
 grow again." English barbarities, he declared, 
 "have at length demolished all my moderation." 
 Often and often he reiterated such statements in 
 burning words, which verge more nearly upon 
 vehemence than any other reminiscence which sur- 
 vives to us of the great and calm philosopher. 
 
 Yet in the bottom of his heart he felt that the 
 chasm should not be made wider and deeper than 
 was inevitable. In 1780 he told Hartley that 
 Congress would fain have had him "make a school- 
 book" from accounts of "British barbarities," to 
 be illustrated by thirty -five prints by good artists 
 of Paris, "each expressing one or more of the 
 different horrid facts, ... in order to impress 
 the minds of children and posterity with a deep 
 sense of your bloody and insatiable malice and 
 wickedness." He would not do this, yet was 
 sorely provoked toward it. "Every kindness I 
 hear of done by an Englishman to an American 
 prisoner makes me resolve not to proceed in the 
 work, hoping a reconciliation may yet take place. 
 But every fresh instance of your devilism weakens 
 that resolution, and makes me abominate the 
 thought of a reunion with such a people." 
 
 In point of fact the idea of an actual reunion 
 seems never from the very outset to have had 
 any real foothold in his mind. In 1779 he said: 
 "We have long since settled all the account in 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 361 
 
 our own minds. We know the worst you can do 
 to us, if you have your wish, is to confiscate our 
 estates and take our lives, to rob and murder us ; 
 and this ... we are ready to hazard rather than 
 come again under your detested government. " x 
 This sentiment steadily gained strength as the 
 struggle advanced. Whenever he talked about 
 terms of peace he took a tone so high as must 
 have seemed altogether ridiculous to English states- 
 men. Independence, he said, was established; no 
 words need be wasted about that. Then he auda- 
 ciously suggested that it would be good policy for 
 England "to act nobly and generously; ... to 
 cede all that remains in North America, and thus 
 conciliate and strengthen a young power, which 
 she wishes to have a future and serviceable friend." 
 She would do well to "throw in" Canada, Nova 
 Scotia, and the Floridas, and "call it ... an 
 indemnification for the burning of the towns." 
 
 Englishmen constantly warned him of the blun- 
 der which the colonies would commit, should they 
 "throw themselves into the arms" of France, and 
 they assured him that the alliance was the one 
 "great stumbling-block in the way of making 
 peace." But he had ever the reply, after the 
 fashion of Scripture: By their fruits ye shall 
 know them. France was as liberal of friendship 
 and good services as England was of tyranny and 
 cruelties. This was enough to satisfy Franklin; 
 
 1 See also a strong statement in letter to Hartley of October 14, 
 1777 ; Works, vii. 106. 
 
362 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 he saw no Judas in the constant and generous 
 de Vergennes, and could recognize no inducement 
 to drop the substance France for the shadow Eng- 
 land. 1 To his mind it seemed to concern equally 
 the honor and the interest of the States to stand 
 closely and resolutely by their allies, whom to 
 abandon would be "infamy; " and after all, what 
 better bond could there be than a common interest 
 and a common foe? From this view he never 
 wavered to the hour when the definitive treaty of 
 peace was signed. 2 
 
 Such was Franklin's frame of mind when the 
 surrender at Yorktown and the events incident 
 to the reception of the news in England at last 
 brought peace into really serious consideration. 
 The States had already been forward to place 
 themselves in a position for negotiating at the first 
 possible moment. For in 1779 Congress had re- 
 ceived from France an intimation that it would 
 be well to have an envoy in Europe empowered 
 to treat; and though it was seizing time very 
 much by the forelock, yet that body was in no 
 mood to dally with so pleasing a hint, and at once 
 nominated John Adams to be plenipotentiary. 
 This, however, by no means, fell in with the 
 schemes of the French ministry, for de Vergennes 
 knew and disliked Mr. Adams's very unmanage- 
 able character. Accordingly the French ambassa- 
 
 1 See Franklin's Works, vi. 303. 
 
 2 See Franklin's Works, vi. 151, 303, 310 ; vii. 3, for examples 
 of his expressions on this subject. 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 363 
 
 dor at Philadelphia was instructed to use his great 
 influence with Congress to effect some ameliora- 
 tion of the distasteful arrangement, and he soon 
 covertly succeeded in inducing Congress to create 
 a commission by appointing Adams, Jay, Frank- 
 lin, Jefferson, who never went on the mission, 
 and Laurens, who was a prisoner in England and 
 joined his colleagues only after the business had 
 been substantially concluded. Adams promptly 
 came to Paris, created a great turmoil there, as 
 has been in part narrated, and passed on to Hol- 
 land, where he still remained. Jay, accredited 
 to, but not yet received by, the Spanish court, 
 was at Madrid. Franklin therefore alone was on 
 hand in Paris when the great tidings of the cap- 
 ture of Cornwallis came. 
 
 It was on November 25, 1781, that Lord North 
 got this news, taking it "as he would have taken 
 a ball in his breast." He recognized at once that 
 "all was over," yet for a short time longer he 
 retained the management of affairs. But his ma- 
 jority in Parliament was steadily dwindling, and 
 evidently with him also "all was over." In his 
 despair he caught with almost pathetic eagerness 
 at what for a moment seemed a chance to save his 
 ministry by treating with the States secretly and 
 apart from France. He was a man not troubled 
 with convictions, and having been obstinate in 
 conducting a war for which he really cared little, 
 he was equally ready to save his party by putting 
 an end to it with the loss of all that had been at 
 
364 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 stake. Franklin, however, decisively cut off that 
 hope. America, he assured Hartley, would not 
 forfeit the world's good opinion by "such per- 
 fidy;'' and in the incredible event of Congress 
 instructing its commissioners to treat upon "such 
 ignominious terms," he himself at least "would 
 certainly refuse to act." So Digges, whom Frank- 
 lin described as "the greatest villain I ever met 
 with," carried back no comfort from secret, tenta- 
 tive errands to Adams in Holland and to Franklin 
 in France. Simultaneous furtive advances to 
 de Vergennes met with a like rebuff. France and 
 America were not to be separated; Lord North 
 and his colleagues were not to be saved by the 
 bad faith of either of their enemies. On Febru- 
 ary 22, 1782, an address to the king against con- 
 tinuing the American war was moved by Conway. 
 It was carried by a majority of nineteen. A few 
 days later a second, more pointed, address was 
 carried without a division. The next day leave 
 was granted to bring in a bill enabling the king 
 to make a peace or a truce with the colonies. 
 The game was up; the ministry held no more 
 cards to play; on March 20 Lord North an- 
 nounced that his administration was at an end. 
 
 In his shrewd, intelligent fashion, Franklin was 
 watching these events, perfectly appreciating the 
 significance of each in turn. On March 22 he 
 seized an opportunity which chance threw in his 
 way for writing to Lord Shelburne a short note, 
 in which he suggested a hope that the "returning 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 365 
 
 good disposition" of England towards America 
 would "tend to produce a general peace." It 
 was a note of a few lines only, seemingly a mere 
 pleasant passage of courtesy to an old friend, but 
 significant and timely, an admirable specimen of 
 the delicate tact with which Franklin could meet 
 and almost create opportunity. A few days later 
 the cabinet of Lord Rockingham was formed, 
 composed of the friends of America. In it 
 Charles Fox was secretary for foreign affairs, 
 and Lord Shelburne had the home department, 
 including the colonies. No sooner were the new 
 ministers fairly instated than Shelburne dispatched 
 Richard Oswald, a retired Scotch merchant, of 
 very estimable character, of good temper, reason- 
 able views, and sufficient ability, to talk matters 
 over with Franklin at Paris. Oswald arrived on 
 April 12, and had satisfactory interviews with 
 Franklin and de Vergennes. The important fact 
 of which he became satisfied by the explicit lan- 
 guage of Franklin was, that the hope of inducing 
 the American commissioners to treat secretly and 
 separately from France was utterly groundless. 1 
 After a few days he went back to London, carry- 
 ing a letter from Franklin to Shelburne, in which 
 Franklin expressed his gratification at these over- 
 tures and his hope that Oswald might continue 
 
 1 About the same time Laurens was released on parole and 
 sent to confer with Adams in Holland, concerning a separate 
 treating, and brought from Adams the like response as Oswald 
 brought from Franklin. 
 
366 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 to represent the English minister. Oswald also 
 carried certain "Notes for Conversation," which 
 Franklin had written out; "some loose thoughts 
 on paper," as he called them, "which I intended 
 to serve as memorandums for my discourse, but 
 without a fixed intention of showing them to him." 
 As matters turned out later, it would have been 
 better if Franklin had not been quite so free with 
 these "memorandums," which contained a sugges- 
 tion that the English should cede Canada and 
 the Americans should recoup the losses of the 
 royalists. Indeed, no sooner had the paper left 
 his hands than he saw his error, and was "a little 
 ashamed of his weakness." The letter only was 
 shown to the whole cabinet. 
 
 On May 5. Oswald was again in Paris, charged 
 to discuss terms with Franklin. But on May 7 
 there arrived also Thomas Grenville, deputed by 
 Fox to approach de Vergennes with the design 
 not only of treating with France, but also of treat- 
 ing with the States through France. The double 
 mission indicated a division in the English cabi- 
 net. Fox and Shelburne were almost as hostile 
 to each other as were both to Lord North; and 
 each was aiming to control the coming negotia- 
 tions with the States. Which should secure it 
 was a nice question. For English purposes of 
 classification the States, until independence was 
 acknowledged, remained colonies, and so within the 
 charge of Shelburne. Hence came Fox's scheme 
 for reaching them indirectly through France, also 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 367 
 
 his avowed willingness to recognize their independ- 
 ence immediately, for foreign business belonged 
 to him. Shelburne, on the other hand, strenu- 
 ously resisted this ; at worst, as he thought, inde- 
 pendence must come through a treaty, and with 
 equivalents. Moreover it seems that he cherished 
 an odd, half -defined notion, apparently altogether 
 peculiar to himself, that he might escape the 
 humiliation of a grant of full independence, and 
 in place thereof might devise some sort of "fed- 
 eral union." Perhaps it was out of this strange 
 fancy that there grew at this time a story that 
 the States were to be reconciled and joined to 
 Great Britain by a gift of the same measure of 
 autonomy enjoyed by Ireland. 
 
 When Oswald and Franklin next met, they 
 made at first little progress; each seemed desirous 
 to keep himself closed while the other unfolded. 
 The result was that Franklin wrote, with unusual 
 naivete: "On the whole I was able to draw so 
 little of the sentiments of Lord Shelburne . . . 
 that I could not but wonder at his being again 
 sent to me." At the same time Grenville was 
 offering to de Vergennes to acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence of the United States, provided that in 
 other respects the treaty of 1763 1 should be rein- 
 stated. That is to say, France was to agree to 
 a complete restoration of the status quo ante 
 helium in every respect so far as her own interests 
 
 1 Made between England and France at the close of the last 
 war, in which France had lost Canada. 
 
368 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 were concerned, and to accept as the entire re- 
 compense for all her expenditures of money and 
 blood a benefit accruing to the American States. 
 This was a humorous assumption of the ingenuous- 
 ness of her most disinterested protestations. The 
 French minister, we are told, "seemed to smile" 
 at this compliment to the unselfishness of his 
 chivalrous nation, 1 and replied that the American 
 States were making no request to England for 
 independence. As Franklin happily expressed it : 
 "This seems to me a proposition of selling to us 
 a thing that was already our own, and making 
 France pay the price they [the English] are 
 pleased to ask for it." But the design of wean- 
 ing the States from France, in the treating, was 
 obvious. 
 
 Grenville, thus checked, next tried to see what 
 he could do with Franklin in the way of separate 
 negotiation. But he only elicited a statement that 
 the States were under no obligations save those 
 embodied in the treaties of alliance and com- 
 merce with France, and a sort of intimation, which 
 might be pregnant of much or of little, that if 
 the purpose of the former were achieved through 
 the recognition of independence, then the com- 
 mercial treaty alone would remain. This some- 
 what enigmatical remark doubtless indicated no- 
 thing more than that the States would not continue 
 active and aggressive hostilities in order to further 
 
 1 " The Peace Negotiations of 1782-83," etc., by John Jay ; in 
 Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist, of America, vol. vii. 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 369 
 
 purely French designs. Clearly it would depend 
 upon the demands of France whether the States 
 might not find themselves in a somewhat delicate 
 position. Their obligation to make no separate 
 peace with England had been contracted upon the 
 basis that France should ally herself with them 
 to obtain their independence; and the injury 
 expected to result therefrom to England, with 
 the chance of commercial advantages accruing to 
 France, had been regarded as a full consideration. 
 Yet it would seem ungrateful, to say the least, to 
 step out of the fight and leave France in it, and 
 to refuse to back her demands for the recoupment 
 of some of the losses which she had suffered in 
 the previous war. But now the French alliance 
 with Spain threatened grave complications; she 
 had joined France in the war, and the two powers 
 were held closely together by the Bourbon family 
 interests. Spain now had demands of her own in 
 the way of territory on the American continent, 
 where she had made extensive conquests, and even 
 for the cession of Gibraltar. But the States owed 
 little to Spain, vastly less, indeed, than they had 
 tried to owe to her; for their incessant begging 
 had elicited only small sums, and they were more 
 irritated at their failure to obtain much than 
 thankful for the trifles they had extorted. So 
 they now easily and gladly took the position of 
 entire freedom from any obligation, either by 
 treaty or of honor, towards that power. But in 
 the probable event of France standing by Spain, 
 
370 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 peace might be deferred for the benefit of a coun- 
 try with which the States had no lien, unless the 
 States could treat separately. It was not within 
 the purview of the treaty that they should remain 
 tied to France for such purposes; and to this 
 purport Fox wrote to Grenville. But though it 
 might be tolerably easy to enunciate a theory by 
 which the States could justly control their own 
 affairs, with no regard to France, it was only too 
 probable that the application of that theory to 
 circumstances would be a very nice and perplexing 
 task. It strongly behooved a new country to pre- 
 serve its good name and its friendships. 
 
 If Fox had been able to carry his point, matters 
 might have moved more expeditiously. But pend- 
 ing the struggle between him and Shelburne no 
 advance could be made at Paris. Grenville and 
 Oswald could not work in unison. Franklin and 
 de Vergennes became puzzled and suspicious, hav- 
 ing only an imperfect inkling by report and gossip 
 concerning the true state of affairs. They sus- 
 pected, with good show of evidence, that the real 
 object of English diplomacy was to drive in a 
 wedge between the allies. Amid these perplexi- 
 ties, on April 22, Franklin wrote to Jay, begging 
 him to come to Paris: "Here you are greatly 
 wanted, for messengers begin to come and go, 
 . . . and I can neither make nor agree to condi- 
 tions of peace without the assistance of my col- 
 leagues. ... I wish therefore you would . . . 
 render yourself here as soon as possible. You 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 371 
 
 would be of infinite service." Jay arrived on 
 June 23, to Franklin's "great satisfaction," and 
 the meeting was cordial. Jay was thirty-seven 
 years old, and Franklin was seventy-six, but Jay 
 says : " His mind appears more vigorous than that 
 of any man of his age I have known. He cer- 
 tainly is a valuable minister and an agreeable 
 companion." 
 
 The deadlock continued. Grenville showed a 
 commission to treat with France and "any other 
 prince or state." But the "enabling act," giving 
 the king authority to acknowledge the independ- 
 ence of the States, had not yet been passed by 
 Parliament; and it did not appear that England 
 recognized the ex-colonies as constituting either 
 a prince or a state. Oswald had no commission 
 at all. Franklin, though he found himself "in 
 some perplexity with regard to these two negotia- 
 tions," strove to set things in motion. He pre- 
 ferred Oswald to Grenville, and intimated to Lord 
 Shelburne his wish that Oswald should receive 
 exclusive authority to treat with the American 
 commissioners. He at the same time suggested 
 sundry necessary articles to be disposed of by the 
 treaty, namely : independence, boundaries, and the 
 fisheries; and sundry advisable articles, namely: 
 an indemnity to be granted by England to the 
 sufferers by the war; an acknowledgment of her 
 error by England, and the cession of Canada. 
 
 But the duel between Shelburne and Fox must 
 first be settled, and it was now about to be settled 
 
372 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 suddenly and in an unexpected manner. On July 
 1, 1782, Lord Rockingham died, and the crown, 
 as Walpole facetiously remarked, thereby de- 
 scended to the king of England. The monarch 
 at once, though very reluctantly, requested Shel- 
 burne to accept the post of prime minister, regard- 
 ing him as in some degree less obnoxious than 
 Fox. Thereupon Fox and his friends retired in 
 high dudgeon from office, and Grenville promptly 
 asked to be recalled. His opportune request was 
 granted very readily, and his place was given to 
 Fitzherbert, who brought personal letters to Frank- 
 lin, but who was not accredited to treat with the 
 States. It seemed that this business was now 
 again to fall into the hands of Oswald, and ac- 
 cordingly, though he still remained without any 
 definite authority, active discussion was resumed 
 between him and Franklin. Early in August 
 both believed that an understanding upon all im- 
 portant points had been reached. Jay had been 
 ill almost ever since his arrival in Paris, and was 
 only now recovering; Adams was still in Holland; 
 so that Franklin and Oswald had had the whole 
 matter between themselves. 
 
 Just at this time Parliament rose; and Shel- 
 burne sent Vaughan to Paris to give private as- 
 surance to Franklin that there would be no change 
 in policy towards America. A commission was 
 at the same time drawn up and sent to Oswald 
 empowering him to treat with commissioners of 
 the "colonies or plantations, and any body or 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 373 
 
 bodies corporate or politic, or any assembly or 
 assemblies." This singular phraseology at once 
 produced trouble. Jay indignantly repudiated the 
 colonial condition imputed by this language, and 
 resolutely said that independence must be no item 
 in any treaty, but must be recognized before he 
 would even begin to treat. The point was dis- 
 cussed by him with de Vergennes and Franklin. 
 The French minister at first had "objected to 
 these general words as not being particular 
 enough;" but now he changed his mind and ad- 
 vised not to stickle; for independence must be 
 the result of the treaty, and it was not to be 
 expected that the effect should precede the cause. 
 Franklin, with evident hesitation and reluctance, 1 
 gave his opinion that the commission "would do." 
 Oswald then showed his instructions, which di- 
 rected him to concede "the complete independence 
 of the thirteen States." Unfortunately the en- 
 abling act had not even yet passed, so that there 
 was some doubt as to the power of the ministers 
 to agree to this. Jay's determination remained 
 unchanged; for he suspected that the motives of 
 de Vergennes were not disinterested, and thought 
 that Franklin was hoodwinked by his French pre- 
 dilections. Franklin, on the other hand, thought 
 that the minister wished only to expedite the 
 negotiation as much as possible, a matter in which 
 he himself also was very zealous; for he under- 
 stood the English political situation and knew 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, viii. 99, 101, 150, note. 
 
374 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 that Shelburne's tenure of power was precarious, 
 and that any possible successor of Shelburne would 
 be vastly less well-disposed to the States. This 
 induced him to stretch a point in order to go 
 on with the treating. Parliament was to meet 
 on November 26, and unless peace could be con- 
 cluded before that time, the chance for it there- 
 after would be diminished almost to the point of 
 hopelessness. But Adams wrote from Holland 
 that he also disapproved the unusual form of the 
 commission, though a commission to treat with 
 envoys of "the United States of America" would 
 satisfy him, as a sufficient implication of independ- 
 ence without an explicit preliminary acknowledg- 
 ment of it. 
 
 About the middle of August Jay drew up a 
 letter, suggesting very ingeniously that it was 
 incompatible with the dignity of the king of 
 England to negotiate except with an independent 
 power; also that an obstacle which meant every- 
 thing to the States, but nothing to Great Brit- 
 ain, should be removed by his majesty. Franklin 
 thought that the letter expressed too positively 
 the resolve not to treat save upon this basis of 
 pre-acknowledged independence. He evidently 
 did not wish to bolt too securely the door through 
 which he anticipated that the commissioners might 
 in time feel obliged to withdraw. Moreover Jay 
 thought that at this time "the doctor seemed to 
 be much perplexed and fettered by our instruc- 
 tions to be guided by the advice of this court," 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 375 
 
 a direction correctly supposed to have been pro- 
 cured by the influence of the French envoy at 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Jay's suspicions concerning the French minister 
 happened now to receive opportune corroboration. 
 On September 4 Rayneval, secretary to de Ver- 
 gennes, had a long interview with Jay concerning 
 boundaries, in which he argued strongly against 
 the American claims to the western lands lying 
 between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. 
 This touched Jay nearly, for the navigation of the 
 Mississippi was the one object which he had espe- 
 cially at heart. Six days later the famous letter 
 of Marbois, de la Luzerne's secretary, which had 
 been captured en route from Philadelphia to 
 de Vergennes at Paris, was put into the hands 
 of Jay through the instrumentality of the English 
 cabinet. This outlined a scheme for a secret 
 understanding between England and France to 
 deprive the Americans of the Newfoundland fish- 
 eries. This evidence seemed to prove Jay's case; 
 yet Franklin remained strangely unshaken by it, 
 for he reflected that it came from the British 
 ministry and was infected with suspicion by this 
 channel. But still another occurrence came to 
 strengthen Jay's conviction of some latent hos- 
 tility in the French policy, for he learned that 
 Rayneval was making a rapid and secret journey 
 to London. He felt sure that this errand was to 
 intimate to Shelburne that France did not incline 
 to support the demands of her American allies. 
 
376 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 In the fullness of his faith he took a courageous, 
 very unconventional, but eminently successful 
 step. He persuaded Vaughan to hasten to Lon- 
 don, and to present sundry strong arguments 
 going to show that it was the true policy of Eng- 
 land to grant the demands of the States rather 
 than to fall in with the subtle plans of France. 
 He felt with regret that he could not consult 
 Franklin regarding this proceeding, which he un- 
 dertook upon his own sole responsibility. It put 
 Shelburne in a singular position, as arbiter be- 
 tween two nations enemies of England and allies 
 of each other, but each manoeuvring to secure its 
 own advantage at the cost of its friend, and to 
 that end presuming to advise him upon English 
 interests. He did not ponder long before accept- 
 ing the American arguments as the better, and 
 deciding that the English policy was rather to be 
 liberal towards a kindred people than to unite 
 with a traditional foe in curtailing their pro- 
 sperity. He said to Vaughan : " Is the new com- 
 mission necessary?" "It is," replied Vaughan; 
 and his lordship at once gave orders for making 
 it out. Had he fallen in with the French ideas, 
 he would, upon the contrary, have cherished this 
 disagreement for a while, in order finally to sell 
 out a concession on this point at the price of some 
 such substantial matter as the fisheries or the 
 western lands. Forthwith Vaughan was on his 
 way back to Paris, accompanied by a messenger 
 who carried the amended document empowering 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 377 
 
 Oswald to treat with the commissioners of the 
 " Thirteen United States of America, viz. : New 
 Hampshire," etc., naming them all. "We have 
 put the greatest confidence, I believe, ever placed 
 in man, in the American commissioners. It is 
 now to be seen how far they or America are to 
 be depended upon. . . . There never was such 
 a risk run ; I hope the public will be the gainer, 
 else our heads must answer for it, and deservedly." 
 Such were the grave and anxious words of the 
 prime minister. 
 
 Upon the receipt of this commission negotia- 
 tions were actively resumed, Franklin and Jay 
 on one side, Oswald alone on the other. The old 
 ground was gone over again. On October 5-8, 
 both parties assented to a sketch of a treaty, 
 which Oswald transmitted to London for consid- 
 eration by the ministry. But the raising of the 
 siege of Gibraltar, and reflection upon the prob- 
 able results of the incipient estrangement between 
 American interests and those of France and Spain, 
 now induced the English to hope for more favor- 
 able terms in some particulars. So instead of 
 adopting this draft they sent over Mr. Strachey, 
 a man especially well informed concerning the dis- 
 puted boundaries, to reinforce Oswald in an effort 
 to obtain modifications on these points. 
 
 Meantime another serious difference of opinion 
 was developed between Franklin and Jay. The 
 influence of de Vergennes at Philadelphia had 
 by no means been exhausted in securing colleagues 
 
378 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 for Mr. Adams. He had further desired to have 
 the American envoys instructed that no American 
 demands outside of independence must be allowed 
 to interpose obstacles in the way of French pur- 
 poses. In this he had been wholly successful. 
 Of the demands which Congress had at first 
 intended to insist upon, one after another was 
 reduced to a mere recommendation, until at last 
 independence alone was left as an absolute and 
 definitive ultimatum. Moreover the closing para- 
 graph of the instructions actually bade the envoys 
 to maintain constant communication with their 
 generous ally the king of France, and in the last 
 resort to be governed in all matters by his advice. 
 This servility had raised the ire of Jay almost to 
 the point of inducing him to refuse a post so 
 hedged around with humiliation. With his views 
 concerning the intentions of de Vergennes it now 
 seemed to him intolerable to jeopard American 
 interests by placing them at the mercy of a cabinet 
 which unmistakably, as it seemed to him, designed 
 to sacrifice them to its own ends. Accordingly 
 he was for disobeying this unworthy instruction 
 of Congress, and for conducting the negotiation in 
 strict secrecy as towards the French minister. 
 But Franklin was no less resolute on the other 
 side. His established and grateful confidence in 
 de Vergennes remained unshaken, and he saw no 
 error in consulting the wisest, and by all proofs 
 the best and truest friend whom the States had 
 ever had. Moreover he saw that the orders of 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 379 
 
 Congress were imperative. It was a serious di- 
 vision. Fortunately it was soon settled by the 
 advent of John Adams, about the end of October. 
 That gentleman, prompt, fearless, and suspicious, 
 at once fell in with Jay's views. In a long even- 
 ing's talk he apparently read Franklin a pretty 
 severe lecture, and certainly ranged himself very 
 positively on Jay's side. Franklin listened to 
 his vehement colleague, and at the moment held 
 his peace in his wise way. It was true that 
 Adams brought the casting vote, though Franklin 
 of course might resist, and could make his resist- 
 ance effectual by communicating to de Vergennes 
 all which passed, and in so doing he would be 
 backed by the authority and orders of Congress. 
 But he determined not to pursue this course. 
 When next they all met for conference he turned 
 to Jay and said: "I am of your opinion, and will 
 go on without consulting this court." This was 
 all that passed when thus for a second time Frank- 
 lin surrendered. Nothing indicates by what mo- 
 tives he was influenced. Some writers suggest 
 that he had a lurking notion that Jay's views 
 were not altogether ill founded; but later he de- 
 clared the contrary. 1 Others fancy that he sim- 
 ply yielded to a majority vote. To me it seems 
 more probable that, weighing comparative impor- 
 tance, he gave in to what he conceived to be 
 the supreme necessity of advancing to a speedy 
 conclusion ; for, as has been said, he keenly appre- 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, viii. 305, 306. 
 
380 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ciated that time was pressing. Parliament was 
 to meet in a few weeks, on November 26, and it 
 daily became more evident that if a treaty was to 
 be made at all, it must be consummated before 
 that date. Now, as in the question concerning 
 the preliminary acknowledgment of independence, 
 peace overruled all considerations of minor points. 
 If this was indeed his end, he achieved it, for 
 negotiations were now zealously pushed. The 
 important question of the western boundaries and 
 the navigation of the Mississippi was the especial 
 concern of Jay. Spain covertly wished to see the 
 States worsted upon these demands, and confined 
 between the Alleghanies and the sea; and the 
 Bourbon family compact influenced France to con- 
 cur with the Spanish plans. But in the secret 
 treating Jay prevailed. The fisheries were the 
 peculiar affair of Adams, as the representative of 
 New England. France would fain have had the 
 States shut out from them altogether; but Adams 
 carried the day. Some concessions were made 
 concerning the collection of debts owing in the 
 States to Englishmen, and then there remained 
 only the matter of indemnification to American 
 royalists. Upon this the fight was waged with 
 zeal by all; yet Franklin had the chief responsi- 
 bility to bear. For there now arose to plague him 
 that unfortunate proposition of his for the cession 
 of Canada and the restoration of confiscated Tory 
 property in the States. This encouraged the Eng- 
 lish and gave them a sort of argument. Moreover 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 381 
 
 the indemnification was "uppermost in Lord Shel- 
 burne's mind," because, unlike other matters, it 
 seemed a point of honor. With what face could 
 the ministry meet Parliament with a treaty desert- 
 ing all those who had been faithful to their king ? 
 It was indeed a delicate position, and the English 
 were stubborn; but no less so was Franklin, upon 
 the other side. With the great province of Can- 
 ada as an offset, or quasi fund, the States might 
 have assumed such an obligation, but without it, 
 never. Further the American commissioners reit- 
 erated the explanation often given: that Con- 
 gress had no power in the premises, for the matter 
 lay within the sovereign jurisdiction of each State. 
 This argument, however, really amounted to no- 
 thing; for if the fact was so, it behooved the States 
 to give their agent, the Congress, any power that 
 was necessary for making a fair treaty; and Eng- 
 land was not to be a loser by reason of defects in 
 the American governmental arrangements. For 
 a while it really seemed that the negotiation would 
 be wrecked upon this issue, so immovable was 
 each side. As Vaughan wrote: "If England 
 wanted to break, she could not wish for better 
 ground on her side. You do not break, and 
 therefore I conclude you both sincere. But in 
 this way I see the treaty is likely of itself to 
 break." 
 
 Franklin now ingeniously counteracted his ear- 
 lier imprudence by reviving an old suggestion of 
 his, that immense claims might be preferred 
 
382 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 against England on behalf of Americans whose 
 property had been wantonly destroyed, especially 
 by the burning and plundering of towns, and he 
 actually presented an article providing for such 
 compensation, and an elaborate written paper 
 sustaining it. 1 At last the Englishmen sought 
 final instructions from Lord Shelburne. He re- 
 plied with spirit that it should be understood that 
 England was not yet in a position to submit to 
 "humiliation," least of all at the hands of Ameri- 
 cans; but finally he so far yielded as to say that 
 indemnification need not be absolutely an ultima- 
 tum. This settled the matter; the negotiators 
 who could yield must yield, and they did so. A 
 sort of compromise article was inserted: "that 
 Congress should recommend to the state legisla- 
 tures to restore the estates, rights, and properties 
 of real British subjects." The American envoys 
 knew that this was worthless, and the English 
 negotiators certainly were not deceived. But the 
 article sounded well, and gave at least a standing 
 ground for the ministry to defend themselves. 2 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, viii. 218, text and note. 
 
 2 It is not without interest in this connection to remark that 
 Franklin was very ill disposed towards the "loyalists," having 
 scant toleration for their choice of a party. For a man of his 
 liberality and moderation his language concerning them was 
 severe. He objected to calling them " loyalists," thinking " roy- 
 alists " a more correct description. To indemnification of their 
 losses by Parliament he had "no objection," for the damnatory 
 reason that " even a hired assassin has a right to his pay from 
 his employer." Franklin's Works, ix. 133. He often spoke in 
 the like tone about these people. See, for example, Works, ix. 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 383 
 
 On November 30 the articles were at last signed, 
 with the stipulation that they were for the present 
 merely preliminary and provisional, and that they 
 should be executed as a definitive treaty only 
 simultaneously with the execution of a treaty of 
 peace between France and England. 
 
 The business was finished none too soon. In 
 order to cover it the meeting of Parliament had 
 been postponed until December 5. The danger 
 which had been escaped, and which would not 
 have been escaped had Franklin had a less correct 
 appreciation of relative values in the negotiation, 
 at once became apparent. The howl of condem- 
 nation swelled loud in the House of Commons; it 
 was felt that the ministry had made not a treaty 
 but a "capitulation." The unfortunate Shelburne 
 was driven out of power, pursued by an angry 
 outcry from persons altogether incapable of appre- 
 ciating the sound statesmanship and the wise fore- 
 cast of the future advantage of England which he 
 had shown in preferring to give the colonies a 
 chance to become a great, English-speaking, Eng- 
 lish-sympathizing, commercial people, rather than 
 to feed fat the aspirations of France and Spain. 
 These proceedings would have been good evidence, 
 had evidence been wanting, that the American 
 commissioners had done a brilliant piece of work. 
 De Vergennes also added his testimony, saying: 
 
 70, 72. But when the war was over and the natural mildness of 
 his disposition could resume its sway, he once at least spoke more 
 gently of them. Ibid. 415. 
 
384 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 "The English have bought the peace rather than 
 made it." 
 
 If the original instructions given to Oswald 
 are compared with the treaty it will be found that 
 England had conceded much; on the other hand 
 the Americans, with no ultimatum save independ- 
 ence, had gained in substance all that they had 
 dared seriously to insist upon. One would think 
 that Franklin, Jay, and Adams had fairly won 
 warm gratitude at the hands of their countrymen. 
 Posterity, at least since the publication of long 
 suppressed private papers and archives has shown 
 what powerful occult influences were at work to 
 thwart them, regards their achievement with un- 
 limited admiration. But at that time a different 
 feeling prevailed. 
 
 No sooner were the preliminary or provisional 
 articles signed than Franklin informed de Ver- 
 gennes of the fact. That minister was much sur- 
 prised. He had been quietly biding his time, 
 expecting to be invoked when the English and the 
 Americans should find themselves stopped by that 
 deadlock which he had done his best to bring 
 about by his secret intimations to England. He 
 was now astonished to learn that England had not 
 availed herself of his astute suggestions, but had 
 given terms which the Americans had gladly ac- 
 cepted. The business was all done, and the clever 
 diplomat had not had his chance. At first he said 
 nothing, but for a few days pondered the matter. 
 Then on December 15 he disburdened his mind 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 385 
 
 in a very sharp letter to Franklin. "I am at a 
 loss," he wrote, "to explain your conduct and 
 that of your colleagues on this occasion. You 
 have concluded your preliminary articles without 
 any communication between us, although the in- 
 structions from Congress prescribe that nothing 
 shall be done without the participation of the 
 king. You are about to hold out a certain hope 
 of peace to America, without even informing your- 
 self of the state of the negotiation on our part. 
 You are wise and discreet, sir; you perfectly 
 understand what is due to propriety; you have 
 all your life performed your duties; I pray you 
 consider how you propose to fulfill those which 
 are due to the king." 
 
 Franklin found himself in a painful position; 
 for he could by no means deny that he had duties, 
 or at least something very near akin to duties, 
 to the king, imposed upon him by numerous and 
 weighty obligations which at his request had been 
 conferred upon him and accepted by him on behalf 
 of the American people. The violation of the 
 instructions of Congress gave to the secret treating 
 too much the air of an insulting distrust, of the 
 throwing over a friend when he had been suffi- 
 ciently used; for whatever might be suspected, 
 it could by no means be proved that de Vergennes 
 was not still the sincere friend which he certainly 
 long had been. This bore hard upon Franklin. 
 The policy which in fact had been forced upon 
 him against his will by his colleagues was now 
 
386 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 made a matter of personal reproach against him 
 especially, because he was persistently regarded as 
 the head and front of the commission; no Euro- 
 pean yet dreamed of considering any other Ameri- 
 can as of much consequence in any matter in 
 which Franklin was concerned. During long 
 years de Vergennes had been his constant and 
 efficient adviser and assistant in many a day of 
 trial and of stress, and Franklin believed him to 
 be still an honest well-wisher to the States. More- 
 over it actually was only a very few weeks since 
 Franklin had applied for and obtained a new loan 
 at a time when the king was so pressed for his 
 own needs that a lottery was projected, and bills 
 drawn by his own officials were going to protest. 
 All this made the secrecy which had been prac- 
 ticed seem almost like duplicity on Franklin's 
 part, and he felt keenly the ill light in which he 
 was placed. It is true that if he had known then 
 all that we know now, his mind would have been 
 at ease; but he did not know it, and he was seri- 
 ously disturbed at the situation into which he had 
 been brought. 
 
 But his usual skill did not desert him, and his 
 reply was aptly framed and prompt. "Nothing," 
 he said, "had been agreed in the preliminaries 
 contrary to the interests of France ; and no peace 
 is to take place between us and England till you 
 have concluded yours. Your observation is, how- 
 ever, apparently just that, in not consulting you 
 before they were signed, we have been guilty of 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 387 
 
 neglecting a point of bienseance. But as this 
 was not from want of respect for the king, whom 
 we all love and honor, we hope it will be excused, 
 and that the great work which has hitherto been 
 so happily conducted, is so nearly brought to 
 perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will 
 not be ruined by a single indiscretion of ours. 
 And certainly the whole edifice sinks to the ground 
 immediately if you refuse on that account to give 
 us any further assistance. ... It is not possible 
 for any one to be more sensible than I am of what 
 I and every American owe to the king for the 
 many and great benefits and favors he has be- 
 stowed upon us. . . . The JZnglish, I just now 
 learn, flatter themselves they have already divided 
 us. I hope this little misunderstanding will, 
 therefore, be kept a secret, and that they will find 
 themselves totally mistaken." 
 
 This letter in a measure accomplished its sooth- 
 ing errand. Yet de Vergennes did not refrain 
 from writing to de la Luzerne that "the reserva- 
 tion retained on our account does not save the 
 infraction of the promise, which we have mutually 
 made, not to sign except conjointly;" and he said 
 that it would be "proper that the most influential 
 members of Congress should be informed of the 
 very irregular conduct of their commissioners in 
 regard to us," though "not in the tone of com- 
 plaint." "I accuse no person," he added, "not 
 even Dr. Franklin. He has yielded too easily 
 to the bias of his colleagues, who do not pretend 
 
388 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 to recognize the rules of courtesy in regard to us. 
 All their attentions have been taken up by the 
 English whom they have met in Paris." 
 
 So soon as the facts were known in the States 
 expressions of condemnation were lavished upon 
 the commissioners by members of Congress who 
 thought that the secrecy as towards France was 
 an inexcusable slight to a generous and faithful 
 ally. Livingston, as secretary for foreign affairs, 
 wrote to the envoys, commending the treaty, but 
 finding fault with the manner of attaining it. 
 Jay, angered at the injustice of a reproof which 
 belonged more especially to him, drew up an ex- 
 culpatory statement. But Franklin, showing his 
 usual good sense and moderation, sought to miti- 
 gate Jay's indignation, drew all the sting out of 
 the document, and insisted upon leaving the vin- 
 dication to time and second thoughts. For his 
 own part Franklin not only had to take his full 
 share of the reproaches heaped upon the commis- 
 sioners for insulting France, but upon the other 
 hand he was violently assaulted on the quite oppo- 
 site ground, that he had desired to be too subser- 
 vient to that power. Many persons insisted that 
 he "favored, or did not oppose," the designs of 
 France to rule out the States from the fisheries, 
 and to curtail their boundaries; and that it was 
 only due to the "firmness, sagacity, and disinter- 
 estedness " of Jay and Adams that these mischiefs 
 were escaped. 
 
 Such were the fault-findings and criminations 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 389 
 
 to which the diplomatic complexities, which it 
 was impossible then to unravel, gave rise. For- 
 tunately they were soon rendered mere personal 
 and abstract disputes, of little practical conse- 
 quence, by the simultaneous execution of defini- 
 tive treaties by France and the United States 
 with Great Britain on September 3, 1783. Many 
 efforts had been made to insert additional articles, 
 especially as to commercial matters; but they 
 were all abortive. The establishment of peace 
 had exhausted the capacity of the States and 
 England to agree together; and the pressure of 
 war being removed, they at once fell into very 
 inimical attitudes. So the definitive treaty was 
 substantially identical with the provisional one. 
 
 Franklin, after a while, finding that these 
 charges of his having preferred France to his own 
 country were being reiterated with such innuen- 
 does as to bring his integrity into serious question, 
 felt it necessary to appeal to his colleagues for 
 vindication. He wrote to them a modest, manly 
 letter, 1 and in reply received from Jay a generous 
 testimonial, 2 and from Adams a carefully narrow 
 acquittal. 3 The subsequent publication of Frank- 
 lin's papers written at, and long before, the time 
 of the negotiation, shows that he was inclined to 
 demand from Great Britain fully as much as any 
 American upon either side of the ocean. 
 
 In taking leave of the subject it is interesting 
 
 1 Works, viii. 340 ; and see Ibid. 353. 
 
 2 Ibid. 350. 3 Ibid. 354. 
 
390 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 to know that in point of fact the secret action 
 of the American commissioners was very nearly 
 fraught with serious injury to France. For when 
 the States were practically eliminated from active 
 war by the signing of the provisional articles, five 
 members of Shelburne's cabinet were in favor of 
 breaking off negotiations with. France, and contin- 
 uing the contest with her. 1 
 
 During the negotiation Franklin wrote to Lau- 
 rens: "I have never yet known of a peace made 
 that did not occasion a great deal of popular dis- 
 content, clamor, and censure on both sides, . . . 
 so that the blessing promised to peacemakers, I 
 fancy, relates to the next world, for in this they 
 seem to have a greater chance of being cursed. " 
 The prognostication was fulfilled. The act which 
 gave peace to the warring nations brought any- 
 thing but good will among the American negotia- 
 tors. Jay was so just, conscientious, and irre- 
 proachable a gentleman in every respect that he 
 escaped unvexed by any personal quarrel; more- 
 over he was not so distinguished as to have become 
 the victim of envy and jealousy. But the anti- 
 pathy previously so unhappily existing between 
 Franklin and Adams became greatly aggravated, 
 
 1 I have not endeavored to give a detailed account of this ne- 
 gotiation, though the narrative would be very interesting, because 
 it finds its proper place in the life of John Jay in this Series. In 
 that volume there is a very full and accurate presentation of this 
 entire affair, drawn from those sources which have only very re- 
 cently become public, and which go far to remove former ques- 
 tions out of the realm of discussion. 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 391 
 
 and their respective advocates in historical liter- 
 ature have not to this day reached an accord. 
 Adams was a relentless hater, and has bequeathed 
 bitter diatribes, which, as they can never be oblit- 
 erated, can never cease to excite the ire of the 
 admirers of Franklin. On the other side, Frank- 
 lin has at least the merit of having left not a 
 malicious line behind him. I have no mind to 
 endeavor to apportion merits and demerits be- 
 tween these two great foemen, able men and true 
 patriots both, having no room for these personali- 
 ties of history, which, though retaining that kind 
 of interest always pertaining to a feud, are really 
 very little profitable. Perhaps, after all, the dis- 
 cussion would prove to be not unlike the classic 
 one which led two knights to fight about the 
 golden-silver shield. 
 
 Yet one dispute, which has been long waged, 
 no longer admits of doubt. The suspicions of 
 the good faith of de Vergennes which Jay first 
 entertained, which Adams adopted, and which 
 Franklin rejected, were undoubtedly correct. As 
 the years go by and collections of private papers 
 and of hitherto suppressed public archives find 
 their way to the light, the accumulated evidence 
 to this effect has become overwhelming. Such 
 being the case, it must be admitted that the 
 vital merit in the conduct of this difficult nego- 
 tiation rests with Jay ; that Adams has the credit 
 belonging to one who accepts a correct view 
 when presented to him; and that Franklin did 
 
392 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 more wisely than he knew in twice assenting to a 
 course which seemed to him based upon erroneous 
 beliefs. 
 
 There is abundant evidence that from the very 
 outset Franklin was not less resolute than was 
 Adams about the fisheries; and that he was in 
 perfect accord with Jay about the western bounda- 
 ries and the Mississippi ; though Adams and Jay 
 did most of the talking concerning these subjects, 
 respectively. When it came to the even more 
 difficult matter of the royalists, Franklin in turn 
 took the laboring oar. So far therefore as the 
 three cardinal points of the negotiation were con- 
 cerned honors were very evenly divided. But the 
 value of Franklin's contribution to the treating 
 is not to be measured either by his backwardness 
 in supporting Jay in certain points, or by his firm 
 attitude about boundaries, royalists, and fisheries. 
 All these things he had outlined and arranged 
 with Oswald at an early stage in the negotiating. 
 Later he fell seriously ill and was for a long 
 while in no fit condition for work. Yet the treaty 
 seemed to be made under his auspices. In read- 
 ing the great quantity of diaries and correspond- 
 ence which relate to the transactions, many a 
 passage indicates the sense of respect with which 
 he was looked up to. The high opinion enter- 
 tained of his ability, integrity, and fair-minded- 
 ness influenced very powerfully the minds of the 
 English ministry and their envoys. "I am dis- 
 posed," said Shelburne, "to expect everything 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 393 
 
 from Dr. Franklin's comprehensive understanding 
 and character." The like feeling, strengthened 
 by personal confidence and regard, went far to 
 keep de Vergennes from untimely intermeddling 
 and from advancing embarrassing claims of super- 
 vision. Altogether, it was again the case that 
 Franklin's prestige in Europe was invaluable to 
 America, and it is certainly true that beneath its 
 protection Jay and Adams were able to do their 
 work to advantage. Had they stood alone they 
 would have encountered difficulties which would 
 have seriously curtailed their efforts. 1 It is truth 
 and not theory that Franklin's mere name and 
 presence were sufficient to balance the scale against 
 the abilities and the zeal of both his coadjutors. 
 
 It seems hardly necessary to endeavor to palli- 
 ate Franklin's error in failing to detect the dupli- 
 city of de Vergennes. On the contrary, it would 
 give a less agreeable idea of him had he been 
 ready to believe so ill of an old and tried friend. 
 For years Franklin had been the medium through 
 whom had passed countless benefits from France 
 to the States, benefits of which many had been 
 costly and inconvenient for the giver; he had 
 been treated with high consideration at this court, 
 when no other court in all Europe would even 
 receive an American ambassador; he had enjoyed 
 every possible token of esteem and confidence 
 both personally and in his official capacity; he 
 
 1 See, for example, Franklin's Works, viii. 29, 67, note, 69, 70, 
 77, 109, 112, note, 133, note, 260. 
 
394 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 had ever found fair words backed by no less fair 
 deeds. In short, the vast mass of visible evidence 
 seemed to him to lie, and in fact did lie, all on 
 one side. On September 13, 1781, writing to 
 the president of Congress, he said that de Ver- 
 gennes had just read to him a copy of the instruc- 
 tions prepared by Congress for the commissioners, 
 and that the minister "expressed his satisfaction 
 with the unreserved confidence placed in his court 
 by the Congress, assuring me that they would 
 never have cause to regret it, for that the king 
 had the honor of the United States at heart, as 
 well as their welfare and independence. Indeed, 
 this has been already manifested in the negotia- 
 tions relative to the plenipotentiaries ; and I have 
 already had so much experience of his majesty's 
 goodness to us, in the aids afforded us from time 
 to time, and by the sincerity of this upright and 
 able minister, who never promised me anything 
 that he did not punctually perform, that I cannot 
 but think the confidence well and judiciously 
 placed, and that it will have happy effects." 
 Every event in the history of many years made 
 it natural and right for Franklin to feel in this 
 way; and it surely was no cause for distrust that 
 de Vergennes had had the interest of France in 
 mind as an original motive for aiding America, 
 when throughout the war Franklin had witnessed 
 France straining every nerve and taxing every 
 resource to aid her ally, in perfect sincerity; and 
 when also, upon the suggestion of negotiations, 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 395 
 
 he had just seen de Vergennes adhere rigidly to 
 his word to do no treating save collaterally with 
 the Americans, and refuse to take advantage of 
 Grenville's efforts to reach the Americans through 
 the French minister. Even though de Vergennes 
 had disapproved the delay caused by Jay's objec- 
 tion to the form of the commission, still he had 
 honorably stayed his own negotiation until that 
 matter was favorably settled. Early in the nego- 
 tiations Grenville said to Franklin that the States 
 owed no gratitude to France, since she had in fact 
 only promoted her own interests. The remark 
 excited Franklin's indignation, and he says: "I 
 told him I was so strongly impressed with the 
 kind assistance afforded us by France in our 
 distress, and the generous and noble manner in 
 which it was granted, without extracting or stipu- 
 lating for a single privilege or particular advan- 
 tage to herself in our commerce, or otherwise, 
 that I could never suffer myself to think of such 
 reasonings for lessening the obligation, and I 
 hoped, and indeed did not doubt, but my country- 
 men were all of the same sentiments. " The words 
 do his heart none the less honor, because it has 
 been since discovered that his confidence was too 
 implicit. In truth de Vergennes had been ex- 
 tremely scrupulous and delicate throughout, in 
 all matters which could fall within the observation 
 of the Americans. At the outset he said to 
 Franklin: the English "want to treat with us for 
 you; but this the king will not agree to. He 
 
396 BENJAMIN FKANKLIN 
 
 thinks it not consistent with the dignity of your 
 state. You will treat for yourselves; and every 
 one of the powers at war will make its own treaty. 
 All that is necessary is that the treaties go hand 
 in hand, and are all signed on the same day." 
 Thus, to one who could believe de Yergennes, 
 everything seemed fair and sincere, and Franklin 
 at least had a right to believe de Vergennes. 
 
 Furthermore it was not until negotiations ac- 
 tually began that the previous condition of French 
 relationship, as Franklin had well known it for 
 many years, underwent a sudden and complete 
 change. Then at last were presented new tempta- 
 tions before which friendship and good faith could 
 not stand, and each nation, keeping a decorous 
 exterior, anxiously studied its own advantage. 
 It was the trying hour when the spoils were to 
 be divided. The States themselves preferred the 
 profit of their enemy England to that of their 
 half -friend Spain. Franklin did not appreciate 
 this quick turning of the kaleidoscope, with the 
 instant change of all the previous political prox- 
 imities; in view of his age, his infirmities, his 
 recent experience in France, and his habitual gen- 
 erous faith in his fellow men, this failure should 
 give rise neither to surprise nor censure. 
 
 In 1782, after signing the preliminary articles, 
 Franklin a second time sent to Congress his resig- 
 nation. He received no reply to this communi- 
 cation, and again, therefore, after the execution 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 397 
 
 of the definitive treaty, he renewed his request to 
 be relieved. But still Congress delayed. They 
 wished to enter into commercial treaties with the 
 European nations, and in spite of the rebukes 
 which their chairman of the committee for foreign 
 affairs had administered to Franklin, Jay, and 
 Adams, they now showed no readiness to remove 
 these gentlemen from the diplomatic service. 
 Franklin accordingly remained in Paris, probably 
 with no great reluctance, for he was attached to 
 the place and the people, and his affection was 
 warmly returned. It was a light labor to conduct 
 the negotiations for the desired commercial trea- 
 ties. Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, and even Mo- 
 rocco, all made advances to him almost immedi- 
 ately after the signing of the treaty of peace. For 
 the most part he had the gratification of success. 
 His last official act, just before his departure from 
 Paris, was the signature of a treaty with Prussia, 
 in which it was agreed to abolish privateering, 1 
 and to hold private property by land and sea 
 secure from destruction in time of war. It was 
 pleasant thus to be introducing his country to 
 the handshaking, so to speak, of the old estab- 
 lished nations of the world. So his life glided 
 on agreeably. He was recognized as one of the 
 most illustrious men living; and to enjoy such 
 a reputation in Paris in those days, especially 
 when it was supplemented by personal popularity, 
 was to find one's self in the enjoyment of all 
 
 1 See letter to Hartley, Franklin's Works, viii. 287. 
 
398 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 which the world could bestow to make delightful 
 days. 
 
 In August, 1784, Jefferson arrived to assist in 
 the commercial business. But it was not until 
 March, 1785, that Congress at last voted that 
 Franklin might "return to America as soon as 
 convenient," and that Jefferson should succeed 
 him as minister at the French court. Jefferson 
 has borne good testimony to Franklin's situation, 
 as he observed it. A few years later, in Febru- 
 ary, 1791, he wrote: "I can only therefore testify 
 in general that there appeared to me more respect 
 and veneration attached to the character of Dr. 
 Franklin in France, than to that of any other 
 person in the same country, foreign or native. I 
 had opportunities of knowing particularly how far 
 these sentiments were felt by the foreign ambassa- 
 dors and ministers at the court of Versailles. . . . 
 I found the ministers of France equally impressed 
 with the talents and integrity of Dr. Franklin. 
 The Count de Vergennes particularly gave me 
 repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his 
 entire conftW in, W'^he^eff^n^g. 
 asked: C est vous. Monsieur, qui remplace le 
 ^ Docteur Franklin?" he used to reply: "No one 
 can replace him, sir; I am only his successor;" 
 and we may be sure that the Frenchmen appre- 
 ciated and fully agreed with an expression of 
 courtesy which chimed so well with their own 
 customs of speech. Later, in 1818, Jefferson 
 wrote an interesting letter concerning the calum- 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 399 
 
 nies from which Franklin's reputation still suf- 
 fered : — 
 
 " Dr. Franklin had many political enemies, as every 
 character must which, with decision enough to have 
 opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on 
 the feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities 
 were chiefly in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In 
 the former they were merely of the proprietary party. 
 In the latter they did not commence till the Revolu- 
 tion, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, 
 which, spreading by little and little, became at length of 
 some extent. Dr. Lee was his principal calumniator, a 
 man of much malignity, who, besides enlisting his whole 
 family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the agent of 
 Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it 
 into that State with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the 
 doctor's enemy also, but from a pecuniary transaction, 
 never countenanced these charges against him. Mr. Jay, 
 Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also, ever main- 
 tained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. 
 That he would have waived the formal recognition of 
 our independence, I never heard on any authority 
 worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was urgent 
 to retain them exclusively, France neutral, and I believe 
 that, had they ultimately been made a sine qud non, our 
 commissioners (Mr. Adams excepted) would have re- 
 linquished them rather than have broken off the treaty. 
 To Mr. Adams's perseverance alone, on that point, I 
 have always understood we were indebted for their re- 
 servation. As to the charge of subservience to France, 
 besides the evidence of his friendly colleagues before 
 named, two years of my own service with him at Paris, 
 
400 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 daily visits, and the most friendly and confidential con- 
 versation, convince me it had not a shadow of founda- 
 tion. He possessed the confidence of that government in 
 the highest degree, insomuch that it may truly be said 
 that they were more under his influence than he under 
 theirs. The fact is that his temper was so amiable and 
 conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impos- 
 sibilities, or even things unreasonably inconvenient to 
 them, in short so moderate and attentive to their diffi- 
 culties, as well as our own, that what his enemies called 
 subserviency I saw was only that reasonable disposition 
 which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one 
 side, yielding what is just and liberal, is the more cer- 
 tain of obtaining liberality and justice. Mutual confi- 
 dence produces of course mutual influence, and this was 
 all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the gov- 
 ernment of France." * 
 
 "When at last, in the summer of 1785, Franklin 
 took his farewell of the much-loved land of France, 
 the distinguished attentions which he received left 
 no doubt of the admiration in which he was held. 
 Indeed, many persons pressed him to remain in 
 France, and three offered him homes in their own 
 families, telling him that not even in America 
 could he expect esteem and love so unalloyed as 
 he enjoyed in France, and warning him also that 
 he might not survive the voyage. But he said: 
 "The desire of spending the little remainder of 
 life with my family is so strong as to determine 
 me to try at least whether I can bear the motion 
 
 1 Jefferson's Works, vii. 108. 
 
FEACE NEGOTIATIONS 401 
 
 of the ship. If not, I must get them to set me 
 ashore somewhere in the Channel and content 
 myself to die in Europe." When the day of 
 departure from Passy came "it seemed," said 
 Jefferson, "as if the village had lost its patri- 
 arch." His infirmities rendered the motion of a 
 carriage painful to him, and the king therefore 
 placed at his disposal one of the queen's litters, 
 which bore him by easy stages to the seacoast. 
 He carried with him the customary complimentary 
 portrait of the king; but it was far beyond the 
 ordinary magnificence, for it was framed in a 
 double circle of four hundred and eight diamonds, 
 and was of unusual cost and beauty. On July 18 
 he arrived at Havre, and crossed the Channel to 
 take ship at Portsmouth. The British govern- 
 ment offset the discourtesy with which it was 
 irritating Mr. Adams by ordering that the effects 
 of Dr. Franklin's party should be exempt from 
 the usual examination at the custom house. His 
 old friend, the Bishop of St. Asaph, "America's 
 constant friend," came to see him. So also did 
 his Tory son, the ex-governor of New Jersey, with 
 whom a sort of reconciliation had been patched 
 up. He sailed with Captain, afterward Commo- 
 dore, Truxton, who found him a most agreeable 
 companion. 
 
 Of all things in the world a sea voyage most 
 induces to utter idleness, and it is a striking proof 
 of the mental industry of this aged man that 
 during the seven weeks of this summer passage 
 
402 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 across the Atlantic he wrote three essays, which 
 remain among his best. But he never in his life 
 found a few weeks in which his mind was relieved 
 from enforced reflection upon affairs of business 
 that he did not take his pen in hand for voluntary 
 tasks. During the last eighteen months of his 
 life in Paris all the social distractions incident to 
 his distinguished position had not prevented his 
 writing some of the best papers which he has 
 bequeathed to literature. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 AT HOME: PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA: THE 
 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: DEATH 
 
 On September 12, 1785, the ship brought 
 Franklin into Delaware Bay, and the next morn- 
 ing he rejoiced to find himself "in full view of 
 dear Philadelphia." A multitude, filling the air 
 with huzzas of salutation, greeted his landing and 
 escorted him to his door. Private welcomes and 
 public addresses poured in upon him. His health 
 had been much improved by the sea air and rest, 
 and he rejoiced, as his foot touched the streets 
 of the town which after all his wanderings was 
 his home, to feel himself by no means yet a worn- 
 out man, though in fact he had seventy -nine years 
 of a busy life behind him. His fellow citizens 
 evidently thought that the reservoir which had 
 been so bountiful could not yet be near exhaus- 
 tion, and were resolved to continue their copious 
 draughts upon it. They at once elected him to 
 the State Council, of which he was made Presi- 
 dent ; and, as he said, " I had not firmness enough 
 to resist the unanimous desire of my country folks ; 
 and I find myself harnessed again in their ser- 
 vice for another year. They engrossed the prime 
 
404 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 of my life. They have eaten my flesh, and seem 
 resolved now to pick my bones." A visible and 
 a natural pleasure lurks in the words; old age 
 finds nothing sweeter than a tribute to the fresh- 
 ness of its powers; and especially Franklin saw 
 in this honor a vindication against his maligners. 
 From it he understood that, however some individ- 
 uals might indulge in dislike and distrust, the 
 overwhelming mass of his fellow citizens esteemed 
 him as highly as he could wish. The distinction, 
 however, cost posterity an unwelcome price, for 
 it prevented further work on the autobiography, 
 which otherwise would probably have been fin- 
 ished. 1 
 
 He came into office as a peacemaker amid war- 
 ring factions, and in the fulfillment of his func- 
 tions gave such satisfaction that in 1786 he was 
 unanimously reelected; and the like high compli- 
 ment was paid him again in the autumn of 1787. 
 It was like Washington and the presidency: so 
 long as he would consent to accept the office, no 
 other candidate was thought of. He also took 
 substantially the same course which had been 
 taken by Washington as commander-in-chief con- 
 cerning his pay ; for he devoted his whole salary 
 to public uses. He had the good fortune to be 
 able to carry out his somewhat romantic, and for 
 most persons impracticable, theory in this respect, 
 because his private affairs were prospering. His 
 investments in real estate in Philadelphia had 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, ix. 459. 
 
AT HOME 405 
 
 risen greatly in value and in their income-produ- 
 cing capacity since the war, and he was now at 
 least comfortably endowed with worldly goods. 
 
 He still continued to ply his pen, and the just 
 but annoying complaints which came from Great 
 Britain, that English creditors could not collect 
 their ante-bellum debts from their American debt- 
 ors, stimulated him to a bit of humor at which 
 his own countrymen at least were sure to laugh, 
 however little droll it might seem to Englishmen, 
 who reasonably preferred good dollars to good 
 jokes. "We may all remember the time," he 
 wrote, "when our mother country, as a mark of 
 her parental tenderness, emptied her gaols into 
 our habitations, 'for the better peopling,' as she 
 expressed it, 4 of the colonies.'' It is certain that 
 no due returns have yet been made for these 
 valuable consignments. We are therefore much 
 in her debt on that account; and as she is of late 
 clamorous for the payment of all we owe her, 
 and some of our debts are of a kind not so easily 
 discharged, I am for doing, however, what is in 
 our power. It will show our good will as to the 
 rest. The felons she planted among us have pro- 
 duced such an amazing increase that we are now 
 enabled to make ample remittance in the same 
 commodity," etc., etc. 
 
 Nevertheless these English assaults nettled him 
 not a little; and further he dreaded their possi- 
 ble influence in the rest of Europe outside of 
 England. The English newspapers teemed with 
 
406 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 accounts of the general demoralization and disin- 
 tegration of the States ; it was said that they had 
 found their ruin in their independence, and the 
 unwillingness of American merchants to pay their 
 debts was in one paragraph attributed to their 
 dishonesty, and in the next to the hopeless poverty 
 which was described as having possession of the 
 country. It was in good truth what Mr. John 
 Fiske has called it, "The Critical Period of 
 American History." But Franklin was at once 
 too patriotic and too sanguine to admit that mat- 
 ters were so bad as they seemed. His insight into 
 the situation proved correct, and the outcome very 
 soon showed that the elements of prosperity which 
 he saw were substantial, and not merely the phan- 
 toms of a hopeful lover of his country. During 
 these years of humiliation and discouragement he 
 was busy in writing to many friends in England 
 and in France very manly and spirited letters, 
 declaring the condition of things in the States 
 to be by no means so ill as it was represented. 
 Industry had revived, values were advancing, the 
 country was growing, welfare and success were 
 within the grasp of the people. These things he 
 said repeatedly and emphatically, and in a short 
 time the accuracy of his knowledge had to be 
 admitted by all, whether friends or enemies. He 
 would not even admit that the failure to arrange 
 a treaty of commerce with England was the seri- 
 ous misfortune which most Americans conceived 
 it to be. In his usual gallant fashion of facing 
 
AT HOME 407 
 
 down untoward circumstances he alleged again 
 and again that the lack of such a treaty was worse 
 for Great Britain than for the States. If British 
 merchants could stand it, American merchants, 
 he avowed, could stand it much better. He was 
 for showing no more concern about it. "Let the 
 merchants on both sides treat with one another. 
 Laissez lesfaire" he said. The presence of such 
 a temper in the States, in so prominent a man, 
 was of infinite service in those troubled years of 
 unsettled, novel, and difficult conditions. 
 
 Dr. Franklin was not at first elected a member 
 of the deputation from Pennsylvania to the con- 
 vention which framed the Constitution of the 
 United States. But in May, 1787, he was added 
 in order that, in the possible absence of General 
 Washington, there might be some one whom all 
 could agree in calling to the chair. 1 It was fortu- 
 nate that even an unnecessary reason led to his 
 being chosen, for all future generations would 
 have felt that an unpardonable void had been 
 left in that famous assemblage, had the sage of 
 America not been there. Certainly the "fitness 
 of things," the historical picturesqueness of the 
 event, imperatively demanded Dr. Franklin's 
 venerable figure in the constitutional convention 
 of the United States of America. 
 
 As between the two theories of government 
 which divided that body, Franklin ranged himself 
 with the party opposed to a strong and centralized 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 565. 
 
408 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 government endowed with many functions and 
 much power. 1 The simplest government seemed 
 to him the best; and he substantially gave in his 
 allegiance to those democratic ideas which after- 
 ward constituted the doctrines of the Jeffersonian 
 school in American politics. It was natural that 
 he should do so; he was a cheerful optimist all 
 his life long, and few men have ever so trusted 
 human kind as he did; so now he believed that 
 the people could take care of themselves, as in- 
 deed the history of the past few years and the 
 character of the population of the States at that 
 time indicated that they could. He attended 
 regularly all the sessions, and gave his opinions 
 freely; but they are only dimly revealed in the 
 half-light which enfolds in such lamentable obscu- 
 rity the debates of that interesting body. What 
 little is known can be briefly stated. 
 
 The same theory which he was practicing con- 
 cerning his own salary he wished to see introduced 
 as an article of the Constitution. The President, 
 he thought, should receive no salary. Honor was 
 enough reward; a place which gave both honor 
 and profit offered too corrupting a temptation, 
 and instead of remaining a source of generous 
 aspiration to "the wise and moderate, the lovers 
 of peace and good order, the men fittest for the 
 trust," it would be scrambled for by "the bold 
 
 1 But later lie remarked : " Though there is a general dread of 
 giving too much power to our governors, I think we are more in 
 danger from too little obedience in the yoverned." 
 
AT HOME 409 
 
 and the violent, the men of strong passions and 
 indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits." 1 
 In our day such a notion and such arguments 
 would be quickly sneered out of the debate; but 
 they were in keeping with the spirit of that era 
 when the first generation which for ages had dared 
 to contemplate popular government was carried 
 away by the earliest romantic fervor of inexpe- 
 rienced speculation. 
 
 It is familiar that the gravest question which 
 perplexed the convention was whether the larger 
 and the smaller States should stand upon terms 
 of equality, or whether some proportion should be 
 established. After a discussion, recurred to at 
 intervals during many weeks, had failed to de- 
 velop any satisfactory solution of this problem, 
 pregnant with failure, Franklin moved that the 
 daily proceedings should be opened with prayer. 2 
 But Hamilton said that a resort to prayer would 
 indicate to the people that the convention had 
 reached a desperate pass ; and either this or some 
 other reason was so potent that scarcely any one 
 voted yea on the motion. What could be more 
 singular than to see the skeptical Franklin and 
 the religious Hamilton thus opposed upon this 
 question ! Franklin next suggested a compromise : 
 an equal number of delegates for all States; an 
 equal vote for all States upon all questions respect- 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, ix. 418. See also letter to Bishop of St. 
 Asaph, Ibid. viii. 270. 
 
 2 Franklin's Works, ix. 428. 
 
410 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ing the authority or sovereignty of a State, and 
 upon appointments and confirmations; but votes 
 to be apportioned according to the populations of 
 the States respectively upon all bills for raising 
 and spending money. He was in favor of a single 
 legislative chamber, and his plan was designed 
 to be applied to such a system. Its feasibility 
 would probably have been defeated through the 
 inevitable complexity which would have attended 
 upon it in practice. 1 Nevertheless it was a sug- 
 gestion in the right direction, and contained the 
 kernel of that compromise which later on he de- 
 veloped into the system of an equal representation 
 in the Senate, and a proportionate one in the 
 House. This happy scheme may be fairly said 
 to have saved the Union. 
 
 Upon the matter of suffrage Franklin voted 
 against limiting it to freeholders, because to do 
 so would be to "depress the virtue and public 
 spirit of our common people," for whose patriot- 
 ism and good sense he expressed high esteem. 
 He opposed the requirement of a residence of 
 fourteen years as a preliminary to naturaliza- 
 tion, thinking four years a sufficient period. He 
 thought that the President should hold office for 
 seven years, and should not be eligible for a sec- 
 ond term; he should be subject to impeachment, 
 since otherwise in case of wrongdoing recourse 
 could be had only to revolution or assassination ; 
 
 1 One becomes quite convinced of this upon reading his presen- 
 tation of his scheme. Works, ix. 423 ; see also Ibid. 395. 
 
AT HOME 411 
 
 he should not have the power of an absolute 
 veto. 
 
 When at last the long discussions were over 
 and the final draft was prepared, Franklin found 
 himself in the position in which also were most 
 of his associates, disapproving certain parts, but 
 thinking adoption of the whole far better than 
 rejection. He was wise enough and singular 
 enough to admit that he was not infallibly right. 
 "Nothing in human affairs and schemes is per- 
 fect," he said, "and perhaps that is the case of 
 our opinions." He made an excellent speech, 1 
 urging that at the close of their deliberations all 
 should harmonize, sink their small differences of 
 opinion, and send the document before the people 
 with the prestige of their unanimous approbation. 
 While the last members were signing, relates 
 Madison, "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,' he said, '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 president 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.' " 
 
 He did what he could to secure the adoption of 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, ix. 431. 
 
412 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 the instrument by the people ; and when that end 
 was happily achieved he joined his voice to the 
 unanimous cry with which the American nation 
 nominated George Washington as the only possi- 
 ble candidate for the presidency. He said : " Gen- 
 eral Washington is the man whom all our eyes 
 are fixed on for President, and what little influ- 
 ence I may have is devoted to him." 
 
 It was about the time of the election that he 
 himself took his farewell of public life. The third 
 year of his incumbency in the office of president 
 of Pennsylvania expired in the autumn of 1788, 
 and his physical condition precluded all idea of 
 further official labors. Nature could not have 
 committed such an incongruity, such a sin against 
 aesthetic justice, as not to preserve Benjamin 
 Franklin's life long enough to enable him to see 
 the United States fairly launched as a real na- 
 tion, with an established government and a sound 
 constitution giving promise of a vigorous career. 
 But evidently with this boon the patience of na- 
 ture was exhausted; for Franklin's infirmities now 
 increased upon him terribly. He endured extreme 
 pain during periods steadily increasing in length 
 and recurring at ever-shortening intervals. He 
 bore his suffering, which too often became agony, 
 with heroic fortitude ; but it was evident that even 
 his strong frame could not long hold out against 
 the debilitating effects of his merciless disease. 
 Yet while it racked his body it fortunately spared 
 his mental faculties ; and indeed so lively did his 
 
AT HOME 413 
 
 interest in affairs remain that it seemed to require 
 these physical reminders to show him how old 
 he was; save for his body, he was still a man in 
 his prime. He once said: "I often hear persons, 
 whom I knew when children, called old Mr. Such- 
 a-one, to distinguish them from their sons, now 
 men grown and in business; so that by living 
 twelve years beyond David's period, / seem to 
 have intruded myself into the company of poster- 
 ity, when I ought to have been abed and asleep" 
 — words which should take their place among 
 the fine sayings of the ages. 
 
 He was courageous and cheerful. In Novem- 
 ber, 1788, he wrote: "You kindly inquire after 
 my health. I have not of late much reason to 
 boast of it. People that will live a long life and 
 drink to the bottom of the cup must expect to 
 meet with some of the dregs. However, when I 
 consider how many more terrible maladies the 
 human body is liable to, I think myself well off 
 that I have only three incurable ones: the gout, 
 the stone, and old age; and, those notwithstand- 
 ing, I enjoy many comfortable intervals, in which 
 I forget all my ills, and amuse myself in reading 
 or writing, or in conversation with friends, joking, 
 laughing, and telling merry stories, as when you 
 first knew me, a young man about fifty." 1 He 
 does not seem to have taken undue credit to 
 himself; there is no querulousness, or egotism, or 
 
 1 He habitually wrote in this vein ; see, for example, Works. 
 ix. 266, 283, and passim. 
 
414 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 senility in his letters, but a delightful tranquillity 
 of spirit. His sister wrote to him that the Boston 
 newspapers often had matter in his honor. "I 
 am obliged to them," he wrote; "on the other 
 hand, some of our papers here are endeavoring 
 to disgrace me. I take no notice. My friends 
 defend me. I have long been accustomed to re- 
 ceive more blame, as well as more praise, than I 
 have deserved. It is the lot of every public man, 
 and I leave one account to balance the other." 
 So serene was the aged philosopher, a real philoso- 
 pher, not one who, having played a part in life, 
 was to be betrayed in the weakness and irrita- 
 bility of old age. He felt none of the mental 
 weariness which years so often bring. He was 
 by no means tired of life and affairs in this world, 
 yet he wrote in a characteristic vein to the Bishop 
 of St. Asaph: "The course of nature must soon 
 put a period to my present mode of existence. 
 This I shall submit to with the less regret, as, 
 having seen during a long life a good deal of this 
 world, I feel a growing curiosity to be acquainted 
 with some other." It was characteristic that in 
 these closing days it was the progress of mankind 
 in knowledge and welfare which especially ab- 
 sorbed his thoughts. When he reflected on the 
 great strides that were making he said that he 
 almost wished that it had been his destiny to be 
 born two or three centuries later. He was one 
 of the few men who has left on record his willing- 
 ness to live his life over again, even though he 
 
AT HOME 415 
 
 should not be allowed the privilege of "correcting 
 in the second edition the errors of the first." 
 
 The French Revolution excited his profoundest 
 interest. At first he said that he saw "nothing 
 singular in all this, but on the contrary what 
 might naturally be expected. The French have 
 served an apprenticeship to liberty in this coun- 
 try, and now that they are out of their time they 
 have set up for themselves." 1 He expressed his 
 hope that "the fire of liberty, . . . spreading 
 itself over Europe, would act upon the inestimable 
 rights of man as common fire does upon gold : 
 purify without destroying them; so that a lover 
 of liberty may find a country in any part of Chris- 
 tendom." The language had an unusual smack 
 of the French revolutionary slang, in which he 
 seems in no other instance to have indulged. But 
 as the fury swelled, his earlier sympathies became 
 merged in a painful anxiety concerning the fate 
 of his many good old friends. 
 
 Franklin's last act was a memorial addressed 
 to Congress, signed by him in his capacity as 
 president of the abolition society, and praying 
 that body: "That you will devise means for re- 
 moving this inconsistency from the character of 
 the American people ; that you will promote mercy 
 and justice towards this distressed race ; and that 
 you will step to the very verge of the power vested 
 in you for discouraging every species of traffic 
 in the persons of our fellow men." He had al- 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 600. 
 
416 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 ways spoken of slavery with the strongest condem- 
 nation, and branded the slave-trade as "abomi- 
 nable," a "diabolical commerce," and a "crime." 
 
 A large part of the last year or two of his life 
 was passed by Franklin in his bed. At times when 
 his dreadful suffering seemed to become intoler- 
 able, it was quelled, so far as possible, by opium. 
 But at intervals it left him, and still whenever 
 he thus got a respite for a few days he was again 
 at work. It was in such an interval that he wrote 
 his paper condemning the liberty, which was be- 
 coming the license, of the press. If the law per- 
 mitted this sort of thing, he said, then it should 
 restore also the liberty of the cudgel. The paper 
 is not altogether antiquated, nor the idea alto- 
 gether bad ! 
 
 It was even so late as March 23, 1790, that he 
 wrote the humorous rejoinder to the pro-slavery 
 speech delivered in Congress by Jackson of Geor- 
 gia. But the end was close at hand; and when 
 this brilliant satire was composed, there lacked 
 but a few days of the allotted term when that 
 rare humor was to be stilled forever, and that 
 broad philanthropy was to cease from the toil in 
 which it had never tired alike for the free and the 
 oppressed. 
 
 On April 12, 1790, a pain in the chest and 
 difficulty of breathing, which had been giving him 
 much trouble, ceased for a short while, and he 
 insisted upon getting up in order to have his bed 
 re-made: for he wished to "die in a decent man- 
 
AT HOME 417 
 
 ner." His daughter expressed the conventional 
 wish that he might yet recover and live many- 
 years. "I hope not," he replied. Soon after- 
 ward the pain returned, and he was advised to 
 change his position, so that he could breathe more 
 easily. "A dying man can do nothing easy," 
 he said; and these are the last words which he 
 is known to have uttered. Soon afterward he 
 sank into a lethargy, and so remained until at 
 eleven o'clock, p. m., on April 17, 1790, he died. 
 A great procession and a concourse of citizens 
 escorted his funeral, and Congress voted to "wear 
 the customary badge of mourning for one month." 
 The bits of crape were all very well, a conven- 
 tional, insignificant tribute; but unfortunately the 
 account of the country, or at least of Congress 
 as representing the country, did not stand very 
 honorably, to say nothing of generously, with 
 one of its oldest, most faithful, and most useful 
 servants. 1 Again and again Franklin had asked 
 for some modest office, some slight opening, for 
 his grandson, Temple Franklin. The young man's 
 plans and prospects in life had all been sacrificed 
 to the service of Franklin as his secretary, which 
 was in fact the service of the country ; yet he had 
 never been able to collect even the ordinary salary 
 pertaining to such a position. Throughout a long 
 
 1 One of the most painful letters to read which our annals con- 
 tain is that written by Franklin to Charles Thomson, secretary of 
 Congress, November 29, 1788, Works, viii. 26, 30. It is an ar- 
 raignment which humiliates the descendants of the members of 
 that body. 
 
418 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 life of public service, often costly to himself in 
 his own affairs, Franklin had never asked any 
 other favor than this, which after all was rather 
 compensation than favor, and this was never given 
 to him. When one reflects how such offices are 
 demanded and awarded in these days, one hardly 
 knows whether to be more ashamed of the present 
 or of the past. But this was not all nor even 
 the worst; for Franklin's repeated efforts to get 
 his own accounts with the government audited and 
 settled never met with any response. It needed 
 only that Congress should appoint a competent 
 accountant to examine and report. Before leav- 
 ing France Franklin had begged for this act of 
 simple, business-like justice, which it was the 
 duty of Congress to initiate without solicitation; 
 he had the fate of the "poor unhappy Deane " 
 before his eyes, to make him uncomfortable, but 
 in this respect he was treated no better than that 
 misused man. After his return home he contin- 
 ued his urgency during his last years, not wishing 
 to die leaving malignant enemies behind him, and 
 accounts open which he could no longer explain 
 and elucidate. Indeed, stories were already cir- 
 culating that he was "greatly indebted to the 
 United States for large sums that had been put 
 into [his] hands, and that [he] avoided a settle- 
 ment; " yet this request was still, with unpardon- 
 able disregard of decency and duty, utterly ig- 
 nored. He never could get the business attended 
 to, and Benjamin Franklin actually could not 
 
AT HOME 419 
 
 extort from an indifferent Congress the small 
 satisfaction of having his accounts passed. The 
 consequence was that when he died the United 
 States appeared his debtor, and never extricated 
 itself from that painful position. 1 It was only 
 in this matter that he ever showed the slightest 
 anxiety concerning his reputation with posterity. 
 He wanted to leave the name of an honest man ; 
 but otherwise he never was at the trouble of pre- 
 paring a line to justify any of his actions, therein 
 differing from many of his contemporaries. 
 
 France showed a livelier affection and warmer 
 appreciation toward the great dead than did his 
 own countrymen. At the opening of the National 
 Assembly, June 11, 1790, Mirabeau delivered 
 an impassioned eulogy in the rhetorical French 
 fashion; and the motion to wear mourning for 
 three days was carried by acclamation. The 
 president of that body, M. Sieyes, was instructed 
 to communicate the resolution to Washington. 
 At the celebration of the municipality of Paris 
 the citizens generally wore a mourning badge; 
 and the grain market, where the oration was de- 
 livered, was draped in black. The Academy of 
 Sciences of course did formal honor to his mem- 
 ory, as did likewise the revolutionary clubs. A 
 street at what was in his day Passy, but is now 
 included in Paris, near the Trocadero, perpetuates 
 by his name the admiration which France felt for 
 him. 
 
 1 Parton's Life of Franklin, ii. 596. 
 
420 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Among illustrious Americans Franklin stands 
 preeminent in the interest which is aroused by a 
 study of his character, his mind, and his career. 
 One becomes attached to him, bids him farewell 
 with regret, and feels that for such as he the long- 
 est span of life is all too short. Even though dead, 
 he attracts a personal regard which renders easily 
 intelligible the profound affection which so many 
 men felt for him while living. It may be doubted 
 whether any one man ever had so many, such con- 
 stant, and such firm friends as in three different 
 nations formed about him a veritable host. In 
 the States and in France he was loved, and as he 
 grew into old age he was revered, not by those 
 who heard of him only, but most warmly by those 
 who best knew him. Even in England, where 
 for years he was the arch-rebel of all America, 
 he was generally held in respect and esteem, and 
 had many constant friends whose confidence no 
 events could shake. It is true, of course, that he 
 had also his detractors, with most of whom the 
 reader has already made acquaintance. In Penn- 
 sylvania the proprietary party cherished an ani- 
 mosity which still survives against his memory, 
 but which does not extend far beyond those who 
 take it as an inheritance. It does him no dis- 
 credit with persons who understand its source. 
 In New England a loyalty to those famous New 
 Englanders, John Adams and Samuel Adams, 
 seems to involve in the minds of some persons 
 a depreciation of Franklin. In English historical 
 
AT HOME 421 
 
 literature the patriotic instinct stands in the way 
 of giving Franklin quite his full due of praise. 
 But the faults and defects of character and con- 
 duct which are urged against him appear little 
 more than the expression of personal ill will, 
 when they are compared with the affection and 
 the admiration given to him in liberal measure 
 by the great mass of mankind both in the genera- 
 tions which knew him as a living contemporary 
 and in those which hear of him only as one of the 
 figures of history. It is not worth while to deify 
 him, or to speak with extravagant reverence, as 
 if he had neither faults nor limitations. Yet it 
 seems ungracious to recall these concerning one 
 who did for his fellow men so much as Franklin 
 did. Moral, intellectual, and material boons he 
 conferred in such abundance that few such bene- 
 factors of the race can be named, though one 
 should survey all the ages. A man of a greater 
 humanity never lived; and the quality which stood 
 Abou Ben Adhem in good stead should suffice to 
 save Franklin from human criticism. He not 
 only loved his kind, but he also trusted them with 
 an implicit confidence, reassuring if not extraor- 
 dinary in an observer of his shrewdness and ex- 
 perience. Democrats of the revolutionary school 
 in France and of the Jeffersonian school in the 
 United States have preached an exaggerated gos- 
 pel of the people, but their words are the dubious 
 ones of fanatics or politicians. Franklin was of 
 a different kind, and had a more genuine and 
 
422 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 more generous faith in man than the greatest 
 democrat in politics who ever lived. 
 
 Franklin's inborn ambition was the noblest of 
 all ambitions : to be of practical use to the multi- 
 tude of men. The chief motive of his life was to 
 promote the welfare of mankind. Every moment 
 which he could snatch from enforced occupations 
 was devoted to doing, devising, or suggesting some- 
 thing advantageous more or less generally to men. 
 His detractors have given a bad, but also a false 
 coloring to this trait. They say that the spirit 
 of all that he did and taught was sordid, that 
 the motives and purposes which he set before men 
 were selfish, that his messages spoken through 
 the mouth of Poor Richard inculcated no higher 
 objects in life than money -getting. This is an 
 utterly unfair form of stating the case. Franklin 
 was a great moralist: though he did not believe 
 in the Christian religion according to the strait- 
 laced orthodox view, he believed in the virtues 
 which that religion embodies; and he was not 
 only often a zealous preacher, but in the main 
 a consistent exemplar of them. Perhaps he did 
 not rest them upon precisely the same basis upon 
 which the Christian preacher does, but at least 
 he put them on a basis upon which they could 
 stand firm. In such matters, however, one may 
 easily make mistakes, breed ill blood, and do 
 harm; and his wisdom and good sense soon led 
 him to put forth his chief efforts and to display 
 especial earnestness and constancy in promoting 
 
AT HOME 423 
 
 the well-being of all men. It was an object suffi- 
 ciently noble, one would think, worthy of the 
 greatest brain and the largest heart, and having 
 certain very commendable traits in the way of 
 practicability and substantial possibilities. His 
 desire was to see the community prosperous, com- 
 fortable, happy, advancing in the accumulation 
 of money and of all physical goods, but not to 
 the point of luxury ; it was by no means the pile 
 of dollars which was his end, and he did not care 
 to see many men rich, but rather to see all men 
 well to do. He was perfectly right in thinking 
 that virtuous living has the best prospects in a 
 well-to-do society. He gave liberally of his own 
 means and induced others to give, and promoted 
 in proportion to the ability of the community a 
 surprising number of public and quasi public 
 enterprises; and always the fireside of the poor 
 man was as much in his thought as the benefit 
 of the richer circle. Fair dealing and kindliness, 
 prudence and economy in order to procure the 
 comforts and simpler luxuries of life, reading and 
 knowledge for those uses which wisdom subserves, 
 constituted the real essence of his teaching. His 
 inventive genius was ever at work devising meth- 
 ods of making daily life more agreeable, comfort- 
 able, and wholesome for all who have to live. In 
 a word, the service of his fellow men was his 
 constant aim; and he so served them that those 
 public official functions which are euphemistically 
 called "public services" seemed in his case almost 
 
424 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 an interruption of the more direct and far-reaching 
 services which he was intent upon rendering to 
 all civilized peoples. Extreme religionists may 
 audaciously fancy that the judgment of God upon 
 Franklin may be severe; but it would be gross 
 disloyalty for his own kind to charge that his in- 
 fluence has been ignobly material. 
 
 As a patriot none surpassed him. Again it 
 was the love of the people that induced this feel- 
 ing, which grew from no theory as to forms of 
 government, no abstractions and doctrines about 
 "the rights of man." He began by espousing 
 the cause of the people of the province of Penn- 
 sylvania against proprietary despotism, and for 
 many years he was a patriot in his colony, before 
 the great issue against England made patriotism 
 common. His patriotism had not root in any 
 revolutionary element in his temper, but was the 
 inevitable outcome of his fair-mindedness. That 
 which was unfair as between man and man first 
 aroused his ire against the grinding proprietaries ; 
 and afterward it was the unfairness of taxation 
 without representation which especially incensed 
 him ; for an intellect of the breadth and clearness 
 of his sees and loves justice above all things. 
 During the struggle of the States no man was 
 more hearty in the cause than Franklin; and the 
 depth of feeling shown in his letters, simple and 
 unrhetorical as they are, is impressive. All that 
 he had he gave. What also strikes the reader 
 of his writings is the broad national spirit which 
 
AT HOME 425 
 
 he manifested. He had an immense respect for 
 the dignity of America; he was perhaps fortu- 
 nately saved from disillusionment by his distance 
 from home. But be this as it may, the way in 
 which he felt and therefore genuinely talked about 
 his nation and his country was not without its 
 moral effect in Europe. 
 
 Intellectually there are few men who are Frank- 
 lin's peers in all the ages and nations. He cov- 
 ered, and covered well, vast ground. The repu- 
 tation of doing and knowing various unrelated 
 things is wont to bring suspicion of perfunctori- 
 ness; but the ideal of the human intellect is an 
 understanding to which all knowledge and all 
 activity are germane. There have been a few, 
 very few minds which have approximated toward 
 this ideal, and among them Franklin's is promi- 
 nent. He was one of the most distinguished 
 scientists who have ever lived. Bancroft calls 
 him "the greatest diplomatist of his century." 1 
 His ingenious and useful devices and inventions 
 were very numerous. He possessed a masterly 
 shrewdness in business and practical affairs. He 
 was a profound thinker and preacher in morals 
 and on the conduct of life ; so that with the excep- 
 tion of the founders of great religions it would 
 be difficult to name any persons who have more 
 extensively influenced the ideas, motives, and hab- 
 its of life of men. He was one of the most, per- 
 haps the most agreeable conversationist of his age. 
 1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. ix. 134. 
 
426 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 He was a rare wit and humorist, and in an age 
 when "American humor "was still unborn, amid 
 contemporaries who have left no trace of a jest, 
 still less of the faintest appreciation of humor, all 
 which he said and wrote was brilliant with both 
 these most charming qualities of the human mind. 
 Though sometimes lax in points of grammar, as 
 was much the custom in his day, he wrote as 
 delightful a style as is to be found in all English 
 literature, and that too when the stilted, verbose, 
 and turgid habit was tediously prevalent. He 
 was a man who impressed his ability upon all 
 who met him ; so that the abler the man and the 
 more experienced in judging men, the higher did 
 he rate Franklin when brought into direct contact 
 with him; politicians and statesmen of Europe, 
 distrustful and sagacious, trained readers and val- 
 uers of men, gave him the rare honor of placing 
 confidence not only in his personal sincerity, but 
 in his broad fair-mindedness, a mental quite as 
 much as a moral trait. 
 
 It is hard indeed to give full expression to a 
 man of such scope in morals, in mind, and in 
 affairs. He illustrates humanity in an astonishing 
 multiplicity of ways at an infinite number of 
 points. He, more than any other, seems to show 
 us how many-sided our human nature is. No in- 
 dividual, of course, fills the entire circle; but if 
 we can imagine a circumference which shall ex- 
 press humanity, we can place within it no one 
 man who will reach out to approach it and to 
 
AT HOME 427 
 
 touch it at so many points as will Franklin. A 
 man of active as well as universal good will, of 
 perfect trustfulness towards all dwellers on the 
 earth, of supreme wisdom expanding over all the 
 interests of the race, none has earned a more 
 kindly loyalty. By the instruction which he gave, 
 by his discoveries, by his inventions, and by his 
 achievements in public life he earns the distinction 
 of having rendered to men varied and useful ser- 
 vices excelled by no other one man; and thus he 
 has established a claim upon the gratitude of 
 mankind so broad that history holds few who can 
 be his rivals. 
 
INDEX 
 
 431 
 
 reenter's cabinet, 147 suggests 
 treating for peace, 284 ; moves ad- 
 dress against the war, after York- 
 town, 364. 
 
 Conyngham, , American privateer, 
 
 248, 249. 
 
 44 Cool Thoughts on the Present Situa- 
 tion," a pamphlet by Franklin, 91. 
 
 Cooper, Sir Grey, thinks Franklin's 
 mission is a desertion, 234. 
 
 Cooper, Samuel, tells Franklin of the 
 sentiment in Massachusetts regard- 
 ing his appointment as agent, 138 ; 
 letter to, regarding Hutchinson let- 
 ters, 180. 
 
 "Critical Period of American His- 
 tory" a time of reviving industrial 
 prosperity, 406. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, effect of his sur- 
 render, 363. 
 
 Cumberland, Duke of, forms cabinet, 
 115; dies, 116. 
 
 Cushing, Thomas, letter from Frank- 
 lin to, about the Hutchinson letters, 
 180. 
 
 Dana, Francis, his reliance on Frank- 
 lin, 342, 345. 
 
 Dartmouth, Lord, suggested as Hills- 
 borough's successor by Franklin, 
 165 ; friendly relations with Frank- 
 lin, 166 ; later divergence, 166 ; dis- 
 cusses with Franklin Massachusetts 
 resolves denying parliamentary con- 
 trol, 167 ; impossibility of agree- 
 ment, 168, 193; Franklin's memo- 
 rial to, 200. 
 
 Deane, Silas, rank as diplomate, 220 ; 
 first envoy to France, 222 ; previous 
 career and character, 222 ; his mis- 
 takes, 223 ; abandons America, 223 ; 
 introduced in France by Franklin, 
 223 ; his instructions, 224 ; balked 
 by Bancroft, 224 ; joins plans of 
 Beaumarchais, 230 ; not interfered 
 with by Franklin, 238 ; slandered 
 by Arthur Lee, 238, 239; ruined 
 by him, 239; defended by Frank- 
 lin, 240, 243, 290 ; sends European 
 officers to America, 242 ; proposes 
 an ultimatum to France, 269 ; re- 
 called, 289 ; confidence in Franklin, 
 399. 
 
 De Grey, Lord Chief Justice, in 
 Hutchinson letters affair, 186. 
 
 Denham, , offers Franklin a clerk- 
 ship, 10 ; his death, 10. 
 
 Despencer, Lord le, breakfast party 
 with, 136. 
 
 D'Estaing, Admiral, sails to aid Amer- 
 ica, 285. 
 
 " De Weissenstein " makes mysterious 
 offer of peace with pensions for 
 leading rebels, 358 ; supposed to be 
 
 George III., 358; Franklin's reply 
 to, 358, 359. 
 
 Dickinson, John, defends the Penn- 
 sylvania proprietors, 94; personal 
 attack on Franklin, 97, 98 ; pro- 
 tests against his appointment as 
 agent of the Assembly, 98 ; advo- 
 cates renewed petitioning to king 
 in Continental Congress, 206; sup- 
 ported by Franklin, 206. 
 
 Digges, -, embezzles funds sent by 
 
 Franklin to American prisoners, 
 264 ; makes secret proposals on be- 
 half of Lord North, 364. 
 
 Diplomacy of the Revolution, its gen- 
 eral character, 220 ; varied person- 
 nel, 220 ; difficulties in choosing 
 ministers, 221 ; vagueness as to 
 status of representatives, 222 ; mis- 
 sion of Silas Deane to France, 222- 
 231 ; assistance gained from France 
 through Beaumarchais, 225-231 ; 
 mission of Franklin to France, 232- 
 401 ; first offer of alliance, 236, 237 ; 
 dealings of Franklin and Deane with 
 foreign military adventurers, 242- 
 246; management of privateers, 
 248-252 ; negotiations relative to 
 exchange of prisoners, 252-264 ; 
 dealings with opposition in England, 
 271 ; alliance with France, 273-279 ; 
 proposal of Deane to force a deci- 
 sion, 269 ; effect of news of Bur- 
 goyne's capture, 273 ; discussion 
 over terms of alliance, 273-277 ; de- 
 bate over molasses duties, 276 ; con- 
 cessions arranged by Franklin, 277, 
 278 ; peace with England suggested, 
 282, 284; quarrels in the French 
 mission, 290-298 ; Franklin minis- 
 ter plenipotentiary, 298 ; methods 
 of raising money in Europe, 306 ; 
 history of Franklin's efforts in 
 France, 306-336 [see Finances of 
 the Revolution] ; unique position of 
 Franklin in Europe, 340-343 ; supe- 
 riority to other diplomatists, 342, 
 344-346 ; mistake of John Adams in 
 irritating Vergennes about American 
 paper money, 350-352 ; the affair 
 smoothed over by Franklin, 352- 
 355 ; futile advances toward recon- 
 ciliation made by English emissa- 
 ries, 357-360 ; events leading up to 
 treaty of peace [see treaty of 
 peace], 363-396 ; commercial trea- 
 ties with Prussia and other countries, 
 397. 
 
 Dubourg, Dr., conveys to Franklin 
 news of French willingness to help 
 colonies, 232. 
 
 Dunning, , counsel for Franklin 
 
 in Hutchinson letters affair, 187, 
 188. 
 
432 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Edinburgh gives Franklin freedom of 
 
 the city, 75. 
 East India Company, hurt by colonial 
 
 non-importation, 175. 
 
 Finances of the Revolution, difficul- 
 ties, 304 ; vague powers of Con- 
 gress, 304 ; inability to offer secur- 
 ity, 305 ; methods of raising money 
 adopted, 305, 306 ; burden of mak- 
 ing loans thrown on foreign repre- 
 sentatives, 306 ; situation of Jay, 
 307 ; of Adams, 307 ; real brunt 
 borne by Franklin, 307, 321 : unpic- 
 turesqueness and indispensableness 
 of his labors, 308, 336 ; description 
 of them, 308-336 ; proposed pay- 
 ments by cargoes of American pro- 
 ducts, 309 ; failure of this method, 
 310 ; loans made by French court 
 on pure credit, 311, 317, 319 ; Frank- 
 lin's pamphlet on resources of the 
 United States, 311 ; neglect of Con- 
 gress to advise ministers of bills, 
 312, 313, 326, 332; protests from 
 Franklin, 312, 318, 320; lack of 
 business methods in Congress, 313, 
 314, 320 ; extravagance of Lee and 
 Izard, 314-316; difficulties of 
 French court in furnishing money, 
 319; injurious influence of State 
 agents, 320 ; difficulties of Jay in 
 Spain, 321, 322, 332 ; criticisms of 
 Vergenues, 325 ; neglect of Congress 
 to keep promises, 322, 326, 332; 
 begging from Vergennes, 327 ; from 
 Necker, 328 ; difficulties over loan 
 raised in Holland, 328 ; extravagance 
 of Laurens and Jackson, 329 ; diffi- 
 culties of Adams in Holland, 331, 
 332 ; antedating of bills to elude a 
 promise, 332 ; further loans, 334, 
 336 ; liquidation of accounts begins, 
 335; peace alone puts an end to 
 borrowing, 336. 
 
 Fisheries, importance of, to New Eng- 
 land, 380; right to, upheld by 
 Adams, 380, 399. 
 
 Fitzherbert, , replaces Grenville, 
 
 372. 
 
 Florida, suggested as member of Con- 
 federation by Franklin, 208. 
 
 Folger, Abiah, mother of Franklin, 2. 
 
 Folger, ancestry of Franklin, 3. 
 
 Fox, C. J., member of opposition, 
 271 ; attacks North regarding 
 French and American alliance, 281 ; 
 in Rockingham cabinet, 365 ; tries 
 to outdo Shelburne by treating with 
 colonies through France, 366 ; will- 
 ing to acknowledge their independ- 
 ence, 367 ; urges Franklin to ne- 
 gotiate separately, 370 ; retires from 
 Shelburne' s cabinet, 372. 
 
 France, policy of; early interest in 
 English colonial controversy, 137 ; 
 regarded as probable ally of colo- 
 nies, 222 ; intervention suggested by 
 Beaumarchais and Vergennes, 226- 
 228 ; enthusiasm over Franklin, 233- 
 235; secret assistance, 251 ; self- 
 interest of France, 252, 285, 368, 
 375, 380, 391, 396 ; treaty of alliance 
 with, 273-279 ; war with England, 
 285 ; financial assistance, 307-336. 
 
 Franklin ancestry, 2 ; from North- 
 amptonshire, 2 ; religious independ- 
 dence, 2. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin. Early years. 
 Ancestry, 2 ; birth, 3 ; intended at 
 first for the church, 3 ; assists 
 father as tallow chandler, 4 ; ap- 
 prenticed as printer to his brother, 
 4 ; " escapes being a poet," 4 ; bold 
 religious speculations, 5 ; runs 
 away, 6 ; begins printing in Phila- 
 delphia, 6 ; receives offer of help 
 from Gov. Temple, 6 ; fails to in- 
 duce his father to assist, 7 ; tricked 
 by Temple into sailing for England, 
 8 ; lives in London, 8 ; " errata " 
 in his career, 9 ; bad company, 9 ; 
 infidelity, 9 ; declines proposal to 
 establish swimming school, 10 ; re- 
 turns home, 10 ; composes epitaph, 
 11 ; rise as printer in Philadelphia, 
 11, 12; publishes "Pennsylvania 
 Gazette," 12, 13 ; matrimonial pro- 
 jects, 13, 14 ; marriage, 15 ; rise in 
 society, 19 ; establishes a library, 
 20 ; effective methods of agitation, 
 21 ; publishes Poor Richard's al- 
 manac, 21 ; his management of the 
 Gazette, 24 ; religious and moral 
 views, 24-33 ; gains political influ- 
 ence through the Junto, 34 ; estab- 
 lishment of affiliated clubs, 34 ; 
 studies languages, 35 ; clerk of 
 General Assembly, 35; postmaster 
 of Philadelphia, 35 ; invents a stove, 
 and refuses to patent it, 36 ; founds 
 a philosophical society, 36 ; an acad- 
 emy, 37 ; tries to reorganize night- 
 watch, 38 ; founds the Union Fire 
 Company, 39 ; begins organization 
 of military force against French, 
 39 ; takes a partner, 39 ; enters 
 public life, 40 ; appointed to vari- 
 ous offices and elected burgess, 40 ; 
 commissioner to treat with In- 
 dians, 40 ; assists Dr. Bond in 
 founding hospital, 41 ; induces legis- 
 lature to make a contingent grant, 
 42 ; his pride over this device, 42 ; 
 improves cleaning and lighting of 
 streets, 42 ; appointed head of 
 postal system, his successful man- 
 agement of it, 43 ; receives degree 
 
INDEX 
 
 433 
 
 of Master of Arts from Yale and 
 Harvard, 43 ; deputy to Indian con- 
 ference at Albany, 44; proposes a 
 colonial union, 44 ; his plan adopted, 
 45; later rejected by England and 
 by colonies, 45 ; speculations as to 
 possible results if successful, 4G ; 
 opposes Shirley's plan of a parlia- 
 mentary tax, 47 ; proclaims theory 
 of no taxation without consent, 47 ; 
 points out heaviness of existing in- 
 direct taxation, 48 ; doubts feasi- 
 bility of colonial representation in 
 Parliament, 48, 49 ; visits Boston, 
 49 ; on committee to supervise mili- 
 tary expenditure in Pennsylvania, 
 50 ; disapproves of Braddock's ex- 
 pedition, 51 ; acts in behalf of the 
 Assembly, 52 ; arranges for trans- 
 portation for the expedition, 53 ; 
 obliged to give bonds to owners, 
 54 ; in danger of ruin owing to fail- 
 ure of expedition and losses of 
 wagons and horses, 54 ; escapes 
 with slight losses, 54 ; reputed to 
 have made money, 55 ; builds forts 
 on frontier, 56 ; increased popular- 
 ity, 56 ; scheme for settling barrier 
 colonies west of mountains, 57 ; 
 scientific studies, 59 ; reputation 
 in Europe, 59, 60. 
 
 Representative of Pennsylvania in 
 conflict with proprietors. Sent to I 
 England by burgesses to appeal to 
 the king against the proprietors, 63 ; 
 his share in previous agitation, 63 ; 
 detained from sailing by Lord Lou- 
 doun's procrastination, 65 ; arrival 
 in London, 66 ; interview with Lord 
 Granville, 66 ; dispute over legal 
 rights of the colonies, 67 ; futile in- 
 terview with proprietors, 67 ; with 
 their counsel, 68 ; kept waiting a 
 year, 68 ; complained of to the As- 
 sembly by the proprietors, 68; 
 learns of an adverse report of the 
 board of trade, 70 ; engages that 
 proprietors shall be fairly treated by 
 the Assembly, 70 ; thus gains main 
 contention that proprietors may be 
 taxed, 71 ; comments on proprie- 
 tors' behavior, 71, 72 ; detained 
 two years in England on business, 
 73 ; purposely delayed by oppo- 
 nents, 73 : suffers from lack of so- 
 cial influence, 74 ; fails to see Pitt, 
 74 ; illness, 74 ; welcomed in scien- 
 tific circles, 75 ; travels, 75 ; re- 
 ceives degree of Doctor of Laws 
 from St. Andrews and Oxford, 75 ; 
 friendship with Strahan, 76 ; at- 
 tempts at match-making with Sar ih 
 Franklin and William Franklin, 76 ; 
 willing to live in England, 77 ; re- 
 
 gret at leaving, 77 ; interested in 
 proposal to leave Canada to French 
 in order to overawe colonies, 80 ; 
 shows fallacy in a pamphlet, 80, 81 ; 
 denies possibility of colonial inde- 
 pendence, 81, 82, 83; predicts fu- 
 ture development of the West, 84 ; 
 returns home, 84 ; popularity, 84 ; 
 elected to assembly, 84 ; receives 
 partial compensation, 84 ; desires 
 repose, 86 ; regulates post-office, 86 ; 
 friendly relations with Governor 
 Penn, 87; condemns " Pax ton mas- 
 sacre " of friendly Indians, 88 ; or- 
 ganizes force to protect Christian 
 Indians in Philadelphia, 89 ; pro- 
 tects governor in his house, 89 ; 
 joins popular party in opposing gov- 
 ernor, 91 ; urges change to Royal 
 Government, 91, 92, 93 ; draws peti- 
 tion to this effect, 93 ; chosen 
 speaker, 94 ; attacks governor's 
 methods, 94, 95 ; defeated in elec- 
 tion to Assembly, 96, 97 ; appointed 
 agent to present petition for Royal 
 Government, 97, 99 ; attacked by 
 Dickinson, 98 ; expenses of journey 
 paid by subscription, 100 ; return to 
 old lodgings in London, 100 ; fails 
 to gain consideration for his peti- 
 tion, 101, 102. 
 
 Colonial representative in Eng- 
 land. Instructed by Pennsylvania to 
 oppose Stamp Act, 105 ; fruitless in- 
 terview with Grenville, 106 ; writes 
 home advising submission, 107 ; no 
 thought of resistance, 107 ; names 
 Hughes for stamp-distributer at 
 Grenville 's request, 108 ; temporary 
 fury of Philadelphia at the news, 
 109 ; his surprise and mortification, 
 109, 110 ; apparent disagreement 
 with colonists, but real unity of opin- 
 ion, 111 ; his fitness for diplomatic 
 position in England, 111, 112; sym- 
 pathizes with both sides, 113; tact 
 and coolness, 113; appears as wit- 
 ness at bar of Commons, 119 ; abil- 
 ity displayed under cross-examina- 
 tion, 119 ; thorough mastery of sit- 
 uation, 120 ; great effect of his 
 testimony, 121 ; presents American 
 sentiment against the Stamp Act, 
 122 ; expresses willingness to sacri- 
 fice all rather than submit, 123, 
 124 ; states legislative independence 
 of colonies, 124, 1 25 ; has friendly 
 feeling for George III., 126; seeks 
 to defend him, 126, 127 ; thinks- 
 colonial representation in Parlia 
 ment impossible of adoption, 128 
 views on " virtual " representation 
 130 ; draws distinctions betweei 
 external and internal taxation, 130 v 
 
434 
 
 INDEX 
 
 131 ; asserts willingness of colonies 
 to bear their share of public bur- 
 dens, 132 ; return of popularity in 
 Pennsylvania, 134; satirical publica- 
 tions at expense of English igno- 
 rance of colonies, 134, 135 ; joke 
 concerning a claim of the king of 
 Prussia to England, 136 ; " rules for 
 reducing a great empire to a small 
 one," 136 ; communications with 
 the French, 137 ; appointed agent 
 for Georgia and Massachusetts, 
 138 ; opposed by Samuel Adams, 
 138 ; increased prestige, 139 ; pe- 
 cuniary sacrifice, 139 ; retains post- 
 mastership, 140 ; motives of minis- 
 try in leaving him undisturbed, 140 ; 
 rumors circulated in America that 
 he had accepted royal office, 141 ; 
 his reputation increases in England 
 and France, 144 ; urges moderation 
 at home, 145 ; disliked by extrem- 
 ists, 146; hopes advantage from 
 Hillsborough's appointment, 151 ; 
 discovers Hillsborough's enmity, 
 152 ; dispute with him over legality 
 of commission from Massachusetts, 
 152-157; a telling retort, 157; no 
 longer recognized as agent of Massa- 
 chusetts, 157 ; low opinion of Hills- 
 borough, 158; thinks agents quite 
 as valuable to government as to col- 
 onies, 158 ; works to undermine 
 Hillsborough, 159, 160 ; controverts 
 Hillsborough's objections to two 
 frontier colonies, 162 ; his argu- 
 ments prevail with the privy coun- 
 cil, 163 ; drives Hillsborough to 
 resign, 163 ; snubbed by him, 164 ; 
 fails to get the grant for frontier 
 provinces, 164 ; suggests Lord Dart- 
 mouth for colonial secretary, 165 ; 
 amicable relations with him, 166 ; 
 counsels him to be patient with Mas- 
 sachusetts, 167, 168; would be sat- 
 isfied with a return to conditions 
 before Stamp Act, 169; begins to 
 forbode separation, but hopes and 
 works for peace, 171 ; continually 
 urges moderation on colonists, 172 ; 
 belief in efficacy of non-importation, 
 173 ; urges its advantages, 173 ; and 
 effects upon England, 174; com- 
 ments on complete financial failure 
 Stamp Act and Customs Act, 176 ; 
 shown copies of Tory letters from 
 Massachusetts, 177 ; sends them to 
 Boston under pledge of secrecy, 
 178 ; publishes a letter taking upon 
 himself responsibility of their dis- 
 covery, 182, 183 ; presents petition 
 of Massachusetts to Dartmouth, 
 183; delicacy of his position, 184; 
 learns that Hutchinson and Oliver 
 
 are to be represented by counsel, 
 185 ; fearing trouble and foreseeing 
 an attack, asks for time, 186 ; threats 
 and rumors, 187 ; appears before a 
 hostile privy council, 187, 188 ; vio- 
 lently attacked as a thief by Wed- 
 derburn, 188, 189; the "suit of 
 Manchester velvet," 191 ; begins 
 and abandons a defense of himself, 
 192 ; dismissed from office of post- 
 master, 192 ; loses his standing in 
 England, 192, 193 ; resigns agency 
 for Massachusetts, 193 ; rebuked by 
 Massachusetts for laxity, 194 ; slan- 
 dered by Arthur Lee, 194 ; danger 
 of charges of treason, 195 ; inter- 
 view with Lord Chatham, 196; 
 urges policy of colonial self-govern- 
 ment, 197 ; denies that independ- 
 ence is desired, 197 ; wishes unity 
 of the Empire, 198 ; attacked by 
 Lord Sandwich in House of Lords, 
 198; defended by Chatham, 198, 
 199; irritated at attacks on America 
 in House of Commons, 199 ; writes 
 an angry letter to Dartmouth, 200 ; 
 demands reparation for injuries 
 done America and rights denied, 
 200 ; saved from presenting this by 
 advice of Walpole, 201, 202 ; rejects 
 secret attempts by ministry to ne- 
 gotiate, 202 ; again rejects bribes, 
 202 ; last day in London with Priest- 
 ley, 203 ; emotion at situation, 203 ; 
 leaves for home, 203 ; significance 
 of his failure, 203. 
 Member of Congress. Revulsion of 
 feeling on reaching America, 204; 
 anger against England, 205 ; letters 
 to Priestly and Strahan, 204, 205 ; 
 elected to Congress, 206 : active in 
 committee work, 206 ; willing to 
 send the Olive Branch petition, 206 ; 
 hopes thus to put England in the 
 wrong, 206 ; suggests offer by colo- 
 nies to pay annual sum for privilege 
 of Free Trade, 207 ; repels humor- 
 ously charge of colonial ingratitude, 
 207, 208 ; formulates a plan of i 
 union, 208 ; chairman of committee 
 on postal service, 209 ; postmaster- 
 general, 209 ; chairman of Commit- 
 tee of Safety, 209; plans defenses 
 for Philadelphia, 209 ; prevented by 
 necessary oath of allegiance from 
 sitting in Pennsylvania Assembly, 
 209 ; sent to Boston to confer with 
 Washington, 209 ; to Montreal to 
 confer with Arnold, 210 ; president 
 of Pennsylvania Constitutional Con- 
 vention, 211 ; willing to join a New 
 England confederacy rather than 
 none, 212 ; connection with Decla- 
 ration of Independence, 212 ; his 
 
INDEX 
 
 435 
 
 famous jests, 212 ; in the Articles 
 of Confederation wishes votes of 
 States according to population, 212 ; 
 correspondence with Lord Howe, 
 who wishes reconciliation, 213 ; re- 
 plies condemning the English, 213, 
 214 ; member of committee of Con- 
 gress to confer with Howe, 214 ; re- 
 marks, 215 ; says nothing short of 
 independence is possible, 216 ; his 
 indignation at British attacks, 217 ; 
 suggests, in humorous form, to 
 Priestley, the impossibility of con- 
 quering the Americans, 217, 218 ; 
 depth of his feeling, 218. 
 Minister to France. Appointed, 219, 
 232 ; the only American with diplo- 
 matic experience, 220, 221 ; voyage, 
 232 ; 233 ; alarm of English at news 
 of his arrival, 234 ; French enthu- 
 siasm, 234, 235; settles at Passy, 
 235 ; avoids thrusting himself upon 
 the government, 236 ; presents cre- 
 dentials at audience given by Ver- 
 gennes, 236, 237 ; gains a secret 
 loan, 237; not involved in Deane's 
 schemes, 238 ; befriends Deane, 
 240 ; much annoyed by the compli- 
 cations, 241, 242; and by French 
 officers previously encouraged by 
 Deane, 243, 244 ; discourages them, 
 245; uses an unvarnished form of 
 letter of recommendation, 245 ; 
 recognizes value of Lafayette and 
 Steuben, 246; impressed with feel- 
 ing for liberty in Europe, 247 ; ex- 
 pects great liberal immigration, 247 ; 
 advises privateering, 248 ; charged 
 with duty of regulating it, 249, 250 ; 
 protects privateers against French 
 government, 250 ; works to gain 
 time, 251 ; tries to exchange pris- 
 oners with England, 253 ; tart cor- 
 respondence with Stormont, 253 ; 
 indignant at treatment of American 
 prisoners by English, 254, 255 ; cor- 
 respondence with Hartley on the 
 subject, 256-262 ; urges humane 
 treatment, 257, 258 ; proposes liber- 
 ation by English " on account," 258, 
 259, 260 ; threatens retaliatory treat- 
 ment, 260, 263; finally succeeds, 
 261, 262 ; difficulties raised by Eng- 
 lish, 262, 263 ; sends money to pris- 
 oners, 263 ; appoints Williams 
 naval agent, 264 ; acquiesces in his 
 dismissal, 266 ; predicts in 1777 the 
 ultimate success of the war, 268 ; 
 prevents desperate measures on 
 Deane's part, 269 ; receives news of 
 Burgoyne's surrender, 270; sends 
 J. L. Austin to confer with English 
 liberals, 271 ; justifies to Hartl"y 
 the project of a French alliance, 
 
 272, 273 ; secret negotiations with 
 France, 274, 275 ; misunderstanding 
 with Lee, 275 ; arranges commercial 
 concessions, 277 ; plans nearly up- 
 set by Lee and Izard, 278-9 ; signs 
 treaty in " Manchester velvet suit," 
 279 ; writes to Hartley urging peace, 
 281, 282 ; predicts futility of English 
 conciliatory bills, 282 ; presented to 
 Louis XVI., 283 ; his costume, 283 ; 
 secures in treaty principle of " free 
 ships, free goods," 287 ; favors the 
 " armed neutrality," 288 ; meetings 
 with Voltaire, 287, 288; speaks 
 well of Deane, 290 ; accused of in- 
 efficiency and corruption by Lee 
 and Izard, 292, 293, 298 ; criticised 
 by Adams, 294, 296; personal fru- 
 gality of Franklin, 297 ; advises a 
 single representative at Versailles, 
 
 297 ; made minister plenipotentiary, 
 
 298 ; insulted by Lee, 299 ; supplies 
 money, commissions, and protection 
 to Paul Jones, 300, 301 ; advises 
 plundering English coast, 301 ; dif- 
 ficulties with Landais, 302. 
 
 Foreign Financial Agent. Forced 
 to beg money to meet congressional 
 bills, 306 ; assists Jay, 307 ; sole ef- 
 fective financier, 307, 308 ; lends 
 money to Congress, 308 ; yields two 
 cargoes to Beaumarchais, 310 ; ap- 
 peals vainly to Thomas Morris, 310 ; 
 instructed by Congress to borrow 
 money and build ships of war, 311 ; 
 writes pamphlet on credit of the 
 United States, 311 ; agrees to meet 
 interest on congressional loan, 311 ; 
 obliged to meet drafts, 312 ; con- 
 tinually surprised by new and old 
 ones, 312 ; not warned of bills drawn, 
 312, 313, 318, 332 ; annoyed by ex- 
 orbitant demands of Lee and Izard, 
 314 ; refuses Izard, 315 ; attacked 
 bitterly, 316, 317 ; helps officers of 
 " Alliance," 317 ; humiliating neces- 
 sity of begging from France, 318 ; 
 hampered by state agents making 
 lo\ns, 319 ; aids Jones, 320 ; begs 
 Congress not to permit its agents to 
 draw upon him, 320 ; assists Jay, 
 321, 322, 333, 335 ; proposes that 
 Congress furnish supplies to French 
 fleet, 322 ; urges sacrifice in Amer- 
 ica, 323, 324 ; meets drafts on Lau- 
 rens, 324, 326, 332; overwhelmed 
 by fresh demands, 325 ; fragment of 
 his diary showing the swarm of 
 bills, 326 ; more begging from Ver- 
 gennes, 327, 328 ; secures loan in 
 Holland, 328; difficulties over Wil- 
 liam Jackson's purchases, 329, 330 ; 
 helps John Adams meet drafts, 331 ; 
 directed by Robert Morris to make 
 
436 
 
 INDEX 
 
 further requests, 331 ; in return 
 asks remittance from America, 331 ; 
 yet manages to meet drafts, 332 ; 
 promises Vergennes to accept no 
 drafts dated later than March, 1781, 
 332 ; discovers that Congress is an- 
 tedating bills, 332 ; personal liabil- 
 ity, 332 ; more demands from Liv- 
 ingston, 333, 334 ; warned by Ver- 
 gennes, 333 ; refused further aid 
 from French, but succeeds in get- 
 ing more, 334 ; begins liquidation 
 of accounts, 335 ; receives further 
 demands for loans, 335, 336 ; re- 
 leased by treaty of peace, 336 ; ac- 
 cused of sloth, luxury, and indeci- 
 sion by Adams, 337, 338 ; political 
 value of his personal popularity in 
 France, 339 ; breadth of view, 340 ; 
 carelessness never caused failure, 
 341 ; amount of his labors, 341, 342 ; 
 variety of functions, 342 ; meagre- 
 ness of assistance rendered him, 
 343 ; his indolence only physical, 
 344; his great social prestige in 
 Europe, 345 ; its value, 346 ; an- 
 noyed by attacks at home, 347 ; 
 patient under calumny, 348 ; tries 
 vainly to resign, 348 ; his requests 
 uniformly ignored by Congress, 349 ; 
 urges Congress not to injure for- 
 eign creditors, 350 ; appealed to by 
 Adams and Vergennes to settle 
 quarrel, 351 ; agrees with Ver- 
 gennes in favor of foreign creditors, 
 
 353 ; advises Adams to smooth over 
 unwise expressions to Vergennes, 
 
 354 ; hated by Adams, 355. 
 Commissioner to make peace. Ap- 
 proached by Pulteney as to peace, 
 357 ; by de Weissenstein, 358 ; 
 thinks latter an agent for George 
 III., 358; writes a severe answer 
 which he does not send, 359 ; ap- 
 proached by Hartley as to truce, 
 359; bitterness toward England, 
 
 359, 360 ; refuses from the outset 
 to discuss possibility of reunion, 
 
 360, 361 ; gratitude toward France, 
 362; commissioned to treat for 
 peace, 363 ; refuses to treat sepa- 
 rately from France, 364 ; suggests 
 peace to Shelburne, 364 ; inter- 
 view with Oswald, 365 ; again 
 refuses separate negotiations, 366 ; 
 sends suggestions to Shelburne, 366, 
 371 ; second inconclusive interview 
 with Oswald, 367 ; dealings with 
 Grenville, 368 ; urges Jay to join 
 him, 371 ; asks Shelburne to give 
 Oswald exclusive authority, 371 ; 
 continues to discuss with Oswald, 
 372 ; willing to accept vague com- 
 mission given Oswald, 373 ; thinks 
 
 well of Vergennes' motives, 373; 
 
 criticises Jay's letter on this point, 
 374; differs with Jay regarding 
 
 French duplicity, 375, 378; re- 
 sumes negotiations with Oswald, 
 377 ; surrenders his view to Jay 
 and Adams, probably to save time, 
 379 ; on compensation to Tories, 
 381 ; suggests counter-claims, 382 ; 
 antipathy to loyalists, 382 ; informs 
 Vergennes of treaty, 384 ; criti- 
 cised by him, 385 ; apparent dupli- 
 city, 386 ; tries to defend his ac- 
 tion, 387 ; blamed at home for too 
 great subservience to France, 388 ; 
 persuades Jay not to write a de- 
 fense, 388 ; asks Jay and Adams to 
 vindicate him, 389 ; increased ill- 
 feeling with Adams, 391 ; merits of 
 the dispute, 391 ; large part played 
 by him in negotiations, 392 ; value 
 of his reputation, 392, 393; his 
 friendly opinion of Vergennes, 393, 
 394, and of France, 395 ; again re- 
 signs, 396 ; retained for commer- 
 cial treaties, 397 ; pleasant life in 
 Paris, 397, 398; departure from 
 France, 400, 401 ; voyage, 401, 402. 
 
 President of Pennsylvania. Arrival 
 at Philadelphia, popular welcome, 
 403 ; elected President of State 
 Council, 403 ; acts as peacemaker 
 between factions, 404 ; successive 
 reflections, 404 ; devotes salary to 
 public use, 404 ; humorous proposal 
 for paying British debts, 405; not 
 discouraged by condition of Amer- 
 ica, 406 ; preaches coolness, 407 ; 
 elected member of Constitutional 
 Convention, 407. 
 
 In Constitutional Convention. 
 Elected in order to preside in possible 
 absence of Washington, 407; opposes 
 centralization, 408 ; views on con- 
 stitutional points, 408-411 ; moves 
 that sessions open with prayer, 409 ; 
 urges harmony, 411 ; favors Wash- 
 ington for president, 412 ; leaves 
 public life, 412 ; physical infirmi- 
 ties, 412 ; cheerfulness of mind in 
 later days, 413, 414 ; applauds 
 French Revolution, 415 ; president 
 of abolition society, 415 ; condemns 
 too great license of press, 416 ; 
 death, 417 ; public honors in Amer- 
 ica, 417 ; but continued neglect on 
 part of Congress to adjust his ac- 
 counts or recompense Temple 
 Franklin, 417, 418 ; memorial cere 
 monies in France, 419. 
 
 Character. General summary 420- 
 427 ; an unfavorable view, 337, 338; 
 criticisms on the foregoing, 338- 
 344; religious views, 5, 9, 24-29; 
 
INDEX 
 
 437 
 
 moral attitude, 21, 24, 29-33 ; utili- 
 tarianism, 29-30 ; 422-424 ; wit and 
 humor, 11, 120, 134, 207, 212, 208, 
 405, 420; humanity, 101, 112, 144, 
 254-204, 393, 425; patriotism, 203, 
 424 ; courage and cheerfulness, 145, 
 172, 208, 400 ; business ability, 12, 
 13, 39 ; literary ability, 22, 35, 43, 
 420; diplomatic ability, 338-344; 
 tact, 52, 112, 113, 243, 244, 305 ; po- 
 litical insight, 121-120 ; other char- 
 acteristics, 19, 20, 21, 33, 30, 171, 
 172, 218; reputation in Europe, 75, 
 111, 144, 235, 398, 401, 419. 
 
 Political Opinions. On colonial 
 union, 44, 208 ; on parliamentary su- 
 premacy, 40,47, 190 ; on colonial re- 
 presentation in Parliament, 49, 128 ; 
 on relation of colonies to England, 
 66, 124-126 ; on external and inter- 
 nal taxation, 130, 131 ; on free ships 
 and free goods, 207 ; on colonial 
 system, 48, 197 ; on paper money, 
 13, 355 ; on export duties, 277 ; on 
 non-importation , 173, 174 ; on pro- 
 prietary government, 92, 93 ; in 
 constitutional convention, favors 
 unpaid presidency, 408; favors re- 
 presentation proportional to popula- 
 tion, 212, 409 ; suggests compro- 
 mise, 410 ; favors wide suffrage, 
 410 ; brief naturalization period, 
 410 ; president for seven years, ineli- 
 gible for reelection, and liable to im- 
 peachment, 410 ; on French Revolu- 
 tion, 415 ; on slavery, 415, 410 ; a 
 believer in democracy, 408, 421 ; 
 but from faith in mankind, not mere 
 theory, 421, 424. 
 
 Franklin, Mrs. Deborah, 0; engaged 
 to Franklin, 14 ; previous matrimo- 
 nial experiences, 15 ; marries Frank- 
 lin, 15 ; receives Franklin's illegiti- 
 mate son, 16 ; dread of crossing the 
 Atlantic, 70, 78 ; in danger during 
 Stamp Act riots, 109; Franklin's 
 present of a gown to, 134; death, 
 203. 
 
 Franklin, James, takes his brother 
 Benjamin Franklin as apprentice, 
 4 ; unfriendly relations, 5. 
 
 Franklin, Josiah, emigrates to Bos- 
 ton, 2 ; his family, 2, 3 ; father of 
 Benjamin Franklin, 3 ; devotes him 
 to the church, 3 ; suggests that lie 
 become a printer, 4 ; refuses to aid 
 him in Philadelphia, 7 . 
 
 Franklin, Sarah, offer of marriage, 76 ; 
 leaves Philadelphia to escape Stamp 
 Act riots, 109 ; marriage to Richard 
 Bache, 203. 
 
 Franklin, Temple, assists his grand- 
 father in Paris, 273, 343, 347 ; neg- 
 lected by Congress, 417. 
 
 Franklin, William, birth, 16 ; refuses 
 to marry Mary Stevenson, 76 ; ap- 
 pointed governor of New Jersey, 
 85 ; becomes a Tory and alienated 
 from his father, 85 ; partial recon- 
 ciliation, 85, 401. 
 
 "Free Ships and Free Goods," doc- 
 trine upheld by Franklin, 287. 
 
 "French and Indian War," 49-58 ; con- 
 flict inevitable, 44, 50 ; inequality of 
 combatants, 50 ; Braddock's expe- 
 dition, 51-55 ; outcome of war, 78. 
 
 French Revolution, applauded by 
 Franklin, 415. 
 
 Gadsden, Christopher, 107, 111. 
 
 Galloway, Joseph, speech against 
 Pennsylvania Proprietors, 94 ; de- 
 feated for reelection, 97. 
 
 Gates, General, captor of Burgoyne, 
 272, 280, 298. 
 
 " Gentleman's Magazine," praises 
 Franklin's examination before Com- 
 mons, 121. 
 
 George III., desires peace with France, 
 78 ; displaces Grenville, 114 ; favor- 
 able opinion of Franklin towards, 
 120, 127 ; hatred of Shelburne, 148, 
 150 ; vexed with Hillsborough, 100 ; 
 hatred of Franklin, 284 ; supposed 
 to be author of De Weissenstein 
 letter, 358 ; makes Shelburne prime 
 minister, 372. 
 
 George IV., interview with Austin, 
 271. 
 
 Georgia, appoints Franklin its agent, 
 138. 
 
 Gerard, M., asks for proposals for al- 
 liance, 274 ; negotiates treaty, 274, 
 275 ; arranges reciprocity with 
 Franklin, 278 ; signs treaty, 279 ; 
 minister to United States, 285 ; 
 claims credit of having defeated 
 Lee's schemes, 298. 
 
 Gibbon, remark on diplomatic events 
 in 1777, 280. 
 
 Grand, M., banker for Franklin, 314, 
 327, 330. 
 
 Granville, Lord, interview with Frank- 
 lin, 06 ; asserts that king is legisla- 
 tor for the colonies, 66 ; defends 
 English colonial system, 67. 
 
 Greene, General, his remark on meet- 
 ing Franklin, 210. 
 
 Grenville, George, proposes enforce- 
 ment of colonial trade regulations, 
 104 ; introduces Stamp Act, 104 
 honesty of his intentions, 105, 143 
 unmoved by Franklin's protest, 100 
 asks Franklin to name a distributer 
 108 ; views on parliamentary power 
 over America, 117 ; loss of prestige, 
 143. 
 
 Grenville, Thomas, sent by Fox to 
 
438 
 
 INDEX 
 
 treat with France and with the 
 United States, 366 ; preposterous 
 offer to Vergennes, 367 : relations 
 with Franklin, 368, 369- difficulty 
 over his commission, 371 ; recalled, 
 372; remark on self-seeking of 
 France, 395. 
 Guadaloupe. See Canada. 
 
 Hale, Edward E. , quoted, 234, 238, 
 242, 281, 290, 303. 
 
 Hall, David, fellow workman of 
 Franklin, 9; taken into partner- 
 ship, 39. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, mentioned, 344 ; 
 opposes Franklin's motion to open 
 sessions of Constitutional Conven- 
 tion with prayer, 409. 
 
 Hamilton, governor of Pennsylvania, 
 superseded, 87. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, on committee 
 with Franklin, 209. 
 
 Hartley, David, character and friend- 
 ship with Franklin, 256 ; aids Amer- 
 ican prisoners, 256 ; tries to ar- 
 range exchanges, 258 ; unable to 
 hasten matters, 261 ; finally suc- 
 ceeds, 262; cautions Franklin 
 against a French alliance, 272 ; 
 sends copies of conciliatory bills to 
 Franklin, 281 ; visits him, 282 ; 
 warning to Franklin , 288 ; proposes 
 a truce, 359 ; letters to, 360, 364. 
 
 Harvard College makes Franklin 
 Master of Arts, 43. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 107, 111. 
 
 Hillsborough, Earl of, replaces Shel- 
 burne in charge of the colonies, 
 151, 157 ; Franklin's opinion of, 
 151 ; holds that colonial agents were 
 illegally appointed, 152 ; interview 
 and dispute with Franklin, 153- 
 157 ; angry at Franklin's retort, 
 157 ; refuses to recognize Franklin 
 as agent, 157 ; his theory followed 
 by board of trade, 158 ; loses pres- 
 tige, 159 ; disliked by George III., 
 160 ; tries to prevent granting of 
 barrier colonies, 160-162 ; his ac- 
 tion reversed by privy council at 
 Franklin's suggestion, 163 ; re- 
 signs, 163 ; resentment against 
 Franklin, 164. 
 
 Hortalez & Co. See Beaumarchais. 
 
 Howe, Lord, negotiations with Frank- 
 lin in England, 202 ; tries to medi- 
 ate in America, 213 ; arranges a 
 conference with Franklin, Adams, 
 and Rutledge, 214, 215; fails to 
 find common ground, 216. 
 
 Hughes, , named stamp distri- 
 buter at Franklin's suggestion, 108. 
 
 Hume, David, 75. 
 
 Hunter, William, 43. 
 
 Hutchinson, Anne, 178 note. 
 
 Hutchinson, Governor, disputes over 
 parliamentary taxation with Massa- 
 chusetts Assembly, 166 ; vexes 
 Dartmouth, 167 ; writes letters urg- 
 ing ministry to take severe mea- 
 sures in Boston, 177 ; value of his 
 advice to ministry, 178 note ; peti- 
 tion for his removal, 183; advises 
 detention of Franklin, 196. 
 
 Hutchinson Letters, 177-193; shown 
 to Franklin, 177 ; sent by him to 
 America under pledge of secrecy, 
 178 ; published, 179 ; manner of 
 transmission unknown, 180 ; quar- 
 rel between Temple and Whately, 
 181 ; responsibility taken by Frank- 
 lin, 182, 183 ; question as to honora- 
 bleness of his action, 184 ; attack 
 on Franklin before Privy Council, 
 185-191 ; incident ruins Franklin's 
 standing, 193. 
 
 Ignorance of English concerning 
 America, 132, 134, 135, 137. 
 
 Indians, Franklin's dealings with, 
 40, 44 ; their opinion of rum, 41 ; 
 hated in Pennsylvania, 83, 87. 
 
 Independence of colonies, dreaded in 
 England, 49, 66, 79, 106 ; its possi- 
 bility denied by Franklin, 81, 82, 83, 
 108, 197 ; foreseen by Pratt, Choiseul, 
 Vergennes, 83 ; its approach recog- 
 nized by Franklin, 107, 171 ; repu- 
 diated by Congress, 211 ; declara- 
 tion of, 212. 
 
 Internal and external taxation, dis- 
 pute concerning difference, 130 ; 
 identity upheld by Grenville, 130 ; 
 by Townshend, 149 ; denied by 
 Franklin, 130, 131. 
 
 Ireland, suggested as possible member 
 of Confederation by Franklin, 208. 
 
 Izard, rank as diplomate, 220; sides 
 with Lee against Franklin, 278 ; 
 quarrel with Franklin, 279 ; attacks 
 Deane and Franklin, 290 ; charges 
 against Franklin, 292, 298, 399 ; ex- 
 travagant demands for money, 297, 
 299, 314 ; letter of Franklin to, 314. 
 
 Jackson, William, buys supplies in 
 Holland, 328, 329 ; draws on Frank- 
 lin, 329 ; damages American credit, 
 329 ; complications about goods, 
 330 ; his pro-slavery speech in Con- 
 gress, 416. 
 
 Jay, John, his " conscience " in Con- 
 gress, 208 ; rank as diplomate, 220 ; 
 humiliating situation as financial 
 agent in Spain, 307 ; inability to 
 raise money, 307, 321 ; helped by 
 Franklin, 307, 322, 332, 333, 335 ; 
 defers to Franklin's opinion, 342,- 
 
INDEX 
 
 439 
 
 recognizes importance of Franklin's 
 position, 346 ; appointed commis- 
 sioner to treat for peace, 349 ; sent 
 for by Franklin to aid in treating, 
 370 ; illness, 372 ; insists on recog- 
 nition of independence in Oswald's 
 commission, 373 ; suspects Ver- 
 gennes' motives, 373; is certain 
 that Vergennes is secretly work- 
 ing against United States, 375 ; per- 
 suades Shelburne to grant the new 
 commission, 376 ; wishes to nego- 
 tiate without Vergennes, 378 ; ar- 
 ranges boundaries and Mississippi 
 navigation in the treaty, 380 ; in- 
 dignant at congressional reproof, 
 388 ; dissuaded by Franklin from 
 replying, 388; testimony in behalf 
 of Franklin, 390, 399 ; freedom from 
 quarrels, 390 ; the real leader in the 
 negotiations, 391. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, mentioned, 212 ; 
 declines mission to France, 232 ; 
 appointed commissioner to treat for 
 peace, 349 ; arrival in Paris, 398 ; 
 succeeds Franklin, 398 ; describes 
 his popularity, 398 ; on Franklin's 
 calumniators, 399. 
 
 Jones, John Paul, his daring exploits, 
 300, 301 ; supported by Franklin, 
 301 ; advised by him, 301. 
 
 "Junto," club founded by Franklin, 
 34 ; becomes a political engine, 34, 
 35. 
 
 Kames, Lord, 75 ; letters to, 77, 83. 
 
 Kant, Immanuel, calls Franklin Pro- 
 metheus, 60. 
 
 Keimer, , Franklin's employer in 
 
 Philadelphia, 6, 11 ; prints a news- 
 paper and sells out to Franklin, 12. 
 
 Keith, Sir William, governor of Penn- 
 sylvania, proposes to set Franklin 
 up as printer, 6 ; tricks him into 
 sailing to England, 7, 8. 
 
 Knox, , agent of Georgia, favors 
 
 Stamp Act, 105. 
 
 Lafayette, Marquis de, recom- 
 mended by Franklin, 246 ; brings 
 Franklin's commission, 298 ; tries 
 to help Franklin raise money, 333. 
 
 Landais, French captain of American 
 vessel, 302 ; refuses to obey Frank- 
 lin, 302 ; goes insane, 302, 303. 
 
 Laurens, Henry, rank as diplomate, 
 220 ; complains of Franklin's neg- 
 lect, 264 ; captured, 324 ; appointed 
 commissioner to treat for peace, 
 349 ; letter from Franklin to, 390 ; 
 confidence in Franklin, 399. 
 
 Laurens, John, great expenses in 
 Holland, 238, 329. 
 
 Lee, Arthur, appointed by Massachu- 
 
 setts to succeed Franklin as her 
 agent on his departure from Eng- 
 land, 141 ; praised by Franklin, 
 141 ; slanders him, 141 ; unable to 
 help Franklin when attacked be- 
 fore Privy Council, 185 ; circulates 
 rumors of Franklin's treachery, 
 194 ; still praised by Franklin, 194 ; 
 succeeds Franklin, 203 ; rank as 
 diplomate, 220 ; influences Beau- 
 marchais, 226 ; appointed Franklin's 
 colleague in France, 232 ; suspects 
 Deane and Beaumarchais, 238 ; pre- 
 vents Congress from sending them 
 goods, 239 ; ruins Deane, 239, 240 ; 
 slanders Williams, 265 ; secures his 
 removal, 266; joins with Franklin 
 against Deane, 270 ; description of 
 secret meetings of Vergennes with 
 commissioners, 274 ; jealousy of 
 Franklin, the cake episode, 275 ; 
 objects to reciprocity with French 
 West Indies, 277 ; tries to reverse 
 action taken on it, 278 ; rage with 
 Franklin at not being told of sailing 
 of Gerard and Deane, 290 ; his evil 
 influence at home, 291 ; general un- 
 popularity, 291, 317 ; virulent ha- 
 tred of Franklin, 292 ; extravagant 
 slanders, 292, 293, 297; excessive 
 demands for money, 297, 299, 314, 
 316 ; sent to Madrid, 298 ; refuses 
 to give up papers of French em- 
 bassy, 299 ; prevents a Spanish loan 
 by his imprudence, 317 ; defers to 
 Franklin, 342; influence in preju- 
 dicing Massachusetts against Frank- 
 lin, 399. 
 
 Lee, John, counsel for Franklin in 
 Hutchinson letters affair, 187, 188. 
 
 Lee, William, rank as diplomate, 220 ; 
 offended at appointment of Jona- 
 than Williams, 265 ; sides with Ar- 
 thur Lee against terms of French 
 treaty, 278 ; makes charges against 
 Franklin, 298. 
 
 Lexington, fight at, 204. 
 
 Library, established by Franklin, 20 ; 
 parent of later subscription libra- 
 ries, 20. 
 
 Livingston, R. R., letters of Franklin 
 to, 323, 335; letters from, asking 
 money, 333, 334 ; condemns commis- 
 sioners for making treaty without 
 French advice, 388. 
 
 " London Chronicle" publishes Frank- 
 lin's letters to Shirley, 47. 
 
 Loudoun, Lord, appointed military 
 head of colonies, 64 ; his procrasti- 
 nation and inefficiency, 65. 
 
 Louis XVI., puzzled by Beaumarchais' 
 zeal for the colonies, 226 ; sides 
 with Turgot in opposing interven- 
 tion, 228 ; compliments American 
 
440 
 
 INDEX 
 
 envoys, 283 ; civilities to Franklin, 
 401. 
 
 Lovell, James, Franklin's letter to. 
 312. 
 
 Luzerne, Chevalier de la, French 
 minister to the United States, 351, 
 363, 387. 
 
 Lynch, , on committee with Frank- 
 lin, 209. 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, arranges settlement 
 of Penn dispute with Franklin, 70, 
 71 ; upholds parliamentary power 
 over colonies, 118 ; condemns a 
 pamphlet of Franklin's, 136. 
 
 Massachusetts appoints Franklin its 
 agent, 138 ; fails to pay him, 139 ; 
 quarrels with Hutchinson over par- 
 liamentary supremacy, 166 ; peti- 
 tions for removal of Hutchinson 
 and Oliver, 183 ; rebukes Franklin 
 for carelessness, 194. 
 
 Mauduit, , agent for Hutchinson, 
 
 185. 
 
 Meredith, , Franklin's partner, 11, 
 
 12. 
 
 Mirabeau, eulogy on Franklin, 419. 
 
 Molasses trade, its importance to the 
 colonies, 276; remarks of Adams 
 upon, 276 ; secured in French 
 treaty, 277-279. 
 
 Morris, Robert, offended at appoint- 
 ment of Jonathan Williams, 265 ; 
 appointed treasurer, 304 ; complete 
 reliance on Franklin, 307 ; urges 
 Franklin to suggest to Vergennes 
 to help America to raise a loan at 
 Madrid, 331 ; drafts on Franklin, 
 333-336 ; letters of Franklin to, 333, 
 334, 335, 336 ; directs Franklin to 
 leave surplus, if any, to M. Grand, 
 336. 
 
 Morris, Thomas, rank as diplomate, 
 220 ; commercial agent at Nantes, 
 264 ; his incompetence, 264, 265, 311. 
 
 Navy, United States, supported by 
 Franklin, 300-303. 
 
 Necker, induced by Franklin to guar- 
 antee a loan, 328. 
 
 New Jersey, appoints Franklin its 
 agent, 138. 
 
 " New England Courant," printed 
 under Franklin's name, 5. 
 
 Noailles, Marquis de, announces to 
 England alliance of French with 
 United States, 284. 
 
 Non- importation, its effectiveness 
 against the Stamp Act, 115, 116; 
 urged later by Franklin, 173, 175 ; 
 acts like "protection," 173; its ef- 
 fects upon the East India Company, 
 175 ; other effects, 176. 
 
 Nbrris, Isaac, declines to represent 
 
 Pennsylvania against the Proprie* 
 tors in England, 63 ; resigns speak- 
 ership rather than sign petition, 94. 
 North, Lord, chancellor of exchequer, 
 151 ; at Privy Council hearing, 190 ; 
 attempt's to bribe Franklin, 202; 
 permits Hartley to correspond with 
 Franklin, 256 ; forced by Burgoyne's 
 surrender to attempt conciliation 
 with colonies, 280 ; twitted by Fox 
 with French and American alliance, 
 281 ; receives news of Cornwallis's 
 surrender, 363 ; tries to alienate 
 France from the States, 363, 364 ; 
 resigns, 364. 
 
 Oliver, Lieutenant-Governor, his 
 letters, 177 ; petition for his re- 
 moval, 183. 
 
 Oswald, Richard, sent by Shelburne 
 to discuss peace with Franklin, 
 365 ; second visit, 366 ; fruitless in- 
 terview with Franklin, 367 ; pre- 
 ferred to Grenville by Franklin, 
 371 ; continues negotiation, 372 ; 
 difficulty over his commission, 373 ; 
 receives satisfactory commission, 
 376 ; agrees to a draft treaty, 377. 
 
 Otis, James, opposition to Stamp Act, 
 107, 111. 
 
 Oxford University makes Franklin 
 Doctor of Laws, 75. 
 
 Parliament, supremacy of, over colo- 
 nies, denied by Franklin, 47; as- 
 serted by Shirley, 46 ; by Parlia- 
 ment, 64 ; Stamp Act raises ques- 
 ton, 110 ; denied by Pitt, 114. 117 ; 
 debate over declaratory resolution 
 in Parliament, 118 ; arguments of 
 Franklin before Commons, 124-126 ; 
 distinction between internal and ex- 
 ternal taxes, 130 ; debates under 
 Dartmouth's ministry, 167-170. 
 
 Parton, James, Life of Franklin, 
 quoted, 3, 16, 23, 36, 97, 208, 222, 
 232, 240, 241, 271, 281, 283, 407, 415, 
 419. 
 
 "Paxton massacre," 87-89; Paxton 
 boys threaten Indians in Philadel- 
 phia, 88 ; overawed by Franklin's 
 preparations, 89 ; unpopularity of 
 lattter with lower classes, 90. 
 
 Pelham, Henry, said to have planned 
 a Stamp Act, 104. 
 
 Penn family, proprietaries, strained 
 relations with people, 49, 60; re- 
 fuse to allow lands to be taxed by 
 Assembly, 61, 62 ; interviews with 
 Franklin, 67 ; complain to Pennsyl- 
 vania of him, 68 ;. endeavor to get 
 taxing acts disallowed, 69 ; denied 
 by the board of trade, 70, 72 ; con- 
 tinue struggle with Assembly, 90; 
 
INDEX 
 
 441 
 
 their corrupt practices, 94, 95 ; fa- 
 mous epitaph by Franklin, 95 ; his 
 hostility later diminished, 95. 
 
 Penn, John, appointed governor of 
 Pennsylvania, 87 ; agreeable begin- 
 ning of adminiustration, 87 ; pro- 
 tected and directed by Franklin at 
 time of Paxton massacre, 89 ; ve- 
 toes bills of the Assembly, 90, 91. 
 
 Penn, Thomas, wishes Parliament to 
 tax colonies, 49, 64. 
 
 Penn, William, suggests colonial 
 union, 44. 
 
 Pennsylvania, reluctance to take mili- 
 tary measures, 39, 49, 52 ; contro- 
 versy with proprietors, G0-64, G9, 72, 
 73, 90-99 ; desires to be a crown 
 colony, 63, 64, 91-93; labors of 
 Franklin in behalf of, 66-72, 101, 
 102 ; adopts a state constitution, 
 211 ; chooses Franklin president of 
 legislature, 403, 404. 
 
 " Pennsylvania Gazette," published 
 by Franklin, 12 ; its character and 
 success, 13, 23 ; Franklin's writings 
 in, 44. 
 
 Pitt, William, refuses audience to 
 Franklin, 74 ; opposes Stamp Act, 
 114, 117 ; upholds American claim 
 to self-taxation, 117 ; denies par- 
 liamentary power over colonies, 118 ; 
 reorganizes cabinet, 147 ; supports 
 Shelburne, 148 ; becomes Earl of 
 Chatham, 148; loses control of af- 
 fairs, 148, 150; statue erected in 
 America, 149 ; interview with Frank- 
 lin, 196 ; compliments Franklin in 
 House of Lords, 198. 
 
 "Plain Truth," effect upon Pennsyl- 
 vania, 39. 
 
 "Poor Richard's Almanac," 21; its 
 character and influence, 22 ; wit 
 and wisdom, 22, 23. 
 
 Pownall, Governor, favors barrier 
 Western colonies, 57. 
 
 Pratt, Attorney-General [see Camden, 
 Lord]. 
 
 Price, Dr., humorous message of 
 Franklin to, 217, 218. 
 
 Priestley, Dr., present at Privy Coun- 
 cil hearing, 190 ; describes Frank- 
 lin's last day with him in London, 
 203; letters of Franklin to, 204, 
 217 ; protects Austin, 271. 
 
 Prisoners, exchange of, difficulties at- 
 tending, 252, 253; hardships of 
 American prisoners, 253, 254, 255 ; 
 refusal of British to consider them 
 prisoners of war, 254; efforts of 
 Franklin to secure this recognition, 
 255-264 ; correspondence with Hart- 
 ley, 256-262 ; proposes exchange " on 
 account," 258, 260 ; final success, 
 262, 263; refusal to exchange pri- 
 
 vateer prisoners, 263 ; retaliation 
 suggested, 263. 
 
 Privateers, their feats in English wa- 
 ters, 248, 249 ; protected and com- 
 missioned by Franklin, 250, 252. 
 
 Prussia, treaty with, signed by Frank- 
 lin, 397. 
 
 Pulteney, William, visits Franklin 
 with a view to peace, 357. 
 
 Ralph, James, 9. 
 
 Rayneval, F. M. G. de, secretary to 
 Vergennes, 375 ; argues with Jay 
 against American claims to West- 
 ern lands, 375 ; secret journey to 
 London, 375. 
 
 Representation in Parliament, colo- 
 nial, proposed by Shirley, 48 ; by 
 others, 127, 128 ; views of Franklin, 
 48, 49, 128, 129. 
 
 Robertson, Dr., 75. 
 
 Rockingham, Marquis of, prime min- 
 ister, 115 ; decides to repeal Stamp 
 Act, 118 ; on importance of Frank- 
 lin's arrival in France, 234 ; forms 
 cabinet after Yorktown, 365 ; death, 
 372. 
 
 " Rules for reducing a great empire to 
 a small one," 136; condemned by 
 Mansfield, 136, 137. 
 
 Rutledge, Edward, on committee to 
 treat with Lord Howe, 214, 215, 216. 
 
 Sandwich, Lord, attacks Franklin in 
 House of Lords, 198. 
 
 Saville, Sir George, friendly to Amer- 
 ica, 282. 
 
 Shelburne, Earl of, friendly to Amer- 
 ica, 147 ; administers colonial af- 
 fairs, 147 ; hampered byTownshend, 
 148; and hated by George III., 148, 
 149 ; superseded by Hillsborough, 
 151 ; protects Austin, 271 ; timely 
 letter of Franklin to, 365 ; enters 
 Rockingham cabinet, 365 ; sends 
 Oswald to Franklin, 365 ; unwilling 
 to admit independence of colonies, 
 367 ; idea of a federal union, 367 ; 
 difficulties with Fox, 366, 370, 372 ; 
 becomes prime minister, 372; as- 
 sures Franklin of continuation of 
 previous policy toward America, 
 372 ; issues vague commission to 
 Oswald, 372 ; appealed to by Jay 
 not to be led by Vergennes, 376 ; 
 his liberal views, 376 ; gives new 
 commission, 376 ; his anxiety over 
 the concession, 377 ; earnest in be- 
 half of Tories, 381, 382 ; finally 
 yields, 382 ; condemned in England 
 and loses office, 383. 
 
 Shirley, governor of Massachusetts, 
 proposes scheme of colonial union, 
 46 ; discussion with Franklin, 47- 
 
442 
 
 INDEX 
 
 49 ; appoints auditors for claims 
 under Braddock's expedition, 54 ; 
 his success as a soldier explained 
 by Franklin, 56. 
 Sieves, M., 419. 
 
 Spain secretly aids Beaumarchais, 
 229 ; aid asked in recognizing United 
 States, 274, 275, 279; gives slight 
 financial aid, 307, 317, 321; inter- 
 ests in America threaten to prolong 
 war, 369 ; or divide France and 
 States, 370 ; tries to prevent States 
 gaining Western lands, 380. 
 
 Stamp Act, causes leading to it, 102, 
 103; colonial taxation proposed by 
 Townshend, 103; plan resumed by 
 Grenville, 104, 105; protests of 
 colonial agents disregarded, 106; 
 passed, 106 ; opinion of Franklin 
 concerning, 106 ; causes violent out- 
 break in Pennsylvania, 109; in 
 other colonies, 110; rouses opposi- 
 tion among Grenville's opponents, 
 114 ; among English exporters who 
 find trade cut down, 115, 116 ; at- 
 tacked by Pitt, 117; its repeal de- 
 cided on, 118 ; way paved by a de- 
 claratory resolution of its validity, 
 118; debated, 118; examination of 
 Franklin ao to its effects, 119-123; 
 effect on English sentiment, 121 ; 
 testimony as to colonial feeling, 
 122 ; argument as to colonial right 
 of self -taxation, 124; repealed, 132, 
 133; popular rejoicing in England, 
 133 ; in America, 133, 134 ; causes 
 for repeal, 142; repeal caused by 
 union of diverse elements, 143. 
 
 St. Andrews University makes Frank- 
 lin Doctor of Laws, 75. 
 
 St. Asaph, Bishop of, friend to Amer- 
 ica, 282; visits Franklin at Ports- 
 mouth, 401 ; letters to, 409, 414. 
 
 Steuben, Baron, recommended by 
 Franklin, 246. 
 
 Stevenson, Mary, scientific tastes, 76 ; 
 wished by Franklin to marry his 
 son, 76 ; letters to, 86, 101. 
 
 Stiles, Ezra, letter to, 28. 
 
 Stormont, Lord, English ambassador 
 to France, complains of Beaumar- 
 chais, 230; threatens to leave if 
 Franklin is allowed to come to 
 Paris, 234 ; refuses to communicate 
 with Franklin, 253 ; recalled, 285. 
 
 Strachey, Henry, sent to Paris by 
 Shelburne, 377. 
 
 Strahan, William, offers his son to 
 marry Franklin's daughter, 76; 
 letters to, 77, 84, 205. 
 
 Sullivan, General, carries message of 
 Lord Howe to Congress, 214. 
 
 Temple, , suspected of having sent 
 
 Hutchinson letters to America, 181 ; 
 calls on Whately to exonerate him , 
 181 ; quarrel and duel, 182 ; excul- 
 pated by Franklin, 182. 
 
 Thomson, Charles, letters to, 106, 417. 
 
 Thornton, Major, agent of Franklin 
 to aid prisoners, 257. 
 
 Townshend, Charles, proposes colo- 
 nial taxation, 103 ; goes out of office, 
 104 ; hostility to colonies, 116 ; will- 
 ing to repeal Stamp Act, 143 ; chan- 
 cellor of exchequer, 147 ; favored 
 by George III., 148; renews pro- 
 posal to draw a revenue from Amer- 
 ica, 149 ; proposes disciplining New 
 York, 150 ; introduces bill for Amer- 
 ican customs duties, 150 ; death, 151. 
 
 "Townshend duties," introduction, 
 150 ; passage, 150 ; non-importation 
 used against, 174-175 ; effect in de- 
 stroying revenue, 175 ; and increas- 
 ing cost of collection, 176. 
 
 Treaty of peace, early suggestions of 
 peace without independence by 
 Pulteney, 357; by "Charles de 
 Weissenstein," 357, 358 ; latter sup- 
 posed to be George III., 358; an- 
 swered by Franklin, 358, 359 ; pro- 
 posals by Hartley, 359; high tone 
 of Franklin's replies, 361 ; effects 
 of capture of Cornwallis, 363; ef- 
 forts by Lord North to divide the 
 States and France, 363 ; repudiated 
 by Franklin and by Vergennes, 364 ; 
 fall of North cabinet, 364; forma- 
 tion of Rockingham cabinet, friendly 
 to America, 365 ; Shelburne sends 
 Oswald to see Franklin and Ver- 
 gennes, 365 ; plan of separate treaty 
 with America again rejected, 365 ; 
 Laurens brings same news from 
 Adams, 365 ; Franklin suggests cer- 
 tain concessions, 366, 371 ; rivalry 
 of Fox and Shelburne, 366; both 
 send emissaries, 366 ; dealings of 
 Grenville with Vergennes and Frank- 
 lin, 367-370 ; possibility that to avoid 
 prolonging war on Spain's account, 
 the States might treat separately, 
 369 ; difficulties over Grenville's 
 and Oswald's commissions, 371 ; re- 
 tirement of Fox and Grenville from 
 Shelburne ministry, 372 ; Oswald 
 resumes negotiation, 372 ; debate 
 over form of his commission, 373- 
 317 ; Jay and Adams overrule Frank- 
 lin, 374 ; their suspicions of French 
 friendliness, 374-376 ; Jay persuades 
 Shelburne to yield his objections, 
 376 ; negotiations resumed, 377 ; 
 draft agreed upon but rejected by 
 English, 377 ; difficulties of Amer- 
 ican commissioners on account of 
 their instructions, 377, 378 ; Adams 
 
INDEX 
 
 443 
 
 and Jay again overrule Franklin and 
 determine not to follow French ad- 
 vice, 379 ; boundaries agreed upon, 
 380; fisheries, 380; responsibility 
 of Franklin for dispute over indem- 
 nification of Tories, 380 ; a dead- 
 lock 381 ; counter-claims suggested 
 by Franklin, 381, 382; Shelburne 
 yields, 382 ; provisional articles 
 signed, 383 ; condemnation of treaty 
 in England, 383 ; real success of 
 Americans, 384 ; anger of Ver- 
 gennes, 384, 385, 387; Franklin's 
 reply, 386 ; condemnation in Amer- 
 ica, 388 ; justification of Adams and 
 Jay, 391, 392, 396. 
 
 Truxton, Commodore, 401. 
 
 Turgot, opposes France's aiding colo- 
 nies, 227, 228 ; on French poverty, 
 319. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania, founded 
 by Franklin, 37. 
 
 Vaughan, Benjamin, sent by Shel- 
 burne to Paris, 372 ; carries Jay's 
 message to Shelburne, 376 ; fears 
 failure of treaty over royalist in- 
 demnity, 381. 
 
 Vergennes, Comte de, predicts Amer- 
 ican independence, 83 ; favors policy 
 of aiding colonies to weaken Eng- 
 land, 227 ; gets control of king's 
 foreign policy, 229 ; establishes 
 Beaumarchais as Hortalez & Co., 
 229 ; maintains outward neutrality, 
 230, 231 ; avoids a quarrel on Frank- 
 lin's account with English ambassa- 
 dors, 234 ; meets the commissioners, 
 237 ; tries to suppress license of 
 colonial privateers, 250, 251 ; self- 
 interest of his policy toward Amer- 
 ica, 252 ; secret interview with en- 
 voys, 274 ; liberal dealings with 
 States, 285 ; keeps departure of 
 Gerard and Deane secret, 290 ; sus- 
 pects Lee's secretary of being a 
 spy, 290 ; dislike for Lee, 291 ; com- 
 plains of exorbitant financial de- 
 mands, 325, 328, 333; appealed to 
 by Morris to help American credit 
 in Spain, 331 ; confidence in Frank- 
 lin, 345 ; antipathy to Adams, 350 ; 
 angry at proposal to scale American 
 paper money, 350 ; insists that 
 French creditors be spared, 351 ; 
 appeals to Franklin against Adams, 
 352 ; advises against answering " De 
 Weissenstein," 359; trusted by 
 Franklin, 302, 378 ; refuses to treat 
 with England apart from United 
 States, 304; amused at Grenville's 
 proposal, 368 ; puzzled at discord 
 between Grenville and Oswald, 370 ; 
 
 advises commissioners not to quib- 
 ble over wording of Oswald's com- 
 mission, 373 ; suspected by Jay, 
 373, 375 ; succeeds in having Ameri- 
 can ultimatum reduced to independ- 
 ence, 378 ; and commissioners in- 
 structed to follow his advice, 378 ; 
 suspected by Adams, 379 ; praises 
 success of treaty, 383 ; informed of 
 the conclusion of preliminary arti- 
 cles, 384 ; angry note to Franklin, 
 385 ; to Luzerne, 387 ; personal re- 
 gard for Franklin, 387, 393, 398 ; 
 apparent generosity, 393-396. 
 
 " Virtual " representation of the col- 
 onies in Parliament, 129; Pitt's 
 opinion, 117 ; Franklin's, 129. 
 
 Voltaire, relations with Franklin, 288, 
 289. 
 
 Walpole, Horace, remarks on Frank- 
 lin's voyage to France, 232 ; receives 
 private news of French and Amer- 
 ican alliance, 281. 
 
 Walpole, Robert, said to have planned 
 a stamp tax, 104. 
 
 Walpole, Thomas, astonished at 
 Franklin's proposed memorial to 
 Dartmouth, 200 ; advises Franklin 
 not to present it, but to leave Eng- 
 land, 201, 202 ; receives private news 
 of French and American alliance, 281. 
 
 Washington, George, mentioned, 206, 
 209, 267, 298, 307, 328, 344, 358, ha- 
 rassed by foreign military adven- 
 turers, 242 ; relieved by Franklin, 
 245 ; comparison of services with 
 those of Franklin, 308, 339, 404, 407 ; 
 supported for president by Frank- 
 lin, 412. 
 
 Wedderburn, Alexander, solicitor-gen- 
 eral and counsel for Hutchinson and 
 Oliver, 186 ; bitter attack on Frank- 
 lin before Privy Council, 188, 189. 
 
 West, the, its expansion foreseen by 
 Franklin, 57, 83, 84. 
 
 West India Islands, suggested as mem- 
 bers of Confederation by Franklin, 
 208. 
 
 Whately, Thomas, denies knowledge 
 of Hutchinson letters, 181 ; refuses 
 to exculpate Temple, 181 ; quarrel 
 and duel, 182 ; exculpated by Frank- 
 lin, 182 ; sues him, 187. 
 
 Whately, William, recipient of Hutch- 
 inson letters, as secretary of Gren- 
 ville, 180. 
 
 Whitehead, , deceived by a satire 
 
 of Franklin, 135, 136. 
 
 Wickes, , colonial privateer, 248. 
 
 Williams, Jonathan, rank as diplo- 
 mate, 220 ; appointed naval agent 
 by Franklin, 264 ; accused of dis- 
 honesty by the Lees, 265 ; dis- 
 
444 
 
 INDEX 
 
 missed, 266; ill-treated by Con- 
 gress, 266. 
 Wyndham, Sir William, wishes Frank- 
 lin to open a swimming-school in 
 London. 10. 
 
 Tale College makes Franklin Master 
 
 of Arts, 43. 
 Yorke, Charles, solicitor - general, 
 
 counsel for Penn family, 68. 
 

 
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