The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's almanac and other papers

Front matter

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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

Introduction

tion on religious questions he set forth in allegory. A certain man is at the gate of heaven, demanding entrance on the ground, that he was a Presbyterian. ^* What is that?" asks St. Peter, and when he is told, he says, '^ We don't have any here." The various sects are all mentioned in turn, but the applicant is each time assured that there are none in heaven. Finally, he sees his wife through the gate, and claims that if she is there, so he should be, for they were of the same religion on earth. ^^ Oh," said St. Peter, '' why didn't you say that you were a Christian to begin with ? "

He wrote : '^ I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and governed it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man ; that our souls are immortal ; that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter." x\gain: '' For my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as paying debts. , .1 can only show my gratitude for those mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other children and my brethren." When he could no longer tolerate such preaching as he heard in the church, he remained at home on Sundays and exercised his devotions in the use of prayers which he himself had composed. The reader will remember Franklin's famous motion, in the Federal Convention of 1787, that ^' Prayers, imploring the Assistance of Heaven, and its Blessing on our Deliberations, be held in this Assembly

X INTRODUCTION.

every Morning before we proceed to Business." The motion was voted down, but it did this service: it showed what were the feelings of this man upon this subject. It must be clearly understood, however, that he was at no time precisely orthodox, and in the last year of his life he wrote to President Stiles of Yale College that he had " some doubts as to the divinity '^ of Jesus of Nazareth.

In 1757 Franklin's abilities were called into the public service by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. Trouble had arisen by reason of absentee landlordism. The " proprietaries '^ of the province, the descendants of William Penn, lived in great wealth in England; while their quasi subjects, or tenants, the Quakers who tilled the soil, resented certain demands of these landlords concerning taxation. On the one side was the spirit of luxury and greed, and on the other side was the spirit of commercial thrift and independence. On both sides was the spirit of covetousness. Finally Franklin was sent to England for the purpose of adjusting the differences between the contending parties. He succeeded so well that on his return, in 1762, he received the thanks of General Assembly for the able and faithful fulfilment of his mission. He was also the recipient of high honors in the mother country, both from universities, and from societies, and from distinguished individuals. The visit, which lasted about five years, male many friends not only for Franklin himself, but also for the country he represented.

INTRODUCTION. XI

Franklin was now fifty-six years of age, and, having lived a very busy life, he longed for repose and felt that he had earned it. This was his yearning and his plan when he returned home. But f6r the next two years, while residing in Philadelphia, his life was anything but reposeful. First, he undertook the supervision of the postal business, which involved the traveling of 1,600 miles,- most of which must have been accomplished on horseback, and which consumed six laborious months of time. Then it fell to his lot to beard the lion in his den in the shape of resistance of the proprietary governor who apparently acknowledged no rights whatever of the governed. Then he resisted the massacring of the Indians — an act of humanity which won for him many enemies; for such massacre is always in favor with large numbers of the people. As a result of this he was, October 1, 1764, in an exciting election, defeated for the General Assembly by the narrow margin of twenty-five votes. The end was not yet, however, for the Assembly almost immediately chose him again as its agent, to carry to the king a petition for a royal government in place of the intolerable proprietary system. His residence at home had been the reverse, of a vacation, and at its close he once more accepted the public duties of a difiicult mission.

In this second trip to England Franklin found that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. His purpose in going was to adjust matters between the proprietaries and the citizens; the questions actually dis-

XII INTEODUCTION.

cussed were so momentous, that ^this subject sank into comparative insignificance and was lost to view. The time he expected to consume in England was about nine months ; his actual stay was about ten years. History was rapidly making at that time, and it was fortunate for patriotic America that so able a man was her representative on English soil. He was on the ground, and his diplomacy proved to be fully equal to the unexpected demands caused by the growing excitement of public feeling. <

The Grenville ministry was at this time in power. The policy of the royal administration was as if America was a naughty boy that needed a sound thrashing. The law^s concerning commerce were very stringent These were founded in the main on three principles: ^- first, that England should be the only shop in which a colonist could purchase; second, that colonists should not make for themselves those articles which England had to sell them; third, that the people of different colonies should not trade even with each other, to the indirect or possible detriment of the trade of either with England." These oppressive measures were countered in America with a boycott. This aggravated the situation, for there was no relief to either party, while both parties were more firm or obstinate — according to the point of view — than before. The English naturally reasoned, ^' We must strike harder." The Beatitude, " Blessed are the meek," was substantially repealed.

The blow administered by England to the rebellious

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

boy was the law known as ^^ The Stamp Act," passed in 1765. This was a species of internal revenue, and required that all bills, leases, and many other such documents used in the colonies, should be written on stamped paper to be sold by officers of the English government. The tax was not excessive, it was certainly less than the British subjects residing in England paid cheerfully. But the Americans at once went to the heart of the matter and denied the right of parliament to tax them at all. The Stamp Act was the last straw, it broke the back of the endurance of the colonists, it brought them to the fighting point. All through the colonies the cry was raised, " Xo taxation without representation," and the cry was never silenced. It lay, and still lies, at the foundation of American liberty.

Franklin did his utmost to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act, but failed in this purpose. After it was passed, he counseled his countrymen to make the best of the situation, hoping that matters would soon be mended. Thereupon occurred one of those unaccountable outbreaks of public feeling that swept the country like a prairie fire. The Beatitude upon the meek was for the time inoperative. The whole people became fire-- eaters, either for or against, and for one to counsel patience was as obnoxious as it has ever been in periods of popular excitement, from the days of Jeremiah to the present. This idol of the American people was vigorously torn from its pedestal and the execrations were great in proportion to the previous admiration.

XIV INTRODUCTION.

Franklin was everywhere denounced; he was in favor of the Stamp Act; he was its author; he was a traitor to his country ; he was on the point of accepting office in George the Third's cabinet. This intense excitement quickly passed, but it burned with great heat for the time. All this did not materially ruffle- the placid spirit of Franklin. He made the best of the situation. He exerted himself to effect the repeal of the act, and his efforts, following the American boycott, were fully successful. The act was repealed in 1766.

An incident occurred in England which at the time seemed slight, but which accomplished results that were more important and wider reaching than could possibly have been imagined. It was that he was summoned by the committee of the whole of the House of Commons, to give testimony concerning the colonies. Another such a witness has rarely or never been found in the world's experience. It gave him a unique opportunity to argue the cause of the patriots. The examination '• ranged over a vast ground, — colonial history and political economy, theories and practice in colonial trade, colonial commerce and industry, popular opinions and sentiments, and the probabilities of action in supposed 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 colonies resorted for weapons offensive and defensive, for facts and for ideas." In this trying examination, Franklin proved himself

INTRODUCTION. XV

absolute master of the situation, so that ^^ Burke likened the proceeding to an examination of a master by a parcel of schoolboys."

In the meanwhile Franklin was making friends for America. For this work he had important qualifications. To begin with, he was a successful diner-out; and in that day, as at present, the art of dining was an important pre-requisite to the successful diplomatist. He was everywhere welcome. His literary and scientific achievements commended him most favorably to the cultured, the nobility, the men of affairs, the scientists, and, in general, to society. He had gone to London as the representative of the province of Pennsylvania, but while there he was appointed agent also for 'New Jersey, Georgia, and Massachusetts. The two last Ftates never paid him any salary. Even had they done so his income would not have met his reasonable needs; as it was, he was in financial straits much of the time. It was well that in his youth he had learned the practical lessons of economy.

During the years immediately preceding 1776, the position of any American representative in England was, as may now be readily understood, one of great delicacy. Though Dr. Franklin showed himself possessed of marvelous wisdom, self-control, and tact, and though he had in an unparalleled degree the power of making friends under all sorts of circumstances, nevertheless the situation was one of increasing friction between him and the English government. There is no space to

XVI INTRODUCTION.

relate here the incident of the Hutchinson letters which aroused such bitter adverse feeling and so much malignant comment. To the present writer it seems as if these letters were the occasion, rather than the cause, of the outbreak of vindictive feeling and vituperation against the colonial agent. While the* relations between the mother country and the colonies were growing more and more strained, it was inevitable that the agent of the colonies should be the target of hostile criticism. This was a condition that his wise tact could neither alter nor control. The war was at hand, and no human power could prevent it. 'Not even Franklin's persistent optimism was able to accomplish this humane purpose.

These ten years of Franklin's second ministry in England revealed him as a great man. " I^o American representative even to this day," says a modern writer, ^^has ever been held in Europe in such estimation as was accorded to Franklin at this time.'' " All England practically treated him as the representative of all America." But despite all this, the time came when he could no longer be useful in that position. The criticisms, slanders, threats, rufHed him but slightly, but a direct and emphatic intimation from Walpole, that it would be best for all concerned that he should leave the country as early as possible, determined him finally to act. Fearing a possible arrest, he left London quietly, journeyed to Portsmouth with speed and secrecy, and sailed from that port to Philadelphia, where he arrived

INTRODUCTION. xvii

May 5, 1775, just in time to be chosen a delegate to the second Continental Congress, then abont to assemble.

If Franklin's last days in England had been exciting, surely his first days after his return to America were exciting in the superlative degree. The battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought, and the pent up feeling of the determined patriots was breaking out inflames of wrath. It is superfluous to say that this placid, gentle, tactful man, who for ten irritating years had counseled m.oderation and had hopefully predicted an amicable adjustment of differences, sided with his countrymen at the crisis. The following letter, dated July 5, 1775, is unique : —

" 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,

It may be added that the friendship between these two men was at a later date renewed.

To Dr. Priestly he wrote that if Britain ^^ wishes to have us subjects . . . she is now giving us such miserable specimens of her government, that we shall ever detest and avoid it, as a combination of robbery, murder, fixe, famine, and pestilenca"

XVIII INTRODUCTION.

Though now nearly seventy years of age, Franklin was unremitting in his activity in behalf of his country. He even accepted a mission' that took him to Montreal to confer with Arnold concerning afPairs in Canada. This journey, undertaken late in the winter or early in the spring, subjected him to cruel exposures, considering his years. In the Continental Congress he was one of the committee of five who drafted the Declaration of Independence, though the actual work upon this document was done almost entirely by Jefferson. It was at the signing of this that Franklin's humor bubbled out in his famous mot. The feeling of the members of the Congress was strained to a high pitch during the fixing of their signatures, and in the stillness, like the stillness of death, that followed, Hancock remarked that " we must all hang together now ! '' '' That's so, John,'' retorted Franklin, '' we must indeed all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Later in the year 1776 he was sent as ambassador to the court of France and arrived in Paris the 21st of December. His duties were varied, for it really fell to him to guard the interests of his country in England as well as in France. The common bond of sympathy at that time between America and France was hatred, or rivalry, or jealousy, of the British. There was no need of his enlisting the sympathies of the French against the British, for they were already enlisted; and an important and annoying duty was to head off the large numbers of adventurers who thirsted for military glory

INTRODUCTION. xiX

and were bent upon coming to America to be officers in the patriotic army. As for England, he was the leading spirit that animated the privateers whose cruisers did so much damage to British commerce that the merchants and manufacturers, who have always been the bone and sinew of that practical nation, were struck with terror, and the whole island was reduced to the condition bi a tolerably effectual blockade. This fact, which has never been sufficiently emphasized in the histories of that period, is shown by the enormous rise of the rates of maritime insurance; which is unanswerable as an argument.

That Franklin could upon occasion be caustic, as well as patient, gentle, and humorous, is seen in his correspondence with Lord Stormont. He addressed his lordship a letter on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war, a subject which the haughty British government would not at that time take into humane consideration. /'No reply being received, a second and urgent letter was added. His lordship replied : ^^ The king's ambassador receives no applications from rebels, unless they come to implore his majesty's mercy." The American ambassador returned the following : '' In answer to a letter which concerns some of the most material 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 consideration." It was many years before the British

XX

INTRODUCTION.

government would accord just or humane treatment to American prisoners of war, and the situation required much patience, firmness, and wisdom.

The first grand success scored on this mission was the Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States, which secured the independence of the latter. This was signed February 6, 1Y78. The treaty of peace with England was successfully negotiated by Franklin, Jay, and Adams, and was signed September 3, 1783. Later he negotiated with Prussia a treaty which contained an article against privateering. This was an effective blow at what was then the universal practice, and distinctly an advance in the progress of civilization, for it recognized and endorsed the necessity of international morality. Washington said: "This treaty marks an era in negotiation. It is the most liberal treaty which has ever been entered into between independent powers."

An important responsibility that fell to the lot of Franklin while in France was the raising of funds. There was at that date much glorious patriotism in AiTierica, but there was little cash and no visible means for securing the credit necessary to carry on a prolonged war. The fertility of Franklin's wisdom in meeting the difficulties of the situation, has hardly been surpassed in the history of financiering. Space does not permit the discussion of this subject in this brief sketch, but the comment of a recent author, John T. Morse, Jr., may here be inserted : —

INTRODUCTION. xxi

^^ From first to last it was upon Franklin that the brunt [of raising the funds] 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; without him Eobert Morris would have been helpless. . . Franklin alone, at Paris, could tap the rock and make the waters flow. . . A heavier task ^ever fell on any man, nor one bringing less recognition. . . We read about the horrors of the winter camp at Valley Forge, and we shudder at all the details of the vivid picture. The anxiety, the toil, the humiliation, w^hich Franklin endured for manv winters and many summers 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."

In September, 1785, after an absence of nearly nine years, Franklin returned once more to his home, but not to a well-earned rest. Additional labors and responsibilities. Avere thrust upon him, though he was in his eightieth year. He was a man who simply could not be spared. The following month he was elected president of Pennsylvania, the term being for one year, and was twice re-elected. In 1787 he was delegate to the convention that met in Philadelphia to frame a constitution for the United States. It was at this convention that he made the motion for daily prayers. He said: — ^' I have lived a long time, and the longer I live the xxii INTRODUCTION.

more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the aflfairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid ? ''

It was impossible, such was the independence of American thought, to frame a constitution, all parts of which would be satisfactory to all the members of the convention. Mutual concessions are on such an occasion necessary. Probably no person was fully satisfied with the finished work of the constitution, but a sensible and generous spirit prevailed and the delegates duly signed it. Franklin said: ^^ I consent to this constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best."

Franklin was the first president of the first abolition society ever organized in America, being elected to that position in 1788. One of his last acts semi-official in its nature, was signing, as president, a memorial address by that society to congress, praying that body to '" remove this inconsistency from the American people," to ^' promote mercy and justice towards this distr.essed race," and to discourage ^' every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow men." One Jackson, o*f Georgia, delivered in congress a speech in behalf of the institution of slavery, interspersing the speech with frequent scriptural quotations. To this Franklin replied, in one of the keenest satires of his life, by a parody on Jackson's speech. With great ingenuity he put Jackson's arguments into the mouth of a Moham-

INTRODUCTION. xxiil

medan of Algiers, with alleged quotations from the Koran, and pressed theae arguments as reasons for, continuing to hold European Christians in slavery.

He died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His remains were interred by the side of those of his wife in the cemetery of Christ Church, at the corner of Fifth and Arch streets. The grave is in the simplest manner covered with a plain slab, bearing only the inscription :

Benjamin

AND V Fkanklin.

Deborah

His natural son, Sir William Franklin, was brought up in the family. To the father's great disappointment. Sir William became an extreme tory and was the royal governor of Isew Jersey. His mansion, now known as Westminster Hall, is still standing, slightly changed, in^ !Perth Amboy. A son of Sir Williaifr, William Temple Franklin, was for many years Benjamin's private secretary.

Two children, a son and a daughter, were born to Dr. and Mrs. Franklin. The son died in infancy. The daughter, Sally, wedded Richard Bache of Yorkshire, England, and became the mother of eight children, from whom are descended all that are now known to inherit any of the blood of Benjamin Franklin. ■ The story of Franklin's scientific experiment with his kite, demonstrating that the lightning was electricity,

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

is familiar to every school-boy. The account of these experiments was sent to a friend in England, who presented the paper to the Koyal Society. It was received with derision and actually laughed out of court. The paper, however, was printed, though not in the transactions of the Royal Society, and coming to the notice of the celebrated French scientist, Buffon, it was translated into French and caused no little stir among the savants of Continental Europe. The Royal Society then made haste to save its OAvn dignity and repair its blunder; no honors it could bestow were too great to heap upon the discoverer. A few years later, in 1759, the University of St. Andrews conferred on him the degree of LL.D. Still later the University of Oxford honored itself by giving him the degree of D.C.L. Thus he became Dr, Franklin.

The phrase, " the many-sided Franklin," is deserved. One Avriter describes him as ^' philosopher, statesman, diplomatist, scientific discoverer, inventor, philanthropist, moralist and wit, while as a writer of English he was surpassed by few men of his time.'' . Another writer gives over forty specifications of the achievements of this versatile man. Edward E2:gleston savs that " as he was the first American scientific discoverer of renown, the first American diplomatist, the founder of the first public library and the first permanent philosophical society in this country, so he was the first writer in the field of general literature/' George the Third, appa^-ej^tly iu a lucid intery^^ warned his ministexg

INTRODUCTION. xxv

against ^^that crafty American, who is more than a match for you all. The French poet, Turgot, felicitously connected his electrical discovery with his proficiency in the cause of liberty, in the Latin epigram.

(He wrested the thunderbolt from heaven and the sceptre from tyrants. ) He lived in an era of great men, — " there were giants on the earth in those days.'' One only towered above him. The first place, by universal consent, is given to Washington; but next after him, incontestably the greatest American of that age was Benjamin Franklin.

Henry Ketcham.

Contents

PAGE

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 1

Poor Richard's Almanac 215

Chapter II

The inclination I had had for the sea was by this time done away, or I might now have gratified it. But having another profession and conceiving my self a pretty good workman, I offered my services to a printer of the place, old Mr. "William Bradford, who had been the first printer in Penns3dvania, but had removed thence in consequence of a quarrel with the governor, George Keith. He could give me no employment, having little to do and hands enough already ; but he said, " My son at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand^ Aquila Rose, by death ; if you go thither I believe he may employ you." Philadelphia was one hundred miles further. I set out, however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving my chest and things to follow me round by sea.

In crossing the bay we met with a squall that tore our rotten sails to pieces, preventing our getting into the Kill, and drove us upon Long Island. In our way a drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger too, fell overboard ; when he was sinking I reached through the water to his shock pate and drew him up, so that we got him in again. His ducking sobered him a little and he went to sleep, taking first out of his pocket a book, which he desired I would dry for him. It proved to be my old favorite author, Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," in Dutch, finely printed on good paper, copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever seen it wear in its own language. I have since found that it has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and suppose it has been^more generally read than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. Honest John was the first that I know of who mixed narration and dialogue : a method of writing very engaging to the reader, who in the most interesting parts find himself, as it were, admitted into the company and present at the conversation. Defoe has imitated him successfully in his " Robinson Crusoe," in his " Moll Flanders," and other pieces ; and Richardson has done the same in his " Pamela," etc.

On approaching the island we found it was in a place where there could be no landing, there being a great surge on the stony beach. So we dropped anchor and swung out our cable toward the shore. Some people came down to the shore and hallooed to us, as we did to them ; but the wind was so high and the surge so loud that we could not understand each other. There were some small boats near the shore, and we made signs and called to them to fetch us ; but they either did not comprehend us or it was impracticable, so they went off. Night approaching, we had no remedy but to have patience till the wind abated, and in the mean time the boatmen and myself concluded to sleep if we could ; and so we crowded into the hatches, where we joined the Dutchman, who was still wet, and the spray, breaking over the head of our boat, leaked through to us, so that we were soon almost as wet as he. In this manner we lay all night, with very little rest ; but the wind abating the next day, we made a shift to reach Amboy before nighty

28 AUTOBIOGRAPHT OF

having been thirty hours on the water, without victuals or any drink but a bottle of filthy rum, the w^ater we sailed on being salt.

In the evening I found myself very feverish and went to bed ; but having read somewhere that cold water drunk plentifully was good for fever, I followed the prescription and sweat plentifully most of the night. My fever left me, and in the morning, crossing the ferry, I proceeded on my journey on foot, having fifty miles to goto Burlington, where I was told I should find boats that would carry me the rest of the way to Philadelphia.

It rained very hard all the day ; I was thoroughly soaked, and by noon a good deal tired ; so I stopped at a poor inn, where I stayed all night, beginning now to wish I had never left home. I made so miserable a figure, too, that I found, by the questions asked me, I was suspected to be some runaway indentured servant and in danger of being taken up on that suspicion. However, I proceeded next day and got in the evening to an inn within eight or ten miles of Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown. He entered into conversation with me while I took some refreshment, and finding I had read a little, became very obliging and friendly. Our acquaintance continued all the rest of his life. He had been, I imagine, an ambulatory quack doctor, for there was no town in England nor any country in Europe of which he could not give a very particular account. He had some letters, and was ingenious, but he was an infidel, and wickedly undertook, some years after, to turn the Bible into doggerel verse, as Cotton had formerly done with Virgil. By this means he set many facts in a ridicu-