The true story of Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman

Front matter

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Preface

Statesman, philanthropist, patriot, inventor, author, printer, humorist, business-man, helper, friend, the lover of children, of humanity and the world — all these was Benjamin Franklin, most remarkable of Americans.

As one who had a hand in shaping the destinies and securing the independence of his native land, by word and pen, by brain and hand, it is most fitting that the story of his life should be re-told for young Americans in this series of Children's Lives of Great Men, in which Washington and Lincoln, Columbus and Grant have place.

Benjamin Franklin belongs to the world ; but especially does he belong to America. As the nations honored him while living, so the republic glorifies him when dead, and enshrines him in the choicest of its niches — the one which is regarded as the loftiest — • the hearts of the common people.

Among the learned men of the world none is more famous than he ; among the patriots of the world none holds a higher place ; among Americans none is worthier remembrance, veneration, or imitation.

For the boys and girls of America I have tried to tell once more Franklin's remarkable story ; hoping that, as they read anew of his struggles, his successes, and his greatness, they may find, perhaps, new things to honor and new traits to emulate in that shrewd, kindly, big-brained, great-hearted, noble old man, of whom the French poet said : —

" He snatched the thunderbolt from heaven and the sceptre from tyrants."

E. S. B.

Chapter I. Page

WHY THE candle-maker's SON PEDDLED BALLADS . . . . II

CHAPTER n.

HOW THE BOY-EDITOR HAD HIS TROUBLES ..... 29

CHAPTER HI.

HOW THE PRINTER LEARNED THE TRUTH OF AN OLD PROVERB . . 4/

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VH.

CHAPTER Vni.

CHAPTER IX.

HOW HE SIGNED HIS NAME WITH A FLOURISH . . . . . I 5^

CHAPTER X.

HOW HE SAVED THE COUNTRY THE SECOND TIME . . . I/- g CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

HOW HE BECAME PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA . . . . 1 94

CHAPTER Xn.

CHAPTER Xin.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Franklin listening to the Declaration of Independence The birthplace of Franklin .....

In the doorway of the Old South Church . Site of Franklin's birthplace on Milk Street, Boston

Ben

The other boy .......

" Let's build our wharf with these," said Ben

'• A pioneer in improvements " .

The site of Franklin's boyhood home as it looks to-day

Ben Franklin peddling his own ballads in Boston-town

" He read everything he could get hold of

Ben Franklin, apprentice .......

The young " vegetarian ".......

" He slipped the paper under the printing-house door" Tracking a runaway apprentice in Ben Franklin's day " He was soon on blue water, bound for New York and a living Ben wishes to pay for his passage .....

" The boy handed him out three big puffy rolls "

" A young girl of about his own age was ^standing in the doorway "

" Young Mr. Franklin " and the Governor

Where Franklin learned his trade

William Penn .....

" Poor Ben had been bitterly fooled "

" He married Deborah Read " .

" I sometimes brought home the paper . ,

" He was the leading newspaper publisher in America"

Title-page and specimen page from " Poor Richard's Almanac

The Philadelphia library of to-day .....

Monument to Franklin's parents, in Boston

" You can have ten," said the Governor of New York .

Franklin standing guard as a private soldier

General Braddock ........

Where Fort Duquesne stood in Franklin's day .

The Pennsylvania Hospital, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1752

*' He touched his knuckle to the hanging key " .

Where Franklin flew the kite ......

The University of Pennsylvania, founded by Benjamin Franklin through the streets wheelbarrow

Fn

LIST OF ILLUSTRAriONS.

Independence to the Presi

Cambridjre

Franklin and the lightning Page

Faneiiil Hall, Boston

"They spun their own wool, and did without many things they needed " . . .

" No power, howsoever great, can force men to change their opinions," said Franklin,

Edmund Burke, the friend of America, who spoke and argued the cause of the colonies in Parliament .........

'•He could never get beyond the prime minister, the king's head man '

Where the Boston massacre occurred

" Obstinate King George grew more obstinate "

Franklin and Wedderburn ......

'"There's a fable for you,' he said" ....

Independence Hall, Philadelphia ....

Franklin and the committee presenting the Declaration of dent of Congress ......

" He wrote Mr. Strahan a famous letter" .

Washington and Franklin conferring at the Craigie House

The Liberty Bell, which Franklin set a-ringing .

Some of Franklin's fellow-workers for liberty

Franklin signs the Declaration .

The little lame Frenchman .

The Marquis de Lafayette .

The Hotel de Valentinais, at Passy

The Treaty of Alliance

John Paul Jones

The messenger from America

General Burgoyne

Signing the treaty of peace

In the Queen's litter .

The return of Franklin

" The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat "

Near Franklin's old home .

Franklin's pew in Christ Church

A glimpse of the Doctor

In Independence Hall

The inkstand used in signing the Constitution .

Washington visits Franklin at his home in Philadelphia

Franklin and certain of his patriot associates

The signers of the Constitution .....

Franklin and the President's chair ....

The statue of Franklin in his native city

Franklin and his granddaughter ....

Franklin's reception-room " Under the big mulberry-tree in his garden "

The last letter ........ . .

The grave of Franklin ........

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26 129

THE TRUE STORY OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

THE AMERICAN STATESMAN.

CHAPTER I.

WHY THE candle-maker's SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

^np^HIS is the story of Benjamin Franklin, most remark- I able of Americans. How remarkable a man he was I shall try to tell you. What he did for his country, for you and for me, is a tale worth the telling and the hearing. For his story is fully as remarkable as was he himself. As wise as Solomon, as simple as JEsop, as witty as Mark Twain, as inventive as Edison, as gentle as a lamb, as bold as a lion, he tried his hand at everything, and failed at nothing./ Sixty of his eighty-five years of life were spent for the good of his countrymen. He built America; for what our republic is to-day is largely due to the prudence, the forethought, the statesmanship, the enterprise, the greatness, the ability, and the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin. His story is one that the boys and girls of America should

12 IVHV THE CANDLE-MAKER'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

know by heart, and should all love to hear. And that is why I try to tell it.

Listen to his story.

On the corner of Milk and Washington Streets, in the city of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, there stands

a famous church. It is known as the Old South Meeting-house.

Since 172;) it has stood on that corner, its gray bricks overgrown with ivy, its simple spire a landmark for all Boston, its doors a rallying-point for every visitor to the historic old town. The doors of the plain wooden meeting-house, to which succeeded this brick church which all America loves, swung open on the afternoon of Sunday, January 17, 1706, to let in a big, well-built, pleasant-faced working-man, with a little baby in his arms. The big man w\as Josiah Franklin, soap-boiler and candle-maker; the little baby was his son Benjamin, who had been born that very Sunday morning in the little frame house across the way on Milk Street. The baby was brought to church to be baptized; and in the records of the Old South Church you can still see and read this entry: "Benjamin, son of Josiah Franklin and Abiah, his wife."

To-day, on the site of the little wooden hous^e, opposite

THE BIRTHPLACE OF FRANKLIN AS IT LOOKED ONE HUNDRED YEARS AC.O.

IVHV THE CANDLE-MAKER 'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS. 1 3 the Old South Church on Milk Street, stands a tall iron building full of offices. And on the front of the building, beneath a bust of the great American, you may read the words: " Birthplace of Frank- Im.

As I have said, his father was a soapand candle-maker.

He had a family of sixteen children, of whom Benjamin was the youngest son, Benjamin's mother was a loving, wise, and noble woman ; his father was a kind-hearted, just, and honorable man. To-day, if you stand before the gateway of what is known as the Old Granary Burying-ground in Boston, while beneath you the ceaseless trolley-cars whiz through the Subway, — an out-

IN THE DOORWAY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH. Sunday, January 17, 1706.

14 Jf'^y THE CANDLE-MAKER'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

growth of Franklin's wonderful brain, — while above you rises the graceful spire of famous Park-street Church, you can see, in the centre of that quiet and crowded burialplace of governors, patriots, and great men, a tall granite obelisk, on which stands out in bold letters the name " Franklin." It is the perpetual reminder of Benjamin Franklin's affection for his Boston home; for it was placed there in 1829 by the citizens of Boston to take the place of the crumbling stone reared on that very spot by Benjamin Franklin to mark the grave of his loved and honored father and mother.

In this strict but happy home Benjamin Franklin grew into a healthy, hearty, strong, and sturdy boyhood. While he was yet a very small fellow his father removed from the little gambrel-roofed house on Milk Street to one not much larger on what is now Hanover Street, near to where it is crossed by Union Street. There, before the house, swung a blue ball about as big as a cocoanut; upon this ball appeared the name of Benjamin's father, and through all the town it was known that Mr. Josiah Franklin carried on the business of making soap and candles "at the sign of the Blue Ball."

With a dozen or more boys and girls always at table, the little house on Hanover Street w^as a noisy but happy, if crowded, home. There is lots of fun in big families if only the brothers and sisters "pull together," and are kept well in hand by father and mother. This was the case in the

JFIfV THE CAXDLE-MAKER' S SON PEDDLED BALLADS. 1 5

Franklin home. " It was, indeed, a lowly dwelling we were brougiit up in," said Benjamin's younger sister Jane, many years after; but we were fed plentifully, made comfortable Avith fire and clothing, and seldom had any contention among us.

All was harmony, especially between the heads, and they were universally respected."

Plenty to eat, plenty to do, warm, comfortable, contented, united — that should have made a pleasant home for any boy, should it not? Evidently it did for Benjamin Franklin, even though he did grow restless and unset tied at last, as will most ambitious boys. He long remembered his happy Boston home, and the good times he had there as a boy. He was a wide-awake little fellow, with a frank, handsome face, ''bright as a button," ''busy as a bee;''

SITE OF franklin's BIRTHPLACE ON MILK STREET, BOSTON, AS IT LOOKS TO-DAY.

1 6 JJ'IIV THE CAXDLE-MAKER' S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

and, though full of mischief and often getting into scrapes, he was the pet and pride of the family, and a friend to all the neighborhood.

People took a good deal of notice of this active, earnest little fellow, from Uncle Benjamin in England who sent him letters in rhyme, to his boy " crony " next door. But sometimes the Boston boys would take advantage of little Benjamin, and thus teach him a lesson; for Franklin always managed to find a moral in every thing.

One day, when he was about seven years old, there was a holiday in Boston. As a holiday present Benjamin was given a handful of pennies, and started out for a good time, feeling as rich as a lord. He made a straight line for the toy-shop; but, on his way, he met a boy blowing a whistle. It was shrill and clear, and at once Ben concluded that he wished for a whistle more than anything else.

He must have that very whistle too; he could not wait to get to the store. So he asked the boy to sell it, and offered his handful of pennies in exchange. The other boy took all he could get, of course, and walked away proud of his business

THE OTHER BOY.

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WHY THE CANDLE-MAKER'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS. 1 7

shrewdness, while Ben walked the other way equally proud of his purchase.

J Soon he was in the house, whistling with all his might. A whistle is a noisy thing in a house ; it is shrill, ear-splrt^- tingi_and exasperating; it soon gets to be a nuisance. So the Franklin family found it. And when they found, too, what Ben had paid for it, they made it very unpleasant for the small whistler. They laughed at his bargain-making. "A fine tradesman you are, Ben," they said. "Why, you might have bought four whistles at the toy-shop for what you have paid for one. Just see how you threw your money away; just think what you might have bought with it — and a whistle besides;" and other things of the same sort — you know how small boys have to suffer. Ben did; until at last, so he said as he told the story more than sixty years after, " I cried with vexation ; and my reflections gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure."

But he had learned a lesson, just as General Grant did, you remember, in that famous horse trade when he was a boy. For Franklin had learned what it is to make a bad bargain, and how little sympathy folks get who do make one. He remembered it too. For often in his busy life, so he tells us, " When I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, ' Don't pay too much for the whistle ! ' and so saved my money."

But he was a wise little fellow, even if he did sometimes get sold ; and the boys who were his playmates knew it.

1 8 ir/fV THE CANDLE-MAKER'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

They found him to be a good comrade, — jolly, venturesome, full of plans and projects, just the boy to be a leader in sports and, sometimes, in pranks.

One of these pranks got him into trouble. Down, towards what is now Boston's crowded and busy waterfront, there used to be a marsh in Ben Franklin's day. It was a fine place to catch minnows at high tide, and Ben

"let's build our wharf with these," said ben.

and the other boys used to do a great deal of fishing there. But they went there so much that they often trampled the low bank into a mud-hole.

" That ought to be fixed," said Ben to the boys. '* Let's build a wharf."

Now, the Boston folks had just built a fine new pier, called Long Wharf. Every Boston boy to-day knows where it is. Ben said if they only had stones enough they could

IVHV THE CANDLE-MAKER'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS. 19

build just as good a "Long Wharf" for their business in that minnow marsh. He hunted around, and soon spied, near by, a pile of stones, which had been brought there to build the cellar of a new house. "Just the thing, boys," he said. " Let's build our wharf with these."

No one thought about what the man might say who was building the house. That very night Ben and his boys "tackled" that heap of stones, lugged them to the minnow marsh, and, working like beavers, soon had a fine fishingwharf.

Of course this got them into trouble; for the workmen made a great fuss, and when Ben was found to be at the bottom of it all he was quickly taken to task.

He took his punishment like a little man; but he argued with his father that he ought not to be punished. The stones were there ; the boys just had to have a wharf; they had built a good one. But his father did not agree with him. Ben's excuse was no excuse, he held. " The stones were not yours to take, Ben," he said; "and what is not honest cannot be truly useful."

So Ben Franklin learned another lesson, which stayed by him all through his eventful life, — that " honesty is the best policy."

This marsh was one of Boston's "water privileges;" for, in Franklin's boyhood, Boston was half water, and Ben always loved the water. He was a good hand in a boat ; he was a strong and fearless swimmer, and could not only

20 IVIIY THE CANDLE-MAKER' S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

" give a dare," but take one, as well. Few of his companions could beat him on or in the water.

Have you noticed, in reading these ** Children's Lives of Great Men," how all these great men were fine swimmers when they were boys? Columbus, you know, once swam six miles when he w^as but sixteen; Washington and Lincoln were both strong and tireless swimmers; and Grant was the "champion" at the Georgetown ''swimming-hole." Franklin, from the time he was twelve to the time he was sixty, was as much at home in the water as a duck.

Well, one of the secrets of being a good swimmer is having confidence — to feel that you can do a thing and do it well, if you only try. And confidence was what all these great men had ; confidence and faith helped them all to success.

Almost the earliest of Franklin's many experiments and inventions were connected with swimming. He wished to fix up something so that he could swim long and far, and he tried two experiments when he was a Boston boy. Once he got up a sort of push-board or pallet for his hands, and also a broad kind of sandal or swimming-shoe for his feet. These worked fairly well; but the best help he found was to fly a kite, and fastening the string to his wrist, let the kite pull him through the water, while he lay quietly on his back, lowering or raising the kite as he wished to go fast or slow.

Many years after, when he was an old man, he explained this kite-swimming to a friend, and said, " I have never.

WJ^y THE CANDLE-MAKER' S SON PEDDLED BALLADS. 2.1

since that time, practised this singular mode of swimming, though I think it not impossible to cross in this manner from Dover to Calais. The packet-boat, however," he added dryly, " is still preferable."

But just see what a pioneer in improvements was Benjamin Franklin ! To-day, professional swimmers try the

"A PIONEER IN improvements" — FRANKLIN'S EXPERIMENTS IN KITE-TRAVEL.

same sort of hand-and-foot helps ; and Franklin's kite-swimming was but the beginning of the kite-travel which so many learned men are now trying to turn to practical use.

Franklin was a good scholar, although he never went much to school. In fact, he had to leave school when he was ten years old and go to work. But there was a good deal of reading and discussing in the humble home of

22 IVIIV THE CANDLE-iMAKER' S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

the candle-maker, and Ben himself said that he did not remember when he could not read.

Before he was seven years old he used to correspond "in rhyme" with his good Uncle Benjamin, across the sea in London ; and the opinion of all his father's friends was, so he tells us in his delightful story of his own life, " that I should certainly make a good scholar."

So Josiah the candle-maker started his son Ben off to school early. At eight years of age, Ben was in the grammar school, and stood at the head of his class, was promoted to higher classes twice within a year, and then sent to a "writing-school" to learn writing and arithmetic.

"I learned fair writing pretty soon," he says; "but I failed in arithmetic and made no progress in it." And yet he became the greatest philosopher of his day ! Remember this, boys and girls, when you struggle over your arithmetic sums, and grumble at your mathematical problems.

But life with a big family in the little house on Union Street became a hard struggle for Josiah the candle-maker, and his boys and girls were set to work early.

He had wished Ben to be a good scholar, and had even thought of making a preacher of the boy ; but things did not go as he wished, and when Ben was but ten years old he was taken from school and put to candle-making.

He did not like the business any better than Ulysses Grant liked his father's trade. You remember about that in the story of Grant, do you not?

PFI/V THE CANDLE-MAKER' S SOiV PEDDLED BALLADS. 23

Ben hated to cut wicks and make moulds and run grease ; he hated the touch and the smell, and he grumbled, I imagine, as much as a good-natured boy can grumble.

" I don't like it, father," he said; " I'd rather go to sea."

If you recall the story of George Washington, you will remember how strong an attraction blue water was in those days to all the boys along shore.

In fact, it ahvays has been; although in these days, when the groan of machinery has taken the place of the creak of sails, and coal-smoke that of Washington Irving's ''smacking breeze," much of the poetry and fascination has, for boys, gone from a sailor's life.

Now, one of Josiah Franklin's boys had run away to sea, and he did not wish to lose another in that way. So, when he saw that Ben really did dislike the trade of a candle-maker, and would not keep at it if he found a chance to get to sea, Josiah Franklin decided to find some other trade for his son.

After looking up a number of occupations, he finally settled upon the trade of a cutler ; that is, a maker of knives and edge-tools.

But, in those days, the fathers of boys who were set to learning a trade had to pay a fee for the privilege of learning how to work. The cutler's fee was one hundred dollars. This was more than Josiah Franklin could afford; and so, at length, he decided to make Ben a printer, and apprenticed him to the boy's elder brother James.

JP'I/y THE CANDLE-MAKER' S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

Brother James had a printing-office at the corner of what is now Franklin Avenue and Court Street in Boston; and

though young Ben, who had grown to be twelve years old, did not much like the idea of workingf under his brother, or of becoming a printer instead of a sailor, it was better than making candles. So he went to setting up type, and became, what boys who learn that trade have always been called,- — it isn't a very nice name, — a " printer's devil."

It w^as in the year 1718 that Benjamin Franklin began to learn the printer's trade, and to-day he is remembered and honored by all the printers in America as one of the greatest in their great and honorable craft. Apprentices in those days had hard lines. They were what is called " bound " to their masters

THE SITE OF FRANKLIN'S BOYHOOD HOME AS IT LOOKS TO-DAY.

{Hanover and Union Streets, Boston.)

JP'/IV 2WjE CANDLE-MAKER' S SON FEDDLED BALLADS. 25

until they were twenty-one and ** free." It was almost as bad as being a slave; for they had few privileges, and but little time of their own, and Ben's master, besides being his own brother, was an especially hard man to get along with.

But Ben stood it pretty well for a while. He knew it was what most apprentice boys had to expect; and as he was something of a philosopher already, he tried to make the best of it, and put up with all Brother James's harsh treatment as " part of the day's work."

The day's work meant hard work too. But Ben was bright and ambitious, and set himself the task of self-education. He was always a great reader. He had read everything that came into his father's house, — pretty dry reading, too, you boys would think it, — and he read everything that came into his brother's shop.

Besides this, he struck up an acquaintance with a number of boys who worked for the Boston booksellers. Booksellers and printers, you know, have a good deal to do with each other, and so Ben became quite "chummy" with the booksellers' boys. He would get them to lend him books from their shelves, and would sit up late at night — sometimes almost all night — to read the book through and have it back at the book-store next morning. This was hardly to be expected, was it, from the man who afterwards wrote those lines that have sent so many, many boys and girls to bed when they were not a bit sleepy, —

26 JFHY THE CANDLE-MAKER'S SON PEDDLED BALLADS.

" Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

And, speaking of verse-making: that was one of Ben Franklin's "fads." He wrote verses — they were scarcely poetry — from the time he was six or seven years old.

His brother James knew this, and determined to make money out of it. So he set the boy to writing ballads, and then, when he had printed them, made him go out on the street and sell them.

Ballad-peddling was quite a trade in those days. The so-called poets were ready to write verses on whatever subject interested people, and the people were always ready to buy. It was like the trade to-day in picture papers, cheap magazines, and popular songs.

So Ben Franklin began to write and peddle ballads on the Boston streets. Two of them were very popular. One was about a dreadful shipwreck in Boston Harbor; the other was all about the capture and hanging of a famous pirate. Both of these ballads, so Franklin tells us in his autobiography, were "wretched stuff." But they sold well.

His father thought them "wretched" too, I imagine; for when he discovered what young Benjamin was doing he objected strongly. He told Ben that a poet's lot was not a happy one, and that he had better stick to his trade and stop rhyming, for poor poetry was worse than none. Josiah Franklin, you see, was a very wise and sensible man.

So Ben took his father's advice and " stuck to the case,"

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BEN FRANKLIN PEDDLING HIS OWN BALLADS IN BOSTON-TOWN.

HOW THE BOY-EDITOR HAD HIS TROUBIES. 29

setting up type and spending all hissparejime in reading and improving his mind, thus laying the foundation for that wonderful knowledge of what to say and how to say it, that made^ him in later years the deepest thinker and bnghtest writer of his day.

C

Chapter II. How The Boy-editor Had His Troubles

ITTLE by little the printer boy began to learn his value, and to know how much he was really worth to his brother James.

"In a little time," he tells us in his delightfully natural way of saying a good thing about himself, '* I made great proficiency in the business, and became a useful hand to my brother."

But he had to find this out for himself. Brother James never told him so ; in fact, Brother James seldom approved, and often abused him.

Ben found out that he could write pretty well, and he set himself to studying all the harder after his father had put an end to the ballad-peddling business.

He studied all the time. What little money he had to spend — and it was very little — he put into books. He read everything he could get hold of; and from what he read

BO IV THE BOY-EDITOR HAD HIS TROUBLES.

he tried to get some good. For he was a thoughtful fellow, big-boned and big-brained, and he was always learning. You remember that he found arithmetic a hard task at school. Perhaps his teacher w^as at fault; for arithmetic is really easy, if you can only start your train of reasoning right. At any rate, Ben thought he was a failure in that study, and he set himself the task

of mastering it. He did so ; and after that he successfully ''tackled" algebra and geometry. He studied navigation, rhetoric, and grammar, and recollect ! he did it all by himself. That boy of fifteen really knew a little of everythinij that could be learned from the dull, dry books of those days, and simply because he had a good mind, and trained himself to reason out things, and to remember them too.

He was not what is called a ready talker. He knew that ; so he set to work to make of himself an easy writer. For this purpose he sent his memory to school ; that is, he would read a thing, then think it over, write it down in his own language, compare it, a week after, with the real

HE READ EVERYTHING HE COULD GET HOLD OF