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SCtje Htocrsfoe literature petite

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

WITH NOTES

AND A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE FROM THE POINT WHEEE
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY ENDS, DRAWN CHIEFLY
FROM HIS LETTERS

HOUGHTON', MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
Boston: i Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth S«r««t
igriK Oiterm&e Press, Cambri&jje
iBsa

Copyright, 1886,
Bx HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
AU rights reserved.

CL2>3.\k5c

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Metss , V. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by ILO. Houghton & Company.

CONTENTS.

PASS
Introductory Note  5
I. Parentage and Boyhood  7
El. Seeking his Fortune  31
III. Adventures in London  55
IV. Return to Philadelphia  TO
V. In Business for Himself  85
VI. Self-Education  115
VII. George Whitefield  131
VIII. Beginning of Public Life  137
IX. A Public-Spirited Gentleman .... 149
X. A Philadelphia Citizen  159
XI. In the Service of the King  172
XII. Common-Sense in War Matters  187
XIII. Franklin the Philosopher  199
XIV. Departure for England  206

Sketch of Franklin's Life fbom the Point at which his
Autobiogbaphy ends  217

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

Benjamin Franklin, the most famous American
of his time, lived for many years in England, where
he was agent for Pennsylvania and other American
colonies. He was separated from his family, and it
was during one of his long absences, in 1771, that he
determined to write an account of his life, which had
been an eventful one, for the use of his son William
Franklin. He was spending a week at the country-
seat of his friend Bishop Shipley, and took that oppor^
tunity to begin his narrative. At that time he wrote
so much of his autobiography as is included in the first
ninety-five pages of this edition, covering, that is, the
first twenty-five years of his life.
He began the work with no intention of giving it to
the public, but friends to whom he showed this por
tion urged him to complete and publish it. The
years that followed were very busy ones, and it was not
till 1784, when he was living at Passy, then a suburb
of Paris, that he resumed the narrative which he car
ried forward to page 114 of this edition, when he was
again interrupted, and could not find another oppor
tunity to work upon his book until 1788, when he
wrote the remainder, carrying the narrative down to
1757. He intended to go on from this point, and set
down the heads of what he meant to write, but the in
firmities of his growing age forbade him.

6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
In consequence of these several beginnings, the au
tobiography is somewhat fragmentary, and the writer
repeats once or twice what he has before said. In this
edition we have omitted the prefaces which separate
the several parts of the work, and we have also omitted
one or two brief passages not adapted to school use.
The original work is not divided into chapters, but we
have inserted chapter headings at natural breaks in
the narrative, for the convenience of readers.
Occasional foot-notes have been added where the
text seemed to call for explanation or illustration, but
no words have been explained which could be under
stood by reference to a good dictionary. At the close
of the autobiography will be found a sketch of Frank
lin's life, from the point at which he leaves off, to his
death.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

PARENTAGE AND BOYHOOD.
Dear Son : I have ever had pleasure in obtaining
any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may re
member the inquiries I made among the remains of
my relations when you were with me in England, and
the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining
it may be equally agreeable to you to know the cir
cumstances of my life, many of which you are yet un
acquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a
week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country
retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To
which I have besides some other inducements. Hav
ing emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which
I was born and bred to a state of affluence and some
degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so
far through life with a considerable share of felicity,
the conducing means I made use of, which with the
blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may
like to know, as they may find some of them suitable
to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imi
tated.

8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me
sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I
should have no objection to a repetition of the same
life from its beginning, only asking the advantages
authors have in a second edition to correct some faults
of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults,
change some sinister accidents and events of it for
others more favorable. But though this were denied,
I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition
is not to be expected, the next thing most like living
one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that
life, and to make that recollection as durable as possi
ble by putting it down in writing.
Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so nat
ural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their
own past actions ; and I shall indulge it without being
tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might
conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing,
since this may be read or not as any one pleases.
And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my de
nial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall
a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce
ever heard or saw the introductory words, " Without
vanity I may say" etc., but some vain thing immedi
ately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others,
whatever share they have of it themselves ; but I give
it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being per
suaded that it is often productive of good to the pos
sessor, and to others that are within his sphere of ac
tion ; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be
altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his
vanity among the other comforts of life.
And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with
all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 9
happiness of my past life to his kind providence,
which led me to the means I used and gave them suc
cess. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I
must not presume, that the same goodness will still be
exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or
enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may ex
perience as others have done ; the complexion of my
future fortune being known to Him only in whose
power it is to bless to us even our afflictions.
The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind
of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put
into my hands furnished me with several particulars
relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned
that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton,
in Northamptonshire, for three hundred years, and
how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the time
when the name of Franklin, that before was the name
of an order of people, was assumed by them as a sur
name when others took surnames all over the king
dom), on a freehold of about thirty acres, aided by
the smith's business, which had continued in the fam
ily till his time, the eldest son being always bred to
that business ; a custom which he and my father fol
lowed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the
registers at Ecton, I found an account of their births,
marriages, and burials from the year 1555 only, there
being no registers kept in that parish at any time pre
ceding. By that register I perceived that I was the
youngest son of the youngest son for five generations
back. My grandfather, Thomas, who was born in
1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow
business longer, when he went to live with his son
John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom
my father served an apprenticeship. There my grand-

10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
father died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone
in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at
Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a
daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wel
lingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the
manor there. My grandfather had four sons that
grew up, viz. : Thomas, John, Benjamin, and Josiah.
I will give you what account I can of them, at this
distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in
my absence, you will among them find many more
particulars. Thomas was bred a smith under his father ; but, be
ing ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my
brothers were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the prin
cipal gentleman in that parish, he qualified himself
for the business of scrivener ; became a considerable
man in the county ; was a chief mover of all public-
spirited undertakings for the county or town of North
ampton, and his own village, of which many instances
were related of him ; and much taken notice of and
patronized by the then Lord Halifax. He died in
1702, January 6, old style, just four years to a day
before I was born. The account we received of his
life and character from some old people at Ecton, I
remember, struck you as something extraordinary,
from its similarity to what you knew of mine. " Had
he died on the same day," you said, " one might have
supposed a transmigration."
John was bred a dyer, I believe of woolens. Ben
jamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship
at London. He was an ingenious man. I remember
him well, for when I was a boy he came over to my
father in Boston, and lived in the house with us some
years. He lived to a great, age. His grandson, Sam-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 11
uel Franklin, now lives in Boston. He left behind
him two quarto volumes, MS., of his own poetry, con
sisting of little occasional pieces addressed to his
friends and relations, of which the following, sent to
me, is a specimen.1 He had formed a short-hand of
his own, which he taught me, but, never practicing it,
I have now forgot it. I was named after this uncle,
there being a particular affection between him and
my father. He was very pious, a great attender of
sermons of the best preachers, which he took down in
his short-hand, and had with him many volumes of
them. He was also much of a politician ; too much,
perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into my
hands, in London, a collection he had made of all the
principal pamphlets relating to public affairs, from
1641 to 1717 ; many of the volumes are wanting as
appears by the numbering, but there still remain eight
volumes in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and in oc
tavo. A dealer in old books met with them, and
knowing me by my sometimes buying of him, he
brought them to me. It seems my uncle must have
left them here when he went to America, which was
above fifty years since. There are many of his notes
in the margins.
This obscure family of ours was early in the Refor
mation, and continued Protestants through the reign
of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger
of trouble on account of their zeal against popery.
They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and
secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and
within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-
great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned up
the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves
1 Franklin failed to copy the specimen into his autobiography.

12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
then under the tapes. One of the children stood at
the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming,
who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case
the stool was turned down again upon its feet, when
the Bible remained concealed under it as before. This
anecdote I had from my uncle Benjamin. The fam
ily continued all of the Church of England till about
the end of Charles the Second's reign, when some of
the ministers that had been ousted for non-conformity
holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, Benjamin
and Josiah adhered to them, and so continued all their
lives : the rest of the family remained with the Epis
copal Church.
Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his
wife with three children into New England, about
1682. The conventicles having been forbidden by
law, and frequently disturbed, induced some consider
able men of his acquaintance to remove to that coun
try, and he was prevailed with to accompany them
thither, where they expected to enjoy their mode of
religion with freedom. By the same wife he had four
children more born there, and by a second wife ten
more, in all seventeen ; of which I remember thirteen
sitting at one time at his table, who all grew up to be
men and women, and married ; I was the youngest
son, and the youngest child but two, and was born in
Boston, New England.1 My mother, the second wife,
was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of
the first settlers of New England, of whom honorable
mention is made by Cotton Mather, in his church his-
1 Franklin was born January 6, 1706, old style, corresponding1 to
January 17th, as we now reckon. The house in which he was born
stood in Milk Street, opposite to the Old South meeting-house, but
was destroyed by fire in 1810. Its site is now occupied by the build
ing of the Boston Post newspaper.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 13
tory of that country, entitled Magnolia Christi Amer
icana, as " a godly, learned Englishman" if I re
member the words rightly. I have heard that he
wrote sundry small occasional pieces, but only one of
them was printed, which I saw now many years since.
It was written in 1675, in the homespun verse of that
time and people, and addressed to those then con
cerned in the government there. It was in favor of
liberty of conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists,
Quakers, and other sectaries that had been under
persecution, ascribing the Indian wars, and other
distresses that had befallen the country, to that per
secution, as so many judgments of God to punish so
heinous an offense, and exhorting a repeal of those un
charitable laws. The whole appeared to me as written
with a good deal of decent plainness and manly free
dom. The six concluding lines I remembeTTiiroughT
¦haV& forgotten the two first of the stanza ; but the pur
port of them was, that his censures proceeded from
good-will, and therefore he would be known to be the
author. " Because to be a libeller (says he)
I hate it with my heart ;
From Sherburne 1 town, where now I dwell
My name I do put here ;
Without offense your real friend,
It is Peter Folgier."
My elder brothers were all put apprentices to differ
ent trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight
years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the
tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church. My
early readiness in learning to read (which must have
been very early, as I do not remember when I could
not read), and the opinion of all his friends that I
1 On the island of Nantucket.

14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him
in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin, too, ap
proved of it, and proposed to give me all his short
hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set
up with, if I would learn his character. I continued,
however, at the grammar-school x not quite one year,
though in that time I had risen gradually from the
middle of the class of that year to be the head of it,
and farther was removed into the next class above it,
in order to go with that inbo the third at the end of
the year. But my father, in the mean time, from a
view of the expense of a college education, which hav
ing so large a family he could not well afford, and the
mean living many so educated were afterwards able to
obtain, — reasons that he gave to his friends in my
hearing, — altered his first intention, took me from the
grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing
and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr.
George Brownell, very successful in his profession
generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods.
Under him I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I
failed in the arithmetic, and made no progress in it.
At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father
in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler
and soap-boiler ; a business he was not bred to, but
had assumed on his arrival in New England, and on
finding his dyeing trade would not maintain his fam
ily, being in little request. Accordingly, I was em
ployed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dip
ping mould and the moulds for cast candles, attend
ing the shop, going of errands, etc.
I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination
1 A grammar-school in Franklin's time meant one where Latin was
taught.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 15
jor_the sea, but my father declared against it ; how
ever, living near the water, I was much in and about
it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage, boats ;
and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was
commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of
difficulty ; and upon other occasions I was generally a
leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into
scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it
shows an early projecting public spirit, though not
then justly conducted.
There was a salt marsh that bounded part of the
mill pond,1 on the edge of which, at high water, we
used to stand to fish for minnows. By much tram
pling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal
was to build a wharf there fit for us to stand upon,
and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones,
which were intended for a new house near the marsh,
and which would very well suit our purpose. Accord
ingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I
assembled a number of my playfellows, and working
with them diligently, like so many emmets, sometimes
two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and
built our little wharf. The next morning the work
men were surprised at missing the stones, which were
found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the re
movers ; we were discovered and complained of ; sev
eral of us were corrected by our fathers ; and, though
I pleaded the usefulness of the work^mine convinced
me that nothing was Jiseful which_waa. not honest.
I think you may like to know something of his per-
1 The mill pond in Boston occupied a larg-e tract, in the middle of
which is now the station of the Boston and Maine Railroad. Cause
way Street is so named from a causeway which separated the pond or
cove from the outer water.

16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
son and character. He had an excellent constitution
of body, was of middle stature, but well set, and very
strong; he was ingenious, could draw prettily, was
skilled a little in music, and had a clear, pleasing
voice, so that when he played psalm tunes on his vio
lin and sung withal, as he sometimes did in an even
ing after the business of the day was over, it was ex
tremely agreeable to hear. He had a mechanical
genius, too, and, on occasion, was very handy in the
use of other tradesmen's tools; but his great excellence
lay in abound understanding_and solid judgment in
prudential matters, both in private and public affairs.
In the latter, indeed, he was never employed, the nu
merous family he had to educate and the straitness of
his circumstances keeping him close to his trade ; but
I remember well his being frequently visited by lead
ing people, who consulted him for his opinion in af
fairs of the town or of the church he belonged to, and
showed a good deal of respect for his judgment and
advice ; he was also much consulted by private per
sons about their affairs when any difficulty occurred,
and frequently chosen an arbitrator between contend
ing parties. At his table he liked to have, as often
as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to con
verse with, and always took care to start some ingen
ious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to
improve the minds of his children. By this moans he
turned our attention to what was good, just, and pru
dent in the conduct of life ; and little or no notice was
ever taken of what related to the victuals on the table,
whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season,
of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to this or
that other thing of the kind, so that I was brought up
in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 17
quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me,
and so unobservant of it, that to this day if I am
asked I can scarce tell a few hours after dinner what
I dined upon. This has been a convenience to me in
traveling, where my companions have been sometimes
very unhappy for want of a suitable gratification of
their more delicate, because better instructed, tastes
and appetites.
My mother had likewise an excellent constitution ;
she suckled all her ten children. I never knew either
my father or mother to have any sickness but that of
which they died, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age.
They lie buried together at Boston,1 where I some
years since placed a marble over their grave, with this
inscription : — Josiah Franklin,
and
Abiah his wife,
lie here interred.
They lived lovingly together in wedlock
fifty-five years.
Without an estate, or any gainful employment,
By constant labor and industry,
with God's blessing,
They maintained a large family
comfortably,
and brought up thirteen children
and seven grandchildren
reputably.
From this instance, reader,
Be encouraged to diligence _in_thy caUmg^
And distrust not Providence.
He was a pious and prudent man ;
She, a discreet and virtuous woman.
Their youngest son,
1 The grave of Franklin's parents is in the Granary burying-ground
In Boston. The marble stone with its inscription having crumbled, a
new and larger monument was raised over the grave in 1827 and the
original inscription was repeated on it.
2

18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
In filial regard to their memory,
Places this stone.
J. F. born 1655, died 1744, Mta,t 89.
A. F. born 1667, died 1752,  85.
By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to
be grown old. I used to write more methodically.
But one does not dress for private company as for a
public ball. 'T is perhaps only negligence.
To return : I continued thus employed in my fa
ther's business for two years, that is, till I was twelve
years old ; and my brother John, who was bred to
that business, having left my father, married, and set
up for himself at Rhode Island, there was all appear
ance that I was destined to supply his place, and be
come a tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the trade
continuing, my father was under apprehensions that
if he did not find one for me more agreeable, I should
break away and get to sea, as his son Josiah had done,
to his great vexation. He therefore sometimes took
me to walk with him, and see joiners, bricklayers,
turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he might ob
serve my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on some
trade or other on land. It has ever since been a
pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their
tools, and it has been useful to me, having learned so
much by it as to be able to do little jobs myself in my
house when a workman could not readily be got, and
to construct little machines for my experiments, while
the intention of making the experiment was fresh and
warm in my mind. My father at last fixed upon the
cutler's trade, and my uncle Benjamin's son Samuel,
who was bred to that business in London, being about
that time established in Boston, I was sent to be with
him some time on liking. But his expectations of a

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 19
fee with me displeasing my father, I was taken home
again. From a child I was fond of reading, and all the lit
tle money that came into my hands was ever laid out
in books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my
first collection was of John Bunyan's works in sepa
rate little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable
me to buy R. Burton's Historical Collections ; they
were small chapmen's books, and cheap, forty or fifty
in all. My father's little library consisted chiefly of
books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and
have since often regretted that, at a time when I had
such a thirst for knowledge, more proper books had
not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved I
should not be a clergyman. Plutarch's Lives there
was in which I read abundantly, and I still think that
time spent to great advantage. There was also a book
of De Foe's, called an Essay on Projects, and another
of Dr. Mather's, called Essays to do Good, which per
haps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influ
ence on some of the principal future events of my
life. This bookish inclination at length determined my
father to make me a printer, though he had already
one son (James) of that profession. In 1717 my
brother James returned from England with a press
and letters x to set up his business in Boston. I liked
it much better than that of my father, but still had a
hankering for the sea. To prevent the apprehended
effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient
to have me bound to my brother. I stood out some
time, but at last was persuaded, and signed the in
dentures when I was yet but twelve years old. I was
i That is, type.

20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
to serve as an apprentice till I was twenty-one years
of age, only I was to be allowed journeyman's wages
during the last year. In- a little time I made great
proficiency in the business, and became a useful hand
to my brother. I now had access to better books.
An. acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers
enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I
was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up
in my room reading the greatest part of the night,
when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be
returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed
or wanted.
And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr.
Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection of books,
and who frequented our printing-house, took notice of
me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent me
such books as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to
poetry, and made some little pieces ; my brother,
thinking it might turn to account, encouraged me, and
put me on composing occasional ballads. One was
called The Lighthouse Tragedy, and contained an ac
count of the drowning of Captain Worthilake, with
his two daughters ; the other was a sailor's song, on
the taking of Teach (or Blackbeard), the pirate.
They were wretched stuff, in the Grub Street ballad
style ; and when they were printed he sent me about
the town to sell them. The first sold wonderfully, the
event being recent, having made a great noise. This
flattered my vanity ; but my father discouraged me
by ridiculing my performances, and telling me verse-
makers were . generally beggars. So I escaped being
a poet, most probably a very 6"ad one ; but as prose
writing has been of great use to me in the course of
my life, and was a principal means of my advance-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 21
ment, I shall tell you how, in such a situation, I ac
quired what little ability I have in that way.
There was another bookish lad in the town, John
Collins by name, with whom I was intimately ac
quainted. We sometimes disputed, and very fond we
were of argument, and very desirous of confuting one
another, which disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to
become a very bad habit, making people often ex
tremely disagreeable in company by the contradiction
that is necessary to bring it into practice ; and thence,
besides souring and spoiling the conversation, is pro
ductive of disgusts and perhaps enmities where you
may have occasion for friendship. I had caught it by
reading my father's books of dispute about religion.
Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom
fall into it, except lawyers, university men, and men
of all sorts that have been bred at Edinburgh.
A question was once, somehow or other, started be
tween Collins and me, of the propriety of educating
the female sex in learning, and their abilities for
study. He was of opinion that it was improper, and
that they were naturally unequal to it. I took the
contrary side, perhaps a little for dispute's sake. He
was naturally more eloquent, had a ready plenty of
words ; and sometimes, as I thought, bore me down
more by his fluency than by the strength of his rea
sons. As we parted without settling the point, and
were not to see one another again for some time, I sat
down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied
fair and sent to him. He answered, and I replied.
Three or four letters of a side had passed, when my
father happened to find my papers and read them.
Without entering into the discussion, he took occasion
to talk to me about the manner of my writing ; ob-

22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
served that, though I had the advantage of my antag
onist in correct spelling and pointing (which I owed
to the printing-house), I fell far short in elegance of
expression, in method, and in perspicuity, of which he
convinced me by several instances. I saw the justice
of~his remarks, and thence grew more attentive to the
manner in writing, and determined to endeavor at im
provement. About this time I met with an odd volume of the
Spectator.1 It was the third. I had never before
seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over,
and was much delighted with it. I thought the writ
ing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it.
With this view I took some of the papers, and mak
ing short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid
them by a few days, and then, without looking at the
book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing
each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had
been expressed before, in any suitable words that
should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator
with the original, discovered some of my faults, and
corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words,
or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I
thought I should have acquired before that time if I
had gone on making verses ; since the continual occa
sion for words of the same import, but of different
length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for
the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant neces
sity of searching for variety, and also have tended to
fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of
1 The Spectator was a weekly journal published in London and de
voted not to news, but to comments on manners and morals, It some
times also had short tales. The best English writing of the day, by
Addison, Steele, and others, was found in The Spectator and similar
p-<— •vHr.i'i.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 23
it. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned
them into verse ; and, after a time, when I had pretty
well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I
also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into
confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce
them into the best order, before I began to form the
full sentences and complete the paper. This was to
teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By
comparing my work afterwards with the original, I
discovered many faults and amended them ; but I
sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in cer
tain particulars of small import, I had been lucky
enough to improve the method or the language, and
this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time
come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was
extremely ambitious. My time for these exercises and
for reading was at night, after work, or before it began
in the morning, or on Sundays, when I contrived to
be in the printing-house alone, evading as much as I
could the common attendance on public worship which
my father used to exact of me when I was under his
care, and which indeed I still thought a duty, though
I could not, as it seemed to me, afford time to prac
tice it.
When about sixteen years of age I happened to
meet with a book, written by one Tryon, recommend
ing a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it. My
brother, being yet unmarried, did not keep house, but
boarded himself and his apprentices in another fam
ily. My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconven
iency, and I was frequently chid for my singularity.
I made myself acquainted with Tryon's manner of pre
paring some of his dishes, such as boiling potatoes or
rice, making hasty p"rldin<r. find a few others, and

24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
then proposed to my brother that if he would give me,
weekly, half the money he paid for my board, I would
board myself. He instantly agreed to it and I pres
ently found that I could save half what he paid me.
This was an additional fund for buying books. But
I had another advantage in it. My brother and the
rest going from the printing-house to their meals, I
remained there alone, and dispatching presently my
light repast, which often was no more than a biscuit or a
slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the
pastry-cook's, and a glass of water,, had the rest of the
time till their return for study, in which I made the
greater progress, from that greater clearness of head
and quicker apprehension which usually attend tem
perance in eating and drinking.
And now it was that, being on some occasion made
ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice
failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker's
book of Arithmetic, and went through the whole by
myself with great ease. I also read Seller's and
Shermy's books of Navigation, and became acquainted
with the little geometry they contain ; but never pro
ceeded far in that science. And I read about this
time Locke On Human Understanding, and the Art
of Thinking, by Messrs. du Port Royal.1
While I was intent on improving my language, I
met with an English Grammar (I think it was Green
wood's), at the end of which there were two little
sketches of the arts of rhetoric and logic, the latter
finishing with a specimen of a dispute in the Socratic
1 Early in the seventeenth century a company of learned and relig
ious men were associated at the abbey of Port Royal near Versailles in
France. Here they studied and worshipped and gave out to the world
many valuable books.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 25
method ; and soon after I procured Xenophon's Mem
orable Things of Socrates, wherein there are many
instances of the same method. I wascharmed with
it, adopted it, dropped my abrupt contradiction and
positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer
and doubter- . . And being then, from reading Shaftes
bury and Collins, become a real doubter in many points
of our religious doctrine, I found this method safest
for myself and very embarrassing to those against
whom I used it ; therefore I took a delight in it, prac
ticed it continually, and grew very artful and expert
in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into
concessions, the consequences of which they did not
foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which
they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining
vip.tn^sjhliatjfiitihPT- mysqlf nnr my gajTseja.lways de^
served., I continued this method some few years, but
gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing
myself in terms of modest diffidence ; never using,
when I advanced anything that may possibly be dis
puted, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any oth
ers that give the air of positiveness to an opinion ; but
rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so
and so ; it appears to me, or _Z" should think it so or
so, for such and such reasons ; or I imagine it to be
so ; or it is so if I am not mistaken. This habit, I
believe, has_begn__a£— ga?eat--ai€lrvan,tagfi,.to me when I
have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and per
suade men into measures that I have been from time
to time engaged in promoting ; and as the chief ends
of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to
please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible
men would not lessen their power of doing good by
a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to dis-

26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
gust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat every
one of those purposes for which speech was given to
us, to wit, giving or receiving information or pleasure.
For if you would inform, a positive and dogmatical
manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke
contradiction and prevent a candid attention. If you
wish information and improvement from the knowl
edge of others, and yet at the same time express your
self as firmly fixed in your present opinions, modest,
sensible men who do not love disputation will proba
bly leave you undisturbed in the possession of your
error. And by such a manner you can seldom hope
to recommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, or
to persuade those whose concurrence you desire. Pope
says, judiciously : —
"Men should be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown piopos'd as things forgot; "
farther recommending to us
"To speak, tho' sure, with seeming diffidence."
And he might have coupled with this line that which
he has coupled with another, I think less properly,
" For want of modesty is want of sense."
If you ask, Why less properly? I must repeat the
lines, — "Immodest words admit of no defense,
For want of modesty is want of sense."
Now, is not want of sense (where a man is so unfortu
nate as to want it) some apology for his want of mod
esty t and would not the lines stand more justly thus ?
"Immodest words admit but this defense,
That want of modesty is want of sense."
This, however, I should submit to better judgments.
My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 27
newspaper. It was the second that appeared in Amer
ica, and was called the New England Courant} The
only one before it was the Boston News-Letter. I re
member his being dissuaded by some of his friends
from the undertaking, as not likely to succeed, one
newspaper being, in their judgment, enough for Amer
ica. At this time (1771) there are not less than five-
and-twenty. He went on, however, with the under
taking, and after having worked in composing the
types and printing off the sheets, I was employed to
carry the papers through the streets to the customers.
He had some ingenious men among his friends, who
amused themselves by writing little pieces for this
paper, which gained it credit and made it more in de
mand, and these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing
their conversations, and their accounts of the approba
tion their papers were received with, I was excited to
try my hand among them ; but being still a boy, and
suspecting that my brother would object to printing
anything of mine in his paper if he knew it to be mine,
I contrived to disguise my hand, and writing an anony
mous paper, I put it in at night under the door of the
printing-house. It was found in the morning, and
communicated to his writing friends when they called
in as usual. They read it, commented on it in my
hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of finding it
met with their approbation, and that in their different
guesses at the author, none were named but men of
some character among us for learning and ingenuity.
I suppose now that I was rather lucky in my judges,
1 Franklin's memory was a little at fault here. The Courant was
the third newspaper established in New England, the fourth in Amer
ica. The Boston Gazette and the American Weekly Mercury of Phila
delphia were published in 119, the Courant in 1721. The Boston
News-Letter dated from 1704.

28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
and that perhaps they were not really so very good
ones as I then esteemed them.
Encouraged, however, by this, I wrote and conveyed
in the same way to the press several more papers
which were equally approved ; and I kept my secret
till my small fund of sense for such performances was
pretty well exhausted, and then I discovered it, when
I began to be considered a little more by my brother's
acquaintance, and in a manner that did not quite
please him, as he thought, probably with reason, that
it tended to make me too vain. And, perhaps, this
might be one occasion of the differences that we began
to have about this time. Though a brother, he con
sidered himself as my master, and me as his appren
tice, and, accordingly, expected the same services from
me as he would from another, while I thought he de
meaned me too much in some he required of me, who
from a brother expected more indulgence. Our dis
putes were often brought before our father, and I
fancy I was either generally in the right, or else a bet
ter pleader, because the judgment was generally in
my favor. But my brother was passionate, and had
often beaten me, which I took extremely amiss ; and,
thinking my apprenticeship very tedious, I was con
tinually wishing for some opportunity of shortening it,
which at length offered in a manner unexpected.1
One of the pieces in our newspaper on some politi
cal point, which I have now forgotten, gave offence to
the Assembly. He was taken up, censured, and im
prisoned for a month, by the speaker's warrant, I sup
pose, because he would not discover his author. I too
1 I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be a
means of impressing me with that aversion to arbitrary power thai
has stuck to me through my whole life. B. F.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 29
was taken up and examined before the council ; but,
though I did not give them any satisfaction, they con
tented themselves with admonishing me, and dismissed
me, considering me, perhaps, as an apprentice, who
was bound to keep his master's secrets.
During my brother's confinement, which I resented
a good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I
had the management of the paper ; and I made bold
to give our rulers some rubs in it, which my brother
took very kindly, while others began to consider me
in an unfavorable light, as a young genius that had a
turn for libelling and satire. My brother's discharge
was accompanied with an order of the House (a very
odd one), that " James Franklin should no longer
print the paper called the New England Courant."
There was a consultation held in our printing-house
among his friends, what he should do in this case.
Some proposed to evade the order by changing the
name of the paper ; but my brother, seeing inconven
iences in that, it was finally concluded on as a better
way, to let it be printed for the future under the name
of Benjamin Franklin ; and to avoid the censure of
the Assembly, that might fall on him as still printing
it by his apprentice, the contrivance was that my old
indenture should be returned to me, with a full dis
charge on the back of it, to be shown on occasion, but
to secure to him the benefit of my service, I was to
sign new indentures for the remainder of the term,
which were to be kept private. A very flimsy scheme
it was ; however, it was immediately executed, and the
paper went on accordingly, under my name for several
months. At length, a fresh difference arising between my
brother and me, I took upon me to assert my freedom,
presuming that he would not venture to produce the

30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
new indentures. It was not fair in me to take this
advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first
errata of my life; but the unfairness of it weighed
little with me, when under the impressions of resent
ment for the blows his passion too often urged him to
bestow upon me, though he was otherwise not an ill-
natured man: perhaps I was too saucy and provok
ing. When he found I would leave him, he took care to
prevent my getting employment in any other printing-
house of the town, by going round and speaking to
every master, who accordingly refused to give me
work. I then thought of going to New York, as the
nearest place where there was a printer ; and I was
rather inclined to leave Boston when I reflected that I
had already made myself a little obnoxious to the gov
erning party, and from the arbitrary proceedings of
the Assembly in my brother's case, it was likely I
might, if I stayed, soon bring myself into scrapes ;
and further, that my indiscreet disputations about re
ligion began to make me pointed at with horror by
good people as an infidel or atheist. I determined on
the point, but my father now siding with my brother,
I was sensible that if I attempted to go openly, means
would be used to prevent me. My friend Collins, there
fore, undertook to manage a little for me. He agreed
with the captain of a New York sloop for my passage,
under the notion of my being a young acquaintance
of his [that had gotten himself into trouble]. So I
sold some of my books to raise a little money, was
taken on board privately, and as we had a fair wind,
in three days I found myself in New York, near 300
miles from home, a boy of but 17, without the least
recommendation to, or knowledge of, any person in the
place, and with very little money in my pocket.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 31

II.
SEEKING HIS FORTUNE.
My inclinations for the sea were by this time worn
out, or I might now have gratified them. But, having
a trade, and supposing myself a pretty good workman,
I offered my service to the printer in the place, old
Mr. William Bradford, who had been the first printer
in Pennsylvania, but removed from thence upon the
quarrel of George Keith. He could give me no em
ployment, having little to do, and help enough already ;
but says he, " 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 a hundred miles further ; I set out, however, in a
boat for Amboy, leaving my chest and things to fol
low me round by sea.
In crossing the bay, we met with a squall that tore
our rotten sails to pieces, prevented 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 lit
tle, 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 JPil-
grim's Progress, in Dutch, finely printed on good
paper, with copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever

32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF.
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 en
gaging to the reader, who in the most interesting
parts finds himself, as it were, brought into the com
pany and present at the discourse. De Foe in his
Crusoe, his Moll Flanders, Religious Courtship,
Family Instructor, and other pieces, has imitated it
with success, and Richardson has done the same in
his Pamela, etc.
When we drew near the island, we found it was at
a place where there could be no landing, there being a
great surf on the stony beach. So we dropped anchor,
and swung round towards the shore. Some people
came down to the water edge and hallooed to us, as
we did to them ; but the wind was so high, and the
surf so loud, that we could not hear so as to under
stand each other. There were canoes on the shore,
and we made signs, and hallooed that they should
fetch us ; but they either did not understand us, or
thought it impracticable, so they went away, and night
coming on, we had no remedy but to wait till the wind
should abate ; and, in the mean time, the boatman and
I concluded to sleep, if we could ; and so crowded into
the scuttle, with the Dutchman, who was still wet ; and
the spray beating 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 night, having been thirty
hours on the water, without victuals, or any drink but

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 33
a bottle of filthy rum, the water we sailed on being
salt. In the evening I found myself very feverish, and
went in to bed ; but having read somewhere that cold
water drank plentifully was good for a fever, I fol
lowed the prescription, 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 Burlington,1 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 that I had never left home. I cut so miserable
a figure, too, that I found, by the questions asked me,
I was suspected to be some runaway servant, and in
danger of being taken up on that suspicion. However,
I proceeded the 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 sociable and friendly. Our
acquaintance continued as long as he lived. He had
been, I imagine, an itinerant doctor, for there was no
town in England, or country in Europe, of which he
could not give a very particular account. He had
some letters, and was ingenious, but much of an un
believer, and wickedly undertook, some years -after, to
trayesiyJthe_Bible_Ln -doggerel _verse, .as ..Cfltlon_had
done Virgil. By this means he set many of the facts
in a very ridiculous light, and might have hurt weak
1 In New Jersey.
3

34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
m
minds if his work had been published ; but it never
was._ „
At his house I lay that night, and the next morning
reached Burlington, but had the mortification to find
that the regular boats were gone a little before my
coming, and no other expected to go before Tuesday,
this being Saturday ; wherefore I returned to an old
woman in the town, of whom I had bought ginger
bread to eat on the water, and asked her advice. She
invited me to lodge at her house till a passage by
water should offer; and being tired with my foot
traveling, I accepted the invitation. She, understand
ing I was a printer, would have had me stay at that
town and follow my business, being ignorant of the
stock necessary to begin with. She was very hospita
ble, gave me a dinner of ox-cheek with great good
will, accepting only of a pot of ale in return ; and I
thought myself fixed till Tuesday should come. How
ever, walking in the evening by the side of the river,
a boat came by, which I found was going towards
Philadelphia, with several people in her. They took
me in, and, as there was no wind, we rowed all the
way ; and about midnight, not having yet seen the
city, some of the company were confident we must
have passed it, and would row no farther ; the others
knew not where we were ; so we put toward the shore,
got into a creek, landed near an old fence, with the
rails of which we made a fire, the night being cold, in
October, and there we remained till daylight. Then
one of the company knew the place to be Cooper's
Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which we saw as
soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived there
about eight or nine o'clock on the Sunday morning,
and landed at the Market Street wharf.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 35
I have been the more particular in this description
of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into
that city, that you may in your mind compare such
unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made
there. I was in my working-dress, my best clothes
being to come round by sea. I was dirty from my
journey ; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and
stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for
lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing, and
want of rest, I was very hungry ; and my whole stock
of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar,1 and about a shil
ling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the
boat for my passage, who at first refused it on account
of my rowing ; but I insisted on their taking it. A
man being sometimes more generous when he has but a
little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through
fear of being thought to have but little.
Then I walked up the street, gazing about till
near the market-house I met a boy with bread. I had
made many a meal on bread, and inquiring where he
got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed
me to, in Second Street, and asked for biscuit, intend
ing such as we had in Boston ; but they, it seems, were
not made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three
penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So not
considering or knowing the difference of money, and
the greater cheapness nor the names of his bread, I
bade him give me three-penny worth of any sort. He
gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was
surprised at the quantity, but took it, and having no
room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each
arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market
Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door of
1 The metal currency at that time was of foreign coinage.

36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Mr. Read, my future wife's father; when she, stand
ing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I cer
tainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance.
Then I turned and went down Chestnut Street and
part of Walnut Street, eating my roll all the way, and
coining round, found myself again at Market Street
wharf, near the boat I came in, to which I went for a
draught of the river water ; and being filled with one
of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her
child that came down the river in the boat with us,
and were waiting to go farther.
Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which
by this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who
were all walking the same way. I joined them, and
thereby was led into the great meeting-house 1 of the
Quakers near the market. I sat down among them,
and after looking round a while and hearing nothing
said, being very drowsy through labor and want of
rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and contin
ued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind
enough to rouse me. This was, therefore, the first
house I was in or slept in, in Philadelphia.
Walking down again toward the river, and looking
in the faces of people, I met a young Quaker man,
whose countenance I liked, and, accosting him, re
quested he would tell me where a stranger could get
lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three
Mariners. " Here," says he, " is one place that enter
tains strangers, but it is not a reputable house ; if thee
wilt walk with me, I'll show thee a better." He
brought me to the Crooked Billet in Water Street.
Here I got a dinner ; and while I was eating it, sev
eral sly questions were asked me, as it seemed to be
1 This stood on the southwest corner of Second and Market streets.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 37
suspected from my youth and appearance that I might
be some runaway.
After dinner, my sleepiness returned, and being
shown to a bed, I lay down without undressing, and
slept till six in the evening, was called to supper, went
to bed again very early, and slept soundly till next
morning. Then I made myself as tidy as I could, and
went to Andrew Bradford the printer's. I found in
the shop the old man his father, whom I had seen at
New York, and who, traveling on horseback, had got
to Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to his
son, who received me civilly, gave me a breakfast, but
told me he did not at present want a hand, being lately
supplied with one ; but there was another printer in
town, lately set up, one Keimer, who, perhaps, might
employ me ; if not, I should be welcome to lodge at
his house, and he would give me a little work to do
now and then till fuller business should offer.
The old gentleman said he would go with me to the
new printer ; and when we found him, " Neighbor,"
says Bradford, " I have brought to see you a young
man of your business ; perhaps you may want such a
one." He asked me a few questions, put a composing
stick in my hand to see how I worked, and then said
he would employ me soon, though he had just then
nothing for me to do ; and taking old Bradford, whom
he had never seen before, to be one of the town's peo
ple that had a good will for him, entered into a con
versation on his present undertaking and prospects ;
while Bradford, not discovering that he was the other
printer's father, on Keimer's saying he expected soon
to get the greatest part of the business into his own
hands, drew him on by artful questions, and starting
little doubts, to explain all his views, what interests

38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
he relied on, and in what manner he intended to pro
ceed. I, who stood by and heard all, saw_ immedi
ately that one of them was a crafty old. sapHster, and
the other a mere ^no vice. Bradford left me with Kei
mer, who was greatly surprised when I told him who
the old man was.
Keimer's printing-house, I found, consisted of an
old shattered press, and one small, worn-out font of
English,1 which he was then using himself, composing
an Elegy on Aquila Rose, before mentioned, an in
genious young man, of excellent character, much re
spected in the town, clerk of the Assembly, and a
pretty poet. Keimer made verses too, but very indif
ferently. He could not be said to write them, for his
manner was to compose them in the types directly out
of his head. So there being no copy, but one pair of
cases, and the Elegy likely to require all the letter, no
one could help him. I endeavored to put his press
(which he had not yet used, and of which he under
stood nothing) into order fit to be worked with ; and
promising to come and print off his Elegy as soon as
he should have got it ready, I returned to Bradford's,
who gave me a little job to do for the present, and
there I lodged and dieted. A few days after, Keimer
sent for me to print off the Elegy. And now he had
got another pair of cases, and a pamphlet to reprint,
on which he set me to work.
These two printers I found poorly qualified for their
business. Bradford had not been bred to it, and was
very illiterate; and Keimer, though something of a
scholar, was a mere compositor knowing nothing of
presswork. He had been one of the French prophets,2
1 The name of a certain size of type.
2 Supposed to be a sect of French Protestants, called Camisards.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39
and could act their enthusiastic agitations. At this
time he did not profess any particular religion, but
something of all on occasion ; was very ignorant of the
world, and had, as I afterward found, a good deal of
the knave in his composition. He did not like my
lodging at Bradford's while I worked with him. He
had a house indeed, but without furniture, so he could
not lodge me ; but he got me a lodging at Mr. Read's
before mentioned, who was the owner of his house ;
and my chest and clothes being come by this time, I
made rather a more respectable appearance in the eyes
of Miss Read than I had done when she first happened
to see me eating my roll in the street.
I began now to have some acquaintance among the
young people of the town that were lovers of reading,
with whom I spent my evenings very pleasantly ; and
gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived
very agreeably, forgetting Boston as much as I could,
and not desiring that any there should know where I
resided except my friend Collins, who was in my se
cret, and kept it when I wrote to him. At length, an
incident happened that sent me back again much
sooner than I had intended. I had a brother-in-law,
Robert Holmes, master of a sloop that traded between
Boston and Delaware. He being at Newcastle, forty
miles below Philadelphia, heard there of me, and wrote
me a letter mentioning the concern of my friends
in Boston at my abrupt departure, assuring me of
their good-will to me, and that everything would be
accommodated to my mind if I would return, to which
he exhorted me very earnestly. I wrote an answer to
his letter, thanked him for his advice, but stated my
reasons for quitting Boston fully and in such a light
as to convince him I was not so wrong as he had ap
prehended.

40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Sir William Keith, governor of the province, was
then at Newcastle, and Captain Holmes, happening to
be in company with him when my letter came to hand,
spoke to him of me, and showed him the letter. The
governor read it, and seemed surprised when he was
told my age. He said I appeared a young man of
promising parts, and therefore should be encouraged ;
the printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones ; and,
if I would set up there, he made no doubt I should
succeed ; for his part, he would procure me the public
business, and do me every other service in his power.
This my brother-in-law afterwards told me in Boston,
but I knew as yet nothing of it ; when, one day, Keimer
and I being at work together near the window, we saw
the governor and another gentleman (which proved to
be Colonel French of Newcastle), finely dressed,
come directly across the street to our house, and heard
them at the door.
Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit
to him ; but the governor inquired for me, came up,
and with a condescension and politeness I had been
quite unused to made me many compliments, desired
to be acquainted with me, blamed me kindly for not
having made myself known to him when I first came
to the place, and would have me away with him to the
tavern, where he was going with Colonel French to
taste, as he said, some excellent Madeira. I was not
a little surprised, and Keimer stared like a pig poi
soned. I went, however, with the governor and Colo
nel French to a tavern, at the corner of Third Street,
and over the Madeira he proposed my setting up my
business, laid before me the probabilities of success,
and both he and Colonel French assured me I should
have their interest and influence in procuring the pub.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41
lie business of both governments. On my doubting
whether my father would assist me in it, Sir William
said he would >give me a letter to him, in which he
would state the advantages, and he did not doubt of
prevailing with him. So it was concluded I should
return to Boston in the first vessel, with the gov
ernor's letter recommending me to my father. In the
mean time the intention was to be kept a secret, and
I went on working with Keimer as usual, the gov
ernor sending for me now and then to dine with him,
a very great honor I thought it, and conversing with
me in the most affable, familiar, and friendly manner
imaginable. About the end of April, 1724, a little vessel offered
for Boston. I took leave of Keimer as going to see
my friends. The governor gave me an ample letter,
saying many flattering things of me to my father, and
strongly recommending the project of my setting'up
at Philadelphia as a thing that must make my fortune.
We struck on a shoal in going down the bay, and
sprung a leak ; we had a blustering time at sea, and
were obliged to pump almost continually, at which I
took my turn. We arrived safe, however, at Boston
in about a fortnight. I had been absent seven months,
and my friends had heard nothing of me; for my
brother Holmes was not yet returned, and had not
written about me. My unexpected appearance sur
prised the family ; all were, however, very glad to see
me, and made me welcome, except my brother. I
went to see him at his printing-house. I was better
dressed than ever while in his service, having a genteel
new suit from bead to foot, a watch, and my pockets
lined with near five pounds sterling in silver. He re
ceived me not very frankly, looked me all over, and
turned to his work again.

42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
The journeymen were inquisitive where I had been,
what sort of a country it was, and how I liked it. I
praised it much, and the happy life I led in it ; ex
pressing strongly my intention of returning to it ; and
one of them asking what kind of money we had there,
I produced a handful of silver, and spread it before
them, which was a kind of rare show they had not
been used to, paper being the money of Boston. Then
I took an opportunity of letting them see my watch ;
and, lastly (my brother still grum and sullen), I gave
them a piece of eight 1 to drink, and took my leave.
This visit of mine offended him extremely ; for, when
my mother some time after spoke to him of a recon
ciliation, and of her wishes to see us on good terms to
gether, and that we might live for the future as broth
ers, he said I had insulted him in such a manner
before his people that he could never forget or forgive
it. • In this, however, he was mistaken.
My father received the governor's letter with some
apparent surprise, but said little of it to me for some
days, when Captain Holmes returning he showed it to
him, asked him if he knew Keith, and what kind of
man he was ; adding his opinion that he must be of
small discretion to think of setting a boy up in busi
ness who wanted yet three years of being at man's
estate. Holmes said what he could in favor of the
project, but my father was clear in the impropriety
of it, and at last gave a flat denial to it. Then he
wrote a civil letter to Sir William, thanking him for
the patronage he had so kindly offered me, but declin
ing to assist me as yet in setting up, I being, in his
opinion, too young to be trusted with the management
of a business so important, and for which the prepa
ration must be so expensive.
* That is. O. Snanish dnlln.T r\T maa+A*

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 43
My friend and companion Collins, who was a clerk
in the post-office, pleased with the account I gave him
of my new country, determined to go thither also;
and, while I waited for my father's determination, he
set out before me by land to Rhode Island, leaving
his books, which were a pretty collection of mathemat
ics and natural philosophy, to come with mine and me
to New York, where he proposed to wait for me.
My father, though he did not approve Sir William's
proposition, was yet pleased that I had been able to
obtain so advantageous a character from a person of
such note where I had resided, and that I had been so
industrious and careful as to equip myself so hand
somely in so short a time ; therefore, seeing no pros
pect of an accommodation between my brother and
me, he gave his consent to my returning again to Phil
adelphia, advised me to behave respectfully to the peo
ple there, endeavor to obtain the general esteem, and
avoid lampooning and libelling, to which he thought I
had too much inclination ; telling me, that by steady
industry and a prudent parsimony I might save enough
by the time I was one-and-twenty to set me up ; and
that, if I came near the matter, he would help me out
with the rest. This was all I could obtain, except
¦ some small gifts as tokens of his and my mother's
love, when I embarked again for New York, now with
their approbation and their blessing.
The sloop putting in at Newport, Rhode Island, I
visited my brother John, who had been married and
settled there some years. He received me very affec
tionately, for he always loved me. A friend of his,
one Vernon, having some money due to him in Penn
sylvania, about thirty-five pounds currency, desired I
would receive it for him, and keep it till I had his

44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
directions what to remit it in. Accordingly, he gave
me an order. This afterwards occasioned me a good
deal of uneasiness.
At Newport we took in a number of passengers for
New York, among which were two young women, com
panions, and a grave, sensible, matron-like Quaker
woman, with her attendants. I had shown an oblig
ing readiness to do her some little services, which im
pressed her I suppose with a degree of good will to
ward me ; therefore, when she saw a daily growing
familiarity between me and the two young women,
which they appeared to encourage, she took me aside,
and said, " Young man, I am concerned for thee, as
thou has no friend with thee, and seems not to know
much of the world, or of the snares youth is exposed
to ; depend upon it, those are very bad women ; I can
see it in all their actions ; and if thee art not upon
thy guard, they will draw thee into some danger ; they
are strangers to thee, and I advise thee, in a friendly
concern for thy welfare, to have no acquaintance with
them." As I seemed at first not to think so ill of
them as she did, she mentioned some things she had
observed and heard that had escaped my notice, but
now convinced me she was right. I thanked her for
her kind advice, and promised to follow it. When
we arrived at New York, they told me where they
lived, and invited me to come and see them ; but I
avoided it, and it was well I did ; for the next day the
captain missed a silver spoon and some other things,
that had been taken out of his cabin, and ... he
got a warrant to search their lodgings, found the
stolen goods, and had the thieves punished. So,
though we had escaped a sunken rock, which we
scraped upon in the passage, I thought this escape of
rather more importance to me.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 45
At New York I found my friend Collins, who had
arrived there some time before me. We had been in
timate from children, and had read the same books
together ; but he had the advantage of more time for
reading and studying, and a wonderful genius for
mathematical learning, in which he far outstripped me.
While I lived in Boston, most of my hours of leisure
for conversation were spent with him, and he contin
ued a sober as well as an industrious lad ; was much
respected for his learning by several of the clergy and
other gentlemen, and seemed to promise making a
good figure in life. But, during my absence, he had
acquired a habit of sotting with brandy ; and I found
by his own account, and what I heard from others,
that he had been drunk every day since his arrival at
New York, and behaved very oddly. He had gamed,
too, and lost his money, so that I was obliged to dis
charge his lodgings, and defray his expenses to and at
Philadelphia, which proved extremely inconvenient to
me. The then governor of New York, Burnet (son of
Bishop Burnet), hearing from the captain that a
young man, one of his passengers, had a great many
books, desired he would bring me to see him. I
waited upon him accordingly, and should have taken
Collins with me but that he was not sober. The gov
ernor treated me with great civility, showed me his li
brary, which was a very large one, and we had a good
deal of conversation about books and authors. This
was the second governor who had done me the honor
to take notice of me ; which, to a poor boy like me,
was very pleasing.
We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on the
way Vernon's money, without which we could hardly

46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
have finished our journey. Collins wished to be em
ployed in some counting-house ; but, whether they
discovered his dramming by his breath, or by his
behavior, though he had some recommendations, he
met with no success in any application, and continued
lodging and boarding at the same house with me, and
at my expense. Knowing I had that money of Ver
non's he was continually borrowing of me, still prom
ising repayment as soon as he should be in business.
At length he had got so much of it that I was dis
tressed to think what I should do in case of being
called on to remit it.
His drinking continued, about which we sometimes
quarrelled ; for, when a little intoxicated, he was very
fractious. Once, in a boat on the Delaware with some
other young men, he refused to row in his turn. " I
will be rowed home," says he. " We will not row
you," says I. " You must, or stay all night on the
water," says he, "just as you please." The others
said, " Let us row ; what signifies it ? " But, my
mind being soured with his other conduct, I continued
to refuse. So he swore he would make me row, or
throw me overboard ; and coming along, stepping on
the thwarts, toward me, when he came up and struck
at me, I clapped my hand under his crotch, and, ris
ing, pitched him head-foremost into the river. I knew
he was a good swimmer, and so was under little con
cern about him ; but before he could get round to lay
hold of the boat, we had with a few strokes pulled her
out of his reach ; and ever when he drew near the
boat, we asked if he would row, striking a few strokes
to slide her away from him. He was ready to die
with vexation, and obstinately would not promise to
row. However, seeing him at last beginning to tire,

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 47
we lifted him in and brought him home dripping wet
in the evening. We hardly exchanged a civil word
afterwards, and a West India captain, who had a
commission to procure a tutor for the sons of a gen
tleman at Barbadoes, happening to meet with him,
agreed to carry him thither. He left me then, prom
ising to remit me the first money he should receive in
order to discharge the debt ; but I never heard of him
after. The breaking into this money of Vernon's was one
of the first great errata of my life ; and this affair
showed that my father was not much out in his judg
ment when he supposed me too young to manage busi
ness of importance. But Sir William, on reading his
letter, said he was too prudent. There was great dif
ference in persons; and discretion did not always
accompany years, nor was youth always without it.
" And since he will not set you up," says he, " I will
do it myself. Give me an inventory of the things
necessary to be had from England, and I will send
for them. You shall repay me when you are able ; I
am resolved to have a good printer here, and I am
sure you must succeed." This was spoken with such
an appearance of cordiality that I had not the least
doubt of his meaning what he said. I had hitherto
kept the proposition of my setting up a secret in Phil
adelphia, and I still kept it. Had it been known that
I depended on the governor, probably some friend,
that knew him better, would have advised me not to
rely on him, as I afterwards heard it as his known
character to be liberal of promises which he never
meant to keep. Yet, unsolicited as he was by me,
how could I think his generous offers insincere ? I
believed him one of the best men in the world.

48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
I presented him an inventory of a little printing-
house, amounting by my computation to about one
hundred pounds sterling. He liked it, but asked me
if my being on the spot in England to choose the
types, and see that everything was good of the kind,
might not be of some advantage. " Then," says he,
" when there, you may make acquaintances, and es
tablish correspondences in the book-selling and sta
tionery way." I agreed that this might be advanta
geous. " Then," says he, " get yourself ready to go
with Annis," which was the annual ship, and the only
one at that time usually passing between London and
Philadelphia. But it would be some months before
Annis sailed, so I continued working with Keimer,
fretting about the money Collins had got from me,
and in daily apprehensions of being called upon by
Vernon, which, however, did not happen for some
years after.
I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my
first voyage from Boston, being becalmed off Block
Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled
up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my reso
lution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion
I considered, with my master Tryon, the taking every
fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of
them had, or ever could do us any injury that might
justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasona
ble. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish,
and, when this came hot out of- the frying-pan, it smelt
admirably well. I balanced some time between prin
ciple and inclination, till I recollected that, when the
fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their
stomachs ; then thought I, " If you eat one another, I
dfinlt see why we may nM; eat von." So I dinedupon

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 49
cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other
people, returning only now and then occasionally to a
vegetable diet. So convenient a jthing, it is to be a
reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or
make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
Keimer and I lived on a pretty good familiar foot
ing, and agreed tolerably well, for he suspected noth
ing of my setting up. He retained a great deal of
his old enthusiasm and loved argumentation. We
therefore had many disputations. I used to work him
so with my Socratic method, and trepanned him so
often by questions apparently so distant from any
point we had in hand, and yet by degrees led to the
point, and brought him into difficulties and contradic
tions, that at last he grew ridiculously cautious, and
would hardly answer me the most common question,
without asking first, " What do you intend to infer
from that ? " However, it gave him so high an opin
ion of my abilities in the confuting way, that he seri
ously proposed my being his colleague in a project he
had of setting up a new sect. He was to preach the
doctrines, and I was to confound all opponents. When
he came to explain with me upon the doctrines, I
found several conundrums which I objected to, unless
I might have my way a little too, and introduce some
of mine.
Keimer wore his beard at full length, because some
where in the Mosaic law it is said, " Thou shalt not
mar the corners of thy beard." He likewise kept the
Seventh day, Sabbath ; and these two points were
essentials with him. I disliked both ; but agreed to
admit them upon condition of his adopting the doc
trine of using no animal food. "I doubt," said he,
" my constitution will not bear that." I assured him

50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
it would, and that he would be the better for it. He
was usually a great glutton, and I promised myself
some diversion in half starving him. He agreed to
try the practice, if I would keep him company. I did
so, and we held it for three months. We had our vict
uals dressed, and brought to us regularly by a woman
in the neighborhood, who had from me a list of forty
dishes, to be prepared for us at different times, in all
of which there was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, and
the whim suited me the better at this time from the
cheapness of it, not costing us above eighteen pence
sterling each per week. I have since kept several
Lents most strictly, leaving the common diet for that
and that for the common, abruptly without the least
inconvenience, so that I think that there is little in
the advice of making those changes by easy gradations.
I went on pleasantly, but poor Keimer suffered griev
ously, tired of the project, longed for the flesh-pots of
Egypt, and ordered a roast pig. He invited me and
two women friends to dine with him ; but, it being too
soon upon the table, he could not resist the temptation,
and ate the whole before we came.
I had made some courtship during this time to Miss
Read. I had a great respect and affection for her,
and had some reason to believe she had the same for
me ; but as I was about to take a long voyage, and we
were both very young, only a little above eighteen, it
was thought most prudent by her mother to prevent
our going too far at present, as a marriage, if it was to
take place, would be more convenient after my return,
when I should be, as I expected, set up in my business.
Perhaps, too, she thought my expectations not so well
founded as I imagined them to be.
My chief acquaintances at this time were Charles

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 51
Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James Ralph, all lovers
of reading. The two first were clerks to an eminent
scrivener or conveyancer in the town, Charles Brog-
den ; the other was clerk to a merchant. Watson
was a pious, sensible young man, of great integrity ;
the others rather more lax in their principles of relig
ion, particularly Ralph, who as well as Collins, had
been unsettled by me, for which they both made me
suffer. Osborne was sensible, candid, frank ; sincere
and affectionate to his friends ; but in literary matters,
too fond of criticising. Ralph was ingenious, genteel
in his manners, and extremely eloquent ; I think I
never knew a prettier talker. Both of them great ad
mirers of poetry, and began to try their hands in little
pieces. Many pleasant walks we four had together on
Sundays into the woods, near Schuylkill, where we
read to one another, and conferred on what we read.
Ralph was inclined to pursue the study of poetry,
not doubting but he might become eminent in it and
make his fortune by it, alleging that the best poets
must, when they first began to write, make as many
faults as he did. Osborne dissuaded him, assured him
he had no genius for poetry, and advised him to think
of nothing beyond the business he was bred to ; that
in the mercantile way, though he had no stock, he
might by his diligence and punctuality recommend
himself to employment as a factor, and in time acquire
wherewith to trade on his own account. I approved
the amusing one's self with poetry now and then, so
far as to improve one's language, but no farther.
On this it was proposed that we should each of us,
at our next meeting, produce a piece of our own com
posing, in order to improve by our mutual observa
tions, criticisms, and corrections. As language and

52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
expression were what we had in view, we excluded all
considerations of invention by agreeing that the task
should be a version of the eighteenth Psalm, which
describes the descent of a Deity. When the time of
our meeting drew nigh, Ralph called on me first, and
let me know his piece was ready. I told him I had
been busy, and having little inclination, had done
nothing. He then showed me his piece for my opin
ion, and I much approved it, as it appeared to me to
have great merit. " Now," says he, " Osborne never
will allow the least merit in anything of mine, but
makes a thousand criticisms out of mere envy. He is
not so jealous of you ; I wish, therefore, you would
take this piece, and produce it as yours ; I will pre
tend not to have had time, and so produce nothing.
We shall then see what he will say to it." It was
agreed, and I immediately transcribed it, that it might
appear in my own hand.
We met ; Watson's performance was read ; there
were some beauties in it, but many defects. Osborne's
was read ; it was much better ; Ralph did it justice ;
remarked some faults, but applauded the beauties.
He himself had nothing to produce. I was backward ;
seemed desirous of being excused ; had not had suffi
cient time to correct, etc. ; but no excuse could be ad
mitted ; produce I must. It was read and repeated ;
Watson and Osborne gave up the contest, and joined
in applauding it. Ralph only made some criticisms,
and proposed some amendments ; but I defended my
text. Osborne was against Ralph, and told him he was
no better a critic than poet, so he dropped the argu
ment. As they two went home together, Osborne ex
pressed himself still more strongly in favor of what he
thought my production ; having restrained himself be-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 53
fore, as he said, lest I should think it flattery. " But
who would have imagined," said he, "that Franklin
had been capable of such a performance ; such paint
ing, such force, such fire ! He has even improved the
original. In his common conversation he seems to
have no choice of words ; he hesitates and blunders ;
and yet, good God ! how he writes ! " When we next
met, Ralph discovered the trick we had played him,
and Osborne was a little laughed at.
This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution of be
coming a poet. I did all I could to dissuade him from
it, but he continued scribbling verses till Pope cured
him.1 He became, however, a pretty good prose
writer. More of him hereafter. But, as I may not
have occasion again to mention the other two, I shall
just remark here, that Watson died in my arms a few
years after, much lamented, being the best of our set.
Osborne went to the West Indies, where he became
an eminent lawyer and made money, but died young.
He and I had made a serious agreement, that the one
who happened first to die should, if possible, make a
friendly visit to the other, and acquaint him how he
found things in that separate state. But he never ful
filled his promise.
The governor, seeming to like my company, had me
frequently to his house, and his setting me up was al
ways mentioned as a fixed thing. I was to take with
me letters recommendatory to a number of his friends,
besides the letter of credit to furnish me with the nec
essary money for purchasing the press and types,
1 Alexander Pope in his Dunciad, a witty characterization in verse
of contemporary writers, has these lines : —
" Silence, ye wolves ! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
And makes night hideous — answer him, ye owls."

54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
paper, etc. For these letters I was appointed to call
at different times, when they were to be ready ; but a
future time was still named. Thus he went on till the
ship, whose departure too had been several times post
poned, was on the point of sailing. Then, when I
called to take my leave and receive the letters, his sec
retary, Dr. Bard, came out to me and said the gov
ernor was extremely busy in writing, but would be
down at Newcastle before the ship, and there the let
ters would be delivered to me.
Ralph, though married, and having one child, had
determined to accompany me in this voyage. It was
thought he intended to establish a correspondence,
and obtain goods to sell on commission ; but I found
afterwards, that, through some discontent with his
wife's relations, he purposed to leave her on their
hands, and never return again. Having taken leave
of my friends, and interchanged some promises with
Miss Read, I left Philadelphia in the ship, which an
chored at Newcastle. The governor was there ; but
when I went to his lodging, the secretary came to me
from him with the civilest message in the world, that
he could not then see me, being engaged in business
of the utmost importance, but should send the letters
to me on board, wished me heartily a good voyage and
a speedy return, etc. I returned on board a little puz
zled, but still not doubting.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 55

m.
ADVENTURES IN LONDON.
Me. Andrew Hamilton, a famous lawyer of Phil
adelphia, had taken passage in the same ship for him
self and son, and with Mr. Denham, a Quaker mer
chant, and Messrs. Onion and Russel, masters of an
iron work in Maryland, had engaged the great cabin ;
so that Ralph and I were forced to take up with a
berth in the steerage, and none on board knowing us,
were considered as ordinary persons. But Mr. Ham
ilton and his son (it was James, since governor) re
turned from Newcastle to Philadelphia, the father
being recalled by a great fee to plead for a seized
ship ; and, just before we sailed, Colonel French com
ing on board, and showing me great respect, I was
more taken notice of, and, with my friend Ralph, in
vited by the other gentlemen to come into the cabin,
there being now room. Accordingly, we removed
thither. Understanding that Colonel French had brought on
board the governor's dispatches, I asked the captain
for those letters that were to be under my care. He
said all were put into the bag together and he could
not then come at them ; but, before we landed in Eng
land, I should have an opportunity of picking them
out ; so I was satisfied for the present, and we proceeded
on our voyage. We had a sociable company in the
cabin, and lived uncommonly well, having the addition

56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
of all Mr. Hamilton's stores, who had laid in plenti
fully. In this passage Mr. Denham contracted a
friendship for me that continued during his life. The
voyage was otherwise not a pleasant one, as we had
a great deal of bad weather.
When we came into the Channel, the captain kept
his word with me, and gave me an opportunity of ex
amining the bag for the governor's letters. I found
none upon which my name was put as under my care.
I picked out six or seven, that, by the handwriting, I
thought might be the promised letters, especially as
one of them was directed to Basket, the king's printer,
and another to some stationer. We arrived in Lon
don the 24th of December, 1724. I waited upon the
stationer, who came first in my way, delivering the
letter as from Governor Keith. " I don't know such
a person," says he ; but, opening the letter, " Oh ! this
is from Riddlesden. I have lately found him to be a
complete rascal, and I will have nothing to do with
him, nor receive any letters from him." So, putting
the letter into my hand, he turned on his heel and left
me to serve some customer. I was surprised to find
these were not the governor's letters ; and, after rec
ollecting and comparing circumstances, I began to
doubt his sincerity. I found my friend Denham, and
opened the whole affair to him. He let me into
Keith's character; told me there was not the least
probability that he had written any letters for me ;
that no one, who knew him, had the smallest depend
ence on him ; and he laughed at the notion of the gov
ernor's giving me a letter of credit, having, as he said,
no credit to give. On my expressing some concern
about what I should do, he advised me to endeavor
getting some employment in the way of my business,

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 57
" Among the printers here," said he, " you will im
prove yourself, and when you return to America, you
will set up to greater advantage."
We both of us happened to know, as well as the
stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very
knave. He had half ruined Miss Read's father by
persuading him to be bound for him.1 By this letter
it appeared there was a secret scheme on foot to the
prejudice of Hamilton (supposed to be then coming
over with us) ; and that Keith was concerned in it
with Riddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of
Hamilton's, thought he ought to be acquainted with
it ; so, when he arrived in England, which was soon
after, partly from resentment and ill-will to Keith
and Riddlesden, and partly from good-will to him, I
waited on him, and gave him the letter. He thanked
me cordially, the information being of importance to
him ; and from that time he became my friend, greatly
to my advantage afterwards on many occasions.
But what shall we think of a governor's playing
such pitiful tricks, and imposing so grossly on a poor
ignorant boy ! It was a habit he had acquired. He
wished to please everybody ; and, having little to give,
he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious,
sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a good gov
ernor for the people, though not for his constituents,
the proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes dis
regarded. Several of our best laws were of his plan
ning and passed during his administration.
Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We
took lodgings together in Little Britain at three shil
lings and sixpence a week — as much as we could then
1 To be bound for him was to give security for the payment of a
note.

58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
afford. He found some relations, but they were poor,
and unable to assist him. He now let me know his
intentions of remaining in London, and that he never
meant to return to Philadelphia. He had brought no
money with him, the whole he could muster having
been expended in paying his passage. I had fifteen
pistoles ; so he borrowed occasionally of me to subsist,
while he was looking out for business. He first endeav
ored to get into the playhouse, believing himself quali
fied for an actor ; but Wilkes,1 to whom he applied,
advised him candidly not to think of that employment,
as it was impossible he should succeed in it. Then he
proposed to Roberts, a publisher in Paternoster Row,
to write for him a weekly paper like the Spectator,
on certain conditions, which Roberts did not approve.
Then he endeavored to get employment as a hackney
writer, to copy for the stationers and lawyers about
the Temple, but could find no vacancy.
I immediately got into work at Palmer's, then a
famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close, and
here I continued near a year. I was pretty diligent,
but spent with Ralph a good deal of my earnings in
going to plays and other places of amusement. We
had together consumed all my pistoles, and now just
rubbed on from hand to mouth. He seemed quite to
forget his wife and child, and I, by degrees, my en
gagements with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote
more than one letter, and that was to let her know I
was not likely soon to return. This was another of
the great errata of my life, which I should wish to
correct if I were to live it over again. In fact, by
our expenses, I was constantly kept unable to pay my
passage. 1 A comedian of that time.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 59
At Palmer's I was employed in composing for the
second edition of Wollaston's Religion of Nature.
Some of his reasonings not appearing to me well
founded, I wrote a little metaphysical piece in which
I made remarks on them. It was entitled A Disser
tation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.
I inscribed it to my friend Ralph ; I printed a small
number. It occasioned my being more considered by
Mr. Palmer as a young man of some ingenuity, though
he seriously expostulated with me upon the principles
of my pamphlet, which to him appeared abominable.
My printing this pamphlet was another erratum.
While I lodged in Little Britain, 1 made an acquaint
ance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was
at the next door. He had an immense collection of
second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not
then in use ; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable
terms, which I have now forgotten, I might take, read,
and return any of his books. This I esteemed a great
advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could.
My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands
of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book entitled
The Infallibility of Human Judgment, it occasioned
an acquaintance between us. He took great notice of
me, called on me often to converse on those subjects,
carried me to the Horns, a pale-ale house in  Lane,
Cheapside, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, au
thor of the Fable of the Bees who had a club there,
of which he was the soul, being a most facetious, en
tertaining companion. Lyons, too, introduced me to
Dr. Pemberton, at Batson's Coffee-house, who prom
ised to give me an opportunity, some time or other, of
seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extremely
desirous ; but this never happened.

60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
I had brought over a few curiosities, among which
the principal was a purse made of the asbestos, which
purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane 1 heard of it, came
to see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury
Square, where he showed me all his curiosities, and
persuaded me to let him add that to the number, for
which he paid me handsomely.
In our house there lodged a young woman, a mil
liner, who, I think, had a shop in the Cloisters. She
had been genteelly bred, was sensible and lively, and
of most pleasing conversation. Ralph read jplays to
her in the evenings, they grew intimate, she took an
other lodging and he followed her. They lived to
gether some time ; but he being still out of business,
and her income not sufficient to maintain them with
her child, he took a resolution of going from London,
to try for a country school, which he thought himself
well qualified to undertake, as he wrote an excellent
hand, and was a master of arithmetic and accounts.
This, however, he deemed a business below him, and
confident of future better fortune, when he should be
unwilling to have it known that he once was so meanly
employed, he changed his name, and did me the honor
to assume mine; for I soon after had a letter from
him, acquainting me that he was settled in a small vil
lage (in Berkshire, I think it was, where he taught
reading and writing to ten or a dozen boys, at sixpence
each per week), recommending Mrs. T  to my
care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for
Mr. Franklin, schoolmaster at such a place.
1 Sir Hans Sloane was an English physician who left to the nation,
when he died in 1753, his large collection of curiosities and specimens
of natural history. This gift was the foundation of the British Mu
seum.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 61
He continued to write frequently, sending me large
specimens of an epic poem which he was then compos
ing, and desiring my remarks and corrections. These
I gave him from time to time, but endeavored rather
to discourage his proceeding. One of Young's Satires
was then just published. I copied and sent him a
great part of it, which set in a strong light the folly
of pursuing the Muses with any hope of advancement
by them. All was in vain ; sheets of the poem contin
ued to come by every post. In the mean time [other
circumstances] . . . made a breach between us ; and,
when he returned again to London, he let me know
he thought I had cancelled all the obligations he had
been under to me. So I found I was never to expect
his repaying me what I lent to him, or advanced for
him. This, however, was not then of much conse
quence, as he was totally unable ; and in the loss. .of
his friendship I found myself relieved from a burden.
I now began to think of getting a little money be
forehand, and, expecting better work, I left Palmer's
to work at Watts's, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, a still
greater printing house. Here I continued all the rest
of my stay in London.
At my first admission into this printing-house I
took to working at press, imagining I felt a want of
the bodily exercise I had been used to in America,
where presswork is mixed with composing. I drank
only water ; the other workmen, near fifty in number,
were great guzzlers of beer. On occasion, I carried
up and down stairs a large form of types in each
hand, when others carried but one in both hands.
They wondered to see, from this and several instances,
that the Water-American, as they called me, was
stronger than themselves, who drank strong beer!

62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
We had an alehouse boy who attended always in the
house to supply the workmen. My companion at the
press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint
at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between
breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the
afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had
done his day's work. I thought it a detestable cus
tom ; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink
strong beer, that he might be strong to labor. I en
deavored to convince him that the bodily strength
afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the
grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of
which it was made ; that there was more flour in a
pennyworth of bread ; and therefore, if he would eat
that with a pint of water, it would give him more
strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however,
and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages
every Saturday night for that muddling liquor; an
expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils
keep themselves always under.
Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in
the composing-room, I left the pressmen ; a new bien
venu or sum for drink, being five shillings, was de
manded of me by the compositors. I thought it an
imposition, as I had paid below ; the master thought
so too, and forbade my paying it. I stood out two or
three weeks, was accordingly considered as an excom
municate, and had so many little pieces of private
mischief done me, by mixing my sorts, transposing
my pages, breaking my matter, etc., etc., if I were
ever so little out of the room, and all ascribed to the
chapel ghost, which they said ever haunted those not
regularly admitted, that, notwithstanding the master's
protection, I found niyself obliged to comply and pay

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 63
the money, convinced of the folly of being on ill terms
with those one is to live with continually.
I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon ac
quired considerable influence. I proposed some rea
sonable alterations in their chapel laws, and carried
them against all opposition. From my example, a
great part of them left their muddling breakfast of
beer, and bread, and cheese, finding they could, with
me, be supplied from a neighboring house with a large
porringer of hot water-gruel, sprinkled with pepper,
crumbed with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the
price of a pint of beer, viz., three half-pence. This
was a more comfortable as well as cheaper breakfast,
and kept their heads clearer. Those who continued
sotting with beer all day were often, by not paying,
out of credit at the alehouse, and used to make inter
est with me to get beer ; their light, as they phrased
it, being out. I watched the pay-table on Saturday
night, and collected what I stood engaged for them,
having to pay sometimes near thirty shillings a week
on their accounts. This, and my being esteemed a
pretty good riggite, that is, a jocular, verbal satirist,
supported my consequence in the society. My constant
attendance (I never making a St. Monday 2) recom
mended me to the master ; and my uncommon quick
ness at composing occasioned my being put upon all
work of dispatch, which was generally better paid.
So I went on now very agreeably.
My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I
found another in Duke Street, opposite to the Romish
chapel. It was two pair of stairs backwards, at an
1 That is, never turning Monday into a holiday, as other workmen
did, who, when paid Saturday night, squandered their earnings in
drink and were good for nothing before Tuesday.

64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house;
she had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a jour
neyman who attended the warehouse, but lodged
abroad. After sending to inquire my character at the
house where I last lodged, she agreed to take me in at
the same rate, 3s. 6d. per week ; cheaper, as she said,
from the protection she expected in having a man
lodge in the house. She was a widow, an elderly
woman ; had been bred a Protestant, being a clergy
man's daughter, but was converted to the Catholic re
ligion by her husband, whose memory she much re
vered ; had lived much among people of distinction,
and knew a thousand anecdotes of them as far back as
the times of Charles the Second. She was lame in
her knees with the gout, and, therefore, seldom stirred
out of her room, so sometimes wanted company ; and
hers was so highly amusing to me, that I was sure to
spend an evening with her whenever she desired it.
Our supper was only half an anchovy each, on a very
little strip of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale
between us ; but the entertainment was in her conver
sation. My always keeping good hours, and giving
little trouble in the family, made her unwilling to part
with me ; so that, when I talked of a lodging I had
heard of, nearer my business, for two shillings a week,
which, intent as I now was on saving money, made
some difference, she bid me not think of it, for she
would abate me two shillings a week for the future ;
so I remained with her at one shilling and sixpence as
long as I stayed in London.
In a garret of her house there lived a maiden lady
of seventy, in the most retired manner, of whom my
landlady gave me this account : that she was a Roman
Catholic, had been sent abroad when young, and

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 65
lodged in a nunnery with an intent of becoming a
nun ; but, the country not agreeing with her, she re
turned to England, where, there being no nunnery,
she had vowed to lead the life of a nun, as near as
might be done in those circumstances. Accordingly,
she had given all her estate to charitable uses, reserv
ing only twelve pounds a year to live on, and out of
this sum she still gave a great deal in charity, living
herself on water-gruel only, and using no fire but to
boil it. She had lived many years in that garret, be
ing permitted to remain there gratis by successive
Catholic tenants of the house below, as they deemed
it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her
to confess her every day. " I have asked her," says
my landlady, "how she, as she lived, could possibly
find so much employment for a confessor ? " " Oh,"
said she, " it is impossible to avoid vain thoughts." I
was permitted once to visit her. She was cheerful
and polite, and conversed pleasantly. The room was
clean, but had no other furniture than a mattress, a
table with a crucifix and book, a stool which she gave
me to sit on, and a picture over the chimney of Saint
Veronica displaying her handkerchief, with the mirac-
tJous figure of Christ's bleeding face on it, which she
explained to me with great seriousness. She looked
pale, but was never sick ; and I give it as another in
stance on how small an income life and health may be
supported. At Watts's printing-house I contracted an acquaint
ance with an ingenious young man, one Wygate, who,
having wealthy relations, had been better educated
than most printers ; was a tolerable Latinist, spoke
French, and loved reading. I taught him and a friend
of his to swim at twice going into the river, and they

66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
soon became good swimmers. They introduced me to
some gentlemen from the country, who went to Chel
sea by water to see the College and Don Saltero's cu
riosities. In our return, at the request of the com
pany, whose curiosity Wygate had excited, I stripped
and leaped into the river, and swam from near Chel
sea to Blackfriar's, performing on the way many feats
of activity, both upon and under water, that surprised
and pleased those to whom they were novelties.
I had from a child been ever delighted with this
exercise, had studied and practised all Thevenot's
motions and positions, added some of my own, aiming
at the graceful and easy as well as the useful. All
these I took this occasion of exhibiting to the com
pany, and was much flattered by their admiration ;
and Wygate, who was desirous of becoming a master,
grew more and more attached to me on that account,
as well as from the similarity of our studies. He at
length proposed to me travelling all over Europe to
gether, supporting ourselves everywhere by working
at our business. I was once inclined to it ; but, men
tioning it to my good friend Mr. Denham, with whom
I often spent an hour when I had leisure, he dissuaded
me from it, advising me to think only of returning to
Pennsylvania, which he was now about to do.
I must record one trait of this good man's charac
ter. He had formerly been in business at Bristol, but
failed in debt to a number of people, compounded and
went to America. There, by a close application to
business as a merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune
in a few years. Returning to England in the ship
with me, he invited his old creditors to an entertain
ment, at which he thanked them for the easy compo-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 67
sition they had favored him with, and, when they ex
pected nothing but the treat, every man at the first
remove found under his plate an order on a banker
for the full amount of the unpaid remainder with in
terest. He now told me he was about to return to Philadel
phia, and should carry over a great quantity of goods
in order to open a store there. He proposed to take
me over as his clerk, to keep his books, in which he
would instruct me, copy his letters, and attend the
store. He added that, as soon as I should be ac
quainted with mercantile business, he would promote
me by sending me with a cargo of flour and bread,
etc., to the West Indies, and procure me commissions
from others which would be profitable ; and if I man
aged well, would establish me handsomely. The thing
pleased me; for I was grown tired of London, re
membered with pleasure the happy months I had
spent in Pennsylvania, and wished again to see it;
therefore I immediately agreed on the terms of fifty
pounds a year, Pennsylvania money ; less, indeed, than
my present gettings as a compositor, but affording a
better prospect.
I now took leave of printing, as I thought, forever,
and was daily employed in my new business, going
about with Mr. Denham among the tradesmen to pur
chase various articles, and seeing them packed up,
doing errands, calling upon workmen to dispatch,
etc. ; and when all was on board, I had a few days'
leisure. On one of these days, I was, to my surprise,
sent for by a great man I knew only by name, a Sir
William Wyndham, and I waited upon him. He had
heard by some means or other of my swimming from

68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Chelsea to Blackfriar's, and of my teaching Wygate
and another young man to swim in a few hours. He
had two sons, about to set out on their travels; he
wished to have them first taught swimming, and pro
posed to gratify me handsomely if I would teach them.
They were not yet come to town, and my stay was un
certain, so I could not undertake it ; but from this in
cident, I thought it likely that, if I were to remain in
England and open a swimming-school, I might get a
good deal of money; and it struck me so strongly
that, had the overture been sooner made me, probably
I should not so soon have returned to America. After
many years, you and I had something of more impor
tance to do with one of these sons of Sir William
Wyndham, become Earl of Egremont, which I shall
mention in its place.
Thus I spent about eighteen months in London ;
most part of the time I worked hard at my business,
and spent but little upon myself except in seeing plays
and in books. My friend Ralph had kept me poor ;
he owed me about twenty-seven pounds, which I was
now never likely to receive ; a great sum out of my
small earnings ! I loved him, notwithstanding, for he
had many amiable qualities. I had by no means im
proved my fortune ; but I had picked up some very
ingenious acquaintances, whose conversation was of
great advantage to me ; and I had read considerably.
We sailed from Gravesend on the 23d of July,
1726. For the incidents of the voyage, I refer you
to my Journal, where you will find them all minutely
related. Perhaps the most important part of that
journal is the plan l to be found in it which I formed
1 This plan was not found in the manuscript journal.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 69
at sea, for regulating my future conduct in life. It is
the more remarkable, as being formed when I was so
young, and yet being pretty faithfully adhered to quite
through to old age.

70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

IV.
RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA.
We landed in Philadelphia on the 11th of October,
where I found sundry alterations. Keith was no
longer governor, being superseded by Major Gordon.
I met him walking the streets as a common citizen.
He seemed a little ashamed at seeing me, but passed
without saying anything. I should have been as much
ashamed at seeing Miss Read, had not her friends,
despairing with reason of my return after the receipt
of my letter, persuaded her to marry another, one
Rogers, a potter, which was done in my absence. With
him, however, she was never happy, and soon parted
from him, refusing to cohabit with him or bear his
name, it now being said that he had another wife. He
was a worthless fellow, though an excellent workman,
which was the temptation to her friends. He got into
debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went to the West In
dies, and died there. Keimer had got a better house,
a shop well supplied with stationery, plenty of new
types, a number of hands, though none good, and
seemed to have a great deal of business.
Mr. Denham took a store in Water Street, where
we opened our goods ; I attended the business dili
gently, studied accounts, and grew, in a little time,
expert at selling. We lodged and boarded together ;
he counselled me as a father, having a sincere regard
for me. I respected and loved him, aud we might

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 71
have gone on together very happy ; but in the begin
ning of February, 172f, when I had just passed my
twenty-first year, we both were taken ill. My distem
per was a pleurisy, which very nearly carried me off.
I suffered a good deal, gave up the point in my own
mind, and was rather disappointed when I found my
self recovering, regretting, in some degree, that I must
now, some time or other, have all that disagreeable
work to do over again. I forget what his distemper
was ; it held him a long time, and at length carried
him off. He left me a small legacy in a nuncupative
will as a token of his kindness for me, and he left me
once more to the wide world ; for the store was taken
into the care of his executors, and my employment
under him ended.
My brother-in-law, Holmes, being now at Philadel
phia, advised my return to my business ; and Keimer
tempted me, with an offer of large wages by the year,
to come and take the management of his printing-
house, that he might better attend his stationer's shop.
I had heard a bad character of him in London from his
wife and her friends, and was not fond of having any
more to do with him. I tried for further employment
as a merchant's clerk ; but not readily meeting with
any, I closed again with Keimer. I found in his house
these hands : Hugh Meredith, a Welsh Pennsylvanian,
thirty years of age, bred to country work ; honest, sen
sible, had a great deal of solid observation, was some
thing of a reader, but given to drink. Stephen Potts,
a young countryman of full age, bred to the same, of
uncommon natural parts, and great wit and humor, but
a little idle. These he had agreed with at extreme
low wages per week, to be raised a shilling every three
months, as they would deserve by improving in their

72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
business ; and the expectation of these high wages, to
come on hereafter, was what he had drawn them in
with. Meredith was to work at press, Potts at book
binding, which he, by agreement, was to teach them,
though he knew neither one nor the other. John  ,
a wild Irishman, brought up to no business, whose
service, for four years, Keimer had purchased from
the captain of a ship ; he, too, was to be made a press
man. George Webb, an Oxford scholar, whose time
for four years he had likewise bought,1 intending him
for a compositor, of whom more presently ; and David
Harry, a country boy, whom he had taken apprentice.
I soon perceived that the intention of engaging me
at wages so much higher than he had been used to
give was to have these raw, cheap hands formed
through me ; and as soon as I had instructed them,
then they being all articled to him, he should be able
to do without me. I went on, however, very cheer
fully, put his printing-house in order, which had been
in great confusion, and brought his hands by degrees
to mind their business and to do it better.
It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in
the situation of a bought servant. He was not more
than eighteen years of age, and gave me this account
of himself ; that he was born in Gloucester, educated
at a grammar-school there, had been distinguished
among the scholars for some apparent superiority in
performing his part, when they exhibited plays ; be
longed to the Witty Club there, and had written some
pieces in prose and verse, which were printed in the
Gloucester newspapers ; thence he was sent to Oxford ;
where he continued about a year, but not well satis-
1 Persons coming penniless from Europe sold themselves for a terra
of years to pay the expense of their voyage and their keeping.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 73
fied, wishing of all things to see London, and become
a player. At length receiving his quarterly allowance
of fifteen guineas, instead of discharging his debts he
walked out of town, hid his gown in a furze bush, and
footed it to London, where, having no friend to advise
him, he fell into bad company, soon spent his guineas,
found no means of being introduced among the play
ers, grew necessitous, pawned his clothes, and wanted
bread. Walking the street very hungry, and not
knowing what to do with himself, a crimp's bill was
put into his hand, offering immediate entertainment
and encouragement to such as would bind themselves
to serve in America. He went directly, signed the
indentures,- was put into the ship, and came over,
never writing a line to acquaint his friends what was
become of him. He was lively, witty, good-natured,
and a pleasant companion, but idle, thoughtless, and
imprudent to the last degree.
John, the Irishman, soon ran away ; with the rest
I began to live very agreeably, for they all respected
me the more, as they found Keimer incapable of in
structing them, and that from me they learned some
thing daily. We never worked on Saturday, that be
ing Keimer's Sabbath, so I had two days for reading.
My acquaintance with ingenious people in the town
increased. Keimer himself treated me with great ci
vility and apparent regard, and nothing now made me
uneasy but my debt to Vernon, which I was yet unable
to pay, being hitherto but a poor economist. He, how
ever, kindly made no demand of it.
Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and there
was no letter-founder in America ; I had seen types
cast at James's in London, but without much atten
tion to the manner ; however, I now contrived a mould,

74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
made use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck
the matrices in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tol
erable way all deficiencies. I also engraved several
things on occasion ; I made the ink ; I was ware
houseman, and everything, and, in short, quite a fac
totum. But, however serviceable I might be, I found that
my services became every day of less importance, as
the other hands improved in the business ; and when
Keimer paid my second quarter's wages, he let me
know that he felt them too heavy, and thought- I
should make an abatement. He grew by degrees less
civil, put on more of the master, frequently found
fault, was captious, and seemed ready for an outbreak
ing. I went on, nevertheless, with a good deal of pa
tience, thinking that his incumbered circumstances
were partly the cause. At length a trifle snapped our
connections ; for, a great noise happening near the
court-house, I put my head out of the window to see
what was the matter. Keimer, being in the street,
looked up and saw me, called out to me in a loud voice
and angry tone to mind my business, adding some re
proachful words, that nettled me the more for their
publicity, all the neighbors who were looking out on
the same occasion being witnesses how I was treated.
He came up immediately into the printing-house, con
tinued the quarrel, high words passed on both sides,
he gave me the quarter's warning we had stipulated,
expressing a wish that he had not been obliged to so
long a warning. I told him his wish was unnecessary,
for I would leave him that instant ; and so, taking my
hat, walked out of doors, desiring Meredith, whom I
saw below, to take care of some things I left, and
bring them to my lodgings.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 75
Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when we
talked my affair over. He had conceived a great re
gard for me, and was very unwilling that I should
leave the house while he remained in it. He dissuaded
me from returning to my native country, which I be
gan to think of ; he reminded me that Keimer was in
debt for all he possessed ; that his creditors began to
be uneasy ; that he kept his shop miserably, sold often
without profit for ready money, and often trusted
without keeping accounts ; that he must therefore fail,
which would make a vacancy I might profit of. I ob
jected my want of money. He then let me know that
his father had a high opinion of me, and from some
discourse that had passed between them, he was sure
would advance money to set us up, if I would enter
into partnership with him. "My time," says he, "will
be out with Keimer in the spring ; by that time we
may have our press and types in from London. I am
sensible I am no workman ; if you like it, your skill
in the business shall be set against the stock I furnish,
and we will share the profits equally."
The proposal was agreeable, and I consented his
father was in town and approved of it ; the more as
he saw I had great influence with his son, had pre
vailed on him to abstain long from dram-drinking,
and he hoped might break him of that wretched habit
entirely, when we came to be so closely connected. I
gave an inventory to the father, who carried it to a
merchant ; the things were sent for, the secret was to
be kept till they should arrive, and in the mean time I
was to get work, if I could, at the other printing-
house. But I found no vacancy there, and so remained
idle a few days, when Keimer, on a prospect of being
employed to print some paper money in New Jersey,

76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
which would require cuts and various types that I only
could supply, and apprehending Bradford might en
gage me and get the job from him, sent me a very
civil message, that old friends should not part for a
few words, the effect of sudden passion, and wishing
me to return. Meredith persuaded me to comply, as
it would give more opportunity for his improvement
under my daily instructions; so I returned, and we
went on more smoothly than for some time before.
The New Jersey job was obtained, I contrived a cop
per-plate press for it, the first that had been seen in
the country; I cut several ornaments and checks for
the bills. We went together to Burlington, where I
executed the whole to satisfaction ; and he received so
large a sum for the work as to be enabled thereby to .
keep his head much longer above water.
At Burlington I made an acquaintance with many
principal people of the province. Several of them
had been appointed by the Assembly a committee to
attend the press, and take care that no more bills were
printed than the law directed. They were, therefore,
by turns, constantly with us, and generally he who at
tended brought with him a friend or two for company.
My mind having been much more improved by read
ing than Keimer's, I suppose it was for that reason
my conversation seemed to be more valued. They had
me to their houses, introduced me to their friends, and
showed me much civility ; while he, though the mas
ter, was a little neglected. In truth, he was an odd
fish ; ignorant of common life, fond of rudely oppos
ing received opinions, slovenly to extreme dirtiness,
enthusiastic in some points of religion, and a little
knavish withal.
We continued there near three months; and by

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 77
that time I could reckon among my acquired friends,
Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the secretary of the
province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper, and several
of the Smiths, members of Assembly, and Isaac De-
cow, the surveyor-general. The latter was a shrewd,
sagacious old man, who told me that he began for
himself, when young, by wheeling clay for the brick-
makers, learned to write after he was of age, carried
the chain for surveyors, who taught him surveying,
and he had now by his industry acquired a good es
tate ; and says he, " I foresee that you will soon work
this man out of his business, and make a fortune in it
at Philadelphia." He had not then the least intima
tion of my intention to set up there or anywhere.
These friends were afterwards of great use to me, as I
occasionally was to some of them. They all continued
their regard for me as long as they lived.
Before I enter upon my public appearance in busi
ness, it may be well to let you know the then state of
my mind with regard to my principles and morals,
that you may see how far those influenced the future
events of my life. My parents had early given me
religious impressions, and brought me through my
childhood piously in the Dissenting way. But I was
scarce fifteen when, after doubting by turns of several
points, as I found them disputed in the different books
I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some
books against Deism fell into my hands; they were
said to be the substance of sermons preached at
Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an
effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by
them ; for the arguments of the Deists, which were
quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger
than the refutations ; in short, I soon became a thor-

78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ough Deist. My arguments perverted some others,
particularly Collins and Ralph; but each of them
having afterwards wronged me greatly without the
least compunction, and recollecting Keith's conduct
towards me (who was another freethinker), and my
own towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times
gave me great trouble, I began to suspect that this
doctrine, though it might be true, was not very useful.
My London pamphlet, which had for its motto these
lines of Dryden : —
" Whatever is, is right. Though purblind man
Sees but a part o' the chain, the nearest link :
His eyes not carrying to the equal beam,
That poises all above ; ' '
and from the attributes of God, his infinite wisdom,
goodness, and power, concluded that nothing could
possibly be wrong in the world, and that vice and vir
tue were empty distinctions, no such things existing,
appeared now not so clever a performance as I once
thought it ; and I doubted whether some error had not
insinuated itself unperceived into my argument, so as
to infect all that followed, as is common in metaphys
ical reasonings.
I grew convinced that truth, sincerity, and integrity
in dealings between man and man were of the utmost
importance to the felicity of life ; and I formed writ
ten resolutions, which still remain in my journal book,
to practise them ever while I lived. Revelation had
indeed no weight with me, as such ; but I entertained
an opinion that, though certain actions might not be
bad because they were forbidden by it, or good because
it commanded them, yet probably those actions might
be forbidden because they were bad for us, or com
manded because they were beneficial to us, in their

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 79
own natures, all the circumstances of things consid
ered. And this persuasion, with the kind hand of
Providence, or some guardian angel, or accidental fa
vorable circumstances and situations, or all together,
preserved me, through this dangerous time of youth,
and the hazardous situations I was sometimes in
among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of
my father, without any wilful gross immorality or in
justice, that might have been expected from my want
of religion. I say wilful, because the instances I have
mentioned had something of necessity in them, from
my youth, inexperience, and the knavery of others. I
had, therefore, a tolerable character to begin the world
with; I valued it properly, and determined to pre
serve it.
We had not been long returned to Philadelphia be
fore the new types arrived from London. We settled
with Keimer, and left him by his consent before he
heard of it. We found a house to hire near the mar
ket, and took it. To lessen the rent, which was then
but twenty-four pounds a year, though I have since
known it to let for seventy, we took in Thomas God
frey, a glazier, and his family, who were to pay a con
siderable part of it to us, and we to board with them.
We had scarce opened our letters and put our press
in order, before George House, an acquaintance of
mine, brought a countryman to us, whom he had met
in the street inquiring for a printer. All our cash
was now expended in the variety of particulars we had
been obliged to procure, and this countryman's five
shillings, being our first-fruits, and coming so season
ably, gave me more pleasure than any crown I have
since earned ; and the gratitude I felt toward House
has made me often more ready than perhaps I should
otherwise have been to assist young beginners.

80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
There are croakers in every country, always boding
its ruin. Such a one then lived in Philadelphia; a
person of note, an elderly man, with a wise look and
a very grave manner of speaking ; his name was Sam
uel Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopped
one day at my door, and asked me if I was the young
man who had lately opened a new printing-house.
Being answered in the affirmative, he said he was
sorry for me, because it was an expensive undertak
ing, and the expense would be lost ; for Philadelphia
was a sinking place, the people already half bank
rupts, or near being so ; all appearances to the con
trary, such as new buildings and the rise of rents, be
ing to his certain knowledge fallacious ; for they were,
in fact, among the things that would soon ruin us.
And he gave me such a detail of misfortunes now ex
isting, or that were soon to exist, that he left me half
melancholy. Had I known him before I engaged in
this business, probably I never should have done it.
This man continued to live in this decaying place, and
to declaim in the same strain, refusing for many years
to buy a house there, because all was going to destruc
tion ; and at last I had the pleasure of seeing him give
five times as much for one as he might have bought it
for when he first began his croaking.
I should have mentioned before that, in the autumn
of the preceding year, I had formed most of my inge
nious acquaintance into a club of mutual improve
ment, which we called the Junto ; we met on Friday
evenings. The rules that I drew up required that
every member, in his turn, should produce one or
more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Nat
ural Philosophy, to be discussed by the company ; and
once in three months produce and read an essay of his

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 81
own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates
were to be under the direction of a president, and to
be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after
truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of vic
tory; and to prevent warmth, all expressions of posi-
tiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after
some time made contraband, and prohibited under
small pecuniary penalties.
The first members were Joseph Breintnal, a copier
of deeds for the scriveners, a good-natured, friendly,
middle-aged man, a great lover of poetry, reading all
he could meet with, and writing some that was toler
able; very ingenious in many little knicknackeries, and
of sensible conversation.
Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, great
in his way, and afterward inventor of what is now
called Hadley's Quadrant. But he knew little out of
his way, and was not a pleasing companion ; as, like
most great mathematicians I have met with, he ex
pected universal precision in everything said, or was
forever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the
disturbance of all conversation. He soon left us.
Nicholas Scull, a surveyor, afterward surveyor-gen
eral, who loved books, and sometimes made a few
verses. William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but, loving
reading, had acquired a considerable share of mathe
matics, which he first studied with a view to astrology,
and afterwards laughed at it. He also became sur
veyor-general. William Maugridge, a joiner, a most exquisite me
chanic, and a solid, sensible man.
Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb
I have characterized before.

82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Robert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune,
generous, lively, and witty ; a lover of punning and of
his friends.
And William Coleman, then a merchant's clerk,
about my age, who had the coolest, clearest head, the
best heart, and the exactest morals of almost any man
I ever met with. He became afterwards a merchant
of great note, and one of our provincial judges. Our
friendship continued without interruption to his death,
upward of forty years ; and the club continued almost
as long, and was the best school of philosophy, moral
ity, and politics that then existed in the province ; for,
our queries, which were read the week preceding their
discussion, put us upon reading with attention upon
the several subjects, that we might speak more to the
purpose ; and here, too, we acquired better habits of
conversation, everything being studied in our rules
which might prevent our disgusting each other. From
hence the long continuance of the club, which I shall
have frequent occasion to speak further of hereafter.
But my giving this account of it here is to show
something of the interest I had, everyone of these ex
erting themselves in recommending business to us.
Breintnal particularly procured us from the Quakers
the printing of forty sheets of their history, the rest
being done by Keimer ; and upon this we worked
exceedingly hard, for the price was low. It was a
folio, pro patria size, in pica, with long primer notes.
I composed of it a sheet a day, and Meredith worked
it off at press ; it was often eleven at night, and some
times later, before I had finished my distribution for
the next day's work, for the little jobs sent in by our
other friends now and then put us back. But so de
termined I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 83
folio, that one night, when, having imposed my forms,
I thought my day's work over, one of them by acci
dent was broken, and two pages reduced to pi, I im
mediately distributed and composed it over again be
fore I went to bed ; and this industry, visible to our
neighbors, began to give us character and credit ; par
ticularly, I was told, that mention being made of the
new printing-office at the merchants' E very-night club,
the general opinion was that it must fail, there being
already two printers in the place, Keimer and Brad
ford ; but Dr. Baird (whom you and I saw many years
after at his native place, St. Andrew's in Scotland)
gave a contrary opinion : " For the industry of that
Franklin," says he, " is superior to anything I ever
saw of the kind ; I see him still at work when I go
home from club, and he is at work again before his
neighbors are out of bed." This struck the rest, and
we soon after had offers from one of them to supply
us with stationery ; but as yet we did not choose to en
gage in shop business.
I mention this industry the more particularly and
the more freely, though it seems to be talking in my
own praise, that those of my posterity who shall read
it may know the use of that virtue, when they see its
effects in my favor throughout this relation.
George Webb, who had found a female friend that
lent him wherewith to purchase his time of Keimer,
now came to offer himself as a journeyman to us. We
could not then employ him ; but I foolishly let him
know as a secret that I soon intended to begin a news
paper, and might then have work for him. My hopes
of success, as I told him, were founded on this, that
the then only newspaper, printed by Bradford, was a
paltry thing, wretchedly managed, no way entertain-

84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ing, and yet was profitable to him ; I therefore thought
a good paper would scarcely fail of good encourage
ment. I requested Webb not to mention it ; but he
told it to Keimer, who immediately, to be beforehand
with me, published proposals for printing one himself,
on which Webb was to be employed. I resented this ;
and to counteract them, as I could not yet begin our
paper, I wrote several pieces of entertainment for
Bradford's paper, under the title of the Bust Body,
which Breintnal continued some months. By this
means the attention of the public was fixed . on that
paper, and Keimer's proposals, which we burlesqued
and ridiculed, were disregarded. He began his paper,
however, and, after carrying it on three quarters of a
year, with at most only ninety subscribers, he offered
it to me for a trifle ; and I, having been ready some
time to go on with it, took it in hand directly; and it
proved in a few years extremely profitable to me.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 85

V.
IN BUSINESS FOR HIMSELF.
I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular
number, though our partnership still continued; the
reason may be that, in fact, the whole management of
the business lay upon me. Meredith was no compos
itor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober. My friends
lamented my connection with him, but I was to make
the best of it.
Our first papers made a quite different appearance
from any before in the province ; a better type, and
better printed ; but some spirited remarks of my writ
ing, on the dispute then going on between Governor
Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly,1 struck the
principal people, occasioned the paper and the man
ager of it to be much talked of, and in a few weeks
brought them all to be our subscribers.
Their example was followed by many, and our num
ber went on growing continually. This was one of
the first good effects of my having learned a little to
scribble ; another was, that the leading men, seeing a
newspaper now in the hands of one who could also
1 Under instructions from the king, Burnet insisted upon the pay
ment by the Massachusetts General Court of a fixed salary. The
General Court refused to pay a salary, but were ready to make a
present, larger than the salary demanded. This was one of the dis
putes which divided the people and the king and led finally to the
War for Independence. The people looked upon the salary as a tax
forced upon them.

86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
handle a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and en
courage me. Bradford still printed the votes, and
laws, and other public business. He had printed an
address of the House to the governor in a coarse,
blundering manner ; we reprinted it elegantly and cor
rectly, and sent one to every member. They were sen
sible of the difference : it strengthened the hands of
our friends in the House, and they voted us their print
ers for the year ensuing.
Among my friends in the House I must not forget
Mr. Hamilton, before mentioned, who was then re
turned from England, and had a seat in it. He inter
ested himself for me strongly in that instance, as he
did in many others afterward, continuing his patron
age till his death.
Mr. Vernon, about this time, put me in mind of the
debt I owed him, but did not press me. I wrote him
an ingenuous letter of acknowledgment, craved his
forbearance a little longer, which he allowed me, and
as soon as I was able, I paid the principal with inter
est, and many thanks ; so that erratum was in some
degree corrected.
But now another difficulty came upon me which I
had never the least reason to expect. Mr. Meredith's
father, who was to have paid for our printing-house,
according to the expectations given me, was able to
advance only one hundred pounds currency, which had
been paid ; and a hundred more was due to the mer
chant, who grew impatient, and sued us all. We
gave bail, but saw that, if the money could not be
raised in time, the suit must soon come to a judgment
and execution, and our hopeful prospects must, with
us, be ruined, as the press and letters must be sold for
payment, perhaps at half price.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 87
In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I
have never forgotten, nor ever shall forget while I can
remember anything, came to me separately, unknown
to each other, and, without any application from me,
offering each of them to advance me all the money
that should be necessary to enable me to take the
whole business upon myself, if that should be practi
cable ; but they did not like my continuing the part
nership with Meredith, who, as they said, was often
seen drunk in the streets, and playing at low games
in ale-houses, much to our discredit. These two
friends were William Coleman and Robert Grace. I
told them I could not propose a separation while any
prospect remained of the Merediths' fulfilling their
part of our agreement, because I thought myself under
great obligations to them for what they had done, and
would do if they could ; but, if they finally failed in
their performance, and our partnership must be dis
solved, I should then think myself at liberty to accept
the assistance of my friends.
Thus the matter rested for some time, when I said
to my partner, " Perhaps your father is dissatisfied at
the part you have undertaken in this affair of ours,
and is unwilling to advance for you and me what he
would for you alone. If that is the case, tell me, and
I will resign the whole to you, and go about my busi
ness." " No," said he, " my father has really been
disappointed, and is really unable ; and I am unwill
ing to distress him further. I see this is a business I
am not fit for. I was bred a farmer, and it was a
folly in me to come to town, and put myself, at thirty
years of age, an apprentice to learn a new trade.
Many of our Welsh people are going to settle in North
Carolina, where land is cheap. I am inclined to go

88 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
with them, and follow my old employment. You may
find friends to assist you. If you will take the debts of
the company upon you, return to my father the hun
dred pounds he has advanced, pay my little personal
debts, and give me thirty pounds and a new saddle, I
will relinquish the partnership, and leave the whole in
your hands." I agreed to this proposal ; it was drawn
up in writing, signed, and sealed immediately. I
gave him what he demanded, and he went soon after
to Carolina, from whence he sent me next year two
long letters, containing the best account that had been
given of that country, the climate, the soil, husbandry,
etc., for in those matters he was very judicious. I
printed them in the papers, and they gave great satis
faction to the public.
As soon as he was gone, I recurred to my two
friends; and because I would not give an unkind
preference to either, I took half of what each had of
fered and I wanted of one, and half of the other ; paid
off the company's debts, and went on with the busi
ness in my own name, advertising that the partnership
was dissolved. I think this was in or about the year
1729. About this time there was a cry among the people
for more paper money, only fifteen thousand pounds
being extant in the province, and that soon to be
sunk. The wealthy inhabitants opposed any addition,
being against all paper currency, from an apprehen
sion that it would depreciate, as it had done in New
England, to the prejudice of all creditors. We had
discussed this point in our Junto, where I was on the
side of an addition, being persuaded that the first
small sum struck in 1723 had done much good by in
creasing the trade, employment, and number of inhab.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 89
itants in the province, since I now saw all the old
houses inhabited, and many new ones building ;
whereas I remembered well that when I first walked
about the streets of Philadelphia, eating my roll, I
saw most of the houses in Walnut Street, between
Second and Front streets, with bills on their doors,
" To be let ; " and many likewise in Chestnut Street
and other streets, which made me then think the in
habitants of the city were deserting it one after
another. Our debates possessed me so fully of the subject
that I wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet on
it, entitled The Nature and Necessity of a Paper
Currency. It was well received by the common
people in general ; but the rich men disliked it, for it
increased and strengthened the clamor for more
money, and they happening to have no writers among
them that were able to answer it, their opposition
slackened, and the point was carried by a majority in
the House. My friends there, who conceived I had
been of some service, thought fit to reward me by em
ploying me in printing the money ; a very profitable
job and a great help to me. This was another advan
tage gained by my being able to write.
The utility of this currency became by time and ex
perience so evident as never afterwards to be much
disputed ; so that it grew soon to fifty-five thousand
pounds, and in 1739 to eighty thousand pounds, since
which it arose during war to upwards of three hun
dred and fifty thousand pounds, trade, building, and
inhabitants all the while increasing, though I now
think there are limits beyond which the quantity may
be hurtful.
I soon after obtained, through my friend Hamilton,

90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
the printing of the Newcastle paper money, another
profitable job as I then thought it ; small things ap
pearing great to those in small circumstances ; and
these, to me, were really great advantages, as they
were great encouragements. He procured for me,
also, the printing of the laws and votes of that gov
ernment, which continued in my hands as long as I
followed the business.
I now opened a little stationer's shop. I had in it
blanks of all sorts, the correctest that ever appeared
among us, being assisted in that by my friend Breint
nal. I had also paper, parchment, chapmen's books,
etc. One Whitemash, a compositor I had known in
London, an excellent workman, now came to me, and
worked with me constantly and diligently; and I took
an apprentice, the son of Aquila Rose.
I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was
under for the printing-house. In order to secure my
credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not
only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to
avoid all appearances to the contrary. I dressed
plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion. I
never went out a fishing or shooting ; a book, indeed,
sometimes debauched me from my work, but that was
seldom, snug, and gave no scandal ; and, to show that
I was not above my business, I sometimes brought
home the paper I purchased at the stores through the
streets on a wheelbarrow. Thus being esteemed an
industrious, thriving young man, and paying duly for
what I bought, the merchants who imported station
ery solicited my custom ; others proposed supplying
me with books, and I went on swimmingly. In the
mean time, Keimer's credit and business declining
daily, he was at last forced to sell his printing-house

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 91
to satisfy his creditors. He went to Barbadoes, and
there lived some years in very poor circumstances.
His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had instructed
while I worked with him, set up in his place at Phila
delphia, having bought his materials. I was at first
apprehensive of a powerful rival in Harry, as his
friends were very able, and had a good deal of inter
est. I therefore proposed a partnership to him, which
he, fortunately for me, rejected with scorn. He was
very proud, dressed like a gentleman, lived expen
sively, took much diversion and pleasure abroad, ran
in debt, and neglected his business : upon which, all
business left him ; and finding nothing to do, he fol
lowed Keimer to Barbadoes, taking the printing-house
with him. There this apprentice employed his former
master as a journeyman ; they quarreled often ; Harry
went continually behindhand, and at length was forced
to sell his types and return to his country work in
Pennsylvania. The person that bought them em
ployed Keimer to use them, but in a few years he
died. There remained now no competitor with me at Phil
adelphia but the old one, Bradford ; who was rich and
easy, did a little printing now and then by straggling
hands, but was not very anxious about the business.
However, as he kept the post-office, it was imagined
he had better opportunities of obtaining news; his
paper was thought a better distributer of advertise
ments than mine, and therefore had many more, which
was a profitable thing to him, and a disadvantage to
me ; for, though I did indeed receive and send papers
by the post, yet the public opinion was otherwise, for
what I did send was by bribing the riders, who took
them privately, Bradford being unkind enough to for-

92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
bid it, which occasioned some resentment on my part ;
and I thought so meanly of him for it that, when I
afterward came into his situation, I took care never to
imitate it.
I had hitherto continued to board with Godfrey,
who lived in part of my house with his wife and chil
dren, and had one side of the shop for his glazier's
business, though he worked little, being always ab
sorbed in his mathematics. Mrs. Godfrey projected a
match for me with a relation's daughter, took oppor
tunities of bringing us often together, till a serious
courtship on my part ensued, the girl being in herself
very deserving. The old folks encouraged me by con
tinual invitations to supper, and by leaving us to
gether, till at length it was time to explain. Mrs.
Godfrey managed our little treaty. I let her know
that I expected as much money with their daughter as
would pay off my remaining debt for the printing-
house, which I believe was not then above a hundred
pounds. She brought me word they had no such sum
to spare ; I said they might mortgage their house in
the loan-office. The answer to this, after some days,
was, that they did not approve the match ; that, on
inquiry of Bradford, they had been informed the print
ing business was not a profitable one ; the types would
soon be worn out, and more wanted ; that S. Keimer
and D. Harry had failed one after the other, and I
should probably soon follow them ; and, therefore, I
was forbidden the house, and the daughter shut up.
Whether this was a real change of sentiment or
only artifice, on a supposition of our being too far en
gaged in affection to retract, and therefore that we
should steal a marriage, which would leave them at
liberty to give or withhold what they pleased, I know

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 93
not ; but I suspected the latter, resented it, and went
no more. Mrs. Godfrey brought me afterward some
more favorable accounts of their disposition, and
would have drawn me on again ; but I declared abso
lutely my resolution to have nothing more to do with
that family. This was resented by the Godfreys ; we
differed, and they removed, leaving me the whole
house, and I resolved to take no more inmates.
But this affair having turned my thoughts to mar
riage, I looked round me and made overtures of ac
quaintance 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 agree
able. ... A friendly correspondence as neighbors
and old acquaintances had continued between me and
Mrs. Read's family, who all had a regard for me from
the time of my first lodging in their house. I was
often invited there and consulted in their affairs,
wherein I sometimes was of service. I pitied poor
Miss Read's unfortunate situation, who was generally
dejected, seldom cheerful, and avoided company. I
considered my giddiness and inconstancy when in
London as in a great degree the cause of her unhappi-
ness, though the mother was good enough to think the
fault more her own than mine, as she had prevented
our marrying before I went thither, and persuaded the
other match in my absence. Our mutual affection was
revived, but there were now great objections to our
union. The match a was indeed looked upon as invalid,
a preceding wife being said to be living in England ;
but this could not easily be proved, because of the dis-
1 That is, the match between Miss Bead and Rogers. See page 70,
ante.

94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
tance ; and though there was a report of his death, it
was not certain. Then, though it should be true, he
had left many debts, which his successor might be
called upon to pay. We ventured, however, over all
these difficulties, and I took her to wife, September 1,
1730. None of the inconveniences happened that we
had apprehended ; she proved a good and faithful
helpmate, assisted me much by attending the shop;
we throve together, and have ever mutually endeav
ored to make each other happy. Thus I corrected
that great erratum as well as I could.1
About this time, our club meeting, not at a tavern,
but in a little room of Mr. Grace's, set apart for that
purpose, a proposition was made by me that, since
our books were often referred to in our disquisitions
upon the queries, it might be convenient to us to have
them all together where we met, that upon occasion
they might be consulted ; and by thus clubbing our
books to a common library, we should, while we liked
to keep them together, have each of us the advantage
of using the books of all the other members, which
would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the
whole. It was liked and agreed to, and we filled one
end of the room with such books as we could best
spare. The number was not so great as we expected ;
and though they had been of great use, yet some in
conveniences occurring for want of due care of them,
the collection, after about a year, was separated, and
each took his books home again.
And now I set on foot my first project of a public
nature, that for a subscription library. I drew up the
proposals, got them put into form by our great scriv
ener, Brockden, and by the help of my friends in the
1 Mrs. Franklin died December 19, 1774.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 95
Junto, procured fifty subscribers of forty shillings
each to begin with, and ten shillings a year for fifty
years, the term our company was to continue. We
afterwards obtained a charter, the company being in
creased to one hundred ; this was the mother of all the
North American subscription libraries, now so numer
ous. It is become a great thing itself, and continu
ally increasing. These libraries have improved the
general conversation of the Americans, made the com
mon tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most
gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have
contributed in some degree to the stand so generally
made throughout the colonies in defence of their priv
ileges.1 At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania,
there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the
colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York
and Philadelphia the printers were indeed stationers ;
they sold only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a
few common school books. Those who loved reading
were obliged to send for their books from England ;
the members of the Junto had each a few. We had
left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired a room
to hold our club in. I proposed that we should all of
us bring our books to that room, where they would
not only be ready to consult in our conferences, but
become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty
to borrow such as he wished to read at home. This
was accordingly done, and for some time contented us.
1 Thns far Franklin wrote in 1771 when in England. He took up
the pen again in France, thirteen years later, and wrote what follows,
but not having a copy of what he had already written he repeated
himself a little in the opening paragraphs.

96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Finding the advantage of this little collection, I
proposed to render the benefit from books more com
mon, by commencing a public subscription library. I
drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be
necessary, and got a skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles
Brockden, to put the whole in form of articles of
agreement to be subscribed, by which each subscriber
engaged to pay a certain sum down for the first pur
chase of books, and an annual contribution for in
creasing them. So few were the readers at that time
in Philadelphia, and the majority of us so poor, that I
was not able, with great industry, to find more than
fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay
down for this purpose forty shillings each, and ten
shillings per annum.1 On this little fund we began.
The books were imported ; the library was opened one
day in the week for lending to the subscribers, on their
promissory notes to pay double the value if not duly
returned. The institution soon manifested its utility,
was imitated by other . towns, and in other provinces.
The libraries were augmented by donations ; reading
became fashionable ; and our people, having no pub
lic amusements to divert their attention from study,
became better acquainted with books, and in a few
years were observed by strangers to be better in
structed and more intelligent than people of the same
rank generally are in other countries.
When we were about to sign the above-mentioned
articles, which were to be binding on us, our heirs,
etc., for fifty years, Mr. Brockden, the scrivener, said
to us, " You are young men, but it is scarcely proba-
1 The notion of an entirely free public library, sustained by the
town, was not then held. The present system of town and city libra
ries dates from about 1850.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 97
bie that any of you will live to see the expiration of
the term fixed in the instrument." A number of us,
however, are yet living ; but the instrument was after
a few years rendered null by a charter that incorpo
rated and gave perpetuity to the company.1
The objections and reluctances I met with in solic
iting the subscriptions made me soon feel the impro
priety of presenting one's self as the proposer of any
useful project, that might be 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
1 The books were at first kept in the chamber of one of Franklin's
friends ; the librarian was in attendance an hour on Wednesday and
two hours on Saturday. After eight years, that is, in 1740, a room
was obtained in the State House, and the next year Franklin printed
a catalogue of the library ; in 1773 another removal was made to
Carpenters' Hall, and in 1790 the Philadelphia Library was housed in
the building which it still occupies. A tablet was inserted in the
building bearing this inscription : —
Be it remembered
in honor of the Philadelphia youth
(then chiefly artificers)
that in MDCCXXXI
they cheerfully,
at the instance of Benjamin Franklin,
one of their number,
instituted the Philadelphia Library
which, though small at first,
is become highly valuable and extensively useful,
and which the walls of this edifice
are now destined to contain and preserve :
the first stone of whose foundation
was here placed
the thirty-first day of August, 1789.
The inscription was prepared by Franklin, with the exception of
the reference to himself, which was inserted by the committee.

98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of
reading. In this way my affair went on more
smoothly, and I ever after practised it on such occa
sions ; and from my frequent successes can heartily rec
ommend it. The present little sacrifice of your vanity
will afterwards be amply repaid. If it remains a
while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, some one
more vain than yourself will be encouraged to claim
it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you jus
tice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring
them to their right owner.
This library afforded me the means of improvement
by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or
two each day, and thus repaired in some degree the
loss of the learned education my father once intended
for me. Reading was the only amusement I allowed
myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolics
of any kind ; and my industry in my business contin
ued as indefatigable as it was necessary. I was in
debted for my printing-house ; I had a young family
coming on to be educated, and I had to contend with
for business two printers, who were established in the
place before me. My circumstances, however, grew
daily easier. My original habits of frugality continu
ing, and my father having, among his instructions to
me when a boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Sol
omon, " Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he
shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before
mean men," I from thence considered industry as a
means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which en
couraged me, though I did not think that I should
ever literally stand before kings, which, however, has
since happened ; for I have stood before five, and even
had the honor of sitting down with one, the King of
Denmark, to dinner.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 99
We have an English proverb that says, "He that
would thrive, must ask his wife." It was lucky for
me that I had one as much disposed to industry and
frugality as myself. She assisted me cheerfully in
my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending
shop, purchasing old linen rags for the paper makers,
etc., etc. We kept no idle servants, our table was
plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest. For
instance, my breakfast was a long time bread and
milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen
porringer, with a pewter spoon. But mark how lux
ury will enter families, and make a progress, in spite
of principle : being called one morning to breakfast,
I found it in a China bowl, with a spoon of silver !
They had been bought for me without my knowledge
by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of
three-and-twenty shillings, for which she had no other
excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her
husband deserved a silver spoon and China bowl as
well as any of his neighbors. This was the first ap
pearance of plate and China in our house, which after
ward, in a course of years, as our wealth increased,
augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in
value. I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian ;
and though some of the dogmas of that persuasion,
such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reproba
tion, etc., appeared to me unintelligible, others doubt-
fid, and I early absented myself from the public as
semblies of the sect, Sunday being my studying day, I
never was without some religious principles. I never
doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity ; that
He made the world, and governed it by his Provi
dence ; that the most acceptable service of God was

100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
the doing good to man ; that our souls are immortal ;
and that all crime will be punished, and virtue re
warded, either here or hereafter. These I esteemed
the essentials of every religion ; and being to be found
in all the religions we had in our country, I respected
them all, though with different degrees of respect, as
I found them more or less mixed with other articles,
which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or
confirm morality, served principally to divide us, and
make us unfriendly to one another. This respect to
all, with an opinion that the worst had some good ef
fects, induced me to avoid all discourse that might
tend to lessen the good opinion another might have of
his own religion ; and as our province increased in
people, and new places of worship were continually
wanted, and generally erected by voluntary contribu
tion, my mite for such purpose, whatever might be
the sect, was never refused.
Though I seldom attended any public worship, I
had still an opinion of its propriety, and of its utility
when rightly conducted, and I regularly paid my an
nual subscription for the support of the only Presby
terian minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia.
He used to visit me sometimes as a friend, and ad
monish me to attend his administrations, and I was
now and then prevailed on to do so, once for five Sun
days successively. Had he been in my opinion a good
preacher, perhaps I might have continued, notwith
standing the occasion I had for the Sunday's leisure
in my course of study ; but his discourses were chiefly
either polemic arguments, or explications of the pe
culiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very
dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single
moral principle was inculcated or enforced, their aim

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 101
seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than
good citizens.
At length he took for his text that verse of the
fourth chapter of Philippians, " Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely,
or of good report, if there be any virtue, or any
praise, think on these things." And I imagined, in a
sermon on such a text, we could not miss of having
some morality. But he confined himself to five points
only, as meant by the apostle, viz. : 1. Keeping holy
the Sabbath day. 2. Being diligent in reading the
holy Scriptures. 3. Attending duly the public wor
ship. 4. Partaking of the Sacrament. 5. Paying a
due respect to God's ministers. These might be all
good things ; but as they were not the kind of good
things that I expected from that text, I despaired of
ever meeting with them from any other, was disgusted,
and attended his preaching no more. I had some
years before composed a little Liturgy, or form of
prayer, for my own private use (viz., in 1728), enti
tled, Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion. I re
turned to the use of this, and went no more to the
public assemblies. My conduct might be blamable,
but I leave it, without attempting further to excuse it ;
my present purpose being to relate facts, and not to
make apologies for them.
It was about this time I conceived the bold and
arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I
wished to live without committing any fault at any
time ; I would conquer all that either natural inclina
tion, custom, or company might lead me into. As I
knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong,
I did not see why I might not always do the one and
avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken

102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While
my care was employed in guarding against one fault,
I was often surprised by another ; habit took the ad
vantage of inattention ; inclination was sometimes too
strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the
mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to
be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent
our slipping ; and that the contrary habits must be
broken, and good ones acquired and established, be
fore we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform
rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore
contrived the following method.
In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I
had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue
more or less numerous, as different writers included
more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temper
ance, for example, was by some confined to eating and
drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the
moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination,
or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and
ambition. I proposed to myself, for the sake of clear
ness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas an
nexed to each, than a few names with more ideas ; and
I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at
that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and
annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed
the extent I gave to its meaning.
These names of virtues, with their precepts were : —
1. Temperance.
Eat not to dullness ; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself,
avoid trifling conversation.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 103
3. Order.
Let all your things have their places ; let each part
of your business have its time.
4. Resolution.
Resolve to perform what you ought ; perform with
out fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality.
Make no expense but to do good to others or your
self ; i. e., waste nothing.
6. Industry.
Lose no time ; be always employed in something
useful ; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity.
Use no hurtful deceit ; think innocently and justly;
and, if yon speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the ben
efits that are your duty.
9. Moderation.
Avoid extremes ; forbear resenting injuries so much
as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habi
tation. 11. Tranquillity.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common
or unavoidable.

104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
12. Chastity.
13. Humility.

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all
these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract
my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to
fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be
master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on,
till I should have gone through the thirteen ; and as
the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the
acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with
that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as
it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head,
which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to
be kept up, and guard maintained against the unre
mitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of
perpetual temptations. This being acquired and es
tablished, Silence would be more easy ; and my desire
being to gain knowledge at the same time that I im
proved in virtue, and considering that in conversation
it was obtained rather by the use of the ears than of
the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I
was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking,
which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I
gave Silence the second place. This and the next,
Order, I expected would allow me more time for at
tending to my project and my studies. Resolution,
once become habitual, would keep me firm in my en
deavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues ; Frugal
ity and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt,
and producing affluence and independence, would

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

105

make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice,
etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the ad->
vice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily exami?
nation would be necessary, I contrived the following
method for conducting that examination.
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for
each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink,
so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the
week, marking each column with a letter for the day.
I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, mark
ing the beginning of each line with the first letter of
one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper
column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every
fault I found upon examination to have been com
mitted respecting that virtue upon that day.
Form of the pages.

1
TEMPERANCE.

EAT NOT TO DLTLNESS ;
DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION.

S.

M.

T.

W.

T.

F.

S.

T.

S.
*
*
*
*
0.
* #
*
*
*
*
*
R.
*
*
F.
*
*
I.
*
S.
J.
M. C.
T.
C.
H.
106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
I determined to give a week's strict attention to
each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first
week, my great guard was to avoid every the least of
fense against Temperance, leaving the other virtues
to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening
the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I
could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I
supposed the habit of that virtue so much strength
ened, and its opposite weakened, that I might venture
extending my attention to include the next, and for
the following week keep both lines clear of spots.
Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a
course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in
a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed,
does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at
once, which would exceed his reach and his strength,
but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having
accomplished the first, proceeds to a second, so I
should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of see
ing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by
clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in
the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in
viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily ex
amination. This my little book had for its motto these lines
from Addison's Cato : —
Here will I hold. If there 's a power above us
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud
Through all her works), He must delight in virtue ; .
And that which he delights in must be happy."
Another from Cicero,
O vitas Philosophia dux ! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque
vitiorum ! Unus dies, bene et ex prseceptis tuis actus, peccanti im.
mortalitati est anteponendus. "

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 107
[O Philosophy, guide of life ! O investigator and expeller of
crimes ! A single day, lived well and in accordance with your pre
cepts, is to be preferred to sinning immortality.]
Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking
of wisdom or virtue : —
" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches
and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are
peace." iii. 16, 17.
And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom,
I thought it right and necessary to solicit his assist
ance for obtaining it ; to this end I formed the follow
ing little prayer,, which was prefixed to my tables of
examination, for daily use.
" O powerful Goodness ! bountiful Father ! merciful Guide ! Increase
in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my
resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices
to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual fa
vors to me."
I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took
from Thomson's Poems, viz. : —
" Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme !
O teach me what is good ; teach me Thyself !
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit ; and fill my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure ;
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss! "
The precept of Order requiring that every part of
my business should have its allotted time, one page in
my little book contained the following scheme of em
ployment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day.

The Morning. 9
Question. What good shall I
do this day ?

5 1 Rise, wash, and address Pow
erful Goodness ! Contrive day's
6 [-business, and take the resolu
tion of the day ; prosecute the
7 J present study, and breakfast.
io Work>
11 J

108

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

Noon.

Evening.
Question. What good have '.
done to-day ?

12 1 Read, or overlook
1 J counts, and dine.
2'

my ac-

NlGHT.

rio 1112 123
4

Work. Put things in their places.
Supper. Music or diversion,
or conversation. Examination
of the day.

I entered upon the execution of this plan for self-
examination, and continued it with occasional inter
missions for some time. I was surprised to find my
self so much fuller of faults than I had imagined ; but
I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To
avoid the trouble of renewing now and then my little
book, which, by scraping out the marks on the paper
of old faults to make room for new ones in a new
course, became full of holes, I transferred my tables
and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum
book, on which the lines were drawn with red ink,
that made a durable stain, and on those lines I marked
my faults with a black lead pencil, which marks I
could easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After a
while I went through one course only in a year, 'and
afterward only one in several years, till at length I
omitted them entirely, being employed in voyages and
business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that
interfered ; but I ahvays carried my little book with
me. My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble ;
and I found that, though it might be practicable

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 109
where a man's business was such as to leave him the
disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer,
for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed
by a master, who must mix with the world, and often
receive people of business at their own hours. Order,
too, with regard to places for things, papers, etc., I
found extremely difficult to acquire. I had not been
early accustomed to it, and, having an exceeding good
memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience at
tending want of method. This article, therefore, cost
me so much painful attention, and my faults in it
vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in
amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I
was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content
myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the
man who, in buying an axe of a smith, my neighbor,
desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as
the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for
him if he would turn the wheel ; he turned, while the
smith pressed the broad face of the axe hard and heav
ily on the stone, which made the turning of it very
fatiguing. The man came every now and then from
the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length
would take his axe as it was, without farther grinding.
" No," said the smith, " turn on, turn on ; we shall
have it bright by and by ; as yet, it is only speckled."
"Yes," says the man, " but I think Hike a speckled
axe best." And I believe this may have been the case
with many, who, having, for want of some such means
as I employed, found the difficulty of obtaining good
and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and
virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that
" a speckled axe was best ; " for something, that pre
tended to be reason, was every now and then suggest-

110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ing to me that such extreme nicety as I exacted of
myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which, if
it were known, would make me ridiculous ; that a per
fect character might be attended with the inconven
ience of being envied and hated ; and that a benevo
lent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep
his friends in countenance.
In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect
to Order ; and now I am grown old, and my memory
bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the
whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had
been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it,
yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier
man than I otherwise should have been if I had not
attempted it ; as those who aim at perfect writing by
imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach
the wished-for excellence of those copies, their hand is
mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it con
tinues fair and legible.
It may be well my posterity should be informed
that to this little artifice, with the blessing of God,
their ancestor owed the constant felicity of his life,
down to his 79th year, in which this is written.
What reverses may attend the remainder is in the
hand of Providence ; but, if they arrive, the reflection
on past happiness enjoyed ought to help his bearing
them with more resignation. To Temperance he
ascribes his long-continued health, and what is still
left to him of a good constitution ; to Industry and
Frugality, the early easiness of his circumstances and
acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge
that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained
for him some degree of reputation among the learned ;
to Sincerity and Justice, the confidence of his country,

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Ill
and the honorable employs it conferred upon him;
and to the joint influence of the whole mass of the
virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to
acquire them, all that evenness of temper, and that
cheerfulness in conversation, which makes his com
pany still sought for, and agreeable even to his younger
acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that some of my de
scendants may follow the example and reap the ben
efit. It will be remarked that, though my scheme was
not wholly without religion, there was in it no mark
of any of the distinguishing tenets of any particular
sect. I had purposely avoided them ; for, being fully
persuaded of the utility and excellency of my method,
and that it might be serviceable to people in all re
ligions, and intending some time or other to publish
it, I would not have anything in it that should preju
dice any one, of any sect, against it. I purposed writ
ing a little comment on each virtue, in which I would
have shown the advantages of possessing it, and the
mischiefs attending _ its._ opposite vice^ and I should
have called my book The Art of Virtue, because
it would have shown the means and manner of obtain
ing virtue, which would have distinguished it from
the mere exhortation to be good, that does not instruct
and indicate the means, but is like the apostle's man
of verbal charity, who only without showing to the
naked and hungry how or where they might get
clothes or victuals exhorted them to be fed and
clothed. — James ii. 15, 16.
But it so happened that my intention of writing and
publishing this comment was never fulfilled. I did,
indeed, from time to time, put down short hints of the
sentiments, reasonings, etc., to be made use of in it,

112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
some of which I have still by me ; but the necessary
close attention to private business in the earlier part
of my life, and public business since, have occasioned
my postponing it ; for, it being connected in my mind
with a great and extensive project, that required the
whole man to execute, and which an unforeseen suc
cession of employs prevented my attending to, it has
hitherto remained unfinished.
In this piece it was my design to explain and en
force this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurt
ful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because
they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered ;
that it was, therefore, every one's interest to be virtu
ous who wished to be happy even in this world; and
I should, from this circumstance (there being always
in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility,
states, and princes, who have need of honest instru
ments for the management of their affairs, and such
being so rare), 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.
My list of virtues contained at first but twelve ; but
a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I
was generally thought proud ; that my pride showed
itself frequently in conversation ; that I was not con
tent with being in the right when discussing any
point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of
which he convinced me by mentioning several in
stances ; I determined endeavoring to cure myself, if
I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I
added Humility to my list, giving an extensive mean
ing to the word.
I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the
reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with re-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 113
gard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to for
bear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of
others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even
forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto,
the use of every word or expression in the language
that imported a fixed opinion, such as certainly, un
doubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, / con
ceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or
so ; or it so appears to me at present. When another
asserted something that I thought an error, I denied
myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and
of showing immediately some absurdity in his prop
osition ; and in answering I began by observing that
in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would
be right, but in the present case there appeared or
seemed to me some difference, etc. I soon found the
advantage of this change in my manner ; the conver
sations I engaged in went on more pleasantly. The
modest way in which I proposed my opinions procured
them a readier reception and less contradiction ; I had
less mortification when I was found to be in the
wrong, and I more easily prevailed with others to
give up their mistakes and join with me when I hap
pened to be in the right.
And this mode, which I at first put on with some
violence to natural inclination, became at length so
easy, and so habitual to me, that perhaps for these
fifty years past no one has ever heard a dogmatical
expression escape me. And to this habit (after my
character of integrity) I think it principally owing
that I had early so much weight with my fellow-citi
zens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations
in the old, and so much influence in public councils
when I became a member; for I was but a bad

114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in
my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and
yet I generally carried my points.
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural
passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it,
struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as
much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every
now and then peep out and show itself ; you will see
it, perhaps, often in this history ; for, even if I could
conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should
probably be proud of my humility.

VI.
SELF-EDUCATION.
Having mentioned a great and extensive project
which I had conceived, it seems proper that some
account should be here given of that project and its
object. Its first rise in my mind appears in the fol
lowing little paper, accidentally preserved, viz. : —
Observations on my reading history, in Library,
May 19, 1731.
" That the great affairs of the world, the wars, rev
olutions, etc., are carried on and affected by parties.
" That the view of these parties is their present gen
eral interest, or what they take to be such.
" That the different views of these different parties
occasion all confusion.
" That while a party is carrying on a general de
sign, each man has his particular private interest in
view. " That as soon as a party has gained its general
point, each member becomes intent upon his particular
interest; which, thwarting others, breaks that party
into divisions, and occasions more confusion.
" That few in public affairs act from a mere view of
the good of their country, whatever they may pretend ;
and, though their actings bring real good to their
country, yet men primarily considered that their own
and their country's interest was united, and did not
act from a principle of benevolence.

116 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
" That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view
to the good of mankind.
"There seems to me at present to be great occasion
for raising a United Party for Virtue, by forming the
virtuous and good men of all nations into a regular
body, to be governed by suitable, good, and wise rules,
which good and wise men may probably be more unan
imous in their obedience to, than common people are
to common laws.
" I at present think that whoever attempts this
aright, and is well qualified, cannot fail of pleasing
God, and of meeting with success. B. F."
Revolving this project in my mind, as to be under
taken hereafter, when my circumstances should afford
me the necessary leisure, I put down from time to
time, on pieces of paper, such thoughts as occurred to
me respecting it. Most of these are lost ; but I find
one purporting to be the substance of an intended
creed, containing, as I thought, the essentials of every
known religion, and being free of everything that
might shock the professors of any religion. It is ex
pressed in these words, viz. : —
" That there is one God, who made all things.
" That He governs the world by his providence.
"That He ought to be worshipped by adoration,
prayer, and thanksgiving.
" But that the most acceptable service of God is do
ing good to man.
" That the soul is immortal.
"And that God will certainly reward virtue and
punish vice, either here or hereafter."
My ideas at that time were that the sect should be
begun and spread at first among young and single
men only ; that each person to be initiated should not

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 117
only declare his assent to such creed, but should have
exercised himself with the thirteen weeks' examina
tion and practice of the virtues, as in the before-men
tioned model; that the existence of such a society
should be kept a secret, till it was become consider
able, to prevent solicitations for the admission of im
proper persons, but that the members should each of
them search among his acquaintance for ingenuous,
well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution,
the scheme should be gradually communicated ; that
the members should engage to afford their advice, as
sistance, and support to each other in promoting one
another's interests, business, and advancement in life;
that, for distinction, we should be called The Society
of the Free and Easy : free, as being, by the general
practice and habit of the virtues, free from the do
minion of vice ; and particularly by the practice of
industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes
a man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his
creditors. This is as much as I can now recollect of the proj
ect, except that I communicated it in part to two
young men, who adopted it with some enthusiasm ; but
my then narrow circumstances, and the necessity I was
under of sticking close to my business, occasioned my
postponing the further prosecution of it at that time ;
and my multifarious occupations, public and private,
induced me to continue postponing, so that it has been
omitted till I have no longer strength or activity left
sufficient for such an enterprise ; though I am still of
opinion that it was a practicable scheme, and might
have been very useful, by forming a great number of
good citizens ; and I was not discouraged by the seem
ing magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always

118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work
great changes, and accomplish great affairs among
mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting
off all amusements or other employments that would
divert his attention, makes the execution of that same
plan his sole study and business.
In 1732 I first published my Almanack, under the
name of Richard Saunders ; it was continued by
me about twenty-five years, commonly called Poor
Richard's Almanac. I endeavored to make it both
entertaining and useful ; and it accordingly came to
be in such demand, that I reaped considerable profit
from it, vending annually near ten thousand. And
observing that it was generally read, scarce any neigh
borhood in the province being without it, I considered
it as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction among
the common people, who bought scarcely any other
books ; I therefore filled all the little spaces that oc
curred between the remarkable days in the calendar
with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated
industry and frugality as the means of procuring
wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more
difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as,
to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an
empty sack to stand upright.
These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of
many ages and nations, I assembled and formed into
a connected discourse prefixed to the Almanack of
1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people
attending an auction. The bringing all these scat
tered counsels thus into a focus enabled them to make
greater impression. The piece, being universally ap- .
proved, was copied in all the newspapers of the Con
tinent ; reprinted in Britain on a broadside, to be

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 119
stuck up in houses ; two translations were made of it
in French, and great numbers bought by the clergy
and gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor
parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it dis
couraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some
thought it had its share of influence in producing that
growing plenty of money which was observable for
several years after its publication.
I considered my newspaper, also, as another means
of communicating instruction, and in that view fre
quently reprinted in it extracts from the Spectator,
and other moral writers; and sometimes published
little pieces of my own, which had been first composed
for reading in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic
dialogue, tending to prove that, whatever might be
his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not prop
erly be called a man of sense ; and a discourse on
self-denial, showing that virtue was not secure till its
practice became a habitude, and was free from the
opposition of contrary inclinations. These may be
found in the papers about the beginning of 1735.
In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully ex
cluded all libelling and personal abuse, which is of
late years become so disgraceful to our country.
Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of that
kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did,
the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper was
like a stage-coach, in which any one who would pay
had a right to a place, my answer was, that I would
print the piece separately if desired, and the author
might have as many copies as he pleased to distribute
himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread
his detraction ; and that, having contracted with my
subscribers to furnish them with what might be either

120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
useful or entertaining, I could not fill their papers
with private altercation, in which they had no con
cern, without doing them manifest injustice. Now,
many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying
the malice of individuals by false accusations of the
fairest characters among ourselves, augmenting ani
mosity even to the producing of duels ; and are, more
over, so indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on
the government of neighboring states, and even on the
conduct of our best national allies, which may be at
tended with the most pernicious consequences. These
things I mention as a caution to young printers, and
that they may be encouraged not to pollute their
presses and disgrace their profession by such infa
mous practices, but refuse steadily, as they may see by
my example that such a course of conduct will not,
on the whole, be injurious to their interests.
In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charles
ton, South Carolina, where a printer was wanting.
I furnished him with a press and letters, on an agree
ment of partnership, by which I was to receive one
third of the profits of the business, paying one third
of the expense. He was a man of learning, and hon
est but ignorant in matters of account ; and, though
he sometimes made me remittances, I could get no ac
count from him, nor any satisfactory state of our part
nership while he lived. On his decease, the business
was continued by his widow, who, being born and
bred in Holland, where, as I have been informed, the
knowledge of accounts makes a part of female educa
tion, she not only sent me as clear a state as she could
find of the transactions past, but continued to account
with the greatest regularity and exactness every quar
ter afterwards, and managed the business with such

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 121
success, that she not only brought up reputably a
family of children, but, at the expiration of the term,
was able to purchase of me the printing-house, and
establish her son in it.
I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recom
mending that branch of education for our young fe
males, as likely to be of more use to them and their
children, in case of widowhood, than either music or
dancing, by preserving them from losses by imposi
tion of crafty men, and enabling them to continue,
perhaps, a profitable mercantile house, with established
correspondence, till a son is grown up fit to undertake
and go on with it, to the lasting advantage and en
riching of the family.
About the year 1734 there arrived among us from
Ireland a young Presbyterian preacher, named Hemp
hill, who delivered with a good voice, and apparently
extempore, most excellent discourses, which drew to
gether considerable numbers of different persuasions,
who joined in admiring them. Among the rest, I be
came one of his constant hearers, his sermons pleas
ing me, as they had little of the dogmatical kind, but
inculcated strongly the practice of virtue, or what in
the religious style are called good works. Those, how
ever, of our congregation, who considered themselves
as orthodox Presbyterians, disapproved his doctrine,
and were joined by most of the old clergy, who ar
raigned him of heterodoxy before the synod, in Order
to have him silenced. I became his zealous parti
san, and contributed all I could to raise a party in. his
favor, and we combated for him a while with some
hopes of success. There was much scribbling pro and
con upon the occasion ; and finding that, though an
elegant preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lent him

122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
my pen and wrote for him two or three pamphlets,
and one piece in the Gazette of April, 1735. Those
pamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial
writings, though eagerly read at the time, were soon
out of vogue, and I question whether a single copy of
them now exists.
During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his
cause exceedingly. One of our adversaries having
heard him preach a sermon that was much admired,
thought he had somewhere read the sermon before, or
at least a part of it. On search, he found that part
quoted at length, in one of the British Reviews, from
a discourse of Dr. Foster's. This detection gave
many of our party disgust, who accordingly aban
doned his cause, and occasioned our more speedy dis
comfiture in the synod. I stuck by him, however, as
I rather approved his giving us good sermons com
posed by others, than bad ones of his own manufac
ture, though the latter was the practice of our com
mon teachers. He afterward acknowledged to me
that none of those he preached were his own ; adding,
that his memory was such as enabled him to retain
and repeat any sermon after one reading only. On
our defeat, he left us in search elsewhere of better
fortune, and I quitted the congregation, never joining
it after, though I continued many years my subscrip
tion for the support of its ministers.
I had begun in 1733 to study languages ; I soon
made myself so much a master of the French as to
be able to read the books with ease. I then under
took the Italian. An acquaintance, who was also
learning it, used often to tempt me to play chess with
him. Finding this took up too much of the time I
had to spare for study, I at length refused to play any

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 123
more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every
game should have a right to impose a task, either in
parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in trans
lations, etc., which tasks the vanquished was to per
form upon honor, before our next meeting. As we
played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into
that language. I afterwards, with a little painstak
ing, acquired as much of the Spanish as to read their
books also.
I have already mentioned that I had only one
year's instruction in a Latin school, and that when
very young, after which I neglected that language
entirely. But when I had attained an acquaintance
with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was sur
prised to find, on looking over a Latin Testament,
that I understood so much more of that language
than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply
myself again to the study of it, and I met with more
success, as those preceding languages had greatly
smoothed my way.
From these circumstances, I have thought that
there is some inconsistency in our common mode of
teaching languages. We are told that it is proper to
begin first with the Latin, and, having acquired that,
it will be more easy to attain those modern languages
which are derived from it ; and yet we do not begin
with the Greek, in order more easily to acquire the
Latin. It is true that, if you can clamber and get to
the top of a staircase without using the steps, you will
more easily gain them in descending ; but certainly, if
you begin with the lowest you will with more ease as
cend to the top ; and I would therefore offer it to the
consideration of those who superintend the education
of our youth, whether, since many of those who begin

124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
with the Latin quit the same after spending some
years without having made any great proficiency, and
what they have learned becomes almost useless, so
that their time has been lost, it would not have been
better to have begun with the French, proceeding to
the Italian, etc. ; for, though, after spending the same
time, they should quit the study of languages and
never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have
acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern
use, might be serviceable to them in common life.
After ten years' absence from Boston, and having
become easy in my circumstances, I made a journey
thither to visit my relations, which I could not sooner
well afford. In returning, I called at Newport to see
my brother, then settled there with his printing-house.
Our former differences were forgotten, and our meet
ing was very cordial and affectionate. He was fast
declining in his health, and requested of me that, in
case of his death, which he apprehended not far dis
tant, I would take home his son, then but ten years of
age, and bring him up to the printing business. This
I accordingly performed, sending him a few years 'to
school before I took him into the office. His mother
carried on the business till he was grown up, when
I assisted him with an assortment of new types, those
of his father being in a manner worn out. Thus it
was that I made my brother ample amends for the
service I had deprived him of by leaving him so
early. In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four
years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way.
I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had
not given it to him by inoculation.1 This I mention
1 At that time the prevention of small-T>ox by vaccination was not

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 125
for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on
the supposition that they should never forgive them
selves if a child died under it ; my example showing
that the regret may be the same either way, and that,
therefore, the safer should be chosen.
Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and af
forded such satisfaction to the members, that several
were desirous of introducing their friends, which could
not well be done without exceeding what we had set
tled as a convenient number, viz., twelve. We had
from the beginning made it a rule to keep our institu
tion a secret, which was pretty well observed ; the in
tention was to avoid applications of improper persons
for admittance, some of whom, perhaps, we might find
it difficult to refuse. I was one of those who were
against any addition to our number, but, instead of it,
made in writing a proposal that every member sep
arately should endeavor to form a subordinate club,
with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and with
out informing them of the connection with the Junto.
The advantages proposed were, the improvement of
so many more young citizens by the use of our institu
tions ; our better acquaintance with the general sen
timents of the inhabitants on any occasion, as the
Junto member might propose what queries we should
desire, and was to report to the Junto what passed in
his separate club ; the promotion of our particular in
terests in business by more extensive recommendation,
and the increase of our influence in public affairs,
and our power of doing good by spreading through the
several clubs the sentiments of the Junto.
known. Instead, the disease was given by inoculation to healthy per
sons, who thus escaped the more serious evils and were secure when
the small-pox was an epidemic.

126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
The project was approved, and every member un
dertook to form his club, but they did not all succeed.
Five or six only were completed, which were called
by different names, as the Vine, the Union, the Band,
etc. They were useful to themselves, and afforded us
a good deal of amusement, information, and instruc
tion, besides answering, in some considerable degree,
our views of influencing the public opinion on par
ticular occasions, of which I shall give some instances
in course of time as they happened.
My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736,
clerk of the General Assembly. The choice was made
that year without opposition ; but the year following,
when I was again proposed (the choice, like that of
the members, being annual), a new member made a
long speech against me, in order to favor some other
candidate. I was, however, chosen, which was the
more agreeable to me, as, besides the pay for the im
mediate service as clerk, the place gave me a better
opportunity of keeping up an interest among the
members, which secured to me the business of printing
the votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional
jobs for the public, that, on the whole, were very
profitable. I therefore did not like the opposition of this new
member, who was a gentleman of fortune and edu
cation, with talents that were likely to give him, in
time, great influence in the House, which indeed af
terwards happened. I did not, however, aim at gain
ing his favor by paying any servile respect to him,
but, after some time, took this other method. Having
heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce
and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing
my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 127
would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few
days. He sent it immediately, and I returned it in
about a week with another note, expressing strongly
my sense of the favor. When we next met in the
House, he spoke to me (which he had never done be
fore), and with great civility ; and he ever after man
ifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so
that we became great friends, and our friendship con
tinued to his death. This is another instance of the
truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, " He
that has once done you a kindness will be more ready
to do you another, than he whom you yourself have
obliged." And it shows how much more profitable it
is prudently to remove, than to resent, return, and
continue inimical proceedings.
In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Vir
ginia, and then postmaster-general, being dissatisfied
with the conduct of his deputy at Philadelphia, re
specting some negligence in rendering, and inexacti
tude of his accounts, took from him the commission
and offered it to me. I accepted it readily, and found
it of great advantage ; for though the salary was small
it facilitated the correspondence that improved my
newspaper, increased the number demanded, as well
as the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came
to afford me a considerable income. My old com
petitor's newspaper declined proportionably, and I
was satisfied without retaliating his refusal, while
postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the
riders. Thus he suffered greatly from his neglect in
due accounting ; and I mention it as a lesson to those
young men who may be employed in managing affairs
for others, that they should always render accounts,
and make remittances, with great clearness and punc-

128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
tuality. The character of observing such a conduct is
the most powerful of all recommendations to new em
ployments and increase of business.
I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public
affairs, beginning, however, with small matters. The
city watch was one of the first things that I con
ceived to want regulation. It was managed by the
constables of the respective wards in turn ; the con
stable warned a number of housekeepers to attend
him for the night. Those who chose never to attend
paid him six shillings a year to be excused, which was
supposed to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in real
ity, 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 ragamuf
fins about him as a watch, that respectable house
keepers did not choose to mix with. Walking the
rounds, too, was often neglected, and most of the
nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper
to be read in Junto, representing these irregularities,
but insisting more particularly on the inequality of
this six-shilling tax of the constables, respecting the
circumstances of those who paid it, since a poor widow
housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by the
watch did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds,
paid as much as the wealthiest merchant, who had
thousands of pounds' worth of goods in his stores.
On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch,
the hiring of proper men to serve constantly in that
business ; and as a more equitable way of supporting
the charge, the levying a tax that should be propor
tioned to the property. This idea, being approved by
the Junto, was communicated to the other clubs, but
as arising in each of them ; and though the plan was

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 129
not immediately carried into execution, yet, by pre
paring the minds of people for the change, it paved
the way for the law obtained a few years after, when
the members of our clubs were grown into more in
fluence. About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in
Junto, but it was afterward published) on the different
accidents and carelessnesses by w Lich houses were set
on fire, with cautions against tLtm, and means pro
posed of avoiding them. This was much spoken of as
a useful piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon
followed it, of forming a company for the more ready
extinguishing of fires, and mutual assistance in remov
ing and securing of goods when in danger. Asso
ciates in this scheme were presently found, amounting
to thirty. Our articles of agreement obliged every
member to keep always in good order, and fit for use,
a certain number of leather buckets, with strong bags
and baskets (for packing and transporting of goods),
which were to be brought to every fire ; and we
agreed to meet once a month and spend a social even
ing together, in discoursing and communicating such
ideas as occurred to us upon the subject of fires, as
might be useful in our conduct on such occasions.
The utility of this institution soon appeared, and
many more desiring to be admitted than we thought
convenient for one company, they were advised to
form another, which was accordingly done ; and this
went on, one new company being formed after an
other, till they became so numerous as to include most
of the inhabitants who were men of property; and
now, at the time of my writing this, though upward of
fifty years since its establishment, that which I first

130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
formed, called the Union Fire Company,1 still subsists
and flourishes, though the first members are all de
ceased but myself and one, who is older by a year than
I am. The small fines that have been paid by mem
bers for absence at the monthly meetings have been
applied to the purchase of fire-engines, ladders, fire-
hooks, and other useful implements for each company,
so that I question whether there is a city in the world
better provided with the means of putting a stop to
beginning conflagrations ; and, in fact, since these in
stitutions, the city has 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 be
gan had been half consumed.
1 Volunteer fire-companies were the rule even in great cities until
a generation ago, when they began to give place to paid companies.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 131

vn.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Rev
erend Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remark
able there as an itinerant preacher. He was at first
permitted to preach in some of our churches ; but the
clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their
pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields.
The multitudes of all sects and denominations that
attended his sermons were enormous, and it was mat
ter of speculation to me, who was one of the number,
to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory
on his hearers, and how much they admired and re
spected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of
them, by assuring them they were naturally half beasts
and half devils. It was wonderful to see the change
soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From
being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it
seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so
that one could not walk through the town in an even
ing without hearing psalms sung in different families
of every street.
And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the
open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a
house to meet in was no sooner proposed, and persons
appointed to receive contributions, but sufficient sums
were soon received to procure the ground and erect the
building, which was one hundred feet long and seventy

132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
broad, about the size of Westminster Hall ; and the
work was carried on with such spirit as to be finished
in a much shorter time than could have been expected.
Both house and ground were vested in trustees, ex
pressly for the use of any preacher of any religious
persuasion who might desire to say something to the
people at Philadelphia; the design in building not
being to accommodate any particular sect, but the in
habitants in general; so that even if the Mufti of
Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach
Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his
service. Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preaching all
the way through the Colonies to Georgia. The settle
ment of that province had lately been begun, but, in
stead of being made with hardy, industrious husband
men accustomed to labor, the only people fit for such
an enterprise, it was with families of broken shop
keepers and other insolvent debtors, many of indolent
and idle habits, taken out of the jails, who, being set
down in the woods, unqualified for clearing land, and
unable to endure the hardships of a new settlement,
perished in numbers, leaving many helpless children
unprovided for.1 The sight of their miserable situ
ation inspired the benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield
with the idea of building an Orphan House there, in
which they might be supported and educated. Re
turning northward, he preached up this charity, aud
made large collections, for his eloquence had a won-
1 Although Georgia suffered in its early settlement, as Franklin
points out, the colony was wisely planned to afford a new chance in
life to Englishmen who were oppressed by severe commercial laws in
England. The insolvent debtors were not so despicable a class as
Franklin seems to intimate.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 133
derf ul power over the hearts and purses of his hearers,
of which I myself was an instance.
I did not disapprove of the design, but, as Georgia
was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it
was proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a
great expense, I thought it would have been better to
have built the house here, and brought the children to
it. This I advised; but he was resolute in his first
project, rejected my counsel, and I therefore refused
to contribute. I happened soon after to attend one of
his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he in
tended to finish with a collection, and I silently re
solved he should get nothing from me. I had in my
pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver
dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I
began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers.
Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of
that, and determined me to give the silver ; and he
finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly
into the collector's dish, gold and all. At this sermon
there was also one of our club, who, being of my senti
ments respecting the building in Georgia, and suspect
ing a collection might be intended, had, by precaution,
emptied his pockets before he came from home. To
wards the conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt
a strong desire to give, and applied to a neighbor, who
stood near him, to borrow some money for the pur
pose. The application was unfortunately [made] to
perhaps the only man in the company who had the
firmness not to be affected by the preacher. His an
swer was, " A t any other time, Friend Hopkinson, 1
would lend to thee freely ; but not now, for thee seems
to be out of thy right senses."
Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to sup-

134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
pose that he would apply these collections to his own
private emolument ; but I, who was intimately ac
quainted with him (being employed in printing his
Sermons and Journals, etc.), never had the least sus
picion of his integrity, but am to this day decidedly
of opinion that he was in all his conduct a perfectly.
honest man ; and methinks my testimony in his favor
ought to have the more weight, as we had no religious
connection. He used, indeed, sometimes to pray for
my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of be
lieving that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere
civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted to
his death.
The following instance will show something of the
terms on which we stood. Upon one of his arrivals
from England at Boston he wrote to me that he
should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where
he could lodge when there, as he understood his old
friend and host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to German-
town. My answer was, " You know my house ; if you
can make shift with its scanty accommodations, you
will be most heartily welcome." He replied, that if
I made that kind offer for Christ's sake, I should not
miss of a reward. And I returned, " Don't let me be
mistaken ; it was not for Christ's sake, but for your
sake." One of our common acquaintance jocosely re
marked, that, knowing it to be the custom of the saints,
when they received any favor, to shift the burden of
the obligation from off their own shoulders, and place
it in heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth.
The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London,
when he consulted me about his Orphan House con
cern, and his purpose of appropriating it to the estab.
lishment of a college.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 135
He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his
words and sentences so perfectly, that he might be
heard and understood at a great distance, especially as
his auditories, however numerous, observed the most
exact silence. He preached one evening from the top
of the Court-House steps, which are in the middle of
Market Street, and on the west side of Second Street,
which crosses it at right angles. Both streets were
filled with his hearers to a considerable distance.
Being among the hindmost in Market Street, I had
the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by
retiring backwards down the street towards the river ;
and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front
Street, when some noise in that street obscured it.
Imagining then a semicircle, of which my distance
should be the radius, and that it were filled with audi
tors, to each of whom I allowed two square feet, I
computed that he might well be heard by more than
thirty thousand. This reconciled me to the newspaper
accounts of his having preached to twenty-five thou
sand people in the fields, and to the ancient histories
of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had
sometimes doubted.
By hearing him often, I came to distinguish easily
between sermons newly composed, and those which he
had often preached in the course of his travels. His
delivery of the latter was so improved by frequent
repetitions that every accent, every emphasis, every
modulation of voice was so perfectly well turned and
well placed, that, without being interested in the sub
ject, one could not help being pleased with the dis
course ; a pleasure of much the same kind with that
received from an excellent piece of music. This is an
advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are

136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
stationary, as the latter cannot well improve their de
livery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.
His writing and printing from time to time gave
great advantage to his enemies ; unguarded expres
sions, and even erroneous opinions, delivered in preach
ing, might have been afterwards explained or quali
fied by supposing others that might have accompanied
them, or they might have been denied; but litera
scripta manet.1 Critics attacked his writings vio
lently, and with so much appearance of reason as to
diminish the number of his votaries and prevent their
increase ; so that I am of opinion if he had never
written anything, he would have left behind him a
much more numerous and important sect, and his
reputation might in that case have been still growing,
even after his death, as there being nothing of his
writing on which to found a censure and give him a
lower character, his proselytes would be left at liberty
to feign for him as great a variety of excellences as
their enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have
possessed. My business was now continually augmenting, and
my circumstances growing daily easier, my newspaper
having become very profitable, as being for a time al
most the only one in this and the neighboring prov
inces. I experienced, too, the truth of the observation,
" that after getting the first hundred pound, it is more
easy to get the second," money itself being of a pro
lific nature.
1 In other words, what is written- down stays when what is merely
spoken is forgotten.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 137

vrn.
BEGINNTNG OF PUBLIC LIFE.
The partnership at Carolina having succeeded, I
was encouraged to engage in others, and to promote
several of my workmen, who had behaved well, by
establishing them with printing-houses in different
colonies, on the same terms with that in Carolina.
Most of them did well, being enabled at the end of
our term, six years, to purchase the types of me and
go on working for themselves, by which means sev
eral families were raised. Partnerships often finish
in quarrels ; but I was happy in this, that mine were
all carried on and ended amicably, owing, I think, a
good deal to the precaution of having very explicitly
settled, in our articles, everything to be done by or
expected from each partner, so that there was nothing
to dispute, which precaution I would therefore recom
mend to all who enter into partnerships ; for, whatever
esteem partners may have for, and confidence in each
other at the time of the contract, little jealousies and
disgusts may arise, with ideas of inequality in the care
and burden of the business, etc., which are attended
often with breach of friendship and of the connection,
perhaps with lawsuits and other disagreeable conse
quences. I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied
with my being established in Pennsylvania. There
were, however, two things that I regretted, there being

138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
no provision for defence, nor for a complete education
of youth ; no militia, nor any college. I therefore, in
1743, drew up a proposal for establishing an academy ;
and at that time, thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters,
who was out of employ, a fit person to superintend
such an institution, I communicated the project to
him ; but he, having more profitable views in the ser
vice of the proprietaries, which succeeded, declined
the undertaking; and, not knowing another at that
time suitable for such a trust, I let the scheme lie a
while dormant. I succeeded better the next year,
1744, in proposing and establishing a Philosophical
Society.1 The paper I wrote for that purpose will be
found among my writings, when collected.
With respect to defence, Spain having been sev
eral years at war against Great Britain, and being at
length joined by France, which brought us into great
danger, and the labored and long - continued en
deavor of our governor, Thomas, to prevail with our
Quaker Assembly to pass a militia law, and make
other provisions for the security of the province, hav
ing proved abortive, I determined to try what might
be done by a voluntary association of the people. To
promote this, I first wrote and published a pamphlet,
entitled Plain Truth, in which I stated our defence
less situation in strong lights, with the necessity of
union and discipline for our defence, and promised to
propose in a few days an association, to be generally
signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had a sudden
and surprising effect. I was called upon for the in-
1 Six of the nine original members of the American Philosophical
Society were members of the Junto. The society still continues. It
was designed by Franklin to give a common ground of association to
those in the various American colonies who were pursuing studies in
science and philosophy.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 139
strument of association, and having settled the draft
of it with a few friends, I appointed a meeting of the
citizens in the large building before mentioned. The
house was pretty full ; I had prepared a number of
printed copies, and provided pens and ink dispersed
all over the room. I harangued them a little on the
subject, read the paper, and explained it, and then dis
tributed the copies, which were eagerly signed, not the
least objection being made.
When the company separated, and the papers were
collected, we found above twelve hundred hands;
and other copies being dispersed in the country, the
subscribers amounted at length to upward of ten thou
sand. These all furnished themselves as soon as they
could with arms, formed themselves into companies
and regiments, chose their own officers, and met every
week to be instructed in the manual exercise, and
other parts of military discipline. The women, by
subscriptions among themselves, provided silk colors,
which they presented to the companies, painted with
different devices and mottoes, which I supplied.
The officers of the companies composing the Phila
delphia regiment, being met, chose me for their col
onel ; but, conceiving myself unfit, I declined that
station, and recommended Mr. Lawrence, a fine per
son, and man of influence, who was accordingly ap
pointed. I then proposed a lottery to defray the ex
pense of building a battery below the town, and fur
nishing it with cannon. It filled expeditiously, and
the battery was soon erected, the merlons being framed
of logs and filled with earth. We bought some old
cannon from Boston, but these not being sufficient,
we wrote to England for more, soliciting, at the same
time, our proprietaries for some assistance, though
without much expectation of obtaining it.

140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Meanwhile Colonel Lawrence, William Allen,
Abram Taylor, Esquire, and myself were sent to New
York by the associators, commissioned to borrow some
cannon of Governor Clinton. He at first refused us
peremptorily; but at dinner with his council, where
there was great drinking of Madeira wine, as the cus
tom of that place then was, he softened by degrees,
and said he would lend us six. After a few more
bumpers he advanced to ten ; and at length he very
good-naturedly conceded eighteen. They were fine
cannon, eighteen-pounders, with their carriages, which
we soon transported and mounted on our battery,
where the associators kept a nightly guard while the
war lasted, and among the rest I regularly took my
turn of duty there as a common soldier.
My activity in these operations was agreeable to
the governor and council ; they took me into con
fidence, and I was consulted by them in every meas
ure wherein their concurrence was thought useful to
the association. Calling in the aid of religion, I pro
posed to them the proclaiming a fast, to promote ref
ormation, and implore the blessing of Heaven on our
undertaking. They embraced the motion ; but, as it
was the first fast ever thought of in the province, the
secretary had no precedent from which to draw the
proclamation. My education in New England, where
a fast is proclaimed every year, was here of some
advantage : I drew it in the accustomed style ; it was
translated into German, printed in both languages, and
divulged through the province. This gave the clergy
of the different sects an opportunity of influencing
their congregations to join in the association, and it
would probably have been general among all but
Quakers if the peace had not soon intervened.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 141
It was thought by some of my friends that, by my
activity in these affairs, I should offend that sect, and
thereby lose my interest in the Assembly of the prov
ince, where they formed a great majority. A young
gentleman, who had likewise some friends in the
House, and wished to succeed me as their clerk, ac
quainted me that it was decided to displace me at the
next election ; and he, therefore, in good will, advised
me to resign, as more consistent with my honor than
being turned out. My answer to him was, that I had
read or heard of some public man who made it a rule
never to ask for an office, and never to refuse one
when offered to him. " I approve," says I, " of his
rule, and will practise it with a small addition: I
shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an
office. If they will have my office of clerk to dispose
of to another, they shall take it from me. I will not,
by giving it up, lose my right of some time or other
making reprisals on my adversaries." I heard, how
ever, no more of this; I was chosen again unan
imously as usual at the next election. Possibly, as
they disliked my late intimacy with the members of
council, who had joined the governors in all the dis
putes about military preparations, with which the
House had long been harassed, they might have been
pleased if I would voluntarily have left them; but
they did not care to displace me on account merely of
my zeal for the association, and they could not well
give another reason.
Indeed, I had some cause to believe that the defence
of the country was not disagreeable to any of them,
provided they were not required to assist in it. And
I found that a much greater number of them than I
could have imagined, though against offensive war,

142 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
were clearly for the defensive. Many pamphlets pro
and con were published on the subject, and some by
good Quakers, in favor of defence, which I believe con
vinced most of their younger people.
A transaction in our fire company gave me some
insight into their prevailing sentiments. It had been
proposed that we should encourage the scheme for
building a battery by laying out the present stock,
then about sixty pounds, in tickets of the lottery.1
By our rules, no money could be disposed of till the
next meeting after the proposal. The company con
sisted of thirty members, of which twenty-two were
Quakers, and eight only of other persuasions. We
eight punctually attended the meeting ; but though we
thought that some of the Quakers would join us, we
were by no means sure of a majority. Only one
Quaker, Mr. James Morris, appeared to oppose the
measure. He expressed much sorrow that it had ever
been proposed, as he said Friends were all against it,
and it would create such discord as might break up
the company. We told him that we saw no reason
for that ; we were the minority, and if Friends were
against the measure, and outvoted us, we must and
should, agreeably to the usage of all societies, submit.
When the hour for business arrived it was moved to
put the vote ; he allowed we might then do it by the
rules, but, as he could assure us that a number of
members intended to be present for the purpose of
opposing it, it would be but candid to allow a little
time for their appearing.
1 At this time and for many years after, a lottery was the common
mode for raising money for public and philanthropic purposes. By
degrees men came to see that it confused people's notions as to right
and wrong ways of getting money and encouraged those who might
otherwise be industrious to trust to luck. Thus in course of time the
lottery has come to be looked upon as a kind of gambling.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 143
While we were disputing this, a waiter came to tell
me two gentlemen below desired to speak with me.
I went down, and found they were two of our Quaker
members. They told me there were eight of them
assembled at a tavern just by ; that they were deter
mined to come and vote with us if there should be oc
casion, which they hoped would not be the case, and
desired we would not call for their assistance if we
could do without it, as their voting for such a meas
ure might embroil them with their elders and friends.
Being thus secure of a majority, I went up, and after
a little seeming hesitation, agreed to a delay of an
other hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be extremely
fair. Not one of his opposing friends appeared, at
which he expressed great surprise ; and at the expira
tion of the hour, we carried the resolution eight to
one ; and as, of the twenty-two Quakers, eight were
ready to vote with us, and thirteen, by their absence,
manifested that they were not inclined to oppose the
measure, I afterwards estimated the proportion of
Quakers sincerely against defence as one to twenty-
one only ; for these were all regular members of that
society, and in good reputation among them, and had
due notice of what was proposed at that meeting.
The honorable and learned Mr. Logan, wholiad al
ways been of that sect, was one who wrote an address
to them, declaring his approbation of defensive war,
and supporting his opinion by many strong arguments.
He put into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out
in lottery tickets for the battery, with directions to
apply what prizes might be drawn wholly to that ser
vice. He told me the following anecdote of his old
master, William Penn, respecting defence. He came
over from England, when a young man, with that pro-

144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
prietary, and as his secretary. It was war time, and
their ship was chased by an armed vessel, supposed to
be an enemy. Their captain prepared for defence ;
but told William Penn, and his company of Quakers,
that he did not expect their assistance, and they might
retire into the cabin, which they did, except James
Logan, who chose to stay upon deck, and was quartered
to a gun. The supposed enemy proved a friend, so
there was no fighting ; but when the secretary went
down to communicate the intelligence, William Penn
rebuked him severely for staying upon deck, and under
taking to assist in defending the vessel, contrary to the
principles of Friends, especially as it had not been re
quired by the captain. This reproof, being before all
the company, piqued the secretary, who answered, " I
being thy servant, why did thee not order me to come
down ? But thee was willing enough that 1 should
stay and help to fight the ship when thee thought there
was danger."
My being many years in the Assembly, the majority
of which were constantly Quakers, gave me frequent
opportunities of seeing the embarrassment given them
by their principle against war, whenever application
was made to them, by order of the crown, to grant
aids for military purposes. They were unwilling to
offend government, on the one hand, by a direct re
fusal ; and their friends, the body of the Quakers, on
the other, by a compliance contrary to their principles ;
hence a variety of evasions to avoid complying, and
modes of disguising the compliance when it became
unavoidable. The common mode at last was, to grant
money under the phrase of its being "for the king's
use," and never to inquire how it was applied.
But if the demand was not directly from the crown,

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1J5
that phrase was found not so proper, and some other
was to be invented. As, when powder was wanting
(1 think it was for the garrison at Louisburg), and
the government of New England solicited a grant of
some from Pennsylvania, which was much urged on
the House by Governor Thomas, they could not grant
money to buy powder, because that was an ingredient
of war; but they voted an aid to New England of
three thousand pounds, to be put into the hands of the
governor, and appropriated it for the purchasing of
bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. Some of the
council, desirous of giving the House still further em
barrassment, advised the governor not to accept pro
vision, as not being the thing he had demanded ; but
he replied, " I shall take the money, for I understand
very well their meaning ; other grain is gunpowder,"
which he accordingly bought, and they never objected
to it.
It was in allusion to this fact that when, in our fire
company, we feared the success of our proposal in
favor of the lottery, and I had said to my friend
Mr. Syng, one of our members, " If we fail, let us
move the purchase of a fire-engine with the money ;
the Quakers can have no objection to that ; and then,
if you nominate me and I you as a committee for that
purpose, we will buy a great gun, which is certainly a
fire-engine." " I see," says he, " you have improved
by being so long in the Assembly ; your equivocal pro
ject would be just a match for their wheat or other
grain." These embarrassments that the Quakers suffered
from having established and published it as one of
their principles that no kind of war was lawful, and
which, being once published, they could not afterwards,

146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
however they might change their minds, easily get rid
of, reminds me of what I think a more prudent con
duct in another sect among us, that of the Dunkers.
I was acquainted with one of its founders, Michael
Welfare, soon after it appeared. He complained to
me that they were grievously calumniated by the
zealots of other persuasions, and charged with abomi
nable principles and practices, to which they were
utter strangers. I told him this had always been the
case with new sects, and that, to put a stop to such
abuse, I imagined it might be well to publish the arti
cles of their belief, and the rules of their discipline.
He said that it had been proposed among them, but
not agreed to, for this reason : " When we were first
drawn together as a society," says he, " it has pleased
God to enlighten our minds so far as to see that some
doctrines, which we once esteemed truths, were errors ;
and that others, which we had esteemed errors, were
real truths. From time to time He has been pleased
to afford us farther light, and our principles have been
improving, and our errors diminishing. Now we are
not sure that we are arrived at the end of this pro
gression, and at the perfection of spiritual or theologi
cal knowledge ; and we fear that, if we should once
print our confession of faith, we should feel ourselves
as if bound and confined by it, and perhaps be un
willing to receive farther improvement, and our suc
cessors still more so, as conceiving what we their elders
and founders had done, to be something sacred, never
to be departed from."
This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance
in the history of mankind, every other sect supposing
itself in possession of all truth, and that those who
differ are so far in the wrong ; like a man travelling in

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 147
f°ggy weather, those at some distance before him on
the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as
those behind him, and also the people in the fields on
each side, but near him all appears clear, though in
truth he is as much in the fog as any of them. To
avoid this kind of embarrassment, the Quakers have
of late years been gradually declining the public ser
vice in the Assembly and in the magistracy, choosing
rather to quit their power than their principle.
In order of time, I should have mentioned before,
that having, in 1742, invented an open stove for the
' better warming of rooms,1 and at the same time sav
ing fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in en
tering, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert
Grace, one of my early friends, who, having an iron-
furnace, found the casting of the plates for these
stoves a profitable thing, as they were growing in de
mand. To promote that demand, I wrote and pub
lished a pamphlet, entitled " An Account of the new-
invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces ; wherein their
Construction and Manner of Operation is particu
larly explained ; their Advantages above every other
Method of warming Rooms demonstrated ; and all
Objections that have been raised against the Use of
them- answered and obviated," .etc. This pamphlet
had a good effect. Governor Thomas was so pleased
with the construction of this stove, as described in it,
that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vend
ing of them for a term of years ; but I declined it
from a principle which has ever weighed with me on
such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advan-
1 Still commonly known as the Franklin open fireplace. The
chimneys in Franklin's time were so built as to waste fuel and con
sume heat.

148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
tages from the inventions of others, we shoidd be glad
of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of
ours ; and this we should do freely and generously.
An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a
good deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his
own, and making some small changes in the machine,
which rather hurt its operation, got a patent for it
there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it.
And this is not the only instance of patents taken out
for my inventions by others, though not always with
the same success, which I never contested, as having
no desire of profiting by patents myself, and hating
disputes. The use of these fireplaces in very many
houses, both of this and the neighboring colonies, has
been, and is, a great saving of wood to the inhabi
tants.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 149

IX.
A PUBLIC-SPIRITED GENTLEMAN.
Peace being concluded, and the association busi
ness therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts again
to the affair of establishing an academy. The 'first
step I took was to associate in the design a number of
active friends, of whom the Junto furnished a good
part ; the next was to write and publish a pamphlet,
entitled Proposals relating to the Education of Youth
in Pennsylvania. This I distributed among the prin
cipal inhabitants gratis ; and as soon as I could sup
pose their minds a little prepared by the perusal of it,
I set on foot a subscription for opening and supporting
an academy ; it was to be paid in quotas yearly for five
years; by so dividing it, I judged the subscription
might be larger, and I believe it was so, amounting
to no less, if I remember right, than five thousand
pounds. In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their
publication, not as an act of mine, but of some public-
spirited gentlemen, avoiding as much as I could, ac
cording to my usual rule, the presenting myself to the
public as the author of any scheme for their benefit.
The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate
execution, chose out of their number twenty-four trus
tees, and appointed Mr. Francis, then attorney-general,
and myself to draw up constitutions for the govern
ment of the academy ; which being done and signed,

150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
a house was hired, masters engaged, and the schools
opened, I think, in the same year, 1749.
The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon
found too small, and we were looking out for a piece
of ground, properly situated, with intention to build,
when Providence threw into our way a large house
ready built, which, with a few alterations, might well
serve our purpose. This was the building before men
tioned, erected by the hearers of Mr. Whitefield,1 and
was obtained for us in the following manner.
It is to be noted that the contributions to this build
ing being made by people of different sects, care was
taken in the nomination of trustees, in whom the build
ing and ground was to be vested, that a predominancy
should not be given to any sect, lest in time that pre
dominancy might be a means of appropriating the
whole to the use of such sect, contrary to the original
intention. It was therefore that one of each sect was
appointed, viz., one Church - of - England man, one
Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, etc., those,
in case of vacancy by death, were to fill it by election
from among the contributors. The Moravian hap
pened not to please his colleagues, and on his death
they resolved to have no other of that sect. The diffi
culty then was, how to avoid having two of some other
sect, by means of the new choice.
Several persons were named, and for that reason
not agreed to. At length one mentioned me, with the
observation that I was merely an honest man, and of
no sect at all, which prevailed with them to choose
me. The enthusiasm which existed when the house
was built had long since abated, and its trustees had
not been able to procure fresh contributions for pay-
1 This building was on the west side of Fourth Street, below Arch.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 151
ing the ground-rent, and discharging some other debts
the building had occasioned, which embarrassed them
greatly. Being now a member of both sets of trus
tees, that for the building and that for the academy,
I had a good opportunity of negotiating with both,
and brought them finally to an agreement, by which
the trustees for the building were to cede it to those
of the academy, the latter undertaking to discharge
the debt, to keep forever open in the building a large
hall for occasional preachers, according to the original
intention, and maintain a free school for the instruc
tion of poor children. Writings were accordingly
drawn, and on paying the debts the trustees of the
academy were put in possession of the premises ; and
by dividing the great and lofty hall into stories, and
different rooms above and below for the several
schools, and purchasing some additional ground, the
whole was soon made fit for our purpose, and the
scholars removed into the building. The care and
trouble of agreeing with the workmen, purchasing
materials, and superintending the work, fell upon me ;
and I went through it the more cheerfully, as it did
not then interfere with my private business, having
the year before taken a very able, industrious, and
honest partner, Mr. David Hall, with whose character
I was well acquainted, as he had worked for me four
years. He took off my hands all care of the printing
office, paying me punctually my share of the profits.
This partnership continued eighteen years, success
fully for us both.
The trustees of the academy, after a while, were
incorporated by a charter from the governor; their
funds were increased by contributions in Britain and
grants of land from the proprietaries, to which the

152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
Assembly has since made considerable addition ; and
thus was established the present University of Phila
delphia. I have been continued one of its trustees
from the beginning, now near forty years, and have
had the very great pleasure of seeing a number of the
youth who have received their education in it, distin
guished by their improved abilities, serviceable in pub
lic stations, and ornaments to their country.
When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from
private business, I flattered myself that, by the suf
ficient though moderate fortune I had acquired, I had
secured leisure during the rest of my life for philo
sophical studies and amusements. I purchased all Dr.
Spence's apparatus, who had come from England to lec
ture here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments
with great alacrity ; but the public, now considering
me as a man of leisure, laid hold of me for their pur
poses, every part of our civil government, 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 As
sembly. This latter station was the more agreeable
to me, as I was at length tired with sitting there to
hear debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part,
and which were often so unentertaining that I was
induced to amuse myself with making magic squares
or circles, or anything to avoid weariness ; and I con
ceived my becoming a member would enlarge my
power of doing good. I would not, however, insinuate
that my ambition was not flattered by all these promo
tions ; it certainly was ; for, considering my low be
ginning, they were great things to me ; and they were

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 153
still more pleasing, as being so many spontaneous
testimonies of the public good opinion, and by me en
tirely unsolicited.
The office of justice of the peace I tried a little, by
attending a few courts, and sitting on the bench to
hear causes ; but finding that more knowledge of the
common law than I possessed was necessary to act in
that station with credit, I gradually withdrew from it,
excusing myself by my being obliged to attend the
higher duties of a legislator in the Assembly. My
election to this trust was repeated every year for ten
years, without my ever asking any elector for his vote,
or signifying, either directly or indirectly, any desire
of being chosen. On taking my seat in the House,
my son was appointed their clerk.
The year following, a treaty being to be held with
the Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent a message
to the House, proposing that they should nominate
some of their members, to be joined with some mem
bers of council, as commissioners for that purpose.
The House named the speaker (Mr. Norris) and my
self ; and, being commissioned, we went to Carlisle,
and met the Indians accordingly.
As those people are extremely apt to get drunk,
and, when so, are very quarrelsome and disorderly,
we strictly forbade the selling any liquor to them ; and
when they complained of this restriction, we told them
that if they would continue sober during the treaty,
we would give them plenty of rum when business
was over. They promised this, and they kept their
promise because they could get no liquor, and the
treaty was conducted very orderly, and concluded to
mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received
the rum ; this was in the afternoon : they were near

154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
one hundred men, women, and children, and were
lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of a
square, just without the town. In the evening, hear
ing a great noise among them, the commissioners
walked out to see what was the matter. We found they
had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square ;
they were all drunk, men and women, quarrelling and
fighting. Their dark-colored bodies, half naked, seen
only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, running
after and beating one another with firebrands, ac
companied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the
most resembling our ideas of hell that could well be
imagined ; there was no appeasing the tumult, and we
retired to our lodging. At midnight a number of
them came thundering at our door, demanding more
rum, of which we took no notice.
The next day, sensible they had misbehaved in giving
us that disturbance, they sent three of their old counsel
lors to make their apology. The orator acknowledged
the fault, but laid it upon the rum ; and then endeavored
to excuse the rum by saying, " The Great Spirit, who
made all things, made everything for some use, and
whatever use he designed anything for, that use it
should always be put to. Now, when he made rum, he
said, ' Let this be for the Indians to get drunk with,'
and it must be so." And, indeed, if it be the design
of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to
make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not
improbable that rum may be the appointed means.
It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly
inhabited the sea-coast.
In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of
mine, conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in
Philadelphia (a very beneficent design, which has

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 155
been ascribed to me, but was originally his) for the
reception and cure of poor sick persons, whether in
habitants of the province or strangers. He was zeal
ous and active in endeavoring to procure subscriptions
for it, but the proposal being a novelty in America,
and at first not well understood, he met but with
small success.
At length he came to me with the compliment that
he found there was no such thing as carrying a pub
lic-spirited project through without my being con
cerned in it. " For," says he, " I am often asked by
those to whom I propose subscribing, Have you con
sulted Franklin . upon this business ? 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." I inquired
into the nature and probable utility of his scheme, and
receiving from him a very satisfactory explanation, I
not only subscribed to it myself, but engaged heartily
in the design of procuring subscriptions from others.
Previously, however, to the solicitation I endeavored
to prepare the minds of the people by writing on the
subject in the newspapers, which was my usual custom
ii\ such cases, but which he had omitted.
The subscriptions afterwards were more free and
generous; but, beginning to flag, I saw they would
be insufficient without some assistance from the As
sembly, and therefore proposed to petition for it,
which was done. The country members did not at
first relish the project ; they objected that it could
only be serviceable to the city, and therefore the citi
zens alone should be at the expense of it ; and they
doubted whether the citizens themselves generally ap
proved of it. My allegation on the contrary, that

156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
it met with such approbation as to leave no doubt of'
our being able to raise two thousand pounds by vol
untary donations, they considered as a most extrava
gant supposition, and utterly impossible.
On this I formed my plan ; and, asking leave to
bring in a bill for incorporating the contributors ac
cording to the prayer of their petition, and granting
them a blank sum of money, which leave was ob
tained chiefly on the consideration that the House
could throw the bill out if they did not like it, I drew
it so as to make the important clause a conditional one,
viz., " And be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
that when the said contributors shall have met and
chosen their managers and treasurer, and shall have
raised by their contributions a capital stock of 
value (the yearly interest of which is to be applied to
the accommodating of the sick poor in the said hos
pital, free of charge for diet, attendance, advice, and
medicines), and shall make the same appear to the
satisfaction of the speaker of the Assembly for the
time being, that then it shall and may be lawful for
the said speaker, and he is hereby required, to sign
an order on the provincial treasurer for the payment
of two thousand pounds, in two yearly payments, to
the treasurer of the said hospital, to be applied to the
founding, building, and finishing of the same."
This condition carried the bill through ; for the
members who had opposed the grant, and now con
ceived they might have the credit of being charitable
without the expense, agreed to its passage ; and then,
in soliciting subscriptions among the people, we urged
the conditional promise of the law as an additional
motive to give, since every man's donation would be
doubled ; thus the clause worked both ways. The sub-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 157
scriptions accordingly soon exceeded the requisite sum,
and we claimed and received the public gift, which en
abled us to carry the design into execution. A conven
ient and handsome building was soon erected ; the in
stitution has by constant experience been found useful,
and flourishes to this day ; and I do not remember
any of my political manoeuvres, the success of which
gave me at the time more pleasure, or wherein, after
thinking of it, I more easily excused myself for having
made some use of cunning.
It was about this time that another projector, the
Rev. Gilbert Tennent, came to me with a request that
I would assist him in procuring a subscription for
erecting a new meeting-house. It was to be for the
use of a congregation he had gathered among the
Presbyterians, who were originally disciples of Mr.
Whitefield. Unwilling to make myself disagreeable
to my fellow-citizens by too frequently soliciting their
contributions, I absolutely refused. He then desired
I would furnish him with a list of the names of per
sons I knew by experience to be generous and public-
spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in me,
after their kind compliance with my solicitations, to
mark them out to be worried by other beggars, and
therefore refused also to give such a list. He then
desired I would at least give him my advice. " That
I will readily do," said I ; " and, in the first place, I
advise you to apply to all those whom you know will
give something ; next, to those whom you are uncer
tain whether they will give anything or not, and show
them the list of those who have given ; and, lastly, do
not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing,
for in some of them you may be mistaken." He
laughed and thanked me, and said he would take my

158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
advice. He did so, for he asked of everybody, and he
obtained a much larger sum than he expected, with
which he erected the capacious and very elegant
meeting-house that stands in Arch Street.1
1 The society which was then organized abandoned the " very ele
gant meeting-house," which they had once enlarged, in 1837, and
now have a church on the corner of Twenty-first and Walnut streets.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 159

X.
A PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN.
Our city, though laid out with a beautiful regu
larity, the streets large, straight, and crossing each
other at right angles, had the disgrace of suffering
those streets to remain long unpaved, and in wet
weather the wheels of heavy carriages ploughed them
into a quagmire, so that it was difficult to cross them ;
and in dry weather the dust was offensive. I had
lived near what was called the Jersey Market, and
saw with pain the inhabitants wading in mud while
purchasing their provisions. A strip of ground down
the middle of that market was at length paved with
brick, so that, being once in the market, they had firm
footing, but were often over shoes in dirt to get; there.
By talking and writing on the subject, I was at length
instrumental in getting the street paved with stone be
tween the market and the bricked foot pavement, that
was on each side next the houses. This, for some
time, gave an easy access to the market dry-shod ; but
the rest of the street not being paved, whenever a car
riage came out of the mud upon this pavement, it
shook off and left its dirt upon it, and it was soon
covered with mire, which was not removed, the city as
yet having no scavengers.
After some inquiry, I found a poor, industrious
man, who was willing to undertake keeping the pave
ment clean, by sweeping it twice a week, carrying off

160. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
the dirt from before all the neighbors' doors, for the
sum of sixpence per month, to be paid by each house.
I then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the ad
vantages to the neighborhood that might be obtained
by this small expense ; the greater ease in keeping
our houses clean, so much dirt not being brought in
by people's feet ; the benefit to the shops by more cus
tom, etc., etc., as buyers could more easily get at
them ; and by riot having, in windy weather, the dust
blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I sent one of
these papers to each house, and in a day or two went
round to see who would subscribe an agreement to
pay these sixpences ; it was unanimously signed, and
for a time well executed. All the inhabitants of the
city were delighted with the cleanliness of the pave
ment that surrounded the market, it being a conven
ience to all, and this raised a general desire to have all
the streets paved, and made the people more willing
to submit to a tax for that purpose.
After some time I drew a bill for paving the city,
and brought it into the Assembly. It was just before
I went to England, in 1757, and did not pass till I
was gone, and then with an alteration in the mode of
assessment, which I thought not for the better, but
with an additional provision for lighting as well as
paving the streets, which was a great improvement.
It was by a private person, the late Mr. John Clifton,
his giving a sample of the utility of lamps, by placing
one at his door, that the people were first impressed
with the idea of enlighting all the city. The honor
of this public benefit has also been ascribed to me, but
it belongs truly to that gentleman. I did but follow
his example, and have only some merit to claim re
specting the form of our lamps, as differing from the

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 161
globe lamps we were at first supplied with from Lon
don. Those we found inconvenient in these respects :
they admitted no air below ; the smoke, therefore, did
not readily go out above, but circulated in the globe,
lodged on its inside, and soon obstructed the light
they were intended to afford ; giving, besides, the daily
trouble of wiping them clean ; and an accidental stroke
on one of them would demolish it and render it totally
useless. I therefore suggested the composing them of
four flat panes, with a long funnel above to draw up
the smoke, and crevices admitting air below, to facili
tate the ascent of the smoke ; by this means they were
kept clean, and did not grow dark in a few hours, as
the London lamps do, but continued bright till morn
ing, and an accidental stroke would generally break
but a single pane, easily repaired.
I have sometimes wondered that the Londoners did
not, from the effect holes in the bottom of the globe
lamps used at Vauxhall have in keeping them clean,
learn to have such holes in their street lamps. But,
these holes being made for another purpose, viz., to
communicate flame more suddenly to the wick by a
little flax hanging down through them, the other use,
of letting in air, seems not to have been thought of ;
and therefore, after the lamps have been lit a few
hours, the streets of London are very poorly illumi
nated. The mention of these improvements puts me in mind
of one I proposed, when in London, to Dr. Fothergill,
who was among the best men I have known, and a
great promoter of useful projects. I had observed that
the streets, when dry, were never swept, and the light
dust carried away; but it was suffered to accumu
late till wet weather reduced it to mud, and then, after

162 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
lying some days so deep on the pavement that there
was no crossing but in paths kept clean by poor people
with brooms, it was with great labor raked together
and thrown up into carts open above, the sides of
which suffered some of the slush at every jolt on the
pavement to shake out and fall, sometimes to the an
noyance of foot-passengers. The reason given for not
sweeping the dusty streets was, that the dust would
fly into the windows of shops and houses.
An accidental occurrence had instructed me how
much sweeping might be done in a little time. I
found at my door in Craven Street, one morning, a
poor woman sweeping my pavement with a birch
broom; she appeared very pale and feeble, as just
come out of a fit of sickness. I asked who employed
her to sweep there ; she said, " Nobody ; but I am very
poor and in distress, and I sweeps before gentlefolkses
doors, and hopes they will give me something." I bid
her sweep the whole street clean, and I would give her
a shilling ; this was at nine o'clock ; at twelve she came
for the shilling. From the slowness I saw at first in
her working I could scarce believe that the work was
done so soon, and sent my servant to examine it, who
reported that the whole street was swept perfectly
clean, and all the dust placed in the gutter, which was
in the middle ; and the next rain washed it quite
away, so that the pavement and even the kennel were
perfectly clean.
I then judged that, if that feeble woman could
sweep such a street in three hours, a strong, active
man might have done it in half the time. And here
let me remark the convenience of having but one gut
ter in such a narrow street, running down its middle,
instead of two, one on each side, near the footway;

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 163
for where all the rain that falls on a street runs from
the sides and meets in the middle, it forms there a
current strong enough to wash away all the mud it
meets with ; but when divided into two channels, it is
often too weak to cleanse either, and only makes the
mud it finds more fluid, so that the wheels of car
riages and feet of horses throw and dash it upon the
foot-pavement, which is thereby rendered foul and
slippery, and sometimes splash it upon those who are
walking. My proposal, communicated to the good
doctor, was as follows :
" For the more effectual cleaning and keeping clean
the streets of London and Westminster, it is proposed
that the several watchmen be contracted with to have
the dust swept up in dry seasons, and the mud raked
up at other times, each in the several streets and lanes
of his round ; that they be furnished with brooms and
other proper instruments for these purposes, to be
kept at their respective stands, ready to furnish the
poor people they may employ in the service.
" That in the dry summer months the dust be all
swept up into heaps at proper distances, before the
shops and windows of houses are usually opened, when
the scavengers, with close-covered carts, shall also
carry it all away.
" That the mud, when raked up, be not left in heaps
to be spread abroad again by the wheels of carriages
and trampling of horses, but that the scavengers be
provided with bodies of carts, not placed high upon
wheels, but low upon sliders with lattice bottoms,
which, being covered with straw, will retain the mud
thrown into them, and permit the water to drain from
it, whereby it will become much lighter, water making
the greatest part of its weight ; these bodies of carts

164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
to be placed at convenient distances, and the mud
brought to them in wheelbarrows ; they remaining
where placed till the mud is drained, and then horses
brought to draw them away."
I have since had doubts of the practicability of the
latter part of this proposal, on account of the narrow
ness of some streets, and the difficulty of placing the
draining-sleds so as not to encumber too much the pas
sage ; but I am still of opinion that the former, re
quiring the dust to be swept up and carried away
before the shops are open, is very practicable in the
summer, when the days are long ; for, in walking
through the Strand and Fleet Street one morning at
seven o'clock, I observed there was not one shop open,
though it had been daylight and the sun up above
three hours ; the inhabitants of London choosing vol
untarily to live much by candle-light, , and sleep by
sunshine, and yet often complain, a little absurdly, of
the duty on candles, and the high price of tallow.
Some may think these trifling matters not worth
minding or relating ; but when they consider that
though dust blown into the eyes of a single person, or
into a single shop on a windy day, is but of small im
portance, yet the great number of the instances in a
populous city, and its frequent repetitions give it
weight and consequence, perhaps they will not censure
very severely those who bestow some attention to af
fairs of this seemingly low nature. Human felicity is
produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune
that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur
every day. Thus, if you teach a poor young man to
shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may
contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giv
ing him a thousand guineas. The money may be soon

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 165
spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly
consumed it ; but in the other case, he escapes the fre
quent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their
sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull
razors ; he shaves when most convenient to him, and
enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good
instiument. With these sentiments I have hazarded
the few preceding pages, hoping they may afford hints
which some time or other may be useful to a city I
love, having lived many years in it very happily, and
perhaps to some of our towns in America.
Having been for some time employed by the post
master-general of America as his comptroller in regu
lating several offices, and bringing the officers to ac
count, I was, upon his death in 1753, appointed,
jointly with Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him, by
a commission from the postmaster-general in England.
The American office never had hitherto paid any
thing to that of Britain. We were to have six hun
dred pounds a year between us, if we could make
that sum out of the profits of the office. To do this
a variety of improvements were necessary; some of
these were inevitably at first expensive, so that in the
first four years the office became above nine hundred
pounds in debt to us. But it soon after began to re
pay us ; and before I was displaced by a freak of the
ministers, of which I shall speak hereafter, we had
brought it to yield three times as much clear revenue
to the crown as the post-office of Ireland. Since that
imprudent transaction, they have received from it —
not one farthing !
The business of the post-office occasioned my taking
a journey this year to New England, where the Col
lege of Cambridge, of their own motion, presented me

166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
with the degree of Master of Arts. Yale College, in
Connecticut, had before made me a similar compli
ment. Thus, without studying in any college, I came
to partake of their honors. They were conferred in
consideration of my improvements and discoveries in
the electric branch of natural philosophy.
In 1754, war with France being again apprehended,
a congress of commissioners from the different colonies
was, by an order of the Lords of Trade, to be assem
bled at Albany, there to confer with the chiefs of the
Six Nations concerning the means of defending both
their country and ours. Governor Hamilton, having
received this order, acquainted the House with it, re
questing they would furnish proper presents for the
Indians, to be given on this occasion ; and naming
the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself to join Mr.
Thomas Penn and Mr. Secretary Peters as commis
sioners to act for Pennsylvania. The House approved
the nomination, and provided the goods for the pres
ent, though they did not much like treating out of
the provinces ; and we met the other commissioners at
Albany about the middle of June.
In our way thither, I projected and drew a plan for
the union of all the colonies under one government, so
far as might be necessary for defence and other im
portant general purposes. As we passed through New
York, I had there shown my project to Mr. James
Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great
knowledge in public affairs, and, being fortified by
their approbation, I ventured to lay it before the Con
gress. It then appeared that several of the commis
sioners had formed plans of the same kind. A pre
vious question was first taken, whether a union should
be established, which passed in the affirmative unani-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 167
mously. A committee was then appointed, one mem
ber from each colony, to consider the several plans, and
report. Mine happened to be preferred, and, with a
few amendments, was accordingly reported.
By this plan the general government was to be ad
ministered by a president-general, appointed and sup
ported by the crown, and a grand council was to be
chosen by the representatives of the people of the
several colonies, met in their respective assemblies.
The debates upon it in Congress went on daily, hand
in hand with the Indian business. Many objections
and difficulties were started, but at length they were
all overcome, and the plan was unanimously agreed
to, and copies ordered to be transmitted to the Board
of Trade and to the assemblies of the several prov
inces. Its fate was singular : the assemblies did not
adopt it, as they all thought there was too much pre
rogative in it, and in England it was judged to have
too much of the democratic. The Board of Trade
therefore did not approve of it, nor recommend it for
the approbation of his majesty; but another scheme
was formed, supposed to answer the same purpose bet
ter, whereby the governors of the provinces, with
some members of their respective councils, were to
meet and order the raising of troops, building of forts,
etc., and to draw on the treasury of Great Britain for
the expense, which was afterwards to be refunded by
an act of Parliament laying a tax on America. My
plan, with my reasons in support of it, is to be found
among my political papers that are printed.
Being the winter following in Boston, I had much
conversation with Governor Shirley upon both the
plans. Part of what passed between us on the occa
sion may also be seen among those papers. The differ-

168 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ent and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan makes
me suspect that it was really the true medium ; and I
am still of opinion it would have been happy for both
sides the water if it had been adopted. The colonies,
so united, would have-been sufficiently strong to have
defended themselves ; there would then have been no
need of troops from England ; of course, the subse
quent pretence for taxing America, and the bloody
contest it occasioned, would have been avoided. But
such mistakes are not new : history is full of the er
rors of states and princes.
" Look round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue! "
Those who govern, having much business on their
hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of con
sidering and carrying into execution new projects.
The best public measures are therefore seldom
adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the
occasion. The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down
to the Assembly, expressed his approbation of the
plan, " as appearing to him to be drawn up with great
clearness and strength of judgment, and therefore rec
ommended it as well worthy of their closest and most
serious attention." The House, however, by the man
agement of a certain member, took it up when I
happened to be absent, which I thought not very fair,
and reprobated it without paying any attention to it
at all, to my no small mortification.
In my journey to Boston this year, I met at New
York with our new governor, Mr. Morris, just arrived
there from England, with whom I had been before
intimately acquainted. He brought a commission to

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 169
supersede Mr. Hamilton, who, tired with the disputes
his proprietary instructions subjected him to, had re
signed. Mr. Morris asked me if I thought he must
expect as uncomfortable an administration. I said,
" No ; you may, on the contrary, have a very comfort
able one, if you will only take care not to enter into
any dispute with the Assembly." " My dear friend,"
says he, pleasantly, " how can you advise my avoiding
disputes ? You know I love disputing ; it is one of
my greatest pleasures ; however, to show the regard I
have for your counsel, I promise you I will, if possible,
avoid them." He had some reason for loving to dis
pute, being eloquent, an acute sophister, and therefore
generally successful in argumentative conversation.
He had been brought up to it from a boy, his father, as
I have heard, accustoming his children to dispute with
one another for his diversion, while sitting at table af
ter dinner ; but I think the practice was not wise ; for,
in the course of my observation, these disputing, con
tradicting, and confuting people arc generally unfortu
nate in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but
they never get good will, which would be of more use
to them. We parted, he going to Philadelphia, and
I to Boston.
In returning, I met at New York with the votes of
the Assembly, by which it appeared that, notwith
standing his promise to me, he and the House were
already in high contention; and it was a contin
ual battle between them as long as he retained the
government. I had my share of it ; for, as soon as
I got back to my seat in the Assembly, I was put on
every committee for answering his speeches and mes
sages, and by the committees always desired to make
the drafts. Our answers, as well as his messages,

170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
were often tart, and sometimes indecently abusive;
and as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, one might
have imagined that, when we met, we could hardly
avoid cutting throats ; but he was so good-natured a
man that no personal difference between him and me
was occasioned by the contest, and we often dined
together. One afternoon, in the height of this public quarrel,
we met in the street. "Franklin," says he, "you
must go home with me and spend the evening ; I am
to have some company that you will like ; " and taking
me by the arm, he led me to his house. In gay con
versation over our wine, after supper, he told us, jok
ingly, that he much admired the idea of Sancho Panza,
who, when it was proposed to give him a government,
requested it might be a government of blacks, as then,
if he could not agree with his people, he might sell
them. One of his friends, who sat next to me, says,
" Franklin, why do you continue to side with these
damned Quakers ? Had you not better sell them ?
The proprietor would give a good price." " The gov
ernor," says I, " has not yet blacked them enough."
He, indeed, had labored hard to blacken the Assem
bly in all his messages, but they wiped off his coloring
as fast as he laid it on, and placed it, in return, thick
upon his own face ; so that, finding he was likely to
be negrofied himself, he, as well as Mr. Hamilton,
grew tired of the contest, and quitted the government.
These public quarrels were all at bottom owing
to the proprietaries, our hereditary governors, who,
when any expense was to be incurred for the de
fence of their province, with incredible meanness in
structed their deputies to pass no act for levying the
necessary taxes, unless their vast estates were in the

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 171
same act expressly excused ; and they had even taken
bonds of these deputies to observe such instructions.
The Assemblies for three years held out against this
injustice, though constrained to bend at last. At
length Captain Denny, who was Governor Morris's
successor, ventured to disobey those instructions : how
that was brought about I shall show hereafter.
But I am got forward too fast with my story : there
are still some transactions to be mentioned that hap
pened during the administration of Governor Morris.

172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

XI.
IN THE SERVICE OF THE KING.
War being in a manner commenced with France,
the government of Massachusetts Bay projected an
attack upon Crown Point, and sent Mr. Quincy to
Pennsylvania, and Mr. Pownall, afterward Governor
Pownall, to New York, to solicit assistance. As I
was in the Assembly, knew its temper, and was Mr.
Quincy's countryman, he applied to me for my influ
ence and assistance. I dictated his address to them,
which was well received. They voted an aid of ten
thousand pounds, to be laid out in provisions. But
the governor refusing his assent to their bill (which
included this with other sums granted for the use of the
crown), unless a clause were inserted exempting the
proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax
that would be necessary, the Assembly, though very
desirous of making their grant to New England effect
ual, were at a loss how to accomplish it. Mr. Quincy
labored hard with the governor to obtain his assent,
but he was obstinate.
I then suggested a method of doing the business
without a governor, by orders on the trustees of the
Loan Office, which, by law, the Assembly had the
right of drawing. There was, indeed, little or no
money at that time in the office, and therefore I pro
posed that the orders should be payable in a year, and

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 173
to bear an interest of five per cent. With these orders
I supposed the provisions might easily be purchased.
The Assembly, with very little hesitation, adopted the
proposal. The orders were immediately printed, and
I was one of the corifmittee directed to sign and dispose
of them. The fund for paying them was the interest of
all the paper currency then extant in the province up
on loan, together with the revenue arising from the ex
cise, which being known to be more than sufficient, they
obtained instant credit, and were not only received in
payment for the provisions, but many moneyed people,
who had cash lying by them, vested it in those orders,
which they found advantageous, as they bore interest
while upon hand, and might on any occasion be used
as money, so that they were eagerly all bought up,
and in a few weeks none of them were to be seen.
Thus this important affair was by my means com
pleted. Mr. Quincy returned thanks to the As
sembly in a handsome memorial, went home highly
pleased with the success of his embassy, and ever after
bore for me the most cordial and affectionate friendship.
The British government, not choosing to permit the
union of the colonies as proposed at Albany, and to
trust that union with their defence, lest they should
thereby grow too military and feel their own strength,
suspicions and jealousies at this time being entertained
of them, sent over General Braddock with two regi
ments of regular English troops for that purpose. He
landed at Alexandria, in Virginia, and thence marched
to Fredericktown, in Maryland, where he halted for
carriages. Our Assembly apprehending, from some in
formation, that he had conceived violent prejudices
against them, as averse to the service, wished me to
wait upon him, not as from them, but as postmaster-

174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
general, under the guise of proposing to settle with
him the mode of conducting with most celerity and
certainty the despatches between him and the govern
ors of the several provinces, with whom he must neces
sarily have continual correspondence, and of which
they proposed to pay the expense. My son accompa
nied me on this journey.
We found the general at Fredericktown, waiting im
patiently for the return of those he had sent through the
back parts of Maryland and Virginia to collect wagons.
I stayed with him several days, dined with him daily,
and had full opportunity of removing all his preju
dices, by the information of what the Assembly had
before his arrival actually done, and were still willing
to do, to facilitate his operations. When I was about
to depart, the returns of wagons to be obtained were
brought in, by which it appeared that they amounted
only to twenty-five, and not all of those were in ser
viceable condition. The general and all the officers
were surprised, declared the expedition was then at an
end, being impossible, and exclaimed against the min
isters for ignorantly landing them in a country desti
tute of the means of conveying their stores, baggage,
etc., not less than one hundred and fifty wagons being
necessary. I happened to say I thought it was a pity they had
not been landed rather in Pennsylvania, as in that
country almost every farmer had his wagon. The
general eagerly laid hold of my words, and said,
" Then you, sir, who are a man of interest there, can
probably procure them for us ; and I beg you will un
dertake it." I asked what terms were to be offered
the owners of the wagons ; and I was desired to put
on paper the terms that appeared to me necessary.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 175
This I did, and they were agreed to, and a commission
and instructions accordingly prepared immediately.
What those terms were will appear in the advertise
ment I published as soon as I arrived at Lancaster,
which being, from the great and sudden effect it pro
duced, a piece of some curiosity, I shall insert it at
length, as follows :
" ADVERTISEMENT. " Lancaster, April 26, 1755.
" Whereas, one hundred and fifty wagons, with four
horses to each wagon, and fifteen hundred saddle or
pack horses, are wanted for the service of his majes
ty's forces now about to rendezvous at Will's Creek,
and his excellency General Braddock having been
pleased to empower me to contract for the hire of the
same, I hereby give notice that I shall attend for that
purpose at Lancaster from this day to next Wednes
day evening, and at York from next Thursday morn
ing till Friday evening, where I shall be ready to
agree for wagons and teams, or single horses, on the
following terms, viz. : 1. That there shall be paid for
each wagon, with four good horses and a driver, fif
teen shillings per diem ; and for each able horse with
a pack-saddle or other saddle and furniture, two shil
lings per diem ; and for each able horse without a sad
dle, eighteen pence per diem. 2. That the pay com
mence from the time of their joining the forces at
Will's Creek, which must be on or before the 20th of
May ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid
over and above for the time necessary for their travel
ling to Will's Creek and home again after their dis
charge. 3. Each wagon and team, and every saddle
or pack horse, is to be valued by indifferent persons

176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
chosen between me and the owner ; and in case of the
loss of any wagon, team, or other horse in the service,
the price according to such valuation is to be allowed
and paid. 4. Seven days' pay is to be advanced and
paid in hand by me to the owner of each wagon and
team or horse, at the time of contracting, if required,
and the remainder to be paid by General Braddock,
or by the paymaster of the army, at the time of their dis
charge, or from time to time, as it shall be demanded.
5. No drivers of wagons, or persons taking care of the
hired horses, are on any account to be called upon to
do the duty of soldiers, or be otherwise employed than
in conducting or taking care of their carriages or
horses. 6. All oats, Indian corn, or other forage that
wagons or horses bring to the camp, more than is ne
cessary for the subsistence of the horses, is to be taken
for the use of the army, and a reasonable price paid
for the same.
" Note. — My son, William Franklin, is empowered
to enter into like contracts with any person in Cum
berland county. B. Franklin."
" To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster,
York, and Cumberland.
" Friends and Countrymen :
" Being occasionally at the camp at Frederick a few
days since, I found the general and officers extremely
exasperated on account of their not being supplied
with horses and carriages, which had been expected
from this province, as most able to furnish them ; but,
through the dissensions between our governor and As
sembly, money had not been provided, nor any steps
taken for that purpose.
" It was proposed to send an armed force immedi-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 177
ately into these counties, to seize as many of the best
carriages and horses as should be wanted, and compel
as many persons into the service as would be neces
sary to drive and take care of them.
" I apprehended that the progress of British sol
diers through these counties on such an occasion,
especially considering the temper they are in, and their
resentment against us, would be attended with many
and great inconveniences to the inhabitants, and there
fore more willingly took the trouble of trying first
what might be done by fair and equitable means. The
people of these back counties have lately complained
to the Assembly that a sufficient currency was want
ing ; you have an opportunity of receiving and divid
ing among you a very considerable sum ; for, if the
service of this expedition should continue, as it is more
than probable it will, for one hundred and twenty
days, the hire of these wagons and horses will
amount to upward of thirty thousand pounds, which
will be paid you in silver and gold of the king's
money. "The service will be light and easy, for the army
will scarce march above twelve miles per day, and the
wagons and baggage-horses, as they carry those
things that are absolutely necessary to the welfare of
the army, must march with the army, and no faster ;
and are, for the army's sake, always placed where they
can be most secure, whether in a march or in a camp.
" If you are really, as I believe you are, good and
loyal subjects to his majesty, you may now do a most
acceptable service, and make it easy to yourselves ; for
three or four of such as can not separately -spare from
the business of their plantations a wagon and four
horses and a driver, may do it together, one furnish-

178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ing the wagon, another one or two horses, and another
the driver, and divide the pay proportionably between
you ; but if you do not this service to your king and
country voluntarily, when such good pay and reason
able terms are offered to you, your loyalty will be
strongly suspected. The king's business must be
done ; so many brave troops, come so far for your de
fence, must not stand idle through your backwardness
to do what may be reasonably expected from you;
wagons and horses must be had ; violent measures
will probably be used, and you will be left to seek for
a recompense where you can find it, and your case,
perhaps, be little pitied or regarded.
" I have no particular interest in this affair, as,
except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do good, 1
shall have only my labor for my pains. If this method
of obtaining the wagons and horses is not likely to
succeed, I am obliged to send word to the general in
fourteen days ; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the
hussar, with a body of soldiers, will immediately enter
the province for the purpose, which I shall be sorry to
hear, because I am very sincerely and truly your friend
and well-wisher,
" B. Franklin."
I received of the general about eight hundred
pounds, to be disbursed in advance-money to the
wagon owners, etc. ; but that sum being insufficient, I
advanced upward of two hundred pounds more, and in
two weeks the one hundred and fifty wagons, with
two hundred and fifty-nine carrying horses, were on
their march for the camp. The advertisement prom
ised payment according to the valuation, in case any
wagon or horse should be lost. The owners, how

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 179
ever, alleging they did not know General Braddock,
or what dependence might be had on his promise, in
sisted on my bond for the performance, which I accord
ingly gave them.
While I was at the camp, supping one evening with
the officers of Colonel Dunbar's regiment, he repre
sented to me his concern for the subalterns, who, he
said, were generally not in affluence, and could ill
afford, in this dear country, to lay in the stores that
might be necessary in so long a march, through a wilder
ness, where nothing was to be purchased. I commis
erated their case, and resolved to endeavor procuring
them some relief. I said nothing, however, to him of
my intention, but wrote the next morning to the com
mittee of the Assembly, who had the disposition of
some public money, warmly recommending the case
of these officers to their consideration, and proposing
that a present should be sent them of necessaries and
refreshments. My son, who had some experience of a
camp life, and of its wants, drew up a list for me,
which I enclosed in my letter. The committee ap
proved, and used such diligence that, conducted by
my son, the stores arrived at the camp as soon as the
wagons. They consisted of twenty parcels, each con
taining —
6 lbs. loaf sugar. 1 Gloucester cheese.
6 lbs. good Muscovado do. 1 keg containing 20 lbs. good but-
1 lb. good green tea. ter.
1 lb. good bohea do. 2 doz. old Madeira wine.
6 lbs. good ground coffee. 2 gallons Jamaica spirits.
6 lbs. chocolate. 1 bottle flour of mustard.
1-2 cwt. best white biscuit. 2 well-cured hams.
1-2 lb. pepper. 1-2 dozen dried tongues.
1 quart best white wine vine- 6 lbs. rice.
gar. 0 lbs. raisins.

180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
These twenty parcels, well packed, were placed on
as many horses, each parcel, with the horse, being in
tended as a present for one officer. They were very
thankfully received, and the kindness acknowledged
by letters to me from the colonels of both regiments,
in the most grateful terms. The general, too, was
highly satisfied with my conduct in procuring him the
wagons, etc., and readily paid my account of dis
bursements, thanking me repeatedly, and requesting
my farther assistance in sending provisions after him.
I undertook this also, and was busily employed in it
till we heard of his defeat, advancing for the service
of my own money upwards of one thousand pounds
sterling, of which I sent him an account. It came
to his hands, luckily for me, a few days before the
battle, and he returned me immediately an order on
the paymaster for the round sum of one thousand
pounds, leaving the remainder to the next account.
I consider this payment as good luck, having never
been able to obtain that remainder, of which more
hereafter. This general was, I think, a brave man, and might
probably have made a figure as a good officer in some
European war. But he had too much self-confidence,
too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops,
and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians.
George Croghan, our Indian interpreter, joined him
on his march with one hundred of those people, who
might have been of great use to his army as guides,
scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly ; but he
slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left
him. In conversation with him one day, he was giving me
some account of his intended progress. " After tak-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 181
ing Fort Duquesne," 1 says he, " I am to proceed to
Niagara ; and, having taken that, to Frontenac, if the
season will allow time ; and I suppose it will, for Du
quesne can hardly detain me above three or four days ;
and then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to
Niagara." Having before revolved in my mind the
long line his army must make in their march by a very
narrow road, to be cut for them through the woods
and bushes, and also what I had read of a former de
feat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iro
quois country, I had conceived some doubts and some
fears for the event of the campaign. But I ventured
only to say, " To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before
Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided
with artillery, that place not yet completely fortified,
and as we hear with no very strong garrison, can prob
ably make but a short resistance. The only danger I
apprehend of obstruction to your march is from am
buscades of Iudians, who, by constant practice, are
dexterous in laying and executing them ; and the slen
der line, near four miles long, which your army must
make, may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its
flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several pieces,
which, from their distance, can not come up in time
to support each other."
He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, "These
savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your
raw American militia, but upon the king's regular and
disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should
make any impression." I was conscious of an impro
priety in my disputing with a military man in mat-
1 Fort Duquesne stood where is now the city of Pittsburg. Wash
ington, it will be remembered, was an aid-de-camp of General Brad
dock and gave him the same advice regarding Indian warfare as
Franklin did.

182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ters of his profession, and said no more. The enemy,
however, did not take the advantage of his army which
I apprehended its long line of march exposed it to,
but let it advance without interruption till within nine
miles of the place ; and then, when more in a body
(for it had just passed a river, where the front had
halted till all were come over), and in a more open
part of the woods than any it had passed, attacked its
advanced guard by a heavy fire from behind trees and
bushes, which was the first intelligence the general
had of an enemy's being near him. This guard being
disordered, the general hurried the troops up to their
assistance, which was done in great confusion, through
wagons, baggage, and cattle ; and presently the fire
came upon their flank : the officers, being on horse
back, were more easily distinguished, picked out as
marks, and fell very fast; and the soldiers were
crowded together in a huddle, having or hearing no
orders, and standing to be shot at till two-thirds of
them were killed ; and then, being seized with a panic,
the whole fled with precipitation.
The wagoners took each a horse out of his team
and scampered; their example was immediately fol
lowed by others ; so that all the wagons, provisions,
artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The gen
eral, being wounded, was brought off with difficulty ;
his secretary, Mr. Shirley, was killed by his side ; and
out of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or
wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men killed
out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had
been picked men from the whole army ; the rest had
been left behind with Colonel Dunbar, who was to
follow with the heavier part ,of the stores, provisions,
and baggage. The flyers, not being pursued, arrived

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 183
at Dunbar's campv and the panic they brought with
them instantly seized him and all his people; and,
though he had now above one thousand men, and the
enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most ex
ceed four hundred Indians and French together, in
stead of proceeding, and endeavoring to recover some
of the lost honor, he ordered all the stores, ammuni
tion, etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more
horses to assist his flight towards the settlements, and
less lumber to remove. He was there met with re
quests from the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and
Pennsylvania, that he would post his troops on the
frontiers, so as to afford some protection to the inhab
itants ; but he continued his hasty march through all
the country, not thinking himself safe till he arrived
at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants could protect
him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the
first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of
British regulars had not been well founded.
In their first march, too, from their landing till they
got beyond the settlements, they had plundered and
stripped the inhabitants, totally ruining some poor
families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining the
people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put
us out of conceit of such defenders, if we had really
wanted any. How different was the conduct of our
French friends in 1781, who, during a march through
the most inhabited part of our country from Rhode
Island to Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occa
sioned not the smallest complaint for the loss of a pig,
a chicken, or even an apple.
Captain Orme, who was one of the general's aides-
de-camp, and, being grievously wounded, was brought
off with him, and continued with him to his death,

184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
which happened in a few days, told me that he was
totally silent all day, and at night only said, " Who
would have thought it ? " That he was silent again
the following day, saying only at last, " We shall
better know how to deal with them another time ; "
and died in a few minutes after.
The secretary's papers, with all the general's orders,
instructions, and correspondence, falling into the ene
my's hands, they selected and translated into French
a number of the articles, which they printed, to prove
the hostile intentions of the British court before the
declaration of war. Among these I saw some letters
of the general to the ministry, speaking highly of the
great service 1 had rendered the army, and recom
mending me to their notice. David Hume, too, who
was some years after secretary to Lord Hertford,
when minister in France, and afterward to General
Conway, when secretary of state, told me he had seen
among the papers in that office, letters from Braddock
highly recommending mc But the expedition having
been unfortunate, my service, it seems, was not
thought of much value, for those recommendations
were never of any use to me.
As to rewards from himself, I asked only one, which
was that he would give orders to his officers not to
enlist any more of our bought servants, and that he
would discharge such as had been already enlisted.
This he readily granted, and several were accordingly
returned to their masters, on my application. Dun
bar, when the command devolved on him, was not so
generous. He being at Philadelphia, on his retreat
or rather flight, I applied to him for the discharge of
the servants of three poor farmers of Lancaster county
that he had enlisted, reminding him of the late gen-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 185
eral's orders on that head. He promised me that, if
the masters would come to him at Trenton, where he
should be in a few days on his march to New York, he
would there deliver their men to them. They accord
ingly were at the expense and trouble of going to
Trenton, and there he refused to perform his promise,
to their great loss and disappointment.
As soon as the loss of the wagons and horses was
generally known, all the owners came upon me for the
valuation which I had given bond to pay. Their de
mands gave me a great deal of trouble, my acquaint
ing them that the money was ready in the paymaster's
hands, but that orders for paying it must first be ob
tained from General Shirley, and my assuring them
that I had applied to that general by letter, but he
being at a distance, an answer could not soon be re
ceived, and they must have patience ; all this was not
sufficient to satisfy, and some began to sue me. Gen
eral Shirley at length relieved me from this terrible
situation by appointing commissioners to examine the
claims, and ordering payment. They amounted to
near twenty thousand pound, which to pay would have
ruined me.
Before we had the news of this defeat, the two Doc
tors Bond came to me with a subscription paper for
raising money to defray the expense of a grand fire
work, which it was intended to exhibit at a rejoicing
on receipt of the news of our taking Fort Duquesne.
I looked grave, and said it would, I thought, be time
enough to prepare for the rejoicing when we knew we
should have occasion to rejoice. They seemed sur
prised that I did not immediately comply with their
proposal. " Why . . . ! " says one of them, " you
surely don't suppose that the fort will not be taken ? "

186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
" I don't know that it will not be taken, but I know
that the events of war are subject to great uncer
tainty." I gave them the reasons of my doubting;
the subscription was dropped, and the projectors
thereby missed the mortification they would have un
dergone if the firework had been prepared. Dr. Bond,
on some other occasion afterward, said that he did not
like Franklin's forebodings.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 187

XII.
COMMON-SENSE IN WAR MATTERS.
Governor Morris, who had continually worried
the Assembly with message after message before the
defeat of Braddock, to beat them into the making of
acts to raise money for the defence of the province
without taxing, among others, the proprietary estates,
and had rejected all their bills for not having such
an exempting clause, now redoubled his attacks with
more hope of success, the danger and necessity being
greater. The Assembly, however, continued firm, be
lieving they had justice on their side, and that it
would be giving up an essential right if they suffered
the governor to amend their money-bills. In one of
the last, indeed, which was for granting fifty thousand
pounds, his proposed amendment was only of a single
word. The bill expressed " that all estates, real and
personal, were to be taxed, those of the proprietaries
not excepted." His amendment was, for not read
only : a small but very material alteration. However,
when the news of this disaster reached England, our
friends there, whom we had taken care to furnish with
all the Assembly's answers to the governor's messages,
raised a clamor against the proprietaries for their
meanness and injustice in giving their governor such
instructions ; some going so far as to say that by ob
structing the defence of their province they forfeited

188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
their right to it. They were intimidated by this, and
sent orders to their receiver-general to add five $iou-
sand pounds of their money to whatever sum might be
given by the Assembly for such purpose.
This, being notified to the House, was accepted in
lieu of their share of a general tax, and a new bill
was formed, with an exempting clause, which passed
accordingly. By this act* I was appointed one of the
commissioners for disposing of the money, sixty thou
sand pounds. I had been active in modelling the bill
and procuring its passage, and had, at the same time,
drawn a bill for establishing and disciplining a volun
tary militia, which I carried through the House with
out much difficulty, as care was taken in it to leave
the Quakers at their liberty. To promote the associ
ation necessary to form the militia, I wrote a dialogue,
stating and answering all the objections I could think
of to such a militia, which was printed, and had, as I
thought, great effect.
While the several companies in the city and coun
try were forming, and learning their exercise, the gov
ernor prevailed with me to take charge of our North
western frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and
provide for the defence of the inhabitants by raising
troops and building a line of forts. I undertook this
military business, though I did not conceive myself
well qualified for it. He gave me a commission with
full powers, and a parcel of blank commissions for
officers, to be given to whom I thought fit. I had but
little difficulty in raising men, having soon five hun
dred and sixty under my command. My son, who had
in the preceding war been an officer in the army raised
against Canada, was my aide-de-camp, and of great
use to me. The Indians had burned Gnadenhut, a

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 189
village settled by the Moravians, and massacred the in
habitants ; but the place was thought a good situation
for one of the forts.
In order to march thither, I assembled the compa
nies at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of those
people. I was surprised to find it in so good a pos
ture of defence ; the destruction of Gnadenhut had
made them apprehend danger. The principal build
ings were defended by a stockade ; they had purchased
a quantity of arms and ammunition from New York,
and had even placed quantities of small paving stones
between the windows of their high stone houses for
their women to throw down upon the heads of any In
dians that should attempt to force into them. The
armed brethren, too, kept watch, and relieved as me
thodically as any garrison town. In conversation with
the bishop, Spangenberg, I mentioned this my sur
prise ; for, knowing they had obtained an act of Par
liament exempting them from military duties in the
colonies, I had supposed they were conscientiously
scrupulous of bearing arms. He answered me that it
was not one of their established principles, but that,
at the time of their obtaining that act, it was thought
to be a principle with many of their people. On this
occasion, however, they, to their surprise, found it
adopted by but a few. It seems they were either de
ceived in themselves or deceived the Parliament ; but
common sense, aided by present danger, will some
times be too strong for whimsical opinions.
It was the beginning of January when we set out
upon this business of building forts. I sent one de
tachment toward the Minisink, with instructions to
erect one for the security of that upper part of the
country, and another to the lower part, with similar in-

190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
structions ; and I concluded to go myself with the rest
of my force to Gnadenhut, where a fort was thought
more immediately necessary. The Moravians procured
me five wagons for our tools, stores, baggage, etc.
Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, who
had been driven from their plantations by the Indians,
came to me requesting a supply of firearms, that they
might go back and fetch off their cattle. I gave them
each a gun with suitable ammunition. We had not
marched many miles before it began to rain, and it con
tinued raining all day ; there were no habitations on
the road to shelter us, till we arrived near night at the
house of a German, where, and in his barn, we were
all huddled together, as wet as water could make us.
It was well we were not attacked in our march, for our
arms were of the most ordinary sort, and our men could
not keep their gunlocks dry. The Indians are dex
terous in contrivances for that purpose, which we had
not. They met that day the eleven poor farmers above
mentioned, and killed ten of them. The one who es
caped informed that his and his companions' guns
would not go off, the priming being wet with the rain.
The next day being fair, we continued our march
and arrived at the desolated Gnadenhut.
There was a saw-mill near, round which were left
several piles of boards, with which we soon hutted our
selves ; an operation the more necessary at that in
clement season as we had no tents. Our first work was
to bury more effectually the dead we found there, who
had been half interred by the country people.
The next morning our fort was planned and marked
out, the circumference measuring four hundred and
fifty-five feet, which would require as many palisades
to be made of trees, one with another, of a foot diameter

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 191
each. Our axes, of which we had seventy, were immedi
ately set to work to cut down trees, and, our men being
dexterous in the use of them, great dispatch was made.
Seeing the trees fall so fast, I had the curiosity to look
at my watch when two men began to cut at a pine ; in
six minutes they had it upon the ground, and I found it
of fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made three
palisades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end.
While these were preparing, our other men dug a
trench all round, of three feet deep, in which the pali
sades were to be planted ; and our wagons, the bodies
being taken off, and the fore and hind wheels separated
by taking out the pin which united the two parts of
the perch, we had ten carriages, with two horses each,
to bring the palisades from the woods to the spot.
When they were set up, our carpenters built a stage of
boards all round within, about six feet high, for the
men to stand on when to fire through the loopholes.
We had one swivel gun, which we mounted on one of
the angles, and fired it as soon as fixed, to let the In
dians know, if any were within hearing, that we had
such pieces ; and thus our fort, if such a magnificent
name may be given to so miserable a stockade, was
finished in a week, though it rained so hard every
other day that the men could not work.
This gave me occasion to observe, that when men
are employed they are best contented ; for on the
days they worked they were good-natured and cheerful,
and, with the consciousness of having done a good day's
work, they spent the evening jollily ; but on our idle
days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding
fault with their pork, the bread, etc., and in contin
ual ill-humor, which put me in mind of a sea-captain,
whose rule it was to keep his men constantly at work ;

192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
and when his mate once told him that they had done
everything, and there was nothing further to employ
them about, " Oh," says he, "make them scour the
anchor." This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a suffi
cient defence against Indians, who have no cannon.
Finding ourselves now posted securely, and having a
place to retreat to on occasion, we ventured out in
parties to scour the adjacent country. We met with
no Indians, but we found the places on the neighbor
ing hills where they had lain to watch our proceedings.
There was an art in their contrivance of those places
that seems worth mention. It being winter, a fire was
necessary for them ; but a common fire . on the sur
face of the ground would by its light have discovered
their position at a distance. They had therefore dug
holes in the ground about three feet diameter and
somewhat deeper ; we saw where they had with their
hatchets cut off the charcoal from the sides of burnt
logs lying in the woods. With these coals they had
made small fires in the bottom of the holes, and we ob
served among the weeds and grass the prints of their
bodies, made by their lying all round, with their legs
hanging down in the holes to keep their feet warm,
which with them is an essential point. This kind of
fire, so managed, could not discover them, either by its
light, flame, sparks, or even smoke : it appeared that
their number was not great, and it seems they saw we
were too many to be attacked by them with prospect
of advantage.
We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian
minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the
men did not generally attend his prayers and exhorta
tions. When they enlisted, they were promised, bo-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 193
sides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which
was punctually served out to them, half in the morn
ing and the other half in the evening ; and I observed
they were as punctual in attending to receive it ; upon
which I said to Mr. Beatty, " It is, perhaps, below the
dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum,
but if you were to deal it out and only just after
prayers, you would have them all about you." He
liked the thought, undertook the office, and, with the
help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed
it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more gen
erally and more punctually attended ; so that I thought
this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by
some military laws for non-attendance on divine service.
I had hardly finished this business, and got my fort
well stored with provisions, when I received a letter
from the governor, acquainting me that he had called
the Assembly, and wished my attendance there, if the
posture of affairs on the frontiers was such that my re
maining there was no longer necessary. My friends,
too, of the Assembly, pressing me by their letters to
be, if possible, at the meeting, and my three intended
forts being now completed, and the inhabitants con
tented to remain on their farms under that protection,
I resolved to return ; the more willingly, as a New.
England officer, Colonel Clapham, experienced in
Indian war, being on a visit to our establishment,
consented to accept the command. I gave him a com
mission, and, parading the garrison, had it read before
them, and introduced him to them as an officer who,
from his skill in military affairs, was much more fit to
command them than myself ; and, giving them a little
exhortation, took my leave. I was escorted as far as
Bethlehem, where I rested a few days to recover from

194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
the fatigue I had undergone. The first night, being
in a good bed, I could hardly sleep, it was so different
from my hard lodging on the floor of our hut at Gna-
den, wrapped only in a blanket or two.
While at Bethlehem, I inquired a little into the
practice of the Moravians : some of them had accom
panied me, and all were very kind to me. I found
they worked for a common stock, eat at common tables,
and slept in common dormitories, great numbers to
gether. In the dormitories I observed loopholes, at
certain distances all along just under the ceiling, which
I thought judiciously placed for change of air. I
was at their church, where I was entertained with
good music, the organ being accompanied with violins,
hautboys, flutes, clarinets, etc. I understood that
their sermons were not usually preached to mixed con
gregations of men, women, and children, as is our com
mon practice, but that they assembled sometimes the
married men, at other times their wives, then the
young men, the young women, and the little children,
each division by itself. The sermon I heard was to
the latter, who came in and were placed in rows on
benches ; the boys under the conduct of a young man,
their tutor, and the girls conducted by a young woman.
The discourse seemed well adapted to their capacities,
and was delivered in a pleasing, familiar manner,
coaxing them, as it were, to be good. They behaved
very orderly, but looked pale and unhealthy, which
made me suspect they were kept too much within
doors, or not allowed sufficient exercise.
I inquired concerning the Moravian, marriages,
whether the report was true that they were by lot. I
was told that lots were used only in particular cases ;
that generally, when a young man found himself dis-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 195
posed to marry, he informed the elders of his class,
who consulted the elder ladies that governed the young
women. As these elders of the different sexes were
well acquainted with the tempers and dispositions of
their respective pupils, they could best judge what
matches were suitable, and their judgments were gen
erally acquiesced in ; but if, for example, it should
happen that two or three young women were found to
be equally proper for the young man, the lot was then
recurred to. I objected, if the matches are not made
by the mutual choice of parties, some of them may
chance to be very unhappy. " And so they may,"
answered my informer, " if you let the parties choose
for themselves ; " which, indeed, I could not deny.
Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the associa
tion went on swimmingly, the inhabitants that were
not Quakers having pretty generally come into it,
formed themselves into companies, and chose their cap
tains, lieutenants, and ensigns, according to the new
law. Dr. B. visited me, and gave me an account of
the pains he had taken to spread a general good liking
to the law, and ascribed much to those endeavors. I
had had the vanity to ascribe all to my Dialogue;
however, not knowing but that he might be in the
right, I let him enjoy his opinion, which I take to be
generally the best way in such cases. The officers,
meeting, chose me to be colonel of the regiment, which
I this time accepted. I forget how many companies
we had, but we paraded about twelve hundred well-
looking men, with a company of artillery, who had
been furnished with six brass field-pieces, which they
had become so expert in the use of as to fire twelve
times in a minute. The first time I reviewed my regi
ment they accompanied me to my house, and would

196 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
salute me with some rounds fired before my door,
which shook down and broke several glasses of my elec
trical apparatus. And my new honor proved not much
less brittle ; for all our commissions were soon after
broken by a repeal of the law in England.
During this short time of my colonelship, being
about to set out on a journey to Virginia, the officers
of my regiment took it into their heads that it would
be proper for them to escort me out of town, as far as
the Lower Ferry. Just as I was getting on horse-
v back they came to my door, between thirty and forty,
mounted, and all in their uniforms. I had not been
previously acquainted with the project, or I should
have prevented it, being naturally averse to the as
suming of state on any occasion ; and I was a good
deal chagrined at their appearance, as I could not
avoid their accompanying me. What made it worse
was, that, as soon as we began to move, they drew
their swords and rode with them naked all the way.
Somebody wrote an account of this to the proprietor,
and it gave him great offence. No such honor had
been paid him when in the province, nor to any of his
governors ; and he said it was only proper to princes
of the blood royal, which may be true for aught I
know, who was, and still am, ignorant of the etiquette
in such cases.
This silly affair, however, greatly increased his
rancor against me, which was before not a little, on
account of my conduct in the Assembly respecting the
exemption of his estate from taxation, which I had al
ways opposed very warmly, and not without severe re
flections on his meanness and injustice of contending
for it. He accused me to the ministry as being the
great obstacle to the king's service, preventing, by my

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 197
influence in the House, the proper form of the bills
for raising money, and he instanced this parade with
my officers as a proof of my having an intention to
take the government of the province out of his hands
by force. He also applied to Sir Everard Fawkener,
the postmaster-general, to deprive me of my office ;
but it had no other effect than to procure from Sir
Everard a gentle admonition.
Notwithstanding the continual wrangle between the
governor and the House, in which I, as a member, had
so large a share, there still subsisted a civil intercourse
between that gentleman and myself, and we never had
any personal difference. I have sometimes since
thought that his little or no resentment against me,
for the answers it was known I drew up to his mes
sages, might be the effect of professional habit, and
that, being bred a lawyer, he might consider us both
as merely advocates for contending clients in a suit,
he for the proprietaries and I for the Assembly. He
would, therefore, sometimes call in a friendly way to
advise with me on difficult points, and sometimes,
though not often, take my advice.
We acted in concert to supply Braddock's army
with provisions ; and when the shocking news arrived
of his defeat, the governor sent in haste for me to con
sult with him on measures for preventing the deser
tion of the back counties. I forget now the advice I
gave ; but I think it was, that Dunbar should be writ
ten to, and prevailed with, if possible, to post his
troops on the frontiers for their protection, till, by re-
enforcements from the colonies, he might be able to
proceed on the expedition. And, after my return
from the frontier, he would have had me undertake
the conduct of such an expedition with provincial

198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
troops, for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, Dunbar
and his men being otherwise employed ; and he pro
posed to commission me as general. I had not so
good an opinion of my military abilities as he pro
fessed to have, and I believe his professions must have
exceeded his real sentiments ; but probably he might
think that my popularity would facilitate the raising
of the men, and my influence in Assembly, the grant
of money to pay them, and that, perhaps, without taxing
the proprietary estate. Finding me not so forward
to engage as he expected, the project was dropped, and
he soon after left the government, being superseded by
Captain Denny.
Before I proceed in relating the part I had in pub
lic affairs under this new governor's administration, it
may not be amiss here to give some account of the
rise and progress of my philosophical reputation.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 199

XIII.
FRANKLIN THE PHILOSOPHER.
In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr.
Spence, who was lately arrived from Scotland, and
showed me some electric experiments. They were
imperfectly performed, as he was not very expert;
but, being on a subject quite new to me, they equally
surprised and pleased me. Soon after my return to
Philadelphia, our library company received from Mr.
P. Collinson, Fellow of the Royal Society of London,
a present of a glass tube, with some account of the use
of it in making such experiments. I eagerly seized
the opportunity of repeating what I had seen at Bos
ton ; and, by much practice, acquired great readiness
in performing those, also, which we had an account of
from England, adding a number of new ones. I say
much practice, for my house was continually full, for
some time, with people who came to see these new
wonders. To divide a little this incumbrance among my
friends, I caused a number of similar tubes to be
blown at our glass-house, with which they furnished
themselves, so that we had at length several perform
ers. Among these, the principal was Mr. Kinnersley,
an ingenious neighbor, who, being out of business, I
encouraged to undertake showing the experiments for
money, and drew up for him two lectures, in which

200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
the experiments were ranged in such order, and ac
companied with such explanations in such method, as
that the foregoing should assist in comprehending the
following. He procured an elegant apparatus for the
purpose, in which all the little machines that I had
roughly made for myself were nicely formed by instru
ment-makers. His lectures were well attended, and
gave great satisfaction ; and after some time he went
through the colonies, exhibiting them in every capital
town, and picked up some money. In the West India
islands, indeed, it was with difficulty the experiments
could be made, from the general moisture of the air.
Obliged as we were to Mr. Collinson for his pres
ent of the tube, etc., I thought it right he should be
informed of our success in using it, and wrote him
several letters containing accounts of our experiments.
He got them read in the Royal Society, where they
were not at first thought worth so much notice as to be
printed in their Transactions. One paper, which I
wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the sameness of light
ning with electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchel, an ac
quaintance of mine, and one of the members also of
that society, who wrote me word that it had been
read but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The
papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he
thought them of too much value to be stifled, and ad
vised the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave
them to Cave for publication in his Gentleman's Mag
azine ;»but he chose to print them separately in a pam
phlet, and Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave,
it seems, judged rightly for his profit, for by the ad
ditions that arrived afterward, they swelled to a quarto
volume, which has had five editions, and cost him
nothing for copy-money.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 201
It was, however, some time before those papers were
much taken notice of in England. A copy of them
happening to fall into the hands of the Count de Buf-
fon, a philosopher deservedly of great reputation in
France, and, indeed, all over Europe, he prevailed
with M. Dalibard to translate them into French, and
they were printed at Paris. The publication offended
the Abbe- Nollet, preceptor in Natural Philosophy to
the royal family, and an able experimenter, who had
formed and published a theory of electricity, which
then had the general vogue. He could not at first
believe that such a work came from America, and said
it must have been fabricated by his enemies at Paris, to
decry his system. Afterwards, having been assured
that there really existed such a person as Franklin at
Philadelphia, which he had doubted, he wrote and
published a volume of Letters, chiefly addressed to
me, defending his theory, and denying the verity of
my experiments, and of the positions deduced from
them. I once purposed answering the abbe, and actually be
gan the answer ; but, on consideration that my writings
contained a description of experiments which any one
might repeat and verify, and if not to be verified, could
not be defended ; or of observations offered as con
jectures, and not delivered dogmatically, therefore not
laying me under any obligation to defend them ; and
reflecting that a dispute between two persons, writing
in different languages, might be lengthened greatly by
mistranslations, and thence misconceptions of one an
other's meaning, much of one of the abbe"'s letters being
founded on an error in the translation, I concluded to
let ray papers shift for themselves, believing it was bet
ter to spend what time I could spare from public busi-

202 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ness in making new experiments, than in disputing
about those already made. I therefore never answered
M. Nollet, and the event gave me no cause to repent
my silence ; for my friend M. le Roy, of the Royal
Academy of Sciences, took up my cause and refuted
him ; my book was translated into the Italian, German,
and Latin languages ; and the doctrine it contained was
by degrees universally adopted by the philosophers of
Europe, in preference to that of the abbe" ; so that he
lived to see himself the last of his sect, except Mon
sieur B  , of Paris, his 4live and immediate dis
ciple. What gave my book the more sudden and general
celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed ex
periments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at
Marly, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This
engaged the public attention everywhere. M. de Lor,
who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy,
and lectured in that branch of science, undertook to
repeat what he called the Philadelphia Experiments ;
and, after they were performed before the king and
court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I
will not swell this narrative with an account of that
capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I re
ceived in the success of a similar one I made soon
after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be
found in the histories of electricity.
Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris,
wrote to a friend, who was of the Royal Society, an
account of the high esteem my experiments were in
among the learned abroad, and of their wonder that
my writings had been so little noticed in England.
The society, on this, resumed the consideration of the
letters that had been read to them ; and the celebrated

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 203
Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them, and
of all I had afterwards sent to England on the sub
ject, which he accompanied with some praise of the
writer. This summary was then printed in their
Transactions ; and some members of the society in
London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton,
having verified the experiment of procuring lightning
from the clouds by a pointed rod, and acquainting
them with the success, they soon made me more than
amends for the slight with which they had before
treated me. Without my having made any application
for that honor, they chose me a member, and voted
that I should be excused the customary payments,
which would have amounted to twenty-five guineas ;
and ever since have given me their Transactions gratis.
They also presented me with the gold medal of Sir
Godfrey Copley for the year 1753, the delivery of
which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of
the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly
honored. Our new governor, Captain Denny, brought over for
me the before-mentioned medal from the Royal Soci
ety, which he presented to me at an entertainment
given him by the city. He accompanied it with very
polite expressions of his esteem for me, having, as he
said, been long acquainted with my character. After
dinner, when the company, as was customary at that
time, were engaged in drinking, he took me aside into
another room, and acquainted me that he had been ad
vised by his friends in England to cultivate a friend
ship with me, as one who was capable of giving him
the best advice, and of contributing most effectually
to the making his administration easy ; that he there
fore desired of all things to have a good understand-

204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ing with me, and he begged me to be assured of his
readiness on all occasions to render me every service
that might be in his power. He said much to me,
also, of the proprietor's good disposition towards the
province, and of the advantage it might be to us all,
and to me in particular, if the opposition that had been
so long continued to his measures was dropped, and har
mony restored between him and the people ; in effect
ing which, it was thought no one could be more service
able than myself ; and I might depend on adequate
acknowledgments and recompenses, etc., etc. The
drinkers, finding we did not return immediately to the
table, sent us a decanter of Madeira, which the gov
ernor made liberal use of, and in proportion became
more profuse of his solicitations and promises.
My answers were to this purpose: that my circum
stances, thanks to God, were such as to make proprie
tary favors unnecessary to me ; and that, being a
member of the Assembly, I could not possibly accept
of any ; that, however, I had no personal enmity to
the proprietary, and that, whenever the public meas
ures he proposed should appear to be for the good of
the people, no one should espouse and forward them
more zealously than myself ; my past opposition hav
ing been founded on this, that the measures which had
been urged were evidently intended to serve the pro
prietary interest, with great prejudice to that of the
people ; that I was much obliged to him (the gov
ernor) for his professions of regard to me, and that he
might rely on everything in my power to make his ad
ministration as easy as possible, hoping at the same
time that he had not brought with him the same un
fortunate instruction his predecessor had been ham
pered with.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 205
On this he did not then explain himself ; but when
he afterwards came to do business with the Assembly,
they appeared again, the disputes were renewed, and
I was as active as ever in the opposition, being the
penman, first, of the request to have a communication
of the instructions, and then of the remarks upon
them, which may be found in the votes of the time,
and in the Historical Review I afterward published.
But between us personally no enmity arose ; we were
often together ; he was a man of letters, had seen
much of the world, and was very entertaining and pleas
ing in conversation. He gave me the first informa
tion that my old friend Jas. Ralph was still alive ;
that he was esteemed one of the best political writers
in England ; had been employed in the dispute be
tween Prince Frederic and the king, and had obtained
a pension of three hundred a year ; that his reputation
was indeed small as a poet, Pope having damned his
poetry in the Dunciad ; but his prose was thought as
good as any man's.
The Assembly finally finding the proprietary obsti
nately persisted in manacling their deputies with in
structions inconsistent not only with the privileges of
the people, but with the service of the crown, resolved
to petition the king against them, and appointed me
their agent to go over to England, to present and sup
port the petition. The House had sent up a bill to
the governor, granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds
for the king's use (ten thousand pounds of which was
subjected to the orders of the then general, Lord Lou
doun), which the governor absolutely refused to pass,
in compliance with his instructions.

206 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

XIV.
DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND.
I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the packet at
New York, for my passage, and my stores were put
on board, when Lord Loudoun arrived at Philadelphia,
expressly, as he told "me, to endeavor an accommodation
between the governor and Assembly, that his majesty's
service might not be obstructed by their dissensions.
Accordingly, he desired the governor and myself to
meet him, that he might hear what was to be said on
both sides. We met and discussed the business. In
behalf of the Assembly, I urged all the various argu
ments that may be found in the public papers of that
time, which were of my writing, and are printed with
the minutes of the Assembly ; and the governor
pleaded his instructions ; the bond he had given to
observe them, and his ruin if he disobeyed, yet seemed
not unwilling to hazard himself if Lord Loudoun
would advise it. This his lordship did not choose to
do, though I once thought I had nearly prevailed with
him to do it ; but finally he rather chose to urge the
compliance of the Assembly ; and he entreated me to
use my endeavors with them for that purpose, declaring
that he would spare none of the king's troops for the
defence of our frontiers, and that, if we did not con
tinue to provide for that defence ourselves, they must
remain exposed to the enemy.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 207
I acquainted the House with what had passed, and,
presenting them with a set of resolutions I had drawn
up, declaring our rights, and that we did not relinquish
our claim to those rights, but only suspended the exer
cise of them on this occasion through force, against
which we protested, they at length agreed to drop that
bill, and frame another conformable to the proprie
tary instructions. This of course the governor passed,
and I was then at liberty to proceed on my voyage.
But, in the mean time, the packet had sailed with my
sea-stores, which was some loss to me, and my only
recompense was his lordship's thanks for my service,
all the credit of obtaining the accommodation falling
to his share.
He set out for New York before me ; and, as the
time for dispatching the packet-boats was at his dispo
sition, and there were two then remaining there, one
of which, he said, was to sail very soon, I requested
to know the precise time, that I might not miss her by
any delay of mine. His answer was, " I have given
out that she is to sail on Saturday next ; but I may let
you know entre nous, that if you are there by Monday
morning, you will be in time, but do not delay longer."
By some accidental hindrance at a ferry, it was Mon
day noon before I arrived, and I was much afraid she
might have sailed, as the wind was fair ; but I was
soon made easy by the information that she was still
in the harbor and would not move till the next day.
One would imagine that I was now on the very point
of departing for Europe. I thought so ; but I was not
then so well acquainted with his lordship's character,
of which indecision was one of the strongest features.
I shall give some instances. It was about the begin
ning of April that I came to New York, and I think it

208 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
was near the end of June before we sailed. There were
then two of the packet-boats which had been long in
port, but were detained for the general's letters, which
were always to be ready to-morrow. Another packet
arrived ; she too was detained ; and before we sailed,
a fourth was expected. Ours was the first to be dis
patched, as having been there longest. Passengers
were engaged in all, and some extremely impatient to
be gone, and the merchants uneasy about their letters
and the orders they had given for insurance (it being
war time) for fall goods ; but their anxiety availed
nothing ; his lordship's letters were not ready ; and
yet whoever waited on him found him always at his
desk, pen in hand, and concluded he must needs write
abundantly. Going myself one morning to pay my respects, I
found in his antechamber one Innis, a messenger of
Philadelphia, who had come from thence express with
a packet from Governor Denny for the General. He
delivered to me some letters from my friends there,
which occasioned my inquiring when he was to return,
and where he lodged, that I might send some letters
by him. He told me he was ordered to call to-morrow
at nine for the general's answer to the governor, and
should set off immediately. I put my letters into his
hands the same day. A fortnight after I met him
again in the same place. " So, you are soon returned,
Innis ? " " Returned 1 no, I am not gone yet." " How
so ? " "I have called here by order every morning
these two weeks past for his lordship's letter, and it
is not yet ready." " Is it possible, when he is so great
a writer ? for I see him constantly at his escritoire."
" Yes," says Innis, " but he is like St. George on the
signs, always on horseback, and never rides on." This

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 209
observation of the messenger was, it seems, well
founded ; for, when in England, I understood that Mr.
Pitt gave it as one reason for removing this general,
and sending Generals Amherst and Wolfe, that the
minister never heard from him, and could not know
what he was doing.
This daily expectation of sailing, and all the three
packets going down to Sandy Hook, to join the fleet
there, the passengers thought it best to be on board,
lest by a sudden order the ships should sail, and they
be left behind. There, if I remember right, we were
about six weeks, consuming our sea-stores, and obliged
to procure more. At length the fleet sailed, the Gen
eral and all his army on board, bound to Louisburg,
with intent to besiege and take that fortress ; all the
packet-boats in company ordered to attend the Gen
eral's ship, ready to receive his dispatches when they
should be ready. We were out five days before we
got a letter with leave to part, and then our ship
quitted the fleet and steered for England. The other
two packets he still detained, carried them with him to
Halifax, where he stayed some time to exercise the
men in sham attacks upon sham forts, then altered his
mind as to besieging Louisburg, and returned to New
York, with all his troops, together with the two pack»
ets above mentioned, and all their passengers. Dur
ing his absence the French and savages had taken
Fort George, on the frontier of that province, and the
savages had massacred many of the garrison after
capitulation. I saw afterwards in London Captain Bonnell, who
commanded one of those packets. He told me that,
when he had been detained a month, he acquainted
his lordship that his ship had grown foul, to a degree

210 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
that must necessarily hinder her fast sailing, a point
of consequence for a packet-boat, and requested an al
lowance of time to heave her down and clean her bot
tom. He was asked how long time that would require.
He answered, three days. The general replied, " If
you can do it in one day, I give you leave : otherwise
not ; for you must certainly sail the day after to-mor
row." So he never obtained leave, though detained
afterwards from day to day during full three months.
I saw also in London one of Bonnell's passengers,
who was so enraged against his lordship for deceiving
and detaining him so long at New York, and then
carrying him to Halifax and back again, that he swore
he would sue him for damages. Whether he did or
not, I never heard ; but, as he represented the injury
to his affairs, it was very considerable.
On the whole, I wondered much how such a man
came to be intrusted with so important a business as
the conduct of a great army ; but, having since seen
more of the great world, and the means of obtaining,
and motives for giving places, my wonder is dimin
ished. General Shirley, on whom the command of
the army devolved upon the death of Braddock,
would, in my opinion, if continued in place, have made
a much better campaign than that of Loudoun in
1757, which was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful
to our nation beyond conception ; for, though Shirley
was not a bred soldier, he was sensible and sagacious
in himself, and attentive to good advice from others,
capable of forming judicious plans, and quick and ac
tive in carrying them into execution. Loudoun, in
stead of defending the colonies with his great army,
left them totally exposed, while he paraded idly at
Halifax, by which means Fort George was lost ; be-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 211
sides, he deranged all our mercantile operations, and
distressed our trade, by a long embargo on the expor
tation of provisions, on pretence of keeping supplies
from being obtamed by the enemy, but iu reality for
Seating down their price in favor of the contractors,
in whose profits, it was said, perhaps from suspicion
only, he had a share. And, when at length the em
bargo was taken off, by neglecting to send notice of
it to Charleston, the Carolina fleet was detained
near three months longer, whereby their bottoms were
so much damaged by the worm that a great part of
them foundered in their passage home.
Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being re
lieved from so burdensome a charge as the conduct of
an army must be to a man unacquainted with military
business. I was at the entertainment given by the
city of New York to Lord Loudoun, on his taking
upon him the command. Shirley, -though thereby su
perseded, was present also. There was a great com
pany of officers, citizens, and strangers, and, some
chairs having been borrowed in the neighborhood,
there was one among them very low, which fell to the
lot of Mr. Shirley. Perceiving it as I sat by him, I
said, " They have given you, sir, too low a seat."
" No matter," says he, " Mr. Franklin, I find a low
seat the easiest."
While I was, as afore mentioned, detained at New
York, I received all the accounts of the provisions, etc.,
that I had furnished to Braddock, some of which ac
counts could not sooner be obtained from the different
persons I had employed to assist in the business. I
presented them to Lord Loudoun, desiring to be paid
the balance. He caused them to be regularly ex
amined by the proper officer, who, after comparing

212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
every article with its voucher, certified them to be
right; and the balance due for which his lordship
promised to give me an order on the paymaster. This
was, however, put off from time to time ; and, though
I called often for it by appointment, I did not get it.
At length, just before my departure, he told me ho
had, on better consideration, concluded not to mix his
accounts with those of his predecessors. " And you,"
says he, " when in England, have only to exhibit your
accounts at the treasury, and you will be paid immedi
ately." I mentioned, but without effect, the great and unex
pected expense I had been put to by being detained
so long at New York, as a reason for my desiring to
be presently paid ; and on my observing that it was
not right I should be put to any further trouble or
delay in obtaining the money I had advanced, as I
charged no commission for my service, " O, sir," says
he, " you must not think of persuading us that you
are no gainer ; we understand better those affairs, and
know that everyone concerned in supplying the army
finds means, in the doing it, to fill his own pockets."
I assured him that was not my case, and that I had
not pocketed a farthing ; but he appeared clearly not
to believe me ; and, indeed, I have since learnt that
immense fortunes are often made in such employ
ments. As to my balance, I am not paid it to this
day, of which more hereafter.
Our captain of the packet had boasted much, be
fore we sailed, of the swiftness of his ship ; unfortu
nately, when we came to sea, she proved the dullest of
ninety-six sail, to his no small mortification. After
many conjectures respecting the cause, when we were
near another ship almost as dull as ours, which, how-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 213
ever, gained upon us, the captain ordered all hands to
come aft, and stand as near the ensign staff as possi
ble. We were, passengers included, about forty per
sons. While we stood there, the ship mended her
pace, and soon left her neighbor far behind, which
proved clearly what our captain suspected, that she
was loaded too much by the head. The casks of
water, it seems, had been all placed forward ; these he
therefore ordered to be moved further aft, on which
the ship recovered her character, and proved the best
sailer in the fleet.
The captain said she had once gone at the rate of
thirteen knots, which is accounted thirteen miles per
hour. We had on board, as a passenger, Captain
Kennedy, of the Navy, who contended that it was im
possible, and that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that
there must have been some error in the division of the
log-line, or some mistake in heaving the log. A
wager ensued between the two captains, to be decided
when there should be sufficient wind. Kennedy
thereupon examined rigorously the log-line, and, being
satisfied with that, he determined to throw the log
himself. Accordingly some days after, when the
wind blew very fair and fresh, and the captain of the
packet, Lutwidge, said he believed she then went at
the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made the experi
ment, and owned his wager lost.
The above fact I give for the sake of the following
observation. It has been remarked, as an imperfec
tion in the art of ship-building, that it can never be
known, till she is tried, whether a new ship will or
will not be a good sailer ; for that the model of a good-
sailing ship has been exactly followed in a new one,
which has proved, on the contrary, remarkably dull.

214 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
I apprehend that this may partly be occasioned by
the different opinions of seamen respecting the modes
of lading, rigging, and sailing of a ship ; each has his
system ; and the same vessel, laden by the judgment
and orders of one captain, shall sail better or worse
than when by the orders of another. Besides, it
scarce ever happens that a ship is formed, fitted for
the sea, and sailed by the same person. One man
builds the hull, another rigs her, a third lades and
sails her. No one of these has the advantage of
knowing all the ideas and experience of the others,
and, therefore, cannot draw just conclusions from a
combination of the whole.
Even in the simple operation of sailing when at
sea, I have often observed different judgments in the
officers who commanded the successive watches, the
wind being the same. One would have the sails
trimmed sharper or flatter than another, so that they
seemed to have no certain rule to govern by. Yet I
think a set of experiments might be instituted, first,
to determine the most proper form of the hull for
swift sailing ; next, the best dimensions and properest
place for the masts ; then the form and quantity of
sails, and their position, as the wind may be ; and,
lastly, the disposition of the lading. This is an age
of experiments, and I think a set accurately made and
combined would be of great use. I am persuaded,
therefore, that ere long some ingenious philosopher
will undertake it, to whom I wish success.
We were several times chased in our passage, but
outsailed everything, and in thirty days had sound
ings. We had a good observation, and the captain
judged himself so near our port, Falmouth, that, if
we made a good run in the night, we might be off the

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 215
mouth of fliat harbor in the morning, and by running
in the night might escape the notice of the enemy's
privateers, who often cruised near the entrance of the
channel. Accordingly, all the sail was set that we
could possibly make, and the wind being very fresh
and fair, we went right before it, and made great way.
The captain, after his observation, shaped his course,
as he thought, so as to pass wide of the Scilly Isles ;
but it seems there is sometimes a strong indraught set
ting up St. George's Channel, which deceives seamen
and caused the loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squad
ron. This indraught was probably the cause of what
happened to us.
We had a watchman placed in the bow, to whom
they often called, " Look well out before there," and
he as often answered, " Ay, ay ; " but perhaps had his
eyes shut, and was half asleep at the time, they some
times answering, as is said, mechanically ; for he did
not see a light just before us, which had been hid by
the studding-sails from the man at the helm, and from
the rest of the watch, but by an accidental yaw of the
ship was discovered, and occasioned a great alarm, we
being very near it, the light appearing to me as big
as a cart-wheel. It was midnight, and our captain
fast asleep; but Captain Kennedy, jumping upon
deck, and seeing the danger, ordered the ship to wear
round, all sails standing ; an operation dangerous to
the masts, but it carried us clear, and we escaped
shipwreck, for we were running right upon the rocks
on which the lighthouse was erected. This deliver
ance impressed me strongly with the utility of light
houses, and made me resolve to encourage the build
ing more of them in America, if I should live to re
turn there.

216 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANKLIN.
In the morning it was found by the soundings, etc.,
that we were near our port, but a thick fog hid the
land from our sight. About nine o'clock the fog
began to rise, and seemed to be lifted up from the
water like the curtain at a play-house, discovering
underneath, the town of Falmouth, the vessels in its
harbor, and the fields that surrounded it. This was
a most pleasing spectacle to those who had been so
long without any other prospects than the uniform
view of a vacant ocean, and it gave us the more pleas
ure as we were now free from the anxieties which the
state of war occasioned.
I set out immediately, with my son, for London, and
we only stopped a little by the way to view Stonehenge
on Salisbury Plain, and Lord Pembroke's house and
gardens, with his very curious antiquities at Wilton.
We arrived in London the 27th of July, 1757.

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
FROM THE POINT AT WHICH HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
ENDS, CHIEFLY DRAWN FROM HIS LETTERS.

Franklin went to England in 1757 as agent for the
colony of Pennsylvania, for the purpose of settling a
controversy which the colony had with the Penn fam
ily. He was detained on this business three years, but
was able to carry his main point, which was the right
of the Assembly to tax the proprietary estates. He
went without his wife and daughter, but was attended
by his son William. At the end of the three years he
did not return immediately to America. His public
business had made him acquainted with many mem
bers of the government, and he was very desirous of
securing the best terms for America in the treaty
which was pending between England and France.
The fall of Quebec had put an end to the French
power in Canada, but Franklin thought, and thought
truly, that England did not understand how important
Canada was to her. By his familiarity with Ameri
can affairs he was able to give advice to the gov
ernment in this matter, and at the same time could
inform English people generally about his native coun
try through the public journals. He found there was
dense ignorance about America, and saw clearly that
it was of the utmost importance that Englishmen

218 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
should understand Americans if there was to be good
feeling between the two parts of the British empire.
He was greatly interested also in his philosophical ex
periments. While he was in London he made his home with
Mrs. Margaret Stevenson in Craven Street, Strand,
and became greatly attached to her and to her daugh
ter Mary, then a girl of eighteen, whom he hoped his
son William would marry. These ladies were very
civil to him ; and when he wrote home to his wife he
frequently showed her how much they did to make his
stay agreeable. Almost everything of the better sort
in the way of clothing and household stuff which the
Americans of that day used came from England, and
Franklin pleased himself and his wife by sending
goods to her from time to time.
"T send you," he writes, "by Captain Budden a
large case and a small box. In the large case is an
other small box, containing some English china, viz.,
melons and leaves for a dessert of fruit and cream,
or the like ; a bowl remarkable for the neatness of the
figures, made at Bow, near this city ; some coffee-cups
of the same ; a Worcester bowl, ordinary. To show
the difference of workmanship, there is something from
all the china works in England; and one old true
china basin mended, of an odd color. The same box
contains four silver salt-ladles, newest but ugliest fash
ion; a little instrument to core apples; another to
make little turnips out of great ones ; six coarse diaper
breakfast-cloths ; they are to spread on the tea-table,
for nobody breakfasts here on the naked table, but
on the cloth they set a large tea-board with the
cups. ... In the great case, besides the little box, is
contained some carpeting for a best-room floor. There

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 219
is enough for one large or two small ones ; it is to be
sewed together, the edges being first felled down, and
care taken to make the figures meet exactly ; there is
bordering for the same. This was my fancy. Also
two large, fine Flanders bed-ticks, and two pair of
large superfine blankets, two fine damask table-cloths
and napkins, and forty-three ells of Ghentish sheeting,
Holland. These you ordered. There are also fifty-six
yards of cotton printed curiously from copper plates,
a new invention, to make bed and window curtains ;
and, seven yards of chair-bottoms, printed in the same
way, very neat. These were my fancy ; but Mrs. Ste
venson tells me I did wrong not to buy both of the
same color. Also seven yards of printed cotton, blue
ground, to make you a gown. I bought it by candle
light, and liked it then, but not so well afterwards.
If you do not fancy it, send it as a present from me to
sister Jenny. There is a better gown for you of flow
ered tissue, sixteen yards, of Mrs. Stevenson's fancy,
cost nine guineas ; and I think it a great beauty.
There was no more of the sort, or you should have
had enough for a negligee or suit.
" There are also snuffers, a snuff-stand, and extin
guisher, of steel, which I send for the beauty of the
work. The extinguisher is for spermaceti candles
only, and is of a new contrivance, to preserve the
snuff upon the candle. There is some music Billy
bought for his sister, and some pamphlets for the
Speaker and for Susy Wright. A mahogany and a
little shagreen box, with microscopes, and other opti
cal instruments loose, are for Mr. Alison, if he likes
them ; if not, put them in my room till I return. I
send the invoice of them, and I wrote to him formerly
the reason of my exceeding his orders. There are

220 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
also two sets of books, a present from me to Sally, —
The World, and The Connoisseur. My love to her.
" I forgot to mention another of my fancyings, viz., a
pair of silk blankets, very fine. They are of a new
kind, were just taken in a French prize, and such were
never seen in England before. They are called blank
ets, but I think they will be very neat to cover a sum
mer bed, instead of a quilt or counterpane. I had no
choice, so you will excuse the soil on some of the
folds ; your neighbor Foster can get it off. I also for
got, among the china, to mention a large, fine jug for
beer, to stand in the cooler. I fell in love with it at
first sight ; for I thought it looked like a fat, jolly
dame, clean and tidy, with a neat blue and white
calico gown on, good-natured and lovely, and put me
in mind of — somebody. It has the coffee-cups in it,
packed in best crystal salt, of a peculiar nice flavor,
for the table, not to be powdered.
" I hope Sally applies herself closely to her French
and music, and that I shall find she has made great
proficiency. The harpsichord I was about, and which
was to have cost me forty guineas, Mr. Stanley advises
me not to buy ; and we are looking out for another,
one that has been some time in use, and is a tried good
one, there being not so much dependence on a new
one, though made by the best hands. Sally's last
letter to her brother is the best wrote that of late I
have seen of hers. I only wish she was a little more
careful of her spelling. I hope she continues to love
going to church, and would have her read over and
over again the Whole Duty of Man, and the Lady's
Library. " Look at the figures on the china bowl and coffee-
cups with your spectacles on ; they will bear exam.
ininsr.

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 221
" I have made your compliments to Mrs. Stevenson.
She is indeed very obliging, takes great care of my
health, and is very diligent when I am any way indis
posed ; but yet I have a thousand times wished you
with me, and my little Sally with her ready hands
and feet to do, and go, and come, and get what I
wanted." Franklin's experiments in electricity and his several
inventions had made him well known in England,
and his attention to public business brought him into
connection with many of the members of govern
ment, as well as with other persons of consequence.
He made friends with every one, and was interested in
everything. He went to Cambridge, and was received
by the principal people at the university there with
great civility. He made a trip to Northamptonshire
and looked up the graves of his ancestors and gathered
stories about them. His father was born at Ecton, as
he mentions in the Autobiography, and his father's
brother, Thomas Franklin, had lived and died in Ec
ton. Thomas Franklin's daughter was living there,
and entertained her cousin with stories about her
father. " He was ' a conveyancer,' " Franklin writes to
his wife, " something of a lawyer, clerk of the county
courts, and clerk to the archdeacon in his visitations ;
a very leading man in all county affairs, and much
employed in public business. He set on foot a sub
scription for erecting chimes in their steeple, and com
pleted it, and we heard them play. He found out an
easy method of saving their village meadows from
being drowned, as they used to be sometimes by the
river, which method is still in being; but, when first"
proposed, nobody could conceive how it could be ;
' but however,' they said, ' if Franklin says he knows

222 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S Llih.
how to do it, it will be done.' His advice and opinion
were sought for on all occasions, by all sorts of peo
ple, and he was looked upon, she said, by some, as
something of a conjurer. He died just four years be
fore I was born, on the same day of the same month."
Here was a village Franklin of much the same charac
ter as his more famous nephew, who had Philadelphia
instead of Ecton to experiment in.
The America of Franklin's time was scarcely more
than a strip of sea-coast from Canada to Florida ;
little was known of the country that lay behind the
Alleghanies, and most of the business was in the way
of commerce with England. Franklin had had excel
lent opportunities for knowing his country. He had
travelled through it more than many ; he had been
postmaster-general, and he had had to do with people
in many different ways. His stay in England had
taught him not only how little English people really
knew about America, but how rapidly America was
growing in comparison with England. When he
travelled through the English counties and compared
the farmers, living as their ancestors had lived for
hundreds of years, scarcely stirring out of their little
village, with the farmers of America, who needed to
be on the alert all the while and to use their wits in a
new country among hostile savages, he was struck by
the importance of the American colonies. He was
proud of belonging to the British empire, and he
wanted to see all America a part of that empire. The
French had just been defeated in Canada, but the
terms of peace had not yet been arranged between
England and France; and Franklin found that some
of the English did not seem to understand the value
of their conquest in America. He wrote to an emi
nent man :

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 223
" No one can more sincerely rejoice than I do, on
the reduction of Canada ; and this is not merely as I
am a colonist, but as I am a Briton. I have long been
of opinion that the foundations of the future gran
deur and stability of the British empire lie in Amer
ica ; and though, like other foundations, they are low
and little now, they are, nevertheless, broad and strong
enough to support the greatest political structure that
human wisdom ever yet erected. I am, therefore, by
no means for restoring Canada. If we keep it, all the
country from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi will
in another century be filled with British people. Brit
ain itself will become vastly more populous, by the
immense increase of its commerce; the Atlantic sea
will be covered with your trading ships ; and your
naval power, thence continually increasing, will extend
your influence round the whole globe, and awe the
world! If the French remain in Canada, they will
continually harass our colonies by the Indians, and
impede, if not prevent, their growth : your progress to
greatness will at best be slow, and give room for many
accidents that may forever prevent it. But I refrain,
for I see you begin to think my notions extravagant,
and look upon them as the ravings of a mad prophet."
It is one mark of a great man that he can pass ea
sily from important to trifling matters, and Franklin
seemed as much himself when he was buying china
bowls for his wife as when he was studying how to
enlarge the boundaries of the British empire. So he
never was in a hurry and had abundant leisure to
write to his friends and to look after the education of
Mary Stevenson. He advised her what books to read
and how to read them.
" I send my good girl the books I mentioned to her

224 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
last night. I beg her to accept of them as a small
mark of my esteem and friendship. They are written
in the familiar, easy manner for which the French
are so remarkable, and afford a good deal of philo
sophic and practical knowledge, unembarrassed with
the dry mathematics used by more exact reasoners,
but which are apt to discourage young beginners.
" I would advise you to read with a pen in your
hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what
you find that is curious, or that may be useful ; for
this will be the best method of imprinting such partic
ulars in your memory, where they will be ready, either
for practice on some future occasion, if they are mat
ters of utility, or at least to adorn and improve your
conversation, if they are rather points of curiosity.
" And as many of the terms of science are such, as
you cannot have met with in your common reading,
and may therefore be unacquainted with, I think it
would be well for you to have a good dictionary at
hand, to consult immediately when you meet with a
word you do not comprehend the precise meaning of.
This may at first seem troublesome and interrupting ;
but it is a trouble that will daily diminish, as you will
daily find less and less occasion for your dictionary,
as you become more and more acquainted with the
terms ; and in the mean time you will read with more
satisfaction, because with more understanding.
" When any point occurs in which you would be
glad to have further information than your book
affords you, I beg you would not in the least appre
hend that I should think it a trouble to receive and
answer your questions. It will be a pleasure, and no
trouble. For, though I may not be able, out of my
own little stock of knowledge, to afford you what you

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 225
require, I can easily direct you to the books where
it may most readily be found."
Near the end of August, 1762, Franklin returned
to America after an absence from his country of five
years. He remained there about two years and then
went back to England to serve the colony of Pennsyl
vania again as their agent. Not long after his return
he wrote to one of his English friends the following
letter, which gives an account of his two years in
America. " You require my history from the time I set sail
for America. I left England about the end of August,
1762, in company with ten sail of merchant-ships, un
der a convoy of a man-of-war. We had a pleasant pas
sage to Madeira, where we were kindly received and
entertained, our nation being then in high honor
with the Portuguese, on account of the protection we
were then affording them against the united invasions
of France and Spain. It is a fertile island, and the
different heights and situations among its mountains
afford snch temperaments of air that all the fruits of
northern and southern countries are produced there,
— corn, grapes, apples, peaches, oranges, lemons, plan
tains, bananas, etc. Here we furnished ourselves with
fresh provisions, and refreshments of all kinds ; and,
after a few days, proceeded on our voyage, running
southward until we got into the trade-winds, and then
with them westward, till we drew near the coast of
Ameriea. The weather was so favorable that there
were few days in which we could not visit from ship
to ship, dining with each other, and on board of the
man-of-war; which made the time pass agreeably,
much more so than when one goes in a single ship ;
--for this was like travelling in a moving village, with
all one's neighbors about one.

226 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
" On the 1st of November I arrived safe and well
at my own home, after an absence of near six years,
found my wife and daughter well, the latter grown
quite a woman, with many amiable accompEsbments
acquired in my absence, and my friends as hearty
and affectionate as ever, with whom my house was
filled for many days, to congratulate me on my return.
I bad been chosen yearly during my absence to repre
sent the city of Philadelphia in our Provincial Assem
bly ; and, on my appearance in the House, they voted
me three thousand pounds sterling for my services in
England, and their thanks, delivered by the Speaker.
In February following, my son arrived with my
new daughter ; for, with my consent and approbation,
he married, soon after I left England, a very agreeable
West India lady, with whom he is very happy. I ac
companied him to his government, where he met jvith
the kindest reception from the- people of all ranks, and
has lived with them ever since in the greatest har
mony. A river only parts that province and ours, and
his residence is within seventeen miles of me, so that
we frequently see each other.1
44 In the spring ofT763, I set out on a tour through
all the northern colonies to inspect and regulate the
post-offices in the several provinces. In this jour
ney I spent the summer, travelled about sixteen
hundred: miles, and did not get home till the begin
ning of November. The Assembly sitting through
the following winter, and warm disputes arising be
tween them and the governor, I became wholly en-
1 William. Franklin had been, made governor of New Jersey. The
English government hoped by this means to secure the loyalty of the
father, bnt only made, sure of the soj^ who. was a Tory in. the. coming
revolution.

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 227
gaged in public affairs; for, besides my duty as an
Assemblyman, I had another trust to execute, that of
being one of the commissioners appointed by law to
dispose of the public money appropriated to the rais
ing and paying an army to act against the Indians,
and defend the frontiers. And then, in December,
we had two insurrections of the back inhabitants of
our province, by whom twenty poor Indians were mur
dered, that had, from the first settlement of the prov
ince, lived among us, under the protection of our
government. This gave me a good deal of employ
ment ; for, as the rioters threatened further mischief,
and their actions seemed to be approved by an ever-
acting party, I wrote a pamphlet entitled A Narra
tive, etc.1 (which I think I sent to you), to strengthen
the hands of our weak government, by rendering the
proceedings of the rioters unpopular and odious. This
had a good effect ; and afterwards, when a great body
of them, with arms, marched toward the capital, in de
fiance of the government, with an avowed resolution
to put to death one hundred and forty Indian con
verts then under its protection, I formed an associa
tion, at the governor's request, for his and their de
fence, we having no militia. Near one thousand of
the citizens accordingly took arms. Governor Penn
made my house for some time his headquarters, and
did everything by my advice ; so that for about forty-
eight hours I was a very great man, as I had been
once some years before, in a time of public danger.2
" But the fighting face we put on, and the reason
ings we used with the insurgents (for I went, at the
request of the governor and council, with three others,
1 A Narrative of the Late Massacres.
2 That is, when he rendered great assistance to General Braddock.

223 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
to meet and discourse with them), having turned them
back and restored quiet to the city, I became a less
man than ever : for I had, by this transaction, made
myself many enemies among the populace ; and the
governor (with whose family our public disputes hnd
long placed me in an unfriendly light, and the services
I had lately rendered him not being of the kind that
make a man acceptable), thinking it a favorable op
portunity, joined the whole weight of the proprietary
interest to get me out of the Assembly, which was
accordingly effected at the last election, by a major
ity of about twenty-five in four thousand voters.
" The House, however, when they met in October,
approved of the resolutions taken, while I was Speaker,
of petitioning the crown for a change of government,
and requested me to return to England, to prosecute
that petition ; which service I accordingly undertook,
and embarked at the beginning of November last,
being accompanied to the ship, sixteen miles, by a
cavalcade of three hundred of my friends, who filled our
sails with their good wishes, and I arrived in thirty days
at London. Here I have been ever since, engaged in
that and other public affairs relating to America which
are like to continue some time longer upon my hands ;
but I promise you, that when I am quit of these, I
will engage in no other ; and that, as soon as I have
recovered the ease and leisure I hope for, the task you
require of me, of finishing my Art of Virtue, shall be
performed." Franklin's ease and leisure were long in coming.
The difficulties between England and her American
colonies began from this time to grow more serious.
No sooner had the colonies been rid of their fear of the
French than they saw that the mother country meant

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 229
to treat them as if they always were to be children.
They were not to be allowed to manufacture anything
for themselves, but must buy everything they needed
of England. England, moreover, had incurred a heavy
debt by her war with France, and meant, if possible, to
make America pay a good share of the debt. But for
years there had been a standing quarrel between the
c6lonies and the governors whom the king of England
appointed over them. The people in the colonies were
willing to support the representatives of the crown,
but they stoutly refused to be taxed by the English
parliament. They would lay their own taxes in their
own assemblies, but they denied that Parliament had
the right to lay these taxes. Franklin busied himself
by letters to the newspapers, and by conference with
important people, with the task of showing English
men how Americans felt and reasoned. He watched
affairs with great closeness and saw that the colonies
were growing stronger and more resolute. He was
proud of the persistence with which they had stood up
for their rights. When the Stamp Act was repealed,
he wrote to his wife :
" As the Stamp Act is at length repealed, I am
willing you should have a new gown, which you may
suppose I did not send sooner, as I knew you would
not like to be finer than your neighbors, unless in a
gown of your own spinning. Had the trade between
the two countries totally ceased, it was a comfort to
me to recollect that I had once been clothed from
head to foot in woollen and linen of my wife's manufac
ture, that I never was prouder of any dress in my life,
and that she and her daughter might do it again if it
was necessary. I told the Parliament that it was my
opinion, before the old clothes of the Americans were

230 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
worn out they might have new ones of their own mak
ing. I have sent you a fine piece of Pompadour satin,
fourteen yards, cost eleven shillings a yard, a silk
negligee and a petticoat of brocaded lutestring for my
dear Sally, with two dozen gloves, four bottles of lav
ender water, and two little reels. The reels are to
screw on the edge of the table, when she would wind
silk or thread. The skein is to be put over them, and
winds better than if held in two hands.
"There is also a gimcrack corkscrew, which you
must get some brother gimcrack to show you the use
of. In the chest is a parcel of books for my friend
Mr. Coleman, and another for Cousin Colbert. Pray
did he receive those I sent him before ? I send you
also a box with three fine cheeses. Perhaps a bit of
them may be left when I come home. Mrs. Stevenson
has been very diligent and serviceable in getting those
things together for you, and presents her best respects,
as does her daughter, to both you and Sally. There
are two boxes included in your bill of lading for
Billy." For ten years Franklin remained in England, where
^ he was agent, not only for Pennsylvania, but for Massa
chusetts, New Jersey and Georgia. Everybody looked
to him for advice ; and when committees of Parliament
wished to make inquiry about America they were
pretty sure to send for Dr. Franklin, as he was gen
erally called. Indeed, the English government, seeing
how important a man he was, flattered him and tried
to make him support them in the dispute with Amer
ica, which was growing more serious every year. They
had made his son governor of New Jersey, as we have
seen, and offered large inducements to Franklin, but
he remained steadfast to the colonies ; and at last

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 231
the English government, unable to cajole him, turned
about, took his office of postmaster-general from him,
and showed plainly that they regarded him as an
enemy. It was useless for Franklin to remain longer in Eng
land, and affairs had come to such a pass that he was
needed in America. He had tried his best to bring
about a reconciliation between England and her colo
nies, but since all was in vain, he was ready to cast in
his lot with his country. Accordingly he returned to
America in May, 1775. He reached Philadelphia one
evening, and the very next morning was unanimously
chosen by the Assembly of Pennsylvania a delegate to
the Continental Congress, which was then sitting in the
city. How earnestly he threw himself into the Ameri
can cause may be seen by a letter which he wrote,
July 5, 1775, to an Englishman, a printer, who had
been one of his oldest and best friends in London : —
" Mr. Strahan : You are a member of Parlia
ment, 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."
To others he wrote in a different strain. Many pa
triots were uncertain how the contest would end, and
Dr. Franklin, no doubt, had many hours of trouble;
but he had a cheerfulness and a hopeful way of writ
ing and speaking which went very far toward keeping
his countrymen in good spirits.
" Tell our dear, good friend, Dr. Price, who some
times has his doubts and despondencies about our firm
ness," he wrote to an English acquaintance, "that

232 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
America is determined and unanimous, a very few
Tories and placemen excepted, who will probably soon
export themselves. Britain, at the expense of three
millions, has killed one hundred and fifty Yankees
this campaign, which is twenty thousand pounds a
head; and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of
ground, half of which she lost again by our taking
post on Ploughed Hill. During the same time sixty
thousand children have been born in America. From
these data his mathematical head will easily calculate
the time and expense necessary to kill us all, and con
quer our whole territory."
Congress, in 1776, appointed Dr. Franklin one of
three commissioners to Canada, whither they went in
hopes of prevailing on that country so recently hostile
to Great Britain, to join the colonies in their revolt ;
but the errand was of no avail, for the settlements in
Canada were made up for the most part of poor and
ignorant French peasants, who had no thought of any
thing beyond the farms on which they lived, and had
not been trained, as the English colonists had been,
in self-government. Franklin returned to Philadel
phia in time to take part in the discussions which led
to the Declaration of Independence.
Some of the members of Congress were disposed to
criticise the document, and to propose changes in the
form. Thomas Jefferson, the chief author of the Dec
laration, wa3 very uneasy under these amendments,
and Franklin, who was sitting by him, noticed his vex
ation, and said to him :
" I have made it a rule, whenever in my power, to
avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be reviewed
by a public body. I took my lesson from an incident
which I will relate to you. When I was a journey-

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 233
man printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed
hatter, having served out his time, was about to open
shop for himself. His first concern was to have a
handsome sign-board, with a proper inscription. He
composed it in these words : John Thompson, Hatter,
makes and sells hats for ready money, with a figure
of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit
it to his friends for their amendments. The first he
showed it to thought the word hatter tautologous, be
cause followed by the words makes hats, which showed
he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed
that the word makes might as well be omitted, be
cause his customers would not care who made the
hats ; if good and to their mind they would buy, by
whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third said
he thought the words for ready money were useless, as
it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit.
Every one who purchased expected to pay. They were
parted with, and the inscription now stood, John
Thompson sells hats. ' Sells hats ? ' says his next
friend ; ' why, nobody will expect you to give them
away. What, then, is the use of that word ? ' It was
stricken out, and hats followed, the rather as there
was one painted on the board. So his inscription
was ultimately reduced to John Thompson, with the
figure of a hat subjoined."
When war had fairly begun, and the colonies, by
their Declaration of Independence, had finally sepa
rated from England, it became very important to make
friends with other European powers. The Declaration
was a protest to the world against the injustice of
England, and an argument why the states should be a
nation governing itself. But if a nation, then it must
take its place among other nations, and send ambas-

234 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
sadors to them. Besides, America had so long been
dependent on England, and England had so steadily
discouraged and forbidden all manufactures in her col
onies, that the country stood in need of many things,
as guns and means of carrying on the war ; there was
little money in the land, for the merchants could no
longer sell to their customers in England. So Con
gress set about sending men to France and Spain and
Holland in order that the United States might make
friends with those countries, and receive aid and bor
row money for carrying on the war. It was especially
important to send a representative to France, for
France was an enemy to England and could be of the
greatest service to the new nation. It was very clear
who was the best man to send : Dr. Franklin was
chosen unanimously. He is said to have turned to a
friend, when the result was announced, saying : " I am
old and good for nothing ; but as the store-keepers say
of their remnants of cloth, ' I am but a fag end, you
may have me for what you please.' "
Franklin was seventy years old when he went to
France near the end of the year 1776, and there he re
mained until the war was over and peace was signed.
He was now a very famous man, and as many of the
French people were enthusiastic friends of America,
they took every opportunity of honoring Franklin.
The French men of science welcomed him among
them, and wherever he went he was received with the
greatest distinction. He established himself at Passy,
a suburb of Paris, and not only minded American
affairs, but made philosophical experiments and kept
up a lively correspondence with his old friends in Eng
land and America.
" You are too early, hussy," he wrote good-naturedly

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 235
to one of his English correspondents, " as well as too
saucy, in calling me reiel ; you should wait for the
event which will determine whether it is a rebellion
or only a revolution. ... I know you wish you could
see me ; but, as you cannot, I will describe myself to
you. Figure me in your mind as jolly as formerly,
and as strong and hearty, only a few years older ; very
plainly dressed, wearing my thin, gray, straight hair,
that peeps out under my only coiffure, a fine fur cap
which comes down my forehead almost to my spectacles.
Think how this must appear among the powdered heads
of Paris ! I wish every lady and gentleman in France
would only be so obliging as to follow my fashion,
comb their own heads as I do mine, dismiss their fri-
seurs, and pay me half the money they paid to them."
It was a hard task that Franklin had to perform in
France. His countrymen came to him when they
were in trouble. He had to watch the French gov
ernment to see that they did not use the Americans
for their own advantage. He had to borrow money
for his government, and at last, when the war was over,
he, with the other commissioners, needed to exercise the
greatest wisdom to secure for the United States favora
ble terms. He felt his growing age. His wife had
died several years before, and he had lost much of his
property, but he never seemed to lose the cheerful
spirit which he carried through life. He wrote to his
old friend Mary Stevenson, now Mrs. Hewson :
" At length we are at peace. God be praised, and
long, very long, may it continue. All wars are follies,
very expensive, and very mischievous ones. When
will mankind be convinced of this, and agree to settle
their differences by arbitration ? Were they to do it,
even by the cast of a die, it would be better than by

236 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
fighting and destroying each other. ... In looking
forward, twenty-five years seem a long period, but, in
looking back, how short ! Could you imagine that it
is now full a quarter of a century since we were first
acquainted? It was in 1757. During the greatest
part of the time I lived in the same house with my
dear deceased friend, your mother ; of course you and
I conversed with each other much and often. It is to
all our honors that in all that time we never had
among us the smallest misunderstanding. Our friend
ship has been all clear sunshine, without the least
cloud in its hemisphere. Let me conclude by saying
to you, what I have had too frequent occasions to say
to my other remaining old friends : ' The fewer we be
come, the more let us love one another.' "
0
It was some time before the treaty of peace was
finally ratified and Franklin remained in France. He
wished to go home. He was old and feeble and tired
of cares, but he was obliged to remain until Congress
should recall him. Meanwhile he watched events in
America from a distance, and made shrewd comments
on affairs there. In one of his letters to his daughter
he makes this criticism on the American eagle :
" For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not
been chosen as the representative of our country ; he
is a bird of bad moral character ; he does not get his
living honestly ; you may have seen him perched on
some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he
watches the labor of the fishing-hawk ; and when that
diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bear
ing it to his nest for the support of his mate and
young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it
from him. With all this injustice he is never in good
case ; but, like those among men who live by sharp-

A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE. 237
ing and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very
lousy. Besides he is a rank coward ; the little king
bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly
and drives him out of the district. He is, therefore,
by no means a proper emblem for the brave and
honest Cincinnati 1 of America, who have driven all
the king-birds from our country."
At last he was able to return to America, and in
the fall of 1785 he was again in Philadelphia. His
countrymen received him with enthusiasm, and he was
at once made president of the State of Pennsylvania,
as the governor was then called. But he had had
enough of public life, and he seemed to like better to
spend his remaining years in the quiet occupations of
an old man. He lived to see the country adopt the
Constitution under which it has grown strong, and
to welcome George Washington to the office of first
President. " My malady," he writes to the President, " renders
my sitting up to write rather painful to me; but I
cannot let my son-in-law, Mr. Bache, part for New
York without congratulating you by him on the recov
ery of your health, so precious to us all, and on the
growing strength of our new government under your
administration. For my own personal ease, I should
have died two years ago ; but though those years have
been spent in excruciating pain, I am pleased that I
have lived them, since they have brought me to see
our present situation. I am now finishing my eighty-
fourth year, and probably with it my career in this
life ; but whatever state of existence I am placed in
hereafter, if I retain any memory of what has passed
1 The order of Cincinnati was then forming, and Franklin criticised
it as unrepublican.

238 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN'S LIFE.
here, I shall with it retain the esteem, respect, and
affection with which I have long been, my dear friend,
yours most sincerely."
Franklin died April 17, 1790, aged eighty-four
years and three months. In 1728, when he . was
twenty-three years of age, and a printer, he composed
the following epitaph, which was not, however, placed
on his monument : The Body
or
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Printer
(Like the cover of an old book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding)
Lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost
For it will [as he believed] appear once more
In a new and more elegant edition
Revised and corrected
%
The Author.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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