The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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  These remarks are in the Pennsylvania Gazette for October 2nd, 1729, and are as follows:

  “His Excellency, Governor Burnet, died unexpectedly about two days after the date of this reply to his last message; and it was thought that the dispute would have ended with him, or at least have lain dormant till the arrival of a new Governor from England, who possibly might, or might not, be inclined to enter too vigorously into the measures of his predecessor. But our last advices by the post acquaint us, that his Honour, the Lieutenant-governor, on whom the government immediately devolves upon the death or absence of the Commander-in-chief, has vigorously renewed the struggle on his own account, of which the particulars will be seen in our next.

  “Perhaps some of our readers may not fully understand the original ground of this warm contest between the Governor and Assembly. It seems that people have for these hundred years past enjoyed the privilege of rewarding the Governor for the time being, according to their sense of his merit and services; and few or none of their Governors have complained, or had cause to complain, of a scanty allowance. When the late Governor Burnet brought with him instructions to demand a settled salary of one thousand pounds sterling per annum, on him and all his successors, and the Assembly were required to fix it immediately, he insisted on it strenuously to the last, and they as constantly refused it. It appears by their votes and proceedings, that they thought it an imposition, contrary to their own charter, and to Magna Charta; and they judged that there should be a mutual dependence between the Governor and governed; and that to make the Governor independent would be dangerous and destructive to their liberties, and the ready way to establish tyranny. They thought, likewise, that the province was not the less dependent on the Crown of Great Britain, by the Governor’s depending immediately on them and his own good conduct for an ample support; because all acts and laws, which he might be induced to pass, must nevertheless be constantly sent home for approbation in order to continue in force. Many other reasons were given, and arguments used, in the course of the controversy, needless to particularize here, because all the material papers relating to it have been already given in our public news.

  “Much deserved praise has the deceased Governor received for his steady integrity in adhering to his instructions, notwithstanding the great difficulty and opposition he met with, and the strong temptation offered from time to time to induce him to give up the point. And yet, perhaps, something is due to the Assembly (as the love and zeal of that country for time present establishment is too well known to suffer any suspicion of want of loyalty), who continue thus resolutely to abide by what they think their right, and that of the people they represent; maugré all the arts and menaces of a Governor famed for his cunning and politics, backed with instructions from home, and powerfully aided by the great advantage such an officer always has of engaging the principal men of a place in his party, by conferring where he pleases so many posts of profit and honour. Their happy mother country will perhaps observe with pleasure, that though her gallant cocks and matchless dogs abate their natural fire and intrepidity. when transported to a foreign clime (as this nation is), yet her SONS in the remotest part of the earth, and even to the third and fourth descent, still retain that ardent spirit of liberty, and that undaunted courage, which have in every age so gloriously distinguished BRITONS and ENGLISHMEN from the rest of mankind.”

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  I afterwards obtained for his son five hundred pounds.

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  Many years afterwards he had an opportunity of discharging more completely this debt of gratitude. While he was minister plenipotentiary from the United States at the court of France, he rendered very important service to a young man, a descendant of Mr. Vernon, who passed some time in that country.

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  The dissolution of the partnership was a year later, as appears by the following agreement, transcribed from the original in Franklin’s handwriting.

  “Be it remembered, that Hugh Meredith and Benjamin Franklin have this day separated as partners, and will henceforth act each on his own account; and that the said Hugh Meredith, for a valuable consideration by him received from the said Benjamin Franklin, hath relinquished, and doth hereby relinquish, to the said Franklin, all claim, right, or property to or in the printing materials and stock heretofore jointly possessed by them in partnership: and to all debts due to them as partners, in the course of their business: which are all from henceforth the sole property of the said Benjamin Franklin. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, this 14th day of July, 1730.

  “HUGH MEREDITH.”

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  “It is little known, or set down to the commendation of Franklin, that, when he was young in business, and stood in need of sundry articles in the line of his profession as a printer, he had the ingenuity to make them for himself. In this way he founded letters of lead, engraved various printing ornaments, cut woodcuts, made printer’s ink, engraved copperplate vignettes, and made his plate-press.”

  —Watson’s Annala of Philadelphia, p. 513.

  Mr. Watson relates another anecdote. He says that the “yellow willow-tree,” now so common throughout the country, was first introduced into America by Franklin. A wicker basket made of willow, in which some foreign article had been imported, he saw sprouting in a ditch, and directed some of the twigs to be planted. They took root, and from these shoots are supposed to have sprung all the yellow willows which have grown on this side of the Atlantic.

  Chaptal ascribes to Franklin, also, the introduction of the agricultural use of plaster of Paris into the United States. “As this celebrated philosopher,” says he,” wished that the effects of this manure should strike the gaze of all cultivators, he wrote in great letters, formed by the use of the ground plaster, in a field of clover lying upon the great road, ‘This has been plastered.’ The prodigious vegetation, which was developed in the plastered portion, led him to adopt this method. Volumes upon the excellency of plaster would not have produced so speedy a revolution. From that period the Americans have imported great quantities of plaster of Paris.

  —Chaptal’s, Agricultural Chemistry, Boston edition, p. 73.

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  Down to this period the Memoir was written in the year 1771, and time task was then laid aside for several years. In the meantime, the manuscript was shown to several of the author’s friends, who pressed him to complete what he had begun. He accordingly yielded to their solicitations, and, to the part with which this chapter commences, he prefixed the following introductory remarks, and also the two letters to which he alludes:- :— “Continuation of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, near Paris, 1874.

  “It is some time since I received the above letters, but I have been too busy till now to think of complying with the request they contain. It might, too, be much better done if I were at home among my papers, which would aid my memory, and help to ascertain dates; but my return being uncertain, and having just now a little leisure, I will endeavour to recollect and write what I can; if I live to get home, it may there be corrected and improved.

  “Not having any copy here of what is already written, I know not whether any account is given of the means I used to establish the Philadelphia public library; which from a small beginning is now become so considerable. Though I remember to have come down to near the time of that transaction (1730). I will therefore begin here with an account of it, which may be struck out if found to have been aheady given.”

  The letters referred to were from his friends, Benjamin Vaughan and Abel James. They may be found In the Correspondence. ‘vol. ix., p. 478, under the date of January 31st, 1783.

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  It appears by a statement in Mr. Smith’s “Notes for a History of the Library Company of Philadelphia,” that the above “instrument??
? was dated July 1st, 1781. The charter of incorporation was obtained from the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1742. Franklin’s name stands at the head of the list of the persons who applied for the charter, and to whom it was granted. The library has grown to be one of the largest in America. The spacious and handsome edifice, in which it is contained, was erected but a short time before Dr. Franklin’s death. It is stated in the minutes of the Library Company, as quoted by Mr. Smith, “that, upon the suggestion of Dr. Franklin, a large stone was prepared, and laid at the south-east corner of the building. with the following inscription, composed by the Doctor, except so far as relates to himself, which the Committee have taken the liberty of adding to it.

  “Be it remembered,

  In honour 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 31st of August, MDCCLXXXIX.”

  The marble statue of Dr. Franklin, which occupies a niche in front of the building, was executed in Italy. and presented to the Library Company by Mr. William Bingham.

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  In Mr. Walsh’s “Life of Franklin,” published in Delaplaine’s Repository, there is an extract, copied from an original paper in Franklin’s handwriting, which claims insertion in this place, as connected with the subject upon which the author is now about to speak—

  “Those who write of the art of poetry,” says Franklin, “teach us that, if we would write what may be worth reading, we ought always, before we begin, to form a regular plan and design of our piece; otherwise we shall be in danger of incongruity. I am apt to think it is the same as to life. I have never fixed a regular design in life, by which means it has been a confused variety of different scenes. I am now entering upon a new one; let me, therefore, make some resolutions, and form some scheme of action, that henceforth I may live in all respects like a rational creature.

  “1. It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, till I have paid what I owe.

  “2. To endeavour to speak truth in every instance, to give nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered, but aim at sincerity in every word and action; the most amiable excellence in a rational being.

  “3. To apply myself industriously to whatever business I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my business by any foolish project of growing suddenly rich; for industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.

  “4. I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and, upon proper occasions, speak all the good I know of everybody.”

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  This little book is dated Sunday, 1st July, 1738.

  In a letter written by the author to Lord Kames, in November, 1761, he thus alludes to the scheme here mentioned, and to the design he then had of expanding it into a treatise on the Art of Virtue. In that letter he says: “To produce the number of valuable men necessary in a nation for its prosperity, there is much more hope from schemes of early institution than from reformation. And, as the power of a single man to do national service in particular situations of influence is often immensely great, a writer can hardly conceive the good he may be doing when engaged in works of this kind. I cannot, therefore, but wish you would publish it [“Elements of Criticism”] as soon as your other important employments will permit you to give it the finishing hand. With these sentiments you will not doubt my being serious in the intention of finishing my Art of Virtue. It is not a mere ideal work. I planned it first in 1732. I have from time to time made, and caused to be made, experiments of the method with success. The materials have been growing ever since. The form only is now to he given, in which I purpose employing my first leisure after my return to my other country.” This project, as will seen hereafter, was never carried into effect.

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  The preceding chapter was written at Passy. In a memorandum which he made, when he again resumed the narrative four years afterwards, he says, “I am now about to write at home (Philadelphia), August, 1788, but cannot have the help expected from my papers, many of them being lost in the war. I have, however, found the following.” He then proceeds as in the text.

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  Considering the remarkable success of this Almanac, end the great celebrity it has attained, particularly the summary of maxims selected from it and published separately under the title of The Way to Wealth, the reader may be curious to see the advertisement of the first number, including the table of contents. It was printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette on the 19th of December, 1732, as follows:

  “Just published, for 1733, An Almanac, containing the Lunations, Eclipses, Planets’ Motions and Aspects, Weather, Sun, and Moon’s Rising and Setting, High Water, &c.; besides many pleasant and witty Verses, Jests, and Sayings: Author’s Motive of Writing; Prediction of the Death of his Friend, Mr. Titan Leeds; Bachelor’s Folly; Parson’s Wine and Baker’s Pudding; Short Visits: Kings and Bears; New Fashions; Game for Kisses; Katherine’s Love: Different Sentiments; Signs of a Tempest; Death of a Fisherman; Conjugal Debate; Men and Melons; The Prodigal; Breakfast in Bed; Oyster Lawsuit, &c. By Richard Saunders, Philomat. Printed and Sold by B. Franklin.”

  Such was the eagerness with which this Almanac was sought that three editions were printed before the end of January, and, although he enlarged his first editions for the subsequent years, yet two editions were frequently required to supply the demand. In the Almanac for 1789 he makes the following apology for its miscellaneous character :—

  “Besides the usual things expected in an Almanac, I hope the professed teachers of mankind will excuse my scattering here and there some instructive hints in matters of morality and religion. And be not thou disturbed, O grave and sober reader, if, among the many serious sentences in my book, thou findest me trifling now and then and talking idly. In all the dishes I have hitherto cooked for thee there is solid meat enough for thy money. There are scraps from the table of wisdom that will, if well digested, yield strong nourishment for the mind. But squeamish stomachs cannot eat without pickles, which, it is true, are good for nothing else, but they provoke an appetite. The vain youth that reads my Almanac for the sake of an idle joke will perhaps meet with a serious reflection that he may ever after be the better for.”

  It is believed that a complete series of Poor Richard’s Almanac Is not now in existence. After much research I have not been able to find more than one-third of the numbers that were published.

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  In 1787 he published a piece in his paper on the Freedom of Speech and of the Press. Again, late in life, he wrote a pointed satirical piece on this subject.

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  None of these pamphlets have been found Several anonymous tracts on this subject are advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette, in the months of July, September, aud October. 1735, some of which are probably the same that are here mentioned as having been written by Franklin.

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  Before this appointment, he had been favoured in regard to the circulation of his newspaper. On the 28th of January, 1785, he says: “By the indulgence of the Honourable Colonel Spotewood, postmaster-general, the printer hereof is allowed to send the Gazettes by the post, postage free, to all parts of the post-road, from Virginia to New England.”

  The following advertisement indicates nearly the time at which he ass
umed the duties of postmaster, and also the degree of speed with which the mail was then conveyed.