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92

F831fs

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by

EPES SARGENT,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts

Stereotyped by
HOBART & ROBBINS,

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
BOSTON.

F8

1866

6968

PREFACE.

FRANKLIN's personal celebrity has so eclipsed his literary fame, that justice has hardly been done to him as a writer and an essayist; and yet he has himself confessed that he was indebted mainly to his pen for his advancement in public life. He was singularly indifferent, however, to any reputation or profit that might accrue from his writings, and left it to his friends to collect and republish them as they might please. The consequences of this indifference are manifest even to the present time, in the absence of any cheap popular edition of his select works. He has been posthumously fortunate, however, in having so able an editor as Mr. Sparks, whose ten volumes of the Works of Franklin, with a memoir and notes, leave nothing to be desired in the way of an ample and accurate collection.

But Franklin's is a name so eminently and intimately popular, that the want of a collection of his best works, more generally accessible in respect to size and cost, has long been experienced; and to supply this want the present edition is offered. In the introductory memoir, the editor

M368161

has been indebted for some new facts to the French memoirs by Mignet and Sainte-Beuve; and the works of John Adams, recently published, have supplied many interesting details, not embraced in any other biographical account. All Franklin's purely literary productions of merit are contained in the present collection, with liberal specimens of his philosophical writings, and the choicest of his letters. Much that he wrote was of merely local and temporary interest, designed to affect provincial legislation; and, though valuable to the historian, is unprofitable to the general reader of a subsequent time.

CONTENTS.

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VIII.-Plan of a Continental Congress - Efforts to change the Ministry -

Lord Chatham-Vindication of Franklin -Lord Mahon's Aspersion -

Efforts to negotiate - Overtures - Reply to Barclay - Lures rejected. 63

IX. - A Memorial - Death of Mrs. Franklin - Husband and Wife

Leaves for America - Delegate to Congress - First Plan of a Confedera-

tion Visits Washington's Head-quarters - Remark of Gen. Greene

-Various Public Duties - Declaration of Independence Jefferson's

Anecdote President of the Pennsylvania Convention-Measures

Views in Congress - Conference with Lord Howe - John Adams — Anec-

dote -

Commissioner to France - Arrival in Paris

68

X.-Diplomatic Career - House at Passy-Vergennes-Secret Assistance

-Lord Stormont - Surrender of Burgoyne - Sheridan's Epigram-

Treaty with France - The Commissioners at Court-Voltaire-Harass-

ing Applications-Lafayette - Arthur Lee — Disagreement - Mr. Izard

-John Adams-Franklin Minister Plenipotentiary Enemies-British

Negotiators John Paul Jones Conduct of the French

Recall Anecdote - Commissioner for Peace

-Chagrin of Vergennes - Our Debt to France -

son- - Succeeded by Jefferson

XI.-Social Popularity - Madame Helvetius-Amusing Letter-French

Ladies - Bon-mot-Fête - French Men of Letters-Turgot's Compli-

ment Portraits, Busts, &c. . Mirabeau-Marat Acquaintance with

French-Anecdote - Mesmerism - Cowper and his Poems - Humane

Measures -Farewell Letter to Mr. Hartley - Departure from Passy-

Arrival at Southampton - Embarkation - Employments Reception in

Philadelphia

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Requests his
-Treaty with Great Britain
- Letter to Charles Thomp-

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XII.- Welcomes-President of Pennsylvania - Delegate to the Conven-
tion on the U. S. Constitution-Objects to the Salary Principle - Style
of Speaking Motion for Daily Prayers On the Constitution- Private
Claims Activity as a Writer- - Last Public Act- Last Letter-Wash-
ington - Closing Years Lord Jeffrey on his Correspondence - His
Style-Sir H. Davy's Estimate - Generosity - Habits Personal Ap-
pearance Sir F. Romilly's Description - Last Illness - Death Obse-
quies Burial-place- Inscription - Epitaph - Proceedings of Congress
Mirabeau's Eulogy-Will-Descendants-Incident-False Views of
his Character-His Courtship -- Madame Helvetius- Described by Mrs
Adams His Religious Views - Claims to Remembrance .

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