America, continues to be ascrib'd to me, which, as I told you in our first Conversation, I could by no means approve of, as it would be unjust to the Numbers of wise and brave Men, who by their Arms & Counsels, have shared in the Enterprize, & contributed to its Success, (as far as it has yet succeeded) at the Hazard of their Lives & Fortunes.

My Proposition to you was, and continues to be, that instead of naming me in particular, in the Explanation of the Print, it should be said, The Congress, represented by a Senator in Roman Dress, &c. As it stands, I cannot consent to accept the Honour you propose to do me by dedicating the Print to me, which I understand is in this Country considered as an Approbation. And in my own Country, it would hurt my Character and Usefulness if I were to give the least Countenance to such a Pretention, by recommending or promoting the Sale of a Print 'so explain'd. Upon these Considerations I must request that if you are determin'd to proceed in the Engraving, you would in a new Prospectus, change the Explanation, as above propos'd, and dedicate the Print not to me, but to the Congress. I have the Honour to be, Sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN.

912. PROPOSED LETTER TO LORD NORTH

CONCERNING PRISONERS

June, 1778.

MY LORD: The fortune of war having again made a number of British seamen prisoners to the United States, it is our duty to trouble you with a renewal of our former request for an immediate exchange of prisoners in Europe. To detain unfortunate men for months in prison and send

them three thousand miles to make an exchange which might take place immediately and on the spot is a most grievous and unnecessary addition to the calamities of war, in which we cannot believe the British government will persist.

It is with the utmost regret that we find ourselves compelled to reiterate to your Lordship our remonstrances against your treating the citizens of the United States, made prisoners by the arms of the king of Great Britain, in a manner unexampled in the practice of civilized nations. We have received late and authentic information that numbers of such prisoners, some of them fathers of families in America, having been sent to Africa, are now in the fort of Senegal, condemned in that unwholesome climate to the hardest labour and most inhuman treatment.

It will be our indispensable duty to report this to the Congress of the United States, and retaliation will be the inevitable consequence in Europe as well as in America, unless your Lordship will authorize us to assure Congress that those unhappy men, as well as all others of our nation who have been treated in a similar manner shall be immediately brought back and exchanged.

Most earnestly we beseech your Lordship no longer to sacrifice the essential interests of humanity to claims of sovereignty, [of which the issue of our most solemn appeal to Heaven has sufficiently proved. It is a fatal mistake, by which you seem to have been misled, to think that when you trampled upon humanity you triumphed too over us] which your experience must by this time have convinced you are not to be maintained. We have the honour to be, etc.

[B. F. for the Commissioners]

913. TO CHARLES DE WEISSENSTEIN1 (P. A. E. E. U.) Passy, July 1, 1778.

SIR,

I received your letter, dated at Brussels the 16th past. My vanity might possibly be flattered by your expressions of compliment to my understanding, if your proposals did not more clearly manifest a mean opinion of it.

You conjure me, in the name of the omniscient and just God, before whom I must appear, and by my hopes of future fame, to consider if some expedient cannot be found to put a stop to the desolation of America, and prevent the miseries of a general war. As I am conscious of having taken every step in my power to prevent the breach, and no one to widen it, I can appear cheerfully before that God, fearing nothing from his justice in this particular, though I have much occasion for his mercy in many others. As to my future fame, I am content to rest it on my past and present conduct, without seeking an addition to it in the crooked, dark paths, you propose to me, where I should most certainly lose it. This your solemn address would therefore have been more properly made to your sovereign and his venal Parliament. He and they, who wickedly began, and madly continue, a war

1 Franklin received a long letter signed Charles de Weissenstein. It was dated "Brussels, June 16, 1778,” and written in English. The original is now in P. A. E., and is addressed "To Benj. Franklin Esq. &c. &c.

Secret and Confidential

Read this in private- & before you look

at the other papers —

but don't be imprudent enough to let any one see it, before you have consider'd it thoroughly."

The letter contained a "Plan of Reconciliation" and the Outline of the Future Government in America, and urged a secret conference.-ED.

for the desolation of America, are alone accountable for the consequences.

You endeavour to impress me with a bad opinion of French faith; but the instances of their friendly endeavours to serve a race of weak princes, who, by their own imprudence, defeated every attempt to promote their interest, weigh but little with me, when I consider the steady friendship of France to the Thirteen United States of Switzerland, which has now continued inviolate two hundred years. You tell me, that she will certainly cheat us, and that she despises us already. I do not believe that she will cheat us, and I am not certain that she despises us; but I see clearly that you are endeavouring to cheat us by your conciliatory bills; that you actually despised our understandings, when you flattered yourselves those artifices would succeed; and that not only France, but all Europe, yourselves included, most certainly and for ever would despise us, if we were weak enough to accept your insidious propositions.

Our expectations of the future grandeur of America are not so magnificent, and therefore not so vain or visionary, as you represent them to be. The body of our people are not merchants, but humble husbandmen, who delight in the cultivation of their lands, which, from their fertility and the variety of our climates, are capable of furnishing all the necessaries and conveniences of life without external commerce; and we have too much land to have the least temptation to extend our territory by conquest from peaceable neighbours, as well as too much justice to think of it. Our militia, you find by experience, are sufficient to defend our lands from invasion; and the commerce with us will be defended by all the nations who find an advantage in it. We, therefore,

have not the occasion you imagine, of fleets or standing armies, but may leave those expensive machines to be maintained for the pomp of princes, and the wealth of ancient states. We propose, if possible, to live in peace with all mankind; and after you have been convinced, to your cost, that there is nothing to be got by attacking us, we have reason to hope, that no other power will judge it prudent to quarrel with us, lest they divert us from our own quiet industry, and turn us into corsairs preying upon theirs. The weight therefore of an independent empire, which you seem certain of our inability to bear, will not be so great as you imagine. The expense of our civil government we have always borne, and can easily bear, because it is small. A virtuous and laborious people may be cheaply governed. Determining, as we do, to have no offices of profit, nor any sinecures or useless appointments, so common in ancient or corrupted states, we can govern ourselves a year, for the sum you pay in a single department, or for what one jobbing contractor, by the favour of a minister, can cheat you out of in a single article.

You think we flatter ourselves, and are deceived into an opinion that England must acknowledge our independency. We, on the other hand, think you flatter yourselves in imagining such an acknowledgment a vast boon, which we strongly desire, and which you may gain some great advantage by granting or withholding. We have never asked it of you; we only tell you, that you can have no treaty with us but as an independent state; and you may please yourselves and your children with the rattle of your right to govern us, as long as you have done with that of your King's being King of France, without giving us the least concern, if you do not attempt to exercise it. That this pretended right is indisputable, as you