1699. TO MRS. JANE MECOM1

DEAR SISTER,

(L. C.)

Philadelphia, Sept. 20, 1787.

I received your kind Letter of the 16th past, which gave me the great Pleasure of learning that you were well. I thought I had before acknowledged the Receipt of yours per Colonel Sergeant.

The Convention finish'd the 17th Instant. I attended the Business of it 5 Hours in every Day from the Beginning, which is something more than four Months. You may judge from thence, that my Health continues; some tell me I look better, and they suppose the daily Exercise of going and returning from the Statehouse has done me good. You will see the Constitution we have propos'd in the Papers. The Forming of it so as to accommodate all the different Interests and Views was a difficult Task; and perhaps, after all, it may not be received with the same Unanimity in the different States, that the Convention have given the Example of in delivering it out for their Consideration. We have, however, done our best, and it must take its chance.

I agree with you perfectly in your disapprobation of war. Abstracted from the inhumanity of it, I think it wrong in point of human prudence; for, whatever advantage one nation would obtain from another, whether it be part of their territory, the liberty of commerce with them, free passage on their rivers, &c. &c., it would be much cheaper to purchase such advantage with ready money than to pay the expense of acquiring it by war. An army is a devouring monster, and,

1 From an incomplete letter-press copy in L. C.-ED.

when you have raised it, you have, in order to subsist it, not only the fair charges of pay, clothing, provisions, arms, and ammunition, with numberless other contingent and just charges to answer and satisfy, but you have all the additional knavish charges of the numerous tribe of contractors to defray, with those of every other dealer who furnishes the articles wanted for your army, and takes advantage of that want to demand exorbitant prices. It seems to me, that, if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were more accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent. I am confident, that Canada might have been purchased from France for a tenth part of the money England spent in the conquest of it. And if, instead of fighting with us for the power of taxing us, she had kept us in good humour by allowing us to dispose of our own money, and now and then giving us a little of hers, by way of donation to colleges, or hospitals, or for cutting canals, or fortifying ports, she might have easily drawn from us much more by our occasional voluntary grants and contributions, than ever she could by taxes. Sensible people will give a bucket or two of water to a dry pump, that they may afterwards, get from it all they have occasion for. Her ministry were deficient in that little point of common sense. And so they spent one hundred millions of her money, and after all lost what they contended for.

I lament the loss your town has suffered this year by fire. I sometimes think men do not act like reasonable creatures when they build for themselves combustible dwellings, in which they are every day obliged to use fire. In my new buildings, I have taken a few precautions, not generally used; to wit, none of the wooden work of one room communicates with the wooden work of any other room; and all the floors,

and even the steps of the stairs, are plastered close to the boards, besides the plastering on the laths under the joists. There are also trap-doors to go out upon the roofs, that one may go out and wet the shingles in case of a neighbouring fire. But, indeed, I think the staircases should be stone, and the floors tiled as in Paris, and the roofs either tiled or slated.

I am much obliged to your friend and neighbour Mr. Lathrop,1 for his kind present, and purpose writing to him. It is a discourse well written.

I sent you lately a Barrel of Flour, and I blame myself for not sooner desiring you to lay in your Winter's Wood, and drawing upon me for it as last Year. But I have been so busy. To avoid such Neglect in Future, I now make the Direction general, that you draw on me every Year for the same purpose. Adieu, my dear Sister, and believe me ever your affectionate brother,

B. FRANKLIN.

1700. TO ALEXANDER SMALL

(L. C.)

Philadelphia, Sept. 28, 1787.

DEAR SIR,

I received your kind Letter of June 6, 86, and I answered it, tho' long after the Receipt. I do not perceive by your second Favour of July, 87,2 that my Answer had then come to hand, but hope it may since that time.

I have not lost any of the Principles of Public Economy you once knew me possess'd of; but, to get the bad Customs of a

1 John Lathrop, or Lothrop, Boston clergyman, 1740-1816. The present was a copy of a Discourse before the humane society in Boston. His letter to Franklin is dated August 30, 1787 (A. P. S.). — Ed.

2 Both these letters, June 6, 1786, and July 3, 1787, are in A. P. S. — ED.

Country chang'd, and new ones, though better, introduc'd, it is necessary first to remove the Prejudices of the People, enlighten their Ignorance, and convince them that their Interest will be promoted by the propos'd Changes; and this is not the Work of a Day. Our Legislators are all Land-holders; and they are not yet persuaded, that all taxes are finally paid by the Land. Besides, our Country is so sparsely settled, the Habitations, particularly in the Back Countries, being perhaps 5 or 6 Miles distant from each other, that the Time and Labour of the Collector in going from House to House, and being oblig'd to call often before he can recover the Tax, amounts to more than the Tax is worth, and therefore, we have been forc'd into the Mode of indirect Taxes, i. e. Duties on Importation of Goods, and Excises.

I have made no Attempt to introduce the Form of Prayer here, which you and good Mrs. Baldwin do me the Honour to approve. The things of this World take up too much of my Time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake any thing like a Reformation in Matters of Religion. When we can sow good Seed, we should however do it, and wait, when we can do no better, with Patience Nature's Time, for their Sprouting. Some lie many years in the Ground, and at length certain favourable Seasons or Circumstances bring them forth with vigorous Shoots and plentiful Productions.

Had I been at home as you wish, soon after the Peace, I might possibly have mitigated some of the Severities against the Royalists, believing, as I do, that Fear and Error, rather than Malice, occasion'd their Desertion of their Country's Cause, and Adoption of the King's. The public Resentment against them is now so far abated, that none who ask Leave to return are refus'd, and many of them now live among us

much at their Ease. As to the Restoration of confiscated Estates, it is an Operation that none of our Politicians have as yet ventur'd to propose. They are a sort of People, that love to fortify themselves in their Projects by Precedent. Perhaps they wait to see your Government restore the forfeited Estates in Scotland to the Scotch, those in Ireland to the Irish, and those in England to the Welsh !

I am glad that the distressed Exiles, who remain with you, have receiv'd, or are likely to receive, some compensation for their Losses, for I commiserate their Situation. It was clearly incumbent on the King to indemnify those he had seduc'd by his Proclamations; but it seems not so clearly consistent with the Wisdom of Parliament to resolve doing it for him. If some mad King hereafter should think fit, in a Freak, to make War upon his subjects of Scotland, or upon those of England, by the help of Scotland and Ireland, (as the Stewarts did,) may he not encourage Followers by the Precedent of these Parliamentary Gratuities, and thus set his Subjects to cutting one another's Throats, first with the Hope of sharing in Confiscations, and then with that of Compensation in case of Disappointment? The Council of Brutes in the old Fable were aware of this. Lest that Fable may perhaps not have fallen in your way, I enclose a Copy of it.

Your Commercial Treaty with France seems to show a growing Improvement in the Sentiments of both Nations in the Economical Science. All Europe might be a great deal happier with a little more Understanding. We in America have lately had a Convention for framing a new Constitution. Enclos'd I send you the result of their Deliberations. Whether it will be generally acceptable and carried into Execution is yet to be seen; but present Appearances are in its Favour.