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VIII.

FRANKLIN, if he did not originally suggest the plan of a Continental Congress, was among its earliest approvers. In a letter, dated July 7, 1773, to Thomas Cushing, of Massachusetts, he says: "It is natural to suppose, as you do, that, if the oppressions continue, a Congress may grow out of that correspondence. Nothing could more alarm our ministers; but, if the Colonies agree to hold a Congress, I do not see how it can be prevented." In a letter of the same date, to be read to the Assembly, he says: "Perhaps it would be best and fairest for the Colonies, in a general Congress, now in peace to be assembled, or by means of the correspondence lately proposed, after a full and solemn assertion and declaration of their rights, to engage firmly with each other, that they will never grant aids to the crown, in any general war, till those rights are recognized by the king and both houses of Parliament; communicating at the same time to the crown this their resolution. Such a step, I imagine, will bring the dispute to a crisis." From these passages it would seem that the scheme had been already agitated. It grew naturally out of the exigences of the times, and probably no Province or individual can rightly claim the merit of its origin.

The First Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia, September 17, 1774. In December following, their petition to the king was forwarded under cover to Franklin. It was transferred by the king to Parliament, by which body it was contemptuously rejected. It was the last tender of the olive-branch, and it was spurned. Franklin now began to think of returning to America. He was regarded with a good deal of distrust by the ministry, who, it was privately intimated to him, entertained some thoughts of arresting him as a fomenter of rebellion in the Colonies. A coalition on the American question being talked of among the opposition in Parliament to the ministry, he endeavored to promote it, and, in conversation with members of the minority in both Houses, he "besought and conjured them most earnestly not to suffer, by their little misunderstandings, so glorious a fabric as the present British empire to be

demolished by these blunderers." But the "blunderers " blundered on, although some eloquent voices were raised in Parliament to deter them; among others, that of Lord Chatham, whose intrepid words, "I rejoice that America has resisted," though they elicited a cry of horror from the ministerial benches, thrilled like a trumpet-note through the hearts of the Colonists.

Franklin had long admired Lord Chatham at a distance. Circumstances now brought them together, and their intercourse was throughout of a character honorable to both parties. His lordship's noble vindication of Franklin from the aspersions of Lord Sandwich in the House of Lords is a tribute that outweighs all the abuse ever lavished upon the American sage by the supporters of the ministry. Franklin's own account of his acquaintance with Lord Chatham will be found in another part of this volume.

An aspersion upon his personal truthfulness is contained. in Lord Mahon's recent History of England, based upon an apparent discrepancy in Franklin's assurance to Lord Chatham that "America did not aim at independence," and the statement of Josiah Quincy, Jr., that Franklin's ideas were "extended upon the broad scale of total emancipation."* A little attention to dates would have satisfied his lordship, in spite of his strong tory bias, of the rank injustice of his charge against Franklin of playing "a double game." Franklin's assurance to Lord Chatham was given in August 1774, and was unquestionably sincere. The letter of Josiah Quincy, Jr., containing the expression quoted to give countenance to the imputation of duplicity, bears date November 24, 1774. During the interval between these two dates, the probabilities of a reconciliation between Great Britain and the Colonies had greatly diminished. A general election had taken place, which had given Lord North and his colleagues an overwhelming majority in Parliament. Hopes of redress from that quarter were therefore at an end. Franklin began to see that a contest was inevitable,

*Under date of London, November 24, 1784, Josiah Quincy, Jr., wrote home to Boston: "Dr. Franklin is an American in heart and soul. You may trust him; his ideas are not contracted within the narrow limits of exemption from taxes, but are extended upon the broad scale of total emancipation."

and that "total emancipation" must now be the object of the Colonists. If he had entertained contrary views a few months before, he entertained them in common with Washington, John Adams, Jay, Jefferson, Madison, and other foremost men of the Revolution. The attempt of Lord Mahon to show that there was any prevarication in his course is confuted by notorious facts.

Several negotiations were set on foot by agents of the ministry to secure the good offices of Franklin to bring about a settlement with the Colonies. To this end, his friend Dr. Fothergill and David Barclay interceded with him. At their request he drew up a plan, in the shape of hints for conversation, seventeen in number, as the terms to which the Colonists would probably assent. This paper was communicated by Mr. Barclay to Lord Hyde, and by Dr. Fothergill to Lord Dartmouth. Lord Hyde thought the propositions too hard. Lord Dartmouth, while he admitted that some of them were reasonable, regarded others as inadmissible or impracticable. The Speaker of the House of Commons thought it would be very humiliating to Britain to be obliged to submit to such terms.

At the request of Lord Howe, who, with ex-Governor Pownall, aspired to the appointment of Commissioner to America to settle difficulties, and who hoped to take Franklin with him, the latter sketched another plan; but this, too, involved concessions which the ministry were not ready to allow. Several attempts were made to renew these informal negotiations. It was evidently supposed that Franklin, though he disclaimed all authority to act, was well aware of the terms that Congress would accept. Any concessions which he might make were relied upon as certain to be obtained; but the ministry were rapacious, and he was unyielding. After repeated interviews with Mr. Barclay and Dr. Fothergill, Lord Howe and Lord Hyde, for the purpose of devising some plan of settlement, the attempt was abandoned.

One of the manoeuvres resorted to by friends of the ministry to bring about a private intercourse with Franklin is thus described by him:

"The new Parliament was to meet the 29th of November (1774). About the beginning of that month, being at the Royal Society, Mr. Raper,

one of our members, told me there was a certain lady who had a desire of playing with me at chess, fancying she could beat me, and had requested him to bring me to her. It was, he said, a lady with whose acquaintance he was sure I should be pleased, — -a sister of Lord Howe's, and he hoped I would not refuse the challenge. I said I had been long out of practice, but would wait upon the lady when he and she should think fit. He told me where her house was, and would have me call soon, and without further introduction, which I undertook to do; but thinking it a little awkward, I postponed it, and on the 30th, meeting him again at the feast of the society election, being the day after the Parliament met, he put me in mind of my promise, and that I had not kept it, and would have me name a day, when he said he would call for me and conduct me. I named the Friday following. He called accordingly. I went with him, played a few games with the lady, whom I found of very sensible conversation and pleasing behavior, which induced me to agree most readily to an appointment for another meeting a few days afterwards, though I had not the least apprehension that any political business could have any connection with this new acquaintance."

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On the evening appointed, Franklin attended his "second chess party with the agreeable Mrs. Howe."

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"After playing as long as we liked, we fell into a little chat, partly on a mathematical problem, and partly about the new Parliament, then just met, when she said, 'And what is to be done with this dispute between Great Britain and the Colonies? I hope we are not to have a civil war.' "They should kiss and be friends,' said I; 'what can they do better? Quarrelling can be of service to neither, but is ruin to both.' 'I have often said,' replied she, that I wished government would employ you to settle the dispute for them; I am sure nobody could do it so well. Do not you think that the thing is practicable?' Undoubtedly, madam, if the parties are disposed to reconciliation; for the two countries have really no clashing interests to differ about. It is rather a matter of punctilio, which two or three reasonable people might settle in half an hour. I thank you for the good opinion you are pleased to express of me; but the ministers will never think of employing me in that good work; they choose rather to abuse me.' 'Ay,' said she, they have behaved shamefully to you. And, indeed, some of them are now ashamed of it themselves.'

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Franklin looked upon this, at the time, as an accidental conversation; but it was the prelude to informal negotiations, to which members of the ministry were a party behind the curtain. It led to his acquaintance with Lord Howe, who assured him that "there was a sincere disposition in Lord North and Lord Dartmouth to accommodate the differences with America, and to listen favorably to any propositions that might have a probable tendency to answer that salutary purpose." He then asked Franklin's opinion in regard to sending over a Commissioner to inquire into griev

ances and compose differences.

"I wish, brother," said Mrs. Howe, "you were to be sent thither on such a service; I should like that much better than General Howe's going to command the army there." "I think, madam," said Franklin, "they ought to provide for General Howe some more honorable employment."

Overtures were made to Franklin, in the hope of finding some accessible point on the side of his ambition or selfinterest, where a breach could be effected, through which ministerial favors might be thrust, in anticipation of influence exerted by him in the desired direction. In the conversations between him and Mr. Barclay, the latter hinted that from Franklin's coöperation in promoting a settlement with the Colonists he might expect "not only the restoration of his old place, but almost any other he could wish for;" upon which Franklin, writing to his son, remarks: "I need not tell you, who know me so well, how improper and disgusting this language was to me." He replied to Mr. Barclay: "The ministry, I am sure, would rather give me a place in a cart to Tyburn than any other place whatever."

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Lord Howe, also, threw out lures, though in a more guarded and delicate manner. After remarking that "he was thought of to be sent Commissioner for settling the differences in America," in which event he hoped to take Franklin with him, giving him a "generous and ample appointment, he asked, "in order that the ministry might have an opportunity of showing their good disposition Franklin, that the latter would give him leave to procure the payment of the arrears of his salary as agent for New England. "My lord," said Franklin, "I shall deem it a great honor to be in any shape joined with your lordship in so good a work; but, if you hope service from any influence I may be supposed to have, drop all thoughts of procuring me any previous favors from ministers; my accepting them would destroy the very influence you propose to make use of; they would be considered as so many bribes to betray the interest of my country." On another occasion, Lord Howe, in alluding to the contingency of Franklin's lending his services to the ministry to bring about a settlement, remarked to him, that he should not think of influencing

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