THE LIFE OF FRANKLIN.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

CONTINUED.

FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER WRITINGS.

PART III.

FROM THE CLOSE OF FRANKLIN'S MISSION TO ENGLAND TO THE

CLOSE OF HIS MISSION TO FRANCE, 1775 TO 1785.

339

CHAPTER XI.

Fra lin chosen Delegate to

nd Contin tal Congress—His Ex pedition to Canada — Discouragements and Return — Declaration of Independence -- Chosen President of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention-John Thompson's Sign.

1775-1776.

1775

Το Joseph You will have heard, before this reaches Priestley, dated Philadel

you, of a march stolen by the regulars into phia, 16 May, the country by night, and of their expedition

back again. They retreated twenty miles in six hours.* The governor had called the Assembly to propose Lord North's pacific plan, but, before the time of their meeting, began cutting of throats. You know it was said he carried the sword in one hand, and the olive branch in the other; and it seems he chose to give them a taste of the sword first.

He is doubling his fortifications at Boston, and hopes to

* Barely two weeks previous to Franklin's arrival, the battles of Lexington and Concord, precipitated by the orders of General Gage to burn some colonial stores, had been fought, and eighty-three Americans killed, wounded, and missing, against two hundred and seventy-three, in the same category, on the other side. The war of independence, though not yet declared, had begun.-Ep. 29*

341

334

MEMORIAL TO LORD DARTMOUTH. [Æt. 69.

a

have put down some things as said by or to one person, which passed in conversation with another. A little before I left London, being at the Ho

of Lords, during a debate in which Lord Camden was to speak, and who indeed spoke admirably on American affairs, I was much disgusted, from the ministerial side, by many base reflections on American courage, religion, understanding, &c., in which we were treated with the utmost contempt, as the lowest of mankind, and almost of a different species from the English of Britain ; but particularly the American honesty was abused by some of the Lords, who asserted that we were all knaves, and wanted only by this dispute to avoid paying our debts; that, if we had any sense of equity or justice, we should offer payment of the tea, &c. I went home somewhat irritated and heated ; and, partly to retort upon this nation, on the article of equity, drew up a memorial to present to Lord Dartmouth before my departure; but, consulting my friend, Mr. Thomas Walpole, upon it, who is a member of the House of Commons, he looked at it and at me several times alternately, as if he apprehended me a little out of my senses. As I was in the hurry of packing up, I requested him to take the trouble of showing it to his neighbour, Lord Camden, and ask his advice upon it, which he kindly undertook to do; and 'returned it me with a note, which here follows the proposed memorial.

“ To the Right Honorable the Earl of Dartmouth, one of

his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State;

"A Memorial of Benjamin Franklin, Agent of the Province

of Massachusetts Bay. " Whereas an injury done can only give the party injured

a right to full reparation; or, in case that be refused, a right to return an equal injury; and whereas the blockade of Boston, now continued nine months, hath every week of its continuance done damage to that town, equal to what was suffered there by the India Company; it follows that such exceeding damage is an injury done by this government, for which reparation ought to be made; and whereas reparation of injuries ought always (agreeably to the custom of all nations, savage as well as civilized,) to be first required, before satisfaction is taken by a return of damage to the aggressors; which was not done by Great Britain in the instance above mentioned ; I the underwritten do therefore, as their agent, in the behalf of my country and the said town of Boston, protest against the continuance of the said blockade; and I do hereby solemnly demand satisfaction for the accumulated injury done them, beyond the value of the India Company's tea destroyed.

“And whereas the conquest of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the coasts of Labrador and Nova Scotia, and the fisheries possessed by the French there and on the Banks of Newfoundland, so far as they were more extended than at present, was made by the joint forces of Britain and the colonies, the latter having nearly an equal number of men in that service with the former; it follows, that the colonies have an equitable and just right to participate in the advantage of those fisheries; I do, therefore, in the behalf of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, protest against the act now under consideration in Parliament, for depriving that province, with others, of that fishery, (on pretence of their refusing to purchase British commodities,) as an act highly unjust and injurious; and I give notice, that satisfaction will probably one day be demanded for all the injury that may be done and suffered in the execution of such act; and that the injustice of the proceeding is likely to give such umbrage to all the colonies, that in no future war, wherein