not at present, on examination of my conscience, charge myself with any immorality of that kind, it becomes me to suspect, that what has long appeared to you, may have some foundation. You are so good as to add, that if it can be proved you have unjustly suspected me, you shall have a satisfaction in acknowledging the error.' It is often a thing hard to prove, that suspicions are unjust, even when we know what they are; and harder when we are unacquainted with them. I must presume, therefore, that in mentioning them, you had an intention of communicating the grounds of them to me, if I should request it, which I now do, and, I assure you, with a sincere desire and design of amending what you may show me to have been wrong in my conduct, and to thank you for the admonition. "In your writings I appear a bad man; but if I am such, and you can thus help me to become in reality a good one, I shall esteem it more than a sufficient reparation to, reverend sir, your most obedient humble servant, “B. FRANKLIN." [Note by Dr. Franklin, on the rough draft of the foregoing letter.] Feb. 7, 1775. No answer has been received to the above letter. B. F. tinually added, further to exasperate the colonies, render them desperate, and drive them into open rebellion. In a paper written by Dr. Franklin, "On the rise and progress of the differences between Great Britain and her American colonies," and supposed to have been published about this time (1774,) he states, that soon after the late war, it became an object with the British ministers to draw a revenue from America: the first attempt was by a stamp act. It soon appeared, that this step had not been well considered; and that the rights, the ability, the opinions, and temper of that great and growing people, had not been sufficiently attended to. They complained, that the tax was unnecessary, because their assemblies had ever been ready to make voluntary grants to the crown in proportion to their abilities, when duly required so to do; and unjust, because they had no representative in the British parliament, but had parliaments of their own, wherein their consent was given, as it ought to be, in grants of their own money. The parliament repealed the act as inexpedient, but in another asserted a right of taxing the colonies, and binding them in all cases whatsoever! In the following year they laid duties on British manufactures exported to America. On the repeal of the stamp act, the Americans had returned to their wonted good humour and commerce with Great Britain; but this new act for laying duties renewed their uneasiness. These and other grievances complained of by the colonies are succinctly enumerated in Dr. Franklin's paper abovementioned; and the progressive history of the causes of the American discontents in general. From the preceding correspondence, it is fully evident, that this reverend divine was not willing to acknowledge, or even find that he had substantially erred in regard to Dr. Franklin. His prejudices indeed, appear to have been so deeply rooted, and his desire to do justice to one whom he had wronged, appears to have been so dormant, that he betrays an evident disinclination to ascertain the truth, or allow it to approach him, in opposition to these prejudices. With other The whole continent of America now bemore equitable dispositions, it would have gan to consider the Boston port bill, as strikbeen impossible for the dean to abstain so ing essentially at the liberty of all the colopertinaciously from giving any answer to Dr.nies; and these sentiments were strongly Franklin's last letter. The facts and ex- urged and propagated in the American newsplanations which it contained were so im- papers. portant, and they were stated with so much Even those colonies which depended most candour and civility, that the dean must have upon the mother country for the consumption felt it to be highly incumbent on him, either of their productions, entered into, associations to meet those facts by others equally conclu- with the others; and nothing was to be heard sive, or to acknowledge that he had wrong-of but resolutions for the encouragement of fully accused Dr. Franklin. The former he could not do, the latter he would not. The only expedient then remaining, was the unworthy and evasive one of giving no an swer! But to return to cbjects of more public interest. All the expectations that Dr. Franklin had then entertained from the good character and disposition of the then minister, lord Dartmouth, in favour of America, began to wither: none of the measures of his predecessor had even been attempted to be changed, but on the contrary new ones had been con their own manufactures, the consumption of home products, the discouragement of foreign articles, and the retrenchment of all superfluities. Virginia resolved not to raise any more tobacco, unless the grievances of America were redressed. Maryland followed that example: Pennsylvania, and almost all the other colonies, entered into resolutions in the same spirit, with a view to enforce a general redress of grievances. During these disputes between the two countries, Dr. Franklin invented an emble matical design, intended to represent the | such compulsory attempts, will contribute to supposed state of Great Britain and her colo- unite and strengthen us; and, in the mean nies, should the former persist in her oppres- time, all the world will allow that our prosive measures, restraining the latter's trade, ceeding has been honourable." and taxing their people by laws made by a legislature in which they were not represented. It was engraved on a copper-plate, from which the annexed is a fac simile. Dr. Franklin had many of them struck off on cards, on the back of which he occasionally wrote his notes. It was also printed on a half sheet of paper, with the explanation and moral which follow it. [See p. 104.] These sentiments, applied to the picture which they are annexed to, were well calculated to produce reflection; they form part of the same system of political ethics, with the following fragment of a sentence, which Dr. Franklin inserted in a political publication of one of his friends:-"The attempts to establish arbitrary power over so great a part of the British empire, are to the imminent hazard of our most valuable commerce, and of that national strength, security, and felicity, which depend on union and liberty;"-The preservation of which, he used to say, "had been the great object and labour of his life; the WHOLE being such a thing as the world before never saw!" Such had been the advice of Dr. Franklin; and, as he observes somewhere, "a good mo tion never dies," so this was eventually acted upon in all its bearings, and was the first step to the union of the colonies, and their final emancipation from Great Britain. The first congress assembled at Philadelphia, September 17, 1774. Their first public act was a declaratory resolution, expressive of their disposition with respect to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and immediately intended to confirm and encourage that people in their opposition to the oppressive acts of the British parliament. This, and other analogous resolutions relative to Massachusetts, being passed, the congress wrote a letter to general Gage, governor and commander of the king's troops in that province, in which, after repeating the complaints formerly made by the town of Boston, they declared the determined resolution of the colonies to unite for the preservation of their common rights, in opposition to the late acts of parliament, under the execution of which the unhappy people of Massachusetts were oppressed; that the colonies had appointed them the guardians of their rights and liberties, and that they felt the deepest concern, that whilst they were pursuing every dutiful and peaceable measure to procure a cordial and effectual reconciliation between Great Britain and the colonies, his excellency should proceed in a manner that bore so hostile an appearance, and which even the oppressive acts complained of did not warrant. They represented the tendency this conduct must have to irritate, and force a people, however well disposed to peaceable measures, into hostilities, which might prevent the endeavours of the congress to restore a good understanding with the parent state, and involve them in the horrors of a civil war. In June, 1774, a general congress of deputies from all the colonies, began to be universally looked forward to. This had a year before been suggested by Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Thomas Cushing, dated July 7, 1773, in which he says,But as the strength of an empire depends, not only on the union of its parts, but on their readiness for united exertion of their common force; and as the discussion of rights may seem unseasonable in the commencement of actual war, and the delay it might occasion be prejudicial to the common welfare; as, likewise, the refusal of one or a few colonies, would not be so much regarded if the others granted liberally, which perhaps by various artifices and motives they might be prevailed on to do; and as this want of concert would defeat the expectation of , general redress, that otherwise might be justly formed; 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 recognised by the king and both houses of parliament; communicating to the crown this their resolution. Such a step, I imagine, will bring the dispute to a crisis; and whether our demands are immediately complied with, or compulsory measures thought of to make The petition to his majesty contained an us rescind them, our ends will finally be ob- enumeration of the grievances of the colonies, tained; for even the odium accompanying | humbly praying redress. It was forwarded to The congress also published a DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, to which they asserted the English colonies of North America were entitled, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and their several charters or compacts. They then proceeded to frame a petition to the king, a memorial to the people of Great Britain, an address to the colonies in general, and another to the inhabitants of the province of Quebec. These several acts were drawn up with uncommon energy, address, and ability: they well deserve the attention of statesmen, and are to be found in the annals of American history. GREAT BRITAIN is supposed to have been placed upon the globe; but the COLONIES, (that is, her limbs,) being severed from her, she is seen lifting her eyes and mangled stumps to heaven: her shield, which she is unable to wield, lies useless by her side; her lance has pierced New England: the laurel branch has fallen from the hand of Pennsylvania: the English oak has lost its head, and stands a bare trunk, with a few withered branches; briars and thorns are on the ground beneath it; the British ships have brooms at their topmast heads, denoting their being on sale; and BRITANNIA herself is seen sliding off the world, (no longer able to hold its balance,) her fragments overspread with the label, DATE OBOLUM BELLISARIO. THE MORAL. History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favour of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy; it being a matter of no moment to the state, whether a subject grows rich and flourishing on the Thames or the Ohio, in Edinburgh or Dublin. These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favoured and the people oppressed: whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connexions, necessarily ensue, by which the whole state is weakened, and perhaps ruined for ever! England, by the secretary of congress, Charles Thomson, under cover to Dr. Franklin. The proceedings thereon, as a document of great interest, will be inserted in another part of this edition, and will be circumstantially noticed in the progress of these memoirs. with regard to the misunderstandings between Great Britain and America. 66 of them to propose such an union with each other, as might be more respectable in the ensuing session, have more weight in opposition, and be a body out of which a new ministry might easily be formed, should the ill suc During the recess of the last parliament, which had passed the severe acts against the province of the Massachusetts Bay, the minority having been sensible of their weakness Dr. Franklin, at this momentous period, was as an effect of their want of union among unceasing in his endeavours to induce the themselves, began to think seriously of a coBritish government to change its measures alition. For they saw in the violence of these with respect to the colonies. In private con- American measures, if persisted in, a hazard versations, in letters to persons connected of dismembering, weakening, and perhaps ruinwith government, and in writings in the pub-ing the British empire. This inclined some lic prints, he continually expatiated upon the impolicy and injustice of its conduct towards America; and stated, in the most energetic manner, that notwithstanding the sincere attachment of the colonists to the mother country, a continuance of ill treatment must ulti-cess of the late measures, and the firmness of mately alienate their affections. The minis- the colonies in resisting them, make a change ters listened not to his advice, and solemn appear necessary to the king. warnings; they blindly persevered in their own schemes, and left to the Americans no alternative but opposition, or unconditional submission. The latter accorded not with the principles of freedom which they had been taught to revere; to the former they were compelled, though reluctantly, to have re course. "I took some pains to promote this disposition, in conversation with several of the principal among the minority of both houses, whom I besought and conjured most earnestly, not to suffer, by their little misunderstandings, so glorious a fabric as the present British empire to be demolished by these blunderers and for their encouragement assured them, as far as my opinions could give any assurance, of the firmness and unanimity of America, the continuance of which was what they had frequent doubts of, and appeared extremely Dr. Franklin, thus finding all his efforts to restore harmony between Great Britain and her colonies ineffectual; and being looked upon by government with a jealous eye, who, it was said, entertained some thoughts of ar-apprehensive and anxious concerning it. resting him, under the pretence of his having fomented a rebellion in the colonies, (of which he received private intimation,) determined on immediately returning to America, and to this effect embarked from England in March, 1775. During the passage, he committed to paper a statement of his efforts to effect a reconciliation, and prevent a breach between Great Britain and her colonies. This was a narration of the negotiations he had been concerned in, to bring about so desirable an object. Like the first part of these memoirs, it was addressed to his son, governor Franklin; and intended, no doubt, to be incorporated in them, had he lived to proceed so far in his history. It forms a complement to his political transactions while in England, justifies his character, and is a document of no mean interest in the annals of the American revolution. "On board the Pennsylvania Packet, Capt. Osborne, bound to Philadelphia, March 22, 1775. "DEAR SON,-Having now a little leisure for writing, I will endeavour, as I promised you, to recollect what particulars I can of the negotiations I have lately been concerned in, VOL. I.... O "From the time of the affront given me at the council board in January, 1774, I had never attended the levee of any minister. I made no justification of myself from the charges brought against me: I made no return of the injury by abusing my adversaries; but held a cool sullen silence, reserving myself to some future opportunity; for which conduct I had several reasons, not necessary here to specify. Now and then I heard it said, that the reasonable part of the administration was ashamed of the treatment they had given me. I suspected, that some who told me this, did it to draw from me my sentiments concerning it, and perhaps my purposes; but I said little or nothing upon the subject. In the mean time, their measures with regard to New England failing of the success that had been confidently expected, and finding themselves more and more embarrassed, they began (as it seems) to think of making use of me, if they could, to assist in disengaging them. But it was too humiliatdirectly, and therefore it was contrived to ing to think of applying to me openly and obtain what they could of my sentiments through others. 106 they were more and more united and deter- | which he said he was pleased to hear from me, as he was sensible I must be well acquainted with them. I then took occasion to remark to him, that in former cases great empires had crumbled first at their extremi- / ties, from this cause-that countries remote from the seat and eye of government, which therefore could not well understand their affairs, for want of full and true information, had never been well governed, but had been oppressed by bad governors, on presumption that complaint was difficult to be made and supported against them at such a distance: "When I came to England in 1757, you may hence, such governors had been encouraged remember I made several attempts to be in- to go on, till their oppressions became intolertroduced to lord Chatham, (at that time first able: but that this empire had happily found minister) on account of my Pennsylvania and long been in the practice of a method, business, but without success. He was then whereby every province was well governed, too great a man, or too much occupied in af- being trusted in a great measure with the fairs of greater moment. I was therefore government of itself, that hence had risen obliged to content myself with a kind of non- such satisfaction in the subjects, and such enapparent and unacknowledged communica- couragement to new settlements, that had it tion through Mr. Potter and Mr. Wood, his not been for the late wrong politics, (which secretaries, who seemed to cultivate an ac- would have parliament to be omnipotent, quaintance with me by their civilities, and though it ought not to be, unless it could at drew from me what information I could give the same time be omniscient,) we might have relative to the American war, with my senti- gone on extending our western empire, addments occasionally on measures that were ing province to province as far as the South proposed or advised by others, which gave Sea: that I lamented the ruin which seemed me the opportunity of recommending and en- impending over so fine a plan, so well adaptforcing the utility of conquering Canada. Ied to make all the subjects of the greatest afterwards considered Mr. Pitt as an inaccessible; I admired him at a distance, and made no more attempts for a nearer acquaintance. I had only once or twice the satisfaction of hearing, through lord Shelburne, and I think lord Stanhope, that he did me the honour of mentioning me sometimes as a person of respectable character. "But towards the end of Angust last, returning from Brighthelmstone, I called to visit my friend Mr. Sargent, at his seat, Halsted, in Kent, agreeably to a former engagement. He let me know, that he had promised to conduct me to lord Stanhope's at Chevening, who expected I would call on him when I came into that neighbourhood. We accordingly waited on lord Stanhope that evening, who told me that lord Chatham desired to see me, and that Mr. Sargent's house, where I was to lodge, being in the way, he would call for me there the next morning, and carry me to Hayes. This was done accordingly. That truly great man received me with abundance of civility, inquired particularly into the situation of affairs in America, spoke feelingly of the severity of the late laws against the Massachusetts, gave me some account of his speech in opposing them, and expressed great regard and esteem for the people of that country, who he hoped would continue firm and united in defending, by all peaceable and legal means, their constitutional rights. I assured him, that I made no doubt they would do so; empire happy; and I hoped, that if his lord- |