believe that they are general, or that you have given occasion for
them; therefore do not think of applying any remedy, or of changing
any offensive measure. Redress no grievance, lest they should be
encouraged to demand the redress of some other grievance. Grant no
request, that is just and reasonable, lest they should make another,
that is unreasonable. Take all your informations of the state of
the colonies from your governors and officers in enmity with them.
Encourage and reward these leasing-makers, secrete their lying
accusations, lest they should be confuted, but act upon them as the
clearest evidence; and believe nothing you hear from the friends
of the people. Suppose all _their_ complaints to be invented and
promoted by a few factious demagogues, whom if you could catch and
hang, all would be quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly,
and the blood of the martyrs shall work miracles in favour of your
purpose[137].
XVII. If you see _rival nations_ rejoicing at the prospect of your
disunion with your provinces, and endeavouring to promote it, if
they translate, publish and applaud all the complaints of your
discontented colonists, at the same time privately stimulating you to
severer measures, let not that alarm or offend you. Why should it?
since you all mean the same thing?
XVIII. If any colony should _at their own charge erect a fortress_,
to secure their _port_ against the fleets of a foreign enemy, get
your governor to betray that fortress into your hands. Never think
of paying what it cost the country, for that would look, at least,
like some regard for justice; but turn it into a citadel, to awe
the inhabitants and curb their commerce. If they should have lodged
in such fortress the very arms they bought and used to aid you in
your conquests, seize them all; it will provoke like ingratitude
added to robbery. One admirable effect of these operations will be,
to discourage every other colony from erecting such defences, and
so their and your enemies may more easily invade them, to the great
disgrace of your government, and of course the furtherance of your
project.
XIX. Send armies into their country, under pretence of protecting the
inhabitants; but, instead of garrisoning the forts on their frontiers
with those troops, to prevent incursions, demolish those forts, and
order the troops into the heart of the country, that the savages may
be encouraged to attack the frontiers[138], and that the troops may
be protected by the inhabitants: this will seem to proceed from your
_ill-will or your ignorance_, and contribute farther to produce
and strengthen an opinion among them, that you are no longer fit to
govern them[139].
XX. Lastly, invest the _general of your army in the provinces_ with
great and unconstitutional powers, and free him from the controul of
even your own civil governors. Let him have troops enow under his
command, with all the fortresses in his possession, and who knows but
(like some provincial generals in the Roman empire, and encouraged
by the universal discontent you have produced) he may take it into
his head to set up for himself? If he should, and you have carefully
practised these few excellent rules of mine, take my word for it,
all the provinces will immediately join him--and you will that day
(if you have not done it sooner) get rid of the trouble of governing
them, and all the plagues attending their commerce and connection
from thenceforth and for ever.
FOOTNOTES:
[136] These rules first appeared in a London newspaper about the
beginning of the year 1774, and have several times since been
introduced into our public prints.--The minister alluded to is
supposed to be the Earl of Hillsborough.
"The causes and motions of seditions (says Lord Bacon) are,
innovation in religion, taxes, alteration of laws and customs,
breaking of privileges, general oppression, advancement of unworthy
persons, strangers, dearths, disbanded soldiers, factions grown
desperate, and whatsoever in offending people joineth and knitteth
them in a common cause." B. V.
[137] One of the American writers affirms, "That there has not been
a single instance in which _they_ have complained, without being
rebuked, or in which they have been complained _against_, without
being punished."--A fundamental mistake in the minister occasioned
this. Every individual in New England (the peccant country) was held
a coward or a knave, and the disorders, which spread abroad there,
were treated as the result of the _too great lenity_ of Britain! By
the aid of this short and benevolent rule, judgment was ever wisely
predetermined, to the shutting out redress on the one hand, and
inforcing every rigour of punishment on the other. B. V.
[138] I am not versed in Indian affairs, but I find, that in April,
1773, the assembled chiefs of the western nations told one of our
Indian agents, "that they remembered their father, the king of Great
Britain's message, delivered to them last fall, of demolishing
Fort Pittsburg (on the Ohio) and removing the soldiers with their
sharp-edged weapons out of the country:--this gave them great
pleasure, as it was a strong proof of his paternal kindness towards
them." (See Considerations on the Agreement with Mr. T. Walpole for
Lands upon the Ohio, p. 9). This is general history: I attempt no
application of facts, personally invidious. B. V.
[139] As the reader may be inclined to divide his belief between
the wisdom of ministry and the candor and veracity of Dr. Franklin,
I shall inform him that two contrary objections may be made to the
truth of this representation. The first is, that the conduct of Great
Britain is made _too_ absurd for possibility, and the second, that
it is not made absurd _enough_ for fact. If we consider that this
piece does not include the measures subsequent to 1773, the latter
difficulty is easily set aside. The former I can only solve by the
many instances in history, where the infatuation of individuals has
brought the heaviest calamities upon nations. B. V.
_State of America on Dr. Franklin's Arrival there._
_Philadelphia, May 16, 1775._
DEAR FRIEND[140],
You will have heard before this reaches you, of a march stolen by the
regulars into the country by night, and of their _expedition_ back
again. They retreated 20 miles in [6] 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 secure
his troops till succour arrives. The place indeed is naturally so
defensible, that I think them in no danger.
All America is exasperated by his conduct, and more firmly united
than ever. The breach between the two countries is grown wider, and
in danger of becoming irreparable.
I had a passage of six weeks, the weather constantly so moderate that
a London wherry might have accompanied us all the way. I got home
in the evening, and the next morning was unanimously chosen by the
assembly a delegate to the congress, now sitting.
In coming over, I made a valuable philosophical discovery, which I
shall communicate to you when I can get a little time. At present am
extremely hurried.
* * * * *
Yours most affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
FOOTNOTES:
[140] I run much risque in the publication of the three following
letters[141]; but I think they contain such valuable facts, and
show so well the nature of Dr. Franklin's temper, that I ought to
encounter some difficulty, rather than suffer them to be lost. B. V.
[141] The other two letters will be found in the order of their
dates, July 7, and Oct. 3, 1775. _Editor._
_Proposed Vindication and Offer from Congress to Parliament, in
1775[142]._
Forasmuch as the enemies of America, in the parliament of Great
Britain, to render us odious to the nation, and give an ill
impression of us in the minds of other European powers, have
represented us as unjust and ungrateful in the highest degree;
asserting on every occasion, that the colonies were settled at the
expence of Britain; that they were, at the expence of the same,
protected in their infancy; that they now ungratefully and unjustly
refuse to contribute to their own protection, and the common defence
of the nation; that they aim at independence; that they intend an
abolition of the navigation acts; and that they are fraudulent in
their commercial dealings, and purpose to cheat their creditors in
Britain, by avoiding the payment of their just debts:--
[And] as, by frequent repetition, these groundless assertions and
malicious calumnies may, if not contradicted and refuted, obtain
farther credit, and be injurious throughout Europe to the reputation
and interest of the confederate colonies, it seems proper and
necessary to examine them in our own just vindication.
With regard to the first, _that the colonies were_ settled _at
the expence of Britain_, it is a known fact, that none of the
twelve united colonies were settled, or even discovered, at the
expence of England. Henry the VIIth indeed granted a commission to
Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian, and his sons, to sail into the western
seas for the discovery of new countries; but it was to be "_suis_
eorum propriis sumptibus et expensis," at their _own_ costs and
charges[143]. They discovered, but soon slighted and neglected, these
northern territories; which were, after more than a hundred years
dereliction, purchased of the natives, and settled at the charge
and by the labour of private men and bodies of men, our ancestors,
who came over hither for that purpose. But our adversaries have
never been able to produce any record, that ever the _parliament_ or
government of England was at the smallest expence on these accounts:
on the contrary, there exists on the journals of parliament a
solemn declaration in 1642, (only twenty-two years after the first
settlement of the Massachusetts, when, if such expence had ever been
incurred, some of the members must have known and remembered it)
"That these colonies had been planted and established _without any
expence to the state_.[144]" _New-York_ is the only colony in the
founding of which England can pretend to have been at any expence,
and that was only the charge of a small armament to take it from the
Dutch, who planted it. But to retain this colony at peace, another at
that time, full as valuable, planted by private countrymen of _ours_,
was given up by the crown to the Dutch in exchange, viz. Surinam, now
a wealthy sugar-colony in Guiana, and which, but for that cession,
might still have remained in our possession. Of late, indeed, Britain
has been at some expence in planting two colonies, _Georgia_[145]
and _Nova Scotia_; but those are not in our confederacy; and the
expence she has been at in their name, has chiefly been in grants of
sums unnecessarily large, by way of salaries to officers sent from
England, and in jobs to friends, whereby dependants might be provided
for; those excessive grants not being requisite to the welfare and
good government of the colonies; which good government (as experience
in many instances of other colonies has taught us) may be much more
frugally, and full as effectually provided for, and supported.
With regard to the second assertion, _that these colonies were_
protected _in their infant state by England_, it is a notorious fact,
that in none of the many wars with the Indian natives, sustained
by our infant settlements for a century after our first arrival,
were ever any troops or forces of any kind sent from England to
assist us; nor were any forts built at her expence to secure our
sea-ports from foreign invaders; nor any ships of war sent to protect
our trade, till many years after our first settlement, when our
commerce became an object of revenue, or of advantage to British
merchants, and then it was thought necessary to have a frigate in
some of our ports, during peace, to give weight to the authority of
custom-house officers, who were to restrain that commerce for the
benefit of England. Our own arms, with our poverty, and the care of
a kind providence, were all this time our only protection, while
we were neglected by the English government; which either thought
us not worth its care, or, having no good will to some of us, on
account of our different sentiments in religion and politics, was
indifferent what became of us. On the other hand, the colonies have
not been wanting to do what they could in every war for annoying the
enemies of Britain. They formerly assisted her in the conquest of
Nova Scotia. In the war before last they took Louisbourg, and put
it into her hands. She made her peace with that strong fortress, by
restoring it to France, greatly to their detriment. In the last war,
it is true, Britain sent a fleet and army, who acted with an equal
army of ours, in the reduction of Canada; and perhaps thereby did
more for us, than we in the preceding wars had done for her. Let it
be remembered however, that she rejected the plan we formed in the
congress at Albany, in 1754, for our own defence, by an union of the
colonies; an union she was jealous of, and therefore chose to send
her own forces; otherwise her aid to protect us was not wanted. And
from our first settlement to that time, her military operations in
our favour were small, compared with the advantages she drew from
her exclusive commerce with us. We are however willing to give full
weight to this obligation; and as we are daily growing stronger, and
our assistance to her becomes of more importance, we should with
pleasure embrace the first opportunity of showing our gratitude, by
returning the favour in kind. But when Britain values herself as
affording us protection, we desire it may be considered, that we
have followed _her_ in all _her_ wars, and joined with her at our
own expence against all she thought fit to quarrel with. This she
has required of us, and would never permit us to keep peace with any
power she declared her enemy, though by separate treaties we might
well have done it. Under such circumstances, when, at her instance,
we made nations our enemies, whom we might otherwise have retained
our friends; we submit it to the common sense of mankind, whether
her protection of us in these wars was not our _just due_, and to
be claimed of _right_, instead of being received as a _favour_?
And whether, when all the parts of an empire exert themselves to
the utmost in their common defence, and in annoying the common
enemy, it is not as well the _parts_ that protect the _whole_, as
the _whole_ that protects the _parts_? The protection then has
been proportionably mutual. And whenever the time shall come, that
our abilities may as far exceed hers, as hers have exceeded ours,
we hope we shall be reasonable enough to rest satisfied with her
proportionable exertions, and not think we do too much for a part of
the empire, when that part does as much as it can for the whole.
The charge against us, _that we refuse to_ contribute _to our own
protection_, appears from the above to be groundless: but we farther
declare it to be absolutely false; for it is well known, that we ever
held it as our duty to grant aids to the crown, upon requisition,
towards carrying on its wars; which duty we have cheerfully complied
with, to the utmost of our abilities; insomuch that frequent and
grateful acknowledgments thereof by king and parliament appear
on their records[146]. But as Britain has enjoyed a most gainful
monopoly of our commerce, the same, with our maintaining the dignity
of the king's representative in each colony, and all our own separate
establishments of government, civil and military, has ever hitherto
been deemed an equivalent for such aids, as might otherwise be
expected from us in time of peace. And we hereby declare, that on a
reconciliation with Britain, we shall _not only_ continue _to grant
aids in time of war_, as aforesaid; but, whenever she shall think fit
to abolish her monopoly, and give us the same privileges of trade as
Scotland received at the union, and allow us a free commerce with
all the rest of the world, we shall willingly agree (and we doubt
not it will be ratified by our constituents) to _give and pay_ into
the sinking fund [100,000_l._] sterling per annum for the term of one
hundred years, which, duly, faithfully, and inviolably applied to
that purpose, is demonstrably more than sufficient to extinguish _all
her present national_ debt, since it will in that time amount, at
legal British interest, to more than 230,000,000_l._[147]
But if Britain does not think fit to accept this proposition, we,
in order to remove her groundless jealousies, _that we aim at
independence, and an abolition of the navigation act_, (which hath
in truth never been our intention) and to avoid all future disputes
about the right of making that and other acts for regulating our
commerce, do hereby declare ourselves ready and willing to enter
into a _covenant with Britain_, that she shall fully possess,
enjoy, and exercise that right, for an hundred years to come, the
same being _bonâ fide_ used for the common benefit; and in case of
such agreement, that every assembly be advised by us, to confirm it
solemnly, by laws of their own, which, once made, cannot be repealed
without the assent of the crown.
The last charge, _that we are dishonest traders, and aim at
defrauding our creditors in Britain_, is sufficiently and
authentically refuted by the solemn declarations of the British
merchants to parliament, (both at the time of the stamp-act and in
the last session) who bore ample testimony to the general good faith
and fair dealing of the Americans, and declared their confidence in
our integrity, for which we refer to their petitions on the journals
of the house of commons. And we presume we may safely call on the
body of the British tradesmen, who have had experience of both, to
say, whether they have not received much more punctual payment from
us than they generally have from the members of their own two houses
of parliament.
On the whole of the above it appears, that the charge of
_ingratitude_ towards the mother country, brought with so much
confidence against the colonies, is totally without foundation; and
that there is much more reason for retorting that charge on Britain,
who not only never contributes any aid, nor affords, by an exclusive
commerce, any advantages to Saxony, _her_ mother country; but no
longer since than in the last war, without the least provocation,
subsidized the king of Prussia while he ravaged that _mother
country_, and carried fire and sword into its capital, the fine city
of Dresden. An example we hope no provocation will induce us to
imitate.
FOOTNOTES:
[142] The following paper was drawn up in a committee of congress,
June 25, 1775, but does not appear on their minutes, a severe act of
parliament, which arrived about that time, having determined them not
to give the sum proposed in it.--[It was first printed in the Public
Advertiser for July 18, 1777. B. V.]
[143] See the Commission in the Appendix to Pownall's Administration
of the Colonies. Edit. 1775.
[144] "Veneris, 10 March, 1642. Whereas the plantations in New
England have, by the blessing of the Almighty, had good and
prosperous success, _without any public charge to this state_, and
are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of the gospel
in those parts, and very beneficial and commodious to this kingdom
and nation: the commons, now assembled in parliament, &c. &c. &c."
See Governor Hutchinson's History. B. V.
[145] Georgia has since acceded, July, 1775.
[146] Supposed to allude to certain passages in the Journals of the
house of commons on the 4th of April, 1748, 28th January, 1756, 3d
February, 1756, 16th and 19th of May, 1757, 1st of June, 1758, 26th
and 30th of April, 1759, 26th and 31st of March, and 28th of April,
1760, 9th and 20th January, 1761, 22d and 26th January, 1762, and
14th and 17th March, 1763. B. V.
[147] See Dr. Price's Appeal on the National Debt. B. V.
_Reprobation of Mr. Strahan's parliamentary Conduct._[148]
_Philadelphia, July 5, 1775._
MR. STRAHAN,
You are a member of that parliament, and have formed part of that
majority, which has condemned my native country to destruction.
You have begun to burn our towns, and to destroy their inhabitants!
Look at your hands!--they are stained with the blood of your
relations and your acquaintances.
You and I were long friends; you are at present my enemy, and I am
yours.
B. FRANKLIN.
FOOTNOTE:
[148] This letter appeared, shortly after the period of its date,
in most of the public papers. We extract it from the Gentleman's
Magazine. _Editor._
_Conciliation hopeless from the Conduct of Great Britain to
America._
_Philadelphia, July 7, 1775._
DEAR FRIEND[149],
* * * * *
The congress met at a time when all minds were so exasperated by the
perfidy of general Gage, and his attack on the country people, that
propositions of attempting an accomodation were not much relished;
and it has been with difficulty that we have carried another
humble petition to the crown, to give Britain one more chance, one
opportunity more of recovering the friendship of the colonies;
which however I think she has not sense enough to embrace, and so I
conclude she has lost them for ever.
She has begun to burn our sea-port towns; secure, I suppose, that we
shall never be able to return the outrage in kind. She may doubtless
destroy them all; but if she wishes to recover our commerce, are
these the probable means? She must certainly be distracted; for no
tradesman out of Bedlam ever thought of encreasing the number of his
customers by knocking them [on] the head; or of enabling them to pay
their debts by burning their houses.
If she wishes to have us subjects and that we should submit to her as
our compound sovereign, she is now giving us such miserable specimens
of her government, that we shall ever detest and avoid it, as a
complication of robbery, murder, famine, fire and pestilence.
You will have heard, before this reaches you, of the treacherous
conduct * * * to the remaining people in Boston, in detaining their
goods, after stipulating to let them go out with their effects, on
pretence that merchants' goods were not effects; the defeat of a
great body of his troops by the country people at Lexington; some
other small advantages gained in skirmishes with their troops; and
the action at Bunker's-hill, in which they were twice repulsed, and
the third time gained a dear victory. Enough has happened, one would
think, to convince your ministers, that the Americans will fight, and
that this is a harder nut to crack than they imagined.
We have not yet applied to any foreign power for assistance, nor
offered our commerce for their friendship. Perhaps we never may: yet
it is natural to think of it, if we are pressed.
We have now an army on the establishment which still holds yours
besieged.
My time was never more fully employed. In the morning at six, I am
at the committee of safety, appointed by the assembly to put the
province in a state of defence; which committee holds till near nine,
when I am at the congress, and that sits till after four in the
afternoon. Both these bodies proceed with the greatest unanimity,
and their meetings are well attended. It will scarce be credited in
Britain, that men can be as diligent with us from zeal for the public
good, as with you for thousands per annum. Such is the difference
between uncorrupted new states, and corrupted old ones.
Great frugality and great industry are now become fashionable here:
gentlemen, who used to entertain with two or three courses, pride
themselves now in treating with simple beef and pudding. By these
means, and the stoppage of our consumptive trade with Britain, we
shall be better able to pay our voluntary taxes for the support of
our troops. Our savings in the article of trade amount to near five
million sterling per annum.