have been the inventor of a little _emblematical design_ at the
commencement of our disputes, representing the state of Great Britain
and her colonies, should the former persist in restraining the
latter's trade, destroying their currency, and taxing their people by
laws made by a legislature in which they were not represented.--Great
Britain was supposed to have been placed upon the globe: but the
colonies, her limbs, being severed from her, she was seen lifting
her eyes and mangled stumps to heaven; her shield, which she was
unable to wield, lay useless by her side; her lance had pierced New
England; the laurel branch was fallen from the hand of Pensylvania;
the English oak had lost its head, and stood a bare trunk with a few
withered branches; briars and thorns were on the ground beneath it;
our ships had brooms at their topmast heads, denoting their being
upon sale; and Britannia herself was seen sliding off the world, no
longer able to hold its balance; her fragments overspread with the
label _date obolum Belisario_.--This in short, was the fable of the
belly and the members reversed. But I tell the story chiefly for the
sake of the _moral_, which has the air of having been suggested by
Dr. Franklin[156]; and is as follows.--"The political moral of this
picture is now easily discovered. History affords us many instances
of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited
to the temper and genius of its 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 intitled 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: from whence a total separation of affections, interests,
political obligations, and all manners of connections, necessarily
ensues; by which the whole state is weakened and perhaps ruined for
ever."
This language is part of the same system 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, I am told, 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_. B. V.
[156] This design was printed on a _card_, and Dr. Franklin at the
time I believe occasionally used to write his notes on such cards.
It was also printed on a _half sheet of paper_, with an explanation
by some other person, and the moral given above. The drawing was but
moderately executed.
_Comparison of Great Britain and America as to Credit, in
1777[157]._
In borrowing money a man's credit depends on some or all of the
following particulars.
First, His known conduct respecting former loans, and his punctuality
in discharging them.
Secondly, His industry.
Thirdly, His frugality.
Fourthly, The amount and the certainty of his income, and the freedom
of his estate from the incumbrances of prior debts.
Fifthly, His well founded prospects of greater future ability, by the
improvement of his estate in value, and by aids from others.
Sixthly, His known prudence in managing his general affairs, and the
advantage they will probably receive from the loan which he desires.
Seventhly, His known probity and honest character, manifested by
his voluntary discharge of debts, which he could not have been
legally compelled to pay. The circumstances which give credit to an
_individual_ ought to have, and will have, their weight upon the
lenders of money to _public bodies_ or nations. If then we consider
and compare Britain and America, in these several particulars, upon
the question, "To which is it safest to lend money?" We shall find,
1. Respecting _former loans_, that America, which borrowed ten
millions during the last war for the maintenance of her army of
25,000 men and other charges, had faithfully discharged and paid
that debt, and all her other debts, in 1772. Whereas Britain, during
those ten years of peace and profitable commerce, had made little or
no reduction of her debt; but on the contrary, from time to time,
diminished the hopes of her creditors, by a wanton diversion and
misapplication of the sinking fund destined for discharging it.
2. Respecting _industry_; every man [in America] is employed, the
greater part in cultivating their own lands, the rest in handicrafts,
navigation, and commerce. An idle man there is a rarity, idleness
and inutility are disgraceful. In England, the number of that
character is immense, fashion has spread it far and wide; hence
the embarrassments of private fortunes, and the daily bankruptcies
arising from an universal fondness for appearance and expensive
pleasures; and hence, in some degree, the mismanagement of public
business; for habits of business, and ability in it, are acquired
only by practice; and where universal dissipation, and the perpetual
pursuit of amusement are the mode, the youth, educated in it,
can rarely afterwards acquire that patient attention and close
application to affairs, which are so necessary to a statesman charged
with the care of national welfare. _Hence_ their frequent errors in
policy, and hence the weariness at public councils, and backwardness
in going to them, the constant unwillingness to engage in any measure
that requires thought and consideration, and the readiness for
postponing every new proposition; which postponing is therefore the
only part of business that they come to be expert in, an expertness
produced necessarily by so much daily practice. Whereas in America,
men bred to close employment in their private affairs, attend with
ease to those of the public, when engaged in them, and nothing fails
through negligence.
3. Respecting _frugality_; the manner of living in America is more
simple and less expensive than that in England: plain tables, plain
clothing, and plain furniture in houses prevail, with few carriages
of pleasure; there, an expensive appearance hurts credit, and
is avoided: in England, it is often assumed to gain credit, and
continued to ruin. Respecting _public_ affairs, the difference is
still greater. In England, the salaries of officers, and emoluments
of office are enormous. The king has a million sterling per annum,
and yet cannot maintain his family free of debt: secretaries of
state, lords of treasury, admiralty, &c. have vast appointments: an
auditor of the exchequer has sixpence in the pound, or a fortieth
part of all the public money expended by the nation; so that when a
war costs forty millions one million is paid to him: an inspector
of the mint, in the last new coinage, received as his fee 65,000_l._
sterling per annum; to all which rewards no service these gentlemen
can render the public is by any means equivalent. All this is paid
by the people, who are oppressed by taxes so occasioned, and thereby
rendered less able to contribute to the payment of necessary national
debts. In America, salaries, where indispensible, are extremely
low; but much of the public business is done gratis. The honour of
serving the public ably and faithfully is deemed sufficient. _Public
spirit_ really exists there, and has great effects. In England it
is universally deemed a non-entity, and whoever pretends to it is
laughed at as a fool, or suspected as a knave. The committees of
congress which form the board of war, the board of treasury, the
board of foreign affairs, the naval board, that for accounts, &c. all
attend the business of their respective functions, without any salary
or emolument whatever, though they spend in it much more of their
time than any lord of treasury or admiralty in England can spare from
his amusements. A British minister lately computed, that the whole
expence of the Americans, in their _civil_ government over three
millions of people amounted to but 70,000_l._ sterling, and drew from
thence a conclusion, that they ought to be taxed, until their expence
was equal in proportion to that which it costs Britain to govern
eight millions. He had no idea of a contrary conclusion, that if
three millions may be well governed for 70,000_l._ eight millions may
be as well governed for three times that sum, and that therefore the
expence of his own government should be diminished. In that corrupted
nation no man is ashamed of being concerned in lucrative _government
jobs_, in which the public money is egregiously misapplied and
squandered, the treasury pillaged, and more numerous and heavy taxes
accumulated, to the great oppression of the people. But the prospect
of a greater number of such jobs by a war is an inducement with
many, to cry out for war upon all occasions, and to oppose every
proposition of peace. Hence the constant increase of the national
debt, and the absolute improbability of its ever being discharged.
4. Respecting the _amount and certainty of income, and solidity of
security_; the _whole_ thirteen states of America are engaged for
the payment of every debt contracted by the congress, and the debt
to be contracted by the present war is the _only_ debt they will
have to pay; all, or nearly all, the former debts of particular
colonies being already discharged. Whereas England will have to pay
not only the enormous debt this war must occasion, but all their
vast preceding debt, or the interest of it,--and while America is
enriching itself by prizes made upon the British commerce, more than
it ever did by any commerce of its own, under the restraints of a
British monopoly; Britain is growing poorer by the loss of that
monopoly, and the diminution of its revenues, and of course less able
to discharge the present indiscreet increase of its expences.
5. Respecting prospects of greater future ability, Britain has none
such. Her islands are circumscribed by the ocean; and excepting a
few parks or forests, she has no new land to cultivate, and cannot
therefore extend her improvements. Her numbers too, instead of
increasing from increased subsistence, are continually diminishing
from growing luxury, and the increasing difficulties of maintaining
families, which of course discourage early marriages. Thus she
will have fewer people to assist in paying her debts, and that
diminished number will be poorer. America, on the contrary, has,
besides her lands already cultivated, a vast territory yet to be
cultivated; which, being cultivated, continually increases in value
with the increase of people; and the people, who double themselves
by a _natural propagation_ every twenty-five years, will double yet
faster, by the accession of _strangers_, as long as lands are to be
had for new families; so that every twenty years there will be a
double number of inhabitants obliged to discharge the public debts;
and those inhabitants, being more opulent, may pay their shares with
greater ease.
6. Respecting _prudence_ in general affairs, and the advantages to
be expected from the loan desired; the Americans are cultivators of
land; those engaged in fishery and commerce are few, compared with
the others. They have ever conducted their several governments with
wisdom, avoiding wars, and vain expensive projects, delighting only
in their peaceable occupations, which must, considering the extent of
their uncultivated territory, find them employment still for ages.
Whereas England, ever unquiet, ambitious, avaricious, imprudent,
and quarrelsome, is half of the time engaged in war, always at an
expence infinitely greater than the advantage to be obtained by it,
if successful. Thus they made war against Spain in 1739, for a claim
of about 95,000_l._ (scarce a groat for each individual of the nation)
and spent forty millions sterling in the war, and the lives of fifty
thousand men; and finally made peace without obtaining satisfaction
for the sum claimed. Indeed, there is scarce a nation in Europe,
against which she has not made war on some frivolous pretext or
other, and thereby imprudently accumulated a debt, that has brought
her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the most indiscreet of all her
wars, is the present against America, with whom she might, for ages,
have preserved her profitable connection only by a just and equitable
conduct. She is now acting like a mad shop-keeper, who, by beating
those that pass his doors, attempts to make them come in and be his
customers. America cannot submit to such treatment, without being
first ruined, and, being ruined, her custom will be worth nothing.
England, to effect this, is increasing her debt, and irretrievably
ruining herself. America, on the other hand, aims only to establish
her liberty, and that freedom of commerce which will be advantageous
to all Europe; and by abolishing that monopoly which she laboured
under, she will profit infinitely more than enough to repay any debt,
which she may contract to accomplish it.
7. Respecting _character in the honest payment of debts_; the
punctuality with which America has discharged her public debts was
shown under the first head. And the general good disposition of the
people to such punctuality has been manifested in their faithful
payment of _private_ debts to England, since the commencement of
this war. There were not wanting some politicians [in America] who
proposed _stopping that payment_, until peace should be restored,
alleging, that in the usual course of commerce, and of the credit
given, there was always a debt existing equal to the trade of
eighteen months: that the trade amounting to five millions sterling
per annum, the debt must be seven millions and an half; that this sum
paid to the British merchants would operate to prevent that distress,
intended to be brought upon Britain, by our stoppage of commerce
with her; for the merchants, receiving this money, and no orders
with it for farther supplies, would either lay it out in the public
funds, or in employing manufacturers to accumulate goods for a future
hungry market in America upon an expected accommodation, by which
means the funds would be kept up and the manufacturers prevented
from murmuring. But _against this it was alleged_, that injuries
from ministers should not be revenged on merchants; that the credit
was in consequence of private contracts, made in confidence of good
faith; that these ought to be held sacred and faithfully complied
with; for that, whatever public utility might be supposed to arise
from a breach of private faith, it was unjust, and would in the end
be found unwise--honesty being in truth the best policy. On this
principle the proposition was universally rejected; and though the
English prosecuted the war with unexampled barbarity, burning our
defenceless towns in the midst of winter, and arming savages against
us; the debt was punctually paid; and the merchants of London have
testified to the parliament, and will testify to all the world, that
from their experience in dealing with us they had, before the war, no
apprehension of our unfairness; and that since the war they have been
convinced, that their good opinion of us was well founded. England,
on the contrary, an old, corrupt, extravagant, and profligate nation,
sees herself deep in debt, which she is in no condition to pay; and
yet is madly, and dishonestly running deeper, without any possibility
of discharging her debt, but by a public bankruptcy.
It appears, therefore, from the general industry, frugality,
ability, prudence, and virtue of America, that she is a much safer
debtor than Britain;--to say nothing of the satisfaction generous
minds must have in reflecting, that by loans to America they are
opposing tyranny, and aiding the cause of liberty, which is the cause
of all mankind.
FOOTNOTE:
[157] This paper was written, translated, printed, and circulated,
while Dr. Franklin was at the court of Paris, for the purpose of
inducing foreigners to lend money to America in preference to Great
Britain.
PAPERS,
DESCRIPTIVE OF AMERICA,
OR
RELATING TO THAT COUNTRY,
WRITTEN
_SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVOLUTION_.
PAPERS,
DESCRIPTIVE OF AMERICA,
OR
RELATING TO THAT COUNTRY,
WRITTEN
_SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVOLUTION_.
_Remarks concerning the Savages of North-America[158]._
Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which
we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.
Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with
impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as to be without any
rules of politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some remains
of rudeness.
The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors; when old,
counsellors; for all their government is by the council or advice
of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers
to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally
study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The
Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up
the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory
of public transactions. These employments of men and women are
accounted natural and honourable. Having few artificial wants, they
have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Our
laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish
and base; and the learning on which we value ourselves, they regard
as frivolous and useless. An instance of this occurred at the treaty
of Lancaster, in Pensylvania, anno 1744, between the government
of Virginia and the six nations. After the principal business was
settled, the commissioners from Virginia acquainted the Indians by a
speech, that there was at Williamsburg a college, with a fund, for
educating Indian youth; and that if the chiefs of the Six Nations
would send down half a dozen of their sons to that college, the
government would take care that they should be well provided for,
and instructed in all the learning of the white people. It is one of
the Indian rules of politeness, not to answer a public proposition
the same day that it is made; they think it would be treating it
as a light matter, and that they show it respect by taking time
to consider it, as of a matter important. They therefore deferred
their answer till the day following; when their speaker began,
by expressing their deep sense of the kindness of the Virginia
government, in making them that offer; "for we know," says he, "that
you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and
that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very
expensive to you. We are convinced therefore, that you mean to do us
good by your proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are
wise, must know, that different nations have different conceptions
of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our ideas of
this kind of education happen not to be the same with yours. We have
had some experience of it: several of our young people were formerly
brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were
instructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they
were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods,
unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a
cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly,
were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, or counsellors;
they were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less
obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it: and to
show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send
us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education,
instruct them in all we know, and make _men_ of them."
Having frequent occasions to hold public councils, they have acquired
great order and decency in conducting them. The old men sit in the
foremost ranks, the warriors in the next, and the women and children
in the hindmost. The business of the women is to take exact notice of
what passes, imprint it in their memories, for they have no writing,
and communicate it to their children. They are the records of the
council, and they preserve tradition of the stipulations in treaties
a hundred years back; which, when we compare with our writings, we
always find exact. He that would speak, rises. The rest observe a
profound silence. When he has finished and sits down, they leave him
five or six minutes to recollect, that, if he has omitted any thing
he intended to say, or has any thing to add, he may rise again and
deliver it. To interrupt another, even in common conversation, is
reckoned highly indecent. How different this is from the conduct of
a polite British house of commons, where scarce a day passes without
some confusion, that makes the speaker hoarse in calling _to order_;
and how different from the mode of conversation in many polite
companies of Europe, where, if you do not deliver your sentence with
great rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it by the impatient
loquacity of those you converse with, and never suffered to finish it!
The politeness of these savages in conversation is indeed carried to
excess, since it does not permit them to contradict or deny the truth
of what is asserted in their presence. By this means they indeed
avoid disputes; but then it becomes difficult to know their minds,
or what impression you make upon them. The missionaries who have
attempted to convert them to christianity, all complain of this as
one of the great difficulties of their mission. The Indians hear with
patience the truths of the gospel explained to them, and give their
usual tokens of assent and approbation: you would think they were
convinced. No such matter. It is mere civility.
A Swedish minister, having assembled the chiefs of the Sasquehannah
Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal
historical facts on which our religion is founded; such as the fall
of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to
repair the mischief, his miracles and suffering, &c.--When he had
finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank him. "What you have told
us," says he, "is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It
is better to make them all into cyder. We are much obliged by your
kindness in coming so far, to tell us those things which you have
heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we
have heard from ours.
"In the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to
subsist on, and if their hunting was unsuccessful, they were
starving. Two of our young hunters having killed a deer, made a fire
in the woods to broil some parts of it. When they were about to
satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend
from the clouds, and seat herself on that hill which you see yonder
among the Blue Mountains. They said to each other, it is a spirit
that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison, and wishes to eat of
it: let us offer some to her. They presented her with the tongue:
she was pleased with the taste of it, and said, Your kindness shall
be rewarded. Come to this place after thirteen moons, and you shall
find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you and
your children to the latest generations. They did so, and to their
surprise, found plants they had never seen before; but which, from
that ancient time, have been constantly cultivated among us, to
our great advantage. Where her right hand had touched the ground,
they found maize; where her left hand had touched it, they found
kidney-beans; and where her backside had sat on it, they found
tobacco." The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said,
"What I delivered to you were sacred truths, but what you tell me is
mere fable, fiction, and falsehood." The Indian, offended, replied,
"My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your
education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common
civility. You saw that we, who understand and practice those rules,
believed all your stories, why do you refuse to believe ours?"
When any of them come into our towns, our people are apt to crowd
round them, gaze upon them, and incommode them where they desire to
be private; this they esteem great rudeness, and the effect of the
want of instruction in the rules of civility and good manners. "We
have," say they, "as much curiosity as you, and when you come into
our towns, we wish for opportunities of looking at you; but for this
purpose we hide ourselves behind bushes, where you are to pass, and
never intrude ourselves into your company."