from thence a purse made of the _asbestos_, a piece of the stone, and
a piece of the wood, the pithy part of which is of the same nature,
and called by the inhabitants salamander cotton. As you are noted
to be a lover of curiosities, I have informed you of these: and if
you have any inclination to purchase or see them, let me know your
pleasure, by a line directed for me at the Golden Fan in Little
Britain, and I will wait upon you with them.
I am, sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. I expect to be out of town in two or three days, and therefore
beg an immediate answer.
FOOTNOTE:
[192] From the Gentleman's Magazine, for [___], 1780, where it
appears among other original letters to Sir Hans Sloane, from
different persons. _Editor._
_Letter to Michael Collinson, Esq[193]._
[No date.]
DEAR SIR,
Understanding that an account of our dear departed friend, Mr. Peter
Collinson, is intended to be given to the public, I cannot omit
expressing my approbation of the design. The characters of good men
are exemplary, and often stimulate the well disposed to an imitation,
beneficial to mankind, and honourable to themselves. And as you
may be unacquainted with the following instances of his zeal and
usefulness in promoting knowledge, which fell within my observation,
I take the liberty of informing you, that in 1730, a subscription
library being set on foot at Philadelphia, he encouraged the design
by making several very valuable presents to it, and procuring others
from his friends: and as the library company had a considerable sum
arising annually to be laid out in books, and needed a judicious
friend in London to transact the business for them, he voluntarily
and cheerfully undertook that service, and executed it for more
than thirty years successively, assisting in the choice of books,
and taking the whole care of collecting and shipping them, without
ever charging or accepting any consideration for his trouble. The
success of this library (greatly owing to his kind countenance and
good advice) encouraged the erecting others in different places on
the same plan; and it is supposed, there are now upwards of thirty
subsisting in the several colonies, which have contributed greatly
to the spreading of useful knowledge in that part of the world; the
books he recommended being all of that kind, and the catalogue
of this first library being much respected and followed by those
libraries that succeeded.
During the same time he transmitted to the directors of the
library the earliest accounts of every new European improvement in
agriculture and the arts, and every philosophical discovery; among
which, in 1745, he sent over an account of the new German experiments
in electricity, together with a glass tube, and some directions for
using it so as to repeat those experiments. This was the first notice
I had of that curious subject, which I afterwards prosecuted with
some diligence, being encouraged by the friendly reception he gave
to the letters I wrote to him upon it. Please to accept this small
testimony of mine to his memory, for which I shall ever have the
utmost respect; and believe me, with sincere esteem, dear sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
FOOTNOTE:
[193] From the London Magazine, for April, 1776. _Editor._
_Letter respecting Captain Cook._
To all captains and commanders of armed ships, acting by commission
from the congress of the United States of America, now in war with
Great Britain.
GENTLEMEN,
A ship having been fitted out from England, before the commencement
of this war, to make discoveries of new countries in unknown seas,
under the conduct of that most celebrated navigator, Captain
Cook,--an undertaking truly laudable in itself, as the increase of
geographical knowledge facilitates the communication between distant
nations, in the exchange of useful products and manufactures, and the
extension of arts whereby the common enjoyments of human life are
multiplied and augmented, and science of other kinds increased, to
the benefit of mankind in general.--This is therefore most earnestly
to recommend to every one of you, that in case the said ship, which
is now expected to be soon in the European seas on her return, should
happen to fall into your hands, you would not consider her as an
enemy, nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in
her, nor obstruct her immediate return to England, by detaining her
or sending her into any other part of Europe or America, but that you
would treat the said captain Cook and his people with all civility
and kindness, affording them, as common friends to mankind, all the
assistance in your power, which they may happen to stand in need of.
In so doing, you will not only gratify the generosity of your own
dispositions, but there is no doubt of your obtaining the approbation
of the congress[194], and your own American owners.
I have the honour to be, gentlemen,
Your most obedient, &c.
B. FRANKLIN,
Minister plenipotentiary from the congress of the
United States to the court of France.
_At Passy, near Paris,
this 10th day of March, 1779._
FOOTNOTE:
[194] Dr. Kippis, in his Life of Captain Cook, had asserted, upon
what he deemed unquestionable authority, that Dr. Franklin's orders
were instantly reversed, and that it was directed by congress, to
seize captain Cook, if an opportunity of doing it occurred: but,
finding that the information was false, he addressed a letter to the
editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, in September, 1795, publicly
acknowledging his mistake.
In the American Museum, from which we have taken Dr. Franklin's
letter, the correspondent who communicated the letter says, that "the
generous proceeding of Dr. Franklin in writing it was so well known
in England, and the sentiments it manifested so much approved by the
government there, that, when Cook's Voyage was printed, the admiralty
sent to Dr. Franklin a copy of the same in three volumes quarto,
accompanied with the elegant collection of plates, and a very polite
letter from lord Howe, signifying, that the present was made with
his majesty's express approbation; and the royal society having, in
honour of that illustrious navigator, one of their members, struck
some gold medals to be distributed among his friends and the friends
of his voyage, one of those medals, was also sent to Dr. Franklin,
by order of the society, together with a letter from their worthy
president, sir Joseph Banks, expressing likewise, that it was sent
with the approbation of his majesty." _Editor._
_An Address to the Public, from the Pensylvania Society for
promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of free Negroes,
unlawfully held in Bondage[195]._
It is with peculiar satisfaction, we assure the friends of humanity,
that, in prosecuting the design of our association, our endeavours
have proved successful, far beyond our most sanguine expectations.
Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that
luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself
throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the
divine blessing on our labours, we have ventured to make an important
addition to our original plan, and do, therefore, earnestly solicit
the support and assistance of all, who can feel the tender emotions
of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of
beneficence.
Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that
its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may
sometimes open a source of serious evils.
The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal,
too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human
species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his
intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his
heart. Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a
master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and
reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct,
because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and
friendless--perhaps worn out by extreme labour, age, and disease.
Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to
himself, and prejudicial to society.
Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be
hoped, will become a branch of our national police; but as far as
we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention
is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to
discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities.
To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to
freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote
in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited
to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure
their children an education calculated for their future situation
in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which
we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote
the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much
neglected fellow-creatures.
A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without
considerable pecuniary resources, beyond the present ordinary funds
of the society. We hope much from the generosity of enlightened and
benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations or
subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made to our treasurer,
James Starr, or to James Pemberton, chairman of our committee of
correspondence.
Signed by order of the society,
B. FRANKLIN, PRESIDENT.
_Philadelphia,
9th of November, 1789._
FOOTNOTE:
[195] In an American periodical publication, this address and the
plan that follows it are ascribed to the pen of Dr. Franklin, which
induces us to give them a place here. _Editor._
_Plan for improving the Condition of the Free Blacks._
The business relative to free blacks shall be transacted by a
committee of twenty-four persons, annually elected by ballot, at the
meeting of this society, in the month called April; and in order
to perform the different services with expedition, regularity, and
energy, this committee shall resolve itself into the following
sub-committees, viz:
I.
A committee of inspection, who shall superintend the morals, general
conduct, and ordinary situation of the free negroes, and afford them
advice and instruction, protection from wrongs, and other friendly
offices.
II.
A committee of guardians, who shall place out children and young
people with suitable persons, that they may (during a moderate time
of apprenticeship, or servitude) learn some trade or other business
of subsistence. The committee may effect this partly by a persuasive
influence on parents and the persons concerned; and partly by
co-operating with the laws, which are, or may be enacted for this,
and similar purposes: in forming contracts on these occasions, the
committee shall secure to the society, as far as may be practicable,
the right of guardianship over the persons so bound.
III.
A committee of education, who shall superintend the
school-instruction of the children and youth of the free blacks; they
may either influence them to attend regularly the schools, already
established in this city, or form others with this view; they shall,
in either case, provide, that the pupils may receive such learning,
as is necessary for their future situation in life; and especially
a deep impression of the most important, and generally acknowledged
moral and religious principles. They shall also procure and preserve
a regular record of the marriages, births, and manumissions of all
free blacks.
IV.
A committee of employ, who shall endeavour to procure constant
employment for those free negroes who are able to work: as the want
of this would occasion poverty, idleness, and many vicious habits.
This committee will, by sedulous enquiry, be enabled to find common
labour for a great number; they will also provide, that such, as
indicate proper talents, may learn various trades, which may be
done by prevailing upon them to bind themselves for such a term
of years, as shall compensate their masters for the expence and
trouble of instruction and maintenance. The committee may attempt the
institution of some useful and simple manufactures, which require but
little skill, and also may assist, in commencing business, such as
appear to be qualified for it.
Whenever the committee of inspection shall find persons of any
particular description requiring attention, they shall immediately
direct them to the committee, of whose care they are the proper
objects.
In matters of a mixed nature, the committees shall confer, and, if
necessary, act in concert. Affairs of great importance shall be
referred to the whole committee.
The expence, incurred by the prosecution of this plan, shall be
defrayed by a fund, to be formed by donations, or subscriptions, for
these particular purposes, and to be kept separate from the other
funds of this society.
The committee shall make a report of their proceedings, and of the
state of their stock, to the society, at their quarterly meetings, in
the months called April and October.
_Philadelphia,
26th October, 1789._
_Paper: a Poem[196]._
Some wit of old--such wits of old there were--
Whose hints show'd meaning, whose allusions care,
By one brave stroke to mark all human kind,
Call'd clear blank paper ev'ry infant mind;
When still, as opening sense her dictates wrote,
Fair virtue put a seal, or vice a blot.
The thought was happy, pertinent, and true;
Methinks a genius might the plan pursue.
I (can you pardon my presumption), I--
No wit, no genius, yet for once will try.
Various the papers various wants produce,
The wants of fashion, elegance, and use.
Men are as various: and, if right I scan,
Each sort of _paper_ represents some _man_.
Pray note the fop--half powder and half lace--
Nice, as a bandbox were his dwelling-place:
He's the _gilt-paper_, which apart you store,
And lock from vulgar hands in the 'scrutoire.
Mechanics, servants, farmers, and so forth,
Are _copy-paper_, of inferior worth;
Less priz'd, more useful, for your desk decreed,
Free to all pens, and prompt at ev'ry need.
The wretch, whom av'rice bids to pinch and spare,
Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich an heir,
Is coarse _brown-paper_; such as pedlars choose
To wrap up wares, which better men will use.
Take next the miser's contrast, who destroys
Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys.
Will any paper match him? Yes, throughout,
He's a true _sinking-paper_, past all doubt.
The retail politician's anxious thought
Deems _this_ side always right, and _that_ stark nought;
He foams with censure; with applause he raves--
A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves;
He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim,
While such a thing as _fools-cap_ has a name.
The hasty gentleman, whose blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel, if you step awry,
Who can't a jest, or hint, or look endure:
What's he? What? _Touch-paper_ to be sure.
What are our poets, take them as they fall,
Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all?
Them and their works in the same class you'll find;
They are the mere _waste-paper_ of mankind.
Observe the maiden, innocently sweet,
She's fair _white-paper_, an unsullied sheet;
On which the happy man, whom fate ordains,
May write his _name_, and take her for his pains.
One instance more, and only one I'll bring;
'Tis the _great man_ who scorns a little thing,
Whose thoughts, whose deeds, whose maxims are his own,
Form'd on the feelings of his heart alone:
True genuine _royal-paper_ is his breast;
Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best.
FOOTNOTE:
[196] We have been told, that this poem is not Franklin's, and the
name of some other person was at the time mentioned to us as the
author; but as we have forgotten both the name and the authority, and
as the poem has been ascribed to Dr. Franklin in the American Museum,
we think it not right to omit it. _Editor._
_Plain Truth; or serious Considerations on the present State of the
City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pensylvania:_
BY A TRADESMAN OF PHILADELPHIA[197].
Capta urbe, nihil fit reliqui victis. Sed, per deos immortales,
vos ego appello, qui semper domos, villas, signa, tabulas vestras,
tantæ æstimationis fecistis; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, quæ
amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium præbere
vultis; expergiscimini aliquando, & capessite rempublicam. Non
agitur nunc de sociorum injuriis; _libertas & anima_ nostra in
dubio est. Dux hostium cum exercitu supra caput est. Vos cunctamini
etiam nunc, & dubitatis quid faciatis? Scilicet, res ipsa aspera
est, sed vos non timetis eam. Imo vero maxime; sed inertiâ &
mollitiâ animi, alius alium expectantes, cunctamini; videlicit,
diis immortalibus confisi, qui hanc rempublicam in maximis
periculis servavere _non votis, neque suppliciis muliebribus,
auxilia deorum parantur_: vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo,
prospere omnia cedunt. Ubi socordiæ tete atque ignaviæ tradideris,
nequicquam deos implores; irati, infestique sunt.
M. POR. CAT. IN SALUST.
It is said, the wise Italians make this proverbial remark on our
nation, viz. The English _feel_, but they do not _see_. That is,
they are sensible of inconveniences when they are present, but do
not take sufficient care to prevent them: their natural courage
makes them too little apprehensive of danger, so that they are often
surprised by it, unprovided of the proper means of security. When
it is too late, they are sensible of their imprudence: after great
fires, they provide buckets and engines: after a pestilence, they
think of keeping clean their streets and common sewers: and when a
town has been sacked by their enemies, they provide for its defence,
&c. This kind of _after-wisdom_ is indeed so common with us, as to
occasion the vulgar, though very insignificant saying, _When the
steed is stolen, you shut the stable door_.
But the more insensible we generally are of public danger and
indifferent when warned of it, so much the more freely, openly, and
earnestly, ought such as apprehend it to speak their sentiments;
that, if possible, those who seem to sleep may be awakened, to think
of some means of avoiding or preventing the mischief, before it be
too late.
Believing therefore, that it is my _duty_, I shall honestly speak my
mind in the following paper.
War, at this time, rages over a great part of the known world; our
newspapers are weekly filled with fresh accounts of the destruction
it every where occasions. Pensylvania, indeed, situate in the centre
of the colonies, has hitherto enjoyed profound repose; and though
our nation is engaged in a bloody war, with two great and powerful
kingdoms, yet, defended, in a great degree, from the French, on the
one hand, by the northern provinces, and from the Spaniards, on the
other, by the southern, at no small expence to each, our people have,
till lately, slept securely in their habitations.
There is no British colony, excepting this, but has made some kind
of provision for its defence; many of them have therefore never been
attempted by an enemy; and others, that were attacked, have generally
defended themselves with success. The length and difficulty of our
bay and river have been thought so effectual a security to us, that
hitherto no means have been entered into, that might discourage an
attempt upon us, or prevent its succeeding.
But whatever security this might have been while both country and
city were poor, and the advantage to be expected scarce worth the
hazard of an attempt, it is now doubted, whether we can any longer
safely depend upon it. Our wealth, of late years much encreased,
is one strong temptation, our defenceless state another, to induce
an enemy to attack us; while the acquaintance they have lately
gained with our Bay and river, by means of the prisoners and flags
of truce they have had among us; by spies which they almost every
where maintain, and perhaps from traitors among ourselves; with
the facility of getting pilots to conduct them; and the known
absence of ships of war, during the greatest part of the year, from
both Virginia and New York, ever since the war began, render the
appearance of success to the enemy far more promising, and therefore
highly encrease our danger.
That our enemies may have spies abroad, and some even in these
colonies, will not be made much doubt of, when it is considered, that
such has been the practice of all nations in all ages, whenever
they were engaged, or intended to engage, in war. Of this we have
an early example in the book of Judges (too pertinent to our case,
and therefore I must beg leave a little to enlarge upon it) where
we are told, _Chap._ xviii, v. 2. That _the children of Dan sent of
their family five men from their coasts to spie out the land, and
search it, saying, Go, search the land_. These Danites it seems were
at this time not very orthodox in their religion, and their spies
met with a certain idolatrous priest of their own persuasion, v. 3,
and they said to him, _Who brought thee hither? What makest thou in
this place? And what hast thou here?_ [Would to God no such priests
were to be found among us]. And they said unto him, v. 5. _Ask
counsel of God, that we may know, whether our way which we go shall
be prosperous: and the priest said unto them, Go in peace; before
the Lord is your way wherein you go._ [Are there no priests among
us, think you, that might, in the like case, give an enemy as good
encouragement? It is well known, that we have numbers of the same
religion with those, who of late encouraged the French to invade our
Mother Country.] _And they came_, verse 7, _to Laish, and saw the
people that were therein, how they dwelt_ CARELESS, _after the manner
of the Zidonians_, QUIET _and_ SECURE. They _thought_ themselves
secure, no doubt; and as they _never had been_ disturbed, vainly
imagined they _never should_. It is not unlikely, that some might see
the danger they were exposed to by living in that _careless_ manner;
but that, if these publicly expressed their apprehensions, the rest
reproached them as timorous persons, wanting courage or confidence in
their gods, who (they might say) had hitherto protected them. But
the spies, verse 8, returned, and said to their countrymen, verse 9,
_Arise, that we may go up against them; for we have seen the land,
and behold it is very good! And are ye still? Be not slothful to go._
Verse 10, _when ye go, ye shall come to a people_ SECURE; [that is, a
people that apprehend no danger, and therefore have made no provision
against it; great encouragement this!] _and to a large land, and a
place where there is no want of any thing_. What could they desire
more? Accordingly we find, in the following verses, that _six hundred
men_ only, _appointed with weapons of war_, undertook the conquest of
this _large land_; knowing that 600 men, armed and disciplined, would
be an over-match perhaps for 60,000, unarmed, undisciplined, and off
their guard. And when they went against it, the idolatrous priest,
verse 17, _with his graven image, and his ephod, and his seraphim,
and his molten image_, [plenty of superstitious trinkets] joined with
them, and, no doubt, gave them all the intelligence and assistance in
his power; his heart, as the text assures us, _being glad_, perhaps
for reasons more than one. And now, what was the fate of poor Laish!
The 600 men being arrived, found, as the spies had reported, a people
QUIET and SECURE, verse 20, 21, _And they smote them with the edge
of the sword, and burnt the city with_ FIRE; _and there was no_
DELIVERER, _because it was far from Zidon_.--Not so far from Zidon,
however, as Pensylvania is from Britain; and yet we are, if possible,
more _careless_ than the people of Laish! As the scriptures are given
for our reproof, instruction and warning, may we make a due use of
this example, before it be too late!