_Franklin's Second Mission to England._
Fiendish conduct of John Penn--Petition to the crown--Debt
of England--Two causes of conflict--Franklin sent to
England--His embarkation--Wise counsel to his daughter--The
stamp act--American resolves--Edmund Burke--Examination of
Franklin--Words of Lord Chatham--Dangers to English
operatives--Repeal of the stamp act--Joy in America--Ross
Mackay--New taxes levied--Character of George
III--Accumulation of honors to Franklin--Warlike
preparations--Human conscientiousness--Unpopularity of
William Franklin--Marriage of Sarah Franklin--Franklin's
varied investigations--Efforts to civilize the Sandwich
Islands.
It is scarcely too severe to say that Governor John Penn was both
knave and fool. To ingratiate himself with the vile Paxton men and
their partisans, he issued a proclamation, offering for every captive
male Indian, of any hostile tribe, one hundred and fifty dollars, for
every female, one hundred and thirty-eight dollars. For the scalp of a
male, the bounty was one hundred and thirty-eight dollars; for the
scalp of a female fifty dollars. Of course it would be impossible,
when the scalps were brought in to decide whether they were stripped
from friendly or hostile heads.
Curiously two political parties were thus organized. The governor,
intensely inimical to Franklin, led all the loose fellows who approved
of the massacre of the friendly Indians. Franklin was supported by the
humane portion of the community, who regarded that massacre with
horror.
There was much bitterness engendered. Franklin was assailed and
calumniated as one of the worst of men. He, as usual, wrote a
pamphlet, which was read far and wide. Earnestly he urged that the
crown, as it had a right to do, should, by purchase, take possession
of the province and convert its government into that of a royal
colony. It should be remembered that this was several years before the
troubles of the revolution arose. The people were in heart true
Englishmen. Fond of their nationality, sincere patriotism glowed in
all bosoms. They ever spoke of England as "home." When the Assembly
met again three thousand citizens, influenced mainly by Franklin's
pamphlet, sent in a petition that the province might revert to the
crown. The Penns succeeded in presenting a counter petition signed by
three hundred.
The British cabinet, in its insatiable thirst for universal conquest,
or impelled by necessity to repel the encroachments of other nations,
equally wicked and equally grasping, had been by fleet and army,
fighting all over the world. After spending every dollar which the
most cruel taxation could extort from the laboring and impoverished
masses, the government had incurred the enormous debt of seventy-three
millions sterling. This amounted to over three hundred and sixty-five
millions of our money.
The government decided to tax the Americans to help pay the interest
on this vast sum. But the colonies were already taxed almost beyond
endurance, to carry on the terrible war against the French and
Indians. This war was not one of their own choosing. It had been
forced upon them by the British Cabinet, in its resolve to drive the
French off the continent of North America. The Americans were allowed
no representation in Parliament. They were to be taxed according to
the caprice of the government. Franklin, with patriotic foresight,
vehemently, and with resistless force of logic, resisted the outrage.
It will be perceived that there were now two quite distinct sources of
controversy. First came the conflict with the proprietaries, and then
rose the still more important strife with the cabinet of Great
Britain, to repel the principle of taxation without representation.
This principle once admitted, the crown could tax the Americans to any
amount whatever it pleased. Many unreflecting people could not
appreciate these disastrous results.
Thus all the partisans of the Penns, and all the office holders of the
crown and their friends, and there were many such, became not only
opposed to Franklin, but implacable in their hostility. The majority
of the Assembly was with him. He was chosen Speaker, and then was
elected to go again to England, to carry with him to the British
Court the remonstrances of the people against "taxation without
representation," and their earnest petition to be delivered from the
tyranny of the Penns. More unwelcome messages to the British Court and
aristocracy, he could not well convey. It was certain that the Penns
and their powerful coadjutors, would set many influences in array
against him. Mr. Dickinson, in the Assembly, remonstrating against
this appointment, declared that there was no man in Pennsylvania who
was more the object of popular dislike than Benjamin Franklin.
But two years had elapsed since Franklin's return to America, after an
absence from his home of six years. He still remembered fondly the
"dense happiness" which he had enjoyed in the brilliant circles
abroad. This, added to an intensity of patriotism, which rendered him
second to none but Washington, among the heroes of the Revolution,
induced him promptly to accept the all important mission. He allowed
but twelve days to prepare for his embarkation. The treasury was
empty, and money for his expenses had to be raised by a loan. A packet
ship, bound for London was riding at Chester, fifteen miles below the
city. Three hundred of the citizens of Philadelphia, on horseback,
escorted Franklin to the ship.
He seldom attended church, though he always encouraged his wife and
daughter to do so. It was genteel; it was politic. A family could
scarcely command the respect of the community, which, in the midst of
a religious people, should be living without any apparent object of
worship. The preacher of Christ Church, which the family attended, was
a partisan of the Penns. Sometimes he "meddled with politics."
Franklin in his parting letter, from on shipboard, wrote to his
daughter:
"Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. The active
devotion in the common prayer-book, is your principal
business there, and if properly attended to, will do more
towards amending the heart, than sermons generally can do.
For they were composed by men of much greater piety and
wisdom, than our common composers of sermons can pretend to
be. Therefore I wish that you would never miss the prayer
days. Yet I do not mean you should despise sermons, even of
the preachers you dislike; for the discourse is often much
better than the man, as sweet and clear waters come through
very dirty earth."
The voyage was stormy; it lasted thirty days. On the evening of the
tenth of December, 1764, he again took up his residence in the house
of Mrs. Stephenson and her daughter, where he was received with
delight. He found several other agents of the colonies in London, who
had also been sent to remonstrate against the despotic measures which
the British Cabinet threatened, of taxing the Americans at its
pleasure, without allowing them to have any voice in deciding upon the
sums which they should pay.
Grenville was prime minister. He was about to introduce the Stamp Act,
as an initiatory measure. It imposed but a trivial tax, in itself of
but little importance, but was intended as an experiment, to ascertain
whether the Americans would submit to the principle. This fact being
once established, the government could then proceed to demand money at
its pleasure. Franklin opposed the tax with all his energies. He
declared it, in his own forceful language, to be the "mother of
mischiefs." With four other colonial agents, he held an interview with
Lord Grenville. The usual arguments were employed on both sides. Lord
Grenville was courteous, but very decided. The Americans he declared
must help England pay the interest on her debt, and the parliament of
Great Britain alone could decide how large an amount of money the
Americans should pay. The bill was introduced to parliament, and
passed by a large majority. The king signed it in a scrawling hand,
which some think indicated the insanity he was beginning to develop.
The trivial sum expected to be raised by the Stamp Act amounted to
scarcely one hundred thousand pounds a year. It was thought that the
Americans would not venture upon any decisive opposition to England
for such a trifle. Franklin wrote to a friend:
"I took every step in my power, to prevent the passing of the
Stamp Act. But the tide was too strong against us. The nation
was provoked by American claims of legislative independence;
and all parties joined in resolving, by this act, to settle
the point."
Thus Franklin entirely failed in arresting the passing of the Stamp
Act. He was also equally unsuccessful in his endeavor to promote a
change of government, from the proprietary to the royal. And still his
mission proved a success. By conversations, pamphlets and articles in
the newspapers, he raised throughout the country such an opposition
to the measure that parliament was compelled to repeal it. The tidings
of the passage of the Stamp Act was received in intelligent America,
with universal expressions of displeasure, and with resolves to oppose
its operation in every possible way.
It is remarked of a celebrated theological professor, that he once
said to his pupils,
"When you go to the city to preach, take your best coat; when to the
country, take your best sermon."
The lords and gentry of England were astonished at the intelligence
displayed in the opposition, by the rural population of America. They
fancied the colonists to be an ignorant, ragged people, living in log
cabins, scattered through the wilderness, and, in social position, two
or three degrees below European and Irish peasantry. Great was their
surprise to hear from all the colonies, and from the remotest
districts in each colony, the voice of intelligent and dignified
rebuke.
The Act was to go into execution on the first of November, 1765.
Before that time, Franklin had spread, through all the mechanical,
mercantile and commercial classes, the conviction that they would
suffer ten-fold more, by the interruptions of trade which the Stamp
Act would introduce, than government could hope to gain by the
measure. He spread abroad the intelligence which came by every fresh
arrival, that the Americans were resolving, with wonderful unanimity,
that they would consume no more English manufactures, that they would
purchase no more British goods, and that, as far as possible, in food,
clothing, and household furniture, they would depend upon their own
productions. They had even passed resolves to eat no more lamb, that
their flocks might so increase that they should have wool enough to
manufacture their own clothing.
England had thus far furnished nearly all the supplies for the rapidly
increasing colonies, already numbering a population of between two and
three millions. The sudden cessation of this trade was felt in nearly
every warehouse of industry. No more orders came. Goods accumulated
without purchasers. Violent opposition arose, and vast meetings were
held in the manufacturing districts, to remonstrate against the
measures of the government. Edmund Burke, a host in himself, headed
the opposition in parliament.
Burke and Franklin were intimate friends, and the renowned orator
obtained from the renowned philosopher, many of those arguments and
captivating illustrations, which, uttered on the floor of parliament,
astonished England, and reaching our shores, electrified America. The
state of affairs became alarming. In some places the stamps were
destroyed, in others, no one could be found who would venture upon the
obnoxious task of offering to sell them. The parliament resolved
itself into a committee of the whole house, and spent six weeks in
hearing testimony respecting the operation of the act in America. The
hall was crowded with eager listeners. The industrial prosperity of
the nation seemed at stake. Franklin was the principal witness. His
testimony overshadowed all the rest. The record of it was read with
admiration. Seldom has a man been placed in a more embarrassing
situation, and never has one, under such circumstances, acquitted
himself more triumphantly.
He was examined and cross-examined, before this vast and imposing
assemblage, by the shrewdest lawyers of the crown. Every attempt was
made to throw him into embarrassment, to trip him in his speech. But
never for a moment did Franklin lose his self-possession. Never for an
instant, did he hesitate in his reply. In the judgment of all his
friends, not a mistake did he make. His mind seemed to be omnisciently
furnished, with all the needful statistics for as rigorous an
examination as any mortal was ever exposed to. Burke wrote to a
friend, "that Franklin, as he stood before the bar of parliament,
presented such an aspect of dignity and intellectual superiority, as
to remind him of a schoolmaster questioned by school boys." Rev.
George Whitefield wrote,
"Our worthy friend, Dr. Franklin, has gained immortal honor,
by his behavior at the bar of the house. The answer was
always found equal, if not superior to the questioner. He
stood unappalled, gave pleasure to his friends, and did
honor to his country."
After great agitation and many and stormy debates, the haughty
government was compelled to yield to the demands of the industrial
classes. Indeed, with those in England, who cried most loudly for the
repeal of the stamp act, there were comparatively few who were
influenced by any sympathy for the Americans, or by any appreciation
of the justice of their cause. The loss of the American trade was
impoverishing them. Selfish considerations alone,--their own personal
interests--moved them to action.
There were individuals, in and out of Parliament, who recognized the
rights of Englishmen, and regarding the Americans as Englishmen, and
America as a portion of the British empire, were in heart and with all
their energies, in sympathy with the Americans in their struggle for
their rights. When the despotism of the British court led that court
to the infamous measure of sending fleets and armies, to compel the
Americans to submission, and the feeble colonists, less than three
millions in number, performing the boldest and most heroic deeds ever
yet recorded in history, grasped their arms in self-defence, thus to
wage war against the most powerful naval and military empire upon this
globe, Lord Chatham, with moral courage rarely surpassed, boldly
exclaimed in the House of Lords, "Were I an American, as I am an
Englishman, I would never lay down my arms, never, _never_, NEVER."
In all England, there was no man more determined in his resolve to
bring the Americans to servile obedience, than the stubborn king,
George III. The repeal gave him intense offence. The equally
unprincipled, but more intelligent, ministers were compelled to the
measure, as they saw clearly that England was menaced with civil war,
which would array the industrial classes generally against the
aristocracy. In such a conflict it was far from improbable that the
aristocracy would be brought to grief. Horace Walpole wrote,
"It was the clamor of trade, of merchants, and of
manufacturing towns, that had borne down all opposition. A
general insurrection was apprehended, as the immediate
consequence of upholding the bill. The revolt of America,
and the destruction of trade, was the prospect in future."
Still the question of the repeal was carried in the House but by a
majority of one hundred and eight votes. Of course Franklin now
solicited permission to return home. The Assembly, instead of granting
his request, elected him agent for another year. It does not appear
that Franklin was disappointed.
The report of his splendid and triumphant examination, before the
Commons, and the republication of many of his pamphlets, had raised
him to the highest position of popularity. The Americans, throughout
all the provinces, received tidings of the Repeal with unbounded
delight. Bells were rung, bon-fires blazed, cannon were fired.
"I never heard so much noise in my life," wrote Sally to her "honored
papa." "The very children seemed distracted."
The Tory party in England developed no little malignity in their
anger, in view of the discomfiture of their plans. The bigoted Tory,
Dr. Johnson, wrote to Bishop White of Pennsylvania, that if he had
been Prime Minister, instead of repealing the act, he would have sent
a man-of-war, and laid one or more of our largest cities in ashes.[21]
[Footnote 21: Wilson's Life of Bishop White, p. 89.]
The king felt personally aggrieved. His denunciations of those who
favored the Repeal were so indecent, that some of his most influential
friends ventured to intimate to him that it was highly impolitic.
Indeed, as the previous narrative has shown, many who were in entire
sympathy with the king, and who were bitterly opposed to any
concession to the Americans, felt compelled to vote for the Repeal.
To propitiate the unrelenting and half-crazed monarch, with his
obdurate court, a Declaratory Act, as it was called, was passed, which
affirmed the _absolute supremacy_ of Parliament over the colonies.
We hear very much of the corruption of our own Congress. It is said
that votes are sometimes bought and sold. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, who
was a member of Parliament during all this period, declares, in his
intensely interesting and undoubtedly honest Memoir, that under
the ministry of Lord Bute, Ross Mackay was employed by him as
"corrupter-general" whose mission it was to carry important measures
of government by bribery. Wraxall writes that Ross Mackay said to him,
at a dinner party given by Lord Besborough, as the illustrious guests
were sipping their wine,
"The peace of 1763 was carried through and approved by a
pecuniary dispensation. Nothing else could have surmounted
the difficulty. I was myself the channel through which the
money passed. With my own hand I secured above one hundred
and twenty votes on that most important question to
ministers. Eighty thousand pounds were set apart for the
purpose. Forty members of the House of Commons received from
me a thousand pounds each. To eighty others I paid five
hundred pounds a-piece."
The unrelenting king was still determined that the Americans,
unrepresented in Parliament, should still pay into his treasury
whatever sums of money he might exact. Calling to his aid courtiers
more shrewd than himself, they devised a very cunning act, to attain
that object in a way which would hardly be likely to excite
opposition. They laid a tax, insignificant really in its amount, upon
paper, paint, glass, and tea. This tax was to be collected at the
custom-houses in the few ports of entry in the colonies. The whole
amount thus raised would not exceed forty thousand pounds. It was
thought that the Americans would never make opposition to so trivial a
payment.
But it established a principle that England could tax the colonies
without allowing those colonies any representation in Parliament. If
the Court had a right thus to demand forty thousand pounds, they had
a right to demand so many millions, should it seem expedient to king
and cabinet so to do.
The great blunder which the court committed, was in not appreciating
the wide-spread intelligence of the American people. In New England
particularly, and throughout the colonies generally, there was
scarcely a farmer who did not perceive the trick, and despise it. They
deemed it an insult to their intelligence.
Instantly there arose, throughout all the provinces, the most
determined opposition to the measure. It was in fact merely a renewal
of the Stamp Act, under slightly modified forms. If they admitted the
justice of this act, it was only declaring that they had acted with
unpardonable folly, in opposing the tax under the previous form.
Dr. Franklin, with honest shrewdness, not with trickery or with
cunning, but with a sincere and penetrating mind, eagerly scrutinized
all the measures of the Court. George III. was a gentleman. He was
irreproachable in all his domestic relations. He was, in a sense,
conscientious; for certainly he was not disposed to do anything which
he thought to be wrong. Conscientious men have burned their
fellow-Christians at the stake. It is said that George the Third was a
Christian. He certainly was a full believer in the religion of Jesus
Christ; and earnestly advocated the support and extension of that
religion. God makes great allowance for the frailties of his fallen
children. It requires the wisdom of omniscience to decide how much
wickedness there may be in the heart, consistently with piety. No man
is perfect.
During the reign of George III., terrible wars were waged throughout
all the world, mainly incited by the British Court. Millions perished.
The moans of widows and orphans ascended from every hand. This wicked
Christian king sent his navy and his army to burn down our cities and
villages, and to shoot husbands, fathers, and sons, until he could
compel America to submit to his despotism. The population of England
being exhausted by those wide spread wars, he hired, of the petty
princes of Europe, innocent peasantry, to abandon their homes in
Germany, to burn and destroy the homes of Americans. Finding that not
sufficient, he sent his agents through the wilderness to rouse, by
bribes, savage men, who knew no better, to ravage our frontiers, to
burn the cabins of lonely farmers, to tomahawk and scalp their wives
and children.
Such a man may be a good Christian. God, who can read the secrets of
the heart, and who is infinite in his love and charity, alone can
decide. But if we imagine that man, George Guelph, at the bar of
judgment, and thronging up as witnesses against him, the millions
whose earthly homes he converted into abodes of misery and despair, it
is difficult to imagine in our frail natures, how our Heavenly Father,
who loves all his children alike, and who, as revealed in the person
of Jesus, could weep over the woes of humanity, could look with a
loving smile upon him and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Franklin of course continued in as determined an opposition to the new
tax as to the old one. He wrote,
"I have some little property in America. I will freely spend
nineteen shillings in the pound to defend my right of giving
or refusing the other shilling. And after all, if I cannot
defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with my little
family into the boundless woods of America, which are sure
to afford freedom and subsistence to any man who can bait a
hook or pull a trigger."
The ability which Franklin had displayed as the agent of Pennsylvania
before the court of St. James, gave him, as we have said, a high
reputation in all the colonies. In the spring of 1768 he was highly
gratified by the intelligence that he was appointed, by the young
colony of Georgia, its London agent. The next year New Jersey
conferred the same honor upon him, and the year after, he was
appointed agent of his native province of Massachusetts. These several
appointments detained him ten years in England.
During all this time he did not visit home. The equanimity of his
joyful spirit seems never to have been disturbed. His pen describes
only pleasant scenes. No murmurs are recorded, no yearnings of
home-sickness.
But month after month the animosity of the British Court towards the
Americans was increasing. The king grew more and more fixed in his
purpose, to compel the liberty-loving Americans to submission. Hostile
movements were multiplied to indicate that if the opposition to his
measures was continued, English fleets and armies would soon commence
operations.
Several thousand troops were landed in Boston. Fourteen men-of-war
were anchored before the town, with the cannon of their broad-sides
loaded and primed, ready, at the slightest provocation to lay the
whole town in ashes. Protected by this terrible menace, two British
regiments paraded the streets, with their muskets charged, with
gleaming sabres and bayonets, with formidable artillery prepared to
vomit forth the most horrible discharges of grape shot, with haughty
English officers well mounted, and soldiers and officers alike in
imposing uniforms. This invincible band of highly disciplined
soldiers, as a peace measure, took possession of the Common, the State
House, the Court House and Faneuil Hall.
Even now, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, it makes the
blood of an American boil to contemplate this insult. Who can imagine
the feelings of exasperation that must have glowed in the bosoms of
our patriotic fathers!
Franklin, in England, was treated with ever increasing disrespect.
Lord Hillsborough, then in charge of American affairs, told him
peremptorily, even insolently, that America could expect no favors
while he himself was in power, and that he was determined to persevere
with firmness in the policy which the king was pursuing. The king was
so shielded by his ministers that Franklin knew but little about him.
Even at this time he wrote,
"I can scarcely conceive a king of better dispositions, of
more exemplary virtues, or more truly desirous of promoting
the welfare of his subjects."
Franklin never had occasion to speak differently of his domestic
virtues. Nay, it is more than probable that the king daily, in prayer,
looked to God for guidance, and that he thought that he was doing that
which was promotive of the interests of England. Alas for man! He can
perpetrate the most atrocious crimes, honestly believing that he is
doing God's will. He can burn aged women under the charge of their
being witches. He can torture, in the infliction of unutterable
anguish, his brother man--mothers and daughters, under the charge of
heresy. He can hurl hundreds of thousands of men against each other in
most horrible and woe-inflicting wars, while falling upon his knees
and praying to God to bless his murderous armies.
Franklin had with him his grandson, William Temple Franklin, the
dishonored son of William Franklin, then Governor of New Jersey. He
was a bright and promising boy, and developed an estimable character,
under the guidance of his grandfather, who loved him.
William Franklin in New Jersey was, however, becoming increasingly the
scourge of his father. It would seem that Providence was thus, in some
measure, punishing Franklin for his sin. The governor, appointed by
the Court of England to his office, which he highly prized, and which
he feared to lose, was siding with the Court. He perceived that the
storm of political agitation was increasing in severity. He felt that
the power of the colonies was as nothing compared with the power of
the British government. Gradually he became one of the most violent of
the Tories.
The moderation of Franklin, and his extraordinarily charitable
disposition, led him to refrain from all denunciations of his
ungrateful son, or even reproaches, until his conduct became
absolutely infamous. In 1773, he wrote, in reference to the course
which the governor was pursuing,
"I only wish you to act uprightly and steadily, avoiding
that duplicity which, in Hutchinson, adds contempt to
indignation. If you can promote the prosperity of your
people, and leave them happier than you found them, whatever
your political principles are, your memory will be honored."
While Franklin was absent, a young merchant of Philadelphia, Richard
Bache, offered his hand to Franklin's only daughter, from whom the
father had been absent nearly all of her life. Sarah was then
twenty-three years of age, so beautiful as to become quite a
celebrity, and she was highly accomplished. Mr. Bache was not
successful in business, and the young couple resided under the roof of
Mrs. Franklin for eight years. The husband, with an increasing family,
appealed to his illustrious father-in-law, to obtain for him a
governmental appointment. Franklin wrote to his daughter,
"I am of opinion, that almost any profession a man has been
educated in, is preferable to an office held at pleasure, as
rendering him more independent, more a free man, and less
subject to the caprices of his superiors. I think that in
keeping a store, if it be where you dwell, you can be
serviceable to him, as your mother was to me; for you are
not deficient in capacity, and I hope you are not too proud.
You might easily learn accounts; and you can copy letters,
or write them very well on occasion. By industry and
frugality you may get forward in the world, being both of
you very young. And then what we may leave you at our death,
will be a pretty addition, though of itself far from
sufficient to maintain and bring up a family."
Franklin gave his son-in-law about a thousand dollars to assist him in
the purchase of a stock of merchandise. The children, born to this
happy couple, were intelligent and beautiful, and they greatly
contributed to the happiness of their grandmother, who cherished them
with a grandmother's most tender love. In the year 1862, there were
one hundred and ten surviving descendants of Richard Bache and Sarah
Franklin. Ten of these were serving in the Union army perilling their
lives to maintain that national fabric, which their illustrious
ancestor had done so much to establish. Franklin was by no means a man
of one idea. His comprehensive mind seemed to grasp all questions of
statesmanship, of philanthropy, of philosophy.
During the ten years of his residence in England he visited the
hospitals, carefully examined their management, and transmitted to his
home the result of his observations. This was probably the origin of
the celebrity which the medical schools of Philadelphia have attained.
He visited the silk manufactories, and urged the adoption of that
branch of industry, as peculiarly adapted to our climate and people.
Ere long he had the pleasure of presenting to the queen a piece of
American silk, which she accepted and wore as a dress. As silk was an
article not produced in England, the government was not offended by
the introduction of that branch of industry. For Hartford college he
procured a telescope, which cost about five hundred dollars. This was,
in those days, an important event.
The renowned Captain Cook returned from his first voyage around the
world. The narrative of his adventures, in the discovery of new
islands, and new races of men, excited almost every mind in England
and America. Franklin was prominent in the movement, to raise
seventy-five thousand dollars, to fit out an expedition to send to
those benighted islanders the fowls, the quadrupeds and the seeds of
Europe. He wrote, in an admirable strain,
"Many voyages have been undertaken with views of profit or
of plunder, or to gratify resentment. But a voyage is now
proposed to visit a distant people on the other side of the
globe, not to cheat them, not to rob them: not to seize
their lands or to enslave their persons, but merely to do
them good, and make them, as far as in our power lies, to
live as comfortable as ourselves."
There can be no national prosperity without virtue. There can not be a
happy people who do not "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with
God." It was a noble enterprise to send to those naked savages corn
and hoes, with horses, pigs and poultry. But the Christian conscience
awoke to the conviction that something more than this was necessary.
They sent, to the dreary huts of the Pacific, ambassadors of the
religion of Jesus, to gather the children in schools, to establish the
sanctity of the family relation, and to proclaim to all, the glad
tidings of that divine Saviour, who has come to earth "to seek and to
save the lost."