_The Intolerance of King and Court._
Parties in England--Franklin the favorite of the
opposition--Plans of the Tories--Christian III--Letter of
Franklin--Dr. Priestley--Parisian courtesy--Louis XV--Visit
to Ireland--Attempted alteration of the Prayer Book--Letter
to his son--Astounding letters from America--Words of John
Adams--Petition of the Assembly--Violent conspiracy against
Franklin--His bearing in the court-room--Wedderburn's
infamous charges--Letter of Franklin--Bitter words of Dr.
Johnson--Morals of English lords--Commercial value of the
Colonies--Dangers threatening Franklin.
Wherever there is a government there must be an opposition. Those who
are out of office wish to eject those in office, that they may take
their places. There was a pretty strong party in what was called the
Opposition. But it was composed of persons animated by very different
motives. The first consisted of those intelligent, high minded,
virtuous statesmen, who were indignant in view of the wrong which the
haughty, unprincipled Tory government was inflicting upon the American
people. The second gathered those who were in trade. They cared
nothing for the Americans. They cared nothing for government right or
wrong. They wished to sell their hats, their cutlery, and their cotton
and woolen goods to the Americans. This they could not do while
government was despotically enforcing the Stamp Act or the Revenue
Bill. Then came a third class, who had no goods to sell, and no
conscience to guide to action. They were merely ambitious politicians.
They wished to thrust the Tories out of office simply that they might
rush into the occupancy of all the places of honor, emolument or
power.
Franklin was in high favor with the opposition. He furnished their
orators in Parliament with arguments, with illustrations, with
accurate statistical information. Many of the most telling passages in
parliamentary speeches, were placed on the lips of the speakers by
Benjamin Franklin. He wrote pamphlets of marvellous popular power,
which were read in all the workshops, and greatly increased the number
and the intelligence of the foes of the government measures. Thus
Franklin became the favorite of the popular party. They lavished all
honors upon him. In the same measure he became obnoxious to the
haughty, aristocratic Tory government. Its ranks were filled with the
lords, the governmental officials, and all their dependents. This made
a party very powerful in numbers, and still more powerful in wealth
and influence. They were watching for opportunities to traduce
Franklin, to ruin his reputation, and if possible, to bring him into
contempt.
This will explain the honors which were conferred upon him by one
party, and the indignities to which he was subjected from the other.
At times, the Tories would make efforts by flattery, by offers of
position, of emolument, by various occult forms of bribery, to draw
Franklin to their side. He might very easily have attained almost any
amount of wealth and high official dignity.
The king of Denmark, Christian VII., was brother-in-law of George III.
He visited England; a mere boy in years, and still more a weak boy in
insipidity of character. A large dinner-party was given in his honor
at the Royal Palace. Franklin was one of the guests. In some way
unexplained, he impressed the boy-king with a sense of his inherent
and peculiar greatness. Christian invited a select circle of but
sixteen men to dine with him. Among those thus carefully selected,
Franklin was honored with an invitation. Though sixty-seven years of
age he still enjoyed in the highest degree, convivial scenes. He could
tell stories, and sing songs which gave delight to all. It was his
boast that he could empty his two bottles of wine, and still retain
entire sobriety. He wrote to Hugh Roberts,
"I wish you would continue to meet the Junto. It wants but
about two years of forty since it was established. We loved,
and still love one another; we have grown grey together, and
yet it is too early to part. Let us sit till the evening of
life is spent; the last hours are always the most joyous.
When we can stay no longer, it is time enough to bid each
other good night, separate, and go quietly to bed."
Franklin was the last person to find any enjoyment in the society of
vulgar and dissolute men. In those days, it was scarcely a reproach
for a young lord to be carried home from a festivity in deadly
intoxication. Witticisms were admitted into such circles which
respectable men would not tolerate now. Franklin's most intimate
friends in London were found among Unitarian clergymen, and those
philosophers who were in sympathy with him in his rejection of the
Christian religion. Dr. Richard Price, and Dr. Joseph Priestly, men
both eminent for intellectual ability and virtues, were his bosom
friends.
Dr. Priestly, who had many conversations with Franklin upon religious
topics, deeply deplored the looseness of his views. Though Dr.
Priestly rejected the divinity of Christ, he still firmly adhered to
the belief that Christianity was of divine origin. In his
autobiography, Dr. Priestly writes:
"It is much to be lamented that a man of Dr. Franklin's
generally good character and great influence, should have
been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done so
much as he did to make others unbelievers. To me, however,
he acknowledged that he had not given so much attention as
he ought to have done to the evidences of Christianity; and
he desired me to recommend him a few treatises on the
subject, such as I thought most deserving his notice."
Priestly did so; but Franklin, all absorbed in his social festivities,
his scientific researches, and his intense patriotic labors, could
find no time to devote to that subject--the immortal destiny of
man,--which is infinitely more important to each individual than all
others combined.[22] It was indeed a sad circle of unbelievers, into
whose intimacy Franklin was thrown. Dr. Priestly writes,
"In Paris, in 1774, all the philosophical persons to whom I
was introduced, were unbelievers in Christianity, and even
professed atheists. I was told by some of them, that I was
the only person they had ever met, of whose understanding
they had any opinion, who professed to believe in
Christianity. But I soon found they did not really know what
Christianity was."
[Footnote 22: Mr. Parton, in his excellent Life of Franklin, one of
the best biographies which was ever written, objects to this
withholding of the Christian name from Dr. Franklin. He writes,
"I do not understand what Dr. Priestly meant, by saying that
Franklin was an unbeliever in Christianity, since he himself
was open to the same charge from nine-tenths of the
inhabitants of christendom. Perhaps, if the two men were now
alive, we might express the theological difference between
them by saying that Priestly was a Unitarian of the Channing
school, and Franklin of that of Theodore Parker." Again he
writes, "I have ventured to call Franklin the consummate
Christian of his time. Indeed I know not who, of any time,
has exhibited more of the Spirit of Christ."--_Parton's
Franklin Vol. 1. p. 546. Vol. 2. p. 646._]
It was Franklin's practice to spend a part of every summer in
traveling. In 1767, accompanied by Sir John Pringle, he visited Paris.
With Franklin, one of the first of earthly virtues was courtesy. He
was charmed with the politeness of the French people. Even the most
humble of the working classes, were gentlemanly; and from the highest
to the lowest, he, simply as a stranger, was treated with
consideration which surprised him. He writes,
"The civilities we everywhere receive, give us the strongest
impressions of the French politeness. It seems to be a point
settled here universally, that strangers are to be treated
with respect; and one has just the same deference shown one
here, by being a stranger, as in England, by being a lady."
Two dozen bottles of port-wine were given them at Bordeaux. These, as
the law required, were seized by the custom-house officers, as they
entered Paris by the Porte St. Denis; but as soon as it was
ascertained that they were strangers, the wine was remitted.
There was a magnificent illumination of the Church of Notre Dame, in
honor of the deceased Dauphiness. Thousands could not obtain
admission. An officer, learning merely that they were strangers, took
them in charge, conducted them through the vast edifice, and showed
them every thing.
Franklin and his companion had the honor of a presentation to the
king, Louis XV., at Versailles. This monarch was as vile a man as ever
occupied a throne. But he had the virtue of courtesy, which Franklin
placed at the head of religious principle. The philosopher simply
records,
"The king spoke to both of us very graciously and very
cheerfully. He is a handsome man, has a very lively look,
and appears younger than he is."
In 1772, Franklin visited Ireland. He was treated there with great
honor; but the poverty of the Irish peasantry overwhelmed his
benevolent heart with astonishment and dismay. He writes,
"I thought often of the happiness of New England, where
every man is a free-holder, has a vote in public affairs,
lives in a tidy, warm house, has plenty of good food and
fuel, with whole clothes from head to foot, the manufacture
perhaps of his own family. Long may they continue in this
situation."
In the year 1773, Franklin spent several weeks in the beautiful
mansion of his friend, Lord Despencer. We read with astonishment,
that Franklin, who openly renounced all belief in the divine origin of
Christianity, should have undertaken, with Lord Despencer, an
abbreviation of the prayer-book of the Church of England. It is
surprising, that he could have thought it possible, that the eminent
Christians, clergy and laity of that church, would accept at the hands
of a deist, their form of worship. But Franklin was faithful in the
abbreviation, not to make the slightest change in the evangelical
character of that admirable work, which through ages has guided the
devotion of millions. The abbreviated service, cut down one-half,
attracted no attention, and scarcely a copy was sold.
At this time, Franklin's reputation was in its meridian altitude.
There was scarcely a man in Europe or America, more prominent. Every
learned body in Europe, of any importance, had elected him a member.
Splendid editions of his works were published in London; and three
editions were issued from the press in Paris.
In France, Franklin met with no insults, with no opposition. All alike
smiled upon him, and the voices of commendation alone fell upon his
ear.
Returning to England, his reputation there, as a man of high moral
worth, and of almost the highest intellectual attainments, and a man
honored in the most remarkable degree with all the highest offices
which his countrymen could confer upon him, swept contumely from his
path, and even his enemies were ashamed to manifest their hostility.
From London he wrote to his son,
"As to my situation here, nothing can be more agreeable.
Learned and ingenious foreigners that come to England,
almost all make a point of visiting me; for my reputation is
still higher abroad, than here. Several of the foreign
ambassadors have assiduously cultivated my acquaintance,
treating me as one of their corps, partly, I believe, from
the desire they have from time to time, of hearing something
of American affairs; an object become of importance in
foreign courts, who begin to hope Britain's alarming power
will be diminished by the defection of her colonies."[23]
[Footnote 23: "For dinner parties Franklin was in such demand that,
during the London season, he sometimes dined out six days in the
week for several weeks together. He also confesses that occasionally
he drank more wine than became a philosopher. It would indeed have
been extremely difficult to avoid it, in that soaking age, when
a man's force was reckoned by the number of bottles he could
empty."--_Parton's Life of Franklin_, Vol. i, p. 540.
As an illustration of the state of the times, I give the following
verse from one of the songs which Franklin wrote, and which he was
accustomed to sing with great applause. At the meetings of the Junto,
all the club joined in the chorus,
"Fair Venus calls; her voice obey
In beauty's arms spend night and day.
The joys of love all joys excel,
And loving's certainly doing well.
_Chorus._
Oh! no!
Not so!
For honest souls still know
Friends and the bottle still bear the bell."
"It is well," Mr. Parton writes, "for us, in these days, to consider
the spectacle of this large, robust soul, sporting in this simple,
homely way. This superb Franklin of ours, who spent some evenings in
mere jollity, passed nearly all his days in labor most fruitful of
benefit to his country."--_Life of Franklin_, Vol. i, p. 262.]
In the latter part of the year 1772, Franklin, in his ever courteous,
but decisive language, was conversing with an influential member of
Parliament, respecting the violent proceedings of the ministry, in
quartering troops upon the citizens of Boston. The member, in reply,
said,
"You are deceived in supposing these measures to originate with the
ministry. The sending out of the troops, and all the hostile measures,
of which you complain, have not only been suggested, but solicited, by
prominent men of your own country. They have urged that troops should
be sent, and that fleets should enter your harbors, declaring that in
no other way, than by this menace of power, can the turbulent
Americans be brought to see their guilt and danger, and return to
obedience."
Franklin expressed his doubts of this statement. "I will bring you
proof," the gentleman replied. A few days after, he visited Franklin,
and brought with him a packet of letters, written by persons of high
official station in the colonies, and native born Americans. The
signatures of these letters were effaced; but the letters themselves
were presented, and Franklin was confidentially informed of their
writers. They were addressed to Mr. William Whately, an influential
member of Parliament, who had recently died.
Franklin read them with astonishment and indignation. He found the
representation of the gentleman entirely true. Six of the letters were
written by Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts. He was a
native of the colony he governed, a graduate of Harvard, and in his
religious position a Puritan. Four were written by Andrew Oliver,
Lieutenant-governor, and also a native of Massachusetts.
The rest were written by custom-house officers and other servants of
the Crown. The openly avowed design of these letters was, that they
should be exhibited to the Ministry, to excite them to prompt,
vigorous and hostile measures. They teemed with misrepresentations,
and often with downright falsehoods. The perusal of these infamous
productions elicited from Franklin first a burst of indignation. The
second effect was greatly to mitigate his resentment against the
British government. The ministry, it seemed, were acting in
accordance with solicitations received from Americans, native born,
and occupying the highest posts of honor and influence.
The gentleman who obtained these letters and showed them to Franklin,
was very unwilling to have his agency in the affair made public. After
much solicitation, he consented to have Franklin send the letters to
America, though he would not give permission to have any copies taken.
It was his hope, that the letters would calm the rising animosity in
America, by showing that the British ministry was pursuing a course of
menace, which many of the most distinguished Americans declared to be
essential, to save the country from anarchy and ruin. Franklin's
object was to cause these traitorous office-holders to be ejected from
their positions of influence, that others, more patriotic, might
occupy the stations which they disgraced.
On the 2d of December, 1772, Franklin inclosed the letters in an
official package, directed to Thomas Cushing. He wrote,
"I am not at liberty to make the letters public. I can only
allow them to be seen by yourself, by the other gentlemen of
the Committee of Correspondence, by Messrs. Bowdoin and
Pitts of the Council, and Drs. Chauncy, Cooper, and
Winthrop, and a few such other gentlemen as you may think
fit to show them to. After being some months in your
possession, you are requested to return them to me."
The reading of the letters created intense anger and disgust. John
Adams, after perusing them, recorded in his diary, alluding to
Hutchinson, "Cool, thinking deliberate villain, malicious and
vindictive." He carried the documents around to read to all his male
and female friends, and was not sparing in his vehement comments.
Again he wrote, "Bone of our bone; born and educated among us! Mr.
Hancock is deeply affected; is determined, in conjunction with Major
Hawley, to watch the vile serpent, and his deputy, Brattle. The
subtlety of this serpent is equal to that of the old one."
For two months the letters were privately yet extensively circulated.
Hutchinson himself soon found out the storm which was gathering
against him. The hand-writing of all the writers was known. In June,
the Massachusetts Assembly met. In secret session the letters were
read. Soon some copies were printed. It was said that some one had
obtained, from England, copies of the letters from which the printed
impressions were taken. But the mystery of their publication was never
solved.
The Assembly sent a petition to the king of England, imploring that
Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, should be removed from their
posts, and that such good men as the king might select, should be
placed in their stead. The petition, eminently respectful, but drawn
up in very forcible language, expressive of the ruinous consequences
caused by the measures which these officials had recommended, was
transmitted to Franklin, the latter part of the summer of 1773. He
immediately forwarded it to Lord Dartmouth. With it he sent a very
polite and conciliatory letter, in which he declared, that the
Americans were very desirous of being on good terms with the mother
country, that their resentment against the government was greatly
abated, by finding that Americans had urged the obnoxious measures
which had been adopted; and that the present was a very favorable time
to introduce cordial, friendly relations between the king and the
colonists.
Lord Dartmouth returned a very polite reply, laid the all-important
petition aside, and for five months never alluded to it, by word or
letter. In the meantime, some of the printed copies reached London.
The Tories thought that perhaps the long sought opportunity had come
when they might pounce upon Franklin, and at least greatly impair his
influence. Franklin had nothing to conceal. He had received the
letters from a friend, who authorized him to send them to America,
that their contents might be made known there.
In all this he had done absolutely nothing, which any one could
pronounce to be wrong. But the Court, being determined to stir up
strife, began to demand who it was that had obtained and delivered
up the letters. Franklin was absent from London. He soon heard tidings
of the great commotion that was excited, and that two gentlemen, who
had nothing to do with the matter, were each accused of having
dishonorably obtained the letters. This led to a duel. Franklin
immediately wrote,
"I think it incumbent for me to declare that I alone am the
person who obtained and transmitted to Boston, the letters
in question."
The Court decided to summon Franklin to meet the "Committee for
Plantation Affairs," to explain the reasons for the petition against
Hutchinson and Oliver. To the surprise of Franklin, it appeared that
they were organizing quite a formidable trial; and very able counsel
was appointed to defend the culprits.
Thus Franklin, who simply presented the petition of the Assembly, was
forced into the obnoxious position of a prosecutor. The array against
him was so strong, that it became necessary for him also to have
counsel. It was manifest to all the friends of Franklin, that the
British Court was rousing all its energies to crush him.
The meeting was held on the 11th of January, 1773. Four of the Cabinet
ministers were present, and several Lords of the Privy Council. They
addressed Franklin as a culprit, who had brought slanderous charges
against his majesty's faithful officers in the colonies. He was
treated not only with disrespect but with absolute insolence. But
nothing could disturb his equanimity. Not for one moment did he lose
serenity of mind.
There was an adjournment, to meet on the 29th of the month. In the
meantime one of the court party, who had received many favors from
Franklin, commenced a chancery suit against him, accusing him of
stealing the letters, and being by trade a printer, of having secretly
published them, and sold immense numbers, the profits of which he had
placed in his own pocket. All this Franklin denied on oath. The charge
was so absurd, and so manifestly malignant, that his foes withdrew the
suit. Franklin was however assured that the Court was clamoring for
his punishment and disgrace.
All London was agitated by the commotion which these extraordinary
events created. At the appointed day, the Council again met. The
assembly was held in a large apartment in the drawing-room style. At
one end was the entrance door; at the other the fire-place, with
recesses on each side of the chimney. A broad table extended from the
fire-place to the door. The Privy Council, thirty-five in number, sat
at this table. They were inveterate Tories, resolved to bring the
Americans down upon their knees, and, as a preliminary step, to
inflict indelible disgrace upon Franklin. Lord North, the implacable
Prime Minister was there. The Archbishop of Canterbury was present. As
Franklin cast his eye along the line of these haughty nobles, he could
not see the face of a friend.
The remainder of the room was crowded with spectators. From them many
a sympathizing glance fell upon him. Priestly and Burke gave him their
silent but cordial sympathy. There were also quite a number of
Americans and prominent members of the opposition, whose presence was
a support to Franklin, during the ordeal through which he was to pass.
He stood at the edge of the recess formed by the chimney, with one
elbow resting upon the mantel, and his cheek upon his hand. He was
motionless as a statue, and had composed his features into such calm
and serene rigidity, that not the movement of a muscle could be
detected. As usual, he was dressed simply, but with great elegance. A
large flowing wig, with abundant curls, such as were used by elderly
gentlemen at that day, covered his head. His costume, which was
admirably fitted to a form as perfect as Grecian sculptor ever
chiseled, was of rich figured silk velvet. In all that room, there was
not an individual, who in physical beauty, was the peer of Franklin.
In all that room there was not another, who in intellectual greatness
could have met the trial so grandly.
It will be remembered that the Assembly of Massachusetts had
petitioned for the removal of an obnoxious governor and lieutenant
governor. Franklin, as the agent in London of that colony, had
presented the petition to the crown. He was now summoned to appear
before the privy council, to bring forward and substantiate charges
against these officers. The council had appointed a lawyer to defend
Hutchinson and Oliver. His name was Wedderburn. He had already
obtained celebrity for the savage skill with which he could browbeat a
witness, and for his wonderful command of the vocabulary of
vituperation and abuse. Before commencing the examination, he
addressed the assembly in a long speech. After eulogizing Governor
Hutchinson, as one of the best and most loyal of the officers of the
crown, who merited the gratitude of king and court, he turned upon
Franklin, and assailed him with a storm of vituperative epithets,
such as never before, and never since, has fallen upon the head of a
man. The council were in sympathy with the speaker. Often his
malignant thrusts would elicit from those lords a general shout of
derisive laughter.
Such was the treatment which one of the most illustrious and honored
of American citizens received from the privy council of king George
III., when he appeared before that council as a friendly ambassador
from his native land, seeking only conciliation and peace.
Wedderburn accused Franklin of stealing private letters, of
misrepresenting their contents, that he might excite hostility against
the loyal officers of the king. He accused him of doing this that he
might eject them from office, so as to obtain the positions for
himself and his friends. Still more, he accused him of having in an
unexampled spirit of meanness, availed himself of his skill as a
printer, to publish these letters, and that he sold them far and wide,
that he might enrich himself. Charges better calculated to ruin a man,
in the view of these proud lords, can scarcely be conceived. It is
doubtful whether there were another man in the world, who could have
received them so calmly, and in the end could have so magnificently
triumphed over them.
During all this really terrific assailment, Franklin stood with his
head resting on his left hand, apparently unmoved. At the close, he
declined answering any questions. The committee of the council
reported on that same day, "the lords of the committee, do agree
humbly to report as their opinion to your majesty, that the said
petition is founded upon resolution's, formed upon false and erroneous
allegations, and that the same is false, vexatious and scandalous; and
calculated only for the seditious purposes of keeping up a spirit of
clamor and discontent in said province." The king accepted the report,
and acted accordingly. Franklin went home alone. We know not why his
friends thus apparently deserted him.
The next morning, which was Sunday, Priestly breakfasted at Franklin's
table. He represents him as saying that he could not have borne
the insults heaped upon him by the privy council, but for the
consciousness, that he had done only that which was right. On Monday
morning Franklin received a laconic letter from the Postmaster
General, informing him that the king had found it necessary to dismiss
him from the office of deputy Postmaster General in America.
This outrage, inflicted by the privy council of Great Britain, upon a
friendly ambassador from her colonies, who had visited her court with
the desire to promote union and harmony, was one of the most
atrocious acts ever perpetrated by men above the rank of vagabonds in
their drunken carousals. Franklin, in transmitting an account to
Massachusetts, writes in a noble strain:
"What I feel on my own account, is half lost in what I feel
for the public. When I see that all petitions and complaints
of grievances, are so odious to government, that even the
mere pipe which conveys them, becomes obnoxious, I am at a
loss to know how peace and union are to be maintained, and
restored between the different parts of the empire.
Grievances cannot be redressed, unless they are known. And
they cannot be known, but through complaints and petitions.
If these are deemed affronts, and the messengers punished as
offenders, who will henceforth send petitions? and who will
deliver them?"
The speech of Wedderburn gave great delight to all the Tory party. It
was derisively said, "that the lords of the council, went to their
chamber, as to a bull-baiting, and hounded on the Solicitor General
with loud applause and laughter." Mr. Fox, writing of the assault
said, "All men tossed up their hats and clapped their hands, in
boundless delight."
When the tidings of the affair reached America, it added intensity to
the animosity, then rapidly increasing, against the British
government. The dismissal of Franklin from the post-office, was deemed
equivalent to the seizure, by the crown, of that important branch of
the government. None but the creatures of the Ministry were to be
postmasters. Consequently patriotic Americans could no longer entrust
their letters to the mail. Private arrangements were immediately made
for the conveyance of letters; and with so much efficiency, that the
general office, which had heretofore contributed fifteen thousand
dollars annually to the public treasury, never after paid into it one
farthing.[24]
[Footnote 24: It may be worthy of record, that Wedderburn became the
hero of the clubs and the favorite of the Tory party. Wealth and
honors were lavished upon him. He rose to the dignity of an earl and
lord chancellor, and yet we do not find, in any of the annals of those
days, that he is spoken of otherwise than as a shallow, unprincipled
man. When his death, after a few hours' illness, was announced to the
king, he scornfully said, "He has not left a worse man behind him."]
The spirit of the Tories may be inferred from that of one of the most
applauded and influential of their leaders. Dr. Samuel Johnson, who
wrote the notorious "Taxation no Tyranny," said,
"The Americans are a race of convicts. They ought to be thankful for
any thing we can give them. I am willing to love all mankind except
an American." Boswell in quoting one of his insane tirades writes,
"His inflammable corruption, bursting into horrid fire, he breathed
out threatenings and slaughter, calling them rascals, robbers,
pirates, and exclaiming that he would burn and destroy them."
It was a day of vicious indulgence, of dissipation in every form, when
it was fashionable to be godless, and to sneer at all the restraints
of the Christian religion. Volumes might be filled with accounts of
the atrocities perpetrated by drunken lords at the gaming table and in
midnight revel through the streets. Such men of influence and rank as
Fox, Lord Derby, the Duke of Ancaster, inflamed with wine, could set
the police at defiance. They were constantly engaged in orgies which
would disgrace the most degraded wretches, in the vilest haunts of
infamy in our cities. Instead of gambling for copper, they gambled for
gold. Horace Walpole testifies that at one of the most fashionable
clubs, at Almack's, they played only for rouleaux of two hundred and
fifty dollars each. There were often fifty thousand dollars in specie
on the gaming tables, around which these bloated inebriates were
gathered. It is said that Lord Holland paid the gambling debts of his
two sons to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars.
The trade of the colonies had become of immense value to the mother
country. It amounted to six and a half millions sterling a year.
Philadelphia numbered forty thousand inhabitants. Charleston, South
Carolina, had become one of the most beautiful and healthy cities in
America. The harbor was crowded with shipping, the streets were lined
with mansions of great architectural beauty. Gorgeous equipages were
seen, almost rivaling the display in French and English capitals. But
there were many Tories in Charleston, as malignant in their opposition
to the popular cause in America, as any of the aristocrats to be found
in London.
The unpardonable insult which Franklin had received, closed his
official labors in London. His personal friends and the Opposition
rallied more affectionately than ever around him. But he ceased to
appear at court and was seldom present at the dinner-parties of the
ministers. Still he was constantly and efficiently employed in behalf
of his country. The leaders of the opposition were in constant
conference with him. He wrote many pamphlets and published articles in
the journals, which exerted an extended and powerful influence. He
wrote to his friends at home, in October, 1774,
"My situation here is thought, by many, to be a little
hazardous; for if by some accident the troops and people of
New England should come to blows, I should probably be
taken up; the ministerial people, affecting everywhere to
represent me as the cause of all the misunderstanding. And I
have been frequently cautioned to secure all my papers, and
by some advised to withdraw. But I venture to stay, in
compliance with the wish of others, till the result of the
Congress arrives, since they suppose my being here might, on
that occasion, be of use. And I confide in my innocence,
that the worst that can happen to me will be an imprisonment
upon suspicion; though that is a thing I should much desire
to avoid, as it may be expensive and vexatious, as well as
dangerous to my health."