engage in others, and to promote several of my workmen who had behaved
well, by establishing them with printing houses in different colonies,
on the same terms as that in Carolina. Most of them did well, being
enabled at the end of our term, six years, to purchase the types of me
and go on working for themselves, by which means several families were
raised. Partnerships often finish in quarrels; but I was happy in
this, that mine were all carried on and ended amicably, owing, I
think, a good deal to the precaution of having very explicitly
settled, in our articles, everything to be done by or expected from
each partner, so that there was nothing to dispute, which precaution I
would therefore recommend to all who enter into partnership; for,
whatever esteem partners may have for and confidence in each other at
the time of the contract, little jealousies and disgusts may arise,
with ideas of inequality in the care and burden of the business, etc.,
which are attended often with breach of friendship and of the
connection, perhaps with lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences.
I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied with my being
established in Pennsylvania. There were, however, two things which I
regretted,--there being no provision for defense, nor for a complete
education of youth; no militia, nor any college. I therefore, in 1743,
drew up a proposal for establishing an academy, and at that time
thinking the Rev. Mr. Peters, who was out of employ, a fit person to
superintend such an institution, I communicated the project to him;
but he, having more profitable views in the service of the
proprietaries, which succeeded, declined the undertaking; and, not
knowing another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the
scheme lie awhile dormant. I succeeded better the next year, 1744, in
proposing and establishing a philosophical society.[130] The paper I
wrote for that purpose will be found among my writings when collected.
With respect to defense,--Spain having been several years at war
against Great Britain, and being at length joined by France, which
brought us into great danger, and the labored and long-continued
endeavor of our governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker
Assembly[131] to pass a militia law and make other provisions for the
security of the province, having proved abortive,--I determined to try
what might be done by a voluntary association of the people. To
promote this I first wrote and published a pamphlet entitled "Plain
Truth," in which I stated our defenseless situation in strong lights,
with the necessity of union and discipline for our defense, and
promised to propose in a few days an association, to be generally
signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had a sudden and surprising
effect. I was called upon for the instrument of association, and
having settled the draft of it with a few friends, I appointed a
meeting of the citizens in the large building before mentioned. The
house was pretty full. I had prepared a number of printed copies, and
provided pens and ink dispersed all over the room. I harangued them a
little on the subject, read the paper and explained it, and then
distributed the copies, which were eagerly signed, not the least
objection being made.
When the company separated and the papers were collected, we found
above twelve hundred hands; and, other copies being dispersed in the
country, the subscribers amounted at length to upward of ten
thousand. These all furnished themselves as soon as they could with
arms, formed themselves into companies and regiments, chose their own
officers, and met every week to be instructed in the manual exercise
and other parts of military discipline. The women, by subscriptions
among themselves, provided silk colors, which they presented to the
companies, painted with different devices and mottoes which I supplied.
The officers of the companies composing the Philadelphia regiment,
being met, chose me for their colonel; but, conceiving myself unfit, I
declined that station, and recommended Mr. Lawrence, a fine person and
man of influence, who was accordingly appointed. I then proposed a
lottery[132] to defray the expense of building a battery below the
town, and furnishing it with cannon. It filled expeditiously, and the
battery was soon erected, the merlons[133] being framed of logs and
filled with earth. We bought some old cannon from Boston, but, these
not being sufficient, we wrote to England for more, soliciting at the
same time our proprietaries for some assistance, though without much
expectation of obtaining it.
Meanwhile Colonel Lawrence, William Allen, Abram Taylor, Esq., and
myself were sent to New York by the associators, commissioned to borrow
some cannon of Governor Clinton. He at first refused us peremptorily;
but at dinner with his council, where there was great drinking of
Madeira wine, as the custom of that place then was, he softened by
degrees, and said he would lend us six. After a few more bumpers he
advanced to ten, and at length he very good-naturedly conceded eighteen.
They were fine cannon, eighteen-pounders, with their carriages, which we
soon transported and mounted on our battery, where the associators kept
a nightly guard while the war lasted, and among the rest I regularly
took my turn of duty there as a common soldier.
My activity in these operations was agreeable to the governor and
council; they took me into confidence, and I was consulted by them in
every measure wherein their concurrence was thought useful to the
association. Calling in the aid of religion, I proposed to them the
proclaiming a fast, to promote reformation and implore the blessing of
Heaven on our undertaking. They embraced the motion; but as it was the
first fast ever thought of in the province, the secretary had no
precedent from which to draw the proclamation. My education in New
England, where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here of some
advantage. I drew it in the accustomed style. It was translated into
German, printed in both languages, and divulged through the province.
This gave the clergy of the different sects an opportunity of
influencing their congregations to join in the association, and it
would probably have been general among all but Quakers if the peace
had not soon intervened.
It was thought by some of my friends that by my activity in these
affairs I should offend that sect, and thereby lose my interest in the
Assembly of the province, where they formed a great majority. A young
gentleman who had likewise some friends in the House, and wished to
succeed me as their clerk, acquainted me that it was decided to
displace me at the next election, and he therefore, in good will,
advised me to resign, as more consistent with my honor than being
turned out. My answer to him was, that I had read or heard of some
public man who made it a rule never to ask for an office and never to
refuse one when offered to him. "I approve," says I, "of his rule, and
will practice it with a small addition: I shall never ask, never
refuse, nor ever resign an office. If they will have my office of
clerk to dispose of to another, they shall take it from me. I will
not, by giving it up, lose my right of some time or other making
reprisals[134] on my adversaries." I heard, however, no more of this;
I was chosen again unanimously, as usual, at the next election.
Possibly, as they disliked my late intimacy with the members of
council, who had joined the governors in all the disputes about
military preparations with which the House had long been harassed,
they might have been pleased if I would voluntarily have left them;
but they did not care to displace me on account merely of my zeal for
the association, and they could not well give another reason.
Indeed I had some cause to believe that the defense of the country was
not disagreeable to any of them, provided they were not required to
assist in it. And I found that a much greater number of them than I
could have imagined, though against offensive war, were clearly for
the defensive. Many pamphlets pro and con were published on the
subject, and some by good Quakers in favor of defense, which I believe
convinced most of their younger people.
A transaction in our fire company gave me some insight into their
prevailing sentiments. It had been proposed that we should encourage
the scheme for building a battery, by laying out the present stock,
then about sixty pounds, in tickets of the lottery. By our rules no
money could be disposed of till the next meeting after the proposal.
The company consisted of thirty members, of which twenty-two were
Quakers, and eight, only, of other persuasions. We eight punctually
attended the meeting; but though we thought that some of the Quakers
would join us, we were by no means sure of a majority. Only one
Quaker, Mr. James Morris, appeared to oppose the measure. He expressed
much sorrow that it had ever been proposed, as he said Friends were
all against it, and it would create such discord as might break up the
company. We told him that we saw no reason for that; we were the
minority, and if Friends were against the measure, and outvoted us, we
must and should, agreeably to the usage of all societies, submit. When
the hour for business arrived it was moved to put the vote. He allowed
we might then do it by the rules, but as he could assure us that a
number of members intended to be present for the purpose of opposing
it, it would be but candid to allow a little time for their appearing.
While we were disputing this a waiter came to tell me two gentlemen
below desired to speak with me. I went down and found they were two of
our Quaker members. They told me that there were eight of them
assembled at a tavern just by; that they were determined to come and
vote with us if there should be occasion, which they hoped would not
be the case, and desired we would not call for their assistance if we
could do without it, as their voting for such a measure might embroil
them with their elders and friends. Being thus secure of a majority, I
went up, and after a little seeming hesitation agreed to a delay of
another hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be extremely fair. Not one of
his opposing friends appeared, at which he expressed great surprise,
and at the expiration of the hour we carried the resolution eight to
one; and as, of the twenty-two Quakers, eight were ready to vote with
us, and thirteen by their absence manifested that they were not
inclined to oppose the measure, I afterward estimated the proportion
of Quakers sincerely against defense as one to twenty-one only; for
these were all regular members of that society, and in good reputation
among them, and had due notice of what was proposed at that meeting.
The honorable and learned Mr. Logan, who had always been of that sect,
was one who wrote an address to them, declaring his approbation of
defensive war and supporting his opinion by many strong arguments. He
put into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out in lottery tickets for
the battery, with directions to apply what prizes might be drawn
wholly to that service. He told me the following anecdote of his old
master, William Penn, respecting defense. He came over from England,
when a young man, with that proprietary, and as his secretary. It was
war time, and their ship was chased by an armed vessel, supposed to be
an enemy. Their captain prepared for defense, but told William Penn
and his company of Quakers that he did not expect their assistance,
and they might retire into the cabin; which they did, except James
Logan, who chose to stay upon deck, and was quartered to a gun. The
supposed enemy proved a friend, so there was no fighting; but when
the secretary went down to communicate the intelligence, William Penn
rebuked him severely for staying upon deck and undertaking to assist
in defending the vessel, contrary to the principles of Friends,
especially as it had not been required by the captain. This reproof,
being before all the company, piqued the secretary, who answered: "I
being thy servant, why did thee not order me to come down? But thee
was willing enough that I should stay and help to fight the ship when
thee thought there was danger."
My being many years in the Assembly, the majority of which were
constantly Quakers, gave me frequent opportunities of seeing the
embarrassment given them by their principle against war whenever
application was made to them, by order of the Crown, to grant aids for
military purposes. They were unwilling to offend government, on the
one hand, by a direct refusal, and their friends, the body of the
Quakers, on the other, by a compliance contrary to their principles;
hence a variety of evasions to avoid complying, and modes of
disguising the compliance when it became unavoidable. The common mode
at last was to grant money under the phrase of its being "for the
King's use," and never to inquire how it was applied.
But if the demand was not directly from the Crown, that phrase was found
not so proper, and some other was to be invented. As, when powder was
wanting (I think it was for the garrison at Louisburg[135]), and the
government of New England solicited a grant of some from Pennsylvania,
which was much urged on the House by Governor Thomas, they could not
grant money to buy powder, because that was an ingredient of war; but
they voted an aid to New England of three thousand pounds, to be put
into the hands of the governor, and appropriated it for the purchasing
of bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. Some of the council, desirous of
giving the House still further embarrassment, advised the governor not
to accept provision, as not being the thing he had demanded; but he
replied: "I shall take the money, for I understand very well their
meaning; 'other grain' is gunpowder," which he accordingly bought, and
they never objected to it.
It was in allusion to this fact that, when in our fire company we
feared the success of our proposal in favor of the lottery, and I had
said to my friend Mr. Syng, one of our members: "If we fail, let us
move the purchase of a fire engine with the money; the Quakers can
have no objection to that; and then, if you nominate me and I you as a
committee for that purpose, we will buy a great gun, which is
certainly a fire engine,"--"I see," says he, "you have improved by
being so long in the Assembly; your equivocal project would be just a
match for their 'wheat or other grain.'"
These embarrassments that the Quakers suffered from having established
and published it as one of their principles that no kind of war was
lawful, and which, being once published, they could not afterward,
however they might change their minds, easily get rid of, reminds me
of what I think a more prudent conduct in another sect among us, that
of the Dunkers.[136] I was acquainted with one of its founders,
Michael Welfare, soon after it appeared. He complained to me that they
were grievously calumniated by the zealots of other persuasions, and
charged with abominable principles and practices to which they were
utter strangers. I told him this had always been the case with new
sects, and that, to put a stop to such abuse, I imagined it might be
well to publish the articles of their belief and the rules of their
discipline. He said that it had been proposed among them, but not
agreed to, for this reason: "When we were first drawn together as a
society," says he, "it had pleased God to enlighten our minds so far
as to see that some doctrines, which we once esteemed truths, were
errors; and that others, which we have esteemed errors, were real
truths. From time to time He has been pleased to afford us further
light, and our principles have been improving and our errors
diminishing. Now we are not sure that we are arrived at the end of
this progression and at the perfection of spiritual or theological
knowledge, and we fear that if we should once print our confession of
faith we should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and
perhaps be unwilling to receive further improvement, and our
successors still more so, as conceiving what we, their elders and
founders, had done to be something sacred, never to be departed from."
This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance in the history
of mankind, every other sect supposing itself in possession of all
truth, and that those who differ are so far in the wrong. Like a man
traveling in foggy weather; those at some distance before him on the
road he sees wrapped up in the fog as well as those behind him, and
also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears
clear, though in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them. To
avoid this kind of embarrassment the Quakers have of late years been
gradually declining the public service in the Assembly and in the
magistracy, choosing rather to quit their power than their principle.
In order of time I should have mentioned before that, having in 1742
invented an open stove[137] for the better warming of rooms and at the
same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in
entering, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my
early friends, who, having an iron furnace, found the casting of the
plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as they were growing in
demand.[n] To promote that demand I wrote and published a pamphlet
entitled, "An Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces;
wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is particularly
explained; their Advantages above every other Method of warming Rooms
demonstrated; and all Objections that have been raised against the Use
of them answered and obviated," etc. This pamphlet had a good effect.
Governor Thomas was so pleased with the construction of this stove, as
described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole
vending of them for a term of years; but I declined it from a
principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions; namely,
that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we
should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of
ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a good deal of my pamphlet,
and working it up into his own, and making some small changes in the
machine, which rather hurt its operation, got a patent for it there,
and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. And this is not the
only instance of patents taken out for my inventions by
others,--though not always with the same success,--which I never
contested, as having no desire of profiting by patents myself, and
hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in very many houses, both
of this and the neighboring colonies, has been and is a great saving
of wood to the inhabitants.
[Footnote 125: George Whitefield, one of the founders of Methodism,
who was born in Gloucester, England, in 1714, and died in Newburyport,
Mass., in 1770.[n]]
[Footnote 126: In London.]
[Footnote 127: General Oglethorpe founded an English colony in Georgia
in 1732. He wished to make an asylum to which debtors, whose liberty
the laws of England put into the hands of the creditor, (see Way to
Wealth, p. 204,) might escape, and where those fleeing from religious
persecution might be safe from their pursuers.]
[Footnote 128: This institution was established in Savannah, and
called Bethesda.]
[Footnote 129: Written words endure.]
[Footnote 130: This society continues. The plan of it was discussed by
the Junto, from which came six of the nine original members. Its
investigations were to be in botany, medicine, mineralogy and mining,
mathematics, chemistry, mechanics, arts, trades and manufactures,
geography, topography, agriculture, and "all philosophical experiments
that let light into the nature of things, tend to increase the power
of man over matter, and multiply the conveniences and pleasures of
life." "Benjamin Franklin, the writer of this proposal, offers himself
to serve the society as their secretary till they shall be provided
with one more capable."]
[Footnote 131: The Pennsylvania legislature.]
[Footnote 132: At this time lotteries were used for raising money to
support the government, to carry on wars, and to build churches,
colleges, roads, etc. They were not then looked upon as fostering
gambling.]
[Footnote 133: The walls of defense between the openings for the
cannon.]
[Footnote 134: Retaliation.]
[Footnote 135: See Note 2, p. 181.]
[Footnote 136: A sect of German-American Baptists, whose name comes
from the German _tunken_ ("to immerse").]
[Footnote 137: It is still used, and called the "Franklin stove."]
§ 7. PROJECTS FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD.
Peace being concluded, and the association business therefore at an
end, I turned my thoughts again to the affair of establishing an
academy. The first step I took was to associate in the design a number
of active friends, of whom the Junto furnished a good part. The next
was to write and publish a pamphlet entitled "Proposals relating to
the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." This I distributed among the
principal inhabitants gratis; and as soon as I could suppose their
minds a little prepared by the perusal of it, I set on foot a
subscription for opening and supporting an academy. It was to be paid
in quotas yearly for five years. By so dividing it I judged the
subscription might be larger, and I believe it was so, amounting to no
less, if I remember right, than five thousand pounds.
In the introduction to these Proposals I stated their publication, not
as an act of mine, but of some "public-spirited gentlemen," avoiding
as much as I could, according to my usual rule, the presenting myself
to the public as the author of any scheme for their benefit.
The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate execution, chose
out of their number twenty-four trustees, and appointed Mr. Francis,
then attorney-general, and myself to draw up constitutions for the
government of the academy; which being done and signed, a house was
hired, masters engaged, and the schools opened, I think, in the same
year, 1749.
The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon found too small, and
we were looking out for a piece of ground, properly situated, with
intention to build, when Providence threw into our way a large house
ready built, which, with a few alterations, might well serve our
purpose. This was the building before mentioned, erected by the
hearers of Mr. Whitefield,[138] and was obtained for us in the
following manner.
It is to be noted that the contributions to this building being made
by people of different sects, care was taken in the nomination of
trustees, in whom the building and ground was to be vested, that a
predominancy should not be given to any sect, lest in time that
predominancy might be a means of appropriating the whole to the use of
such sect, contrary to the original intention. It was therefore that
one of each sect was appointed; namely, one Church of England man, one
Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian,[139] etc.; those, in case of
vacancy by death, were to fill it by election from among the
contributors. The Moravian happened not to please his colleagues, and
on his death they resolved to have no other of that sect. The
difficulty then was, how to avoid having two of some other sect by
means of the new choice.