This celebrated individual, the youngest but two of a family of
seventeen children, was born at Boston, in Massachusetts, on the 17th
of January, 1706. His father was at first a dyer, and afterwards a
soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, and had quitted England in order to
escape the prosecution of the non-conformists, under Charles II. His
son Benjamin was sent to a grammar-school at eight years of age, with
a view of being educated for the church; but this design was soon
abandoned, and the subject of our memoir, after having made a slight
progress in writing and arithmetic, returned home, and assisted at his
father’s trade. This employment was very irksome to Franklin, whose
inclinations had become directed to a sea-faring life; and it was at
length agreed that he should be apprenticed to his cousin who was a
cutler. An obstacle to this, however, arose in the amount of premium
required, and he was eventually bound, in his twelfth year, to his
brother James, a printer.
He soon made great progress in this business, and an acquaintance
formed with several booksellers’ apprentices, enabled him to indulge
his love of reading, by borrowing books, which they had facilities to
obtain. ‘It has often happened to me,’ he says, in a memoir of the
early part of his life, ‘to pass the greater part of the night in
reading by my bed-side, when the book had been lent to me in the
evening, and was to be returned the next morning, lest it might be
missed or wanted.’ This disposition being noticed by a Mr. Matthew
Adams, who had a large collection of books, he offered the use of them
to Franklin, who soon became an author, and composed several little
pieces in verse. Two of these, a ballad, called ‘The Lighthouse
Tragedy,’ and a song on the noted pirate, Blackbeard, were, by his
brother’s directions, printed: but the most unpoetic part of the story
remains to be told――their author was despatched about the town to sell
them. Franklin says, ‘the first had a prodigious run, because the
event was recent, and had made a great noise;’ but ‘they were wretched
verses in point of style――mere blindman’s ditties.’ His father seems
to have been of the same opinion, for he ridiculed the productions;
‘and thus,’ says their author, ‘my exultation was checked, and I
escaped the misfortune of being a very miserable poet.’ At this period
he formed an acquaintance with a young man of the name of Collins, who
was also a great lover of books. They were frequently together, and
were both fond of disputation, which they sometimes carried on in
writing. This, probably, assisted in bringing out some of the dormant
qualities of Franklin’s mind; but his style was greatly inferior to
that of his rival, to improve which he took the following method:――‘I
bought,’ he says, ‘an odd volume of The Spectator, read it over and
over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent,
and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view, I took some of
the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence,
laid them by a few days; and then, without looking at the book, tried
to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at
length, and as fully as it had been expressed before in any suitable
words that should occur to me. Then I compared my Spectator with the
original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I
found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and
using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time,
if I had gone on making verses; since the continual search for words
of the same import, but of different length to suit the measure, or of
different sound, for the rhyme, would have laid me under constant
necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix that
variety in my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore I took some of
the tales in the Spectator, and turned them into verse; and, after a
time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back
again. I also, sometimes, jumbled my collection of hints into
confusion, and, after some weeks, endeavored to reduce them into the
best order, before I began to form the full sentences and complete the
subject. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of my
thoughts. By comparing my works with the original, I discovered many
faults, and corrected them; but sometimes had the pleasure to fancy
that, in certain particulars of small consequence, I had been
fortunate enough to improve the method of the language; and this
encouraged me to think that I might, in time, come to be a tolerable
English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious.
Franklin added to his habits of industry a self-denial and control
over his passions, even at this early age, which were truly
surprising. When about sixteen, a work fell into his hands, which
recommended vegetable diet: this he determined to follow, and
undertook to provide for himself, upon his brother’s allowing him
one-half of the ordinary expense of his board, of which half, even, he
contrived, by great abstemiousness, to save a considerable portion.
Here was a new fund for the purchase of books; and he accordingly
obtained such as enabled him to perfect himself in those elementary
branches of knowledge in which he was deficient, among which were
arithmetic and geometry.
In 1720, his brother established a public paper, entitled The New
England Courant, the second that had appeared in America. Franklin was
employed to distribute the copies, and, occasionally, being present at
the meetings which were held at his brother’s house, by a number of
literary characters, who were contributors, his love of authorship was
rekindled, and he sent a communication in the usual way, but in a
feigned hand. It was received, and commented upon in Franklin’s
hearing; who, in his memoir, tells us, he had, ‘the exquisite pleasure
to find that it met with their approbation, and that, in the various
conjectures they made respecting its author, no one was mentioned who
did not enjoy a high reputation in the country for talents and
genius.’ Many other articles were written, and forwarded in the same
manner, and, being equally well received, their author made himself
known; expecting that the discovery would insure for him more respect
and greater fraternal indulgence than he had previously experienced.
His brother, however, continued to treat him with much rigor, and
being a man of ungovernable passions, frequently proceeded to the
extremity of blows. ‘This severe and tyrannical treatment,’ says
Franklin, ‘contributed, I believe, to imprint on my mind that aversion
to arbitrary power, which, during my whole life, I have ever
preserved.’
The brothers, however, had soon occasion to be reconciled with each
other. James, in consequence of an offensive article in the Courant,
was taken into custody, and imprisoned for a month; Benjamin, during
that period, was intrusted with the management of the paper, in which
he inserted several pasquinades against the governor and other persons
in authority. James’s enlargement was accompanied with an arbitrary
order, that he should ‘no longer print the newspaper called The New
England Courant.’ To evade this order, it was determined that his
brother’s indentures should be given up, and the paper, in future, be
printed in the name of Benjamin Franklin. A new contract was at the
same time secretly entered into between the parties, by which
Benjamin’s services were to be secured for the remainder of the term
of his former apprenticeship; but, a fresh quarrel arising, Franklin
thought proper to separate from his brother; ‘dishonorably,’ as he
candidly acknowledges, ‘availing himself of the circumstance that the
contract could not safely be produced.’
Being unable to obtain employment in Boston, he determined upon going
to New York; but, apprehending his father would object to this
resolution, he sold a part of his books to procure a small sum of
money, and departed privately. On his arrival at the latter place, he
applied for employment to a printer, who, having no occasion for his
services, recommended him to extend his journey to Philadelphia.
His arrival at Philadelphia is thus recorded by himself:――‘I was in my
working-dress, my best clothes being to come from New York by sea. I
was covered with dirt; my pockets were filled with shirts and
stockings; I was unacquainted with a single soul in the place, and
knew not where to seek a lodging. Fatigued with walking and rowing,
and having passed the night without sleep, I was extremely hungry, and
all my money consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling’s worth
of coppers, which I gave to the boatmen for my passage. At first they
refused it on account of my having rowed; but I insisted on their
taking it. Man is sometimes more generous when he has little money
than when he has plenty; perhaps to prevent his being thought to have
but little. I walked towards the top of the street, gazing about, till
near Market Street, where I met a boy with bread, and, inquiring where
he had bought it, I went immediately to the baker he directed me to. I
asked for biscuits, meaning such as we had at Boston; that sort, it
seems, was not then made in Philadelphia. I then asked for a
threepenny loaf, and was told they had none. Not knowing the different
prices, nor the names of the different sorts of bread, I told him to
give me threepennyworth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three
great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it; and,
having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm,
and eating the other. Thus I went up Market Street, passing by the
door of Mr. Read, my future wife’s father, when she, standing at the
door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward,
ridiculous appearance. Then I turned and went down Chestnut street,
and part of Walnut street, eating my roll all the way; and, coming
round, found myself again at Market street wharf, near the boat I came
in, to which I went for a draught of river water; and, being filled
with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that
came down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go
farther. Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which, by this
time, had many clean dressed people in it, who were all walking the
same way. I joined them, and thereby was led into the great
meeting-house of the Quakers, near the market. I sat down among them,
and, after looking round awhile, and hearing nothing said, being very
drowsy, through labor and want of rest the preceding night, I fell
fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting broke up, when some one
was kind enough to rouse me. This, therefore, was the first house I
was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia.’
He was not long in obtaining employment with a printer of the name of
Keimer; and, during his stay at Philadelphia, was favorably noticed by
the governor, Sir William Keith, who frequently invited him to his
table; and at length promised to advance the funds requisite to place
him in business on his own account. He had previously advised his
young _protegé_ to proceed to Boston and ask assistance from his
father, who, however, gave no encouragement to the scheme, but
dismissed Franklin with his blessing, who retured to Philadelphia. Sir
William now recommended him to visit England, in order to procure an
adequate stock of printing materials, and establish a connection with
some London booksellers; and offered to furnish him with letters of
credit and introduction. Upon this recommendation, Franklin set sail
for England, but the ship which carried him to London, in December,
1724, was found to have carried none of the promised letters from the
governor of Pennsylvania.
He was now thrown entirely upon his own resources, and having taken
lodgings in Little Britain, at one shilling and ninepence per week, he
got into work at Palmer’s printing-house, in Bartholomew Close, in
which employ he continued for nearly a year. From Palmer’s he removed
to Watts’s, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where, by his companions, he
was dubbed the Water-American. ‘From my example,’ he says, ‘a great
many of them left off their muddling breakfast of beer, bread, and
cheese, finding they could, with me, be supplied from a neighboring
house with a large porringer of hot water-gruel, sprinkled with
pepper, crumbled with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price
of a pint of beer, viz., three-halfpence.’ About this period, he fell
in with some deistical companions, renounced his religious principles,
commenced sceptic, and published A Dissertation on Liberty and
Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, in answer to Wollaston’s Religion of
Nature. This work introduced him to the notice of Sir Hans Sloane, Dr.
Mandeville, Dr. Pemberton, and other eminent persons, though Franklin
acknowledged the printing of it as one of the errors of his life.
After having been in London eighteen months, he accepted the offer of
a Mr. Denham, a merchant of Philadelphia, to return with him as his
clerk, at a salary of £50. He arrived at Philadelphia on the 11th of
October, 1726: but, Mr. Denham dying in the following year, his clerk
was compelled to return to his former occupation, and again entered
into the employ of Keimer; acting in the several capacities of
letter-founder, ink-maker, engraver, and copper-plate-printer. The
press which he used in the latter calling was constructed by himself,
and was the first erected in America. A quarrel with Keimer, led to a
final separation between him and Franklin, who now entered into
partnership with a young man of the name of Meredith. ‘We had
scarcely,’ says Franklin, ‘opened our letters and put the press in
order, before George House, an acquaintance of ours, brought a
countryman to us, whom he had met in the street inquiring for a
printer. All our cash had been expended in the variety of particulars
we had been obliged to procure, and this countryman’s five shillings,
being our first fruits, and coming so seasonably, gave me more
pleasure than any money I have ever since received.’ The frugality and
industry of Franklin soon brought their business into a thriving
condition, and he began to think of establishing a newspaper, when he
was anticipated by Keimer, who started one of his own. He now wrote,
in conjunction with a friend, a series of papers called The Busy Body,
which so much eclipsed the publication of his rival, that he was glad
to dispose of his paper, at any price, to Franklin. Meredith proving
inattentive to business, Franklin was pursuaded to dissolve
partnership, and take the concern entirely into his own hands, which
he was enabled to accomplish, through the liberal assistance of two
acquaintances, who were members of the Junto. This was a club,
established by Franklin, for the discussion of subjects connected with
morals, politics, and natural philosophy; it eventually became the
centre of thought for the whole people; and contributed, in a great
degree, to the success of their struggle for independence.
In September, 1730, he married a female to whom he had been previously
attached, when she was Miss Read, but who, during his absence, had
conceived herself forgotten, and given her hand to a potter, of the
name of Rogers. This person had involved himself in debt, and fled to
the West Indies, but Franklin’s affection was not damped by the
probability of the lady’s first husband being still alive, and he
consented to make her his spouse.
In 1732, he published his celebrated almanac, under the name of
Richard Saunders, more generally known as Poor ‘Richard’s Almanack,’
and which became so celebrated for its numerous happily-expressed and
valuable moral maxims. These were collected, many years afterwards,
into a little tract, called The Way to Wealth; having for its object
the extension of industry and economy, habits which no man ever
practiced more successfully than Franklin himself. Dr. Bard a
Scotchman, residing in Philadelphia, used to say to him, ‘The industry
of this Franklin is superior to any thing of the kind I ever
witnessed. I see him still at work when I return from the club at
night, and I find he is at it again in the morning, before his
neighbors are out of bed.’ On one occasion, having laid down a rule
that he would compose a sheet a day of a particular work, in folio, he
had the misfortune, after his evening’s labor, to derange two whole
pages. Such, however, was his perseverance, that he distributed and
composed them anew before he retired to bed.
In 1736, he commenced his political career, by being appointed clerk
to the general assembly; and, in the following year, entered upon the
duties of post-master. He was also appointed an alderman, and put into
the commission of the peace; but took no part in the business of the
bench, commonly employing himself, while sitting with his brother
magistrates, ‘in contriving magic squares and circles.’ From this
period, till 1744, he was actively and usefully employed in
instituting fire companies, erecting public buildings, and
establishing philosophical societies. In 1744, during the war between
England and France, he particularly distinguished himself in procuring
means of resistance against the enemy, and succeeded in bringing over
the Quakers to give their pecuniary aid. They were, however,
particularly scrupulous not to acknowledge that their grants were
connected with the principle of warfare. When, therefore, the assembly
was applied to, for a certain quantity of gunpowder, the members would
not comply with the request; but voted £3,000 to be placed in the
hands of the governor, ‘for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or
other grain.’ The governor was advised not to accept the grant, but he
replied――‘I shall take the money; “other grain” means gunpowder.’
Franklin, hearing of this, suggested that the insurance companies,
which were also well stocked with Quakers, might likewise very
properly contribute their aid, by a grant for the purchase of
fire-engines.
In 1745, he published an account of his newly-invented fire-place;
and, in 1747, was elected a member of the general assembly; in which
he was an active defender of the rights of the citizens in opposition
to the encroachments of the proprietaries. He introduced several
measures relative to the local government of Philadelphia; and busily
employed himself in establishing public schools and founding
hospitals. In 1749, he took one of his workmen into partnership; and
was thus enabled to devote a considerable portion of his time to
scientific pursuits, of which it is now time to give some account. At
this period, our readers need not, perhaps, be told that electricity
was a science which could hardly be said to consist of anything more
than a collection of unsystematized and ill-understood facts.
Franklin’s attention seems to have been first directed to this subject
in 1746, when, being at Boston, he met with a Dr. Spence, who had
lately arrived from Scotland, and showed him some electrical
experiments. They were not very expertly performed, ‘but being,’ said
Franklin, ‘on a subject quite new to me, they equally surprised and
pleased me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company
received, from Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S., of London, a present of
a glass tube, with some account of the use of it in making
experiments. I eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had
seen at Boston; and, by much practice, acquired great readiness in
performing those also which we had an account of from England, adding
a number of new ones. I say much practice, for my house was
continually full, for some time, with persons who came to see these
new wonders. To divide a little of this incumbrance among my friends,
I caused a number of similar tubes to be blown in our glass-house,
with which they furnished themselves; so that we had, at length,
several performers.’
None were now more zealous in electrical investigations, than
Franklin; he was continually devising new experiments, and falling
upon important results. He exhibited the power of points in drawing
and throwing off the electrical matter; and made the grand discovery
of a positive and negative state of electricity. By means of this
discovery he satisfactorily explained the phenomena of the Leyden
phial, which was at that time exciting the wonder of all Europe, and
had caused philosophers so much perplexity. His happiest conjecture,
however, was that of the identity between lightning and the electric
fluid, though it was not till 1752, that he was enabled, effectually,
to establish this important fact. He had long entertained the bold
idea of ascertaining the truth of this doctrine, by actually drawing
lightning from the clouds; and at length it occurred to him that he
might procure communication between them and the earth by means of a
common kite. With this simple apparatus, he awaited the approach of a
thundercloud, and the kite was raised, but no sign of electricity
appeared. His suspense and anxiety were almost insupportable; when
suddenly he observed the loose fibres of the string to move; he
presented his knuckle to the key by which it was held, and received
a strong spark. On this experiment depended the fate of his theory.
Repeated sparks were drawn from the key――a phial was charged――a shock
given――and this brilliant discovery placed upon an immutable basis.
Franklin, from time to time, forwarded accounts of his experiments to
England, for the information of the Royal Society; but they were not
admitted into the printed transactions of that learned body. His
friend, Mr. Collinson, gave them to Cave, for insertion in The
Gentleman’s Magazine; but Cave, with great judgment, thought proper to
publish them separately, in a pamphlet, the preface to which was
written by Dr. Fothergill. By the additions which were subsequently
made to this little work, it swelled into a quarto volume, and became
the text-book of the science. It was translated into French, German,
and Latin, and attracted the attention of all the philosophers in
Europe. In France, the highest honors were paid to Franklin’s labors:
Buffon, D’Alibard, and De Lor, repeated and confirmed his experiments;
and the king himself, Louis XV, became a spectator of them. Russia,
even, participated in this ardor, and the amiable Richmann fell a
martyr to his zeal――an unfortunate flash from the conductor putting a
period to his existence. Eventually, the Royal Society began to
reconsider the matter; and Franklin’s grand experiment, the object of
which had, at first, been treated with ridicule, was verified by
Canton, and other members. Franklin was, accordingly, without
solicitation, elected a fellow, and had paid to him the unusual honor
of being chosen without payment of the customary fees. He was also
presented with the Copley medal for the year 1753; and, at a
subsequent period, he had the degree of LL.D. conferred upon him by
the Universities of St. Andrew’s, Edinburgh, and Oxford.
We now resume our account of Franklin’s political career. In the year
just mentioned, he was presented with the degree of M.A., by the
College of Cambridge, in New England; and, in the same year, he was
appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies. The
American post-office had never previously made any returns for the
revenue; but under the management and improvements of Franklin, it
yielded to the crown three times as much as the post-office of
Ireland. In 1754, he drew up his celebrated Albany Plan of Union, as a
means of defense against the depredations of the Indians. The
rejection of this plan was followed by the introduction of British
troops into the colonies; this produced taxation, and was soon
succeeded by the war, which ended in the final loss of America to the
mother-country.
In 1755, when the expedition of Gen. Braddock, to dispossess the
French of some of their encroachments, was in preparation, a
difficulty arose for want of wagons, which Franklin supplied to the
number of one hundred and fifty. The expedition, however, failing, he
was in danger of a ruinous loss, but was relieved from his obligations
by the interference of the governor. He was, subsequently,
instrumental in forming a militia bill; and he was appointed colonel
of the Philadelphia regiment of one thousand two hundred men, which he
held until the troops were disbanded by order of the English
government.
On the 27th of July, 1757, Franklin arrived in London, in the
character of agent to the general assembly, for the purpose of
advocating the privileges of the people against the illiberal and
unjust encroachments of the proprietaries. Much prejudice and delusion
existed at the time in relation to the affairs of America; and
Franklin, in consequence, published, anonymously, a work, entitled An
Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania.
During his sojourn in England, he was engaged in a variety of
political controversies, and was examined before a committee of the
whole house of commons, relative to the practicability of enforcing
the stamp act, which, in consequence of the information he afforded,
was repealed. He returned to Philadelphia in the summer of 1762; and
shortly afterwards received the thanks of the assembly, and a grant of
£5,000. In 1764, through the exertions of the proprietaries, he lost
his seat in the house; but there still remained in it a majority of
his friends, and he was appointed to resume his agency at the court of
Great Britain.
In 1766, he visited Holland and Germany; and, in the following year,
France, where Louis XV showed him particular marks of attention. After
his return to England he got embroiled relative to some political
papers which had been clandestinely furnished to him, and which he
forwarded to America, where they were published. He was, in
consequence, dismissed from his office of deputy postmaster-general,
after having been summoned before the privy-council, and severely
censured. He was now looked upon by government with considerable
jealousy, and it was proposed to arrest him upon the charge of
fomenting a rebellion; but being apprised of this intention, he
contrived to leave England secretly, in March, 1775.
On his return to Philadelphia, he was elected a delegate to the
congress, and took an active part in bringing about a revolution. It
was at this period he wrote the following memorable letter to his old
friend in England, Mr. Strahan, the king’s printer:――
‘PHILADELPHIA, July 5, 1775.
‘Mr. STRAHAN:――You are a member of parliament, and one of
that majority which has doomed my country to destruction.
You have begun to burn our towns, and murder our people.
Look upon your hands! They are signed with the blood of your
relations. You and I were long friends:――you are now my
enemy, and I am
Yours, ‘B. FRANKLIN.’
In 1776, although in his seventy-first year, he was called upon by
Congress, to proceed to France, for the purpose of completing the
negotiations begun by Silas Deane; and, in 1777, he was appointed
plenipotentiary to the French court. He had now not only created a
host of political enemies in Great Britain, but was also attacked by
certain philosophical opponents. Mr. Wilson, F.R.S., protested against
pointed conductors, and performed several experiments, in order to
prove the superiority of knobs. In consequence of Wilson’s
declarations, the pointed lightning conductors were taken down from
the queen’s palace, a circumstance which gave rise to the following
epigram:――
‘Whilst you, great George, for safety hunt,
And sharp conductors change for blunt,
The empire’s out of joint:
Franklin a wiser course pursues:
And all your thunder fearless views,
By keeping to the _point_.’
A definitive treaty of peace having been signed between Great Britain
and the United States, on the 3d of September, 1783, Franklin
requested to be recalled home. He arrived at Philadelphia in
September, 1785, and was afterwards twice elected president of the
assembly. His last public act was the signing of a memorial, on the
12th of February, 1789, for the abolition of slavery.
He had been, for many years, subject to attacks of the gout, to which,
in 1782, was added a nephritic colic; and, about the same period, he
suffered the first pains of a disease, the most distressing in the
list of bodily infirmities. They were three things he had always
dreaded; and he used to observe, that, in relation to this
complication of disorders, he was ‘something like the woman who had
always entertained a great aversion to presbyterians, parsons, and
Irishmen, and at last married an Irish presbyterian parson.’ These
maladies confined him to his bed during the greater part of the last
year of his life; but, notwithstanding the severe pains he labored
under, his natural cheerfulness never forsook him. His mental
faculties were unimpaired, and his memory continued unaffected to the
last hour of his existence. He was often obliged to take large doses
of opium; but, in his moments of ease, he amused himself with reading,
or in affectionate conversation with his family. He died on the 17th
of April, 1790, and was buried on the 21st of April, in the cemetery
of Christ’s Church, Philadelphia. On the occasion of his funeral,
every possible mark of public respect was shown to his memory: a
general mourning, for one month, was ordered throughout America; and
the national assembly of France paid a like honor in remembrance of
his virtues.