Dr. Franklin, about this time, 1756, commenced his political career.
When we see some peerless _Childers_, (whose figure almost proves the
divinity of matter, and who in matchless speed leaves the stormy winds
behind him,) bending under the weight of a miller's bag, or tugging at
the hames of some drunken carman, how can we otherwise than mourn such
a prostitution of excellences; so how can we but mourn, when we see
such a man as Franklin, born for those divine arts which widen our
empire over nature, and multiply a thousand-fold the comforts of life,
wasting his precious time in combatting the unreasonable claims of
selfish and wicked man?
This, for a portion of his eventful life, was the sad destiny of Dr.
Franklin. Scarcely had he passed his first forty years in his
favourite philosophical labours, equally useful to the world, and
delightful to himself, when he was at once stopped short--stopped by
the voice of public gratitude. The wise and virtuous people of
Pennsylvania, chiefly quakers, who estimate a man, not by the fineness
of his coat, but the _usefulness_ of his life, were not to overlook
such a man as Franklin. His astonishing industry, and his many
valuable inventions, had long made him the favourite theme of their
talk. But it was not for approbation so general and hearty, to be
satisfied with _mere talk._
_What shall be done for the man whom the people delighteth to honour?_
was the question in every circle. _God, they said, has lighted up this
candle for our use, it must not be hid under a bushel. Let it be
placed on the great candlestick of the nation, the_ LEGISLATURE. So
strong, indeed, was the public feeling in his favour, that from
several of the wards, deputations were appointed to wait upon him, to
beg he would serve the city as their representative in the house of
burgesses.
The sight of his name in the papers, as a candidate at the next
election, to serve the city of Philadelphia, gave a general joy. Among
his opponents were several of the wealthiest citizens, who had long
served as representatives, and whose numerous friends could not bear
the idea of their being turned out. Great exertions were made on both
sides; and the polls were uncommonly crowded. But when the contest
came to issue, it was found that the Philadelphia printer, and son of
the good old psalm-singing Boston tallow-chandler, carried the day
with great ease.
_O ye simple ones, how long will you love simplicity!_ you, I mean,
who can once a year look sweetly on your constituents, and once a year
invite them to barbacues, and make them drunk with whiskey, thus
ignobly begging those votes which you feel you have not the sense to
deserve, O learn from this your great countryman, wherein consists the
true art of electioneering; not in ignoble tricks like these, to court
the little, but in high qualifications, like Dr. Franklin's, to be
courted by the great.
The exalted expectations formed of him by the public were not
disappointed. Heartily a lover of man and the friend of equal rights,
he had scarcely taken his seat in the legislature before he had to
turn the torrent of his honest indignation against the _proprietaries_
and their creatures the _Governors_.
The reader will please here be reminded that in the year 1680, that
great GOOD man, William Penn, a quaker, was paid off a large claim
against Charles II. of England, by a grant of lands in North America.
To make the best of a bad bargain, honest William gathered together a
caravan of his poor persecuted brethren, and taking ship came over to
North America.
The good angel that guided the steps of pious Jacob as he sojourned
from Padan-aram to the land Uz, seeking a rest, guided Penn and his
gentle followers to the mouth of the Delaware bay. He followed the
stately flood in all its wanderings among the green marshes and
forests of the new found world, until he reached the pleasant spot
where now Philadelphia stands. The majestic grove that shaded the
extended level on the western bank, bordered on the back by the
beautiful serpentine river called by the natives, the SCHUYLKILL,
struck his eye as a fine site for his future city.
Abhorring the idea of killing his fellow men, the poor natives, and
taking away their lands, he sent around among them the Calumet, or
_pipe of peace_, inviting them to "A FRIENDLY TALK." Painted in red
ochre, and decked in all the savage pomp of wild skins and feathers,
the kings of the soil with all their simple tribes assembled
themselves together. The meeting was in the summer of 1681, under the
trees near the margin of the great river. The scene was lovely to the
eye of humanity. The red and white men from different continents were
seen to meet, not as enemies for mutual slaughter, but as brothers for
loving commerce. The shores were covered with British merchandize. The
eyes of the simple children of nature sparkled on those rich wares,
the like of which they had never seen before.
Penn gave them every thing. He gave them precious axes to master the
forests; and still more magic guns to master the wolves and panthers.
He gave them warm clothes for defence against the cold, and
plough-shares and hoes for plentiful harvests. In return they gave him
that large tract of land in their country, which, in honour of this
good man, has been called Pennsylvania. Instantly the aged forests
began to resound with the strokes of axes and the crash of falling
trees. And the corner stone was laid of the new city, which, with
great propriety, was named of Penn, PHILADELPHIA, or the city of
_brotherly love_.
Having thus laid, the foundation of this colony in JUSTICE to the poor
natives, and in generosity to his own followers in the great cheapness
of his lands, in perfect liberty of conscience, and in the exceeding
moderation of his government, this wise statesman then looked to God
for his blessings. Nor did he look in vain, The fame of "PENN COLONY"
resounded throughout Great Britain. An immense emigration were quickly
on their way to Pennsylvania. The young city grew apace, and farms and
fair buildings in the country, spread in every direction with a
rapidity unequalled in history.
But alas! when honest William fell asleep, there rose after him a race
of heirs "_who knew not Joseph_;" who not content, _like him_, with
modest drab, and simple dinners, and aspiring to the true happiness of
imitating God in godlike loves and deeds, basely prostituted their
hearts to carnal lusts and pride.
The worship of these gods, though contemptible, is costly; and to
these _wet-quaker_ successors of the good William Penn, nothing
promised such a swelling revenue as a bold rise in the price of their
lands. And in this pitiful kind of management they soon gave the
Pennsylvanians to understand that like Rehoboam of old, "_their little
fingers were heavier than their father's loins_." I have not been able
to procure any thing like certainty as to the sum that GOOD William
Penn gave to the natives for the vast tract of land he purchased of
them. But that he hardly gave at the rate of a _hatchet_ for what is
now a noble farm, may be very fairly inferred. In 1754, which was
seventy years later than the first purchase, the house of Penn bought
of the Indians seven millions of acres lying within the ROYAL GRANT.
And what do you suppose they gave for it? what do you suppose they
gave for seven millions of acres of rich, heavy timbered Pennsylvania
land? why not quite two thousand dollars! not _three cents_ the
hundred acres! And what do you suppose they immediately asked for it?
why _fifteen pounds ten shillings!_ near fifty thousand cents per
hundred acres! And yet with such a bank of millions in hand they were
not willing to bear their part of the taxes for public good!!
Like the starched Pharisees of old, they could throw heavy weights on
other men's shoulders, but not suffer a fly to light on theirs. They
could smile when they saw the officer going round with his ink horn
and pen, noting down the poor man's paddock, but if he but looked at
their princely manors and parks they would make the whole colony ring
with it.
Grown beyond calculation rich by the sales and rents of their lands in
America, they scorned the country of their illustrious predecessor,
and went over to London, where they mimicked the pride and pageantry
of princes.
Thinking they did the obscure Pennsylvanians honour enough to govern
them by _proxy_, they washed their hands of the poor colony
government, and sent them over deputies. These, hirelings, to augment
their salaries, soon commenced a course of oppressions on the people,
whom they treated with great insolence.
It were too great an honour to those wretches to set the people of the
present day to reading their insolent messages to the legislature.
They were always, however, very properly chastised by Dr. Franklin;
sometimes in the columns of his own popular newspaper, and sometimes
in the assembly. Not, indeed, by long and eloquent orations, for which
he either had no talent, or declined it, preferring the pithy and
pungent _anecdote_ or _story_, which was always so admirably
appropriate, and withal so keen in wit and truth, that like a flash
from his own lightning rods, it never failed to demolish the fairest
fabric of sophistry, and cause even its greatest admirers to blush
that they had been so fascinated by its false glare.
In 1756, he was appointed deputy post-master general for the British
colonies. It is asserted that in _his_ hands, the post-office in
America yielded annually thrice as much as did that of Ireland. An
extraordinary proof of our passion for reading and writing beyond the
Irish. Perhaps it was owing to this that we saved our liberties, while
they lost theirs.
Several of the middle colonies suffering much at this time from Indian
depredations on their frontiers, it was agreed among them to send
commissioners to Albany to devise means for mutual defence. Dr.
Franklin, commissioner on the part of Pennsylvania, had the honour to
draw up a plan, which was thought excellent. Knowing the colonists to
be the best marksmen in the world, and supposing it infinitely safer
that the defence of their own firesides should be entrusted to them
than to British hirelings, he had with his usual sagacity recommended
that muskets and powder should be put into their hands.
But when his plan was presented to the KING and COUNCIL for
ratification, it was indignantly rejected. It was thought by some that
hardly could Satan and his black janisaries have been more seriously
offended, had a cargo of Bibles and hymn books been recommended for
their pandemonium.
The truth is, the British ministry had for a long time depressed the
unfortunate Americans into mere _hewers of wood and drawers of water_,
by making them bring all their rich produce of tobaccos, furs, &c. to
English ports, and there give them the meanest prices; sometimes a
penny, and even half a penny a pound for their brightest tobacco,
which they would the next hour sell to the Dutch merchants for two
shillings a pound. To preserve such a trade as this, as Lord Howe
ingenuously confessed, from going into any other channel, was a grand
object to the ministry. But this they could not long count on, if the
Americans were furnished with muskets, cannon, and powder. They
therefore, very prudently, determined to leave Dr. Franklin's
_excellent marksmen_ out of the question, and confide to their own
creatures the protection of a country whose trade could so _well repay
them for it_.
But their folly in preferring such troops was soon made evident, as
Franklin had predicted. In the spring of 1755, two thousand veterans,
the elite of the British military, were sent over to drive the French
from the Ohio. One half that number of Virginia riflemen would have
done the business completely. But such was the ministerial jealousy of
the American riflemen, and so great their dread to embody and arm that
kind of troops, that they permitted no more than three companies to
join the army. And even these were so ludicrously scrimped up by
governor Dinwiddie, in jackets scarcely reaching to their waists, that
they became a mere laughing stock of the British army, who never
called them by any other name than the "VIRGINIA SHORT RUMPS." Many
believed that this was done purposely, that by being thus constantly
laughed at, they might be _cowed_ thereby, and be led to think meanly
of themselves, as quite an inferior sort of beings to the MIGHTY
ENGLISH. But blessed be God whose providence always takes part with
the oppressed. A few short weeks only elapsed when this motley army
was led, by an incautious commander, into a fatal ambuscade of the
French and Indians--general Braddock, at the head of his 2000 British
veterans, and young George Washington at the head of his two hundred
"_Virginia short rumps_." Then was displayed the soundness of Dr.
Franklin's judgment, in the wide difference, as to _self-possession
and hard fighting_, between these two kind of troops.
The conceited Englishmen behaved no better than WILD TURKIES; while
the despised "_Virginia short rumps_" fought like lions, and had the
glory of saving the wreck of the British army.
This sad defeat had like to have ruined doctor Franklin, by whose
credit with the Pennsylvanians, colonel Dunbar of the rear guard of
his army, had been furnished with fifty wagons, which were all burnt
on the retreat. His escape from this danger was owing to the
generosity of governor Shirley, who learning that Franklin had
incurred this debt on account of the British government, undertook to
discharge it.
Seeing no end to the vexation and expense brought on the colony by
those selfish beings, the PROPRIETARIES, the assembly came at length,
to the resolution to petition the king to abolish the proprietary
government, and take the colony under his own care. Doctor Franklin
was appointed to the honour of presenting this petition to his majesty
George II. and sailed for England, June, 1757.
Learning at last that by obstinately contending for _too much_, they
might possibly lose _all_, the proprietaries signified to doctor
Franklin a willingness that their land should be _taxed_.
After the completion of this important business, Franklin remained at
the court of Great Britain as agent for the province of Pennsylvania.
The extensive knowledge which he possessed of the situation of the
colonies and the regard which he always manifested for their
interests, occasioned his appointment to the same office by the
colonies of Massachusetts, Maryland and Georgia.
He had now an opportunity of visiting those illustrious Englishmen,
whom his useful writings and discoveries had strongly bound to him,
though they had never seen his face. The high opinion which they had
formed of him at a distance, was greatly increased by a personal
acquaintance.
Such vastness of mind with such sweetness of spirit and simplicity of
manners, formed a spectacle as rare as it was lovely. And as a proof
that SUPERIOR SENSE and superior benevolence will always prevail
against prejudice, he was now courted by those learned societies who
formerly affected to deride his discoveries in philosophy and
electricity. The Royal Society of London, which had at first refused
his performances admission into its transactions, now deemed it an
honour to class him among its fellows. The universities of St.
Andrews, of Edinburgh, and Oxford, conferred on him the degree of
doctor of laws; and the most distinguished philosophers of Europe
sought his correspondence. In reading his letters to those great men,
we are at a loss which most to admire, the majesty of his sense, or
the simplicity of his style. While in England, which was from July,
1757, to July, '62, he suggested to the British ministry the duty of
dispossessing the French of that great country on the north of our
colonies called Canada. To this end, he published his famous _Canada
pamphlet_, exhibiting in strong colours the many mischiefs and murders
committed on his countrymen, even in times of peace, by the Indians in
French pay. This little tract served to rouse the British nation to
the pitch he desired.
An army of English regulars and New-England militia were sent under
the command of general Wolfe, who presently succeeded in driving the
French out of a fine country, of which, by their cruelties, they had
rendered themselves utterly unworthy.
About this time the celebrated doctor Cullen, of Scotland, made some
curious discoveries in the art of producing cold by evaporation.
Hoping that the genius of Franklin might throw some lights on this
dawning science, a friend of doctor Cullen's wrote a statement of the
facts to Franklin. The American philosopher, though now immersed in
political pursuits, took a little leisure to repeat doctor Cullen's
experiments on cold, which he so improved as easily to produce ICE in
the _dog days_. But it was one of those discoveries, which, as he
says, he _never valued, because it was too expensive to be of general
utility_.
About the autumn of 1761, he rendered himself prodigiously popular
among the ladies in London, by completing that sweet toned little
instrument of music, the HARMONICA.
I have been told that his fame at court on this account, so awakened
the recollection of George III. that he caused it to be signified to
Dr. Franklin, that he felt a disposition to "_do something for him_."
Our philosopher replied, that he wanted nothing for himself,
but--that, _he had a son in America_. The king took the hint, and
immediately made out a commission of "_Governor of his colony of New
Jersey, for his beloved subject, Temple Franklin, Esq._" On such small
things are the fortunes of men sometimes founded!
Doctor Franklin was now become so great a favourite that the people of
all classes seemed to take a pride in talking of him, and his sayings,
insomuch that not a word of the brilliant sort could fall from his
lips but it was sure to be caught up instantly and re-echoed through
every circle, from proud St. James to humble St. Giles. The following
impromptu made a great noise in London about this time.
One evening in a large party at his friend Vaughan's he was,
laughingly, challenged by a very beautiful girl, a Miss Gun, to make
her a couplet of verses _extempore_. Well, madam, replied he, with
great gallantry, since every body is offering a tribute to your
graces, let me tender the following:
"Cupid now to ensure his fun,
Quits his _bow_ and takes to _gun_."
This handsome play on her name instantly suffused the cheeks of Miss
Gun with celestial roses, making her look much more like an angel than
before.
I mention this merely to show what an extraordinary mind that man must
have possessed, who with such equal ease, could play the _Newton_ or
the _Chesterfield_, and charm alike the lightnings and the ladies.
In the summer of 1762, he took leave of his friends in England to
return to his native country. On his voyage he discovered in oil or
grease thrown on the water, a property, which few people ever dreamt
of. When we learn of _gold_ that it may by beating, be expanded into a
leaf of such incredible fineness, that a guinea might in that way be
made to cover Solomon's temple, or deck Noah's ark, we are filled with
wonder of such a metal. Doctor Franklin tells us of equal wonders in
oil. He informs us, that a wine glass full of pure oil poured on a
mill pond, will presently spread over it, with a film inconceivably
thinner than a cobweb, and so adhesive that the winds shall not excite
it to mad-caps and breakers. Hence, he infers, that oil might be made
a mean of saving ships during a violent storm at sea.
In this voyage he made also another discovery, which ought to be known
to all going by sea, viz. that if persons perishing of thirst on a
voyage, would but bathe half a dozen times a day in the sea water,
which they easily might, by using their empty water casks as bathing
tubs, they would obtain great relief from their thirst, and live
several days longer; thence enjoying a better chance for their lives,
by getting into port, or falling in with some friendly sail.
On his arrival in Philadelphia doctor Franklin was welcomed with marks
of the most flattering respect by the citizens universally--handsome
addresses and dinners were given him by literary societies and
clubs--and the assembly, in the most public manner voted him their
thanks for "the great honour and services he had rendered the country
in general during his residence in England; and especially to the
province of Pennsylvania." And they accompanied their thanks with a
present of five thousand pounds.
Ye blind parents who can think hard of laying out a few dollars for
books and education of your children, O think of this, and learn a
course of conduct more to your own credit and to their temporal and
eternal welfare.
In a few weeks after his return to Philadelphia there occurred in that
neighbourhood an affair that serves to show the popularity of doctor
Franklin in a very strong light.
In consequence of a number of murders committed on the frontiers by
some villanous Indians, about a hundred and twenty young men of
Dauphin county, christians in _name_ but perfect savages in nature,
bound themselves by a horrid oath to exterminate a little tribe of
about twenty tame Indians, who lived very harmlessly among the whites
in York county. Mounted on horses, and with rifles and tomahawks in
their hands, they set off very deliberately on this hellish errand
towards the settlements of the poor Indians. The old men, women, and
children, in the cabins, soon fell weltering in their blood. The rest,
who were at work, getting notice, fled to Lancaster, and were lodged
in the jail as in a place of security. The blood thirsty whites broke
open the jail and butchered every soul. All smeared with innocent
blood, and furious as demons, they then pushed off for Philadelphia,
to massacre the feeble remains of a friendly tribe who had fled into
that city for protection. The governor issued his proclamation. The
rioters paid no regard to it, but moved on rapidly, well armed, and
determined to cut their way to the hated Indians over the bodies of
all who should oppose them. They are now on this side of Germantown,
only one hour's march from Philadelphia. The inhabitants are all in
terror. The governor quits his palace, and for safety flies to the
house of doctor Franklin. He, calm as he was wont to be amidst the
lightnings as they darted around him on his rods, went out to meet the
rioters. We sincerely regret that we cannot give the speech which he
made on this memorable occasion. It must have been impressive in a
most extraordinary degree; for on hearing it they instantly abandoned
their hellish design and returned peaceably to their homes!