composed and how they were first performed we shall see that
such harmonical successions of sounds were natural and even
necessary in their construction. They were composed by the
minstrels of those days to be played on the harp accompanied by
the voice. The harp was strung with wire, which gives a sound of
long continuance and had no contrivance like that in the modern
harpsichord, by which the sound of the preceding could be
stopped the moment a succeeding note began. To avoid actual
discord, it was therefore necessary that the succeeding emphatic
note should be a chord with the preceding, as their sounds must
exist at the same time. Hence arose that beauty in those tunes
that has so long pleased, and will please forever, though men
scarce know why."
Franklin's numerous voyages naturally turned his mind to problems of the
sea. He pondered much on the question whether the daily motion of the
earth from west to east would increase the speed of a ship sailing
eastward and retard it on a westward passage. He was not quite sure that
the earth's motion would have such an effect, but he thought it
possible.
"I wish I had mathematics enough to satisfy myself whether the
much shorter voyages made by ships bound hence to England, than
by those from England hither, are not in some degree owing to
the diurnal motion of the earth, and if so in what degree. It is
a notion that has lately entered my mind; I know not if ever any
other's." (Bigelow's Works of Franklin, vol. ii. p. 14.)
He referred to the subject again soon after, and finally a few years
before his death,[20] but always as an unsettled question. The idea
seems never to have got beyond the stage of investigation with him, but
Parton has built up out of it a wonderful discovery.
"He conceived an idea still more practically useful, which has
since given rise to a little library of nautical works, and
conferred unmerited honor upon a naval charlatan--Maury. This
idea was that by studying the form and motions of the earth and
directing a ship's course so that it shall partake of the
earth's diurnal motion a voyage may be materially shortened."
(Parton's "Life of Franklin," vol. ii. p. 72.)
This is certainly a most extraordinary statement to be made by a writer
like Parton, who has given the main facts of Franklin's life with
considerable fidelity. He refers to it again in another passage, in
which he says that this method of navigation is now used by all
intelligent seamen. But there is no evidence that it was ever so used.
He may have confused it with great circle sailing. The theory is an
exploded one. There is no library of nautical works on the subject, and
I think that the officers of the United States navy, the captains of the
great ocean liners, and thousands of sailors all over the world would
be very much surprised to hear Maury called a charlatan.
Maury's wonderful investigations were not in the line of sailing a ship
so as to take advantage of the earth's diurnal motion, and could not
have been suggested by such an idea. He explored the physical geography
of the sea, and particularly the currents, trade-winds, and zones of
calm. It was he who first worked out the shortest routes from place to
place, which are still used. Although he never made a picturesque and
brilliant discovery about lightning, and had not Franklin's exquisite
power of expression, he was a much more remarkable man of science.
In a long letter to Alphonsus Le Roy, of Paris, written in 1785, on his
voyage home from France with Captain Truxton, Franklin summed up all his
maritime observations, including what he knew of the Gulf Stream. This
letter is full of most curious suggestions for the navigation of ships,
and was accompanied by a plate of carefully drawn figures, which has
been reproduced in most editions of his works.
So much attention had been given, he said, to shaping the hull of a
vessel so as to offer the least resistance to the water, that it was
time the sails were shaped so as to offer the least resistance to the
air. He proposed to do this by making the sails smaller and increasing
their number, and contrived a most curious rig (Fig. 4) which he thought
would offer the least resistance both in sailing free and in beating to
windward.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN'S MARITIME SUGGESTIONS]
Figs. 5, 6, and 7 show why, in those days of rope cables, a ship was
always breaking the cable where it bent at right angles just outside the
hawse-hole. All the strain was on the outer strands of the rope at _a b
c_, Fig. 7, and as they broke the others followed one by one. His remedy
for this was to have a large wheel or pulley in the hawse-hole.
Figs. 8 and 9 show how a vessel with a leak at first fills very rapidly,
so that the crew, finding they cannot gain on the water with the pumps,
take to their boats. But if they would remain they would find after a
while that the quantity entering would be less as the surfaces without
and within became more nearly equal, and that the pumps would now be
able to prevent it from rising higher. The water would also begin to
reach light wooden work, empty chests, and water-casks, which would give
buoyancy, and thus the ship could be kept afloat longer than the crew at
first expected. In this connection he calls attention to the Chinese
method of water-tight compartments which Mr. Le Roy had already adopted
in his boat on the Seine.
Fig. 12 is intended to show the loss of power in a paddle-wheel because
the stroke from _A_ to _B_ is downward and from _D_ to _X_ upward, and
the only effective stroke is from _B_ to _D_. A better method of
propulsion, he thinks, is by pumping water out through the stern, as
shown in Figs. 13 and 14.
Figs. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 illustrate methods of making
floating sea anchors by which to lay a vessel to in a gale. Fig. 24
shows how a heavy boat may be drawn ashore by bending the rope from _C_
to _D_. Fig. 23 represents a new way of planking ships to secure greater
strength, and Figs. 26 and 27 are soup-dishes which will not spill in a
heavy sea. But this delightful letter is published in all of the
editions of his works, and should be read in order to render his
ingenious contrivances intelligible.
Among the few of Franklin's writings on scientific subjects which are
not in the form of letters is an essay, entitled "Peopling of
Countries," supposed to have been written in 1751. It is in part
intended to show that Great Britain was not injured by the immigration
to America; the gap was soon filled up; and the colonies, by consuming
British manufactures, increased the resources of the mother country. The
essay is full of reflections on political economy, which had not then
become a science, and the twenty-second section contains the statement
that there is no bound to the productiveness of plants and animals other
than that occasioned by their crowding and interfering with one
another's means of subsistence. This statement supplied Malthus with the
foundation for his famous theory that the population of the earth
increased in a geometrical ratio, while the means of subsistence
increased only in an arithmetical ratio, and some of those who opposed
this theory devoted themselves to showing error in Franklin's
twenty-second section rather than to disputing the conclusions of
Malthus, which they believed would fall if Franklin could be shown to be
in the wrong.
He investigated the new field of political economy with the same
thoroughness as the other departments of science, and wrote on national
wealth, the price of corn, free trade, the effects of luxury, idleness,
and industry, the slave-trade, and peace and war. The humor and
imagination in one of his letters to Dr. Priestley on war justify the
quoting of a part of it:
"A young angel of distinction being sent down to this world on
some business, for the first time, had an old courier-spirit
assigned him as a guide. They arrived over the seas of
Martinico, in the middle of the long day of obstinate fight
between the fleets of Rodney and De Grasse. When through the
clouds of smoke he saw the fire of the guns, the decks covered
with mangled limbs and bodies dead and dying, or blown into the
air, and the quantity of pain, misery, and destruction the crews
yet alive were thus with so much eagerness dealing round to one
another, he turned angrily to his guide and said, 'You
blundering blockhead, you are ignorant of your business; you
undertook to conduct me to the earth and you have brought me
into hell!' 'No, sir,' says the guide, 'I have made no mistake;
this is really the earth, and these are men. Devils never treat
one another in this cruel manner; they have more sense, and more
of what men (vainly) call humanity.'" (Bigelow's Works of
Franklin, vol. vii. p. 465.)
FOOTNOTES:
[18] Making of Pennsylvania, chap. ix.
[19] Pillsbury's Gulf Stream, published by the U. S. government.
[20] Bigelow's Works of Franklin, vol. ii. p. 331; vol. ix. p. 185.
VI
THE PENNSYLVANIA POLITICIAN
While Franklin kept his little stationery shop and printing-office, sent
out his almanacs every year, read and studied, experimented in science,
and hoped for an assured income which would give larger leisure for
study and experiment, he was all the time drifting more and more into
public life. In a certain sense he had been accustomed to dealing with
living public questions from boyhood. When an apprentice in his teens,
he had written articles for his brother's newspaper attacking the
established religious and political system of Massachusetts, and during
his brother's imprisonment the newspaper had been published in the
apprentice's name. In Pennsylvania his own newspaper, the _Gazette_,
which he established when he was but twenty-three years old, made him
something of a public man; and his pamphlet in favor of paper money,
which appeared at about the same period, showed how strongly his mind
inclined towards the large questions of government.
When he reached manhood he also developed a strong inclination to assist
in public improvements, in the encouragement of thrift and comfort, and
in the relief of suffering, subjects which are now included under the
heads of philanthropy and reform. He had in full measure the social and
public spirit of the Anglo-Saxon, the spirit which instinctively builds
up the community while at the same time it is deeply devoted to its own
concerns. The only one of his ancestors that had risen above humble
conditions was of this sort, and had been a leader in the public affairs
of a village.
His natural disposition towards benevolent enterprises was much
stimulated, he tells us, by a book called "Essays to do Good," by the
eminent Massachusetts divine, Cotton Mather, of witchcraft fame. He also
read about the same time De Foe's "Essay upon Projects," a volume
recommending asylums for the insane, technical schools, mutual benefit
societies, improved roads, better banking, bankrupt laws, and other
things which have now become the commonplace characteristics of our age.
His club, the Junto, was the first important fruit of this benevolent
disposition. At first its members kept all their books at its rooms for
the common benefit; but some of the books having been injured, all were
taken back by the owners, and this loss suggested to Franklin the idea
of a circulating library supported by subscriptions. He drew up a plan
and went about soliciting money in 1731, but it took him more than a
year to collect forty-five pounds. James Logan, the secretary of the
province, gave advice as to what books to buy, and the money was sent to
London to be expended by Mr. Peter Collinson, to whom Franklin's famous
letters on electricity were afterwards written.
Mr. Collinson was the literary and philosophic agent of Pennsylvania in
those days. To him John Bartram, the first American botanist, sent the
plants that he collected in the New World, and Mr. Collinson obtained
for him the money with which to pursue his studies. Collinson encouraged
the new library in every way. For thirty years he made for it the annual
purchase of books, always adding one or two volumes as a present, and it
will be remembered that it was through him that Franklin obtained the
electrical tube which started him on his remarkable discoveries.
The library began its existence at the Junto's rooms and grew steadily.
Influential people gradually became interested in it and added their
gifts. For half a century it occupied rooms in various buildings,--at
one time in the State-House, and during the Revolution in Carpenters'
Hall,--until in 1790, the year of Franklin's death, it erected a pretty
building on Fifth Street, opposite Independence square. During the
period from 1731 to 1790 similar libraries were established in the town,
which it absorbed one by one: in 1769 the Union Library, in 1771 the
Association Library Company and Amicable Library Company, and, finally,
in 1790 the Loganian Library, which James Logan had established by his
will. Before the Revolution the number of books increased but slowly,
and in 1785 was only 5487. They now number 190,000.
Franklin says that it was the mother of subscription libraries in North
America, and that in a few years the colonists became more of a reading
people, and the common tradesmen and farmers were as intelligent as
most gentlemen from other countries. This statement seems to be
justified; for within a few years libraries sprang up in New England and
the South, and they may have been suggested by the Philadelphia Library
which Franklin founded.
I have already shown how Franklin established the academy which soon
became the College of Philadelphia, but this was some twenty years after
he founded the library. Almost immediately after the academy was started
Dr. Thomas Bond sought his assistance in establishing a hospital.
Pennsylvania was receiving at that time great numbers of German
immigrants, who arrived in crowded ships after a voyage of months, in a
terrible state of dirt and disease. There was no proper place provided
for them, and they were a source of danger to the rest of the people. A
hospital was needed, and Dr. Bond, at first meeting with but little
success, finally accomplished his object with the assistance of
Franklin, who obtained for him a grant of two thousand pounds from the
Assembly, and helped to stir up subscribers.
This was the first hospital in America, and it still fulfils its mission
in the beautiful old colonial buildings which were originally erected
for it. Additional buildings have been since added, fortunately, in the
same style of architecture. For the corner-stone Franklin wrote an
inscription matchless for its originality and appropriateness:
"In the year of CHRIST MDCCLV George the Second happily reigning
(for he sought the happiness of his people), Philadelphia
flourishing (for its inhabitants were public spirited), this
building, by the bounty of the government, and of many private
persons, was piously founded for the relief of the sick and
miserable. May the GOD OF MERCIES bless the undertaking."
In the same spirit Franklin secured by a little agitation the paving of
the street round the market, and afterwards started subscriptions to
keep this pavement clean. At that time the streets of Philadelphia, like
those of most of the colonial towns, were merely earth roads, and it was
not until some years after Franklin's first efforts at the market that
there was any general paving done. He also secured a well-regulated
night watch for the city in place of the disorderly, drunken heelers of
the constables, who had long made a farce of the duty; and he
established a volunteer fire company which was the foundation of the
system that prevailed in Philadelphia until the paid department was
introduced after the civil war.
The American Philosophical Society, which was also originated by him,
might seem to be more entitled to mention in the chapter on science. But
it was really a benevolent enterprise, intended to propagate useful
knowledge, to encourage agriculture, trade, and the mechanic arts, and
to multiply the conveniences and pleasures of life. He first suggested
it in 1743, in which year he prepared a plan for a society for promoting
useful knowledge, and one appears to have been organized which led a
languishing existence until 1769, when it was joined by another
organization, called "The American Society held at Philadelphia for
Promoting Useful Knowledge," and from this union resulted the American
Philosophical Society, which still exists. Franklin was for a long time
its president, and was succeeded by Rittenhouse. It was the first
society in America devoted to science. Thomas Jefferson and other
prominent persons throughout the colonies were members of it, and during
the colonial period and long afterwards it held a very important
position.
Franklin was by nature a public man; but the beginning of his life as an
office-holder may be said to have dated from his appointment as clerk of
the Assembly. This took place in 1736, when he had been in business for
himself for some years, and his newspaper and "Poor Richard" were well
under way. It was a tiresome task to sit for hours listening to buncombe
speeches, and drawing magic squares and circles to while away the time.
But he valued the appointment because it gave him influence with the
members and a hold on the public printing.
The second year his election to the office was opposed; an influential
member wanted the place for a friend, and Franklin had a chance to show
a philosopher's skill in practical politics.
"Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce
and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of
perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of
lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I
return'd it in about a week with another note, expressing
strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met, in the House,
he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great
civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me
on all occasions, so that we became great friends and our
friendship continued to his death. This is another instance of
the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says 'He that has
once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another,
than he whom you yourself have obliged.'" (Bigelow's Franklin
from his own Writings, vol. i. p. 260.)
Some people have professed to be very much shocked at this disingenuous
trick, as they call it, although perhaps capable of far more
discreditable ones themselves. It would be well if no worse could be
said of modern practical politics.
Franklin held his clerkship nearly fifteen years. During this period he
was also postmaster of Philadelphia, and these two offices, with the
benevolent enterprises of the library, the hospital, the Philosophical
Society, and the academy and college, made him very much of a public man
in the best sense of the word long before he was engaged in regular
politics.
In the year 1747 he performed an important public service by organizing
the militia. War had been declared by England against both France and
Spain, and the colonies were called upon to help the mother country.
Great difficulty was experienced in recruiting troops in Quaker
Pennsylvania, although the Quakers would indirectly consent to it when
given a reasonable excuse. They would vote money for the king's use, and
the king's officials might take the responsibility of using it for war;
they would supply provisions to the army, for that was charity; and on
one occasion they voted four thousand pounds for the purchase of beef,
pork, flour, wheat, or _other grain_; and as powder was grain, the money
was used in supplying it.
But the actual recruiting of troops was more difficult, and it was to
further this object that Franklin exerted himself. He wrote one of his
clever pamphlets showing the danger of a French invasion, and supplied
biblical texts in favor of defensive war. Then calling a mass-meeting in
the large building afterwards used for the college, he urged the people
to form an association for defence. Papers were distributed among them,
and in a few minutes he had twelve hundred signatures. These citizen
soldiers were called "Associators,"--a name used down to the time of the
Revolution to describe the Pennsylvania militia. In a few days he had
enrolled ten thousand volunteers, which shows how large the combatant
portion of the population was in spite of Quaker doctrine.
In 1748 he retired from active business with the purpose of devoting
himself to science. It was the custom at that time to give retired men
of business the more important public offices; and in 1752, about the
time of his discovery of the nature of lightning, he was elected to the
Assembly as one of the members to represent Philadelphia. In the same
year he was also elected a justice of the peace and a member of the City
Councils.
At this time France and England were temporarily at peace. The treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 had resulted in a sort of cessation of
hostilities, which France was using to push more actively her advantages
on the Ohio River and in the Mississippi Valley. She intended to get
behind all the colonies and occupy the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
The efforts of Great Britain to check these designs, including the
expeditions of the youthful Washington to the Ohio, need not be given
here.[21] England broke the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and what is
known as the Seven Years' War began with the memorable defeat of
Braddock.
Franklin was sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly to Braddock's
head-quarters in Virginia to give any assistance he could and to prevent
Braddock from making a raid into Pennsylvania to procure wagons, as he
had threatened. The journey was made on horseback in company with the
governors of New York and Massachusetts, and on the way Franklin had an
opportunity to observe the action of a small whirlwind, which he
reported in a pleasant letter to Mr. Collinson. It was while on this
visit that Franklin appears in Thackeray's "Virginians," in which he is
strangely described as a shrewd, bright little man who would drink only
water.
He told Braddock that there were plenty of wagons in Pennsylvania, and
he was accordingly commissioned to procure them. He returned to
Philadelphia, and within two weeks had delivered one hundred and fifty
wagons and two hundred and fifty pack-horses. He had received only eight
hundred pounds from Braddock, and was obliged to advance two hundred
pounds himself and give bond to indemnify the owners of such horses as
should be lost in the service. Claims to the amount of twenty thousand
pounds were afterwards made against him, and he would have been ruined
if the government, after long delay, had not come to his rescue. Such
disinterested service was not forgotten, and his popularity was greatly
increased.
He had the year before been one of the representatives of Pennsylvania
in the convention at Albany, where he had offered a plan for the union
of all the colonies, which was generally approved, and I shall consider
this plan more fully in another chapter. It was intended, of course,
primarily to enable the colonies to make more effective resistance
against the French and Indians, and as an additional assistance he
suggested that a new colony be planted on the Ohio River. The
establishment of this colony was a favorite scheme with him, and he
urged it again many years afterwards while in England.
As a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly he joined the Quaker majority
in that body and became one of its leaders. This majority was in
continual conflict with the governor appointed by William Penn's sons,
who were the proprietors of the province. The government of the colony
was divided in a curious way. The proprietors had the right to appoint
the governor, judges, and sheriffs, or, in other words, had absolute
control of the executive offices, while the colonists controlled the
Legislature, or Assembly, as it was called, and in this Assembly the
Quakers exercised the strongest influence.