opportunity to abuse him as faithless to his province and the American
cause. A certain Samuel Smith went about telling the people that
Franklin had planned the Stamp Act and intended to have the Test Act put
in force in America. A caricature of the time represents the devil
whispering in his ear, "Thee shall be agent, Ben, for all my dominions,"
and underneath was printed--
"All his designs concentre in himself
For building castles and amassing pelf.
The public 'tis his wit to sell for gain,
Whom private property did ne'er maintain."
The mob even threatened his house, much to the alarm of his wife, who,
however, sturdily remained and refused to seek safety in flight. This
and other events, together with the information that he received from
America during the next few months, compelled him to change his ground.
He saw that there was to be substantial resistance to the act, and he
joined earnestly in the agitation for its repeal. This agitation was
carried on during the autumn of 1765 and a very strong case made for the
colonies, the most telling part of which was the refusal of the
colonists to buy English manufactured goods, which had already lost the
British merchants millions of pounds sterling.
In December Parliament met and the whole question was gone into with
thoroughness. For six weeks testimony was taken before the House sitting
as committee of the whole, and merchants, manufacturers, colonial
agents, and every one who was supposed to be able to throw light on the
subject were examined. It was during the course of this investigation
that Franklin was called and gave those famous answers which enhanced
his reputation more than any other one act of his life, except, perhaps,
his experiment with the kite.
For a long time before the examination he had been very busy
interviewing all sorts of persons, going over the whole ground of the
controversy and trying to impress members of Parliament with the
information and arguments that had come to him from the colonies. His
answers in the examination were not given so entirely on the spur of the
moment as has sometimes been supposed, for he had gone over the subject
again and again in conversation, and was well prepared. But his replies
are truly wonderful in their exquisite shrewdness, the delicate turns of
phrase, and the subtle but perfectly clear meaning given to words. The
severe training in analyzing and rewriting the essays of the _Spectator_
stood him in good stead that day, and we realize more fully what he
himself said, that it was to his mastery of language that he owed his
great reputation.
They asked him, for example, "Are you acquainted with Newfoundland?" He
could not tell to what they might be leading him, and some people would
have replied no, or yes; but the wily old philosopher contented himself
with saying, "I never was there."
They drove him into an awkward corner at one point of the examination.
He had been showing that the colonies had no objection to voting of
their own free will supplies to the British crown, and had frequently
done so in the French and Indian wars.
"But," said his questioner, "suppose one of the colonial assemblies
should refuse to raise supplies for its own local government, would it
not then be right, in order to preserve order and carry on the
government in that locality, that Parliament should tax that colony,
inasmuch as it would not tax itself for its own support?"
Franklin parried the question by saying that such a case could not
happen, and if it did, it would cure itself by the disorder and
confusion that would arise.
"But," insisted his tormentor, "just suppose that it did happen; should
not Parliament have the right to remedy such an evil state of affairs?"
The philosopher yielded a little to this last question, and said that
there might be such a right if it were used only for the good of the
people of the colony. This was exactly what they had wanted him to say,
so they put the next question which would clinch the nail.
"But who is to judge of that, Britain or the colonies?"
This was difficult to answer; but with inimitable sagacity their victim
replied,--
"Those that feel can best judge."
It was a narrow escape, but he was safely out of the trap. Then they
badgered him about the difference between external taxes, such as
customs duties and taxes on commerce, which he said the colonists had
always been willing to pay, and internal taxes, like the Stamp Tax,
which they would never pay and could not be made to pay. He was very
positive on this point; so a member asked him whether it was not likely,
since the colonists were so opposed to internal taxes, that they would
in time assume the same rebellious attitude towards external taxes.
Franklin's reply was very subtle in showing how Great Britain was
driving the colonies more and more into rebellion:
"They never have hitherto. Many arguments have been lately used
here to show them that there is no difference, and that if you
have no right to tax them internally, you have none to tax them
externally, or make any other law to bind them. At present they
do not reason so; but in time they may possibly be convinced by
these arguments."
They reminded him of the clause in the charter of Pennsylvania which
expressly allowed Parliament to tax that colony. How, then, they said,
can the Pennsylvanians assert that the Stamp Act is an infringement of
their rights? This was a poser; but Franklin was equal to the occasion.
"They understand it thus: by the same charter and otherwise they
are entitled to all the privileges and liberties of Englishmen.
They find in the Great Charters and the Petition and Declaration
of Rights that one of the privileges of English subjects is,
that they are not to be taxed but by their common consent. They
have therefore relied upon it, from the first settlement of the
province, that the Parliament never would, nor could, by color
of that clause in the charter, assume a right of taxing them
till it had qualified itself to exercise such right by admitting
representatives from the people to be taxed, who ought to make a
part of that common consent."
But to print all the brilliant passages of this examination would
require too much space. It should be read entire; for in its wonderful
display of human intelligence we see Franklin at his best. He never did
anything else quite equal to it, and he never again had such an
opportunity. It was an ordeal that would have crushed or appalled
ordinary men, and would have been too much for some very able men. They
would have evaded the severe questions, given commonplace answers, or
sought refuge in obscurity, eloquence, or sentiment. But Franklin, with
perfect composure, ease, and almost indifference, met every question
squarely as it was asked. Many other persons were examined during the
long weeks of that investigation, but who now knows who they were? They
may have been as well informed as Franklin, and doubtless many of them
were; but they were submerged in the situation which he made a
stepping-stone to greatness.
In nothing that he said can there be discovered the slightest trace of
hurry, surprise, or disturbed temper; everything is unruffled and
smooth. He guards without effort the beauty and perfection of his
language as carefully as its substance. Each reply is complete. Nothing
can be added to it, and it would be impossible to abbreviate it. It was
his superb physical constitution that enabled him to bear himself thus.
No prize-fighter could have been more self-possessed.
As is well known, he could seldom speak long, especially at this time of
his life, without jesting or telling stories; but there is no trace of
this in the examination, and the slightest touch of anything of the kind
would have marred its wonderful merit. In his previous conversations
with members he had been humorous enough. On one occasion a Tory asked
him, as he would not agree to the act, to at least help them to amend
it. He said he could easily do that by the change of a single word. The
act read that it was to be enforced on a certain day in the year one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-five. Just change one to two, he said,
and America will have little or no objection to it. During his
examination members who favored the repeal asked him questions
calculated to bring out his favorite arguments, and one of them,
remembering this jest, asked him a question which would lead to it. It
seems to have been the only question he evaded; for, as he has told us,
he considered such a jest too light and ridiculous for the occasion.
The Stamp Act was repealed principally through the efforts of the
merchants and tradespeople who thronged the lobbies of the House of
Commons and clamorously demanded that the Americans should be restored
to a condition in which they would be willing to buy British goods; but
there is no question that Franklin's efforts and examination greatly
assisted, and members of the opposition party thanked him for the aid he
had given them in carrying the repeal. Pennsylvania reappointed him her
agent, and he continued his life in London as a sort of colonial
ambassador. In 1768 Georgia made him her agent, and during the next two
years he was appointed agent for both New Jersey and Massachusetts; so
that he was in a sense representing at London the interests of America.
His appointment as the agent of Massachusetts had been opposed by many
of the leaders of the liberty party in Boston; for his opinions were
rather too moderate to suit them. He still retained his confidence in
George III. as a safe ruler for America, and he did all he could to
soften and accommodate the differences existing between the colonies and
the mother country.
His motives were, of course, attacked and his moderation ascribed to his
love of office. He was at that time Postmaster of North America, and as
his income of a thousand pounds a year from his partnership with David
Hall in the printing business ceased in 1766, he was naturally desirous
to retain his postmaster's salary. His zeal for the American cause was
inclining Lord Sandwich, the Postmaster-General, to remove him, while
the Duke of Grafton was disposed to give him a better office in England,
in order to identify him with the mother country and bring him into
close relations with the government.
There is no evidence that he was unduly influenced by love of office.
His confidence in the king was merely a mistake which many other people
made, and his moderation and attempt to settle all difficulties amicably
were measures which a man of his temperament and in his position would
naturally take.
He tried to give the English correct opinions about America, and to
disclose the true interest and the true relations which should subsist
between the mother and her daughters. To this end he wrote articles for
the newspapers, and reprinted Dickinson's "Farmer's Letters" with a
preface written by himself. There was a large party led by Burke, Barré,
Onslow, Lord Chatham, and others who were favorable to America, and it
seemed as if this party might be made larger. At any rate, Franklin felt
bound to take sides with them, and assist them as far as possible. His
articles were humorous, and necessarily anonymous; for he feared they
would lose half of the slight effect they had if the name of the
American agent were signed to them.
His two famous articles were published in the early autumn of 1773. One,
called "Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One," was an
admirable satire on the conduct of the British government. A great
empire is like a cake, most easily diminished at the edges. Take care
that colonies never enjoy the same rights as the mother country. Forget
all benefits conferred by colonies; treat them as if they were always
inclined to revolt; send prodigals, broken gamesters, and stock-jobbers
to rule over them; punish them for petitioning against injustice;
despise their voluntary grants of money, and harass them with novel
taxes; threaten that you have the right to tax them without limit; take
away from them trial by jury and _habeas corpus_, and those who are
suspected of crimes bring to the mother country for trial; send the most
insolent officials to collect the taxes; apply the proceeds of the taxes
to increasing salaries and pensions; keep adjourning the colonial
assemblies until they pass the laws you want; redress no grievances; and
send a standing army among them commanded by a general with unlimited
power.
The popularity of this piece was so great that all the newspapers copied
it and new editions had to be issued. The other article was a short
squib, called "An Edict of the King of Prussia," and professes to be a
formal announcement by Frederick the Great that, inasmuch as the British
isles were originally Saxon colonies and have now reached a flourishing
condition, it is just and expedient that a revenue be raised from them;
and he goes on to declare the measures he had decided to put in force,
which are most clever burlesques on the measures adopted by England for
America.
This edict also had a great run of popularity, and of course its
authorship became known. Many of the slow-witted English at first
thought it real, and Franklin in a letter to his son gives an
interesting account of its reception, and at the same time allows us a
glimpse of his life at English country houses:
"I was down at Lord le Despencer's, when the post brought that
day's papers. Mr. Whitehead was there, too, (Paul Whitehead, the
author of 'Manners,') who runs early through all the papers, and
tells the company what he finds remarkable. He had them in
another room, and we were chatting in the breakfast parlor, when
he came running in to us out of breath, with the paper in his
hand. 'Here,' says he, 'here's news for ye! Here's the King of
Prussia claiming a right to this kingdom!' All stared, and I as
much as anybody; and he went on to read it. When he had read two
or three paragraphs, a gentleman present said, 'Damn his
impudence; I dare say we shall hear by next post that he is upon
his march with one hundred thousand men to back this.'
Whitehead, who is very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, and
looking in my face, said, 'I'll be hanged if this is not some of
your American jokes upon us.' The reading went on, and ended
with abundance of laughing, and a general verdict that it was a
fair hit; and the piece was cut out of the paper and preserved
in my Lord's collection."
This was all very pleasant for Franklin, and increased his fame,
especially among the Whigs, who were already on the side of America. But
the Tories, whom it was necessary to win, were so indignant and so
deeply disgusted that these brilliant essays may be said to have done
more harm than good.
It is not usual for an ambassador in a foreign country to discuss in the
public prints the questions at issue between that country and his own.
It would generally be regarded as serious misconduct, and the rule
which prohibits it seems to be founded on good reasons. The ambassador
is not there for the purpose of instructing or influencing the general
public. He is not in any way concerned with them, but is concerned only
with the heads of the government, with whom alone he carries on the
business of his mission. In order that he may fulfil his part
successfully he must be acceptable, or at least not offensive, to the
persons in control of the government. But how can he be acceptable to
them if he is openly or in secret appealing to the people of the country
against them? Will they not regard him very much as if he were a spy or
an enemy in disguise in their midst?
This was precisely the difficulty into which Franklin got himself. He
was not called an ambassador, and he would not have been willing to
admit that he was in a foreign country. But in effect he was in that
position, being the duly accredited agent of colonies that had a serious
quarrel with the mother country which every one knew might terminate in
war. When he began to write anonymous articles full of sarcasm and
severity against the ministry of the party in power he was doing what,
under ordinary diplomatic circumstances, might have caused his
dismissal. It was distinctly a step downward. It was not different in
essentials from that of an ambassador joining one of the political
parties of the country to which he is accredited and making stump
speeches for it. His arguments were approved only by people among the
English liberals who were already convinced, while they made him bitter
enemies among the Tory governing class at a time when he had every
reason to mollify them, and when he was doing his utmost to accommodate
amicably the differences between the mother and her daughters. They had
now a handle against him, something that would offset the charm of his
conversation, his learning, and his discoveries in science which gave
him such influence among notable people. They soon had the opportunity
they wanted in the famous episode of the Hutchinson letters.
In order to carry out his purpose of accommodating all disputes, he was
in the habit of saying wherever he went in England that the colonies
were most loyal and loving; that there was no necessity for the severe
measures against Boston,--quartering troops on her, and other
oppressions. Such severities created the impression among the Americans
that the whole English nation was against them; they did not stop to
think that it was merely the ministry and the party in power.
Accordingly there were riots and tumults among some of the disorderly
classes in America which in their turn created a wrong impression in
England, where such disturbances were falsely supposed to be
representative of the colonists at large. In this way the
misunderstanding was continually aggravated because the true state of
things was unknown.
Many people in England were disposed to smile at this pretty delusion of
peace and affection, but they thought it best to let the colonial agents
continue under its influence and not acquaint them with the means they
had of knowing the contrary. At last, however, in the year 1772, one of
them let the cat out of the bag. Franklin was talking in his usual
strain to a Whig member of Parliament who was disposed to be very
friendly to America, when that member frankly told him that he must be
mistaken. The disorders in America were much worse than he supposed. The
severe measures complained of were not the mere suggestion of the party
in power in England, but had been asked for by people in Boston as the
only means of restoring order and pacifying the country, which was
really in a most rebellious and dangerous state.
When Franklin expressed surprise and doubt, the member said he would
soon satisfy him, and a few days after placed in his hands a packet of
letters which had been written by Thomas Hutchinson, the Governor of
Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver, the Lieutenant-Governor, and some other
officials to Mr. William Whately, a man who had held some subordinate
offices and had been an important political worker in the Grenville
party.
The letters described the situation in Massachusetts in the year 1768;
the riotous proceedings when John Hancock's sloop was seized for
violating the revenue laws; how the customs officers were insulted,
beaten, the windows of their houses broken, and they obliged to take
refuge on the "Romney" man-of-war. These and other proceedings the
writers of the letters intimated were approved by the majority of the
people, and they recommended that these turbulent colonists should, for
their own good, be restrained by force, and the liberty they were
misusing curtailed. "There must be an abridgment," said one of
Hutchinson's letters, "of what are called English liberties."
Hutchinson, as well as some of the other writers of the letters, were
natives of New England; and Hutchinson, before he became governor, had
had a long public career in Massachusetts in which he had distinguished
himself as a most conservative, prudent, and able man who had conferred
many benefits on the colony. The letters by him and the other officials
had been handed about among prominent people in London, who regarded
them as better evidence of the real situation in America than the
benevolent talk of the colonial agent or his brilliant and anonymous
sallies in the newspapers.
The condition which the member of Parliament annexed to his loan of the
letters to Franklin was that they should not be printed or copied, and
after having been read by the leaders of the patriot movement in
Massachusetts, they were to be returned to London. He must have had very
little knowledge of the world, and Franklin must have smiled at the
condition. Of course, in transmitting the letters to Massachusetts
Franklin mentioned the condition. This relieved him from responsibility,
and John Adams and John Hancock could do what they thought right under
the circumstances.
What might have been expected soon followed. The leaders in Boston read
the letters and were furious. Here were their own governors and
officials secretly furnishing the British government with information
that would bring punishment on the colony, and actually recommending
that the punishment should be inflicted. One of Hutchinson's letters
distinctly stated that the information furnished by him in a previous
letter had brought the troops to Boston; and, as is well known, it was
the collision of some of these troops with a mob which led to what has
been called the "Boston massacre."
John Adams showed the letters to his aunt; others showed them to
relatives and friends, no doubt, with the most positive instructions
that they were not to be copied or printed, and were to be exhibited
only to certain people. The Assembly met, and John Hancock, with a
mysterious air, announced that a most important matter would in a few
days be submitted to that body for consideration; but most of the
members knew about it already; and when the day arrived the public was
refused admittance and the letters read to the Assembly in secret
session. As for publishing them, they were soon in print in London as
well as in the colonies; and when the originals could be of no further
use, John Adams put them in an envelope and sent them back to London, as
the condition required.
The Assembly resolved to ask the crown to remove both Hutchinson and
Oliver, and prepared a petition to that effect, basing the request on
the ground that these two men had plotted to encourage and intensify the
quarrel of the colonies with the mother country. By their false
representations they had caused a fleet and an army to be brought to
Massachusetts, and were therefore the cause of the confusion and
bloodshed which had resulted. This petition reached the king in the
summer of 1773.
Franklin thought that the whole affair would have a good effect. The
resentment of the colonies against the mother country would be
transferred to Hutchinson and the other individuals who had caused it;
the ministry would see that the colonists were sincerely desirous of a
good understanding with the British government and that Hutchinson and
Oliver were evil persons bent on fomenting trouble and responsible for
all the recent difficulties in Massachusetts. This was a pleasant
theory, but it turned out to be utterly unsound and useless. The effect
of the letters was just the opposite of what was expected. Instead of
modifying the feelings of the colonists and the ministry, they increased
the resentment of both.
The king and his Privy Council were not inclined to pay any attention to
the petition, and it might have slept harmlessly like other petitions
from America at that time. But when the letters were printed in London,
people began to wonder how they had reached the colonists. They were in
a sense secret information, and had been intrusted to persons who were
supposed to understand that they were for government circles alone.
William Whately, to whom they had been written, was dead, and as it
began to be suspected that his brother and executor, Thomas Whately,
might have put them into circulation, he felt bound to defend himself.