forty thousand of those subjects, by battles on land or sea,
or by starving them, or poisoning them to death, in the
unwholesome air, with the unwholesome food of his prisons.
And he has wasted the lives of at least an equal number of
his own soldiers and sailors: many of whom have been _forced_
into this odious service, and _dragged_ from their families
and friends, by the outrageous violence of his illegal
press-gangs. You are a gentleman of letters, and have read
history: do you recollect any instance of any tyrant, since
the beginning of the world, who, in the course of so few
years, had done so much mischief, by murdering so many of his
own people? Let us view one of the worst and blackest of
them, Nero. He put to death a few of his courtiers, placemen,
and pensioners, and among the rest his _tutor_. Had George
the Third done the same, and no more, his crime, though
detestable, as an act of lawless power, might have been as
useful to his nation, as that of Nero was hurtful to Rome;
considering the different characters and merits of the
sufferers. Nero indeed wished that the people of Rome had but
one neck, that he might behead them all by one stroke; but
this was a simple wish. George is carrying the wish as fast
as he can into execution; and, by continuing in his present
course a few years longer, will have destroyed more of the
British people than Nero could have found inhabitants in
Rome. Hence the expression of Milton, in speaking of Charles
the First, that he was '_Nerone Neronior_,' is still more
applicable to George the third. Like Nero, and all other
tyrants, while they lived, he indeed has his flatterers, his
addressers, his applauders. Pensions, places, and hopes of
preferment can bribe even bishops to approve his conduct: but
when those fulsome, purchased addresses and panegyrics are
sunk and lost in oblivion or contempt, impartial history will
step forth, speak honest truth, and rank him among public
calamities. The only difference will be, that plagues,
pestilences, and famines are of this world, and arise from
the nature of things; but voluntary malice, mischief, and
murder, are from hell; and this King will, therefore, stand
foremost in the list of diabolical, bloody, and execrable
tyrants. His base-bought parliaments too, who sell him their
souls, and extort from the people the money with which they
aid his destructive purposes, as they share his guilt, will
share his infamy,--parliaments, who, to please him, have
repeatedly, by different votes year after year, dipped their
hands in human blood, insomuch that methinks I see it dried
and caked so thick upon them, that, if they could wash it off
in the Thames, which flows under their windows, the whole
river would run red to the ocean.
"One is provoked by enormous wickedness: but one is ashamed
and humiliated at the view of human baseness. It afflicts me,
therefore, to see a gentleman of Sir Joseph York's education
and talents, for the sake of a red riband and a paltry
stipend, mean enough to style such a monster _his master_,
wear his livery, and hold himself ready at his command even
to cut the throats of fellow subjects. This makes it
impossible for me to end my letter with the civility of a
compliment, and obliges me to subscribe myself simply,
"JOHN PAUL JONES,
"Whom you are pleased to style a _pirate_."
TO JOHN THORNTON
Passy, May 8, 1782.
SIR,
I received the letter you did me the honour of writing to me, and am
much obliged by your kind present of a book. The relish for reading of
poetry had long since left me, but there is something so new in the
manner, so easy, and yet so correct in the language, so clear in the
expression, yet concise, and so just in the sentiments, that I have read
the whole with great pleasure, and some of the pieces more than once. I
beg you to accept my thankful acknowledgments, and to present my
respects to the author.[112]
I shall take care to forward the letters to America, and shall be glad
of any other opportunity of doing what may be agreeable to you, being
with great respect for your character,--Your most obedient humble
servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY
Passy near Paris, June 7, 1782.
DEAR SIR,
I received your kind Letter of the 7th of April, also one of the 3d of
May. I have always great Pleasure in hearing from you, in learning that
you are well, and that you continue your Experiments. I should rejoice
much, if I could once more recover the Leisure to search with you into
the Works of Nature; I mean the _inanimate_, not the _animate_ or moral
part of them, the more I discover'd of the former, the more I admir'd
them; the more I know of the latter, the more I am disgusted with them.
Men I find to be a Sort of Beings very badly constructed, as they are
generally more easily provok'd than reconcil'd, more disposed to do
Mischief to each other than to make Reparation, much more easily
deceiv'd than undeceiv'd, and having more Pride and even Pleasure in
killing than in begetting one another; for without a Blush they assemble
in great armies at NoonDay to destroy, and when they have kill'd as many
as they can, they exaggerate the Number to augment the fancied Glory;
but they creep into Corners, or cover themselves with the Darkness of
night, when they mean to beget, as being asham'd of a virtuous Action. A
virtuous Action it would be, and a vicious one the killing of them, if
the Species were really worth producing or preserving; but of this I
begin to doubt.
I know you have no such Doubts, because, in your zeal for their welfare,
you are taking a great deal of pains to save their Souls. Perhaps as you
grow older, you may look upon this as a hopeless Project, or an idle
Amusement, repent of having murdered in mephitic air so many honest,
harmless mice, and wish that to prevent mischief, you had used Boys and
Girls instead of them. In what Light we are viewed by superior Beings,
may be gathered from a Piece of late West India News, which possibly has
not yet reached you. 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 arriv'd over the Seas of
Martinico, in the middle of the long Day of obstinate Fight between the
Fleets of Rodney and De Grasse. When, thro' the Clouds of smoke, he saw
the Fire of the Guns, the Decks covered with mangled Limbs, and Bodies
dead or dying; the ships sinking, burning, 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 turn'd
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_."
But to be serious, my dear old Friend, I love you as much as ever, and I
love all the honest Souls that meet at the London Coffee House. I only
wonder how it happen'd, that they and my other Friends in England came
to be such good Creatures in the midst of so perverse a Generation. I
long to see them and you once more, and I labour for Peace with more
Earnestness, that I may again be happy in your sweet society.
I show'd your letter to the Duke de Larochefoucault, who thinks with me,
the new Experiments you have made are extremely curious; and he has
given me thereupon a Note, which I inclose, and I request you would
furnish me with the answer desired.
Yesterday the Count du Nord was at the Academy of Sciences, when sundry
Experiments were exhibited for his Entertainment; among them, one by M.
Lavoisier, to show that the strongest Fire we yet know, is made in a
Charcoal blown upon with dephlogisticated air. In a Heat so produced, he
melted Platina presently, the Fire being much more powerful than that of
the strongest burning mirror. Adieu, and believe me ever, yours most
affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
TO JONATHAN SHIPLEY
Passy, June 10, 1782.
I received and read the Letter from my dear and much respected Friend
with infinite Pleasure. After so long a Silence, and the long
Continuance of its unfortunate Causes, a Line from you was a Prognostic
of happier Times approaching, when we may converse and communicate
freely, without Danger from the malevolence of Men enrag'd by the ill
success of their distracted Projects.
I long with you for the Return of Peace, on the general Principles of
Humanity. The Hope of being able to pass a few more of my last Days
happily in the sweet Conversations and Company I once enjoy'd at
Twyford, is a particular Motive that adds Strength to the general Wish,
and quickens my Industry to procure that best of Blessings. After much
Occasion to consider the Folly and Mischiefs of a State of Warfare, and
the little or no Advantage obtain'd even by those Nations, who have
conducted it with the most Success, I have been apt to think, that there
has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a _good_ War, or a
_bad_ Peace.
You ask if I still relish my old Studies. I relish them, but I cannot
pursue them. My Time is engross'd unhappily with other Concerns. I
requested of the Congress last Year my Discharge from this publick
Station, that I might enjoy a little Leisure in the Evening of a long
Life of Business; but it was refus'd me, and I have been obliged to
drudge on a little longer.
You are happy as your Years come on, in having that dear and most
amiable Family about you. Four Daughters! how rich! I have but one, and
she, necessarily detain'd from me at 1000 leagues distance. I feel the
Want of that tender Care of me, which might be expected from a Daughter,
and would give the World for one. Your Shades are all plac'd in a Row
over my Fireplace, so that I not only have you always in my Mind, but
constantly before my Eyes.
The Cause of Liberty and America has been greatly oblig'd to you. I hope
you will live long to see that Country flourish under its new
Constitution, which I am sure will give you great Pleasure. Will you
permit me to express another Hope, that, now your Friends are in Power,
they will take the first Opportunity of showing the sense they ought to
have of your Virtues and your Merit?
Please to make my best Respects acceptable to Mrs. Shipley, and embrace
for me tenderly all our dear Children. With the utmost Esteem, Respect,
and Veneration, I am ever, my dear Friend, yours most affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
TO JAMES HUTTON
Passy, July 7, 1782.
MY OLD AND DEAR FRIEND,
A Letter written by you to M. Berlin,[113] _Ministre d'Etat_, containing
an Account of the abominable Murders committed by some of the frontier
People on the poor Moravian Indians, has given me infinite Pain and
Vexation. The Dispensations of Providence in this World puzzle my weak
Reason. I cannot comprehend why cruel Men should have been permitted
thus to destroy their Fellow Creatures. Some of the Indians may be
suppos'd to have committed Sins, but one cannot think the little
Children had committed any worthy of Death. Why has a single Man in
England, who happens to love Blood and to hate Americans, been permitted
to gratify that bad Temper by hiring German Murderers, and joining them
with his own, to destroy in a continued Course of bloody Years near
100,000 human Creatures, many of them possessed of useful Talents,
Virtues and Abilities to which he has no Pretension! It is he who has
furnished the Savages with Hatchets and Scalping Knives, and engages
them to fall upon our defenceless Farmers, and murder them with their
Wives and Children, paying for their Scalps, of which the account kept
in America already amounts, as I have heard, to near _two Thousand_!
Perhaps the people of the frontiers, exasperated by the Cruelties of the
Indians, have been induced to kill all Indians that fall into their
Hands without Distinction; so that even these horrid Murders of our poor
Moravians may be laid to his Charge. And yet this Man lives, enjoys all
the good Things this World can afford, and is surrounded by Flatterers,
who keep even his Conscience quiet by telling him he is the best of
Princes! I wonder at this, but I cannot therefore part with the
comfortable Belief of a Divine Providence; and the more I see the
Impossibility, from the number & extent of his Crimes, of giving
equivalent Punishment to a wicked Man in this Life, the more I am
convinc'd of a future State, in which all that here appears to be wrong
shall be set right, all that is crooked made straight. In this Faith
let you & I, my dear Friend, comfort ourselves; it is the only Comfort,
in the present dark Scene of Things, that is allow'd us.
I shall not fail to write to the Government of America, urging that
effectual Care may be taken to protect & save the Remainder of those
unhappy People.
Since writing the above, I have received a Philadelphia Paper,
containing some Account of the same horrid Transaction, a little
different, and some Circumstances alledged as Excuses or Palliations,
but extreamly weak & insufficient. I send it to you inclos'd. With great
and sincere Esteem, I am ever, my dear Friend, yours most
affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS[114]
Passy, Sept. 9, 1782.
DEAR SIR,
I have just received the very kind friendly Letter you were so good as
to write to me by Dr. Broussonnet.[115] Be assured, that I long
earnestly for a Return of those peaceful Times, when I could sit down in
sweet Society with my English philosophic Friends, communicating to each
other new Discoveries, and proposing Improvements of old ones; all
tending to extend the Power of Man over Matter, avert or diminish the
Evils he is subject to, or augment the Number of his Enjoyments. Much
more happy should I be thus employ'd in your most desirable Company,
than in that of all the Grandees of the Earth projecting Plans of
Mischief, however necessary they may be supposed for obtaining greater
Good.
I am glad to learn by the D^r that your great Work goes on. I admire
your Magnanimity in the Undertaking, and the Perseverance with which you
have prosecuted it.
I join with you most perfectly in the charming Wish you so well express,
"that such Measures may be taken by both Parties as may tend to the
Elevation of both, rather than the Destruction of either." If any thing
has happened endangering one of them, my Comfort is, that I endeavour'd
earnestly to prevent it, and gave honest, faithful Advice, which, if it
had been regarded, would have been effectual. And still, if proper Means
are us'd to produce, not only a Peace, but what is much more
interesting, a thorough Reconciliation, a few Years may heal the Wounds
that have been made in our Happiness, and produce a Degree of Prosperity
of which at present we can hardly form a Conception. With great and
sincere Esteem and Respect, I am, dear Sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
INFORMATION TO THOSE WHO WOULD REMOVE TO AMERICA[116]
[1782?]
Many Persons in Europe, having directly or by Letters, express'd to the
Writer of this, who is well acquainted with North America, their Desire
of transporting and establishing themselves in that Country; but who
appear to have formed, thro' Ignorance, mistaken Ideas and Expectations
of what is to be obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent
inconvenient, expensive, and fruitless Removals and Voyages of improper
Persons, if he gives some clearer and truer Notions of that part of the
World, than appear to have hitherto prevailed.
He finds it is imagined by Numbers, that the Inhabitants of North
America are rich, capable of rewarding, and dispos'd to reward, all
sorts of Ingenuity; that they are at the same time ignorant of all the
Sciences, and, consequently, that Strangers, possessing Talents in the
Belles-Lettres, fine Arts, &c., must be highly esteemed, and so well
paid, as to become easily rich themselves; that there are also abundance
of profitable Offices to be disposed of, which the Natives are not
qualified to fill; and that, having few Persons of Family among them,
Strangers of Birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily
obtain the best of those Offices, which will make all their Fortunes;
that the Governments too, to encourage Emigrations from Europe, not
only pay the Expence of personal Transportation, but give Lands gratis
to Strangers, with Negroes to work for them, Utensils of Husbandry, and
Stocks of Cattle. These are all wild Imaginations; and those who go to
America with Expectations founded upon them will surely find themselves
disappointed.
The Truth is, that though there are in that Country few People so
miserable as the Poor of Europe, there are also very few that in Europe
would be called rich; it is rather a general happy Mediocrity that
prevails. There are few great Proprietors of the Soil, and few Tenants;
most People cultivate their own Lands, or follow some Handicraft or
Merchandise; very few rich enough to live idly upon their Rents or
Incomes, or to pay the high Prices given in Europe for Paintings,
Statues, Architecture, and the other Works of Art, that are more curious
than useful. Hence the natural Geniuses, that have arisen in America
with such Talents, have uniformly quitted that Country for Europe, where
they can be more suitably rewarded. It is true, that Letters and
Mathematical Knowledge are in Esteem there, but they are at the same
time more common than is apprehended; there being already existing nine
Colleges or Universities, viz. four in New England, and one in each of
the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, Pensilvania, Maryland, and
Virginia, all furnish'd with learned Professors; besides a number of
smaller Academies; these educate many of their Youth in the Languages,
and those Sciences that qualify men for the Professions of Divinity,
Law, or Physick. Strangers indeed are by no means excluded from
exercising those Professions; and the quick Increase of Inhabitants
everywhere gives them a Chance of Employ, which they have in common with
the Natives. Of civil Offices, or Employments, there are few; no
superfluous Ones, as in Europe; and it is a Rule establish'd in some of
the States, that no Office should be so profitable as to make it
desirable. The 36th Article of the Constitution of Pennsilvania, runs
expressly in these Words; "As every Freeman, to preserve his
Independence, (if he has not a sufficient Estate) ought to have some
Profession, Calling, Trade, or Farm, whereby he may honestly subsist,
there can be no Necessity for, nor Use in, establishing Offices of
Profit, the usual Effects of which are Dependance and Servility,
unbecoming Freemen, in the Possessors and Expectants; Faction,
Contention, Corruption, and Disorder among the People. Wherefore,
whenever an Office, thro' Increase of Fees or otherwise, becomes so
profitable, as to occasion many to apply for it, the Profits ought to be
lessened by the Legislature."
These Ideas prevailing more or less in all the United States, it cannot
be worth any Man's while, who has a means of Living at home, to
expatriate himself, in hopes of obtaining a profitable civil Office in
America; and, as to military Offices, they are at an End with the War,
the Armies being disbanded. Much less is it adviseable for a Person to
go thither, who has no other Quality to recommend him but his Birth. In
Europe it has indeed its Value; but it is a Commodity that cannot be
carried to a worse Market than that of America, where people do not
inquire concerning a Stranger, _What is he?_ but, _What can he do?_ If
he has any useful Art, he is welcome; and if he exercises it, and
behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him; but a mere Man
of Quality, who, on that Account, wants to live upon the Public, by some
Office or Salary, will be despis'd and disregarded. The Husbandman is in
honor there, and even the Mechanic, because their Employments are
useful. The People have a saying, that God Almighty is himself a
Mechanic, the greatest in the Universe; and he is respected and admired
more for the Variety, Ingenuity, and Utility of his Handyworks, than for
the Antiquity of his Family. They are pleas'd with the Observation of a
Negro, and frequently mention it, that _Boccarorra_ (meaning the White
men) _make de black man workee, make de Horse workee, make de Ox workee,
make ebery ting workee; only de Hog. He, de hog, no workee; he eat, he
drink, he walk about, he go to sleep when he please, he libb like a
Gentleman_. According to these Opinions of the Americans, one of them
would think himself more oblig'd to a Genealogist, who could prove for
him that his Ancestors and Relations for ten Generations had been
Ploughmen, Smiths, Carpenters, Turners, Weavers, Tanners, or even
Shoemakers, and consequently that they were useful Members of Society;
than if he could only prove that they were Gentlemen, doing nothing of
Value, but living idly on the Labour of others, mere _fruges consumere
nati_,[L] and otherwise _good for nothing_, till by their Death their
Estates, like the Carcass of the Negro's Gentleman-Hog, come to be _cut
up_.
[L] "... born merely to eat up the corn."--WATTS. [_Franklin's note._]
With regard to Encouragements for Strangers from Government, they are
really only what are derived from good Laws and Liberty. Strangers are
welcome, because there is room enough for them all, and therefore the
old Inhabitants are not jealous of them; the Laws protect them
sufficiently, so that they have no need of the Patronage of Great Men;
and every one will enjoy securely the Profits of his Industry. But, if
he does not bring a Fortune with him, he must work and be industrious to
live. One or two Years' residence gives him all the Rights of a Citizen;
but the government does not at present, whatever it may have done in
former times, hire People to become Settlers, by Paying their Passages,
giving Land, Negroes, Utensils, Stock, or any other kind of Emolument
whatsoever. In short, America is the Land of Labour, and by no means
what the English call _Lubberland_, and the French _Pays de Cocagne_,
where the streets are said to be pav'd with half-peck Loaves, the Houses
til'd with Pancakes, and where the Fowls fly about ready roasted,
crying, _Come eat me!_
Who then are the kind of Persons to whom an Emigration to America may be
advantageous? And what are the Advantages they may reasonably expect?
Land being cheap in that Country, from the vast Forests still void of
Inhabitants, and not likely to be occupied in an Age to come, insomuch
that the Propriety of an hundred Acres of fertile Soil full of Wood may
be obtained near the Frontiers, in many Places, for Eight or Ten
Guineas, hearty young Labouring Men, who understand the Husbandry of
Corn and Cattle, which is nearly the same in that Country as in Europe,
may easily establish themselves there. A little Money sav'd of the good
Wages they receive there, while they work for others, enables them to
buy the Land and begin their Plantation, in which they are assisted by
the Good-Will of their Neighbours, and some Credit. Multitudes of poor
People from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany, have by this means
in a few years become wealthy Farmers, who, in their own Countries,
where all the Lands are fully occupied, and the Wages of Labour low,
could never have emerged from the poor Condition wherein they were born.
From the salubrity of the Air, the healthiness of the Climate, the
plenty of good Provisions, and the Encouragement to early Marriages by
the certainty of Subsistence in cultivating the Earth, the Increase of
Inhabitants by natural Generation is very rapid in America, and becomes
still more so by the Accession of Strangers; hence there is a continual
Demand for more Artisans of all the necessary and useful kinds, to
supply those Cultivators of the Earth with Houses, and with Furniture
and Utensils of the grosser sorts, which cannot so well be brought from
Europe. Tolerably good Workmen in any of those mechanic Arts are sure to
find Employ, and to be well paid for their Work, there being no
Restraints preventing Strangers from exercising any Art they understand,
nor any Permission necessary. If they are poor, they begin first as
Servants or Journeymen; and if they are sober, industrious, and frugal,
they soon become Masters, establish themselves in Business, marry, raise
Families, and become respectable Citizens.
Also, Persons of moderate Fortunes and Capitals, who, having a Number of
Children to provide for, are desirous of bringing them up to Industry,
and to secure Estates for their Posterity, have Opportunities of doing
it in America, which Europe does not afford. There they may be taught
and practise profitable mechanic Arts, without incurring Disgrace on
that Account, but on the contrary acquiring Respect by such Abilities.
There small Capitals laid out in Lands, which daily become more valuable
by the Increase of People, afford a solid Prospect of ample Fortunes
thereafter for those Children. The writer of this has known several
Instances of large Tracts of Land, bought, on what was then the
Frontier of Pensilvania, for Ten Pounds per hundred Acres, which after
20 years, when the Settlements had been extended far beyond them, sold
readily, without any Improvement made upon them, for three Pounds per
Acre. The Acre in America is the same with the English Acre, or the Acre
of Normandy.