would do well to read the Constitutions of the several States, and the
Articles of Confederation that bind the whole together for general
Purposes, under the Direction of one Assembly, called the Congress.
These Constitutions have been printed, by order of Congress, in America;
two Editions of them have also been printed in London; and a good
Translation of them into French has lately been published at Paris.
Several of the Princes of Europe having of late years, from an Opinion
of Advantage to arise by producing all Commodities and Manufactures
within their own Dominions, so as to diminish or render useless their
Importations, have endeavoured to entice Workmen from other Countries by
high Salaries, Privileges, &c. Many Persons, pretending to be skilled in
various great Manufactures, imagining that America must be in Want of
them, and that the Congress would probably be dispos'd to imitate the
Princes above mentioned, have proposed to go over, on Condition of
having their Passages paid, Lands given, Salaries appointed, exclusive
Privileges for Terms of years, &c. Such Persons, on reading the Articles
of Confederation, will find, that the Congress have no Power committed
to them, or Money put into their Hands, for such purposes; and that if
any such Encouragement is given, it must be by the Government of some
separate State. This, however, has rarely been done in America; and,
when it has been done, it has rarely succeeded, so as to establish a
Manufacture, which the Country was not yet so ripe for as to encourage
private Persons to set it up; Labour being generally too dear there, and
Hands difficult to be kept together, every one desiring to be a Master,
and the Cheapness of Lands inclining many to leave Trades for
Agriculture. Some indeed have met with Success, and are carried on to
Advantage; but they are generally such as require only a few Hands, or
wherein great Part of the Work is performed by Machines. Things that are
bulky, and of so small Value as not well to bear the Expence of Freight,
may often be made cheaper in the Country than they can be imported; and
the Manufacture of such Things will be profitable wherever there is a
sufficient Demand. The Farmers in America produce indeed a good deal of
Wool and Flax; and none is exported, it is all work'd up; but it is in
the Way of domestic Manufacture, for the Use of the Family. The buying
up Quantities of Wool and Flax, with the Design to employ Spinners,
Weavers, &c., and form great Establishments, producing Quantities of
Linen and Woollen Goods for Sale, has been several times attempted in
different Provinces; but those Projects have generally failed, goods of
equal Value being imported cheaper. And when the Governments have been
solicited to support such Schemes by Encouragements, in Money, or by
imposing Duties on Importation of such Goods, it has been generally
refused, on this Principle, that, if the Country is ripe for the
Manufacture, it may be carried on by private Persons to Advantage; and
if not, it is a Folly to think of forcing Nature. Great Establishments
of Manufacture require great Numbers of Poor to do the Work for small
Wages; these Poor are to be found in Europe, but will not be found in
America, till the Lands are all taken up and cultivated, and the Excess
of People, who cannot get Land, want Employment. The Manufacture of
Silk, they say, is natural in France, as that of Cloth in England,
because each Country produces in Plenty the first Material; but if
England will have a Manufacture of Silk as well as that of Cloth, and
France one of Cloth as well as that of Silk, these unnatural Operations
must be supported by mutual Prohibitions, or high Duties on the
Importation of each other's Goods; by which means the Workmen are
enabled to tax the home Consumer by greater Prices, while the higher
Wages they receive makes them neither happier nor richer, since they
only drink more and work less. Therefore the Governments in America do
nothing to encourage such Projects. The People, by this Means, are not
impos'd on, either by the Merchant or Mechanic. If the Merchant demands
too much Profit on imported Shoes, they buy of the Shoemaker; and if he
asks too high a Price, they take them of the Merchant; thus the two
Professions are checks on each other. The Shoemaker, however, has, on
the whole, a considerable Profit upon his Labour in America, beyond what
he had in Europe, as he can add to his Price a Sum nearly equal to all
the Expences of Freight and Commission, Risque or Insurance, &c.,
necessarily charged by the Merchant. And the Case is the same with the
Workmen in every other Mechanic Art. Hence it is, that Artisans
generally live better and more easily in America than in Europe; and
such as are good OEconomists make a comfortable Provision for Age, and
for their Children. Such may, therefore, remove with Advantage to
America.
In the long-settled Countries of Europe, all Arts, Trades, Professions,
Farms, &c., are so full, that it is difficult for a poor Man, who has
Children, to place them where they may gain, or learn to gain, a decent
Livelihood. The Artisans, who fear creating future Rivals in Business,
refuse to take Apprentices, but upon Conditions of Money, Maintenance,
or the like, which the Parents are unable to comply with. Hence the
Youth are dragg'd up in Ignorance of every gainful Art, and oblig'd to
become Soldiers, or Servants, or Thieves, for a Subsistence. In America,
the rapid Increase of Inhabitants takes away that Fear of Rivalship, and
Artisans willingly receive Apprentices from the hope of Profit by their
Labour, during the Remainder of the Time stipulated, after they shall be
instructed. Hence it is easy for poor Families to get their Children
instructed; for the Artisans are so desirous of Apprentices, that many
of them will even give Money to the Parents, to have Boys from Ten to
Fifteen Years of Age bound Apprentices to them till the Age of
Twenty-one; and many poor Parents have, by that means, on their Arrival
in the Country, raised Money enough to buy Land sufficient to establish
themselves, and to subsist the rest of their Family by Agriculture.
These Contracts for Apprentices are made before a Magistrate, who
regulates the Agreement according to Reason and Justice, and, having in
view the Formation of a future useful Citizen, obliges the Master to
engage by a written Indenture, not only that, during the time of Service
stipulated, the Apprentice shall be duly provided with Meat, Drink,
Apparel, washing, and Lodging, and, at its Expiration, with a compleat
new Suit of Cloaths, but also that he shall be taught to read, write,
and cast Accompts; and that he shall be well instructed in the Art or
Profession of his Master, or some other, by which he may afterwards gain
a Livelihood, and be able in his turn to raise a Family. A Copy of this
Indenture is given to the Apprentice or his Friends, and the Magistrate
keeps a Record of it, to which recourse may be had, in case of Failure
by the Master in any Point of Performance. This desire among the
Masters, to have more Hands employ'd in working for them, induces them
to pay the Passages of young Persons, of both Sexes, who, on their
Arrival, agree to serve them one, two, three, or four Years; those, who
have already learnt a Trade, agreeing for a shorter Term, in proportion
to their Skill, and the consequent immediate Value of their Service; and
those, who have none, agreeing for a longer Term, in consideration of
being taught an Art their Poverty would not permit them to acquire in
their own Country.
The almost general Mediocrity of Fortune that prevails in America
obliging its People to follow some Business for subsistence, those
Vices, that arise usually from Idleness, are in a great measure
prevented. Industry and constant Employment are great preservatives of
the Morals and Virtue of a Nation. Hence bad Examples to Youth are more
rare in America, which must be a comfortable Consideration to Parents.
To this may be truly added, that serious Religion, under its various
Denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practised.
Atheism is unknown there; Infidelity rare and secret; so that persons
may live to a great Age in that Country, without having their Piety
shocked by meeting with either an Atheist or an Infidel. And the Divine
Being seems to have manifested his Approbation of the mutual Forbearance
and Kindness with which the different Sects treat each other, by the
remarkable Prosperity with which He has been pleased to favour the whole
Country.
APOLOGUE[117]
[1783?]
Lion, king of a certain forest, had among his subjects a body of
faithful dogs, in principle and affection strongly attached to his
person and government, but through whose assistance he had extended his
dominions, and had become the terror of his enemies.
Lion, however, influenced by evil counsellors, took an aversion to the
dogs, condemned them unheard, and ordered his tigers, leopards, and
panthers to attack and destroy them.
The dogs petitioned humbly, but their petitions were rejected haughtily;
and they were forced to defend themselves, which they did with bravery.
A few among them, of a mongrel race, derived from a mixture with wolves
and foxes, corrupted by royal promises of great rewards, deserted the
honest dogs and joined their enemies.
The dogs were finally victorious: a treaty of peace was made, in which
Lion acknowledged them to be free, and disclaimed all future authority
over them.
The mongrels not being permitted to return among them, claimed of the
royalists the reward that had been promised.
A council of the beasts was held to consider their demand.
The wolves and the foxes agreed unanimously that the demand was just,
that royal promises ought to be kept, and that every loyal subject
should contribute freely to enable his majesty to fulfil them.
The horse alone, with a boldness and freedom that became the nobleness
of his nature, delivered a contrary opinion.
"The King," said he, "has been misled, by bad ministers, to
war unjustly upon his faithful subjects. Royal promises, when
made to encourage us to act for the public good, should
indeed be honourably acquitted; but if to encourage us to
betray and destroy each other, they are wicked and void from
the beginning. The advisers of such promises, and those who
murdered in consequence of them, instead of being
recompensed, should be severely punished. Consider how
greatly our common strength is already diminished by our loss
of the dogs. If you enable the King to reward those
fratricides, you will establish a precedent that may justify
a future tyrant to make like promises; and every example of
such an unnatural brute rewarded will give them additional
weight. Horses and bulls, as well as dogs, may thus be
divided against their own kind, and civil wars produced at
pleasure, till we are so weakened that neither liberty nor
safety is any longer to be found in the forest, and nothing
remains but abject submission to the will of a despot, who
may devour us as he pleases."
The council had sense enough to resolve--that the demand be rejected.
TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS
Passy, July 27, 1783.
DEAR SIR,
I received your very kind letter by Dr. Blagden,[118] and esteem myself
much honoured by your friendly Remembrance. I have been too much and too
closely engaged in public Affairs, since his being here, to enjoy all
the Benefit of his Conversation you were so good as to intend me. I hope
soon to have more Leisure, and to spend a part of it in those Studies,
that are much more agreable to me than political Operations.
I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the return of Peace. I
hope it will be lasting, and that Mankind will at length, as they call
themselves reasonable Creatures, have Reason and Sense enough to settle
their Differences without cutting Throats; for, in my opinion, _there
never was a good War, or a bad Peace_. What vast additions to the
Conveniences and Comforts of Living might Mankind have acquired, if the
Money spent in Wars had been employed in Works of public utility! What
an extension of Agriculture, even to the Tops of our Mountains: what
Rivers rendered navigable, or joined by Canals: what Bridges, Aqueducts,
new Roads, and other public Works, Edifices, and Improvements, rendering
England a compleat Paradise, might have been obtained by spending those
Millions in doing good, which in the last War have been spent in doing
Mischief; in bringing Misery into thousands of Families, and destroying
the Lives of so many thousands of working people, who might have
performed the useful labour!
I am pleased with the late astronomical Discoveries made by our Society
[the Royal--Eds.]. Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of
Science, with nice Instruments and the Spirit of Experiment, the
progress of human knowledge will be rapid, and discoveries made, of
which we have at present no Conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was
born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be
known 100 years hence.
I wish continued success to the Labours of the Royal Society, and that
you may long adorn their Chair; being, with the highest esteem, dear
Sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
P.S. Dr. Blagden will acquaint you with the experiment of a vast Globe
sent up into the Air, much talked of here, and which, if prosecuted, may
furnish means of new knowledge.
TO MRS. SARAH BACHE[119]
Passy, Jan. 26, 1784.
MY DEAR CHILD,
Your Care in sending me the Newspapers is very agreable to me. I
received by Capt. Barney those relating to the _Cincinnati_. My Opinion
of the Institution cannot be of much Importance; I only wonder that,
when the united Wisdom of our Nation had, in the Articles of
Confederation, manifested their Dislike of establishing Ranks of
Nobility, by Authority either of the Congress or of any particular
State, a Number of private Persons should think proper to distinguish
themselves and their Posterity, from their fellow Citizens, and form an
Order of _hereditary Knights_, in direct Opposition to the solemnly
declared Sense of their Country! I imagine it must be likewise contrary
to the Good Sense of most of those drawn into it by the Persuasion of
its Projectors, who have been too much struck with the Ribbands and
Crosses they have seen among them hanging to the Buttonholes of Foreign
Officers. And I suppose those, who disapprove of it, have not hitherto
given it much Opposition, from a Principle somewhat like that of your
good Mother, relating to punctilious Persons, who are always exacting
little Observances of Respect; that, "_if People can be pleased with
small Matters, it is a pity but they should have them_."
In this View, perhaps, I should not myself, if my Advice had been ask'd,
have objected to their wearing their Ribband and Badge according to
their Fancy, tho' I certainly should to the entailing it as an Honour on
their Posterity. For Honour, worthily obtain'd (as for Example that of
our Officers), is in its Nature a _personal_ Thing, and incommunicable
to any but those who had some Share in obtaining it. Thus among the
Chinese, the most ancient, and from long Experience the wisest of
Nations, honour does not _descend_, but _ascends_. If a man from his
Learning, his Wisdom, or his Valour, is promoted by the Emperor to the
Rank of Mandarin, his Parents are immediately entitled to all the same
Ceremonies of Respect from the People, that are establish'd as due to
the Mandarin himself; on the supposition that it must have been owing to
the Education, Instruction, and good Example afforded him by his
Parents, that he was rendered capable of serving the Publick.
This _ascending_ Honour is therefore useful to the State, as it
encourages Parents to give their Children a good and virtuous Education.
But the _descending Honour_, to Posterity who could have no Share in
obtaining it, is not only groundless and absurd, but often hurtful to
that Posterity, since it is apt to make them proud, disdaining to be
employ'd in useful Arts, and thence falling into Poverty, and all the
Meannesses, Servility, and Wretchedness attending it; which is the
present case with much of what is called the _Noblesse_ in Europe. Or
if, to keep up the Dignity of the Family, Estates are entailed entire on
the Eldest male heir, another Pest to Industry and Improvement of the
Country is introduc'd, which will be followed by all the odious mixture
of pride and Beggary, and idleness, that have half depopulated [and
_decultivated_] Spain; occasioning continual Extinction of Families by
the Discouragements of Marriage [and neglect in the improvement of
estates].
I wish, therefore, that the Cincinnati, if they must go on with their
Project, would direct the Badges of their Order to be worn by their
Parents, instead of handing them down to their Children. It would be a
good Precedent, and might have good Effects. It would also be a kind of
Obedience to the Fourth Commandment, in which God enjoins us to _honour_
our Father and Mother, but has nowhere directed us to honour our
Children. And certainly no mode of honouring those immediate Authors of
our Being can be more effectual, than that of doing praiseworthy
Actions, which reflect Honour on those who gave us our Education; or
more becoming, than that of manifesting, by some public Expression or
Token, that it is to their Instruction and Example we ascribe the Merit
of those Actions.
But the Absurdity of _descending Honours_ is not a mere Matter of
philosophical Opinion; it is capable of mathematical Demonstration. A
Man's Son, for instance, is but half of his Family, the other half
belonging to the Family of his Wife. His Son, too, marrying into another
Family, his Share in the Grandson is but a fourth; in the Great
Grandson, by the same Process, it is but an Eighth; in the next
Generation a Sixteenth; the next a Thirty-second; the next a
Sixty-fourth; the next an Hundred and twenty-eighth; the next a Two
hundred and Fifty-sixth; and the next a Five hundred and twelfth; thus
in nine Generations, which will not require more than 300 years (no very
great Antiquity for a Family), our present Chevalier of the Order of
Cincinnatus's Share in the then existing Knight, will be but a 512th
part; which, allowing the present certain Fidelity of American Wives to
be insur'd down through all those Nine Generations, is so small a
Consideration, that methinks no reasonable Man would hazard for the sake
of it the disagreable Consequences of the Jealousy, Envy, and Ill will
of his Countrymen.
Let us go back with our Calculation from this young Noble, the 512th
part of the present Knight, thro' his nine Generations, till we return
to the year of the Institution. He must have had a Father and Mother,
they are two. Each of them had a father and Mother, they are four. Those
of the next preceding Generation will be eight, the next Sixteen, the
next thirty-two, the next sixty-four, the next One hundred and
Twenty-eight, the next Two hundred and fifty-six, and the ninth in this
Retrocession Five hundred and twelve, who must be now existing, and all
contribute their Proportion of this future _Chevalier de Cincinnatus_.
These, with the rest, make together as follows:
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
512
____
Total 1022
One Thousand and Twenty-two Men and Women, contributors to the formation
of one Knight. And, if we are to have a Thousand of these future
knights, there must be now and hereafter existing One million and
Twenty-two Thousand Fathers and Mothers, who are to contribute to their
Production, unless a Part of the Number are employ'd in making more
Knights than One. Let us strike off then the 22,000, on the Supposition
of this double Employ, and then consider whether, after a reasonable
Estimation of the Number of Rogues, and Fools, and Royalists and
Scoundrels and Prostitutes, that are mix'd with, and help to make up
necessarily their Million of Predecessors, Posterity will have much
reason to boast of the noble Blood of the then existing Set of
Chevaliers de Cincinnatus. [The future genealogists, too, of these
Chevaliers, in proving the lineal descent of their honour through so
many generations (even supposing honour capable in its nature of
descending), will only prove the small share of this honour, which can
be justly claimed by any one of them; since the above simple process in
arithmetic makes it quite plain and clear that, in proportion as the
antiquity of the family shall augment, the right to the honour of the
ancestor will diminish; and a few generations more would reduce it to
something so small as to be very near an absolute nullity.] I hope,
therefore, that the Order will drop this part of their project, and
content themselves, as the Knights of the Garter, Bath, Thistle, St.
Louis, and other Orders of Europe do, with a Life Enjoyment of their
little Badge and Ribband, and let the Distinction die with those who
have merited it. This I imagine will give no offence. For my own part, I
shall think it a Convenience, when I go into a Company where there may
be Faces unknown to me, if I discover, by this Badge, the Persons who
merit some particular Expression of my Respect; and it will save modest
Virtue the Trouble of calling for our Regard, by awkward roundabout
Intimations of having been heretofore employ'd in the Continental
Service.
The Gentleman, who made the Voyage to France to provide the Ribands and
Medals, has executed his Commission. To me they seem tolerably done; but
all such Things are criticis'd. Some find Fault with the Latin, as
wanting classic Elegance and Correctness; and, since our Nine
Universities were not able to furnish better Latin, it was pity, they
say, that the Mottos had not been in English. Others object to the
Title, as not properly assumable by any but Gen. Washington, [and a few
others] who serv'd without Pay. Others object to the _Bald Eagle_ as
looking too much like a _Dindon_, or Turkey. For my own part, I wish the
Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country; he
is a Bird of bad moral Character; he does not get his living honestly;
you may have seen him perch'd on some dead Tree, near the River where,
too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing-Hawk;
and, when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing
it to his Nest for the support of his Mate and young ones, the Bald
Eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this Injustice he is
never in good Case; but, like those among Men who live by Sharping and
Robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a
rank Coward; the little _King Bird_, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks
him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no
means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America,
who have driven all the _Kingbirds_ from our Country; though exactly fit
for that Order of Knights, which the French call _Chevaliers
d'Industrie_.
I am, on this account, not displeas'd that the Figure is not known as a
Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turk'y. For in Truth, the Turk'y is in
comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original
Native of America. Eagles have been found in all Countries, but the
Turk'y was peculiar to ours; the first of the Species seen in Europe
being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and serv'd up at the
Wedding Table of Charles the Ninth. He is, [though a little vain and
silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that,] a Bird of
Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British
Guards, who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a _red_ Coat on.