name, as President of the Abolition Society, was signed to the
memorial presented to the House of Representatives of the United
States, on the 12th of February, 1789, praying them to exert the full
extent of power vested in them by the Constitution, in discouraging
the traffic of the human species. This was his last public act. In the
debates to which this memorial gave rise, several attempts were made
to justify the trade. In the _Federal Gazette_ of March 25th, 1790,
there appeared an essay, signed _Historicus_, written by Dr. Franklin,
in which he communicated a Speech, said to have been delivered in the
Divan of Algiers, in 1687, in opposition to the prayer of the petition
of a sect called _Erika_, or Purists, for the abolition of piracy and
slavery. This pretended African speech was an excellent parody of one
delivered by Mr. Jackson, of Georgia. All the arguments, urged in
favour of negro slavery, are applied with equal force to justify the
plundering and enslaving of Europeans. It affords, at the same time, a
demonstration of the futility of the arguments in defence of the
slave-trade, and of the strength of mind and ingenuity of the author,
at his advanced period of life. It furnishes, too, a no less
convincing proof of his power of imitating the style of other times
and nations, than his _Parable against Persecution_. And as the latter
led many persons to search the Scriptures with a view to find it, so
the former caused many persons to search the bookstores and libraries
for the work from which it was said to be extracted." According to the
_Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, XX, 50, the memorial
was presented in 1790.
[138] Date of composition uncertain. Printed as pamphlet in 1784.
[139] Date unknown.
[140] A. H. Smyth dates this piece as during the summer of 1786
(_Writings_, X, 131-2 note). Sparks and Bigelow had conjecturedly
dated it 1772.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
5. Minor punctuation corrections have been made without comment and
include missing or misplaced periods, opening or closing quotation
marks and parentheses, apostrophes, hypens, etc., however no
punctuation has been added, a specific example being on:
p. 281, In the speech of "Father Abraham", p. 281-288, added closing
quote at end of speech to match opening quote at beginning, however
intervening paragraphs are without quote punctuation in the original
and have been retained so in this e-text.
6. Minor spacing corrections have been made as follows:
p. v, Contents, page numbers have been right justified in a column.
p. 13, "some how" to "somehow" (was once somehow or other)
p. 21 "De foe" to "Defoe" (Defoe in his Cruso)
p. 206, replaced blank space with double emdash, (are under ----
Years of Age)
p. 410, "TitlePage" to "Title Page" (Lines in the Title Page)
7. p. 3, In "Selections from BENJAMIN FRANKLIN", moved note about the
"Notes" section from the bottom to the top of selection, above the
header, as it pertains to ALL remaining pages.
8. SPELLING CORRECTIONS: (not otherwise marked by editor)
p. xxxix, "strengthned" to "strengthened" (14) (strengthened by long
prescription)
p. ci, "transfererd" to "transferred" (1) (transferred from the Penn
Charter) (in Footnote i-327)
*p. 9, "Wharf" to "Wharff" (My proposal was to build a Wharff)
p. 16, "Shaftsbury" to "Shaftesbury" (33) (reading Shaftesbury and
Collins)
p. 67, "preceeding" to "preceding" (16) (a preceding Wife)
p. 184, "hear" to "here" (I have here described)
*p. 266, "harrassed" to "harassed" (past has harassed them)
*p. 369, "harrassed" to "harassed" (order them to be harassed)
p. 347, "exhilirates" to "exhilerates" (exhilerates me more)
p. 451, "Univers" to "Universe" (greatest in the Universe;)
*Correction made because word occurs correctly or alternately spelled
elsewhere in the SAME document.
9. WORD VARIATIONS: (found to be valid spellings in W. E. D.)
"abovementioned" (1) and "above-mentioned" (1)
"abridgment" (15) and "abridgement" (2)
"agreable" (11) and "agreeable" (26)
"ale-house" (1) and "alehouse" (1)
"Algernon Sidney" (1) and "Algernoon Sidney" (1)
"allege" (7) and "alledge" (2)
"Almanac" (10) and "Almanack" (38)
"antient" (15) and "ancient" (50)
"apetite" (1) and "appetite" (7)
"arithmetic" (9) and "arithmetick" (5)
"balance" (13) and "ballance" (5)
"beforementioned" (1) and "before-mentioned" (1)
"bias" (4) and "biass" (2)
"Boulogne" (2) and "Bouloigne" (1)
"boundlessly" (1) and "boundlesly" (1)
"Brientnal" (3) (in Autobiography), "Breintnal" (1) (in Introduction)
and "Breintnall" (3) (in footnotes)
"Broussonet" (1) and "Broussonnet" (1)
"burden" (7) and "burthen" (12)
"Cabin" (5) and "Cabbin" (2)
"Caesar" (1) and "Cesar" (1)
"characteris'd" (1) and "characterized" (1)
"chearfulness" (1) and "cheerfulness" (1)
"Chelsea" (2) and "Chelsey" (1)
"Chesnut Street" (1) and "Chestnut Street" (1)
"chuse" (8) and "choose" (7)
"Classics" (2) and "Classicks" (1)
"Clothes" (4) and "Cloaths" (4)
"Coffee House" (2) and "Coffee-house" (2)
"compleat" (10) and "complete" (11)
"control" (3) and "controul" (4)
"courthouse" (1) and "court-house" (1)
"croud" (3) and "crowd" (12)
"Curiositee" (1) and "Curiosity" (8)
"Customhouse" (1) and "Custom-house" (1)
"d'Alibard" (2) and "Dalibared" (2)
"dependence" (5) and "dependance" (6)
"disagreable" (3) and "disagreeable" (5)
"drove" (3) and "drave" (1)
"Edinborough" (1) and "Edinburgh" (9)
"Eliptic" (1) and "Eliptick" (1)
"Encyclopædia" (4) and "Encyclopedia" (2)
"Encyclopædists" (2) and "Encyclopedists" (1)
"enlightened" (2) and "enlightned" (2)
"enter" (7) and "entre" (5)
"entitled" (8) and "entituled" (Old Fr. Sp.) (2)
"expel" (1) and "expell" (1)
"Expence" (22) and "Expense" (3)
"extreme" (21) and "extream" (26)
"Falsehood" (2) and "Falshood" (4)
"Favor" (1) and "Favour" (26)
"fixt" (3) and "fixed" (14)
"Folger" (1) and "Folgier" (1) (Peter ----)
"foretell" (1) and "fortel" (1)
"Free-will" (1) and "Free-Will" (1)
"froze" (2) and "Frose" (1)
"Good-Will" (1), "Good-will" (3), and "Goodwill" (1)
"Governor" (47) and "Governour" (1)
"Grub-Street" (1) and "Grub-street" (1)
"Hawksworth" (1) and "Hawkesworth" (4)
"hainous" (1) and "heinous" (1)
"height" (6), "heigth" (1), and "heighth" (1)
"hindered" (2) and "hindred" (1)
"home-spun" (1) and "homespun" (1)
"Humor" (1) and "Humour" (5)
"Ill-will" (2) and "Ill-Will" (1)
"Increase" (114) and "Encrease" (8)
"indiscrete" (1) and "indiscreet" (3)
"intolerable" (2) and "intollerable" (1)
"Jealousy" (3) and "Jealousie" (1)
"Job" (12) and "Jobb" (4) (as in work)
"Joli" (1) and "Joly" (3) (Moulin ----)
"Journey-man" (1),"Journeyman('s)" (3) and JourneyMen (1)
"Knicknacks" (1) and "Nicknack" (1)
"Labors" (1) and "Labours" (5)
"land-holder" (1) and "Land-holder" (1)
"Latinè" (1) and "Latine" (1)
"laught" (3) and "laughed" (3)
"Linnaeus" (1) and "Linnæus" (2) (a Naturalist)
"Livlihood" (4) and "Livelyhood" (1)
"Mama" (1) and "Mamma" (1)
"mankind" (35) and "man-kind" (1) (in quoted material)
"Mathmatics" (4) and "Mathmaticks" (1)
"Mechanic" (7) and "Mechanick" (4)
"melancholy" (4) and "melancholly" (2)
"Merchandise" (1) and "Merchandize" (2)
"middle-ag'd" (1) and "middle-aged" (1)
"music" (7) and "musick" (4)
*"natural" (193) and "naturall" (1) (in Bacon Quote)
"Negro" (3) and "Negroe" (11)
"Neighbor" (1) and "Neighbour" (11)
"News-Paper" (2) and "NewsPapers" (1)
"News-writers" (1) and "Newswriters" (1)
"nonsense" (5) and "nonsence" (1)
*"obtain" (28) and "obteyn" (1) (in Mather quote)
"Offence" (14) and "Offense" (2)
"Optics" (1) and "Opticks" (1)
"partial" (7) and "partiall" (1)
"Penny-worth" (1) and "Pennyworth(s)" (1)
"Pennsylvania" (159) and "Pensilvania" (15) and "Pensylvania" (1)
"persuaded" (16) and "perswaded" (2)
"Physic" (1) and "Physick" (2)
"Polly" (9) and "Polley" (1) (---- Stevenson)
"Portrait" (9) and "Pourtrait" (1)
"possest" (1) and "possessed" (10)
"printing-house" (2), "Printing-house" (2), "Printing-House" (7) and
"Printinghouse" (2)
"Priviledge" (1) and "Privilege" (3)
"Public" (22) and "Publick" (43)
*"Puffendorf" (3) and "Puffendorff" (1)
"rejoicing" (5) and "rejoycing" (1)
"rendered" (7) and "rendred" (1)
"rendering" (3) and "rendring" (1)
"Rhetoric" (6) and "Rhetorick" (1)
"rhime" (3) and "rhyme" (3)
"Rhode Island" (4) and "Rhodeisland" (3)
"Ribands" (1) and "Ribbands" (4)
"Rochefoucauld" (2), "Rochefoucault" (1) and "Larochefoucault" (1)
"role" (5) and rôle (2)
"rouse" (1) and "rouze" (1)
"satirize" (1) and "satyrize" (1)
"Scolar" (7) and "Scollar" (1)
"seacoasts" (1) and "sea-coasts" (1)
"Silinc" (1) and "Silence" (4) (---- Dogood)
"smoke" (3) and "smoak" (2)
"soured" (1) and "sowred" (1)
"staied" (2) and "stayed" (2)
"straight" (4) and "strait" (8)
"subtle" (1) and "subtile" (1)
"sunset" (1) and "sun-set" (1)
"surprise" (11) and "surprize" (16)
"Surveyor-General" (1) and "Surveyor General" (2)
"Susquehannah" (1), "Susquehanah" (1) and "Sasquehannah" (1)
"threatened" (5) and "threatned" (1)
"tiger" (1) and "tyger" (1)
"to-day" (6) (in text) and "today" (5)
"topic" (2) and "topick" (1)
"Une loge" (1) and "Un loge" (1)
"virtuous" (19) and "vertuous" (1)
"Watergruel" (1) and "Water-gruel" (1)
"wellmeaning (1) and "well-meaning" (1)
"wondered" (4) and "wondred" (1)
"Wool" (3) and "Wooll" (4)
(* found within directly quoted material)
10. Several instances of mixed case words appear in the text as follows:
footPath, JourneyMen, mySelf, thySelf, etc., and have been retained.
11. Words spelled with a macron (straight line) over the "O", in the
original text: OIA. (OIA VANITAS)
Words with an [OE] or [oe] ligature in the original text, which are
represented in the e-text as "OE" and "oe": OEuvres, OEconomy,
OEconomists, Soeurs, Moestus, Croesus, and Foetus.