ESSAYS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN POLITICAL and ECONOMIC Compiled, with an Introduction, by GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM Litt.D., Columbia et Oxon. © G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS New York — London The Knickerbocker Press oT 1927 Pras 5 3 a ws Hicnivo er Ba Mew York Made in the United States of America INTRODUCTION Benjamin Franklin has been called the ‘Typical American”; but it would be more accurate to say that he was the only American whose personality filled out the requirements of the Franklin type. No other American, and no other man on either side of the Atlantic, possessed anything approaching Frank- lin’s range of knowledge in so many channels, or the standard of his practical wisdom, his experience, his humor, and his common sense. Franklin's career, comprising in all eighty-four years, covered experience and service as a printer, an essayist, a man of science, a teacher, a diplomatist of very high order, a philosopher, and a public- spirited citizen who did much to further the develop- ment of his generation. Under various emergencies and demands, Franklin gave evidence of courage of a very high type. The record of Franklin's action in presenting to the British Parliament the just demands of Americans who were claiming equal rights with other English-speaking citizens of the great British Commonwealth, and the picture of Franklin standing before that same Parlia- ment as representative of these transatlantic English- speaking peoples, and accepting with unperturbed countenance the stream of abusive invective that 111 Introduction was poured upon him by Wedderburn, give, together, an impression of an Ambassador who was certainly discharging in full measure his obligations to the Dominions he was representing. With a full measure of prejudice against the colo- nials, whom they persisted in regarding not as fellow citizens, but as subjects of Britain, the more intelli- gent Englishmen of the day could not but be im- pressed with the manliness and the dignity that characterized the Ambassador from America, and the fullness and precision of his information. Franklin's claims to recognition of the rights of English-speaking peoples throughout the world were based on Magna Charta. The great Charter se- cured, in 1215, certain rights that were essential for free men. The “free men” whom the Barons and Archbishop Langton had in mind in 1215 comprised but a small number of citizens. The circle of free men has gradually extended so as to include the millions of citizens who are now entitled to the exer- cise of the rights that were secured for English-speak- ing peoples in 1215. It was for the rights of the greatest of these Eng- lish-speaking communities (rights based on the Char- ter of 1215) that Franklin was contending in 1774. If the English statesmen of the day had been large- minded enough and clear-headed enough to realize that the contentions maintained by Franklin, and by the Americans whom Franklin was representing, were based not only on the great Charter but on the great law of justice that should control the action of all government, the American Dominion could have 1V Introduction been preserved within the great British Common- wealth. These statesmen were, however, obtuse and stub- born and their lack of intelligence was the cause of a struggle that lasted seven years with an unnecessary expenditure of life and of treasure, and that took away from the British Commonwealth the fairest and most promising of its Dominions. Franklin's contentions were maintained in the peace of Paris of 1783. He was, as said, re-asserting the principles of the great Charter. The American Republic was founded on those principles and it constitutes today the greatest and most powerful example of representative government that the world has known. It is appropriate today to honor the memory of Franklin whose service was of the greatest importance in framing the foundations for the Re- public. The wisdom of Franklin was shown, how- ever, not only in his service as a diplomatist and political leader, but in his interest in the universe in which he lived, and in his wise counsel that all men should, like himself, intelligently make the most out of that universe. In the range of his interests, Franklin was pre- pared to co-operate in any work that men were taking up that was likely to prove of service to humanity. His service was available for ‘‘quicquid agunt homines.” Franklin has been called the ‘‘ Apostle of Common Sense.”” He was one of the first Americans to think out the elementary problems of economics, personal and national. First among Americans, he realized <7? v Introduction the absurdity of the belief that communities through- out the world could grow rich by building up barriers to interfere with the exchange of goods and to hamper trade relations. He attempted in fact to put into the Constitution a provision providing for unquali- fied free trade. He held, as free traders hold today, that the authority of the national government should be applied only for the protection of the state, for the maintaining of justice within its own territory, and the fulfilment of obligations outside of the ter- ritory. The power to take money from the citizens should be utilized only for such matters as be- longed to legitimate governmental purposes. Frank- lin held that it was contrary to the principles of the Constitution, under which American citizens were to have equal rights, to tax nine-tenths of those citizens for the benefit of the other tenth. It was due to Franklin's influence that the tariff barriers, which had interfered with the development of trade be- tween the colonies, were not permitted to remain when those colonies became states. Franklin’s mind worked with a full measure of imagination, but the imagination was always re- strained by judgment, and its operation was based upon experiment. His discovery of the relation of the identity of lightning with electricity foreshadowed the long series of developments in the knowledge of electricity which tells us today that the electron, or combination of electric power, is itself the basic form of all that which we call “matter.” Franklin's interest in the larger problems of science did not prevent him from rendering practical service 1 Introduction vii in inventions, such as the Franklin stove, which con- tributes to comfort and efficiency in the household. He seems to have been one of the first scientists to understand and to recommend the use of oil in smoothing down angry waves. He reconstituted the postal system of the colonies, and made it effective, self-sustaining, and in the end even remunerative. He developed the art of print- ing and based his contention for the freedom of the press on so good an authority as the ‘‘ Areopagitica’ of Milton. Franklin showed Philadelphia how to clean its streets, and how to build its schools. He instituted the first municipal library that the United States had known. He was the founder of a scientific association which, 150 years later, still continues its work in Philadelphia. He lived long enough to put his signature to the Declaration of Independence and to the document which presented to his fellow citizens the Constitution of the new Republic. His suggestions for the management of the problems of life are always deserving of attention. He empha- sized the fact that the earning of an income is not getting a living. It is only getting the means by which a man may enjoy a real living; that is to say, secure out of life all that is practicable by the best use of his powers for the service of his fellow men. Franklin never posed for posterity. . . . Yet he never wrote a dull line and there are few of his writings which, a century and a half later, have not interest and value for the present generation. It is fitting that today, 180 years after the birth of viii Introduction our first American Philosopher, American citizens and English-speaking peoples throughout the world should honor his memory. I contend (speaking, of course, with the prejudice of a publisher) that there is no better way of honoring the character and service of a great thinker than by preserving in dignified print the record of his thought and of his teachings. This is the purpose which has caused the republica- tion, in convenient form for popular distribution, of the series of Franklin's Essays. GG. HP. NEW YORK, April 2, 1927. CONTENTS Pa 2 I.—PLAN FOR SETTLING Two WESTERN CoLO- NIES IN NORTH AMERICA, WITH REASONS FOR THE PLAN . : II.—THE INTEREST OF GREAT BrIiTAIN CON- SIDERED WITH REGARD TO HER COLONIES AND THE ACQUISITION OF CANADA AND GUADALOUPE 3 III.—LETTER CONCERNING THE GRATITUDE OF AMERICA . 70 IV.—TeE EXAMINATION OF DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN THE BriTisH HOUSE OF CoMMONS . 76 V.—PROTECTIVE DUTIES ON IMPORTS AND HOW THEY WORK. : vo a125 VI.—TRADE WITH ENGLAND . 126 VII.—CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN DISCONTENTS BEFORE 1768 R127 VIII.—PositioNs TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING NATtioNAL WEALTH gE IX.—To M. DuBOURG . 145 X.—PLAN FOR BENEFITING DISTANT UNPRO- VIDED COUNTRIES . 147 XI.—To JosepH GALLOWAY =A IF 152 ix Contents Fund XII.—RULES FOR REDUCING A GREAT EMPIRE TO A SMALL ONE : . 1553 XIII.—AN Epict BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA JRE XIV.—HiINTs FOR CONVERSATION UPON THE SUB- JECT OF TERMS THAT MIGHT PROBABLY PrRoDUCE A DURABLE UNION BETWEEN BriTAIN AND THE COLONIES . . 174 XV.—To MR. STRAHAN . 183 XVI.—To JOSEPH PRIESTLEY . 184 XVII.—THE BritisH NATION, AS IT APPEARED TO THE COLONISTS IN 1775 . 186 XVIII.—VINDICATION AND OFFER FROM CONGRESS TO PARLIAMENT . . . 188 XIX.—SKETCH OF PROPOSITIONS FOR A PEACE . 196 XX.—COMPARISON OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES IN REGARD TO THE Basis oF CREDIT IN THE Two COUNTRIES . 199 XXI.—To GENERAL WASHINGTON . 208 XXII.—FroM THE COUNT DE SCHAUMBERGH TO THE BARON HOHENDORF, COMMANDING THE HESSIAN TROOPS IN AMERICA S210 XXIIIL.—To GEN. WASHINGTON . 2715 XXIV.—A DIALOGUE BETWEEN BRITAIN, FRANCE, SPAIN, HOLLAND, SAXONY, AND AMERICA . 216 XXV.—To GEORGE WASHINGTON . 221 XXVI.—To COUNT DE VERGENNES 2.3 XXVIIL.—To BENJAMIN VAUGHAN . 2. J XXVIII.—To MRs. SARAH BACHE . i v, 2 236 Contents xi PAGE XXIX.—THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA; BEGIN A TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND Poricy OF THAT VAST CONTINENT .X1245 XXX.—To BENJAMIN VAUGHAN . 253 XXXI.—To Francis MASERES 263 XXXII.—ProroOsSALS FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE CONVENTION FOR FORMING THE CoON- STITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES . 268 XXXIII.—AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AND THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES UNLAWFULLY HELD IN BONDAGE omy if ESSAYS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC rr PLAN FOR SETTLING TWO WESTERN COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA, WITH REASONS FOR THE PLAN’ The great country back of the Appalachian Moun- tains, on both sides of the Ohio, and between that river and the Lakes, is now well known, both to the English and French, to be one of the finest in North America, for the extreme richness and fertility of the land, the healthy temperature of the air, and mild- ness of the climate; the plenty of hunting, fishing, and fowling; the facility of trade with the Indians, and the vast convenience of inland navigation or water-carriage by the Lakes and great rivers, many hundreds of leagues around. From these natural advantages it must undoubt- I Dr. Franklin was early possessed of the belief, that great ad- vantage would redound to the English colonies on the sea-board by settlements beyond the Alleghanies under governments distinctly organized. Such settlements would not only rapidly increase in popu- lation, thereby strengthening the power of the whole, but would serve as a barrier to the other colonies against the Indians and French, who, in time of war, made descents upon the frontiers, kept the people in alarm, and caused great expense in raising troops and supporting an i 2 Benjamin Franklin [1755 edly (perhaps in less than another century) become a populous and powerful dominion *; and a great accession of power either to England or France. The French are now making open encroachments on those territories, in defiance of our known rights; and, if we longer delay to settle that country, and army to repel their invasions. He pursued this favorite object for many years; and after he went to England a company was formed under his auspices, who petitioned for a grant to settle a colony west of the Allegany Mountains. Many obstacles were encountered, but the application was at last successful. The scheme was prevented from being carried into effect by the troubles immediately preceding the revolution. The following paper was probably written shortly after the Albany Convention, in 1754, at the request of Governor Pownall, who had a project for settling what he called “barrier colonies.”’ He presented a memorial to the Duke of Cumberland on this subject in the year 1756, in which he says: “If the English would advance one step further, or cover them- selves where they are, it must be at once, by one large step over the mountains, with a numerous and military colony. Where such should be settled, I do not take upon me to say; at present I shall only point out the measure and the nature of it, by inserting two schemes, one of Dr. Franklin's, the other of your memorialist; and if I might indulge myself with scheming, I should imagine that two such were sufficient, and only requisite and proper; one at the back of Virginia, filling up the vacant space between the Five Nations and southern confederacy, and connecting into one system our barrier; the other somewhere in the Cohass on Connecticut River, or wherever best adapted to cover the New England colonies. These, with the little settlements mentioned above in the Indian countries, complete my idea of this branch.”’—Administration of the Colonies, 4th ed., Append. p. 43. When this memorial, with Franklin’s plan, was presented, the whole country was too much involved in the war with the French and Indians, to allow any scheme of this sort to be matured; the peace followed, when the occasion for them was less pressing; and the revo- lution opened the way to other methods of attaining the same object. —SPARKS. I This prediction has been verified in a much less time than even the author anticipated. rf Te x 175% Essays 5 suffer them to possess it, these inconveniences and maschiefs will probably follow: 1. Our people, being confined to the country be- tween the sea and the mountains, cannot much more increase in number, people increasing in proportion to their room and means of subsistence. 2. The French will increase much more, by that acquired room and plenty of subsistence, and be- come a great people behind us. 3. Many of our debtors and loose English people, our German servants, and slaves, will probably desert to them, and increase their numbers and strength, to the lessening and weakening of ours. 4. They will cut us off from all commerce and alliance with the western Indians, to the great prejudice of Britain, by preventing the sale and consumption of its manufactures. 5. They will both in time of peace and war (as they have always done against New England) set the Indians on to harass our frontiers, kill and scalp our people, and drive in the advanced settlers; and so, in preventing our obtaining more subsistence by cultivating of new lands, they discourage our mar- riages, and keep our people from increasing; thus (if the expression may be allowed) killing thousands of our children before they are born. If two strong colonies of English were settled be- tween the Ohio and Lake Erie, in the places here- after to be mentioned, these advantages might be expected: 1. They would be a great security to the frontiers of our other colonies, by preventing the incursions 8! A Benjamin Franklin [1756 of the French and French Indians of Canada, on the back parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas; and the frontiers of such new colo- nies would be much more easily defended, than those of the colonies last mentioned now can be, as will appear hereafter. 2. The dreaded junction of the French settle- ments in Canada with those of Louisiana would be prevented. 3. In case of a war, it would be easy, from those new colonies, to annoy Louisiana, by going down the Ohio and Mississippi; and the southern part of Canada, by sailing over the Lakes, and thereby confine the French within narrow limits. 4. We could secure the friendship and trade of the Miamis or Twigtwees (a numerous people con- sisting of many tribes, inhabiting the country be- tween the west end of Lake Erie, and the south end of Lake Huron, and the Ohio), who are at present dissatisfied with the French and fond of the English, and would gladly encourage and protect an infant English settlement in or near their country, as some of their chiefs have declared to the writer of this memoir. Further, by means of the Lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, our trade might be extended through a vast country, among many numerous and distant nations, greatly to the benefit of Britain. s. The settlement of all the intermediate lands, between the present frontiers of our colonies on one side, and the Lakes and Mississippi on the other, would be facilitated and speedily executed, to the 6 L- Essays great increase of Englishmen, English trade, and English power. The grants to most of the colonies are of long, narrow slips of land, extending west from the Atlan- tic to the South Sea. They are much too long for their breadth; the extremes at too great a distance; and therefore unfit to be continued under their present dimensions. Several of the old colonies may conveniently be limited westward by the Allegany or Appalachian mountains, and new colonies formed west of those mountains. A single old colony does not seem strong enough to extend itself otherwise than inch by inch. It cannot venture a settlement far distant from the main body, being unable to support it; but if the colonies were united under one governor-general and grand council, agreeably to the Albany plan, they might easily, by their joint force, establish one or more new colonies, whenever they should judge it necessary or advantageous to the interest of the whole. But if such union should not take place, it is pro- posed that two charters be granted, each for some considerable part of the lands west of Pennsylvania and the Virginia mountains, to a number of the no- bility and gentry of Britain; with such Americans as shall join them in contributing to the settlement of those lands, either by paying a proportion of the expense of making such settlements, or by actually going thither in person, and settling themselves and families. 56] : Benjamin Franklin [1756 That by such charters it be granted that every actual settler be entitled to a tract of —— acres for himself, and —— acres for every poll in the family he carries with him; and that every contributor of —— guineas be entitled to a quantity of acres, equal to the share of a single settler, for every such sum of guineas contributed and paid to the colony treasurer; a contributor for —— shares to have an additional share gratis; that settlers may likewise be contribu- tors, and have right of land in both capacities. That as many and as great privileges and powers of government be granted to the contributors and settlers, as his Majesty in his wisdom shall think most fit for their benefit and encouragement, consis- tent with the general good of the British empire; for extraordinary privileges and liberties, with lands on easy terms, are strong inducements to people to hazard their persons and fortunes in settling new countries. And such powers of government as (though suitable to their circumstances, and fit to be trusted with an infant colony) might be judged unfit when it becomes populous and powerful, these might be granted for a term only; as the choice of their own governor for ninety-nine years; the support of government in the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island (which now enjoy that and other like privi- leges) being much less expensive than in the colonies under the immediate government of the crown, and the constitution more inviting. That the first contributors to the amount of —— guineas be empowered to choose a treasurer to re- ceive the contribution. 8 Essays That no contributions be paid till the sum of —— thousand guineas be subscribed. That the money thus raised be applied to the pur- chase of the lands from the Six Nations and other Indians, and of provisions, stores, arms, ammunition, carriages, &c., for the settlers, who, after having entered their names with the treasurer, or person by him appointed to receive and enter them, are, upon public notice given for that purpose, to rendezvous at a place to be appointed, and march in a body to the place destined for their settlement, under the charge of the government to be established over them. Such rendezvous and march, however, not to be directed till the number of names of settlers entered, capable of bearing arms, amount at least to —— thousand. It is apprehended that a great sum of money might be raised in America on such a scheme as this; for there are many who would be glad of any opportu- nity, by advancing a small sum at present, to secure land for their children, which might in a few years become very valuable; and a great number, it is thought, of actual settlers might likewise be engaged (some from each of our present colonies), sufficient to carry it into full execution by their strength and numbers; provided only, that the crown would be at the expense of removing the little forts the French have erected in their encroachments on his Majesty's territories, and supporting a strong one near the Falls of Niagara, with a few small armed vessels, or half- galleys to cruise on the Lakes. For the security of this colony in its infancy, a 1756] Q Benjamin Franklin [1756 small fort might be erected and for some time main- tained at Buffalo Creek on the Ohio, above the set- tlement; and another at the mouth of the Tioga, on the south side of Lake Erie, where a port should be formed and a town erected for the trade of the Lakes. The colonists for this settlement might march by land through Pennsylvania. The river Scioto, which runs into the Ohio about two hundred miles below Logstown, is supposed the fittest seat for the other colony; there being for forty miles on each side of it, and quite up to its heads, a body of all rich land; the finest spot of its bigness in all North America, and has the particular advantage of sea-coal in plenty (even above ground in two places) for fuel, when the woods shall be destroyed. This colony would have the trade of the Miamis or Twigtwees; and should, at first, have a small fort near Hochockin, at the head of the river, and an- other near the mouth of Wabash. Sandusky, a French fort near the Lake Erie, should also be taken; and all the little French forts south and west of the Lakes, quite to the Mississippi, be removed, or taken and garrisoned by the English. The colonists for this settlement might assemble near the heads of the rivers in Virginia, and march over land to the naviga- ble branches of the Kenhawa, where they might em- bark with all their baggage and provisions, and fall into the Ohio, not far above the mouth of the Scioto. Or they might rendezvous at Will's Creek, and go down the Monongahela to the Ohio. The fort and armed vessels at the strait of Niag- 10 - 71 Essays ara would be a vast security to the frontiers of these new colonies against any attempts of the French from Canada. The fort at the mouth of the Wabash would guard that river, the Ohio, and the Cutava River, in case of any attempt from the French of the Mississippi. Every fort should have a small settle- ment round it, as the fort would protect the settlers, and the settlers defend the fort and supply it with provisions. The difficulty of settling the first English colonies in America, at so great a distance from England, must have been vastly greater than the settling these proposed new colonies; for it would be the interest and advantage of all the present colonies to support these new ones; as they would cover their frontiers, and prevent the growth of the French power behind or near their present settlements; and the new coun- try is nearly at equal distance from all the old colo- nies, and could easily be assisted from all of them. And as there are already in all the old colonies many thousands of families that are ready to swarm, wanting more land, the richness and natural advan- tage of the Ohio country would draw most of them thither, were there but a tolerable prospect of a safe settlement. So that the new colonies would soon be full of people; and, from the advantage of their situa- tion, become much more terrible to the French set- tlements than those are now to us. The gaining of the back Indian trade from the French, by the navi- gation of the Lakes, &c., would of itself greatly weaken our enemies, it being now their principal sup- port. It seems highly probable, that in time they 56] 11 Benjamin Franklin [1755 must be subjected to the British crown, or driven out of the country. Such settlements may better be made now, than fifty years hence; because it is easier to settle our- selves, and thereby prevent the French settling there, as they seem now to intend, than to remove them when strongly settled. If these settlements are postponed, then more forts and stronger, and more numerous and expensive gar- risons, must be established, to secure the country, prevent their settling, and secure our present fron- tiers; the charge of which may probably exceed the charge of the proposed settlements, and the advant- age nothing near so great. The fort at Oswego should likewise be strength- ened, and some armed half-galleys, or other small vessels, kept there to cruise on Lake Ontario, as proposed by Mr. Pownall in his paper laid before the commissioners at the Albany treaty. If a fort was also built at Tirondequat on Lake Ontario, and a settlement made there near the lake side, where the lands are said to be good, much bet- ter than at Oswego, the people of such settlements would help to defend both forts on any emergency. 12 Bs IT THE INTEREST OF GREAT BRITAIN CONSIDERED, WITH REGARD TO HER COLONIES AND THE ACQUISI- TIONS OF CANADA AND GUADALOUPE'* I have perused with no small pleasure, the Letter Addressed to Two Great Men, and the Remarks on that letter. It is not merely from the beauty, the force, and perspicuity of expression, or the general elegance of manner, conspicuous in both pamphlets, that my pleasure chiefly arises; it is rather from this, that I have lived to see subjects of the greatest I When the war with France was drawing to its close, the question whether Canada was to be given up to the French or retained as a set-off for acquisitions in the West Indies was much and warmly debated. The Earl of Bath published a Letter to Two Great Men (Pitt and Newcastle), recommending the retention of Canada as the more valuable; and shortly afterwards Remarks on the Letter to Two Great Men, attributed by some to Edmund Burke, and by some to William Burke, appeared,—the writer preferring Guadeloupe to Canada. At this stage of the debate Franklin contributed this pamphlet to the discussion. It provoked a reply, supposed also to have been written by Burke, who stated that he should confine his remarks to the writer of this performance, because of all those who had treated the opposite side of the question “he is clearly the ablest, the most ingenious, the most dexterous, and the most perfectly acquainted with the fort and faible of the argument, and we may therefore conclude that he has said every thing in the best manner that the cause would bear.” It is difficult now to understand how such a debate could have been provoked by such a question, and not at all surprising that Franklin's view prevailed. 13 14 Benjamin Franklin [t 2 importance to this nation publicly discussed without party views or party heat, with decency and polite- ness, and with no other warmth than what a zeal for the honor and happiness of our King and country may inspire; and this by writers whose understand- ing, however they may differ from each other, appears not unequal to their candor and the up- rightness of their intention. But, as great abilities have not always the best information, there are, I apprehend, in the Remarks some opinions not well founded, and some mistakes of so important a nature, as to render a few observa- tions on them necessary for the better information of the public. The author of the Letter, who must be every way best able to support his own sentiments, will, I hope, excuse me, if I seem officiously to interfere; when he considers, that the spirit of patriotism, like other qualities good and bad, is catching, and that his long silence, since the Remarks appeared, has made us despair of seeing the subject farther discussed by his masterly hand. The ingenious and candid Re- marker, too, who must have been misled himself, before he employed his skill and address to mislead others, will certainly, since he declares he arms at no seduction, be disposed to excuse even the weakest effort to prevent it. And surely, if the general opinions that possess the minds of the people may possibly be of conse- quence in public affairs, it must be fit to set those opinions right. If there is danger, as the Remarker supposes, that “extravagant expectations’ may C76 r Essays 13 embarass “a virtuous and able ministry,” and ren- der the negotiation for peace a work of infinite diffi- culty,” * there is no less danger that expectations too low, through want of proper information, may have a contrary effect; may make even a virtuous and able ministry less anxious and less attentive to the obtaining points, in which the honor and interest of the nation are essentially concerned; and the people less hearty in supporting such a ministry and its measures. The people of this nation are indeed respectable, not for their numbers only, but for their under- standing and their public spirit. They manifest the first by their universal approbation of the late pru- dent and vigorous measures, and the confidence they so justly repose in a wise and good prince, and an honest and able administration; the latter they have demonstrated by the immense supplies granted in Parliament unanimously, and paid through the whole kingdom with cheerfulness. And since to this spirit and these supplies our “victories and successes’ ? have, in great measure, been owing, is it quite right, is it generous, to say, with the Remarker, that the people “ had no share in acquiring them’? The mere mob he cannot mean, even where he speaks of the madness of the people; for the madness of the mob must be too feeble and impotent, armed as the government of this country at present is, to “over- rule,” 3 even in the slightest instances, the virtue “and moderation’ of a firm and steady ministry. While the war continues, its final event is quite * Remarks, p. 6. 2 1bid., D. 7. 31bid., p. 7. .760] TE Benjamin Franklin r uncertain. The victorious of this year may be the vanquished of the next. It may therefore be too early to say, what advantages we ought absolutely to insist on, and make the sine quibus non of a peace. If the necessity of our affairs should oblige us to accept of terms less advantageous than our present successes seem to promise us, an intelligent people, as ours is, must see that necessity, and will acquiesce But as a peace, when it is made, may be made has- tily; and as the unhappy continuance of the war affords us time to consider, among several advan- tages gained or to be gained, which of them may be most for our interest to retain, if some and not all may possibly be retained, I do not blame the public disquisition of these points as premature or useless. Light often arises from a collision of opinions, as fire from flint and steel; and if we can obtain the benefit of the light, without danger from the heat sometimes pro- duced by controversy, why should we discourage it? Supposing then that Heaven may still continue to bless his Majesty's arms, and that the event of this just war may put it in our power to retain some of our conquests at the making of a peace; let us consider: 1. The Security of a Dominion, a justifiable and pru- dent Ground upon which to demand Cessions from an Enemy. Whether we are to confine ourselves to those pos- sessions only that were ‘‘the objects for which we began the war.”* This the Remarker seems to think right, when the question relates to “Canada, * Remarks, p. 19. 16 11760 175 1 Essays 17 properly so-called; it having never been mentioned as one of those objects, in any of our memorials or declarations, or in any national or public act what- soever.” But the gentleman himself will probably agree, that if the cession of Canada would be a real advantage to us, we may demand it under his second head, as an “indemnification for the charges in- curred” in recovering our just rights; otherwise, according to his own principles, the demand of Guadaloupe can have no foundation. That “our claims before the war were large enough for posses- sion and for security too,” * though it seems a clear point with the ingenious Remarker, is, I own, not so with me. I am rather of the contrary opinion, and shall presently give my reasons. But first let me observe that we did not make those claims because they were large enough for security, but because we could rightfully claim no more. Advantages gained in the course of this war may increase the extent of our rights. Our claims before the war contained some security; but that is no reason why we should neglect acquiring more when the demand of more is become reasonable. It may be reasonable in the case of America to ask for the security recommended by the author of the Letter,® though it would be preposterous to do it in many cases. His proposed demand is founded on the little value of Canada to the French; the right we have to ask, and the power we may have to insist on, an indemnification for our expenses; the diffi culty the French themselves will be under of re- * Remarks, p. 19. 2 Page 30 of the Letter, and p. 21 of the Remarks. 30} 7 Benjamin Franklin [1760 straining their restless subjects in America from encroaching on our limits and disturbing our trade; and the difficulty on our part of preventing encroach- ments that may possibly exist many years without coming to our knowledge. But the Remarker “does not see why the argu- ments employed concerning a security for a peace- able behaviour in Canada would not be equally cogent for calling for the same security in Europe.” * On a little farther reflection, he must, I think, be sensible that the circumstances of the two cases are widely different. Here we are separated by the best and clearest of boundaries, the ocean, and we have people in or near every part of our territory. Any attempt to encroach upon us by building a fort, even in the obscurest corner of these Islands, must therefore be known and prevented immediately. The aggressors also must be known, and the nation they belong to would be accountable for their aggression. In America it is quite otherwise. A vast wilder- ness, thinly or scarce at all peopled, conceals with ease the march of troops and workmen. Important passes may be seized within our limits, and forts built in a month, at a small expense, that may cost us an age and a million to remove. Dear experience has taught this. But what is still worse, the wide- extended forests between our settlements and theirs are inhabited by barbarous tribes of savages that delight in war, and take pride in murder; sub- jects properly neither of the French nor English, but strongly attached to the former by the art and I Remarks, p. 28. 8 1 Essays indefatigable industry of priests, similarity of super- stitions, and frequent family alliances. These are easily, and have been continually, instigated to fall upon and massacre our planters, even in times of full peace between the two crowns, to the certain diminution of our people and the contraction of our settlements. And though it is known they are sup- plied by the French, and carry their prisoners to them, we can, by complaining, obtain no redress, as the governors of Canada have a ready excuse, that I Dr. Clarke, in his Observations on the Late and Present Conduct of the French, etc., printed at Boston, 1753, says: “The Indians in the French interest are, upon all proper opportuni- ties, instigated by their priests (who have generally the chief manage- ment of their public councils) to acts of hostility against the English, even in time of profound peace between the two crowns. Of this there are many undeniable instances. The war between the Indians and the colonies of the Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, in 1733, by which those colonies suffered so much damage, was begun by the instigation of the French; their supplies were from them; and there are now original letters of several Jesuits to be produced, whereby it evidently appears that they were continually animating the Indians, when almost tired with the war, to a further prosecution of it. The French not only excited the Indians, and supported them, but joined their own forces with them in all the late hostilities that have been committed within his Majesty’s province of Nova Scotia. And from an intercepted letter this year from the Jesuits at Penobscot, and from other information, it is certain that they have been using their utmost endeavours to excite the Indians to new acts of hostility against his Majesty’s colony of the Massachusetts Bay; and some have been com- mitted. The French not only excite the Indians to acts of hostility, but reward them for it, by buying the English prisoners of them, for the ransom of each of which they afterwards demand of us the price that is usually given for a slave in these colonies. They do this under the specious pretence of rescuing the poor prisoners from the cruelties and barbarities of the savages; but in reality to encourage them to con- tinue their depredations, as they can by this means get more by hunt- ing the English than by hunting wild beasts; and the French, at the same time, are thereby enabled to keep up a large body of Indians, entirely at the expense of the English.” 60] 19 Benjamin Franklin [1750 the Indians are an independent people, over whom they have no power, and for whose actions they are, therefore, not accountable. Surely circumstances so widely different may reasonably authorize different demands of security in America from such as are usual or necessary in Europe. The Remarker, however, thinks that our real de- pendence for keeping “France or any other nation true to her engagements must not be in demanding securities, which no nation whilst independent can give, but on our own strength and our own vigi- lance.” * No nation that has carried on a war with disadvantage, and is unable to continue it, can be said under such circumstances to be independent; and, while either side thinks itself in a condition to demand an indemnification, there is no man in his senses but will, ceteris paribus, prefer an indemnifi- cation that is a cheaper and more effectual security than any other he can think of. Nations in this situation demand and cede countries by almost every treaty of peace that is made. The French part of the island of St. Christopher’s was added to Great Britain in circumstances altogether similar to those in which a few months may probably place the country of Canada. Farther security has always been deemed a motive with a conqueror to be less moderate; and even the vanquished insist upon se- curity as a reason for demanding what they acknow- ledge they could not otherwise properly ask. The security of the frontier of France on the side of the Netherlands was always considered in the 1 Remarks, p. 25. 20 I Essays negotiation that began at Gertrudenberg and ended with that war. For the same reason they demanded and had Cape Breton. But a war, concluded to the advantage of France, has always added something to the power, either of France or the House of Bour- bon. Even that of 1733, which she commenced with declarations of her having no ambitious views, and which finished by a treaty at which the ministers of France repeatedly declared, that she desired nothing for herself, in effect gained for her Lorraine, an in- demnification ten times the value of all her North American possessions. In short, security and quiet of princes and states have ever been deemed sufficient reasons, when sup- ported by power, for disposing of rights; and such dispositions have never been looked on as want of moderation. It has always been the foundation of the most general treaties. The security of Germany was the argument for yielding considerable posses- sions there to the Swedes; and the security of Eu- rope divided the Spanish monarchy by the partition treaty, made between powers who had no other right to dispose of any part of it. There can be no cession, that is not supposed at least to increase the power of the party to whom it is made. It is enough that he has a right to ask it, and that he does it not merely to serve the purposes of a dangerous ambition. Canada, in the hands of Britain, will endanger the kingdom of France as little as any other cession; and from its situation and circumstances cannot be hurt- ful to any other state. Rather, if peace be an ad- vantage, this cession may be such to all Europe. ~60] 21 Benjamin Franklin [1760 The present war teaches us, that disputes arising in America may be an occasion of embroiling nations, who have no concerns there. If the French remain in Canada and Louisiana, fix the boundaries as you will between us and them, we must border on each other for more than fifteen hundred miles. The people that inhabit the frontiers are generally the refuse of both nations, often of the worst morals, and the least discretion; remote from the eye, the prudence, and the restraint of government. In- juries are therefore frequently, in some part or other of so long a frontier, committed on both sides, re- sentment provoked, the colonies are first engaged, and then the mother countries. And two great nations can scarce be at war in Europe, but some other prince or state thinks it a convenient oppor- tunity to revive some ancient claim, seize some advantage, obtain some territory, or enlarge some power at the expense of a neighbour. The flames of war, once kindled, often spread far and wide, and the mischief is infinite. Happy it proved to both nations, that the Dutch were prevailed on finally to cede the New Netherlands (now the province of New York) to us at the peace of 1674; a peace that has ever since continued between us, but must have been frequently disturbed, if they had retained the pos- session of that country, bordering several hundred miles on our colonies of Pennsylvania westward, Connecticut and the Massachusetts eastward. Nor is it to be wondered at, that people of different lan- guage, religion, and manners, should in those remote parts engage in frequent quarrels, when we find that 33 rye 1 Essays -} even the people of our own colonies have frequently been so exasperated against each other, in their dis- putes about boundaries, as to proceed to open vio- lence and bloodshed. 2. Erecting Forts in the back Settlements, almost in no Instance a sufficient Security against the Indians and the French; but the Possession of Canada implies every Security, and ought to be had, while in our Power. But the Remarker thinks we shall be sufficiently secure in America, if we “raise English forts at such passes as may at once make us respectable to the French and to the Indian nations.* The security desirable in America may be considered as of three kinds: 1. A security of possession, that the French shall not drive us out of the country. 2. A security of our planters from the inroads of savages, and the murders committed by them. 3. A security that the British nation shall not be obliged, on every new war, to repeat the immense expense occasioned by this, to defend its possessions in America. Forts in the most important passes may, I ac- knowledge, be of use to obtain the first kind of secur- ity; but, as those situations are far advanced beyond the inhabitants, the expense of maintaining and supplying the garrisons will be very great, even in time of full peace, and immense on every interrup- tion of it; as it is easy for skulking parties of the enemy, in such long roads through the woods, to I Remarks, p. 25. 50, 23 24 Benjamin Franklin [1 intercept and cut off our convoys, unless guarded continually by great bodies of men. The second kind of security will not be obtained by such forts, unless they were connected by a wall like that of China, from one end of our settlements to the other. If the Indians, when at war, marched like the Europeans, with great armies, heavy can- non, baggage, and carriages; the passes through which alone such armies could penetrate our coun- try, or receive their supplies, being secured, all might be sufficiently secure. But the case is widely differ- ent; they go to war, as they call it, in small parties; from fifty men down to five. Their hunting life has made them acquainted with the whole country, and scarce any part of it is impracticable to such a party. They can travel through the woods even by night, and know how to conceal their tracks. They pass easily between your forts undiscovered; and pri- vately approach the settlements of your frontier inhabitants. They need no convoys of provisions to follow them; for whether they are shifting from place to place in the woods, or lying in wait for an opportunity to strike a blow, every thicket and every stream furnishes so small a number with sufficient subsistence. When they have surprised separately and murdered and scalped a dozen families, they are gone with inconceivable expedition through un- known ways; and it is very rare that pursuers have any chance of coming up with them. In short, long experience has taught our planters that they cannot rely upon forts as a security against Indians; the inhabitants of Hackney might as well rely upon the ns 7 Gr 17% Essays 5 Tower of London, to secure them against highway- men and housebreakers. As to the third kind of security, that we shall not in a few years, have all we have done to do over again in America, and be obliged to employ the same number of troops and ships, at the same immense expense, to defend our possessions there, while we are in proportion weakened here; such forts, I think, cannot prevent this. During a peace, it is not to be doubted the French, who are adroit at fortifying, will likewise erect forts in the most advantageous places of the country we leave them; which will make it more difficult than ever to be reduced in case of another war. We know, by experience of this war, how extremely difficult it is to march an army through the American woods, with its neces- sary cannon and stores, sufficient to reduce a very slight fort. The accounts at the treasury will tell you what amazing sums we have necessarily spent in the expeditions against two very trifling forts, Duquesne and Crown Point. While the French re- tain their influence over the Indians, they can easily keep our long-extended frontier in continual alarm, by a very few of those people; and, with a small number of regulars and militia, in such a country, we find they can keep an army of ours in full employ for several years. We therefore shall not need to be told by our colonies, that if we leave Canada, how- ever circumscribed, to the French, “we have done nothing’’ *; we shall soon be made sensible ourselves of this truth, and to our cost. I Remarks, p. 26. 0] 2c Benjamin Franklin [+0 I would not be understood to deny, that even if we subdue and take Canada, some few forts may be of use to secure the goods of the traders, and protect, the commerce, in case of any sudden misunderstand- ing with any tribe of Indians; but these forts will be best under the care of the colonies interested in the Indian trade, and garrisoned by their provincial forces, and at their own expense. Their own inter- est will then induce the American governments to take care of such forts in proportion to their import- ance, and see that the officers keep their corps full, and mind their duty. But any troops of ours placed there, and accountable here, would in such remote and obscure places, and at so great a distance from the eye and inspection of superiors, soon become of little consequence, even though the French were left in possession of Canada. If the four independent companies, maintained by the crown in New York more than forty years, at a great expense, consisted, for most part of the time, of faggots chiefly; if their officers enjoyed their places as sinecures, and were only, as a writer * of that country styles them, a kind of military monks; if this was the state of troops posted in a populous country, where the imposition could not be so well concealed, what may we expect will be the case of those that shall be posted two, three, or four hundred miles from the inhabitants, in such obscure and remote places as Crown Point, Oswego, Duquesne, or Niagara? They would scarce be even faggots; they would dwindle to mere names upon paper, and appear nowhere but upon the muster-rolls, I Douglass. 26 | +70 7 Essays 27 Now all the kinds of security we have mentioned are obtained by subduing and retaining Canada. Our present possessions in America are secured; our planters will no longer be massacred by the Indians, who, depending absolutely on us for what are now become the necessaries of life to them (guns, powder, hatchets, knives, and clothing), and having no other Europeans near, that can either supply them, or in- stigate them against us, there is no doubt of their being always disposed, if we treat them with com- mon justice, to live in perpetual peace with us. And, with regard to France, she cannot, in case of another war, put us to the immense expense of defending that long-extended frontier; we shall then, as it were, have our backs against a wall in America; the sea-coast will be easily protected by our superior naval power; and here “our own watchfulness and our own strength’’ will be properly, and cannot but be successfully, employed. In this situation, the force now employed in that part of the world may be spared for any other service here or elsewhere; so that both the offensive and defensive strength of the British empire, on the whole, will be greatly increased. But to leave the French in possession of Canada, when it is in our power to remove them, and depend (as the Remarker proposes) on our own “strength and watchfulness’’ * to prevent the mischiefs that may attend it, seems neither safe nor prudent. Happy as we now are, under the best of kings, and in the prospect of a succession promising every felicity I Remarks, p. 25. - 2 7 “50; Benjamin Franklin [1760 a nation was ever blessed with; happy, too, in the wisdom and vigor of every part of the administra- tion, we cannot, we ought not to promise ourselves the uninterrupted continuance of those blessings. The safety of a considerable part of the state, and the interest of the whole, are not to be trusted to the wisdom and vigor of future administra- tions, when a security is to be had more effectual, more constant, and much less expensive. They who can be moved by the apprehension of dangers so remote, as that of the future independence of our colonies (a point I shall hereafter consider), seem scarcely consistent with themselves, when they sup- pose we may rely on the wisdom and vigor of an administration for their safety. I should indeed think it less material whether Canada were ceded to us or not, if I had in view only the security of pos- session in our colonies. I entirely agree with the Remarker, that we are in North America, “a far greater continental as well as naval power,” and that only cowardice or ignorance can subject our colonies there to a French conquest. But, for the same reason, I disagree with him widely upon an- other point. 3. The Blood and Treasure spent in the American Wars, not spent in the Cause of the Colonies alone. I do not think that our “blood and treasure have been expended,” as he intimates, “in the cause of the colonies,” and that we are “making conquests 28 : 1. Essays vw for them’ *; yet I believe this is too common an error. I do not say they are altogether unconcerned in the event. The inhabitants of them are, in com- mon with the other subjects of Great Britain, anxious for the glory of her crown, the extent of her power and commerce, the welfare and future repose of the whole British people. They could not, there- fore, but take a large share in the affronts offered to Britain; and have been animated with a truly British spirit to exert themselves beyond their strength, and against their evident interest. Yet so unfortunate have they been, that their virtue has made against them; for upon no better foundation than this have they been supposed the authors of a war carried on for their advantage only. It is a great mistake to imagine that the American country in question between Great Britain and France is claimed as the property of any individual or public body im America; or that the possession of it by Great Britain is likely, in any lucrative view, to redound at all to the advantage of any person there. On the other hand, the bulk of the inhabi- tants of North America are land-owners, whose lands are inferior in value to those of Britain, only by the want of an equal number of people. It is true, the accession of the large territory claimed before the war began (especially if that be secured by the pos- session of Canada), will tend to the increase of the British subjects, faster than if they had been con- fined within the mountains; vet the increase within the mountains only, would evidently make the com- I Remarks, p. 25. ~60l 20 30 Benjamin Franklin [1750 parative population equal to that of Great Britain, much sooner than it can be expected when our people are spread over a country six times as large. I think this is the only point of light in which this account is to be viewed, and is the only one in which any of the colonies are concerned. No colony, no possessor of lands in any colony, therefore, wishes for conquests, or can be benefited by them, otherwise than as they may be a means of securing peace on their borders. No considerable advantage has resulted to the colonies by the con- quests of this war, or can result from confirming them by the peace, but what they must enjoy in common with the rest of the British people; with this evident drawback from their share of these ad- vantages, that they will necessarily lessen or at least prevent the increase of the value of what makes the principal part of their private property, their land. A people spread through the whole tract of country on this side the Mississippi, and secured by Canada in our hands, would probably for some centuries find employment in agriculture, and thereby free us at home effectually from our fears of American manu- factures. Unprejudiced men well know, that all the penal and prohibitory laws that were ever thought on will not be sufficient to prevent manufactures in a country whose inhabitants surpass the number that can subsist by the husbandry of it. That this will be the case in America soon, if our people remain confined within the mountains, and almost as soon should it be unsafe for them to live beyond, though the country be ceded to us, no man acquainted with 17601 Essays 0 political and commercial history can doubt. Manu- factures are founded in poverty. It is the multitude of poor without land in a country, and who must work for others at low wages or starve, that enables undertakers to carry on a manufacture, and afford it cheap enough to prevent the importation of the same kind from abroad, and to bear the expense of its own exportation. But no man, who can have a piece of land of his own, sufficient by his labor to subsist his family in plenty, is poor enough to be a manufacturer, and work for a master. Hence, while there is land enough in America for our people, there can never be manufactures to any amount or value. It is a striking observation of a very able pen, that the natural livelihood of the thin inhabitants of a forest country is hunting; that of a greater number, pas- turage; that of a middling population, agriculture; and that of the greatest, manufactures; which last must subsist the bulk of the people in a full country, or they must be subsisted by charity, or perish. The extended population, therefore, that is most advantageous to Great Britain, will be best effected, because only effectually secured, by the possession of Canada. So far as the being of our present colonies in North America is concerned, I think indeed with the Re- marker, that the French there are not “an enemy to be apprehended’ *: but the expression is too vague to be applicable to the present, or indeed to any other case. Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, unequal as ! Remarks, p. 27. 21] Benjamin Franklin [1710 they are to this nation in power and numbers of people, are enemies to be still apprehended; and the Highlanders of Scotland have been so for many ages, by the greatest princes of Scotland and Britain. The wild Irish were able to give a great deal of disturb- ance even to Queen Elizabeth, and cost her more blood and treasure than her war with Spain. Can- ada, in the hands of France, has always stinted the growth of our colonies, in the course of this war, and indeed before it; has disturbed and vexed even the best and strongest of them; has found means to murder thousands of their people, and unsettle a great part of their country. Much more able will it be to starve the growth of an infant settlement. Canada has also found means to make this nation spend two or three millions a year in America; and a people, how small soever, that in their present situation can do this as often as we have a war with them, is, methinks, “an enemy to be apprehended.” Our North American colonies are to be considered as the frontier of the British empire on that side. The frontier of any dominion being attacked, it becomes not merely “the cause’’ of the people immediately attacked, the inhabitants of that frontier, but prop- erly “the cause’ of the whole body. Where the frontier people owe and pay obedience, there they have a right to look for protection. No political proposition is better established than this. It is therefore invidious to represent the “blood and treasure’’ spent in this war as spent in “the cause of the colonies’ only; and that they are “absurd and ungrateful,” if they think we have done nothing, 32 17501 Essays , unless we “make conquests for them,” and reduce Canada to gratify their “vain ambition,” &c. It will not be a conquest for them, nor gratify any vain ambition of theirs. It will be a conquest for the whole; and all our people will, in the increase of trade and the ease of taxes, find the advantage of it. Should we be obliged at any time to make a war for the protection of our commerce, and to secure the exportation of our manufactures, would it be fair to represent such a war merely as blood and treasure spent in the cause of the weavers of Yorkshire, Nor- wich, or the West, the cuttlers of Sheffield, or the button-makers of Birmingham? I hope it will ap- pear, before I end these sheets, that if ever there was a national war, this is truly such a one; a war in which the interest of the whole nation is directly and fundamentally concerned. Those who would be thought deeply skilled in human nature affect to discover self-interested views everywhere, at the bottom of the fairest, the most generous conduct. Suspicions and charges of this kind meet with ready reception and belief in the minds even of the multi- tude, and therefore less acuteness and address than the Remarker is possessed of would be sufficient to persuade the nation generally that all the zeal and spirit manifested and exerted by the colonies in this war was only in “their own cause,” to “make con- quest for themselves,” to engage us to make more for them, to gratify their own “vain ambition.” But should they now humbly address the mother country in the terms and the sentiments of the Re- marker; return her their grateful acknowledgments 22 34 Benjamin Franklin [1760 for the blood and treasure she had spent in “their cause ’’; confess that enough had now been done “for them’’; allow that “English forts, raised in proper passes, will, with the wisdom and vigor of her ad- ministration,” be a sufficient future protection; ex- press their desires that their people may be confined within the mountains, lest, if they be suffered to spread and extend themselves in the fertile and pleasant country on the other side, they should “increase infinitely from all causes,’ “live wholly on their own labor,” and become independent; beg, therefore, that the French may be suffered to remain in possession of Canada, as their neighbourhood may be useful to prevent our increase, and the removing them may “in its consequences be even dangerous’’*; —1I say, should such an address from the colonies make its appearance here (though, according to the Remarker, it would be a most just and reasonable one), would it not, might it not, with more justice be answered: “ We understand you, Gentlemen, per- fectly well; you have only your interest in view; you want to have the people confined within your present limits, that in a few years the lands you are possessed of may increase tenfold in value. You want to reduce the price of labor by increasing num- bers on the same territory, that you may be able to set up manufactures and vie with your mother country. You would have your people kept in a body, that you may be more able to dispute the commands of the crown, and obtain an independ- ency. You would have the French left in Canada t Remarks, pp. 50, 5I. 1760 Essays ; to exercise your military virtue, and make you a warlike people, that you may have more confidence to embark in schemes of disobedience, and greater ability to support them. You have tasted, too, the sweets of TWO OR THREE MILLIONS sterling per annum spent among you by our fleets and forces, and you are unwilling to be without a pretence for kindling up another war, and thereby occasioning a repetition of the same delightful doses. But, Gen- tlemen, allow us to understand our interest a little likewise; we shall remove the French from Canada, that you may live in peace, and we be no more drained by your quarrels. You shall have land enough to cultivate, that you may have neither necessity nor inclination to go into manufactures, and we will manufacture for you, and govern you.” A reader of the Remarks may be apt to say: “If this writer would have us restore Canada on princi- ples of moderation, how can we, consistent with those principles, retain Guadaloupe, which he repre- sents of so much greater value?’’ I will endeavour to explain this; because, by doing it, I shall have an opportunity of showing the truth and good sense of the answer to the interested application I have just supposed. The author, then, is only apparently and not really inconsistent with himself. If we can ob- tain the credit of moderation by restoring Canada, it is well; but we should, however, restore it at all events, because it would not only be of no use to us, but “the possession of it (in his opinion) may in its consequences be dangerous.” * As how? Why, * Remarks, pp. 50, 51. 4 35 Benjamin Franklin [1760 plainly (at length it comes out), if the French are not left there to check the growth of our colonies, “they will extend themselves almost without bounds into inland parts, and increase infinitely from all causes; becoming a numerous, hardy, independent people; possessed of a strong country, communicat- ing little or not at all with England, living wholly on their own labor, and in process of time know- ing little and inquiring little about the mother country In short, according to this writer, our present colonies are large enough and numerous enough; and the French ought to be left in North America to pre- vent their increase, lest they become not only use- less, but dangerous to Britain. I agree with the gentleman, that, with Canada in our possession, our people in America will increase amazingly. I know that their common rate of increase, where they are not molested by the enemy, is doubling their num- bers every twenty-five years, by natural generation only; exclusive of the accession of foreigners.” I think this increase continuing would probably, in a century more, make the number of British subjects 1 The reason of this greater increase in America than in Europe is, that in old settled countries, all trades, farms, offices, and employ- ments are full; and many people refrain from marriage till they see an opening, in which they can settle themselves, with a reasonable prospect of maintaining a family; but in America, it being easy to obtain land, which, with moderate labor will afford subsistence and something to spare, people marry more readily and earlier in life, whence arise a numerous offspring and the swift population of those countries. Itis a common error, that we cannot fill our provinces, or increase the number of them, without draining this nation of its people. The increase alone of our present colonies is sufficient for both those purposes.—F. 26 ‘ Essays 7 on that side the water more numerous than they now are on this; but,— 4. Not necessary that the American Colonies should cease being useful to the Mother Country. Their Preference over the West India Colonies stated. —1 am far from entertaining, on that account, any fears of their becoming either useless or dangerous to us; and I look on those fears to be merely imagi- nary and without any probable foundation. The Remarker is reserved in giving his reasons; as, in his opinion, this “is not a fit subject for discussion.” I shall give mine, because I conceive it a subject necessary to be discussed; and the rather, as those fears, how groundless and chimerical soever, may, by possessing the multitude, possibly induce the ablest ministry to conform to them against their own judgment; and thereby prevent the assuring to the British name and nation a stability and permanency, that no man acquainted with history durst have hoped for, till our American possessions opened the pleasing prospect. The Remarker thinks that our people in America, “finding no check from Canada, would extend them- selves almost without bounds into the inland parts, and increase infinitely from all causes.” The very reason he assigns for their so extending, and which is indeed the true one (their being “invited to it by the pleasantness, fertility, and plenty of the coun- try’’), may satisfy us that this extension will con- tinue to proceed as long as there remains any =60] 37 : Benjamin Franklin [1760 pleasant, fertile country within their reach. And if we even suppose them confined by the waters of the Mississippi westward, and by those of St. Lawrence and the Lakes to the northward, yet still we shall leave them room enough to increase, even in the matter of settling now practised there, till they amount to perhaps a hundred millions of souls. This must take some centuries to fulfil; and in the mean time this nation must necessarily supply them with the manufactures they consume; because the new settlers will be employed in agriculture; and the new settlements will so continually draw off the spare hands from the old, that our present colonies will not, during the period we have mentioned, find themselves in a condition to manufacture, even for their own inhabitants, to any considerable degree, much less for those who are settling behind them. Thus our trade must, till that country becomes as fully peopled as England (that is, for centuries to come), be continually increasing, and with it our naval power; because the ocean is between us and them, and our ships and seamen must increase as that trade increases. The human body and the political differ in this: that the first is limited by nature to a certain stature, which, when attained, it cannot ordinarily exceed; the other, by better government and more prudent policy, as well as by the change of manners, and other circumstances, often takes fresh starts of growth, after being long at a stand, and may add tenfold to the dimensions it had for ages been con- fined to. The mother, being of full stature, is in a 33 2: Essays few years equalled by a growing daughter; but in the case of a mother-country and her colonies, it is quite different. The growth of the children tends to in- crease the growth of the mother, and so the difference and superiority are longer preserved. Were the in- habitants of this island limited to their present num- ber by any thing in nature, or by unchangeable circumstances, the equality of population between the two countries might indeed sooner come to pass; but sure experience, in those parts of the island where manufactures have been introduced, teaches us that people increase and multiply in proportion as the means and facility of gaining a livelihood increase; and that this island, if they could be employed, is capable of supporting ten times the present number of people. In proportion, therefore, as the demand increases for the manufactures of Britain, by the increase of people in her colonies, the number of her people at home will increase; and with them the strength as well as the wealth of the nation. For satisfaction in this point, let the reader compare in his mind the number and force of our present fleets with our fleet in Queen Elizabeth’s time,* before we had colonies. Let him compare the ancient with the present state of our towns on or near our western coast (Manches- ter, Liverpool, Kendal, Lancaster, Glasgow, and the countries round them) that trade with any manufac- tures for our colonies (not to mention Leeds, Hali- fax, Sheffield, and Birmingham), and consider what a difference there is in the numbers of people, build- * Namely forty sail, none of more than forty guns. 760; 30 Benjamin Franklin [1760 ings, rents, and the value of land and of the produce of land; even if he goes back no farther than is within man’s memory. Let him compare those countries with others on the same island, where manufactures have not yet extended themselves; observe the present difference, and reflect how much greater our strength may be, if numbers give strength, when our manufactures shall occupy every part of the island where they can possibly be subsisted. But, say the objectors, “there is a certain distance from the sea, in America, beyond which the expense of carriage will put a stop to the sale and consump- tion of your manufactures; and this, with the diffi- culty of making returns for them, will oblige the in- habitants to manufacture for themselves; of course, if you suffer your people to extend their settle- ments beyond that distance, your people become useless to you’’; and this distance is limited by some to two hundred miles, by others to the Appalachian mountains. Not to insist on a plain truth, that no part of a dominion from whence a government may on occa- sion draw supplies and aids both of men and money (though at too great a distance to be supplied with manufactures from some other part) is therefore to be deemed useless to the whole, I shall endeavour to show that these imaginary limits of utility, even in point of commerce, are much too narrow. The in- land parts of the continent of Europe are farther from the sea than the limits of settlement proposed for America. Germany is full of tradesmen and artificers of all kinds, and the governments there, 40 1760l Essays 41 are not all of them always favorable to the commerce of Britain; yet it is a well-known fact, that our manu- factures find their way even into the heart of Ger- many. Ask the great manufacturers and merchants of the Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, and Norwich goods; and they will tell you that some of them send their riders frequently through France or Spain, and Italy, and up to Vienna, and back through the middle and northern parts of Germany, to show samples of their wares, and collect orders, which they receive by almost every mail to a vast amount. Whatever charges arise on the carriage of goods are added to the value, and all paid by the con- sumer, If these nations, over whom we can have no gov- ernment, over whose consumption we can have no influence but what arises from the cheapness and goodness of our wares, whose trade, manufactures, or commercial connexions are not subject to the control of our laws, as those of our colonies certainly are in some degree,—I say, if these nations purchase and consume such quantities of our goods, notwithstand- ing the remoteness of their situation from the sea, how much less likely is it that the settlers in Amer- ica, who must for ages be employed in agriculture chiefly, should make cheaper for themselves the goods our manufacturers at present supply them with, even if we suppose the carriage five, six, or seven hundred miles from the sea as difficult and expensive as the like distance into Germany, whereas in the latter the natural distances are frequently doubled by political obstructions— I mean the 42 Benjamin Franklin [1760 intermixed territories and clashing interests of princes.’ But when we consider that the inland parts of America are penetrated by great navigable rivers, and there are a number of great lakes, communicat- ing with each other, with those rivers, and with the sea, very small portages here and there excepted *; that the sea-coasts (if one may be allowed the ex- pression) of those lakes only amount at least to two thousand seven hundred miles, exclusive of the rivers running into them, many of which are navi- gable to a great extent for boats and canoes, through vast tracts of country;—how little likely is it that the expense on the carriage of our goods into those countries should prevent the use of them. If the poor Indians in those remote parts are now able to pay for the linen, woollen, and iron wares they are at present furnished with by the French and English traders, though Indians have nothing but what they get by hunting, and the goods are loaded with all the impositions fraud and knavery can contrive to 1 This was before the consolidation of Europe by the Bonapartes, and when, as Sir C. Whitworth asserts in his State of Trade: ‘Each state in Germany is jealous of its neighbours; and hence, rather than facilitate the export or transmit of its neighbour’s products or manu- factures, they have all recourse to strangers.” 2 From New York into Lake Ontario, the land-carriage of the several portages altogether amounts to but about twenty-seven miles. From Lake Ontario into Lake Erie, the land-carriage at Niagara is bub about twelve miles. All the lakes above Niagara communicate by navigable straits, so that no land-carriage is necessary to go out of one into another. From Presqu’ Isle on Lake Erie there are but fifteen miles land-carriage, and that a good wagon-road, to Beef River, a branch of the Ohio, which brings you into a navigation of many thou- sand miles inland, if you take together the Ohio, the Mississippi, and all the great rivers and branches that run into them.—F. ' Essays 43 enhance their value, will not industrious English farmers, hereafter settled in those countries, be much better able to pay for what shall be brought them in the way of fair commerce? If it is asked, What can such farmers raise, where- with to pay for the manufactures they may want from us? I answer, that the inland parts of America in question are well known to be fitted for the pro- duction of hemp, flax, potash, and, above all, silk; the southern parts may produce olive oil, raisins, cur- rants, indigo, and cochineal; not to mention horses and black cattle, which may easily be driven to the maritime markets, and at the same time assist in conveying other commodities. That the commodi- ties first mentioned may easily, by water and land carriage, be brought to the sea-ports from interior America, will not seem incredible, when we reflect that hemp formerly came from the Ukraine, the most southern parts of Russia, to Wologda, and down the Dwina to Archangel; and hence, by a perilous navigation, round the North Cape to Eng- land and other parts of Europe. It now comes from the same country up the Dnieper, and down the Duna, with much land-carriage. Great part of the Russian ¢ron, no high-priced commodity, is brought three hundred miles by land and water from the heart of Siberia. Furs (the produce too of America) are brought to Amsterdam from all parts of Siberia, even the most remote—Kamtschatka. The same country furnishes me with another instance of ex- tended inland commerce. It is found worth while to keep up a mercantile ~60! 41 Benjamin Franklin [1760 communication between Pekin in China and Peters- burg. And none of these instances of inland com- merce exceed those of the courses by which, at several periods, the whole of the trade of the East was carried on. Before the prosperity of the Mameluke dominion in Egypt fixed the staple for the riches of the East at Cairo and Alexandria (whither they were brought from the Red Sea), great part of those commodities were carried to the cities of Cashgar and Balk. This gave birth to those towns, that still subsist upon the remains of their ancient opulence, amidst a people and country equally wild. From thence those goods were carried down the Ami (the ancient Oxus) to the Caspian Sea, and up the Wolga to Astrachan; from whence they were carried over to and down the Don, to the mouth of that river; and thence again the Venetians directly, and the Genoese and Venetians indirectly, by way of Kaffa and Trebisond, dispersed them through the Mediter- ranean and some other parts of Europe. Another part of those goods was carried over land from the Wolga to the rivers Duna and Neva; from both they were carried to the city by Wisbuy in the Baltic (so eminent for its sea-laws); and from the city of Ladoga on the Neva, we are told, they were even carried by the Dwina to Archangel; and from thence round the North Cape. If iron and hemp will bear the charge of carriage from this inland country, other metals will, as well as iron; and cer- tainly silk, since three pence per pound is not above one per cent. on the value, and amounts to twenty- eight pounds per ton. If the growths of a country Ea «= B 1760] Essays 45 find their way out of it, the manufactures of the country where they go will infallibly find their way into it. They who understand the economy and principles of manufactures, know that it is impossible to estab- lish them in places not populous; and, even in those that are populous, hardly possible to establish them to the prejudice of the places already in possession of them. Several attempts have been made in France and Spain, countenanced by government, to draw from us, and establish in those countries, our hard- ware and woollen manufactures, but without success. The reasons are various. A manufacture is part of a great system of commerce, which takes in con- veniences of various kinds: methods of providing materials of all sorts, machines for expediting and facilitating labor, all the channels of correspondence for vending the wares, the credit and confidence necessary to found and support this correspondence, the mutual aid of different artisans, and a thousand other particulars which time and long experience have gradually established. A part of such a sys- tem cannot support itself without the whole; and before the whole can be obtained the part perishes. Manufactures, where they are in perfection, are car- ried on by multiplicity of hands, each of which is expert only in his own part; no one of them a master of the whole; and, if by any means spirited away to a foreign country, he is lost without his fellows. Then it is a matter of the extremest difficulty to persuade a complete set of workmen, skilled in all parts of a manufactory, to leave their country to- 4s Benjamin Franklin [1760 gether, and settle in a foreign land. Some of the idle and drunken may be enticed away; but these only disappoint their employers, and serve to dis- courage the undertaking. If by royal munificence, and an expense that the profits of the trade alone would not bear, a complete set of good and skilful hands are collected and carried over, they find so much of the system imperfect, so many things want- ing to carry on the trade to advantage, so many difficulties to overcome, and the knot of hands so easily broken by death, dissatisfaction, and deser- tion, that they and their employers are discouraged together, and the project vanishes into smoke. Hence it happens that established manufactures are hardly ever lost, but by foreign conquest, or by some eminent interior fault in manners or govern- ment—a bad police oppressing and discouraging the workmen, or religious persecutions driving the sober and industrious out of the country. There is, in short, scarce a single instance in history of the con- trary, where manufactures have once taken firm root. They sometimes start up in a new place; but are generally supported, like exotic plants, at more expense than they are worth for any thing but curiosity, until these new seats become the refuge of the manufacturers driven from the old ones. The conquest of Constantinople, and final reduc- tion of the Greek empire, dispersed many curious manufacturers into different parts of Christendom. The former conquests of its provinces had before done the same. The loss of liberty in Verona, Milan, Florence, Pisa, Pistoia, and other great cities of LG 1760 Essays 47 Italy, drove the manufacturers of woollen cloths into Spain and Flanders. The latter first lost their trade and manufactures to Antwerp and the cities of Bra- bant; from whence, by persecution for religion, they were sent into Holland and England; while the civil wars, during the minority of Charles the First of Spain, which ended in the loss of the liberty of their great towns, ended too in the loss of the manufac- tures of Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, Medina del Compo, &c. The revocation of the Edict of Nantz communicated to all the Protestant part of Europe the paper, silk, and other valuable manufactures of France, almost peculiar at that time to that country, and till then in vain attempted elsewhere. To be convinced, that it is not soil and climate, nor even freedom from taxes, that determines the residence of manufactures, we need only turn our eyes on Holland, where a multitude of manufactures are still carried on, perhaps more than on the same extent of territory anywhere in Europe, and sold on terms upon which they cannot be had in any other part of the world. And this too is true of those growths which by their nature and the labor required to raise them come the nearest to manufactures. As to the commonplace objection to the North American settlements, that they are in the same climate, and their produce the same, as that of England: In the first place, it is not true; it is particularly not so of the countries now likely to be added to our settlements; and of our present colonies, the pro- ducts—lumber, tobacco, rice, and indigo, great arti- cles of commerce—do not interfere with the products 0] Benjamin Franklin 1760 of England. In the next place, a man must know very little of the trade of the world, who does not know that the greater part of it is carried on between countries whose climates differ very little. Even the trade between the different parts of these British Islands is greatly superior to that between England and all the West India Islands put together. If I have been successful in proving that a consid- erable commerce may and will subsist between us and our future most inland settlements in North America, notwithstanding their distance, I have more than half proved that no other inconveniency will arise from their distance. Many men in such a couniry must know,” must “think,” and must “care’’ about the country they chiefly trad: with. The juridical and other connexions of government are yet a faster hold than even commercial ties, and spread, directly and indirectly, far and wide. Busi- ness to be solicited and causes depending create a great intercourse, even where private property is not divided in different countries; yet this division will always subsist where different countries are ruled by the same government. Where a man has landed property both in the mother country and the pro- vince, he will almost always live in the mother coun- try. This, though there were no trad., is singly a sufficient gain. It is said that Ireland pays near a million sterling annually to its absentees in England. The balance of trade from Spain, or even Portugal, is scarcely equal to this. Let it not be said we have no absentees from North America. There are many, to the writer's know- 48 0 Essays ) ledge; and if there are at present but few of them that distinguish themselves here by great expense, it is owing to the mediocrity of fortune among the inhabitants of the northern colonies, and a more equal division of landed property than in the West India Islands, so that there are as yet but few large estates. But if those who have such estates reside upon and take care of them themselves, are they worse sub- jects than they would be if they lived idly in England? Great merit is assumed for the gentlemen of the West Indies, on the score of their residing and spending their money in England. I would not depreciate that merit,—it is considerable; for they might, if they pleased, spend their money in France; but the difference between their spending it here and at home is not so great. What do they spend it in when they are here, but the produce and manufac- tures of this country? and would they not do the same if they were at home? Is it of any great im- portance to the English farmer, whether the West India gentleman comes to London and eats his beef, pork, and tongues, fresh, or has them brought to him in the West Indies, salted? Whether he eats his English cheese and butter, or drinks his English ale, at London or in Barbadoes? Is the clothier’s, or the mercer’s, or the cutler’s, or the toyman’s profit less, for their goods being worn and consumed by the same persons residing on the other side of the ocean? Would not the profits of the merchant and mariner be rather greater, and some addition made to our navigation, ships, and seamen? If the North Ameri- 1 Remarks, pp. 47, 48, &c. 760] 40 Benjamin Franklin [1760 can gentleman stays in his own country, and lives there in that degree of luxury and expense, with regard to the use of British manufactures, that his fortune enables him to do, may not his example, from the imitation of superiors so natural to man- kind spread the use of those manufactures among hundreds of families around him, and occasion a much greater demand for them than it would do if he should remove and live in London? However this may be, if, in our views of immedi- ate advantage, it seems preferable that the gentle- men of large fortunes in North America should reside much in England, it is what may surely be expected as fast as such fortunes are acquired there. Their having “colleges of their own for the education of their youth,” will not prevent it. A little knowledge and learning acquired increases the appetite for more, and will make the conversation of the learned on this side the water more strongly desired. Ire- land has its university likewise; yet this does not prevent the immense pecuniary benefit we receive from that kingdom. And there will always be, in the conveniences of life, the politeness, the pleasures, the magnificence of the reigning country, many other at- tractions besides those of learning, to draw men of substance there, where they can, apparently at least, have the best bargain of happiness for their money. Our trade to the West India Islands is undoubt- edly a valuable one; but whatever is the amount of it, it has long been at a stand. Limited as our sugar planters are by the scantiness of territory, they can- not increase much beyond their present number; 50 I Essays and this is an evil, as I shall show hereafter, that will be little helped by our keeping Guadaloupe. The trade to our northern colonies is not only greater, but yearly increasing with the increase of the people; and even in a greater proportion, as the people increase in wealth and the ability of spend- ing, as well as in numbers.” I have already said, The writer has obtained accounts of the exports to North America and the West India Islands, by which it appears that there has been some increase of trade to those Islands, as well as to North America, though in a much less degree. The following extract from these ac- counts will show the reader, at one view, the amount of the exports to each, in two different terms of five years; the terms taken at ten years’ distance from each other, to show the increase, viz. : First term, from 1744 to 1748, inclusive. Northern Colonies. West India Islands. 1744 £640,114 12 £796,112 17 9 1745 534,316 2 503,669 19 1746 754.945 4 472,994 16 7 1747 726,648 5 856,463 18 5 1748 830,243 1 3734,095 5 I Total, £3,486,268 2 3,303,337 10 1D Difference, 122,930 10 4 £3,486,268 I 2 Second term, from 1754 to 1758, inclusive. Northern Colonies. West India Islands. ¥754 041,246,615 1] 31 £685,675 3 oo 1755 1,177,848 § 10 694,667 13 3 1756 1,428,720 13 a 733,458 16 3 1757 1,727,924 ~ .4 776,488 o 5 1758 1,832,048 1” 877.571 19 ‘11 Total, £7,414,057 5 3,767,841 12 II Difference, 3,646,215 rx 4 £7.414057 4 3 In the first term, total of West India Islands, £3,363,337 10 10 In the second term, ditto . . . 3767.841 12 11 Increase, only £404,504 2 x In the first term, total for the northern colonies, 3,486,268 t 2 In the second term, ditto . , : - 7,414,057 ! Increase, £3,927,789 3 1 By these accounts it appears that the exports to the West India [slands, and to the northern colonies, were in the first term nearly xile)| 51 Benjamin Franklin 760 that our people in the northern colonies double in about twenty-five years, exclusive of the accession of strangers. That I speak within bounds, I appeal to the authentic accounts frequently required by the Board of Trade, and transmitted to that Board by the respective governors; of which accounts I shall select one as a sample, being that from the colony of Rhode Island; a colony that of all the others receives the least addition from strangers. For the equal (the difference being only £122,930 10S. 4d.), and in the second term, the exports to those islands had only increased £404,504 2S. 1d. Whereas the increase to the northern colonies is £3,927,789 3S. id., almost four millions. Some part of this increased demand for English goods may be ascribed to the armies and fleets we have had both in North America and the West Indies; and so much for what is consumed by the sol- diery; their clothing, stores, ammunition, &c., sent from hence on account of the government, being (as is supposed) not included in these accounts of merchandise exported; but, as the war has occa- sioned a great plenty of money in America, many of the inhabitants have increased their expense. N. B.—These accounts do not include any exports from Scotland to America, which are doubtless proportionably considerable; nor the exports from Ireland.—F. Certain discrepancies in the above figures are hereby given as origi- nally printed. —EDITOR. 1 Copy of the Report of Governor Hopkins to the Board of Trade, on the Numbers of People in Rhode I sland. In obedience to your Lordship’s commands, I have caused the within account to be taken by officers under oath. By it there appears to be in this colony at this time 35,939 white persons, and 4,697 blacks, chiefly negroes. In the year 1730, by order of the then Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, an account was taken of the number of people in this colony, and then there appeared to be 15,302 white persons, and 2,633 blacks. Again in the year 1748, by like order, an account was taken of the number of people in this colony, by which it appears that there were at that time 29,755 white persons and 4,373 blacks. StepHEN HOPKINS. CoLONY OF RHODE ISLAND, Dec. 24, 1755- 52 [1” 17 Essays ; increase of our trade to those colonies, I refer to the accounts frequently laid before Parliament by the officers of the customs, and to the custom-house books; from which I have also selected one account, that of the trade from England, exclusive of Scot- land, to Pennsylvania *; a colony most remarkable for the plain, frugal manner of living of its inhabit- ants, and the most suspected of carrying on manu- factures, on account of the number of German artisans who are known to have transplanted them- selves into that country; though even these, in truth, when they come there, generally apply themselves to agriculture, as the surest support and most ad- vantageous employment. By this account it appears, that the exports to that province have, in twenty-eight years, increased nearly in the proportion of seventeen to one; whereas the people themselves, who by other authentic ac- counts appear to double their numbers (the strangers who settle there included) in about sixteen years, * An Account of the Value of the Exports from England to Pennsyl- vania in one Year, taken at different Periods, viz. In 1723 they amounted only to £15,992 1 1730 they were 48,592 i 1737 . y 56,690 7 1742 : 75,295 4 1747 82,404 1752 201,666 = 1757 . 268,426 oJ 6 N. B.—The accounts for 1758 and 1759 were not then completed; but those acquainted with the North American trade know that the increase in those two years had been in a still greater proportion, the last year being supposed to exceed any former year by a third; and this owing to the increased ability of the people to spend, from the oreater quantities of money circulating among them by the war. 0] 55 54 Benjamin Franklin (1760 cannot in the twenty-eight years have increased in a greater proportion than as four to one. The addi- tional demand, then, and consumption of goods from England, of thirteen parts in seventeen, more than the additional number would require, must be ow- ing to this: that the people, having by their in- dustry mended their circumstances, are enabled to indulge themselves in finer clothes, better furniture, and a more general use of all our manufactures than heretofore. In fact, the occasion for English goods in North America, and the inclination to have and use them, is, and must be for ages to come, much greater than the ability of the people to pay for them; they must therefore, as they now do, deny themselves many things they would otherwise choose to have, or in- crease their industry to obtain them. And thus, if they should at any time manufacture some coarse article, which, on account of its bulk or some other circumstance, cannot so well be brought to them from Britain, it only enables them the better to pay for finer goods, that otherwise they could not in- dulge themselves in; so that the exports thither are not diminished by such manufacture, but rather increased. The single article of manufacture in these colonies, mentioned by the Remarker, is hats made in New England. It is true, there have been, ever since the first settlement of that country, a few hat- ters there, drawn thither probably at first by the facility of getting beaver, while the woods were but little cleared, and there was plenty of those animals. The case is greatly altered now. The beaver skins Le 5 ' Essays 5 are not now to be had in New England, but from very remote places and at great prices. The trade is accordingly declining there; so that, far from being able to make hats in any quantity for exportation, they cannot supply their own home demand; and it is well known that some thousand dozens are sent thither yearly from London, Bristol, and Liverpool, and sold cheaper than the inhabitants can make them of equal goodness. In fact, the colonies are so little suited for estab- lishing of manufacture, that they are continually losing the few branches they accidentally gain. The working braziers, cutlers, and pewterers, as well as hatters, who have happened to go over from time to time and settle in the colonies, gradually drop the working part of their business, and import their re- spective goods from England, whence they can have them cheaper and better than they can make them. They continue their shops indeed, in the same way of dealing; but become sellers of braziery, cutlery, pewter, hats, &c., brought from England, instead of being makers of those goods. 5. The American Colonies not dangerous in their Na- ture to Great Britain. Thus much as to the apprehension of our colonies becoming useless to us. I shall next consider the other supposition, that their growth may render them dangerous. Of this, I own, I have not the least conception, when I consider that we have already fourteen separate governments on the maritime coast 760] 5F Benjamin Franklin [1760 of the continent; and, if we extend our settlements, shall probably have as many more behind them on the inland side. Those we now have are not only under different governors, but have different forms of government, different laws, different interests, and some of them different religious persuasions and different manners. Their jealousy of each other is so great, that how- ever necessary a union of the colonies has long been, for their common defence and security against their enemies, and how sensible soever each colony has been of that necessity, yet they have never been able to effect such a union among themselves, nor even to agree in requesting the mother country to establish it for them. Nothing but the immediate command of the crown has been able to produce even the imperfect union, but lately seen there, of the forces of some colonies. If they could not agree to unite for their defence against the French and Indians, who were perpetually harassing their settle- ments, burning their villages, and murdering their people, can it reasonably be supposed there is any danger of their uniting against their own nation, which protects and encourages them, with which they have so many connexions and ties of blood, interest, and affection, and which, it is well known, they all love much more than they love one an- other? In short, there are so many causes that must operate to prevent it. that I will venture to say a union amongst them for such a purpose is not merely improbable, it is impossible. And if the union of 56 1760] Essays ; the whole is impossible, the attempt of a part must be madness, as those colonies that did not join the rebellion would join the mother country in suppress- ing it. When I say such a union is impossible, I mean without the most grievous tyranny and oppres- sion. People who have property in a country which they may lose, and privileges which they may en- danger, are generally disposed to be quiet, and even to bear much, rather than hazard all. While the government is mild and just, while important civil and religious rights are secure, such subjects will be dutiful and obedient. The waves do not rise but when the winds blow. What such an administration as the Duke of Alva’s in the Netherlands might produce, I know not; but this, I think, I have a right to deem impos- sible. And yet there were two very manifest differ- ences between that case and ours; and both are in our favor. The first, that Spain had already united the seventeen provinces under one visible govern- ment, though the States continued independent; the second, that the inhabitants of those provinces were of a nation, not only different from, but utterly unlike the Spaniards. Had the Netherlands been peopled from Spain, the worst of oppression had probably not provoked them to wish a separation of government. It might, and probably would, have ruined the country; but never would have produced an independent sovereignty. In fact, neither the very worst of governments, the worst of politics in the last century, nor the total abolition of their re- maining liberty, in the provinces of Spain itself, in ) 57 c8 bi | Benjamin Franklin +760 the present, have produced any independency in Spain that could be supported. The same may be observed of France. And let it not be said that the neighbourhood of these to the seat of government has prevented a separation. While our strength at sea continues, the banks of the Ohio, in point of easy and expeditious conveyance of troops, are nearer to London than the remote parts of France and Spain to their respec- tive capitals, and much nearer than Connaught and Ulster were in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Nobody foretells the dissolution of the Russian monarchy from its extent; yet I will venture to say the eastern parts of it are already much more inaccessible from Petersburg than the country on the Mississippi 1S from London,—I mean, more men, in less time, might be conveyed to the latter than the former dis- tance. The rivers Oby, Jenessa, and Lena do not facilitate the communication half so well by their course, nor are they half so practicable as the Ameri- can rivers. To this I shall only add the observation of Machiavel, in his Prince: that a government sel- dom long preserves its dominion over those who are foreigners to it; who, on the other hand, fall with great ease, and continue inseparably annexed to the government of their own nation; which he proves by the fate of the English conquests in France. Yet with all these disadvantages, so difficult is it to over- turn an established government, that it was not without the assistance of France and England that the United Provinces supported themselves; which teaches us that— ' Essays 6. The French remaining in Canada, an Encourage- ment to Disaffections wn the British Colonies. If they prove a Check, that (Check of the most barbarous Nature— 2 / if the visionary danger of independence “in“our colonies is to be feared, nothing is more likely to render it substantial than the neighbourhood of for- eigners at enmity with the sovereign governments, capable of giving either aid,’ or an asylum, as the event shall require. Yet against even these disad- vantages, did Spain preserve almost ten provinces merely through their want of union; which, indeed, could never have taken place among the others, but I The aid Dr. Franklin alludes to must probably have consisted in early and full supplies of arms, officers, intelligence, and trade of export and of import, through the river St. Lawrence, on risks both public and private; in the encouragement of splendid promises and a great ally; in the passage from Canada to the back settlements being shut to the British forces; in the quiet of the great body of Indians; in the support of emissaries and discontented citizens; in loans and subsidies to Congress, in ways profitable to France; in a refuge to be granted them in case of defeat, in vacant lands, as settlers; in the probability of war commencing earlier between England and France, at the Gulf of St. Lawrence (when the shipping taken were rightfully addressed to Frenchmen) than in the present case. All this might have happened as soon as America’s distaste of England had exceeded the fear of the foreign nation; a circumstance frequently seen possible in history, and which the British ministers took care should not be wanting. This explanation would have been superfluous, had not the opinion been very general in England, that had not the French been removed from Canada, the revolt of America never would have taken place. Why, then, were the French not left in Canada at the peace of 1763? Or, since they were not left there, why was the American dispute begun? Yet, in one sense, perhaps this opinion is true; for kad the French been left in Canada, the English ministers would not only have sooner felt, but sooner have seen, the strange fatality of their plans. 2760] 59 60 Benjamin Franklin [1760 for causes, some of which are in our case impossible, and others it is impious to suppose possible. The Romans well understood that policy, which teaches the security arising to the chief government from separate States among the governed, when they restored the liberties of the States of Greece (op- pressed but united under Macedon) by an edict that every State should live under its own laws.* They did not even name a governor. Independence of each other and separate interests (though among a people united by common manners, language, and I may say religion; inferior neither in wisdom, brav- ery, nor their love of liberty to the Romans them- selves) were all the security the sovereigns wished for their sovereignty. It is true, they did not call themselves sovereigns: they set no value on the title; they were contented with possessing the thing. And possess it they did, even without a standing army. What can be a stronger proof of the security of their possession? And yet, by a policy similar to this throughout, was the Roman world subdued and held, a world com- posed of above a hundred languages and sets of man- ners, different from those of their masters.” Yet 1 “Omnes Graecorum civitates, que in Europd, quaque in Asia essent, libertatem ac suas leges haberent,” etc.—Liv., lib. xxzxiii., cap. 30. 2 When the Romans had subdued Macedon and Illyricum, they were both formed into republics by a decree of the Senate, and Macedon was thought safe from the danger of a revolution, by being divided into a division common among the Romans, as we learn from the tetrarchs in Scripture. ‘Omnium primum liberos esse placebat Macedonas atque Illyrios; ut omnibus gentibus appareret, arma populi Romani non liberis servitutem, sed contra servientibus libertatem afferre; ut 17601 Essays this dominion was unshakable, till the loss of liberty and corruption of manners in the sovereign State overturned it. But what is the prudent policy inculcated by the Remarker to obtain this end—security of dominion over our colonies? It is, to leave the French in Canada to “check” their growth; for otherwise, our people may “increase infinitely from all causes.” * We have already seen in what manner the French and their Indians check the growth of our colonies. It is a modest word, this check, for massacring men, women, and children! The writer would, if he could, hide from himself, as well as from the public, the horror arising from such a proposal, by couching it in general terms. It is no wonder he thought it a “subject not fit for discussion’’ in his letter, though he recommends it as “a point that should be the constant object of the minister's attention!”’ But if Canada is restored on this principle, will not Britain be guilty of all the blood to be shed, all the murders to be committed, in order to check this dreaded growth of our own people? Will not this be telling the French in plain terms, that the horrid et in libertate gentes qua essent, tutam eam sibi perpetuamque sub tutelda populi Romani esse; et, qua sub regibus viverent, et in presens ternpus mitiores eos justioresque respectu populi Romani habere se, et, si quando bellum cum populo Romano regibus fuisset suis, exitum ejus victoriam Romanis, sibi libertatem, allaturum crederent. . . . . In quatuor regiones describi Macedoniam, ut suum queeque concilium haberet, placuit; et dimidium tributi, qudm quod regibus ferre soliti erant, populo Romano pendere. Similia his et in Illyricum mandata.” —Liv., lib. xlv., cap. 18. * Remarks, pp. 50, SI. i 61 Benjamin Franklin +760 barbarities they perpetrate with Indians on our col- onists are agreeable to us; and that they need not apprehend the resentment of a government with whose views they so happily concur? Will not the colonies view it in this light? Will they have reason to consider themselves any longer as subjects and children, when they find their cruel enemies hallooed upon them by the country from whence they sprung; the government that owes them protection, as it requires their obedience? Is not this the most likely means of driving them into the arms of the French, who can invite them by an offer of security their own government chooses not to afford them? I would not be thought to insinuate that the Remarker wants humanity. I know how little many good- natured persons are affected by the distresses of people at a distance, and whom they do not know. There are even those who, being present, can sym- pathize sincerely with the grief of a lady on the sud- den death of a favorite bird, and yet can read of the sinking of a city in Syria with very little concern. If it be, after all, thought necessary to check the growth of our colonies, give me leave to propose a method less cruel. It is a method of which we have an example in Scripture. The murder of husbands, of wives, of brothers, sisters, and children, whose pleasing society has been for some time enjoyed, affects deeply the respective surviving relations; but grief for the death of a child just born is short and easily supported. The method I mean is that which was dictated by the Egyptian policy, when the “infinite increase’’ of the children of Israel was 62 Lx ~ Essays : apprehended as dangerous to the State. Let an act of Parliament then be made, enjoining the colony midwives to stifle in the birth every third or fourth child. By this means you may keep the colonies to their present size. And if they were under the hard alternative of submitting to one or the other of these schemes for checking their growth, I dare answer for them, they would prefer the latter. But all the debate about the propriety or impro- priety of keeping or restoring Canada is possibly too early. We have taken the capital indeed, but the country is yet far from being in our possession; and perhaps never will be; for, if our ministers are per- suaded by such counsellors as the Remarker, that the French there are “not the worst of neighbours,” and that, if we had conquered Canada, we ought, for our own sakes, to restore it, as a check to the growth of our colonies, I am then afraid we shall never take it. For there are many ways of avoiding the com- pletion of the conquest, that will be less exception- able and less odious than the giving it up. 7. Canada easily peopled without draining Great Brit ain of any of its Inhabitants. The objection I have often heard, that, if we had Canada, we could not people it without draining Britain of its inhabitants, is founded on ignorance * “And Pharaoh said unto his people: Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. And the king spake to the Hebrew midwives,’ etc.—Exodus, ch. i. 760] 63 64 Benjamin Franklin [1760 of the nature of population in new countries. When we first began to colonize in America, it was neces- sary to send people, and to send seed-corn; but it is not now necessary that we should furnish, for a new colony, either the one or the other. The annual in- crement alone of our present colonies, without dimin- ishing their numbers, or requiring a man from hence, is sufficient in ten years to fill Canada with double the number of English that it now has of French inhabitants. Those who are Protestants among the French will probably choose to remain under the English government; many will choose to remove, if they can be allowed to sell their lands, improve- ments, and effects; the rest in that thin-settled country will in less than half a century, from the crowds of English settling round and among them, be blended and incorporated with our people both in language and manners. 8. The Merits of Guadaloupe to Great Britain over- valued, yet likely to be paid much dearer for, than Canada. In Guadaloupe the case is somewhat different; and though I am far from thinking * we have sugar-land enough,® I cannot think Guadaloupe is so desirable 1 In fact, there have not gone from Britain itself to our colonies, these twenty years past, to settle there, so many as ten families a year; the new settlers are either the offspring of the old, or emigrants from Germany or the north of Ireland. 2 Remarks, pp. 39, 34- 3 Tt is often said, we have plenty of sugar-land still unemployed in Jamaica; but those who are well acquainted with that island know that the remaining vacant land in it is generally situated among moun- tains. rocks. and gullies, that make carriage impracticable, so that no : 1 [= B ~ Essays : an increase of it, as other objects the enemy would probably be infinitely more ready to part with. A country, fully inhabited by any nation, is no proper possession for another of different languages, man- ners, and religion. It is hardly ever tenable at less expense than it is worth. But the isle of Cayenne, and its appendix, Equinoctial France, having but very few inhabitants, and these therefore easily re- moved, would indeed be an acquisition every way suitable to our situation and desires. This would hold all that migrate from Barbadoes, the Leeward Islands, or Jamaica. It would certainly recall into an English government, in which there would be room for millions, all who have before settled or purchased in Martinico, Guadaloupe, Santa Cruz, or St. John’s; except such as know not the value of an English government, and such I am sure are not worth recalling. But should we keep Guadaloupe, we are told it would enable us to export £300,000 in sugars. Ad- mit it to be true, though perhaps the amazing increase of English consumption might stop most of it here, to whose profit is this to redound? To the profit of the French inhabitants of the island; except a small part, that should fall to the share of the English pur- chasers, but whose whole purchase-money must first be added to the wealth and circulation of France. I grant, however, much of this £300,000 would be profitable use can be made of it; unless the price of sugars should so greatly increase, as to enable the planter to make very expensive roads, by blowing up rocks, erecting bridges, &c., every two or three hundred yards. 69] 65 66 ;6¢ ; Benjamin Franklin [15 expended in British manufactures. Perhaps, too, a few of the land-owners of Guadaloupe might dwell and spend their fortunes in Britain, though probably much fewer than of the inhabitants of North Amer- ica. I admit the advantage arising to us from these circumstances, as far as they go, in the case of Guada- loupe, as well as in that of our other West India settlements. Yet even this consumption is little better than that of an allied nation would be, who should take our manufactures and supply us with sugar, and put us to no great expense in defending the place of growth. But, though our own colonies expend among us almost the whole produce of our sugar,* can we, or ought we to promise ourselves this will be the case of Guadaloupe? One £100,000 will supply them with British manufactures; and supposing we can effectually prevent the introduction of those of France, which is morally impossible in a country used to them, the other £200,000 will still be spent in France, in the education of their children and sup- port of themselves; or else be laid up there, where they will always think their home to be. Besides this consumption of British manufactures, much is said of the benfit we shall have from the situation of Guadaloupe; and we are told of a trade to the Caraccas and Spanish Main. In what respect Guadaloupe is better situated for this trade than Jamaica, or even our other islands, I am at a loss to guess. I believe it to be not so well situated for that of the Windward coast, as Tobago and St. I Remarks, p. 47. : Essays 67 Lucia; which in this, as well as other respects, would be more valuable possessions, and which, I doubt not, the peace will secure to us. Nor is it nearly so well situated for that of the rest of the Spanish Main as Jamaica. As to the greater safety of our trade by the possession of Guadaloupe, ex- perience has convinced us that in reducing a single island, or even more, we stop the privateering busi- ness but little. Privateers still subsist, in equal if not greater numbers, and carry the vessels into Martinico which before it was more convenient to carry into Guadaloupe. Had we all the Caribbees, it is true, they would in those parts be without shelter. Yet, upon the whole, I suppose it to be a doubtful point, and well worth consideration, whether our obtaining possession of all the Caribbees would be more than a temporary benefit; as it would neces- sarily soon fill the French part of Hispaniola with French inhabitants, and thereby render it five times more valuable in time of peace, and little less than impregnable in time of war, and would probably end in a few years in the uniting the whole of that great and fertile island under a French government. It is agreed on all hands, that our conquest of St. Christo- pher’s, and driving the French from thence, first furnished Hispaniola with skilful and substantial planters, and was consequently the first occasion of its present opulence. On the other hand, I will hazard an opinion, that, valuable as the French pos- sessions in the West Indies are, and undeniable as the advantages they derive from them, there is some- what to be weighed in the opposite scale. They i760] Benjamin Franklin [ire cannot at present make war with England, without exposing those advantages, while divided among the numerous islands they now have, much more than they would were they possessed of St. Domingo only; their own share of which would, if well cultivated, grow more sugar than is now grown in all their West India Islands. I have before said I do not deny the utility of the conquest, or even of our future possession, of Guada- loupe, if not bought too dear. The trade of the West Indies is one of our most valuable trades. Our possessions there deserve our greatest care and at- tention. So do those of North America. I shall not enter into the invidious task of comparing their due estimation. It would be a very long and a very dis- agreeable one, to run through every thing material on this head. It is enough to our present point, if I have shown that the value of North America is capable of an immense increase, by an acquisition and measures that must necessarily have an effect the direct contrary of what we have been indus- triously taught to fear: and that Guadaloupe is, in point of advantage, but a very small addition to our West India possessions; rendered many ways less valuable to us than it is to the French, who will probably set more value upon it than upon a country [Canada] that is much more valuable to us than to them. There is a great deal more to be said on all the parts of these subjects; but as it would carry me into a detail that I fear would tire the patience of my readers, and which I am not without apprehensions 68 hr : Essays 9 I have done already, I shall reserve what remains till I dare venture again on the indulgence of the public.” 1 Dr, Franklin is reported to have said that in writing this pamphlet he received considerable assistance from a learned friend, who, it is stated, on the authority of William T. Franklin, was Richard Jackson. GC {760] ITI LETTER CONCERNING THE GRATITUDE OF AMERICA AND THE PROBABILITY AND EFFECTS OF A UNION WITH GREAT BRITAIN; AND CONCERNING THE REPEAL OR SUS- PENSION OF THE STAMP ACT [LonDoN,] January 6, 1766. Sir: —I have attentively perused the paper you sent me, and am of opinion that the measure it pro- poses, of an union with the colonies, is a wise one; but I doubt it will hardly be thought so here, till it is too late to attempt it. The time has been, when the colonies would have esteemed it a great advantage, as well as honor, to be permitted to send members to Parliament: and would have asked for that privilege, if they could have had the least hopes of obtaining it. The time is now come when they are indifferent about it, and will probably not ask it, though they might accept it if offered them; and the time will come, when they will certainly refuse it. But if such an union were now established (which methinks it highly imports this country to establish) it would probably subsist as long as Britain shall continue a nation. This people, however, is too proud, and too much despises the Americans, to bear the thought of 20 re Essays 71 admitting them to such an equitable participation in the government of the whole. Then the next best thing seems to be, leaving them in the quiet enjoyment of their respective con- stitutions; and when money is wanted for any public service, in which they ought to bear a part, calling, upon them by requisitorial letters from the crown (according to the long-established custom) to grant such aids as their loyalty shall dictate, and their abili- ties permit. The very sensible and benevolent au- thor of that paper seems not to have known, that such a constitutional custom subsists, and has always hitherto been practised in America; or he would not have expressed himself in this manner: “It is evi- dent, beyond a doubt, to the intelligent and impar- tial, that after the very extraordinary efforts, which were effectually made by Great Britain in the late war to save the colonists from destruction, and at- tended of necessity with an enormous load of debts in consequence, that the same colonists, now firmly secured from foreign enemies, should be somehow in- duced to contribute some proportion towards the exi- gencies of state in future.” This looks as if he conceived the war had been carried on at the sole expense of Great Britain, and the colonies only reaped the benefit, without hitherto sharing the bur- den, and were therefore now indebted to Britain on that account. And this is the same kind of argu- ment that is used by those who would fix on the colonies the heavy charge of unreasonableness and ingratitude, which I think your friend did not intend. Please to acquaint him, then, that the fact is not +50] .. Benjamin Franklin [1766 so; that, every year during the war, requisitions were made by the crown on the colonies for raising money and men; that accordingly they made more extraor- dinary efforts, in proportion to their abilities, than Britain did; that they raised, paid, and clothed, for five or six years, near twenty-five thousand men, besides providing for other services, as building forts, equipping guard-ships, paying transports, &c. And that this was more than their fair proportion is not merely an opinion of mine, but was the judgment of government here, in full knowledge of all the facts; for the then ministry, to make the burden more equal, recommended the case to Parliament, and ob- tained a reimbursement to the Americans of about two hundred thousand pounds sterling every year; which amounted only to about two fifths of their ex- pense; and great part of the rest lies still a load of debt upon them; heavy taxes on all their estates, real and personal, being laid by acts of their assem- blies to discharge it, and yet will not discharge it in many years. While, then, these burdens continue; while Britain restrains the colonies in every branch of commerce and manufactures that she thinks interferes with her own; while she drains the colonies, by her trade with them, of all the cash they can procure by every art and industry in any part of the world, and thus keeps them always in her debt (for they can make no law to discourage the importation of your to them ruinous superfluities, as you do the superfluities of France; since such a law would immediately be reported Eo.) 2 17 Essays 3 against by your Board of Trade, and repealed by the crown); I say, while these circumstances continue, and while there subsists the established method of royal requisitions for raising money on them by their own assemblies on every proper occasion; can it be necessary or prudent to distress and vex them by taxes laid here, in a Parliament wherein they have no representative, and in a manner which they look upon to be unconstitutional and subversive of their most valuable rights? And are they to be thought un- reasonable and ungrateful if they oppose such taxes? Wherewith, they say, shall we show our loyalty to our gracious King, if our money is to be given by others, without asking our consent? And, if the Parliament has a right thus to take from us a penny in the pound, where is the line drawn that bounds that right, and what shall hinder their calling, when- ever they please, for the other nineteen shillings and eleven pence? Have we then any thing that we can call our own? It is more than probable, that bring- ing representatives from the colonies to sit and act here as members of Parliament, thus uniting and consolidating your dominions, would in a little time remove these objections and difficulties, and make the future government of the colonies easy; but, till some such thing is done, I apprehend no taxes, laid there by Parliament here, will ever be collected, but such as must be stained with blood; and I am sure the profit of such taxes will never answer the expense of collecting them, and that the respect and affection of the Americans to this country will in the struggle Luo! 7 4 Benjamin Franklin [1756 be totally lost, perhaps never to be recovered; and therewith all the commercial and political advan- tages, that might have attended the continuance of this respect and this affection. In my own private judgment, I think an immediate repeal of the Stamp Act would be the best measure for this country; but a suspension of it for three years the best for that. The repeal would fill them with joy and gratitude, reéstablish their respect and vene- ration for Parliament, restore at once their ancient and natural love for this country, and their regard for every thing that comes from it; hence the trade would be renewed in all its branches; they would again indulge in all the expensive superfluities you supply them with, and their new-assumed home in- dustry would languish. But the suspension, though it might continue their fears and anxieties, would at the same time keep up their resolutions of industry and frugality; which in two or three years would grow into habits, to their lasting advantage. How- ever, as the repeal will probably not be now agreed to,” from what I think a mistaken opinion, that the honor and dignity of government is better supported by persisting in a wrong measure once entered into, than by rectifying an error as soon as it is discovered; we must allow the next best thing for the advantage of both countries is the suspension; for, as to execut- ing the act by force, it is madness, and will be ruin to the whole. The rest of your friend’s reasonings and proposi- tions appear to me truly just and judicious. I will 1 Jt was, however, agreed to in the same year, viz, in 1766. ze ol iL Essays 75 therefore only add, that I am as desirous of his acquaintance and intimacy as he was of my opinion. I am, with much esteem, Your obliged friend, B. FRANKLIN.? t The name of the person to whom this letter is addressed is not known. The letter, to which it is a reply, appears to have contained the letter of some third person equally unknown. [766] IV THE EXAMINATION OF DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS RELATIVE TO THE REPEAL OF THE AMERICAN STAMP ACT, IN I766% From the journal of the House of Commons, as given by Mr. Vaughan. ““ February 3, 1766. Benjamin Franklin and a number of other persons ordered to attend the committee of the whole House, to whom it was referred to consider farther the several papers, which were presented to the House by Mr. Secretary Conway. “ February 13th. Benjamin Franklin, having passed through his examination, was excepted from farther attendance. I As soon as the Stamp Act was promulgated in the colonies, a cloud of petitions from their various assemblies was showered upon the Parliament for its repeal. The stamped paper was rejected as if it were poisoned; vessels were forbidden to land it; the distributors were compelled to resign their commissions; Hughes dared not show himself on the streets, nor did Franklin entirely escape. A caricature of the period represents the Devil whispering in his ear: “Ben, you shall be my agent throughout my dominions.” His house and family even were supposed at one time to be in peril from the mob, as ap- pears by the following extract from a letter written him by his wife on the 22d September: “You will see by the papers what work has happened in other places, and something has been said relative to raising a mob in this place. I was for nine days kept in a continual hurry by people to remove; and Sally was persuaded to go to Burlington [the residence of her brother, the governor] for safety; but, on Monday last, we had very great rejoicing on account of the change in the ministry, and a 76 Essays 77 “ February 24th. The resolutions of the committee were reported by the chairman, Mr. Fuller; their seventh and last resolution, setting forth that it was their opinion that the House be moved that leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal the Stamp Act.” The account of the examination was first published in 1767, without the name of printer or publisher. It was translated into French, and widely circulated in Europe. It has been frequently reprinted in both the English and French languages. —EDITOR. preparation for bonfires at night, and several houses threatened to be pulled down. “Cousin Davenport came and told me that more than twenty people had told him it was his duty to be with us. I said I was pleased to receive civility from any body, so he staid with me some time. Towards night I said he should fetch a gun or two, as we had none. I sent to ask my brother to come, and bring his gun also, so we [turned] one room into a magazine; I ordered some sort of defence up-stairs, such as I could manage myself. I said when I was advised to remove, that I was very sure you had done nothing to anybody, nor had I given any offence to any person at all, nor would I be uneasy by anybody, nor would I stir or show the least uneasiness, but if any one came to disturb me, I should show a proper resentment, and I should be very much affronted with anybody. “Sally was gone with Miss Rose to see Captain Real’s daughter, and heard the report there, and came home to be with me; but I had sent her word not to come. I was told there were eight hundred men ready to assist any one that should be molested. “Billy [the Governor of New Jersey] came down to ask us up to Bur- lington. I consented to Sally’s going, but I will not stir, as I really don’t think it would be right for me to show the least uneasiness at all. “I4 is Mr. Samuel Smith that is setting the people mad by telling them it was you that had planned the Stamp Act, and that you are endeavoring to get the Test Act brought over here.” Such was the state of affairs in America when the subject was again brought before Parliament in the beginning of ’66, the Marquis of Rockingham having displaced Mr. Grenville. The new ministers resolved to recommend a repeal of the Stamp Act. While the question was under debate in Parliament, a motion which probably originated with the ministers who were not striving to effect a repeal of the act, was adupted, that Franklin be called be- fore the House, and examined respecting the state of affairs in America. This is the report of his examination.—EDITOR. 766] 5 : Benjamin Franklin Q. What is your name and place of abode? A. Franklin, of Philadelphia. QO. Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among themselves? A. Certainly, many and very heavy taxes. Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania, laid by the laws of the colony? A. There are taxes on all estates, real and per- sonal; a poll tax; a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and businesses, according to their profits; an excise on all wine, rum, and other spirits; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported, with some other duties. Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid? A. For the support of the civil and military estab- lishments of the country, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted in the last war. Q. How long are those taxes to continue? A. Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer, if the debt should not be then all discharged. The others must always continue. Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner discharged? A. It was, when the peace was made with France and Spain. But a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, a fresh load of debt was incurred; and the taxes, of course, continued longer by a new law. Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes? A. No. The frontier counties, all along the con- tinent, having been frequently ravaged by the enemy and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little 78 11766 17 Essays I tax. And therefore, in consideration of their dis- tresses, our late tax laws do expressly favor those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I suppose the same 1s done in other governments. (Q. Are not you concerned in the management of the post-office in America? A. Yes. I am deputy-postmaster-general of North America. Q. Don’t you think the distribution of stamps by post to all the inhabitants very practicable, if there was no opposition? A. The posts only go along the sea-coasts: they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country; and, if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expense of postage amounting in many cases to much more than that of the stamps themselves. (Q. Are you acquainted with Newfoundland? A. I never was there. QO. Do you know whether there are any post-roads on that island? A. Ihave heard that there are no roads at all, but that the communication between one settlement and another is by sea only. Q. Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada? A. There is only a post between Montreal and Quebec. The inhabitants live so scattered and re- mote from each other in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them, and therefore they cannot get stamps per post. The English colonies, too, along the frontiers are very thinly settled. £60] 7¢ Benjamin Franklin [1755 Q. From the thinness of the back settlements would not the Stamp Act be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants, if executed? A. To be sure it would; as many of the inhabi- tants could not get stamps when they had occasion for them without taking long journeys, and spending perhaps three or four pounds, that the crown might get sixpence. Q. Are not the colonies, from their circumstances, very able to pay the stamp duty? A. In my opinion there is not gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year. Q. Don’t you know that the money arising from the stamps was all to be laid out in America? A. I know it is appropriated by the act to the American service; but it will be spent in the con- quered colonies, where the soldiers are; not in the colonies that pay it. Q. Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the old colonies? I The Stamp Act said: ‘‘that the Americans shall have no com- merce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither pur- chase, nor grant, nor recover debts; they shall neither marry nor make their wills, unless they pay such and such sums’ in specie for the stamps which must give validity to the proceedings. The opera- tion of such a tax, had it obtained the consent of the people, appeared inevitable; and its annual productiveness, on its introduction, was estimated, by its proposer in the House of Commons at the committee for supplies, at one hundred thousand pounds sterling. The colonies being already reduced to the necessity of having paper money, by sending to Britain the specie they collected in foreign trade, in order to make up for the deficiency of their other returns for British manu- factures, there were doubts whether there could remain specie sufficient to answer the tax. 80 2s ~ Essays : A. Ithink not. I believe very little would come back. I know of no trade likely to bring it back. I think it would come, from the colonies where it was spent, directly to England; for I have always ob- served, that in every colony the more plenty the means of remittance to England, the more goods are sent for, and the more trade with England carried on. Q. What number of white inhabitants do you think there are in Pennsylvania? A. 1 suppose there may be about one hundred and sixty thousand. (* What number of them are Quakers? A. Perhaps a third. {* What number of Germans? A. Perhaps another third; but I cannot speak with certainty. Q. Have any number of the Germans seen service, as soldiers, in Europe? A. Yes, many of them, both in Europe and America. Q. Are they as much dissatisfied with the stamp duty as the English? A. Yes, and more; and with reason, as their stamps are, in many cases, to be double. Q. How many white men do you suppose there are in North America? I The Stamp Act provided that a double duty should be laid *‘ where the instrument, proceedings, &c., shall be engrossed, written, or printed within the said colonies and plantations, in any other than the English language.” This measure, it is presumed, appeared to be suggested by motives of convenience, and the policy of assimilating persons of foreign to those of British descent, and preventing their in- terference in the conduct of law business till this change should be affected. It seems, however, to have been deemed too precipitate, 766] 81 Qn = Benjamin Franklin [1766 A. About three hundred thousand, from sixteen to sixty years of age. Q. What may be the amount of one year’s im- ports into Pennsylvania from Britain? A. Ihave been informed that our merchants com- pute the imports from Britain to be above five hun- dred thousand pounds. (Q. What may be the amount of the produce of your province exported to Britain? A. It must be small, as we produce little that is wanted in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed forty thousand pounds. Q. How then do you pay the balance? A. The balance is paid by our produce carried to the West Indies, and sold in our own islands, or to the French, Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch; by the same produce carried to other colonies in North America, as to New England, Nova Scotia, New- foundland, Carolina, and Georgia; by the same, car- ried to different parts of Europe, as Spain, Portugal, and Italy. In all which places we receive either money, bills of exchange, or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain; which, together with all the profits on the industry of our merchants and mariners, arising in those circuitous voyages, and the freights immediately to extend this clause to newly conquered countries. An exemption therefore was granted, in this particular, with respect to Canada and Grenada, for the space of five years, to be reckoned from the commencement of the duty. See the Stamp Act. 1 Strangers excluded, some parts of the northern colonies doubled their numbers in fifteen or sixteen years; to the southward they were longer; but, taking one with another, they had doubled, by natural generation only, once in twenty-five years. Pennsylvania, including strangers, had doubled in about sixteen years. 176. Essays 3 made by their ships, centre finally in Britain to dis- charge the balance, and pay for British manufactures continually used in the provinces, or sold to foreigners by our traders. Q. Have you heard of any difficulties lately laid on the Spanish trade? A. Yes; Ihave heard that it has been greatly ob- structed by some new regulations, and by the Eng- lish men-of-war and cutters stationed all along the coast in America. Q. Do you think it right that America should be protected by this country and pay no part of the expense? A. That is not the case. The colonies raised, clothed, and paid, during the last war, near twenty- five thousand men, and spent many millions. Q. Were you not reimbursed by Parliament? A. We were only reimbursed what, in your opin- ion, we had advanced beyond our proportion, or be- yond what might reasonably be expected from us; and it was a very small part of what we spent. Pennsylvania, in particular, disbursed about five hundred thousand pounds, and the reimbursements, in the whole, did not exceed sixty thousand pounds. Q. You have said that you pay heavy taxes in Pennsylvania; what do they amount to in the pound? A. The tax on all estates, real and personal, is eighteen pence in the pound, fully rated; and the tax on the profits of trades and professions, with other taxes, do, I suppose, make full half a crown in the pound. 46] 3. 84 Benjamin Franklin [2755 Q. Do youknow any thing of the rate of exchange in Pennsylvania, and whether it has fallen lately? A. Itis commonly from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and seventy-five. I have heard that it has fallen lately from one hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and sixty-two and a half; owing, I suppose, to their lessening their orders for goods; and when their debts to this country are paid, I think the exchange will probably be at par. 0. Do you not think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty, if it was moderated? A. No, never, unless compelled by force of arms. Q. Are not the taxes in Pennsylvania laid on un- equally, in order to burden the English trade; particularly the tax on professions and business? A. Tt is not more burdensome in proportion than the tax on lands. It is intended and supposed to take an equal proportion of profits. Q. How is the assembly composed? Of what kinds of people are the members; landholders or traders? A. Ttis composed of landholders, merchants, and artificers. Q. Are not the majority landholders? A. 1 believe they are. 0. Do not they, as much as possible, shift the tax off from the land, to ease that, and lay the burden heavier on trade? A. Ihave never understood it so. I never heard such a thing suggested. And indeed an attempt of that kind could answer no purpose. The merchant or trader is always skilled in figures, and ready with yc . Aru 1766] Essays 85 his pen and ink. If unequal burdens are laid on his trade, he puts an additional price on his goods; and the consumers, who are chiefly landholders, finally pay the greatest part, if not the whole. Q. What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 17637 * A. The best in the world. They submitted will- ingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old pro- vinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garri- sons, or armies to keep them in subjection. They I In the year 1733, “for the welfare and prosperity of our sugar colonies in America,” and ‘for remedying discouragement of planters,” duties were ‘‘ given and granted” to George the Second upon all rum, spirits, molasses, syrups, sugar, and paneles of foreign growth, pro- duce, and manufacture, imported into the colonies. This regulation of trade, for the benefit of the general empire was acquiesced in, not- withstanding the introduction of the novel terms ‘“‘give and grant.” But the act, which was made only for the term of five years, and had been several times renewed in the reign of George the Second, and once in the reign of George the Third, was renewed again in the year 1763, in the reign of George the Third, and extended to other articles upon new and altered grounds. It was stated in the preamble to this act, “ that it was expedient that new provisions and regulations should be established for improving the revenue of this kingdom”; that it “was just and necessary that a revenue should be raised in America for defending, protecting, and securing the same”; and that the Com- mons of Great Britain, desirous of making some provision towards raising the said revenue in America, have resolved to give and grant to his Majesty the several rates and duties,” &c. Mr. Mauduit, agent for Massachusetts Bay, tells us, that he was instructed in the following terms to oppose Mr. Grenville’s taxing system. ‘You are to remon- strate against these measures, and, if possible, to obtain a repeal of the Sugar Act, and prevent the imposition of any further duties or taxes on the colonies. Measures will be taken that you may be joined by all the other agents. Boston, June 14th, 1764.” The question proposed to Dr. Franklin alludes to this sugar act in 1763. Dr. Franklin's answer particularly merits the attention of the historian and politician. Benjamin Franklin [1766 were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper; they were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affec- tion for Great Britain; for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard. To be an Old-England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us. Q. And what is their temper now? A. O, very much altered. Q. Did you ever hear the authority of Parliament to make laws for America questioned till lately? A. The authority of Parliament was allowed to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay internal taxes. It was never disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce. Q. In what proportion hath population increased in America? A. 1 think the inhabitants of all the provinces together, taken at a medium, double in about twenty- five years. But their demand for British manufac- tures increases much faster, as the consumption is not merely in proportion to their numbers, but grows with the growing abilities of the same numbers to pay for them. In 1723 the whole importation from Britain to Pennsylvania was about fifteen thousand pounds sterling. It is now near half a million. Q. In what light did the people of America use to consider the Parliament of Great Britain? A. They considered the Parliament as the great bulwark and security of their liberties and privileges, 6 t Essays 37 and always spoke of it with the utmost respect and veneration. Arbitrary ministers, they thought, might possibly at times attempt to oppress them; but they relied on it that the Parliament, on applica- tion, would always give redress. They remembered, with gratitude, a strong instance of this when a bill was brought into Parliament with a clause to make royal instructions laws in the colonies, which the House of Commons would not pass, and it was thrown out. (). And have they not still the same respect for Parliament? A. No, it 1s greatly lessened. Q. To what cause is that owing? A. To a concurrence of causes; the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the colonies was pre- vented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps, taking away at the same time trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions. Q. Don’t you think they would submit to the Stamp Act, if it was modified, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty reduced to some particulars of small moment? A. No, they will never submit to it. Q. What do you think is the reason the people in America increase faster than in England? A. Because they marry younger, and more generally. Q. Why so? 766] & Benjamin Franklin [17:5 A. Because any young couple that are indus- trious, may easily obtain land of their own, on which they can raise a family. Q. Are not the lower ranks of people more at their ease in America than in England? A. They may be so, if they are sober and diligent, as they are better paid for their labor. Q. What is your opinion of a future tax, imposed on the same principle with that of the Stamp Act? How would the Americans receive it? A. Just as they do this. They would not pay it. (0. Have not you heard of the resolutions of this House, and of the House of Lords, asserting the right of Parliament relating to America, including a power to tax the people there? A. Yes, I have heard of such resolutions. QO. What will be the opinion of the Americans on those resolutions? A. They will think them unconstitutional and unjust. Q. Wasit an opinion in America before 1763, that the Parliament had no right to lay taxes and duties there? A. I never heard any objection to the right of laying duties to regulate commerce; but the right to lay internal taxes was never supposed to be in Parliament, as we are not represented there. OQ. On what do you found your opinion, that the people in America made any such distinction? A. 1 know that whenever the subject has oc- curred in conversation where I have been present, it has appeared to be the opinion of every one, that we 8 Fak t Essays : could not be taxed by a Parliament wherein we were not represented. But the payment of duties laid by an act of Parliament, as regulations of commerce, was never disputed. (Q. But can you name any act of assembly, or pub- lic act of any of your governments, that made such distinction? A. I do not know that there was any; I think there was never an occasion to make any such act, till now that you have attempted to tax us; that has occasioned resolutions of assembly, declaring the dis- tinction, in which I think every assembly on the continent, and every member in every assembly, have been unanimous. Q. What, then, could occasion conversations on that subject before that time? A. There was in 1754 a proposition made, (I think it came from hence,) that in case of a war, which was then apprehended, the governors of the colonies should meet, and order the levying of troops, build- ing of forts, and taking every other measure for the general defence; and should draw on the treasury here for the sums expended, which were afterwards to be raised in the colonies by a general tax, to be laid on them by act of Parliament. This occasioned a good deal of conversation on the subject; and the general opinion was, that the Parliament neither would nor could lay any tax on us, till we were duly represented in Parliament; because it was not just, nor agreeable to the nature of an English constitution. QO. Don’t you know there was a time in New York, 766] 8c Benjamin Franklin [1746 when it was under consideration to make an applica- tion to Parliament to lay taxes on that colony, upon a deficiency arising from the assembly’s refusing or neglecting to raise the necessary supplies for the sup- port of the civil government? A. 1 never heard of it. Q. There was such an application under considera- tion in New York; and do you apprehend they could suppose the right of Parliament to lay a tax in America was only local, and confined to the case of a deficiency in a particular colony, by a refusal of its assembly to raise the necessary supplies? A. They could not suppose such a case, as that the assembly would not raise the necessary supplies to support its own government. An assembly that would refuse it must want common sense; which can- not be supposed. I think there was never any such case at New York, and that it must be a misrepre- sentation, or the fact must be misunderstood. I know there have been some attempts, by ministerial instructions from hence, to oblige the assemblies to settle permanent salaries on governors, which they wisely refused to do; but I believe no assembly of New York, or any other colony, ever refused duly to support government by proper allowances, from time to time, to public officers. OQ. But, in case a governor, acting by instruction, should call on an assembly to raise the necessary sup- plies, and the assembly should refuse to do it, do you not think it would then be for the good of the people of the colony, as well as necessary to government, that the Parliament should tax them? 00 . Essays A. 1 do not think it would be necessary. If an assembly could possibly be so absurd, as to refuse raising the supplies requisite for the maintenance of government among them, they could not long remain in such a situation; the disorders and confusion occasioned by it must soon bring them to reason. Q. If it should not, ought not the right to be in Great Britain of applying a remedy? A. A right, only to be used in such a case, I should have no objection to; supposing it to be used merely for the good of the people of the colony. Q. But who is to judge of that, Britain or the colony? A. Those that feel can best judge. QO. You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes, and object to the right of Parliament only in laying internal taxes; now can you show that there is any kind of difference between the two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid? A. I think the difference is very great. An exter- nal tax is a duty laid on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first cost and other charges on the commodity, and, when it is offered to sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced from the people without their consent, if not laid by their own repre- sentatives. The Stamp Act says, we shall have no commerce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall neither marry nor make our wills, unless we 766] OI 02 | Benjamin Franklin [1766 pay such and such sums; and thus it is intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the conse- quences of refusing to pay it. (Q. But supposing the external tax or duty to be laid on the necessaries of life imported into your colony, will not that be the same thing in its effects as an internal tax? A. I do not know a single article imported into the northern colonies, but what they can either do without, or make themselves. Q. Don’t you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to them. A. No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management they may very well supply themselves with all they want. Q. Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture among them; and must they not in the meanwhile suffer greatly? A. 1 think not. They have made a surprising progress already. And I am of opinion that before their old clothes are worn out they will have new ones of their own making. Q. Can they possibly find wool enough in North America. A. They have taken steps to increase the wool. They entered into general combinations to eat no more lamb; and very few lambs were killed last year. This course, persisted in, will soon make a prodigious difference in the quantity of wool. And the estab- lishing of great manufactories, like those in the clothing towns here, is not necessary. as it is where the business is to be carried on for the purposes of rr Essays trade. The people will all spin and work for them- selves in their own houses. Q. Can there be wool and manufacture enough in one or two years? A. In three years, I think there may. QO. Does not the severity of the winter, in the northern colonies, occasion the wool to be of bad quality? A. No; the wool is very fine and good. Q. In the more southern colonies, as in Virginia, don’t you know that the wool is coarse and only a kind of hair? A. I don’t know it. I never heard it. Yet I have been sometimes in Virginia. I cannot say I ever took particular notice of the wool there, but I believe it is good, though I cannot speak positively of it; but Virginia and the colonies south of it have less occasion for wool; their winters are short, and not very severe; and they can very well clothe themselves with linen and cotton of their own raising for the rest of the year. Q. Are not the people in the more northern colo- nies obliged to fodder their sheep all the winter? A. In some of the most northern colonies they may be obliged to do it some part of the winter. Q. Considering the resolutions of Parliament,” as to the right, do you think, if the Stamp Act is re- pealed, that the North Americans will be satisfied? A. 1 believe they will. ( Why do you think so? A. 1 think the resolutions of right will give them 1 Afterwards expressed in the Declaratory Act. +66] 03 Benjamin Franklin [1766 very little concern, if they are never attempted to be carried into practice. The colonies will probably consider themselves in the same situation, in that respect, with Ireland; they know you claim the same right with regard to Ireland; but you never exercise it, and they may believe you never will exercise it in the colonies, any more than in Ireland, unless on some very extraordinary occasion. Q. But who are to be the judges of that extraor- dinary occasion? Is not the Parliament? A. Though the Parliament may judge of the occa- sion, the people will think it can never exercise such right, till representatives from the colonies are admit- ted into Parliament; and that, whenever the occasion arises, representatives will be ordered. QO. Did you ever hear that Maryland, during the last war, had refused to furnish a quota towards the common defence? A. Maryland has been much misrepresented in this matter. Maryland, to my knowledge, never re- fused to contribute or grant aids to the crown. The assemblies, every year during the war, voted con- siderable sums, and formed bills to raise them. The bills were, according to the constitution of that pro- vince, sent up to the Council, or Upper House, for concurrence, that they might be represented to the governor, in order to be enacted into laws. Un- happy disputes between the two Houses, arising from the defects of that constitution principally, rendered all the bills but one or two abortive. The proprietary’s council rejected them. It is true, Maryland did not then contribute its proportion; 4 17664 Essays ; but it was, in my opinion, the fault of the govern- ment, not of the people. Q. Was it not talked of in the other provinces, as a proper measure, to apply to Parliament to com- pel them? A. I have heard such discourse; but, as it was well known that the people were not to blame, no such application was ever made, nor any step taken towards it. (* Was it not proposed at a public meeting? A. Not that I know of. Q. Do you remember the abolishing of the paper currency in New England, by act of assembly? A. I do remember its being abolished in the Mas- sachusetts Bay. Q. Was not Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson principally concerned in that transaction? A. TI have heard so. Q. Wasit not at that time a very unpopular law? A. I believe it might, though I can say little about it, as I lived at a distance from that province. Q. Was not the scarcity of gold and silver an ar- gument used against abolishing the paper? A. 1 suppose it was.r Q. What is the present opinion there of that law? Is it as unpopular as it was at first? A. 1 think it is not. Q. Have not instructions from hence been some- times sent over to governors, highly oppressive and unpolitical ? * See ““ Remarks and Facts Relative to the American Paper Money,” in Spark’s Works of Franklin, vol. ii., p. 340. 3) 95 06 1766 Benjamin Franklin J A. Yes. Q. Have not some governors dispensed with them for that reason? A. Yes, Ihave heard so. Q. Did the Americans ever dispute the controlling power of Parliament to regulate the commerce? A. No. Q. Can any thing less than a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution? A. 1 donot see how amilitary force can be applied to that purpose. Q. Why may it not? A. Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one. Q. If the act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequences? A. A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection. Q. How can the commerce be affected? A. You will find that, if the act is not repealed, they will take a very little of your manufactures in a short time. Q. Is it in their power to do without them? A. The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences. or superfluities. The first, as cloth, &c., with a little industry they can make at home: the second they can do without, till 1 Essays they are able to provide them among themselves: and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed because the fashion in a respected country; but will now be de- tested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand pounds’ worth are sent back as unsalable. Q. Is it their interest to make cloth at home? A. 1 think they may at present get it cheaper from Britain; I mean of the same fineness and workmanship; but, when one considers other cir- cumstances, the restraints on their trade, and the difficulty of making remittances, it is their interest to make every thing. Q. Suppose an act of internal regulations con- nected with a tax; how would they receive it? A. 1 think it would be objected to. Q. Then no regulation with a tax would be sub- mitted to? A. Their opinion is, that, when aids to the crown are wanted, they are to be asked of the several assem- blies, according to the old established usage; who will, as they always have done, grant them freely. And that their money ought not to be given away, with- out their consent, by persons at a distance, unac- quainted with their circumstances and abilities. The granting aids to the crown is the only means they have of recommending themselves to their sovereign; and they think it extremely hard and unjust, that a body of men, in which they have no representatives, 50; 97 Benjamin Franklin [1766 should make a merit to itself of giving and granting what is not its own, but theirs; and deprive them of a right they esteem of the utmost value and impor- tance, as it is the security of all their other rights. Q. But is not the post-office, which they have long received, a tax as well as a regulation? A. No; the money paid for the postage of a letter is not of the nature of a tax; it is merely a quantum meruit for a service done; no person is compellable to pay the money if he does not choose to receive the service. A man may still, as before the act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper and safer. 0. But do they not consider the regulations of the post-office, by the act of last year, as a tax? A. By the regulations of last year the rate of postage was generally abated near thirty per cent. through all America; they certainly cannot consider such abatement as a tax. Q. If an excise was laid by Parliament, which they might likewise avoid paying, by not consum- ing the articles excised, would they then not object to 1t? A. They would certainly object to it, as an excise is unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid, which they think ought to be asked of them, and granted by them, if they are to pay it: and can be granted to them by no others whatsoever, whom they have not empowered for that purpose. QO. You say they do not object to the right of Par- liament, in laying duties on goods to be paid on their importation; now, is there any kind of difference 08 I> Essays ) between a duty on the importation of goods, and an excise on their consumption? A. Yes, a very material one; an excise, for the reasons I have just mentioned, they think you can have no right to lay within their country. But the sea 1s yours; you maintain, by your fleets, the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of pirates; you may have, therefore, a natural and equitable right to some toll or duty on merchandises carried through that part of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in ships to maintain the safety of that carriage. Q. Does this reasoning hold in the case of a duty laid on the produce of their lands exported? And would they not then object to such a duty? A. If it tended to make the produce so much dearer abroad, as to lessen the demand for it, to be sure they would object to such a duty; not to your right of laying it, but they would complain of it as a burden, and petition you to lighten it. Q. Is not the duty paid on the tobacco exported, a duty of that kind? A. That, I think, is only on tobacco carried coast- wise, from one colony to another, and appropriated as a fund for supporting the college at Williamsburg in Virginia. Q. Have not the assemblies in the West Indies the same natural rights with those in North America? A. Undoubtedly. Q. And is there not a tax laid there on theirsugars exported ? A. I am not much acquainted with the West 766] ole Benjamin Franklin [1766 Indies; but the duty of four and a half per cent. on sugars exported was, I believe, granted by their own assemblies. Q. How much is the poll-tax in your province laid on unmarried men? A. It is, I think, fifteen shillings, to be paid by every single freeman upwards of twenty-one years old. OQ. What is the annual amount of all the taxes in Pennsylvania? A. 1 suppose about twenty thousand pounds sterling. QO. Supposing the Stamp Act continued and en- forced, do you imagine that ill-humor will induce the Americans to give as much for worse manufactures of their own, and use them, preferable to better of ours? A. Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one passion as another, their resentment as their pride. 0. Would the people at Boston discontinue their trade? A. The merchants are a very small number com- pared with the body of the people, and must discon- tinue their trade if nobody will buy their goods. OQ. What are the body of the people in the col- onies? A. They are farmers, husbandmen, or planters. OQ. Would they suffer the produce of their lands to rot? A. No: but they would not raise so much. They would manufacture more and plough less. 100 Ta Essays QO. Would they live without the administration of justice in civil matters, and suffer all the inconven- iences of such a situation for any considerable time, rather than take the stamps, supposing the stamps were protected by a sufficient force, where every one might have them? A. I think the supposition impracticable, that the stamps should be so protected as that every one might have them. The act requires sub-distributors to be appointed in every county town, district, and village, and they would be necessary. But the prin- cipal distributors, who were to have had a consider- able profit on the whole, have not thought it worth while to continue in the office; and I think it im- possible to find sub-distributors fit to be trusted, who, for the trifling profit that must come to their share, would incur the odium and run the hazard that would attend it; and, if they could be found, I think it im- practicable to protect the stamps in so many distant and remote places. QO. But in places where they could be protected, would not the people use them rather than remain in such a situation, unable to obtain any right, or re- cover by law any debt? A. Tt is hard to say what they would do. I can only judge what other people will think, and how they will act by what I feel within myself. Ihavea great many debts due to me in America, and I had rather they should remain unrecoverable by any law than submit to the Stamp Act. They will be debts of honor. It is my opinion the people will either continue in that situation, or find some way to ex- 766] 101 102 Benjamin Franklin [1766 tricate themselves; perhaps by generally agreeing to proceed in the courts without stamps. Q. What do you think a sufficient military force to protect the distribution of the stamps in every part of America? A. A very great force, I can’t say what, if the dis- position of America is for a general resistance. Q. What is the number of men in America able to bear arms, or of disciplined militia? A. There are, I suppose, atleast . . . [Question objected to. He withdrew. Called in again.) Q. Is the American Stamp Act an equal tax on the country? A. 1 think not. OQ. Why so? A. The greatest part of the money must arise from lawsuits for the recovery of debts, and be paid by the lower sort of people, who were too poor easily to pay their debts. It is, therefore, a heavy tax on the poor, and a tax upon them for being poor. OQ. But will not this increase of expense be a means of lessening the number of lawsuits? A. I think not; for as the costs all fall upon the debtor, and are to be paid by him, they would be no discouragement to the creditor to bring his action. Q. Would it not have the effect of excessive usury? A. Yes; as an oppression of the debtor. Q. How many ships are there laden annually in North America with flax-seed for Ireland? A. 1 cannot speak to the number of ships; but I or Essays : know that in 1752 ten thousand hogsheads of flax- seed, each containing seven bushels, were exported from Philadelphia to Ireland. I suppose the quantity is greatly increased since that time, and it is under- stood that the exportation from New York is equal to that from Philadelphia. Q. What becomes of the flax that grows with that flax-seed ? A. They manufacture some into coarse, and some into middling kind of linen. Q. Are there any slitting-mills in America? A. I think there are three; but I believe only one at present employed. I suppose they will all be set to work if the interruption of the trade continues. Q. Are there any fulling-mills there? A. A great many. Q. Did you ever hear that a great quantity of stockings were contracted for, for the army, during the war, and manufactured in Philadelphia? A. I have heard so. Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would not the Americans think they could oblige the Parlia- ment to repeal every external tax law now in force? A. It is hard to answer questions of what people at such a distance will think. Q. But what do you imagine they will think were the motives of repealing the act? A. I suppose they will think that it was repealed from a conviction of its inexpediency; and they will rely upon it, that, while the same inexpediency sub- sists, you will never attempt to make such another. Q. What do you mean by its inexpediency? 256] 103 Benjamin Franklin [175 A. 1 mean its inexpediency on several accounts; the poverty and inability of those who were to pay the tax, the general discontent it has occasioned, and the impracticability of enforcing it. Q. If the act should be repealed, and the legisla- ture should show its resentment to the opposers of the Stamp Act, would the colonies acquiesce in the au- thority of the legislature? What is your opinion they would do? A. 1 don’t doubt at all that if the legislature re- peal the Stamp Act, the colonies will acquiesce in the authority. (Q. But if the legislature should think fit to ascer- tain its rights to lay taxes, by any act laying a small tax, contrary to their opinion, would they submit to pay the tax? A. The proceedings of the people in America have been considered too much together. The proceed- ings of the assemblies have been very different from those of the mobs, and should be distinguished as having no connection with each other. The assem- blies have only peaceably resolved what they take to be their rights; they have taken no measures for op- position by force, they have not built a fort, raised a man, or provided a grain of ammunition, in order to such opposition. The ringleaders of riots, they think ought to be punished; they would punish them themselves, if they could. Every sober, sensible man, would wish to see rioters punished, as, otherwise, peaceable people have no security of person or estate; but as to an internal tax, how small soever, laid by the legislature here on the people there, while they i04 Fin 1; Essays } have no representatives in this legislature, I think it will never be submitted to; they will oppose it to the last; they do not consider it as at all necessary for you to raise money on them by your taxes; because they are, and always have been, ready to raise money by taxes among themselves, and to grant large sums, equal to their abilities, upon requisition from the crown. They have not only granted equal to their abilities, but, during all the last war, they granted far beyond their abilities, and beyond their proportion with this country (you yourselves being judges), to the amount of many hundred thousand pounds; and this they did freely and readily, only on a sort of promise, from the Secretary of State, that it should be recommended to Parliament to make them compensation. It was accordingly recommended to Parliament, in the most honorable manner for them. America has been greatly misrepresented and abused here, in papers, and pamphlets, and speeches, as ungrateful, and un- reasonable, and unjust; in having put this nation to an immense expense for their defence, and refusing to bear any part of that expense. The colonies raised, paid, and clothed near twenty-five thousand men during the last war; a number equal to those sent from Britain, and far beyond their proportion; they went deeply into debt in doing this, and all their taxes and estates are mortgaged for many years to come, for discharging that debt. Government here was at the same time very sensi- ble of this. The colonies were recommended to Par- liament. Every year the King sent down to the 766] 10% Benjamin Franklin [1766 House a written message to this purpose: ‘that his Majesty, being highly sensible of the zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects in North America had exerted themselves, in defence of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommend it to the House to take the same into consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation.” You will find those messages on your own journals every year of the war to the very last; and you did accordingly give two hundred thousand pounds annually to the crown, to be distributed in such compensation to the colonies. This is the strongest of all proofs, that the colonies, far from being unwilling to bear a share of the burden, did exceed their proportion; for if they had done less, or had only equalled their proportion, there would have been no room or reason for compensation. In- deed, the sums reimbursed them were by no means adequate to the expense they incurred beyond their proportion; but they never murmured at that. They esteemed their sovereign’s approbation of their zeal and fidelity, and the approbation of this House, far beyond any other kind of compensation; therefore there was no occasion for this act, to force money from a willing people. They had not refused giving money for the purposes of the act; no requisition had been made: they were always willing and ready to do what could reasonably be expected from them, and in this light they wish to be considered. Q. But suppose Great Britain should be engaged in a war in Europe, would North America contribute to the support of it? 106 pre Essays : A. 1 do think they would as far as their circum- stances would permit. They consider themselves as a part of the British empire, and as having one com- mon interest with it; they may be looked on here as foreigners, but they do not consider themselves as such. They are zealous for the honor and prosperity of this nation; and, while they are well used, will always be ready to support it, as far as their little power goes. In 1739 they were called upon to assist in the expedition against Carthagena, and they sent three thousand men to join your army. It is true, Carthagena is in America, but as remote from the northern colonies as if it had been in Europe. They make no distinction of wars, as to their duty of assist- ing in them. I know the last war is commonly spoken of here, as entered into for the defence, or for the sake, of the people in America. I think it is quite misunderstood. It began about the limits between Canada and Nova Scotia; about territories to which the crown indeed laid claim, but which were not claimed by any British colony; none of the lands had been granted to any colonist; we had therefore no particular concern or interest in that dispute. As to the Ohio, the contest there began about your right of trading in the Indian country, a right you had by the treaty of Utrecht, which the French infringed; they seized the traders and their goods, which were your manufactures; they took a fort which a company of your merchants, and their factors and correspondents, had erected there to secure that trade. Braddock was sent with an army to retake that fort (which was looked on here I 07 703; : Benjamin Franklin 103 as another encroachment on the King’s territory,) and to protect your trade. It was not till after his defeat, that the colonies were attacked. They were before in perfect peace with both French and In- dians; the troops were not, therefore, sent for their defence. The trade with the Indians, though carried on in America, is not an American interest. The people of America are chiefly farmers and planters; scarce any thing that they raise or produce is an article of commerce with the Indians. The Indian trade is a British interest; it is carried on with British manu- facturers, for the profit of British merchants and manufacturers; therefore the war, as it commenced for the defence of territories of the crown (the prop- erty of no American), and for the defence of a trade purely British, was really a British war, and yet the people of America made no scruple of contributing their utmost towards carrying it on, and bringing it to a happy conclusion. QO. Do you think, then, that the taking possession of the King’s territorial rights, and strengthening the frontiers, is not an American interest? A. Not particularly, but conjointly a British and an American interest. Q. You will not deny, that the preceding war, the I When this army was in the utmost distress, from the want of wagons, &c., our author and his son voluntarily traversed the country, in order to collect a sufficient quantity; and they had zeal and address enough to effect their purpose, upon pledging themselves, to the amount of many thousand pounds, for payment. It was just before Dr. Franklin’s last return from England to America, that the accounts in this transaction were passed at the British treasury.—B. V. 108 im 6E 1766] Essays war with Spain, was entered into for the sake of America; was it not occasioned by captures made in the American seas’ A. Yes; captures of ships carrying on the British trade there with British manufactures. OQ. Was not the late war with the Indians, since the peace with France, a war for America only? A. Yes; it was more particularly for America than the former; but was rather a consequence or re- mains of the former war, the Indians not having been thoroughly pacified; and the Americans bore by much the greatest share of the expense. It was put an end to by the army under General Bouquet: there were not above three hundred regulars in that army, and above one thousand Pennsylvanians. Q. Is it not necessary to send troops to America, to defend the Americans against the Indians? A. No, by no means; it never was necessary. They defended themselves when they were but a handful, and the Indians much more numerous. They continually gained ground, and have driven the In- dians over the mountains, without any troops sent to their assistance from this country. And can it be thought necessary now to send troops for their de- fence from those diminished Indians tribes, when the colonies have become so populous and so strong? There is not the least occasion for it; they are very able to defend themselves. Q. Do you say that there were not more than three hundred regular troops employed in the late Indian war? A. Not on the Ohio, or the frontiers of Pennsyl- 10G | Benjamin Franklin [1766 vania, which was the chief part of the war that af- fected the colonies. There were garrisons at Niagara, Fort Detroit, and those remote posts kept for the sake of your trade; I did not reckon them; but I believe, that on the whole the number of Americans, or pro- vincial troops, employed in the war was greater than that of the regulars. I am not certain, but I think SO. Q. Do you think the assemblies have a right to levy money on the subject there, to grant to the crown? A. [Icertainly think so; they have always done it. Q. Are they acquainted with the declaration of rights? And do they know, that, by that statute, money is not to be raised on the subject but by con- sent of Parliament? A. They are very well acquainted with it. Q. How then can they think they have a right to levy money for the crown, or for any other than local purposes? A. They understand that clause to relate to sub- jects only within the realm; that no money can be levied on them for the crown but by consent of Par- liament. The colonies are not supposed to be within the realm; they have assemblies of their own, which are their parliaments, and they are, in that respect, in the same situation with Ireland. When money is to be raised for the crown upon the subject in Ireland, or in the colonies, the consent is given in the Parliament of Ireland, or in the assemblies of the colonies. They think the Parliament of Great Brit- ain cannot properly give that consent, till it has 110 : 17° Essays I representatives from America; for the petition of right expressly says, it is to be by common consent in Parliament; and the people of America have no representatives in Parliament, to make a part of that common consent. Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and an act should pass, ordering the assemblies of the colo- nies to indemnify the sufferers by the riots, would they obey 1t? A. That is a question I cannot answer. Q. Supposing the King should require the colo- nies to grant a revenue, and the Parliament should be against their doing it, do they think they can grant a revenue to the King without the consent of the Parliament of Great Britain? A. That is a deep question. As to my own opin- ion, I should think myself at liberty to do it, and should do it, if I liked the occasion. QO. When money has been raised in the colonies, upon requisitions, has it not been granted to the King? A. Yes, always; but the requisitions have gener- ally been for some service expressed, as to raise, clothe, and pay troops, and not for money only. Q. If the act should pass requiring the American assemblies to make compensation to the sufferers, and they should disobey it, and then the Parliament should, by another act, lay an internal tax, would they then obey it? A. The people will pay no internal tax; and, I think, an act to oblige the assemblies to make com- pensation is unnecessary; for I am of opinion, that, as soon as the present heats are abated, they will 06] 31 1 Benjamin Franklin [1766 take the matter into consideration, and if it is right to be done, they will do it of themselves. Q. Do not letters often come into the post-offices in America, directed to some inland town where no post goes? A. Yes. Q. Can any private person take up those letters and carry them as directed? A. Yes; any friend of the person may do it, pay- ing the postage that has accrued. Q. But must not he pay an additional postage for the distance to such inland town? A. No. (Q. Can the post-master answer delivering the let- ter, without being paid such additional postage? A. Certainly he can demand nothing where he does no service. (. Suppose a person, being far from home, finds a letter in a post-office directed to him, and he lives in a place to which the post generally goes, and the letter is directed to that place; will the post-mas- ter deliver him the letter, without his paying the postage receivable at the place to which the letter is directed? A. Yes; the office cannot demand postage for a letter that it does not carry, or farther than it does carry it. Q. Are not ferry-men in America obliged, by act of Parliament, to carry over the posts without pay? A.4 Yes. QO. Isnot this a tax on the ferry-men? A. They do not consider it as such, as they have vy 2 r Essays 113 an advantage from persons travelling with the post. Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and the crown should make a requisition to the colonies for a sum of money, would they grant it? A. I believe they would. Q. Why do you think so? A. 1 can speak for the colony I live in; I had it in instruction from the assembly to assure the ministry that, as they had always done, so they should always think it their duty, to grant such aids to the crown as were suitable to their circumstances and abilities, whenever called upon for that purpose, in the usual constitutional manner; and I had the honor of communicating this instruction to that homorable gentleman then minister.r 1] take the following to be the history of this transaction. Until 1763, and the years following, whenever Great Britain wanted sup- plies directly from the colonies, the Secretary of State, in his Majesty’s name, sent them a letter of requisition, in which the occasion for sup- plies was expressed; and the colonies returned a free gift, the mode of levying which they wholly prescribed. At this period, a chancellor of the exchequer (Mr. George Grenville) steps forth, and says to the House of Commons: “We must call for money from the colonies in the way of a tax”; and to the colony agents: ‘Write to your several colo- nies, and toll them if they dislike a duty upon stamps, and prefer any other method of raising the money themselves, I shall be content, provided the amount be but raised.” ‘‘That is,” observed the colonies, when commenting upon his terms, *“ if we do not tax ourselves, as we may be directed, the Parliament will tax us.” Dr. Franklin's instructions, spoken of above, related to this gracious option. As the colonies could not choose ‘another tax,” while they disclaimed every tax, the Parliament passed the Stamp Act. It seems that the only part of the offer which bore a show of favor, was the grant of the mode of levying; and this was the only circum- stance which was not new. See Mr. Mauduit’s account of Mr. Grenville’s conference with the agents, confirmed by the agents for Georgia and Virginia; and Mr. Burke's Speech, in 1774. 266) wT [1 Benjamin Franklin [1766 Q. Would they do this for a British concern, as suppose a war in some part of Europe, that did not affect them? A. Yes, for any thing that concerned the general interest. They consider themselves a part of the whole. Q. What is the usual constitutional manner of calling on the colonies for aids? A. A letter from the Secretary of State? Q. Is this all you mean; a letter from the Secre- tary of State? A. 1 mean the usual way of requisition, in a circular letter from the Secretary of State, by his Majesty’s command, reciting the occasion, and re- comending it to the colonies to grant such aids as became their loyalty, and were suitable to their abili- ties. Q. Did the Secretary of State ever write for money for the crown? A. The requisitions have been to raise, clothe, and pay men, which cannot be done without money. Q. Would they grant money alone, if called on? A. In my opinion they would, money as well as men, when they have money, or can make it. Q. If the Parliament should repeal the Stamp Act, will the assembly of Pennsylvania rescind their resolutions? A. 1 think not. Q. Before there was any thought of the Stamp Act, did they wish for a representation in Parlia- ment? A. No. Ta ’ Essays 115 Q. Don't you know that there is in the Pennsyl- vania charter an express reservation of the right of Parliament to lay taxes there? A. I know there is a clause in the charter by which the King grants that he will levy no taxes on the inhabitants, unless it be with the consent of the assembly or by act of Parliament. Q. How, then, could the assembly of Pennsyl- vania assert that laying a tax on them by the Stamp Act was an infringement of their rights? A. They understand it thus: by the same charter, and otherwise, they are entitled to all 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 con- sent. 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. Q. Are there any words in the charter that justify that construction? A. “The common rights of Englishmen,” as de- clared by Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, all justify it. Q. Does the distinction between internal and ex- ternal taxes exist in the words of the charter? A. No, I believe not. Q. Then, may they not, by the same interpreta- 766] 1 Benjamin Franklin [* 766 tion, object to the Parliament’s right of external taxation? A. 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 exter- nally 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. Q. Do not the resolutions of the Pennsylvania as- sembly say “all taxes?” A. If they do, they mean only internal taxes. The same words have not always the same meaning here and in the colonies. By taxes they mean inter- nal taxes; by duties they mean customs. These are their ideas of the language. QO. Have you not seen the resolutions of the Mas- sachusetts Bay assembly? A. 1have. 0. Do they not say that neither external nor in- ternal taxes can be laid on them by Parliament? A. 1 don’t know that they do; I believe not. Q. If the same colony should say neither tax nor imposition could be laid, does not that province hold the power of Parliament can lay neither? A. Isuppose that by the word émposition they do not intend to express duties to be laid on goods im- ported as regulations of commerce. (Q. What can the colonies mean, then, by imposi- tion as distinct from taxes? A. They may mean many things, as impressing of men or of carriages, quartering troops on private i Im 10 i v Essays 17 houses, and the like; there may be great impositions that are not properly taxed. 0. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid by act of Parliament? A. 1 have answered that. (Q. Are all parts of the colonies equally able to pay taxes? A. No, certainly; the frontier parts, which have been ravaged by the enemy, are greatly disabled by that means; and therefore, in such cases, are usually favored in our tax laws. Q. Can we, at this distance, be competent judges of what favors are necessary? A. The Parliament have supposed it, by claiming a right to make tax laws for America; I think it impossible. Q. Would the repeal of the Stamp Act be any dis- couragement of your manufactures? Will the peo- ple that have begun to manufacture decline it? A. Yes, I think they will; especially if, at the same time, the trade is opened again, so that remit- tances can be easily made. I have known several in- stances that make it probable. In the war before last, tobacco being low, and making little remittance, the people of Virginia went generally into family manufactures. Afterwards, when tobacco bore a better price, they returned to the use of British man- ufactures.. So fulling-mills were very much disused in the last war in Pennsylvania, because bills were then plenty, and remittances could easily be made to Britain for English cloth and other goods. Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it 766) in 3 Benjamin Franklin [1766 induce the assemblies of America to acknowledge the right of Parliament to tax them, and would they erase their resolutions? A. No, never. Q. Are there no means of obliging them to erase those resolutions? A. None that I know of; they will never do it, unless compelled by force of arms. Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase them? A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change their opinions. Q. Do they consider the post-office as a tax, or as a regulation? A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conven- iency; every assembly encouraged it and supported it in its infancy by grants of money, which they would not otherwise have done; and the people have always paid the postage. Q. When did you receive the instructions you mentioned ? A. 1 brought them with me, when I came to Eng- land about fifteen months since. Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minister? A. Soon after my arrival, while the stamping of America was under consideration, and before the bill was brought in. Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain to employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco, or in manufactures? A. In tobacco, to be sure. i8 : Essays Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans? A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain. Q. What is now their pride? A. To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make new ones. [Withdrew.] This examination was published in 1767, without the name of printer or of publisher, and the following remarks upon it are contained in the Gentleman's Magazine for July of that year: “From this examination of Dr. Franklin, the reader may form a clearer and more comprehensive idea of the state and disposition in America, of the expediency or inexpediency of the measure in question, and of the char- acter and conduct of the minister who proposed it, than from all that has been written upon the subject in news- papers and pamphlets, under the titles of essays, letters, speeches, and considerations, from the first moment of its becoming the subject of public attention till now. The questions in general are put with great subtlety and judgment, and they are answered with such deep and familiar knowledge of the subject, such precision and perspicuity, such temper and yet such spirit, as do the greatest honor to Dr. Franklin, and justify the general opinion of his character and abilities.” Mr. Sparks very justly says that there was no event in Franklins life more creditable to his talents and char- acter, or which gave him so much celebrity, as this ex- amination before the House of Commons. His further statement, however, that Franklin's answers were given without premeditation and without knowing beforehand 766] 119 Benjamin Franklin [1766 the nature or form of the question that was to be put, is a little too sweeping. In a memorandum which Franklin gave to a friend who wished to know by whom the several questions were put, he admitted that many were put by friends to draw out in answer the substance of what he had before said upon the subject. This statement of Franklin concerning the preceding examination belongs to the history of the examination. For the further elucidation of the matter this statement of Franklin himself is reprinted in full. These curious remarks first appeared in Walsh's ‘Life of Franklin,” which was published in Delaplaine’s Repository. They were tran- scribed from a manuscript which purports to have been written by Dr. Franklin in reply to a friend who de- sired to know by whom the several questions were put. These remarks are as follows: “I have numbered the questions,” says Dr. Franklin, ‘for the sake of making reference to them. “Qu. 1, is a question of form, asked of every one that is examined.—Qu. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, were asked by Mr. Hewitt, a member for Coventry, a friend of ours, and were designed to draw out the answers that follow; being the substance of what I had before said to him on the subject, to remove a common prejudice, that the Colonies paid no taxes, and that their governments were supported by burdening the people here; Qu. 4, was particularly intended to show by the answer that Parliament could not properly and equally lay taxes in America, as they could not, by reason of their distance, be acquainted with such circumstances as might make it neces- sary to spare particular parts.—Qu. 8 to 13, asked by Mr. Huske, another friend, to show the impracticability of dis- tributing the Stamps in America.—Qu. 14, 15, 16, by one of the late administration, an adversary.—Qu. 17 to 26, by Mr. Huske again. His questions about the Germans, and about 120 ; Essays the number of people, were intended to make the opposition to the Stamp Act in America appear more formidable. He asked some others here that the clerk has omitted, particularly one, that I remember. “There had been a considerable party in the House for saving the honor and right of Parliament, by retaining the Act, and yet making it tolerable to America, by reducing it to a stamp on commissions for profitable offices, and on cards and dice. I had, in conversation with many of them, ob- jected to this, as it would require an establishment for the distributors, which would be a great expense, as the stamps would not be sufficient to pay them, and so the odium and contention would be kept up for nothing. The notion of amending, however, still continued, and one of the most ac- tive of the members for promoting it told me, he was sure I could, if I would, assist them to amend the Act in such a manner, that America should have little or no objection to it. ‘I must confess,’ says I, ‘I have thought of one amendment; if you will make it, the Act may remain, and yet the Ameri- cans will be quieted. It is a very small amendment, too; it is only the change of a single word.” ‘Ay,’ says he, ‘what is that?’ ‘It is in that clause where it is said, ‘‘ that from and after the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five, there shall be paid,” &c. The amendment I would propose is, for one read two, and then all the rest of the Act may stand as it does. I believe it will give nobody in America any uneasiness.” Mr. Huske had heard of this, and, desiring to bring out the same answer in the House, asked me whether I could not propose a small amendment, that would make the Act palatable. But, as I thought the answer he wanted too light and ludicrous for the House, I evaded the question. “Qu. 27, 28, 29, I think these were by Mr. Grenville, but I am not certain.—Qu. 30, 31, I know not who asked them.— Qu. 32 to 35, asked by Mr. Nugent, who was against us. His drift was to establish a notion he had entertained, that the people in America had a crafty mode of discouraging the 766] 121 2 Benjamin Franklin [1766 English trade by heavy taxes on merchants.—Qu. 36 to 42, most of these by Mr. Cooper and other friends, with whom I had discoursed, and were intended to bring out such answers as they desired and expected from me.—Qu. 43, uncertain by whom.—Qu. 44, 45, 46, by Mr. Nugent again, who I suppose intended to infer that the poor people in America were better able to pay taxes than the poor in England.—Qu. 47, 48, 49, by Mr. Prescott, an adversary. “Qu. 50 to 58, by different members, I cannot recollect who. —Qu. 59 to 78, chiefly by the former ministry.—Qu. 79 to 82, by friends.—Qu. 83, by one of the late ministry.—Qu. 84, by Mr. Cooper.—Qu. 85 to go, by some of the late ministry.— Qu. 91, 92, by Mr. Grenville.—Qu. 93 to 98, by some of the late ministry.—Qu. 99, 100, by some friend, I think Sir George Saville—Qu. 101 to 106, by several of the late ministry.— Qu. 107 to 114, by friends.—Qu. 115 to 117, by Mr. A. Bacon. —Qu. 118 to 120, by some of the late ministry.—Qu. 121, by an adversary.—Qu. 122, by a friend. —Qu. 123, 124, by Mr. Charles Townshend.—Qu. 125, by Mr. Nugent.—Qu. 126, by Mr. Grenville.—Qu. 12%, by one of the late ministry.—Qu. 128, by Mr. G. Grenville.—Qu. 129, 130, 131, by Mr. Wellbore Ellis, late Secretary of War.—Qu. 132 to 135, uncertain.— Qu. 136 to 142, by some of the late ministry, intending to prove that it operated where no service was done, and there- fore it was a tax.—Qu. 143, by a friend, I forget who.—Qu. 144, 145, by C. Townshend.—Qu. 146 to 151, by some of the late ministry.—Qu. 152 to 157, by Mr. Prescott, and others of the same side.—Qu. 158 to 162, by Charles Townshend.— Ou. 163, 164, by a friend, I think Sir George Saville. —Qu. 165, by some friend. —Qu. 166, 167, by an adversary.—Qu. 168 to 174, by friends. “Mr. Nugent made a violent speech next day upon this examination, in which he said: ‘We have often experienced Austrian ingratitude, and yet we assisted Portugal; we ex- perienced Portuguese ingratitude, and yet we assisted Amer- ica. But what is Austrian ingratitude, what is the ingratitude of Portugal compared to this of America? We have fought, E22 5 Essays 123 bled, and ruined ourselves, to conquer for them; and now they come and tell us to our noses, even at the bar of this House, that they are not obliged to us,” &c. But his clamor was very little minded.” A few years since the editor stumbled upon an original edition of this Examination, in a pamphlet form, and bearing the following title: THE EXAMINATION OF DOCTOR BENJAMIN FRANKLIN RELATIVE TO THE REPEAL OF THE AMERICAN STAMP ACT IN MDCCLXVI MDCCLXVII, Price ONE SHILLING. No publisher’s imprint is given. In the margin, how- ever, and in a chirography which seems more recent than the printed text, are written what purport to be the “names of the interrogators.” When or by whom, or upon what authority, this list was made, there are no indications; but the fact that the list differs so widely from that given in Delaplaine’s, and the further fact that Franklin so frequently confesses his inability to recall the names of some of his interrogators, seem to justify me in giving this anonymous list here for what it is worth. As Grenville is always spelt Greenwille, and Burke Bourke, the presumption is that all the names were writ- ten by a foreigner, who had taken them from the lips of his informant. By the Speaker ; Nos. 1, 2, inclusive. “ Mr. Huske : Nos. 3 to 42, “ “ Lord Clare : . Nos. 43 to 49, 98 to 103, “ “ Mr. Townshend . Nos. 50 to 77, pe * Mr. Bourke . Nos. 78 to 89, 106, 107, “ 06] : Benjamin Franklin [1766 By Mr. Greenwille . Nos. go to 97, 122 to 148, inclusive. ‘“ Marquis of Granby . .!'Nos. rod, 103, ' ti Lord North. . Nos) 708'to 127, 140 to 756, | | ¢ *“ Mr. Thurloe, King’s counsel-at-law . 157to 162, “Mr. Cooper, Secretary of the Treasury,163to 173, In this list we do not find the names of Nugent, Ellis, Bacon, Saville, or Prescott, while in the other list we do not find the names of Lord Clare, Burke, Marquis of Granby, Lord North, or Thurlow.— EDITOR. {24 Vv 125 PROTECTIVE DUTIES ON IMPORTS AND HOW THEY WORK LonpoN, 7 July, 1767. Suppose a country, X, with three manufactures, as cloth, silk, iron, supplying three other countries, A, B, C, but is desirous of increasing the vent, and rais- ing the price of cloth in favor of her own clothiers. In order to this, she forbids the importation of foreign cloth from A. A, in return, forbids silks from X. Then the silk-workers complain of a decay of trade. And X, to content them, forbids silks from B. B, in return, forbids iron ware from X. Then the iron-workers complain of decay. And X forbids the importation of iron from C. C, in return, forbids cloth from X. What is got by all these prohibitions? Answer.—All four find their common stock of the enjoyments and conveniences of life diminished. B. F. VI TRADE WITH ENGLAND This objection goes upon the supposition that whatever the colonies gain Britain must lose, and that if the colonies can be kept from gaining an advantage, Britain will gain it. If the colonies are fitter for a particular trade than Britain, they should have it, and Britain apply to what it is more fit for. The whole empire is a gainer. And if Britain is not so fit or so well situated for a particular advantage, other countries will get it, if the colonies do not. Thus Ireland was forbid the woollen manufacture, and remains poor; but this has given to the French the trade and wealth Ireland might have gained for the British Empire. The government cannot long be retained without the union. Which is best (supposing your case)—to have a total separation, or a change of the seat of government? It by no means follows that promot- ing and advancing the landed interest in America will depress that of Great Britain; the contrary has always been the fact. Advantageous situations and circumstances will always secure and fix manufac- tures. Sheffield against all Europe these three hun- dred years past. 126 VII CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN DISCONTENTS BEFORE 1768.” The waves never rise but when the winds blow.—Prov. SIR:—As the cause of the present ill-humor in America, and of the resolutions taken there to pur- chase less of our manufactures, does not seem to be generally understood, it may afford some satisfaction to your readers, if you give them the following short historical state of facts. From the time that the colonies were first consid- ered as capable of granting aids to the crown, down to the end of the last war, it is said that the constant mode of obtaining those aids was by requisition made from the crown, through its governors, to the several assemblies, in circular-letters from the Secre- tary of State, in his Majesty's name: setting forth the occasion, requiring them to take the matter into consideration, and expressing a reliance on their pru- dence, duty, and affection to his Majesty’s govern- ment, that they would grant such sums, or raise such I This paper appeared in the London Chronicle of Jan, 7, 1768, and was reprinted the same year as a postscript to a pamphlet entitled Sentiments of America. For the circumstances which led to its pub- lication see Franklin's letters to his son, dated Dec. 19, 1767, and Janu- ary 9, 1768, and his letter to T. Wharton, Feb. 20, 1768. In the latter letter to his son he complains that the editor of the Chronicle, “one Jones,” “has drawn the teeth and pared the nails of my paper, so that it can neither scratch nor bite. It seems only to paw and mumble.” 127 128 Benjamin Franklin [1768 numbers of men, as were suitable to their respective circumstances. The colonies being accustomed to this method, have from time to time granted money to the crown, or raised troops for its service, in proportion to their abilities; and during all the last war beyond their abilities, so that considerable sums were returned them yearly by Parliament, as they had exceeded their proportion. Had this happy method of requisition been con- tinued (a method that left the King’s subjects in those remote countries the pleasure of showing their zeal and loyalty, and of imagining that they recom- mended themselves to their sovereign by the liber- ality of their voluntary grants), there is no doubt but all the money that could reasonably be expected to be raised from them in any manner might have been obtained, without the least heart-burning, offence, or breach of the harmony of affections and interests that so long subsisted between the two countries. It has been thought wisdom in a government exer- cising sovereignty over different kinds of people, to have some regard to prevailing and established opinions among the people to be governed, wherever such opinions might, in their effects, obstruct or promote public measures. If they tend to obstruct public service, they are to be changed, if possible, before we attempt to act against them; and they can only be changed by reason and persuasion. But if public business can be carried on without thwarting those opinions; if they can be, on the contrary, made sub- 17! Essays J servient to it; they are not unnecessarily to be thwarted, however absurd such popular opinions may be in their nature. This had been the wisdom of our government with respect to raising money in the colonies. It was well known that the colonists universally were of opinion that no money could be levied from English subjects but by their own consent, given by themselves or their chosen representatives; that, therefore, what- ever money was to be raised from the people in the colonies, must first be granted by their assemblies, as the money raised in Britain is first to be granted by the House of Commons; that this right of granting their own money was essential to English liberty; and that, if any man, or body of men, in which they had no representative of their choosing, could tax them at pleasure, they could not be said to have any property, any thing they could call their own. But as these opinions did not hinder their granting money voluntarily and amply, whenever the crown by its servants came into their assemblies (as it does into its parliaments of Britain and Ireland) and demanded aids, therefore that method was chosen, rather than the hateful one of arbitrary taxes. I do not undertake here to support these opinions of the Americans; they have been refuted by a late act of Parliament, declaring its own power; which very Parliament, however, showed wisely so much tender regard to those inveterate prejudices, as to re- peal a tax that had militated against them. And those prejudices are still so fixed and rooted in the 08] 12C 1 Benjamin Franklin [1753 Americans, that it has been supposed not a single man among them has been convinced of his error, even by that act of Parliament. The person, then, who first projected to lay aside the accustomed method of requisition, and to raise money on America by stamps, seems not to have acted wisely, in deviating from that method (which the colonists looked upon as constitutional), and thwarting unnecessarily the fixed prejudices of so great a number of the King’s subjects. It was not, however, for want of knowledge that what he was about to do would give them offence; he appears to have been very sensible of this, and apprehensive that it might occasion some disorders; to prevent or suppress which, he projected another bill that was brought in the same session with the Stamp Act, whereby it was to be made lawful for military officers in the colonies to quarter their soldiers in private houses. This seemed intended to awe the people into a compliance with the other act. Great opposition, however, being raised here against the bill, by the agents from the colonies and the merchants trading thither (the colonists declaring that under such a power in the army no one could look on his house as his own, or think he had a home, when soldiers might be thrust into it and mixed with his family at the pleasure of an officer), that part of the bill was dropt; but there still remained a clause, when it passed into a law, to oblige the several assemblies to provide quarters for the soldiers, furnishing them with firing, bedding, candles, small beer or rum, and sundry other 1768] Essays 131 articles, at the expense of the several provinces. And this act continued in force when the Stamp Act was repealed; though, if obligatory on the assemblies, it equally militated against the American principle above mentioned, that money is not to be raised on English subjects without their consent. The colonies nevertheless, being put into high good-humor by the repeal of the Stamp Act, chose to avoid a fresh dispute upon the other, it being tem- porary and soon to expire, never, as they hoped, to revive again; and in the meantime they, by various ways, in different colonies, provided for the quarter- ing of the troops; either by acts of their own assem- blies, without taking notice of the act of Parliament, or by some variety or small diminution, as of salt and vinegar, in the supplies required by the act; that what they did might appear a voluntary act of their own, and not done in due obedience to an act of Parliament, which, according to their ideas of their rights, they thought hard to obey. It might have been well if the matter had then passed without notice; but, a governor having writ- ten home an angry and aggravating letter upon this conduct in the Assembly of his province, the outed proposer * of the Stamp Act and his adherents, then in the opposition, raised such a clamor against Amer- ica, as being in rebellion, and against those who had been for the repeal of the Stamp Act, as having there- by been encouragers of this supposed rebellion, that it was thought necessary to enforce the quartering act by another act of Parliament, taking away from I Mr, George Grenville, dw 12. Benjamin Franklin [1768 the province of New York, which had been the most explicit in its refusal, all the powers of legislation, till it should have complied with that act. The news of which greatly alarmed the people everywhere in America, as (it had been said) the language of such an act seemed to them to be: Obey implicitly laws made by the Parliament of Great Britain to raise money on you without your consent, or you shall enjoy no rights or privileges at all. At the same time, a person lately in high office * projected the levying more money from America, by new duties on various articles of our own manufac- ture, as glass, paper, painters’ colors, &c., appointing a new board of customs, and sending over a set of commissioners, with large salaries, to be established at Boston, who were to have the care of collecting those duties; which were by the act expressly men- tioned to be intended for the payment of the salaries of governors, judges, and other officers of the crown in America; it being a pretty general opinion here, that those officers ought not to depend on the people there for any part of their support. It is not my intention to combat this opinion. But perhaps it may be some satisfaction to your readers, to know what ideas the Americans have on the sub- ject. They say then, as to governors, that they are not like princes, whose posterity have an inheritance in the government of a nation, and therefore an in- terest in its prosperity; they are generally strangers to the provinces they are sent to govern; have no estate, natural connexion or relation there, to give 1 Mr. Charles Townshend. 2 Essays 133 them an affection for the country; that they come only to make money as fast as they can; are some- times men of vicious characters and broken fortunes, sent by a minister merely to get them out of the way; that as they intend staying in the country no longer than their government continues, and purpose to leave no family behind them, they are apt to be re- gardless of the good-will of the people, and care not what is said or thought of them after they are gone. Their situation, at the same time, gives them many opportunities of being vexatious, and they are often so, notwithstanding their dependence on the assem- blies for all that part of their support that does not arise from fees established by law; but would prob- ably be much more so, if they were to be supported by money drawn from the people without their con- sent or good-will, which is the professed design of the new act. That, if by means of these forced duties government is to be supported in America, without the intervention of the assemblies, their assemblies will soon be looked upon as useless; and a governor will not call them, as having nothing to hope from their meeting, and perhaps something to fear from their inquiries into, and remonstrances against, his maladministration. That thus the people will be de- prived of their most essential rights. That it being, as at present, a governor’s interest to cultivate the good-will, by promoting the welfare, of the people he governs, can be attended with no prejudice to the mother country; since all the laws he may be pre- vailed on to give his assent to are subject to revision here, and, if reported against by the Board of Trade, 768] 134 Benjamin Franklin [1768 are immediately repealed by the crown; nor dare he pass any law contrary to his instructions, as he holds his office during the pleasure of the crown, and his securities are liable for the penalties of their bonds if he contravenes those instructions. This is what they say as to governors. As to judges, they allege that, being appointed from this country, and holding their commissions, not during good behaviour, as in Britain, but during pleasure, all the weight of interest or influence would be thrown into one of the scales (which ought to be held even), if the salaries are to be paid out of duties raised upon the people without their consent, and independent of their assemblies’ approbation or dis- approbation of the judge’s behaviour. That it is true, judges should be free from all influence; and, therefore, whenever government here will grant com- missions to able and honest judges during good be- haviour, the assemblies will settle permanent and ample salaries on them during their commissions; but, at present, they have no other means of getting rid of an ignorant or an unjust judge (and some of scandalous characters have, they say, been some- times sent them) left, but by starving them out. I do not suppose these reasonings of theirs will appear here to have much weight. I do not produce them with an expectation of convincing your readers. I relate them merely in pursuance of the task I have imposed on myself, to be an impartial historian of American facts and opinions. The colonists being thus greatly alarmed, as I said re Essays '35 before, by the news of the act for abolishing the legis- lature of New York, and the imposition of these new duties, professedly for such disagreeable purposes, (accompanied by a new set of revenue officers, with large appointments, which gave strong suspicions that more business of the same kind was soon to be provided for them, that they might earn their salaries,) began seriously to consider their situation; and to revolve afresh in their minds grievances which, from their respect and love for this country, they had long borne, and seemed almost willing to forget. They reflected how lightly the interest of all Amer- ica had been estimated here, when the interests of a few of the inhabitants of Great Britain happened to have the smallest competition with it. That the whole American people was forbidden the advantage of a direct importation of wine, oil, and fruit, from Portugal, but must take them loaded with all the ex- pense of a voyage one thousand leagues round about, being to be landed first in England, to be re-shipped for America; expenses amounting, in war time at least, to thirty pounds per cent. more than otherwise they would have been charged with; and all this, merely that a few Portugal merchants in London may gain a commission on those goods passing through their hands (Portugal merchants, by the by, that can complain loudly of the smallest hardships laid on their trade by foreigners, and yet, even in the last year, could oppose, with all their influence, the giving ease to their fellow subjects laboring under so ;08] I I Benjamin Franklin [1768 heavy an oppression!). That, on a slight complaint of a few Virginia merchants, nine colonies had been restrained from making paper money, become ab- solutely necessary to their internal commerce, from the constant remittance of their gold and silver to Britain. But not only the interest of a particular body of merchants, but the interest of any small body of British tradesmen or artificers, has been found, they say, to outweigh that of all the King’s subjects in the colonies. There cannot be a stronger natural right than that of a man’s making the best profit he can of the natural produce of his lands, provided he does not thereby hurt the state in general. Iron is to be found everywhere in America, and the beaver furs are the natural produce of that country. Hats, and nails, and steel are wanted there as well as here. It is of no importance to the common welfare of the empire, whether a subject of the King’s obtains his living by making hats on this or that side of the water. Yet the hatters of England have prevailed to obtain an act in their own favor, restraining that manufacture in America; in order to oblige the Americans to send their beaver to England to be manufactured, and purchase back the hats, loaded with the charges of a double transportation. In the same manner have a few nail-makers, and a still smaller body of steel-makers (perhaps there are not half a dozen of these in England), prevailed totally to forbid by an act of Parliament the erecting of slitting-mills, or steel-furnaces, in America; that the Americans may be obliged to take all their nails for 26 . Essays / their buildings, and steel for their tools, from these artificers, under the same disadvantages. * Added to these, the Americans remembered the act authorizing the most cruel insult that perhaps was ever offered by one people to another, that of empty- img our gaols into their settlements; Scotland too having within these two years obtained the privilege it had not before, of sending its rogues and villains also to the plantations. I say, reflecting on these things, they said one to another (their newspapers are full of such discourses): *Here is given the reader the note at the end of the fourth paragraph of the Farmer's Seventh Letter, written by Mr. Dickinson: “Many remarkable instances might be produced of the extraordi- nary inattention with which bills of great importance, concerning these colonies, have passed in Parliament: which is owing, as it is sup- posed, to the bills being brought in, by the persons who have points to carry, so artfully framed, that it is not easy for the members in general, in the haste of business, to discover their tendency. “The following instances show the truth of this remark. “When Mr. Grenville, in the violence of reformation and innovation, formed the 4th George III. ch. 15th, for regulating the American trade, the word ‘Ireland’ was dropped in the clause relating to our iron and lumber, so that we could send these articles to no other part of Europe, but to Great Britain. This was so unreasonable a restriction, and so contrary to the sentiments of the legislature, for many years before, that it is surprising it should not have been taken notice of in the House. However, the bill passed into a law. But when the matter was explained, this restriction was taken off in a subsequent act. “I cannot say how long after the taking off this restriction, as I have not the acts, but I think in less than eighteen months, another act of Parliament passed, in which the word ‘Ireland’ was left out, as it had been before. The matter, being a second time explained, was a second time regulated. “Now, if it be considered, that the omission mentioned, struck off, with one word, so very great a part of our trade, it must appear re- markable; and equally so is the method by which rice became an i768] 137 17 Benjamin Franklin [1768 “These people are not content with making a monopoly of us, forbidding us to trade with any other country of Europe, and compelling us to buy every thing of them, though in many articles we could furnish ourselves ten, twenty, and even to fifty per cent. cheaper elsewhere; but now they have as good as declared they have a right to tax us ad libitum internally and externally; and that our constitutions and liberties shali all be taken away if we do not submit to that claim. “They are not content with the high prices at which they sell us their goods, but have now begun to enhance those prices by new duties; and, by the expensive apparatus of a new set of officers, appear to intend an augmentation and multiplication of those burdens that shall still be more grievous to us. Our people have been foolishly fond of their super- fluous modes and manufactures, to the impoverishing enumerated commodity, and therefore could be carried to Great Britain only. “‘The enumeration was obtained’ (says Mr. Gee, on Trade, p. 32,) ‘by one Cole, a captain of a ship employed by a company then trading to Carolina; for several ships going from England thither, and pur- chasing rice for Portugal, prevented the aforesaid captain of a loading. Upon his coming home, he possessed one Mr. Lowndes, a member of Parliament (who was frequently employed to prepare bills), with an opinion, that carrying rice directly to Portugal was a prejudice to the trade of England, and privately got a clause into an act to make it an enumerated commodity; by which means he secured a freight to him- self. But the consequence proved a vast loss to the nation.’ “I find that this clause, ‘privately got into an act, for the benefit of Captain Cole, to the vast loss of the nation,’ is foisted into the 3d Anne, ch. sth, entitled, ‘An Act for granting to her Majesty a further subsidy on wines and merchandises imported’; with which it has no more connexion, than with 34th Edward I, 34th and 35th of Henry VIIL, or the 25th Charles II., which provide that no person shall be taxed but by himself or his representatives.” 8 1768] Essays 9 our own country, carrying off all our cash, and load- ing us with debt; they will not suffer us to restrain the luxury of our inhabitants, as they do that of their own, by laws; they can make laws to discourage or prohibit the importation of French superfluities; but though those of England are as ruinous to us as the French ones are to them, if we make a law of that kind, they immediately repeal it. “Thus they get all our money from us by trade; and every profit we can anywhere make by our fish- eries, our produce, or our commerce, centres finally with them; but this does not signify. It is time, then, to take care of ourselves by the best means in our power. Let us unite in solemn resolution and en- gagements with and to each other, that we will give these new officers as little trouble as possible, by not consuming the British manufactures on which they are to levy the duties. Let us agree to consume no more of their expensive gewgaws. Let us live fru- gally, and let us industriously manufacture what we can for ourselves; thus we shall be able honorably to discharge the debts we already owe them; and after that, we may be able to keep some money in our country, not only for the uses of our internal commerce, but for the service of our gracious sover- eign, whenever he shall have occasion for it, and think proper to require it of us in the old constitu- tional manner. For, notwithstanding the reproaches thrown out against us in their public papers and pamphlets, notwithstanding we have been reviled in their senate as rebels and traitors, we are truly a loyal people. Scotland has had its rebellions, and I2: : Benjamin Franklin [1568 England its plots against the present royal family; but America is untainted with those crimes; there is in it scarce a man, there is not a single native of our country, who is not firmly attached to his King by principle and by affection. “But a new kind of loyalty seems to be required of us, a loyalty to Parliament; a loyalty that is to ex- tend, it is said to a surrender of all our properties, whenever a House of Commons, in which there is not a single member of our choosing, shall think fit to grant them away without our consent; and to a pa- tient suffering the loss of our privileges as English- men, if we cannot submit to make such surrender. We were separated too far from Britain by the ocean, but we were united to it by respect and love; so that we could at any time freely have spent our lives and little fortunes in its cause; but this unhappy new sys- tem of politics tends to dissolve those bands of union, and to sever us for ever.” These are the wild ravings of the, at present, half- distracted Americans. To be sure, no reasonable man in England can approve of such sentiments, and, as I said before, I do not pretend to support or justify them; but I sincerely wish, for the sake of the manu- factures and commerce of Great Britain, and for the sake of the strength which a firm union with our growing colonies would give us, that these people had never been thus needlessly driven out of their senses. I am yours, &c., ES y 40 VIII POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING NATIONAL WEALTH DATED APRIL 4, 1769 1. All food or subsistence for mankind arises from the earth or waters. 2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all other conveniences, have their values estimated by the proportion of food consumed while we are em- ployed in procuring them. 3. A small people, with a large territory, may sub- sist on the productions of nature, with no other labor than that of gathering the vegetables and catching the animals. 4. A large people, with a small territory, find these insufficient, and, to subsist, must labor the earth, to make it produce greater quantities of vege- table food, suitable for the nourishment of men, and of the animals they intend to eat. 5. From this labor arises a great increase of vegetable and animal food, and of materials for clothing, as flax, wool, silk, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we paid for the labor employed in building our houses, cities, 141 142 Benjamin Franklin [1/50 &ec., which are therefore only subsistence metamor- phosed. 6. Manufactures are only another shape into which so much provisions and subsistence are turned, as were equal in value to the manufactures produced. This appears from hence, that the manufacturer does not, in fact, obtain from the employer, for his labor, more than a mere subsistence, including raiment, fuel, and shelter; all which derive their value from the provisions consumed in procuring them. 7. The produce of the earth, thus converted into manufactures, may be more easily carried to distant markets than before such conversion. 8. Fair commerce is, where equal values are ex- changed for equal, the expense of transport included. Thus, if it costs A in England as much labor and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat, A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities to make the exchange. The advantage of this fair commerce is, that each party increases the number of his enjoyments, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and wine. 9. Where the labor and expense of producing both commodities are known to both parties, bargains will generally be fair and equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of ignorance. 10. Thus, he that carries one thousand bushels of wheat abroad to sell, may not probably obtain so ry, 17 Essays 143 great a profit thereon as if he had first turned the wheat into manufactures, by subsisting therewith the workmen while producing those manufactures; since there are many expediting and facilitating methods of working not generally known; and strangers to the manufactures, though they know pretty well the ex- pense of raising wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of working, and thence being apt to suppose more labor employed in the manufactures than there really is, are more easily imposed on in their value, and induced to allow more for them than they are honestly worth.’ 11. Thus the advantage of having manufactures in a country does not consist, as is commonly supposed, in their highly advancing the value of rough mate- rials, of which they are formed; since, though six pennyworth of flax may be worth twenty shillings when worked into lace, yet the very cause of its being worth twenty shillings is, that, besides the flax, it has cost nineteen shillings and sixpence in subsistence to I The reasons for paying a price are not founded merely upon a computation of the expense of production. A general knowledge of the expenses of producing a bushel of corn does not prevent the pro- ducer from demanding and the consumer from paying a higher price when the article is scarce; nor the consumer from offering and the producer from accepting a lower price when it is plenty. A proposi- tion bearing a near affinity to that stated in the text seems to be true, namely, that those things which are of general production and habitual consumption, like the common agricultural products, are more likely to bear a market price near to the cost of production, than things of less common production and less regular use, as the article of lace, mentioned in the next section. It may also be generally the case, that the greater the distance of the place of consumption from that of pro- duction, the longer an article is likely to be sold at a great profit, since the operation of competition, in bringing down the price, is likely to be slower.—W. PHILLIPS. 4,69] 144 Benjamin Franklin [1769 the manufacturer. But the advantage of manufac- tures is, that under their shape provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign market; and, by their means, our traders may more easily cheat strang- ers.” Few, where it is not made, are judges of the value of lace. The importer may demand forty, and perhaps get thirty, shillings for that which cost him but twenty. 12. Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neigh- bours. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agricul- ture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry. ! Franklin does not, probably, intend to be literally understood as recommending a system of defrauding foreigners; the benefit he pro- poses from manufactures does not, by any means, amount to this. Nobody considers it cheating to obtain from a domestic purchaser more for a thing than it costs the vender to make it. The most scrupulous mercantile morality does not proscribe profits. The au- thor has elsewhere stated, that gain is the great motive of commerce. He can only mean what he has elsewhere stated, that the nation ex- porting manufactures has the means of carrying on a more profitable foreign trade, which it may do as long as there are few competitors in effecting sales. But the other reason mentioned immediately before, in favor of exporting manufactures, namely, that it gives an opportu- nity of exporting the products of more labor, is of much greater importance than the chance of making extraordinary profits; a chance which has been very much diminished by the diffusion of the manufactur- ing arts, since this article was written.—W. PHILLIPS. IX TO M. DUBOURG LoxpoN, 2 October, 1770. I see with pleasure, that we think pretty much alike on the subject of English America. We of the colonies have never insisted that we ought to be ex- empt from contributing to the common expenses necessary to support the prosperity of the empire. We only assert that, having parliaments of our own, and not having representatives in that of Great Brit- ain, our parliaments are the only judges of what we can and what we ought to contribute in this case; and that the English Parliament has no right to take our money without our consent. In fact, the British empire is not a single state; it comprehends many; and though the Parliament of Great Britain has ar- rogated to itself the power of taxing the colonies, it has no more right to do so than it has to tax Hanover. We have the same King, but not the same legisla- tures. The dispute between the two countries has already lost England many millions sterling, which it has lost in its commerce, and America has in this respect been a proportionable gainer. This commerce consisted 145 146 Benjamin Franklin [1770 principally of superfluities; objects of luxury and fashion, which we can well do without; and the reso- lution we have formed of importing no more till our grievances are redressed, has enabled many of our infant manufactures to take root; and it will not be easy to make our people abandon them in future, even should a connexion more cordial than ever suc- ceed the present troubles. I have, indeed, no doubt that the Parliament of England will finally abandon its present pretensions, and leave us to the peaceable enjoyment of our rights and privileges. B. FRANKLIN. PLAN FOR BENEFITING DISTANT UNPROVIDED COUN- TRIES BY DR. FRANKLIN AND MR. DALRYMPLE! AUGUST 29, 1771 The country, called in the maps New Zealand, has been discovered by the Endeavour, to be two islands, together as large as Great Britain; these islands, named Acpy-nomawée and Tovy-poennammoo, are inhabited by a brave and generous race, who are de- stitute of corn, fowls, and all quadrupeds, except dogs. These circumstances being mentioned lately in a company of men of liberal sentiments, it was ob- served that it scemed incumbent upon such a country as this, to communicate to all others the conveniences of life which we enjoy. Dr. Franklin, whose life has ever been directed to promote the true interest of society, said ‘“he would with all his heart subscribe to a voyage intended to communicate iz general those benefits which we en- * These proposals were printed upon a sheet of paper, and dis- tributed. The parts written by Dr. Franklin and Mr. Dalrymple are easily distinguished. xr 147 148 Benjamin Franklin [771 joy, to countries destitute of them in the remote parts of the globe.” This proposition being warmly adopted by the rest of the company, Mr. Dalrymple, then present, was induced to offer to undertake the command in such an expedition. On mature reflection, this scheme appears the most honorable to the national character of any which can be conceived, as it is grounded on the noblest princi- ple of benevolence. Good intentions are often frus- trated by letting them remain undigested; on this consideration, Mr. Dalrymple was induced to put the outlines on paper, which are now published, that by an early communication there may be a better oppor- tunity of collecting all the hints which can conduce to execute effectually the benevolent purpose of the expedition, in case it should meet with general approbation. On this scheme being shown to Dr. Franklin, he communicated his sentiments, by way of introduc- tion, to the following effect: “Britain is said to have produced originally no- thing but sloes. What vast advantages have been communicated to her by the fruits, seeds, roots, herbage, animals, and arts of other countries! We are, by their means, become a wealthy and a mighty nation, abounding in all good things. Does not some duty hence arise from us towards other countries still remaining in our former state? “Britain is now the first maritime power in the world. Her ships are innumerable; capable, by their 17711 Essays 149 form, size, and strength, of sailing on all seas. Our seamen are equally bold, skilful, and hardy; dexter- ous in exploring the remotest regions, and ready to engage in voyages to unknown countries, though at- tended with the greatest dangers. The inhabitants of those countries, our fellow-men, have canoes only; not knowing iron, they cannot build ships; they have little astronomy, and no knowledge of the compass to guide them; they cannot therefore come to us, or obtain any of our advantages. From these circum- stances, does not some duty seem to arise from us to them? Does not Providence, by these distinguishing favors, seem to call on us to do something ourselves for the common interests of humanity? “Those who think it their duty to ask bread and other blessings daily from Heaven, would they not think it equally a duty to communicate of those blessings when they have received them, and show their gratitude to their Benefactor by the only means in their power, promoting the happiness of his other children? “Ceres is said to have made a journey through many countries to teach the use of corn and the art of raising it. For this single benefit the grateful na- tions deified her. How much more may Englishmen deserve such honor, by communicating the knowledge and use, not of corn only, but of all the other enjoy- ments the earth can produce, and which they are now in possession of. Communiter bona profundere, Dedim est. “Many voyages have been undertaken with views i} 1 Benjamin Franklin [1771 of profit or of plunder, or to gratify resentment; to procure some advantage to ourselves, or do some mischief to others. But a voyage in now proposed to visit a distant people on the other side the globe; not to cheat them, not to rob them, not to seize their lands, or enslave their persons; but merely to do them good, and make them, as far as in our power lies, to live as comfortably as ourselves. “It seems a laudable wish that all the nations of the earth were connected by a knowledge of each other and a mutual exchange of benefits; but a com- mercial nation particularly should wish for a general civilization of mankind, since trade is always carried on to much greater extent with people who have the arts and conveniences of life, than it can be with naked savages. We may therefore hope, in this undertaking, to be of some service to our country as well as to those poor people who, however distant from us, are in truth related to us, and whose inter- ests do, in some degree, concern every one who can say, Homo sum, &c.” Scheme of a voyage by subscription, to convey the conveniences of life, as fowls, hogs, goats, cattle, corn, iron, &c., to those remote regions which are destitute of them, and to bring from thence such productions as can be cultivated in this kingdom, to the advan- tage of society, in a ship under the command of Alexander Dalrymple. T50 No Essays r Catt or bark, from the coal trade, of 350 tons, esti- mated at about . . £2,000 Extra expenses, stores, boats, &c. . . 3,000 To be manned with sixty men at £4 per man per morth . . A240 £2,880 per annum. Wages and provisions . £8,640 for three years 8,640 13,640 Cargo included, supposed . £15,000 The expenses of this expedition are calculated for three years; but the greatest part of the amount of wages will not be wanted till the ship returns, and a great part of the expense of provisions will be saved by what is obtained in the course of the voyage, by barter or otherwise, though it is proper to make pro- vision for contingencies. 71] I5: XI TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY LonpoN, 2 December, 1772. DEAR Frienp:—I am glad you are returned again to a seat in the Assembly, where your abilities are so useful and necessary in the service of your country. We must not in the course of public life expect im- mediate approbation and immediate grateful ac- knowledgement of our services. But let us persevere through abuse and even injury. The internal satis- faction of a good conscience is always present, and time will do us justice in the minds of the people, even those at present the most prejudiced against us. I have given Dr. Denormandie a recommendation to a friend in Geneva, for which place he set out this morning; and I shall be glad of any opportunity of serving him when he returns to London. I see by the Pennsylvania Gazette, of October 21st, that you are continued Speaker, and myself agent; but I have no line from you or the Committee relative to instruc- tions. Perhaps I shall hear from you by Falconer. 1 find myself upon very good terms with our new minister, Lord Dartmouth, who we have reason to think means well to the colonies. I believe all are 152 17 Essays 153 now sensible that nothing is to be got by contesting with or oppressing us. Two circumstances have diverted me lately. One was that, being at the court of exchequer on some business of my own, I there met with one of the commissioners of the stamp office, who told me he attended with a memorial from that board, to be al- lowed in their accounts the difference between their expense in endeavouring to establish those offices in America, and the amount of what they received, which from Canada and the West India Islands was but about fifteen hundred pounds, while the expense, if I remember right, was above twelve thousand pounds, being for stamps and stamping, with paper and parch- ment returned upon their hands, freight, &c. The other is the present difficulties of the India Company, and of government on their account. The Company have accepted bills, which they find themselves un- able to pay, though they have the value of two mil- lions in tea and other India goods in their stores, perishing under a want of demand; their credit thus suffering, and their stock falling one hundred and twenty per cent., whereby the government will lose the four hundred thousand pounds per annum, it hav- ing been stipulated that it should no longer be paid, if the dividend fell to that mark. And although it is known that the American market is lost by con- tinuing the duty on tea, and that we are supplied by the Dutch, who doubtless take the opportunity of smuggling other India goods among us with the tea, so that for the five years past we might probably have otherwise taken off the greatest part of what the 15] a 154 Benjamin Franklin [1772 Company have on hand, and so have prevented their present embarrassment, yet the honor of govern- ment 1s supposed to forbid the repeal of the American tea duty; while the amount of all the duties goes on decreasing, so that the balance of this year does not (as I have it from good authority) exceed eighty pounds after paying the collection; not reckoning the immense expense of guarda-costas, &c. Can an American help smiling at these blunders? Though, in a national light, they are truly deplorable. With the sincerest esteem and inviolable attach- ment, I am, my dear friend, ever most affectionately yours, B. FRANKLIN. mn XII RULES FOR REDUCING A GREAT EMPIRE TO A SMALL ONE PRESENTED TO A LATE MINISTER An ancient sage valued himself upon this, that, though he could not fiddle he knew how to make a great city of a little one. The science that I, a mod- ern simpleton, am about to communicate, is the very reverse. I address myself to all ministers who have the man- agement of extensive dominions, which from their very greatness have become troublesome to govern, because the multiplicity of their affairs leaves no time for fiddling. 1. In the first place, gentlemen, you are to con- sider that a great empire, like a great cake, 1s most easily diminished at the edges. Turn your attention, therefore, first to your remotest provinces; that, as you get rid of them, the next may follow in order. 2. That the possibility of this separation may always exist, take special care the provinces are never incorporated with the mother country; that they do not enjoy the same common rights, the same privileges in commerce; and that they are governed by severer laws, all of your enacting, without allow- ing them any share in the choice of the legislators. By carefully making and preserving such distinctions, * Supposed to be the Earl of Hillsborough. 155 156 Benjamin Franklin [1773 you will (to keep to my simile of the cake) act like a wise gingerbread-baker, who, to facilitate a division, cuts his dough half through in those places where, when baked, he would have it broken to pieces. 3. Those remote provinces have perhaps been ac- quired, purchased, or conquered, at the sole expense of the settlers, or their ancestors; without the aid of the mother country. If this should happen to in- crease her strength, by their growing numbers ready to join in her wars; her commerce, by their growing demand for her manufactures; or her naval power, by greater employment for her ships and seamen, they may probably suppose some merit in this, and that it entitles them to some favor; you are there- fore to forget it all, or resemt dt all, as if they had done you injury. If they happen to be zealous Whigs, friends of liberty, nurtured in revolution principles, remember all that to their prejudice, and contrive to punish it; for such principles, after a re- volution is thoroughly established, are of no more use; they are even odious and abominable. 4. However peaceably your colonies have sub- mitted to your government, shown their affection to your interests, and patiently borne their grievances, you are to suppose them always inclined to revolt, and treat them accordingly. Quarter troops among them, who by their insolence may provoke the rising of mobs, and by their bullets and bayonets suppress them. By this means, like the husband who uses his wife ill from suspicion, you may in time convert your suspicions into realities. tc. Remote provinces must have governors and 177 Essays 157 judges to represent the royal person and execute everywhere the delegated parts of his office and authority. You ministers know that much of the strength of government depends on the opinion of the people, and much of that opinion on the choice of rulers placed immediately over them. If you send them wise and good men for governors, who study the interests of the colonists, and advance their prosperity, they will think their king wise and good, and that he wishes the welfare of his subjects. If you send them learned and upright men for judges, they will think him a lover of justice. This may attach your provinces more to his government, You are therefore to be careful whom you recom- mend to those offices. If you can find prodigals who have ruined their fortunes, broken gamesters or steckjobbers, these may do well as governors; for they will probably be rapacious, and provoke the people by their extortions. Wrangling proctors and pettifogging lawyers, too, are not amiss; for they will be forever disputing and quarrelling with their little Parliaments. If withal they should be ignorant, wrongheaded, and insolent, so much the better. Attorney’s clerks and Newgate solicitors will do for chief-justices, especially if they hold their places during your pleasure; and all will contribute to impress those ideas of your government that are proper for a people you would wish to renounce it. 6. To confirm these impressions and strike them deeper, whenever the injured come to the capital with complaints of maladministration, oppression, or injustice, punish such suitors with long delay, enor- 75) To 15s Benjamin Franklin [1773 mous expense, and a final judgment in favor of the oppressor. This will have an admirable effect every way. The trouble of future complaints will be pre- vented, and governors and judges will be encouraged to further acts of oppression and injustice; and thence the people may become more disaffected, and at length desperate. 7. When such governors have crammed their cof- fers and made themselves so odious to the people that they can no longer remain among them with safety to their persons, recall and reward them with pensions. You may make them baronets too, if that respectable order should not think fit to resent it. All will contribute to encourage new governors in the same practice, and make the supreme govern- ment detestable. 8. If when you are engaged in war, your colonies should vie in liberal aids of men and money against the common enemy, upon your simple requisition, and) give far beyond their abilities, reflect that a penny taken from them by your power is more honor- able to you than a pound presented by their benevo- lence; despise therefore their voluntary gramts, and resolve to harass them with novel taxes. They will probably complain to your Parliament, that they are taxed by a body in which they have no representative and that this is contrary to common right. They will petition for redress. Let the Parliament flout their claims, reject their petitions, refuse even to suffer the reading of them, and treat the petitioners with the utmost contempt. Nothing can have a better effect in producing the alienation proposed; for, ~ 17721 Essays - 29 though many can forgive injuries, none ever for- gave contempt. 9. In laying these taxes, never regard the heavy burdens those remote people already undergo, in de- fending their own frontiers, supporting their own provincial government, making new roads, building bridges, churches, and other public edifices; which in old countries have been done to your hands by your ancestors, but which occasion constant calls and demands on the purses of a new people. Forget the restraint you lay on their trade for your own benefit, and the advantage a monoply of this trade gives your exacting merchants. Think nothing of the wealth those merchants and your manufacturers ac- quire by the colony commerce; their increased ability thereby to pay taxes at home; their accumulating, in the price of their commodities, most of those taxes, and so levying them from their consuming customers; all this, and the employment and support of thou- sands of your poor by the colonists, you are entirely to forget. But remember to make your arbitrary tax more grievous to your provinces, by public declara- tions importing that your power of taxing them has no limits; so that, when you take from them with- out their consent a shilling in the pound, you have a clear right to the other nineteen. This will probably weaken every idea of security in their property, and convince them that under such a government they have nothing they can call their own; which can scarce fail of producing the happiest consequences! 10. Possibly, indeed, some of them might still com- Bs Te Benjamin Franklin [1773 fort themselves, and say; “Though we have no prop- erty, we have yet something left that is valuable; we have constitutional liberty, both of person and of con- science. ‘This King, these Lords, and these Com- mons, who it seems are too remote from us to know us, and feel for us, cannot take from us our Habeas Corpus right, or our right of trial by a jury of our neighbors; they cannot deprive us of the exercise of our religion, alter our ecclesiastical constitution, and compel us to be Papists, if they please, or Mahome- tans.”” To annihilate this comfort, begin by laws to perplex their commerce with infinite regulations, impossible to be remembered and observed; ordain seizures of their property for every failure; take away the trial of such property by jury, and give it to arbitrary judges of your own appointing, and of the lowest characters in the country, whose salaries and emoluments are to arise out of the duties or condemnations, and whose appointments are during pleasure. Then let there be a formal declaration of both houses, that opposition to your edicts is treason, and that persons suspected of treason in the pro- vinces may, according to same obsolete law, be seized and sent to the metropolis of the empire for trial; and pass an act, that those there charged with certain other offences shall be sent away in chains from their friends and country to be tried in the same manner for felony. Then erect a new court of Inquisition among them, accompanied by an armed force, with instructions to transport all such suspected persons; to be ruined by the expense, if they bring over evi- dences to prove their innocence, or be found guilty 160 - Ly pdt bssays and hanged if they cannot afford it. And, lest the people should think you cannot possibly go any fur- ther, pass another solemn declaratory act, ‘that King, Lords, Commons had, have, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the unrepre- sented provinces in all cases whatsoever. This will include spiritual with temporal, and, taken together, must operate wonderfully to your purpose; by con- vincing them that they are at present under a power something like that spoken of in the Scrip- tures, which can not only kill their bodies, but damn their souls to all eternity, by compelling them, if it pleases, to worship the Devil. 11. To make your taxes more odious, and more likely to procure resistance, send from the capital a board of officers to superintend the collection, com- posed of the most indiscreet, ill-bred, and insolent you can find. Let these have large salaries out of the extorted revenue, and live in open, grating luxury upon the sweat and blood of the industrious; whom they are to worry continually with groundless and expensive prosecutions before the above-mentioned arbitrary revenue judges; all at the cost of the party prosecuted, though acquitted, because the king is to pay no costs. Let these men, by your order, be exempted from all the common taxes and burdens of the province, though they and their property are protected by its laws. If any revenue officers are suspected of the least tenderness for the people, dis- card them. If others are justly complained of, pro- tect and reward them. If any of the under officers +3 161 : Benjamin Franklin [1773 behave so as to provoke the people to drub them, promote those to better offices; this will encourage others to procure for themselves such profitable drubbings, by multiplying and enlarging such pro- vocations, and all will work towards the end you aim at. 12. Another way to make your tax odious, is to masapply the produce of it. If it was originally ap- propriated for the defence of the provinces, and the better support of government, and the administra- tion of justice, where it may be necessary, then apply none of it to that defence; but bestow it where it is not necessary, in augmenting salaries or pensions to every governor who has distinguished himself by his enmity to the people, and by calumniating them to their sovereign. This will make them pay it more unwillingly, and be more apt to quarrel with those that collect it and those that imposed it; who will quarrel again with them; and all shall contribute to your own purpose, of making them weary of your government. 13. If the people of any province have been accus- tomed to support their own governors and judges to satisfaction, you are to apprehend that such govern- ors and judges may be thereby influenced to treat the people kindly and to do them justice. This is another reason for applying part of that revenue in larger salaries to such governors and judges, given, as their commissions are, during your pleasure only; forbidding them to take any salaries from their pro- vinces; that thus the people may no longer hope any kindness from their governors, or (in crown cases) 62 177° Essays 1413 any justice from their judges. And, as the money thus misapplied in one province is extorted from all, probably all will resent the misapplication. 14. If the Parliaments of your provinces should dare to claim rights, or complain of your administra- tion, order them to be harassed with repeated disso- lutions. If the same men are continually returned by new elections, adjourn their meetings to some country village, where they cannot be accommodated and there keep them during pleasure; for this, you know, is your prerogative; and an excellent one it 1s, as you may manage it to promote discontents among the people, diminish their respect, and increase their disaffection. 15. Convert the brave, honest officers of your navy into pimping tide-waiters and colony officers of the customs. Let those who in time of war fought gallantly in defence of the commerce of their country- men, in peace be taught to prey upon it. Let them learn to be corrupted by great and real smugglers; but (to show their diligence) scour with armed boats every bay, harbor, river, creek, cove, or nook throughout the coast of your colonies; stop and detain every coaster, every wood-boat, every fisher- man; tumble their cargoes and even their ballast in- side out and upside down; and, if a pennyworth of pins is found unentered, let the whole be seized and confiscated. Thus shall the trade of your colonists suffer more from their friends in time of peace, than it did from their enemies in war. Then let these boats’ crews land upon every farm in their way, rob their orchards, steal their pigs and poultry, and insult the iol IC, 162 Benjamin Franklin 1773 inhabitants. If the injured and exasperated farmers, unable to procure other justice, should attack the aggressors, drub them, and burn their boats; you are to call this high treason and rebellion, order fleets and armies into their country, and threaten to carry all the offenders three thousand miles to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Oh, this will work admirably! 16. If you are told of discontents in your colonies, never believe that they are general, or that you have given occasion for them; therefore do not think of applying any remedy, or of changing any offensive measure. Redress no grievance, lest they should be encouraged to demand the redress of some other grievance. Grant no request that is just and reason- able, lest they should make another that is unreason- able. Take all your informations of the state of the colonies from your governors and officers in enmity with them. Encourage and reward these leasing- makers; secrete their lying accusations, lest they should be confuted; but act upon them as the clearest evidence; and believe nothing you hear from the friends of the people. Suppose all their complaints to be invented and promoted by a few factious dema- gogues, whom if you could catch and hang, all would be quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly; and the blood of the martyrs shall work miracles in favor of your purpose.* I One of the American writers affirms: ‘That there has not been a single instance in which they have complained, without being rebuked; or in which they have been complained against, without being pun- ished.” A fundamental mistake in the minister occasioned this. Every individual in New England (the peccant country) was held a coward or a knave, and the disorders which spread abroad there were Nop. : Essays 165 17. If you see rival nations rejoicing at the pros- pect of your disunion with your provinces, and en- deavoring to promote it; if they translate, publish, and applaud all the complaints of your discontented colonists, at the same time privately stimulating you to severer measures, let not that offend you. Why should it, since you all mean the same thing? 18. If any colony should at their own charge erect a fortress to secure their port against the fleets of a foreign enemy, get your governor to betray that fort- ress into your hands. Never think of paying what it costs the country, for that would look at least like some regard for justice; but turn it into a citadel to awe the inhabitants and curb their commerce. If they should have lodged in such fortress the very arms they bought and used to aid you in your con- quests, seize them all; it will provoke, like ingrati- tude added to robbery. One admirable effect of these operations will be to discourage every other colony from erecting such defences, and so their and your enemies may more easily invade them, to the great disgrace of your government, and, of course, the furtherance of your project. 19. Send armies into their country under pretence of protecting the inhabitants; but, instead of garri- soning the forts on their frontiers with those troops to prevent incursions, demolish those forts and order the troops into the heart of the country, that the savages may be encouraged to attack the frontiers, treated as the result of the too great lenity of Great Britain! By the aid of this short and benevolent rule, judgment was ever wisely pre- determined; to the shutting out redress on the one hand, and enforcing every rigor of punishment on the other. 7731 3 Benjamin Franklin [173 and that the troops may be protected by the inhabi- tants. This will seem to proceed from your zll-wzll or your tgnorance, and contribute further to produce and strengthen an opinion among them that you are no longer fit to govern them.: 20. Lastly, invest the general of your army in the provinces with great and unconstitutional powers, and free him from the control of even your own civil governors. Let him have troops enough under his command, with all the fortresses in his possession; and who knows but (like some provincial generals in the Roman empire, and encouraged by the universal discontent you have produced) he may take it into his head to set up for himself? If he should, and you have carefully practised the few excellent rules of mine, take my word for it, all the provinces will immediately join him; and you will that day (if you have not done it sooner) get rid of the trouble of gov- erning them, and all the plagues attending their com- merce and connection from thenceforth and forever.* 1 As the reader may be inclined to divide his belief between the wisdom of the ministry and the candor and veracity of Dr. Franklin it may be stated that two contrary objections may be made to the truth of this representation. The first is, that the conduct of Great Britain is made foo absurd for possibility; and the second, that it is not made absurd enough for fact. If we consider that this writing does not include the measures subsequent to 1773, the latter difficulty is easily set aside. The former can only be solved by the many instances in history where the infatuation of individuals has brought the heaviest calamities upon nations. 2 A new and handsome edition of the above piece was published at London in 1793. 166 ew XIII AN EDICT BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA DaNTz1G, 5 September, 1773. We have long wondered here at the supineness of the English nation, under the Prussian impositions upon its trade entering our port. We did not, till lately, know the claims, ancient and modern, that hang over that nation; and therefore could not sus- pect that it might submit to those impositions from a sense of duty or from principles of equity. The following Edict, just made public, may, if serious, throw some light upon this matter. [“ FREDERIC, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, etc., etc., etc., to all present and to come (& tous pré- sens et a venir), health. The peace now enjoyed throughout our dominions, having afforded us leisure to apply ourselves to the regulation of commerce, the improvement of our finances, and at the same time the easing our domestic subjects in their taxes; for these causes, and other good considerations us there- unto moving, we hereby make known that, after having deliberated these affairs in our council, pres- ent our dear brothers, and other great officers of the state, members of the same; we, of our certain 167 1 Benjamin Franklin [1773 knowledge, full power, and authority royal, have made and issued this present Edict, viz.: “Whereas it 1s well known to all the world, that the first German settlements made in the island of Britain were by colonies of people subject to our renowned ducal ancestors, and drawn from their do- minions, under the conduct of Hengist, Horsa, Hella, Uffa, Cerdicus, Ida, and others; and that the said colonies have flourished under the protection of our august house for ages past; have never been emanci- pated therefrom; and yet have hitherto yielded little profit to the same; and whereas we ourself have in the last war fought for and defended the said colonies against the power of France, and thereby enabled them to make conquests for the said power in Amer- ica, for which we have not yet received adequate compensation; and whereas it is just and expedient that a revenue should be raised from the said colo- nies in Britain, towards our indemnification; and that those who are descendants of our ancient sub- jects, and thence still owe us due obedience, should contribute to the replenishing of our royal coffers (as they must have done, had their ancestors remained in the territories now to us appertaining); we do therefore hereby ordain and command that, from and after the date of these presents, there shall be levied and paid to our officers of the customs, on all goods, wares, and merchandises, and on all grain and other produce of the earth, exported from the said island of Britain, and on all goods of whatever kind imported into the same, a duty of four and a 68 re Essays 9 half per cent. ad valorem, for the use of us and our successors. And, that the said duty may more effect- ually be collected, we do hereby ordain that all ships or vessels bound from Great Britain to any other part of the world, or from any other part of the world to Great Britain, shall in their respective voyages touch at our port of Koningsberg, there to be un- laden, searched, and charged with the said duties. “ And whereas there hath been from time to time discovered in the said island of Great Britain, by our colonists there, many mines or beds of iron-stone; and sundry subjects of our ancient dominion, skilful in converting the said stone into metal, have in time past transported themselves thither, carrying with ‘hem and communicating that art; and the inhabi- tants of the said island, presuming that they had a natural right to make the best use they could of the natural productions of their country for their own benefit, have not only built furnaces for smelting the said stone into iron, but have erected plating-forges, slitting-mills, and steel-furnaces, for the more conven- ient manufacturing of the same; thereby endangering a diminution of the said manufacture in our ancient dominion; we do therefore hereby further ordain that, from and after the date hereof, no mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating- forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel, shall be erected or continued in the said island of great Britain. And the lord-lieutenant of every county in the said island is hereby commanded, on information of any such erection within his county, 773] 16. 17¢. Benjamin Franklin [1773 to order, and by force to cause, the same to be abated and destroyed; as he shall answer the neglect thereof to us at his peril. But we are nevertheless graciously pleased to permit the inhabitants of the said island to transport their iron into Prussia, there to be manu- factured, and to them returned; they paying our Prussian subjects for the workmanship, with all the costs of commission, freight, and risk, coming and returning; any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. “We do not, however, think fit to extend this our indulgence to the article of wool; but, meaning to en- courage, not only the manufacturing of woollen cloth, but also the raising of wool, in our ancient dominions, and to prevent both, as much as may be, in our said island, we do hereby absolutely forbid the transporta- tion of wool from thence, even to the mother country, Prussia; and, that those islanders may be further and more effectually restrained in making any advantage of their own wool in the way of manufacture, we command that none shall be carried out of one county into another; nor shall any worsted, bay, or woollen yarn, cloth, says, bays, kerseys, serges, frizes, druggets, cloth-serges, shalloons, or any other drapery stuffs, or woollen manufactures whatsoever, made up or mixed with wool in any of the said coun- ties, be carried into any other county, or be water- borne even across the smallest river or creek, on penalty of forfeiture of the same, together with the boats, carriages, horses, etc.. that shall be employed in removing them. Nevertheless, our loving subjects there are hereby permitted (if they think proper) to Ir) 1772 Essays 171 use all their wool as manure for the improvement of their lands. “ And whereas the art and mystery of making hats hath arrived at great perfection in Prussia, and the making of hats by our remoter subjects ought to be as much as possible restrained; and forasmuch as the islanders before mentioned, being in possession of wool, beaver, and other furs, have presumptuously conceived they had a right to make some advantage thereof, by manufacturing the same into hats, to the prejudice of our domestic manufacture; we do there- fore hereby strictly command and ordain, that no hats or felts whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be loaded or put into or upon any vessel, cart, carriage, or horse, to be transported or conveyed out of one county in the said island into another county, or to any other place whatsoever, by any person or persons whatsoever; on pain of forfeiting the same, with a penalty of five hundred pounds sterling for every offence. Nor shall any hat-maker, in any of the said counties, employ more than two apprentices, on penalty of five pounds sterling per month; we intending hereby that such hat-makers, being so restrained, both in the produc- tion and sale of their commodity, may find no advan- tage in continuing their business. But, lest the said islanders should suffer inconveniency by the want of hats, we are further graciously pleased to per- mit them to send their beaver furs to Prussia; and we also permit hats made thereof to be exported from Prussia to Britain; the people thus favored to pay all costs and charges of manufacturing, interest, os 172 Benjamin Franklin 1775 commission to our merchants, insurance and freight going and returning, as in the case of iron. “And, lastly, being willing further to favor our said colonies in Britain, we do hereby also ordain and command, that all the thieves, highway and street robbers, housebreakers, forgerers, murderers, s—d—tes, and villains of every denomination, who have forfeited their lives to the law of Prussia, but whom we, in our great clemency, do not think fit here to hang, shall be emptied out of our gaols into the said island of Great Britain, for the better peopling of that country. “We flatter ourselves that these our royal regula- tions and commands will be thought just and reason- able by our much favored colonists in England; the said regulations being copied from their statutes of roth and 1th William 111. ¢c. 10, 5th George 11. ¢c. 22, 23d ‘George 11. ¢. 26, 4th George 1. ¢. 11, and from other equitable laws made by their Parliaments; or from instructions given by their princes; or from resolutions of both houses, entered into for the good government of their own colonies in Ireland and America. “ And all persons in the said island are hereby cau- tioned not to oppose in any wise the execution of this our Edict, or any part thereof, such opposition being high treason; of which all who are suspected shall be transported in fetters from Britain to Prussia, there to be tried and executed according to the Prussian law. “Such is our pleasure. “Given at Potsdam, this twenty-fifth day of the > Essays 173 month of August, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, and in the thirty-third year of our reign. “By the King in his Council. “ RECHTMAESSIG, Sec.” Some take this edict to be merely one of the king's jeux d’esprit; others suppose it serious, and that he means a quarrel with England; but all here think the assertion it concludes with, “that these regula- tions are copied from acts of the English Parliament respecting their colonies,” a very injurious one; it being impossible to believe that a people distin- guished for their love of liberty, a nation so wise, so liberal in its sentiments, so just and equitable towards its neighbors, should, from mean and injudi- cious views of petty immediate profit, treat its own children in a manner so arbitrary and tyrannical! 1773] - XIV HINTS FOR CONVERSATION UPON THE SUBJECT OF TERMS THAT MIGHT PROBABLY PRODUCE A DURABLE UNION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND THE COLONIES 1. The tea destroyed to be paid for. 2. The Tea-duty Act to be repealed, and all the duties that have been received upon it to be repaid into the treasuries of the several provinces from which they have been collected. 3. The Acts of Navigation to be all reénacted in the colonies. 4. A naval officer, appointed by the crown, to reside in each colony, to see that those acts are observed. 5. All the acts restraining manufactures in the colonies to be repealed. 6. All duties arising on the acts for regulating trade with the colonies, to be for the public use of the respective colonies, and paid into their treasuries. The collectors and custom-house officers to be appointed by each governor, and not sent from England. 7. In consideration of the Americans maintaining 174 1777] Essays 175 their own peace establishment, and the monopoly Britain is to have of their commerce, no requisition to be made from them in time of peace. 8. No troops to enter and quarter in any colony, but with the consent of its legislature. 9. In time of war, on requisition made by the king, with the consent of Parliament, every colony shall raise money by the following rules or propor- tions, viz.: If Britain, on account of the war, raises three shillings in the pound to its land tax, then the colonies to add to their last general provincial peace tax a sum equal to one fourth thereof; and if Brit- ain, on the same account, pays four shillings in the pound, then the colonies to add to their said last peace tax a sum equal to half thereof, which addi- tional tax is to be granted to his Majesty, and to be employed in raising and paying men for land or sea service, furnishing provisions, transports, or for such other purposes as the king shall require and direct. And, though no colony may contribute less, each may add as much by voluntary grant as they shall think proper. 10. Castle William to be restored to the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and no fortress built by the crown in any province, but with the consent of its legislature. 11. The late Massachusetts and Quebec Acts to be repealed, and a free government granted to Canada. 12. All judges to be appointed during good be- havior, with equally permanent salaries, to be paid out of the province revenues by appointment of the 3 176 Benjamin Franklin [1775 Assemblies. Or, if the judges are to be appointed during the pleasure of the crown, let the salaries be during the pleasure of the Assemblies, as heretofore. 13. Governors to be supported by the Assemblies of each province. 14. If Britain will give up its monopoly of the American commerce, then the aid above mentioned to be given by America in time of peace as well as in time of war. 15. The extension of the act of Henry the Eighth, concerning treasons to the colonies, to be formally disowned by Parliament. 16. The American admiralty courts reduced to the same powers they have in England, and the acts establishing them to be reénacted in America. 17. All powers of internal legislation in the colonies to be disclaimed by Parliament. In reading this paper a second time, I gave my reasons at length for each article. On the 1st I observed that, when the injury was done, Britain had a right to reparation, and would certainly have had it on demand, as was the case when injury was done by mobs in the time of the Stamp Act; or she might have a right to return an equal injury, if she rather chose to do that; but she could not have a right both to reparation and to re- turn an equal injury; much less had she a right to return the injury ten or twenty-fold, as she had done by blocking up the port of Boston. All which extra injury ought, in my judgment, to be repaired by Britain. That, therefore, if paying for the tea was 177 | Essays 177 agreed to by me, as an article fit to be proposed, it was merely from a desire of peace, and in compliance with their opinion expressed at our first meeting; that this was a sine qua non, that the dignity of Britain required it, and that, if this was agreed to, every thing else would be easy. This reasoning was al- lowed to be just; but still the article was thought necessary to stand as it did. On the 2d, That the act should be repealed, as having never answered any good purpose, as having been the cause of the present mischief, and never likely to be executed. That, the act being considered as unconstitutional by the Americans, and what the Parliament had no right to make, they must consider all the money extorted by it as so much wrongfully taken, and of which therefore restitution ought to be made; and the rather, as it would furnish a fund out of which the payment for the tea destroyed might best be defrayed. The gentlemen were of opinion that the first part of this article, viz., the repeal, might be obtained, but not the refunding part, and therefore advised striking that out; but, as I thought it just and right, I insisted on its standing. On the 3d and 4th articles, I observed we were fre- quently charged with views of abolishing the Naviga- tion Act. That, in truth, those parts of it which were of most importance to Britain, as tending to increase its naval strength, viz., those restraining the trade to be carried on only in ships belonging to British sub- jects, navigated by at least three quarters British or colony seamen, etc., were as acceptable to us as they could be to Britain, since we wished to employ our TYE) 178 Benjamin Franklin [1775 own ships in preference to foreigners, and had no desire to see foreign ships enter our ports. That in- deed the obliging us to land some of our commodities in England before we could carry them to foreign markets, and forbidding our importation of some goods directly from foreign countries, we thought a hardship, and a greater loss to us than gain to Britain, and therefore proper to be repealed. But, as Britain had deemed it an equivalent for her protec- tion, we had never applied, or proposed to apply, for such a repeal. And, if they must be continued, I thought it best (since the power of Parliament to make them was now disputed) that they should be reénacted in all the colonies which would demon- strate their consent to them. And then, if, as in the sixth article, all the duties arising on them were to be collected by officers appointed and salaried in the respective governments, and the produce paid into their treasuries, I was sure the acts would be better and more faithfully executed, and at much less expense, and one great source of misunderstanding removed between the two countries, viz., the calum- nies of low officers appointed from home, who were for ever abusing the people of the country to govern- ment, to magnify their own zeal, and recommend themselves to promotion. That the extension of the admiralty jurisdiction, so much complained of, would then no longer be necessary; and that, besides its being the interest of the colonies to execute those acts, which is the best security, government might be satisfied of its being done, from accounts to be sent home by the naval officers of the fourth article. ro Essays 179 The gentlemen were satisfied with these reasons, and approved the 3d and 4th articles; so they were to stand. The sth they apprehended would meet with diffi- culty. They said that restraining manufactures in the colonies was a favorite idea here; and therefore they wished that article to be omitted, as the pro- posing it would alarm and hinder perhaps the con- sidering and granting others of more importance; but, as I insisted on the equity of allowing all sub- jects in every country to make the most of their natural advantages, they desired I would at least alter the last word from repealed to reconsidered, which I complied with. In maintaining the 7th article (which was at first objected to, on the principle that all under the care of government should pay towards the supporting of it), my reasons were that, if every distinct part of the king’s dominions supported its own government in time of peace, it was all that could be justly required of it; that all the old or confederate colonies had done so from the beginning; that their taxes for that purpose were very considerable; that new countries had many public expenses, which old ones were free from, the works being done to their hands by their ancestors, such as making roads and bridges, erecting churches, court-houses, forts, quays, and other public buildings, founding schools and places of education, hospitals and alms-houses, etc., etc.; that the volun- tary and the legal subscriptions and taxes for such purposes, taken together, amounted to more than was paid by equal estates in Britain. That it would 75] - Benjamin Franklin [1775 be best for Britain, on two accounts, not to take money from us, as contribution to its public expense, in time of peace; first, for that just so much less would be got from us in commerce, since all we could spare was already gained from us by Britain in that way; and secondly, that coming into the hands of British ministers, accustomed to prodigality of public money, it would be squandered and dissipated, an- swering no good general purpose. That if we were to be taxed towards the support of government in Britain, as Scotland has been since the union, we ought to be allowed the same privileges in trade here as she has been allowed. That if we are called upon to give to the sinking fund, or the national debt, Ireland ought to be likewise called upon; and both they and we, if we gave, ought to have some means established of inquiring into the application, and securing a compliance with the terms on which we should grant. The British ministers would perhaps not like our meddling with such matters; and that hence might arise new causes of misunderstanding. That upon the whole, therefore, I thought it best on all sides, that no aids shall be asked or accepted from the colonies in time of peace; that it would then be their interest to grant bountifully and exert them- selves vigorously in time of war, the sooner to put an end to it. That specie was not to be had to send to England in supplies, but the colonies could carry on war with their own paper money; which would pay troops, and for provisions, transports, carriages, clothing, arms, etc. So this 7th article was at length agreed to without further objection. 180 I Essays f The 8th the gentlemen were confident would never be granted. For the whole world would be of opinion that the king, who is to defend all parts of his domin- ions, should have of course a right to place his troops where they might best answer that purpose. I sup- ported the article upon principles equally important, in my opinion, to Britain as to the colonies; for that if the king could bring into one part of his domin- ions troops raised in any other part of them, without the consent of the legislatures of the part to which they were brought, he might bring armies raised in America into England without consent of Parlia- ment, which probably would not like it, as a few years since they had not liked the introduction of the Hessians and Hanoverians, though justified by the supposition of its being a time of danger. That, if there should be at any time real occasion for British troops in America, there was no doubt of obtaining the consent of the Assemblies there; and I was so far from being willing to drop this article, that I thought I ought to add another, requiring all the present troops to be withdrawn before America could be expected to treat or agree upon any terms of accommodation; as what they should now do of that kind might be deemed the effect of compulsion, the appearance of which ought as much as possible to be avoided, since those reasonable things might be agreed to, where the parties seemed at least to act freely, which would be strongly refused under threats or the semblance of force. That the withdrawing the troops was therefore necessary to make any treaty durably binding on the part of the Americans, m5] 187 , Benjamin Franklin [1775 since proof of having acted under force would invali- date any agreement. And it could be no wonder that we should insist on the crown’s having no right to bring a standing army among us in time of peace, when we saw now before our eyes a striking instance of the ill use to be made of it, viz., to distress the king’s subjects in different parts of his dominions, one part after the other, into a submission to arbi- trary power, which was the avowed design of the army and fleet now placed at Boston. Finding me obstinate the gentlemen consented to let this stand, but did not seem quite to approve of it. They wished, they said, to have this a paper or plan which they might show as containing the sentiments of considerate, impartial persons, and such as they might as Englishmen support, which they thought could not well be the case with this article. 82 XV TO MR. STRAHAN * PHILADELHIA, 5 July, 1775 MR. STRAHAN:—You are a member of Parliament, and one of that majority which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns, and murder our people. Look upon your hands; they are stained with the blood of your rela- tions! You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am, Yours, B. FRANKLIN. r King’s printer, London. 182 XVI TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY PHILADELPHIA, 3 October, 1775. DEAR SIR:—I am to set out to-morrow for the camp, and, having just heard of this opportunity, can only write a line to say that I am well and hearty.* Tell our dear good friend, Dr. Price, who sometimes has his doubts and despondencies about our firmness, that America is determined and unani- mous; a very few Tories and placemen excepted, who will probably soon export themselves. Britain, at the expense of three millions, has killed one hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is twenty thousand pounds a head; and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of which she lost again by our taking post on Ploughed Hill. During the same time sixty thousand children have been born in America. From these data his mathe- I On the 30th of September, Congress appointed Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison, as a committee to confer with General Wash- ington, concerning the best mode of supporting and regulating the Continental army. The committee proceeded to the camp at Cam- bridge, and the conference was held on the 18th of October. See Washington's Writings, Vol, IIL, p. 123. 184 1, Essays 5 matical head will easily calculate the time and ex- pense necessary to kill us all, and conquer our whole territory. My sincere respects to ——, and to the club of honest Whigs at ——. Adieu. I am ever yours most affectionately. B. FRANKLIN. ue] 18: XVII THE BRITISH NATION, AS IT APPEARED TO THE COLO- NISTS IN 1775 * “ Whereas, The British nation, through great cor- ruption of manners and extreme dissipation and profusion, both private and public, have found all honest resources insufficient to supply their exces- sive luxury and prodigality, and thereby have been driven to the practice of every injustice which avarice could dictate or rapacity execute; And whereas, not satisfied with the immense plunder of the East, obtained by sacrificing millions of the human species, they have lately turned their eyes to the West, and grudging us the peaceable enjoy- ment of the fruits of our hard labor and virtuous industry, have for years past been endeavoring to extort the same from us under color of laws regu- lating trade, and have thereby actually succeeded in draining us of large sums to our great loss and detri- ment; And whereas, impatient to seize the whole, they have at length proceeded to open robbery, declaring, by a solemn act of Parliament, that all * The draft resolution was found among Dr. Franklin's papers. It prepared with the intent to have it adopted by Congress, which is im- probable, the author changed his mind. for it was never offered. 186 I Essays 7 our estates are theirs, and all our property found upon the sea divisible among such of their armed plunderers as shall take the same; and have even dared in the same act, to declare that all the spoil- ings, thefts, burnings of houses and towns, and mur- ders of innocent people, perpetrated by their wicked and inhuman corsairs on our coasts, previous to any war declared against us, were just actions, and shall be so deemed, contrary to several commandments of God (which by this act they presume to repeal), and to all the principles of right and all the ideas of justice entertained heretofore by every other nation, savage as well as civilized; thereby manifesting them- selves to be hostes human generis; And whereas, as it 1s not possible for the people of America to subsist under such continual ravages without making some reprisals; Therefore, Resolved, etc.” 775] 18~ XVIII VINDICATION AND OFFER FROM CONGRESS TO PARLIA- MENT * Forasmuch as the enemies of America in the Par- liament of Great Britain, to render us odious to the nation, and give an ill impression of us in the minds of other European powers, have represented us as unjust and ungrateful in the highest degree; assert- ing, on every occasion, that the colonies were settled at the expense of Britain; that they were, at the ex- pense of the same, protected in their infancy; that they now ungratefully and unjustly refuse to con- tribute to their own protection, and the common defence of the nation; that they aim at independ- ence; that they intend an abolition of the Naviga- tion Acts; and that they are fraudulent in their commercial dealings, and purpose to cheat their creditors in Britain by avoiding the payment of their just debts; * Dr. Franklin was put on a committee to report to Congress a declaration to be published by General Washington, on his arrival in camp at Cambridge in the summer of 1775. This paper is doubtless one of the fruits of the discussions in that committee. It is in reply to what Mr. Vaughan calls ‘““a severe act of Parliament which reached the colonies about that time.”’ 188 : Essays ) And as by frequent repetition these groundless assertions and malicious calumnies may, if not con- tradicted and refuted, obtain further credit, and be injurious throughout Europe to the reputation and interest of the confederate colonies, it seems proper and necessary to examine them in our own just vindication. With regard to the first, that the colonies were set- tled at the expense of Britain, it is a known fact, that none of the twelve united colonies were settled, or even discovered at the expense of England. Henry the Seventh, indeed, granted a commission to Sebas- tian Cabot, a Venetian, and his sons, to sail into the western seas for the discovery of new countries; but it was to be “suis eorum propriis sumptibus et ex- pensis,” at their own costs and charges. They dis- covered, but soon slighted and neglected these northern territories, which were, after more than a hundred years’ dereliction, purchased of the natives, and settled at the charge and by the labor of private men and bodies of men, our ancestors, who came over hither for that purpose. But our adversaries have never been able to produce any record that ever the Parliament or government of England was at the smallest expense on these accounts; on the contrary, there exists on the journals of Parliament a solemn declaration in 1642 (only twenty-two years after the first settlement of the Massachusetts, when, if such expense had ever been incurred, some of the members must have known and remembered it), I See the Commission in the Appendix to Pownall’'s Administration of the Colonies. Edition 17735. ms] 18¢ Benjamin Franklin [2775 ‘““that these colonies had been planted and estab- lished without any expense to the state.” * New York is the only colony in the founding of which England can pretend to have been at any ex- pense; and that was only the charge of a small ar- mament to take it from the Dutch, who planted it. But to retain this colony at the peace, another at that time full as valuable, planted by private countrymen of ours, was given up by the crown to the Dutch in exchange, viz., Surinam, now a wealthy sugar colony in Guiana, and which, but for that cession, might still have remained in our possession. Of late, in- deed, Britain has been at some expense in planting two colonies, Georgia and Nova Scotia; but those are not in our confederacy ?; and the expense she has been at in their name has chiefly been in grants of sums unnecessarily large, by way of salaries to of- ficers sent from England, and in jobs to friends, whereby dependants might be provided for; those excessive grants not being requisite to the welfare and good government of the colonies, which good government (as experience in many instances of other colonies has taught us) may be much more fru- * “ Veneris, March 10, 1642.—Whereas, the plantations in New Eng- land have, by the blessing of the Almighty, had good and prosperous success, without any public charge to this state, and are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts, and very beneficial and commodious to this kingdom and nation; the Commons now assembled in Parliament, etc., etc., etc.” 2 Georgia joined the other colonies soon afterwards. On the 20th of July, 1775, a letter was read in Congress from the convention of Georgia, giving notice that delegates had been appointed in that colony to attend the Continental Congress. 190 TRF rf Essays 1 gally, and full as effectually, provided for and supported. With regard to the second assertion, that these colonies were protected in their injant state by Eng- land, it is a notorious fact that, in none of the many wars with the Indian natives, sustained by our in- fant settlements for a century after our first arrival, were ever any troops or forces of any kind sent from England to assist us; nor were any forts built at her expense, to secure our seaports from foreign invaders; nor any ships of war sent to protect our trade till many years after our first settlement, when our com- merce became an object of revenue, or of advantage to British merchants; and then it was thought neces- sary to have a frigate in some of our ports, during peace, to give weight to the authority of custom- house officers, who were to restrain that commerce for the benefit of England. Our own arms, with our poverty, and the care of a kind Providence, were all this time our only protection; while we were neg- lected by the English government; which either thought us not worth its care, or having no good- will to some of us, on account of our different senti- ments in religion and politics, was indifferent what became of us. On the other hand, the colonies have not been wanting to do what they could in every war for an- noying the enemies of Britain. They formerly as- sisted her in the conquest of Nova Scotia. In the war before last, they took Louisburg, and put it into her hands. She made her peace with that strong fortress restoring it to France, greatly to 7751 IG 1c. Benjamin Franklin [1775 their detriment. In the last war, it is true, Britain sent a fleet and army, which acted with an equal army of ours, in the reduction of Canada; and perhaps thereby did more for us than we in the pre- ceding wars had done for her. Let it be remem- bered, however, that she rejected the plan we formed in the Congress at Albany, in 1754, for our own defence, by a union of the colonies; a union she was jealous of, and therefore chose to send her own forces; otherwise her aid to protect us was not wanted. And from our first settlement to that time, her military operations in our favor were small, compared with the advantages she drew from her ex- clusive commerce with us. We are, however, willing to give full weight to this obligation; and as we are daily growing stronger, and our assistance to her be- comes of more importance, we should with pleasure embrace the first opportunity of showing our grati- tude by returning the favor in kind. But, when Britain values herself as affording us protection, we desire it may be considered, that we have followed her in all her wars, and joined with her at our own expense against all she thought fit to quarrel with. This she has required of us; and would never permit us to keep peace with any power she declared her enemy; though by separate treaties we might well have done it. Under such circum- stances, when at her instance we made nations our enemies, whom we might otherwise have retained our friends, we submit it to the common-sense of man- kind, whether her protection of us in these wars was not our just due, and to be claimed of right, instead 32 aE Essays 3 of being received as a favor? And whether, when all parts of an empire exert themselves to the utmost in their common defence, and in annoying the common enemy, it is not as well the paris that protect the whole, as the whole that protects the parts? The protection then has been proportionably mutual. And whenever the time shall come, that our abilities may as far exceed hers, as hers have exceeded ours, we hope we shall be reasonable enough to rest satis- fied with her proportionable exertions, and not think we do too much for a part of the empire, when that part does as much as it can for the whole. The charge against us, that we refuse to contribute to our own protection, appears from the above to be groundless; but we further declare it to be absolutely false; for it is well known that we ever held it as our duty to grant aids to the crown, upon requisition, towards carrying on its wars; which duty we have cheerfully complied with to the utmost of our abil- ities; insomuch that frequent and grateful acknowl- edgments thereof, by king and Parliament, appear on the records. But as Britain has enjoyed a most gainful monopoly of our commerce, the same, with our maintaining the dignity of the king's representa- tive in each colony, and all our own separate estab- lishments of government, civil and military, has ever hitherto been deemed an equivalent for such aids as * Supposed to allude to certain passages in the journals of the House of Commons on the 4th of April, 1748; 28th of January, 1756; 3d of February, 1756; 16 and 19 of May, 1757; 1st of June, 1758; 26th and 3oth of April, 1759; 26th and 31st of March, and 28th of April, 1760; oth and 20th of January, 1761; 22d and 26th of January, 1762; and 14th and 17th of March, 1763. 75] 19: 19¢ Benjamin Franklin [1775 might otherwise be expected from us in time of peace. And we hereby declare that on a reconcilia- tion with Britain we shall not only continue to grant aids in time of war as aforesaid, but whenever she shall think fit to abolish her monopoly, and give us the same privileges of trade as Scotland received at the union, and allow us a free commerce with all the rest of the world, we shall willingly agree (and we doubt not it will be ratified by our constituents) to give and pay into the sinking fund [one hundred thousand pounds] sterling per annum for the term of one hundred years; which duly, faithfully, and in- violably applied for that purpose, is demonstrably more than sufficient to extinguish all her present national debt; since it will in that time amount, at legal British interest, to more than [two hundred and thirty millions of pounds.’] But if Britain does not think fit to accept this proposition, we, in order to remove her groundless jealousies, that we aim at independence, and an aboli- tion of the Navigation Act (which hath in truth never been our intention), and to avoid all future disputes about the right of making that and other acts for regulating our commerce, do hereby declare our- selves ready and willing to enter into a covenant with Britain, that she shall fully possess, enjoy, and exer- cise that right for a hundred years to come, the same being bona fide used for the common benefit; and, in case of such agreement, that every Assembly be ad- vised by us to confirm it solemnly by laws of their 1 See Dr. Price's Appeal on the National Debt. “4 I Essays 5 own, which, once made, cannot be repealed without the assent of the crown. The last charge, that we are dishonest traders, and arm at defrauding our creditors in Britain, is suffi- ciently and authentically refuted by the solemn de- clarations of the British merchants to Parliament (both at the time of the Stamp Act and in the last session), who bore ample testimony to the general good faith and fair dealing of the Americans, and de- clared their confidence in our integrity, for which we refer to their petitions on the journals of the House of Commons. And we presume we may safely call on the body of the British tradesmen, who have had experience of both, to say whether they have not received much more punctual payment from us, than they generally have from the members of their own two Houses of Parliament. On the whole of the above it appears that the charge of ngratitude towards the mother country, brought with so much confidence against the col- onies, is totally without foundation; and that there is much more reason for retorting that charge on Britain, who, not only never contributes any aid, nor affords, by an exclusive commerce, any advantages to Saxony, her mother country, but, no longer since than in the last war, without the least provocation, subsidized the king of Prussia while he ravaged that mother country and carried fire and sword into its capital, the fine city of Dresden! An example we hope no provocation will induce us to imitate. 775] 19+ XIX SKETCH OF PROPOSITIONS FOR A PEACE ° There shall be a perpetual peace between Great Britain and the United States of America, on the following conditions. Great Britain shall renounce and disclaim all pre- tence of right or authority to govern in any of the United States of America. To prevent those occasions of misunderstanding, which are apt to arise where the territories of different powers border on each other, through the bad con- duct of frontier inhabitants on both sides, Britain shall cede to the United States the provinces or colonies of Quebec, St. John’s, Nova Scotia, Ber- muda, East and West Florida, and the Bahama Islands, with all their adjoining and intermediate territories now claimed by her. In return for this cession, the United States shall 1 On the 26th of September, 1776, Dr. Franklin was appointed one of the Commissioners from Congress to the Court of France. Before his departure he sketched a brief outline of the terms upon which he supposed a peace might be made with Creat Britain, in case an op- portunity for a negotiation should offer. His propositions were sub- mitted to the secret committee of Congress, but no occasion presented itself for using them. 106 I; Essays % pay to Great Britain the sum of ——— sterling, in annual payments; that is to say, —— per annum, for and during the terms of —— years, And shall, moreover, grant a free trade to all Brit- ish subjects throughout the United States and the ceded colonies, and shall guarantee to Great Britain the possession of her islands in the West Indies. Motives for Proposing a Peace at This Time 1. The having such propositions in charge will, by the law of nations, be some protection to the com- missioners or ambassadors, if they should be taken. 2. As the news of our declared independence will tend to unite in Britain all parties against us, so our offering peace, with commerce and payments of money, will tend to divide them again. For peace is as necessary to them as to us; our commerce is wanted by their merchants and manufacturers, who will therefore incline to the accommodation, even though the monopoly is not continued, since it can be easily made to appear their share of our growing trade will soon be greater than the whole has been heretofore. Then, for the landed interest, who wish an alleviation of taxes, it is demonstrable by figures, that, if we should agree to pay, suppose ten millions in one hundred years, viz., one hundred thousand pounds per annum for that term, it would, being faithfully employed as a sinking fund, more than pay off all their present national debt. It is, besides, a prevailing opinion in England, that they must in the nature of things sooner or later lose the colonies, and 776] IQ" 10. Benjamin Franklin i776 many think they had better be without the govern- ment of them; so that the proposition will, on that account, have more supporters and fewer opposers. 3. As the having such propositions to make, or any powers to treat of peace, will furnish a pretence for B. F.’s going to England, where he has many friends and acquaintances, particularly among the best writers and ablest speakers in both Houses of Par- liament, he thinks he shall be able when there, if the terms are not accepted, to work up such a divi- sion of sentiments in the nation, as greatly to weaken its exertions against the United States, and lessen its credit in foreign countries. 4. The knowledge of there being powers given to the commissioners to treat with England, may have some effect in facilitating and expediting the pro- posed treaty with France. 5. It is worth our while to offer such a sum for the countries to be ceded, since the vacant lands will in time sell for a great part of what we shall give, if not more; and, if we are to obtain them by conquest, after perhaps a long war, they will probably cost us more than that sum. It is absolutely necessary for us to have them for our own security; and though the sum may seem large to the present generation, in less than half the term it will be to the whole United States a mere trifle. Q XX COMPARISON OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES IN REGARD TO THE BASIS OF CREDIT IN THE TWO COUNTRIES In borrowing money, a man’s credit depends on some, or all, of the following particulars. First. His known conduct respecting former loans, and his punctuality in discharging them. Secondly. His industry. Thirdly. His frugality. Fourthly. The amount and certainty of his in- come, and the freedom of his estate from the incum- brances of prior debts. Fifthly. His well-founded prospects of greater future ability, by the improvement of his estate in value, and by aids from others. Sixthly. His known prudence in managing his general affairs, and the advantage they will probably receive from the loan which he desires. Seventhly. His known probity and honest char- acter, manifested by his voluntary discharge of debts, which he could not have been legally compelled to pay. The circumstances which give credit to an n- dividual, ought to have, and will have their weight upon the lenders of money to public bodies or nations. 109 200 Benjamin Franklin [1777 If then we consider and compare Britain and America in these several particulars, upon the question, “To which is it safest to lend money ?”’ we shall find: I. Respecting former loans, that America, who borrowed ten millions during the last war, for the maintenance of her army of twenty-five thousand men and other charges, had faithfully discharged and paid that debt, and all her other debts, in 1772. Whereas Britain, during those ten years of peace and profitable commerce, had made little or no reduction of her debt; but, on the contrary, from time to time, diminished the hopes of her creditors by a wanton diversion and misapplication of the sinking fund destined for discharging it. 2. Respecting industry; every man in America is employed; the greater part in cultivating their own lands, the rest in handicrafts, navigation, and com- merce. An idle man there, is a rarity; idleness and inutility are disgraceful. In England the number of that character is immense; fashion has spread it far and wide. Hence the embarrassments of private fortunes, and the daily bankruptcies, arising from a universal fondness for appearance and for expensive pleasures; and hence, in some degree, the misman- agement of public business; for habits of business, and ability in it, are acquired only by practice; and, where universal dissipation and the perpetual pursuit of amusement are the mode, the youth educated in it can rarely afterwards acquire that patient attention and close application to affairs, which are so neces- sary to a statesman charged with the care of national welfare. Hence their frequent errors in policy, and 1 Essays hence the weariness at public councils, and back- wardness in going to them, the constant unwilling- ness to engage in any measure that requires thought and consideration, and the readiness for postponing every new proposition; which postponing is, there- fore, the only part of business they come to be expert in, an expertness produced necessarily by so much daily practice. Whereas, in America, men bred to close employment in their private affairs attend with ease to those of the public when engaged in them, and nothing fails through negligence. 3. Respecting frugality; the manner of living in America is more simple and less expensive than in England; plain tables, plain clothing, and plain fur- niture in houses prevail, with few carriages of pleas- ure. There an expensive appearance hurts credit, and is avoided; in England it is often assumed to gain credit, and continued to ruin. Respecting pub- lic affairs, the difference is still greater. In England the salaries of officers and emoluments of office are enormous. The king has a million sterling per an- num, and yet cannot maintain his family free of debt *; secretaries of state, lords of the treasury, admiralty, etc., have vast appointments; an auditor of the exchequer has sixpence in the pound, or a fortieth part of all the public money expended by * On the 13th of April of this year, Lord Worth had asked for and ob- tained from Parliament $3,000,000 to liquidate the pressing demands of his sovereign, and an addition of $500,000 to his yearly income. Many of the tradesmen who supplied the palace with common neces- saries had not been paid for years. The coal merchant’s bill had reached $30,000. Charles Knight says the annual expense for wax candles was $50,000. The menial servants were nearly two years in arrears. The king had received $4,000,000 annually ever since his Ti 201 Benjamin Franklin [e777 the nation, so that, when a war costs forty millions, one million is paid to him; an inspector of the mint, in the last new coinage, received as his fee £63,000 sterling per annum; to all which rewards no service these gentlemen can render the public, is by any means equivalent. All this is paid by the people, who are oppressed by taxes so occasioned, and thereby rendered less able to contribute to the pay- ment of necessary national debts. In America, salaries, where indispensable, are extremely low; but much of the public business is done gratis. The honor of serving the public ably and faithfully is deemed sufficient. Public spirit really exists there, and has great effects. In England it is universally deemed a nonentity, and whoever pretends to it is laughed at as a fool, or suspected as a knave. The committees of Congress, which form the board of war, the board of treasury, the board of foreign affairs, the naval board, that for accounts, etc., all attend the business of their respective functions with- out any salary or emolument whatever, though they spend in it much more of their time than any lord of the treasury or admiralty in England can spare from his amusements. A British minister lately com- puted, that the whole expense of the Americans in accession. No one knew where it had gone. No vouchers were pro- duced, nor were any audit books kept, apparently. The royal estab- lishment swarmed with officers for whom it was difficult to find names. Among the satellites aulae was one who was dignified with the title of “Turnspit of the King’s Kitchen.” It was suspected that no incon- siderable part of the king’s debts had been incurred in Parliamentary corruption. It was also whispered that some of the money was sent to France to corrupt the French ministers, especially Vergennes, who was suspected of being a pensioner of Lord Stormont. 202 1777) Essays | their civil government, over three millions of people, amounted to but £70,000 sterling, and drew from thence a conclusion, that they ought to be taxed until their expense was equal in proportion to that which it costs Great Britain to govern eight millions. He had no idea of a contrary conclusion, that, if three millions may be well governed for £70,000, eight millions may be well governed for three times that sum, and that therefore the expense of his own gov- ernment should be diminished. In that corrupted nation, no man is ashamed of being concerned in lucrative government jobs, in which the public money is egregiously misapplied and squandered, the treas- ury pillaged, and more numerous and heavy taxes accumulated, to the great oppression of the people. But the prospect of a greater number of such jobs by a war, is an inducement with many to cry out for war upon all occasions, and to oppose every pro- position of peace. Hence the constant increase of the national debt, and the absolute improbability of its ever being discharged. 4. Respecting the amount and certainty of income, and solidity of security; the whole thirteen States of America are engaged for the payment of every debt contracted by the Congress, and the debt to be con- tracted by the present war is the only debt they will have to pay; all, or nearly all the former debts of particular colonies being already discharged; where- as England will have to pay, not only the enormous debt this war must occasion, but all their vast pre- ceding debt, or the interest of it; and, while Amer- ica is enriching itself by prizes made upon the British ‘i 203 : Benjamin Franklin [1777 commerce, more than it ever did by any commerce of its own, under the restraints of a British monopoly, Britain is growing poorer by the diminution of its revenues, and of course less able to discharge the present indiscreet increase of its expenses. 5. Respecting prospects of greater future ability, Britain has none such. Her islands are circum- scribed by the ocean; and, excepting a few parks or forests, she has no new land to cultivate, and cannot therefore extend her improvements. Her numbers, too, instead of increasing from increased subsistence, are continually diminishing from growing luxury, and the increasing difficulties of maintaining families, which of course discourage early marriages. Thus she will have fewer people to assist in paying her debts, and that diminishing number will be poorer. America, on the contrary, has, besides her lands already cultivated, a vast territory yet to be culti- vated; which, being cultivated, continually in- creases in value with the increase of people; and the people, who double themselves by a natural propagation every twenty-five years, will double yet faster by the accession of strangers, as long as lands are to be had for new families; so that every twenty years there will be a double number of in- habitants obliged to discharge the public debts; and those inhabitants, being more opulent, may pay their shares with greater ease. 6. Respecting prudence in general affairs, and the advantages to be expected from the loan desired, the Americans are cultivators of land; those engaged in fishery and commerce are few, compared with the 204 171 Essays 3 others. They have ever conducted their several governments with wisdom, avoiding wars and vain, expensive projects, delighting only in their peaceable occupations, which must, considering the extent of their uncultivated territory, find them employment still for ages. Whereas England, ever unquiet, am- bitious, avaricious, imprudent, and quarrelsome, is half of the time engaged in war, always at an expense infinitely greater than the advantages to be obtained by it, if successful. Thus they made war against Spain in 1739, for a claim of about £95,000 (scarce a groat for each individual of the nation), and spent forty millions sterling in the war, and the lives of fifty thousand men; and finally made peace without obtaining satisfaction for the sum claimed. Indeed, there is scarce a nation in Europe, against which she has not made war on some frivolous pretext or other, and thereby imprudently accumulated a debt that has brought her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the most indiscreet of all her wars is the present against America, with whom she might for ages have preserved her profitable connection only by a just and equitable conduct. She is now acting like a mad shopkeeper, who, by beating those that pass his doors, attempts to make them come in and be his customers. America cannot submit to such treat- ment, without first being ruined, and, being ruined, her custom will be worth nothing. England, to effect this, is increasing her debt, and irretrievably ruining herself. America, on the other hand, aims only to establish her liberty, and that freedom of commerce which will be advantageous to all Europe: 205 yl : Benjamin Franklin [1777 and, by abolishing that monopoly which she labored under, she will profit infinitely more than enough to repay any debt which she may contract to accom- plish it. 7. Respecting character in the honest payment of debts, the punctuality with which America has dis- charged her public debts was shown under the first head. And the general good disposition of the people to such punctuality has been manifested in their faithful payment of private debts to England, since the commencement of this war. There were not wanting some politicians (in America), who pro- posed stopping that payment, until peace should be restored, alleging that, in the usual course of com- merce, and of the credit given, there was always a debt existing equal to the trade of eighteen months; that, the trade amounting to five millions sterling per annum, the debt must be seven millions and a half; that this sum paid to the British merchants would operate to prevent that distress intended to be brought upon Britain by our stoppage of commerce with her; for the merchants. receiving this money, and no orders with it for further supplies, would either lay it out in public funds, or in employing manufacturers to accumulate goods for a future hungry market in America upon an expected accom- modation, by which means the funds would be kept up and the manufacturers prevented from murmur- ing. But against this it was alleged that injuries from ministers should not be revenged on merchants, that the credit was in consequence of private con- tracts made in confidence of good faith; that these 206 17. ¢ Essays ought to be held sacred and faithfully complied with; for that, whatever public utility might be supposed to arise from a breach of private faith, it was unjust, and would in the end be found unwise, honesty being in truth the best policy. On this principle the prop- osition was universally rejected ; and though the English prosecuted the war with unexampled bar- barity, burning our defenceless towns in the midst of winter, and arming savages against us, the debt was punctually paid, and the merchants of London have testified to the Parliament, and will testify to all the world, that from their experience in dealing with us they had, before the war, no apprehension of our unfairness, and that, since the war, they have been convinced that their good opinion of us was well founded. England, on the contrary, an old, corrupt government, extravagant and profligate nation, sees herself deep in debt, which she is in no condition to pay, and yet is madly and dishonestly running deeper, without any possibility of discharg- ing her debt but by a public bankruptcy. It appears, therefore, from the general industry, frugality, ability, prudence, and virtue of America, that she is a much safer debtor than Britain; to say nothing of the satisfaction generous minds must have in reflecting that by loans to America they are OpPpos- ing tyranny, and aiding the cause of liberty, which is the cause of all mankind.* * This paper was written in the year 1777. The object was to produce in Europe a just impression of the resources and political condition and prospects of the United States, with the view of encouraging governments and private capitalists to loan money to the American Congress. 77} 207 XXI TO GENERAL WASHINGTON ? SIR: —The Marquis de Lafayette, a young noble- man of great expectations and exceedingly beloved here, is by this time probably with you. By some misapprehension in his contract with the merchants of Bordeaux he was prevented from using the pro- duce of the cargo he carried over, and so was left without a supply of money. His friends here have sent him over about £500 sterling; and have pro- posed sending him more; but on reflection, knowing the extreme generosity of his disposition, and fearing that some of his necessitous and artful countrymen may impose on his goodness, they wish to put his money into the hands of some discreet friend, who may supply him from time to time, and by that means knowing his expenses, may take occasion to advise him, if necessary, with a friendly affection, and secure him from too much imposition. They accordingly have desired us to name such a person to them. We have not been able to think of one so capable, and so suitable from the influence of situa- tion, to perform that kind office, as General Wash- t This letter is printed from a rough draft, in the Department of State at Washington, which is without date. 2 “08 1777] Essays / ington, under whose eye the gentleman will probably be. We beg therefore in his behalf, what his friends out of respect would not take the liberty of asking, that your Excellency would be pleased to furnish him with what money he may want in moderation, and take his drafts payable to us for the sums paid him, which we shall receive here and apply to the public service. We also join with his family in their earnest request that you would favor him with your counsels, which you may be assured will be an act of benevolence gratefully remembered and ac- knowledged, by a number of very worthy persons here who interest themselves extremely in the welfare of that amiable young nobleman. With the greatest respect we have the honor to be, sir, Your Excellency’s, etc. 200 XXII FROM THE COUNT DE SCHAUMBERGH TO THE BARON HOHENDORF, COMMANDING THE HESSIAN TROOPS IN AMERICA Rome, 18 February, 1777. MONSIEUR LE BARON: *—On my return from Naples, I received at Rome your letter of the 27th December of last year. I have learned with un- speakable pleasure the courage our troops exhibited at Trenton, and you cannot imagine my joy on being told that of the 1,950 Hessians engaged in the fight, but 345 escaped. There were just 1,605 men killed, and I cannot sufficiently commend your prudence in sending an exact list of the dead to my minister in London. This precaution was the more neces- sary, as the report sent to the English ministry does not give but 1,455 dead. This would make 483,450 florins instead of the 643,500 which I am entitled to demand under our convention. You will com- prehend the prejudice which such an error would work in my finances, and I do not doubt you will take the necessary pains to prove that Lord North’s list is false and yours correct. The court of London objects that there were a hundred wounded who ought not to be included in the list, nor paid for as dead; but I trust you will x This jeu d’esprit has been ascribed to Franklin. 210 Essays 0 not overlook my instructions to you on quitting Cassel, and that you will not have tried by human succor to recall to life the unfortunates whose days could not be lengthened but by the loss of a leg or an arm. That would be making them a pernicious present, and I am sure they would rather die than live in a condition no longer fit for my service. I do not mean by this that you should assassinate them; we should be humane, my dear Baron, but you may insinuate to the surgeons with entire pro- priety that a crippled man is a reproach to their profession, and that there is no wiser course than to let every one of them die when he ceases to be fit to fight. I am about to send you some new recruits. Don't economize them. Remember glory before all things. Glory is true wealth. There is nothing degrades the soldier like the love of money. He must care only for honor and reputation, but this reputation must be acquired in the midst of dangers. A battle gained without costing the conqueror any blood is an inglorious success, while the conquered cover themselves with glory by perishing with their arms in their hands. Do you remember that of the 300 Lacedemonians who defended the defile of Ther. mopyla, not one returned? How happy should I be could I say the same of my brave Hessians! It is true that their king, Leonidas, perished with them: but things have changed, and it is no longer the custom for princes of the empire to go and fight in America for a cause with which they have no concern. And besides, to whom should they pay 1777] 211 L Benjamin Franklin [+777 the thirty guineas per man * if I did not stay in Europe to receive them? Then, it is necessary also that I be ready to send recruits to replace the men you lose. For this purpose I must return to Hesse. It is true, grown men are becoming scarce there, but I will send you boys. Besides, the scarcer the t The editor of George II1.’s Letters to Lord North, in a brief com- mentary upon these contracts, Vol. I., p. 266, says: “The principal graziers with whom the English government dealt for military stock were the Duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the hereditary Prince of Hesse Cassel, and subsequently the Prince of Waldeck. The prices given, as appears from the copies of the treaties laid before Parliament on the 29th of February in the following year, were as follows: These potentates stipulated to supply a force of 17,742 men at the rate of 7. 4s. 4d. a man; all extraordinary losses in battle or otherwise to be compensated by the king. Each of the noble graziers was to receive in addition an annual subsidy in proportion to the number of men; the Duke of Brunswick 15,510. so long as his troops received pay, and double that sum for two years after; the Landgrave of Hesse 108,281l., and also to have twelve months’ notice before payment was discontinued, after his forces returned to his dominions; to the Princes of Hesse and Waldeck, who contributed near 700 men each, were assigned 6,017]. The dominions of all were guaranteed against foreign attack, for such time at least as their herds were in foreign parts.” In a letter from George III. to Lord North, dated from Kew, No- vember 14, 1775, his Majesty writes: “T sent last week orders to the Regency and to Field Marshal Spor- ken that Schleither ‘should be permitted to contract with Colonel Faucitt for raising 4,000 recruits for Great Britain, and that Stade and Neuburgh should be the two garrisons where the recruits should be closely kept. . . . The laws of Germany are so clear against emigration that I certainly, in going thus far, have done as much as I possibly can in my electoral capacity; the giving commissions to officers, or any other of the proposals that have been made, I can by no means consent to, for they, in plain English, are turning me into a kidnapper, which I cannot think a very honorable occupation.” The Colonel Faucitt here referred to was sent as agent to trade with the hereditary prince Ferdinand, George IIIL’s brother-in-law, who persuaded his father, the reigning duke, to part with some of his troops. Three hundred light dragoons, which were not wanted, were added to “the 4.000 recruits” required, Faucitt not wishing “to appeardifficult.” 212 a gly 7 Essays 3 commodity, the higher the price. I am assured that the women and little girls have begun to till our lands, and they get on not badly. You did right to send back to Europe that Dr. Crumerus who was so successful in curing dysentery. Don’t bother with a man who is subject to looseness of the bowels. That disease makes bad soldiers. One coward will do more mischief in an engagement than ten brave men will do good. Better that they burst in their barracks than fly in a battle, and tarnish the glory of our arms. Besides, you know that they Sixty German dollars levy money was demanded for each man, but a little more than half that sum was finally accepted. Every soldier killed was to be paid for at the rate of the levy money, and three wounded men were to be reckoned as one killed. It must have been the recital of these degrading enormities which inspired the following anecdote at the expense of royalty, preserved by John Adams. He says in his diary: “Franklin told us one of his characteristic stories. A Spanish writer of certain visions of hell relates that a certain devil, who was civil, showed him all the apartments of the place; among others, that of the deceased kings. The Spaniard was much pleased at so illustrious a sight, and, after viewing them for some time, said he should be glad to see the rest of them. ‘The rest!’ said the demon: ‘here are all the kings that have ever reigned upon earth, from the creation of it to this day. What the devil would the man have?’” It is worthy of note here that the castle of Wilhelmshohe, one of the most costly country-places, after that of the palace of Versailles, in the world, was built by the Elector of Cassel shortly after our revolu- tionary war, with the money he received for the loan of his subjects to aid England in resisting the emancipation of her American colonies. This palace, and the bridges, water-falls, towers, etc., are said to have employed 2,000 men fourteen years in their construction, and the cost was found to be so enormous that the accounts were destroyed. For the 12,000 Hessians sent to fight the Americans and 5,000 more sent to resist the invasion of Scotland by the Pretender, England paid the Elector of that day 22,000,000 thalers, or about $18,000,000, of which the palace of Wilhelmshéhe is the most conspicuous surviving memorial. It is a fact pregnant with important lessons, that every one of the ih 21; 214 Benjamin Franklin 1777 pay me as killed for all who die from disease, and I don’t get a farthing for runaways. My trip to Italy, which has cost me enormously, makes it desirable that there should be a great mortality among them. You will therefore promise promotion to all who ex- pose themselves; you will exhort them to seek glory in the midst of dangers; you will say to Major Maun- dorff that I am not at all content with his saving the 345 men who escaped the massacre at Trenton. Through the whole campaign he has not had ten men killed in consequence of his orders. Finally, let it be your principal object to prolong the war and avoid a decisive engagement on either side, for I have made arrangements for a grand Italian opera, and I do not wish to be obliged to give it up. Mean- time I pray God, my dear Baron de Hohendorf, to have you in his holy and gracious keeping. European states, including Cassel, that hired out their subjects to resist American independence, have lost their own. Not one of them is any longer a sovereign power. In the war of 1866, the last Elector of Cassel committed the folly of taking sides with Austria, and one of the consequences was that his enchanting castle of Wilhelmshohe became the property of his conqueror. Thus one after the other all the states that made merchandise of their subjects to aid England in keeping her American colonies in thrall were swallowed up by Prussia. This palace of Wilhelmshohe was destined subsequently to become at once the prison and the asylum of another sovereign, who, unfaith- ful to the traditions of his people, allowed himself to countenance a conspiracy which, to be successful, must have involved the destruction of the republic which had proved so fatal to those of his order who had tried to strangle it in its cradle. With Louis Napoleon’s project to re-establish imperial institutions upon the ruins of a republic in Mexico, began the decline of his fortunes. It is a curious vindication of the ways of God to man that this castle of Wilhelmshéhe, built with the bones of America’s enemies, should be destined to afford the welcome shelter of a prison to one who lost his crown in attempting to erect armed barriers against the spread of the Anglo-Saxon race in America. 1 oe XXIII TO GEN. WASHINGTON Passy NEAR Paris, 4 September, 1777. Sir: —The gentleman who will have the honor of waiting upon you with this letter is the Baron de Steuben, lately a lieutenant-general in the king of Prussia’s service, whom he attended in all his cam- paigns, being his aide-de-camp, quartermaster-gen- eral, etc. He goes to America with a true zeal for our cause, and a view of engaging in it and render- ing it all the service in his power. He is recom- mended to us by two of the best judges of military merit in this country, M. de Vergennes and M. de St. Germain, who have long been personally acquainted with him, and interest themselves in promoting his voyage, from a full persuasion that the knowledge and experience he has acquired by twenty years’ study and practice in the Prussian school may be of great use in our armies. I therefore cannot but wish that our service may be made agreeable to him. I have the honor to be, etc. 215 XXIV A DIALOGUE BETWEEN BRITAIN, FRANCE, SPAIN, HOL- LAND, SAXONY, AND AMERICA Britain. Sister of Spain, I have a favor to ask of you. My subjects in America are disobedient, and I am about to chastise them; I beg you will not furnish them with any arms or ammunition. Spain. Have you forgotten, then, that when my subjects in the Low Countries rebelled against me, you not only furnished them with military stores, but joined them with an army and a fleet? I wonder how you can have the impudence to ask such a favor of me, or the folly to expect it! Britain. You, my dear sister France, will surely not refuse me this favor. France. Did you not assist my rebel Huguenots with a fleet and an army at Rochelle? And have you not lately aided privately and sneakingly my rebel subjects in Corsica? And do you not at this instant keep their chief pensioned, and ready to head a fresh revolt there, whenever you can find or make an opportunity? Dear sister, you must be a little silly! Britain. Honest Holland! You see it is remem- bered I was once your friend; you will therefore be mine on this occasion. I know, indeed, you are ac- customed to smuggle with these rebels of mine. I will wink at that; sell them as much tea as you please, 216 1777] Essays / to enervate the rascals, since they will not take it of me; but for God’s sake don’t supply them with any arms! Holland. ’T is true you assisted me against Philip, my tyrant of Spain, but have I not assisted you against one of your tyrants *; and enabled you to expel him? Surely that account, as we merchants say, is balanced, and I am nothing in your debt. I have indeed some complaints against you, for en- deavoring to starve me by your Navigation Acts; but, being peaceably disposed, I do not quarrel with you for that. I shall only go on quietly with my own business. Trade is my profession; ’'tis all I have to subsist on. And, let me tell you, I shall make no scruple (on the prospect of a good market for that commodity) even to send my ships to Hell and supply the Devil with brimstone. For you must know, I can insure in London against the burn- ing of my sails. America to Britain. Why, you old bloodthirsty bully! You, who have been everywhere vaunting your own prowess, and defaming the Americans as poltroons! You, who have boasted of being able to march over all their bellies with a single regiment! You, who by fraud have possessed yourself of their strongest fortress, and all the arms they had stored up init! You, who have a disciplined army in their country, intrenched to the teeth, and provided with every thing! Do you run about begging all Europe not to supply those poor people with a little powder and shot? Do you mean, then, to fall upon them I James the Second. 21" 2 Benjamin Franklin [1777 naked and unarmed, and butcher them in cold blood ? Is this your courage? Is this your magnanimity? Britain. Oh! you wicked—Whig—Presbyterian —Serpent! Have you the impudence to appear be- fore me after all your disobedience? Surrender im- mediately all your liberties and properties into my hands, or I will cut you to pieces. Was it for this that I planted your country at so great an expense? That I protected you in your infancy, and defended you against all your enemies? America. 1 shall not surrender my liberty and property, but with my life. It is not true, that my country was planted at your expense. Your own records * refute that falsehood to your face. Nor did you ever afford me a man or a shilling to defend me against the Indians, the only enemies I had upon my I See the Journals of the House of Commons, 1642, Viz.: “Die Veneris, Martit 10°, 1642. “Whereas the plantations in New England have, by the blessing of Almighty God, had good and prosperous success, without any public charge to this State; and are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts, and very beneficial and com- modious to this kingdom and nation; the Commons now assembled in Parliament do, for the better advancement of those plantations, and the encouragement of the planters to proceed in their undertaking, ordain, that all merchandises and goods, that by any merchant, or other person or persons whatsoever, shall be exported out of this kingdom of England into New England, to be spent, used, or employed there; or, being of the growth of that kingdom, shall be from thence imported hither, or shall be laden or put on board in any ship or vessel for necessaries in passing or returning to and fro; and all and every the owner or owners thereof, shall be freed and discharged of and from paying and yielding any custom, subsidy, taxation, imposition, or other duty for the same, either inward or outward, either in this kingdom or New England, or in any port, haven, creek, or other place whatsoever, until the House of Commons shall take further order therein to the contrary, And all and singular customers, etc., are to observe this order.” 'i8 fo Essays ) own account. But, when you have quarrelled with all Europe, and drawn me with you into all your broils, then you value yourself upon protecting me from the enemies you have made for me. I have no natural cause of difference with Spain, France, or Holland, and yet by turns I have joined with you in wars against them all. You would not suffer me to make or keep a separate peace with any of them, though I might easily have done it to great advan- tage. Does your protecting me in those wars give you a right to fleece me? If so, as I fought for you, as well as you for me, it gives me a proportionable right to fleece you. What think you of an American law to make a monopoly of you and your commerce, as you have done by your laws of me and mine? Content yourself with that monopoly if you are wise, and learn justice if you would be respected! Britain. You impudent b——h! Am not I your mother country? Is not that a sufficient title to your respect and obedience? Saxony. Mother country! Ha! ha! ha! What respect have you the front to claim as a mother coun- try? You know that I am your mother country, and yet you pay me none. Nay, it is but the other day that you hired ruffians * to rob me on the highway * and burn my house!* For shame! Hide your face and hold your tongue! If you continue this conduct, you will make yourself the contempt of Europe! Britain. O Lord! Where are my friends? ! Prussians. 2 They entered and raised contributions in Saxony. 3 And they burnt the fine suburbs of Dresden, the capital of Saxony. peri 21C 220 Benjamin Franklin rors France, Spain, Holland, and Saxony, all together. Friends! Believe us, you have none, nor ever will have any, till you mend your manners. How can we who are your neighbors have any regard for you, or expect any equity from you, should your power increase, when we see how basely and unjustly you have used both your own mother and your own children? XXV TO GEORGE WASHINGTON * Passy, 5 March, 1480. Sir: —I have received but lately the letter your Excellency did me the honor of writing to me in recommendation of the Marquis de Lafayette. His modesty detained it long in his own hands. We be- came acquainted, however, from the time of his ar- rival at Paris; and his zeal for the honor of our country, his activity in our affairs here, and his firm attachment to our cause and to you, impressed me with the same regard and esteem for him that your Excellency’s letter would have done, had it been immediately delivered to me. Should peace arrive after another campaign or two, and afford us a little leisure, I should be happy to see your Excellency in Europe, and to accompany you, if my age and strength would permit, in visiting some of its ancient and most famous kingdoms. You would, on this side of the sea, enjoy the great repu- tation you have acquired, pure and free from those little shades that the jealousy and envy of a man’s countrymen and contemporaries are ever endeavor- ing to cast over living merit. Here you would know, 1 This is doubtless the letter which Lafayette had said would be ex- tremely agreeable at headquarters. 221 2. Benjamin Franklin Trg%0 and enjoy, what posterity will say of Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly the same effect with a thousand years. The feeble voice of those grovelling passions cannot extend so far either in time or distance. At present I enjoy that pleasure for you; as I frequently hear the old generals of this martial country, who study the maps of America, and mark upon them all your operations, speak with sincere approbation and great applause of your con- duct; and join in giving you the character of one of the greatest captains of the age. I must soon quit this scene, but you may live to see our country flourish, as it will amazingly and rap- idly after the war is over; like a field of young Indian corn, which long fair weather and sunshine had en- feebled and discolored, and which in that weak state, by a thunder-gust of violent wind, hail, and rain, seemed to be threatened with absolute destruction; yet the storm being past, it recovers fresh verdure, shoots up with double vigor, and delights the eye, not of its owner only, but of every observing traveller. The best wishes that can be formed for your health, honor, and happiness, ever attend you from yours, etc., B. FRANKLIN. 122 XXVI TO COUNT DE VERGENNES Passy, 13 February, 1781. SIR: —I have just received from Congress their letter for the king, which I have the honor of putting herewith into the hands of your Excellency. I am charged, at the same time, to represent, in the strongest terms, the unalterable resolution of the United States to maintain their liberties and inde- pendence; and inviolably to adhere to the alliance at every hazard and in every event; and that the mis- fortunes of the last campaign, instead of repressing, have redoubled their ardor; that Congress are re- solved to employ every resource in their power to expel the enemy from every part of the United States, by the most vigorous and decisive co-operation with marine and other forces of their illustrious ally; that they have accordingly called on the several States for a powerful army and ample supplies of provisions: and that the States are disposed effectually to com- ply with their requisitions. That if, in aid of their Own exertions, the court of France can be prevailed on to assume a naval superiority in the American 223 224 Benjamin Franklin [1781 seas, to furnish the arms, ammunition, and clothing specified in the estimate heretofore transmitted, and to assist with the loan mentioned in the letter, they flatter themselves that, under the Divine blessing, the war must speedily be terminated with glory and advantage to both nations.” By several letters to me from intelligent persons it appears that the great and expensive exertions of the last year, by which a force was assembled capable of facing the enemy, and which accordingly drew to- wards New York, and lay long near that city, was rendered ineffectual by the superiority of the enemy at sea; and that their successes in Carolina had been chiefly owing to that superiority, and to the want of the necessary means for furnishing, marching, and paying the expense of troops sufficient to defend that province. The Marquis de Lafayette writes to me that it is impossible to conceive, without see- ing it, the distress which the troops have suffered for want of clothing; and the following is a para- graph of a letter from General Washington, which I ought not to keep back from your Excellency, viz.: “I doubt not that you are so fully informed by Con- gress of our political and military state, that it would be superfluous to trouble you with any thing relative to either. If I were to speak on topics of the kind, it would be to show that our present situation makes one of two things essential to us—a peace, or the most vigorous aid of our allies, particularly in the article of money. Of their disposition to serve us, we cannot doubt; their generosity will do every 1781] Essays 3 thing which their means will permit.” T hey had in America great expectations, I know not on what foundation, that a considerable supply of money would be obtained from Spain; but that expecta- tion has failed, and the force of that nation in those seas has been employed to reduce small forts in Flor- ida, without rendering any direct assistance to the United States; and indeed the long delay of that court, in acceding to the treaty of commerce, begins to have the appearance of its not inclining to have any connection with us; so that, for effectual friend- ship, and for the aid so necessary in the present con- juncture, we can rely on France alone, and in the continuance of the king’s goodness towards us. I am grown old. I feel myself much enfeebled by my late long illness, and it is probable I shall not long have any more concern in these affairs. I there- fore take this occasion to express my opinion to your Excellency, that the present conjuncture is critical; that there is some danger lest the Congress should lose its influence over the people, if it is found unable to procure the aids that are wanted: and that the whole system of the new government in America may thereby be shaken: that, if the English are suffered once to recover that country, such an opportunity of effectual separation as the present may not occur again in the course of ages; and that the possession of those fertile and extensive regions, and that vast sea-coast, will afford them so broad a basis for future greatness, by the rapid growth of their commerce, and breed of seamen and soldiers, as will enable them 22F 2 Benjamin Franklin [1781 to become the terror of Europe,* and to exercise with impunity that insolence which is so natural to their nation, and which will increase enormously with the increase of their power. I am, with great respect, your Excellency’s, etc., B. FRANKLIN, 1 At a dinner given in Paris by the late Sir Henry Bulwer a few days after the news reached Europe of the surrender of Lee in 1865, Sir Henry’s brother, the late Lord Lytton, confessed to considerable disappointment that the war had terminated without a dismember- ment of the Union. He had hoped, he said, that it would have left two or three nations instead of one, for, he added, ‘by the close of the century you will number near a hundred million, and you will be a terror to Europe,” using singularly enough the very expression employed here by Franklin in forecasting the danger to the Old World of allowing the colonies to remain dependencies of England. 226 XXVII TO BENJAMIN VAUGHAN Passy, 26 July, 1784. Dear Frienp:—I have received several letters from you lately, dated June 16th, June 3oth, and July 13th. I thank you for the information respect- ing the proceedings of your West India merchants, or rather planters. The restraints, whatever they may be upon our commerce with your islands, will prejudice their inhabitants, I apprehend, more than us. I have received Cook’s Voyages which you put Mr. Oswald in the way of sending to me. By some mistake the first volume was omitted, and instead of it a duplicate sent of the third. If there is a good print of Cook, I should be glad to have it, being per- sonally acquainted with him. I thank you for the pamphlets by Mr. Estlin. Every thing you send me gives me pleasure; to receive your account would give me more than all. I am told that the little pamphlet of Advice to Such as would Remove to America is reprinted in London, with my name to it, which I would rather had been omitted; but wish to see a copy, when you have an opportunity of sending it. Mr. Hartley has long continued here in expectation 227 2. Benjamin Franklin [1784 of instructions for making a treaty of commerce, but they do not come, and I begin to suspect none are intended; though perhaps the delay is only oc- casioned by the over-great burden of business at present on the shoulders of your ministers. We do not press the matter, but are content to wait till they can see their interest respecting America more clearly, being certain that we can shift as well as you without a treaty The conjectures I sent you concerning the cold of last winter still appear to me probable. The moder- ate season in Russia and Canada does not weaken them. I think our frost here began about the 24th of December; in America, the 12th of January. I thank you for recommending to me Mr. Arbuthnot; I have had pleasure in his conversation. I wish much to see the new pieces you had in hand. I con- gratulate you on the return of your wedding-day, and wish for your sake and Mrs. Vaughan’s that you may see a great many of them, all as happy as the first. I like the young stranger very much. He seems sensible, ingenious, and modest, has a good deal of instruction, and makes judicious remarks. He will probably distinguish himself advantageously. I have not yet heard from Mr. Nairne. Dr. Price’s pamphlet of advice to America is a good one and will do good. You ask “what remedy I have for the growing luxury of the country, which gives so much offence to all English travellers without exception.” I answer that I think it exaggerated, and that travellers are no good judges whether our luxury is growing or diminishing. Our people are 28 =e 1784] Essays ) hospitable, and have, indeed, too much pride in dis- playing upon their tables before strangers the plenty and variety that our country affords. They have the vanity, too, of sometimes borrowing one another’s plate to entertain more splendidly. Strangers being invited from house to house, and meeting every day with a feast, imagine what they see is the ordinary way of living of all the families where they dine; when perhaps each family lives a week after upon the remains of the dinner given. It is, I own, a folly in our people to give such offence to English travellers. The first part of the proverb is thereby verified, that fools make feasts. 1 wish in this case the other were as true, and wise men eat them. These travellers might, one would think, find some fault they could more decently reproach us with, than that of our ex- cessive civility to them as strangers. I have not yet indeed thought of a remedy for luxury. I am not sure that in a great state it is capable of a remedy, nor that the evil is in itself always so great as it is represented. Suppose we include in the definition of luxury all unnecessary ex- pense, and then let us consider whether laws to pre- vent such expense are possible to be executed in a great country, and whether, if they could be exe- cuted, our people generally would be happier, or even richer. Is not the hope of being one day able to pur- chase and enjoy luxuries a great spur to labor and industry? May not luxury, therefore, produce more than it consumes, if without such a spur people would be, as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent? To this purpose I remember 22C : Benjamin Franklin [1784 a circumstance. The skipper of a shallop, employed between Cape May and Philadelphia, had done us some small service, for which he refused to be paid. My wife, understanding that he had a daughter, sent her a present of a new-fashioned cap. Three years after, this skipper being at my house with an old farmer of Cape May, his passenger, he mentioned the cap, and how much his daughter had been pleased with it. “But,” said he, ‘‘it proved a dear cap to our congregation.” ‘‘How so?” ‘‘When my daugh- ter appeared with it at meeting, it was so much admired, that all the girls resolved to get such caps from Philadelphia; and my wife and I computed that the whole could not have cost less than a hun- dred pounds.” ‘‘True,” said the farmer, “but you do not tell all the story. I think the cap was never- theless an advantage to us, for it was the first thing that put our girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale at Philadelphia, that they might have where- withal to buy caps and ribbons; and you know that industry has continued, and is likely to continue and increase to a much greater value, and answer better purposes.” Upon the whole, I was more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since not only the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but the Philadelphians by the supply of warm mittens. In our commercial towns upon the sea-coast, for- tunes will occasionally be made. Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preserve what they have gained for their posterity; others, fond of showing their wealth, will be extrava- 220 : Essays 1 gant and ruin themselves. Law cannot prevent this; and perhaps it is not always an evil to the pub- lic. A shilling spent idly by a fool may be picked up by a wiser person, who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not lost. A vain, silly fellow builds a fine house, furnishes it richly, lives in it ex- pensively, and in a few years ruins himself; but the masons, carpenters, smiths, and other honest trades- men have been by his employ assisted in maintaining and raising their families; the farmer has been paid for his labor, and encouraged, and the estate is now in better hands. In some cases, indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the same manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, for instance, that exports its beef and linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter, while a great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear no shirts, wherein does it differ from the sot, who lets his family starve, and sells his clothes to buy drink? Our American commerce is, I confess, a little in this way. We sell our victuals to the Islands for rum and sugar—the substantial necessaries of life for superfluities. But we have plenty, and live well nevertheless, though, by being sober, we might be richer. The vast quantity of forest land we have yet to clear and put in order for cultivation will, for a long time keep the body of our nation laborious and frugal. Forming an opinion of our people and their man- ners by what is seen among the inhabitants of the seaports, is judging from an improper sample. The <784] 23; 2. Benjamin Franklin [1784 people of the trading towns may be rich and luxuri- ous, while the country possesses all the virtues that tend to promote happiness and public prosperity. Those towns are not regarded by the country, they are hardly considered as an essential part of the States; and the experience of the last war has shown that their being in possession of the enemy did not necessarily draw on the subjection of the country, which bravely continued to maintain its freedom and independence notwithstanding. It has been computed by some political arithme- tician, that if every man and woman would work for four hours each day on something useful, that labor would produce sufficient to procure all the neces- saries and comforts of life, want and misery would be banished out of the world, and the rest of the twenty-four hours might be leisure and pleasure. What occasions then so much want and misery? It is the employment of men and women in works that produce neither necessaries nor conveniences of life, who, with those who do nothing, consume necessaries raised by the laborious. To explain this. The first elements of wealth are obtained by labor, from the earth and waters. I have land, and raise corn. With this, if I feed a family that does nothing, my corn will be consumed, and at the end of the year I shall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But if, while I feed them, I employ them, some in spinning, others in making bricks, etc., for building, the value of my corn will be arrested and remain with me, and at the end of the year we may all be better nD 17200 Essays 3 clothed and better lodged. And if, instead of em- ploying a man I feed in making bricks, I employ him in fiddling for me, the corn he eats is gone, and no part of his manufacture remains to augment the wealth and convenience of the family; I shall there- fore be the poorer for this fiddling man, unless the rest of my family work more, or eat less, to make up the deficiency he occasions. Look around the world and see the millions em- ployed in doing nothing, or in something that amounts to nothing, when the necessaries and con- veniences of life are in question. What is the bulk of commerce, for which we fight and destroy each other, but the toil of millions for superfluities, to the great hazard and loss of many lives by the constant dangers of the sea? How much labor is spent in building and fitting great ships, to go to China and Arabia for tea and coffee, to the West Indies for sugar, to America for tobacco? These things can- not be called the necessaries of life, for our ancestors lived very comfortably without them. A question may be asked: Could all these people now employed in raising, making, or carrying super- fluities be subsisted by raising necessaries? I think they might. The world is large, and a great part of it still uncultivated. Many hundred millions of acres in Asia, Africa, and America are still in a forest, and a great deal even in Europe. On a hundred acres of this forest a man might become a substantial farmer, and a hundred thousand men, employed in clearing each his hundred acres, would hardly brighten a spot big enough to be visible from the moon, unless with -C4} 232 25 Benjamin Franklin [734 Herschel’s telescope; so vast are the regions still in wood. It is however, some comfort to reflect that upon the whole the quantity of industry and prudence among mankind exceeds the quantity of idleness and folly. Hence the increase of good buildings, farms cultivated, and populous cities filled with wealth, all over Europe, which a few ages since were only to be found on the coast of the Mediterranean; and this, notwithstanding the mad wars continually raging, by which are often destroyed in one year the works of many years’ peace. So that we may hope the luxury of a few merchants on the coast will not be the ruin of America. One reflection more and I will end this long, rambling letter. Almost all the parts of our bodies require some expense. The feet demand shoes; the legs, stockings; the rest of the body, clothing; and the belly, a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though exceedingly useful, ask, when reasonable, only the cheap assistance of spectacles, which could not much impair our finances. But THE EYES OF OTHER PEO- PLE are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine furniture. By the by, here is just issued an arrét of Council taking off all the duties upon the exportation of brandies, which, it is said, will render them cheaper in America than your rum; in which case there is no doubt but they will be preferred, and we shall be better able to bear our restrictions on our commerce. There are views here, by augmenting their settle- oo airs A a Ge 1784] Essays Wr, ments, of being able to supply the growing people of America with the sugar that may be wanted there. On the whole, I believe England will get as little by the commercial war she has begun with us, as she did by the military. Adieu, my dear friend. Iam yours ever, B. FRANKLIN. P. S.—This will be delivered to you by my grand- son. Iam persuaded you will afford him your civili- ties and counsels. Please to accept a little present of books, I send by him, curious for the beauty of the impression. Di: XXVIII TO MRS. SARAH BACHE! Passy, 26 January, 1784. My DEAR CHILD: —Your care in sending me the newspapers is very agreeable to me. I received by Captain Barney those relating to the Cincinnata. 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 Con- federation, manifested their dislike of establishing ranks of nobility, by authority either of the Con- gress 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 oppo- sition to the solemnly declared sense of their coun- try! 1 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 ribands and crosses they have seen hanging to the button-holes of foreign officers. And 1 Dr. Franklin's only daughter, married to a merchant in Phila- delphia, 226 17° | Essays 7 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 asked, have objected to their wear- ing their ribands and badges themselves according to their fancy, though I certainly should to the entailing it asan honor on their posterity. For honor, worthily obtained (as that, for example, 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, honor does not descend, but ascends. If a man, from his learning, his wisdom, or his valor, is promoted by the em- peror to the rank of Mandarin, his parents are im- mediately entitled to all the same ceremonies of respect from the people that are established 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 public. This ascending honor is therefore useful to the state, as it encourages parents to give their children a good and virtuous education. But the descending honor, to a posterity who could have no share in ob- taining it, is not only groundless and absurd, but ‘64, 23" z Benjamin Franklin + 5 often hurtful to that posterity, since it is apt to make them proud, disdaining to be employed in use- ful 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 introduced, which will be followed by all the odious mixture of pride, and beggary, and idleness, that have half depopu- lated and decultivated Spain; occasioning continual extinction of families by the discouragements of marriage and neglect in the improvement of es- tates. 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 fathers and mothers, instead of handing them down to their children. It would be a good precedent, and might have good effect. It would also be a kind of obedience of the fourth commandment, in which God enjoins us to honor our father and mother, but has nowhere directed us to honor our children. And certainly no mode of honoring those immediate authors of our being can be more effectual, than that of doing praiseworthy actions, which reflect honor 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. 228 Fi 1784] Essays ) But the absurdity of descending honors 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 be- longing to the family of his wife. His son, too, marrying into another family, his share in the grand- son is but a fourth; in the great-grandson, by the same process, it is but an eighth; in the next genera- tion 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 three hundred years (no very great antiquity for a fam- ily), our present Chevalier of the Order of Cincinna- tus’ share in the then existing knight will be but a five hundred and twelfth part, which, allowing the present certain fidelity of American wives to be in- sured down through all those nine generations, is so small a consideration that methinks no reasonable man would hazard for the sake of it the disagreeable consequences of the jealousy, envy, and ill-will of his countrymen. Let us go back with our calculation from this young noble, the five hundred and twelfth part of the present knight, through his nine generations, till we return to the year of the institution. He must have had a father and a mother, they are two; each of them had a father and a mother, they are four. Those of the next preceding generation will be eight, the next sixteen, the next thirty-two, the 23C 2 Benjamin Franklin [1784 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 their future Chevalier de Cincinnatus. These, with the rest, make together as follows: 15 i 128 256 c12 Total XY “EER1.022 One thousand and twenty-two men and women, con- tributors 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 employed in making more knights than one. Let us strike off, then, the twenty-two thousand, on the supposition of this double employ, and then consider whether, after a reasonable esti- mation of the number of rogues, and fools, and scoundrels, and prostitutes that are mixed with, and help to make up, necessarily their million of prede- 240 178] Essays AT cessors, posterity will have much reason to boast of the noble blood of the then existing set of Chevaliers of Cincinnatus. The future genealogists, too, of these Chevaliers, in proving the lineal descent of their honor through so many generations (even supposing honor capable in its nature of descending), will only prove the small share of this honor which can be justly claimed by any one of them, since the above simple process in arithemtic makes it quite plain and clear that, in proportion as the antiquity of the family shall augment, the right to the honor 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 riband, and let the distinction die with those who have merited it. This, I imagine, will give no of- fence. For my own part, I shall think it a con- venience 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 round- about intimations of having been heretofore em- ployed as officers 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 +i 2. 24z Benjamin Franklin [1784 all such things are criticised. Some find fault with the Latin, as wanting classical elegance and correct- ness; and, since our nine universities were not able to furnish better Latin, it was pity, they say, that the mottoes had not been in English. Others object to the title, as not properly assumable by any but Gen- eral Washington, and a few others, who served with- out 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 perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor 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 rob- bing, 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 king- birds from our country; though exactly fit for that order of knights which the French call Chevaliers d’ Industrie. I am, on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in com- > 17% Essays 243 parison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours; the first of the species seen in Europe being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served up at the wedding table of Charles the Ninth.r He is, besides, (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 farmyard with a red coat on. I shall not enter into the criticisms made upon their Latin. The gallant officers of America may not have the merit of being great scholars, but they undoubtedly merit much, as brave soldiers, from their country, which should therefore not leave them merely to fame for their “virtutis premium,” which is one of their Latin mottoes. Their “esto perpetua,”’ another, is an excellent wish, if they meant it for their country; bad, if intended for their order. The States should not only restore to them the omnia of their first motto,* which many of them have left and lost, but pay them justly, and reward them gener- ously. They should not be suffered to remain, with all their new-created chivalry, entirely in the situa- tion of the gentleman in the story, which their omnia * A learned friend of the Editor’s has observed to him that this is a mistake, as turkeys were found in great plenty by Cortes when he in- vaded and conquered Mexico, before the time of Charles the Twelfth; that this, and their being brought to old Spain, is mentioned by Peter Martyr of Anghiera, who was Secretary to the Council of the Indies, established immediately after the discovery of America, and personally acquainted with Columbus. 2 “Omnia reliquit servare Rempublicain.” vs 30 244 Benjamin Franklin [1784 reliqguit reminds me of. You know every thing makes me recollect some story. He had built a very fine house, and thereby much impaired his fortune. He had a pride, however, in showing it to his ac- quaintance. One of them, after viewing it all, re- marked a motto over the door ‘OIA VANITAS.” “What,” says he, ‘‘is the meaning of this OIA? It is a word I don’t understand.” “I will tell you,” said the gentleman; ‘‘I had a mind to have the motto cut on a piece of smooth marble, but there was not room for it between the ornaments, to be put in characters large enough to read. 1 therefore made use of a contraction anciently very common in Latin manuscripts, whereby the #’s and #'s in words are omitted, and the omission noted by a line above, which you may see there; so that the word is ommia, oMNIA VANITAS.” “Oh,” said his friend, “TI now comprehend the meaning of your motto: it relates to your edifice; and signifies that, if you have abridged your ommia, you have, nevertheless, left your VANITAS legible at full length.” I am, as ever, your affectionate father, B. FRANKLIN. XXIX THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA; BEING A TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND POLICY OF THAT VAST CONTINENT There is a tradition that, in the planting of New England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and hardships; as is generally the case when a civil- ized people attempt establishing themselves in a wilderness country. Being piously disposed, they sought relief from Heaven, by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord, in frequent set days of fasting and prayer. Constant meditation and dis- course on these subjects kept their minds gloomy and discontented; and, like the children of Israel, there were many disposed to return to that Egypt which persecution had induced them to abandon. At length, when it was proposed in the Assembly to proclaim another fast, a farmer of plain sense rose, and remarked that the inconveniences they suffered, and concerning which they had so often wearied Heaven with their complaints, were not so great as they might have expected, and were diminishing every day, as the colony strengthened; that the 245 246 Benjamin Franklin [1784 earth began to reward their labor, and to furnish liberally for their subsistence; that the seas and rivers were found full of fish, the air sweet, the cli- mate healthy; and, above all, that they were there in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious. He therefore thought that reflecting and conversing on these subjects would be more comfortable, as tending more to make them contented with their situation; and that it would be more becoming the gratitude they owed to the Divine Being, if, instead of a fast, they should proclaim a thanksgiving. His advice was taken; and from that day to this they have, in every year, observed circumstances of public felicity sufficient to furnish employment for a thanks- giving day; which is therefore constantly ordered and religiously observed. I see in the public newspapers of different States frequent complaints of hard times, deadness of trade, scarcity of money, etc. It is not my intention to assert or maintain that these complaints arc entirely without foundation. There can be no country or nation existing, in which there will not be some people so circumstanced as to find it hard to gain a livelihood; people who are not in the way of any profitable trade, and with whom money is scarce, because they have nothing to give in exchange for it; and it is always in the power of a small number to make a great clamor. But let us take a cool view of the general state of our affairs, and perhaps the pro- spect will appear less gloomy than has been imagined. The great business of the continent is agriculture. 1 Essays 37 For one artisan, or merchant, I suppose, we have at least one hundred farmers, by far the greatest part cultivators of their own fertile lands, from whence many of them draw, not only the food necessary for their subsistence, but the materials of their clothing, so as to need very few foreign supplies; while they have a surplus of productions to dispose of, whereby wealth is gradually accumulated. Such has been the goodness of Divine Providence to these regions, and so favorable the climate, that, since the three or four years of hardship in the first settlement of our fathers here, a famine or scarcity has never been heard of amongst us; on the contrary, though some years may have been more and others less plentiful, there has always been provision enough for ourselves, and a quantity to spare for exportation. And al- though the crops of last year were generally good, never was the farmer better paid for the part he can spare commerce, as the published price-currents abundantly testify. The lands he possesses are also continually rising in value with the increase of popu- lation; and, on the whole, he is enabled to give such good wages to those who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old world must agree, that in no part of it are the laboring poor so generally well fed, well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the United States of America. If we enter the cities, we find that since the Revo- lution the owners of houses and lots of ground have had their interest vastly augmented in value; rents have risen to an astonishing height, and thence 7841 Ih 245 Benjamin Franklin [1784 encouragement to increase building, which gives, em- ployment to an abundance of workmen, as does also the increased luxury and splendor of living of the inhabitants thus made richer. These workmen all demand and obtain much higher wages than any other part of the world would afford them, and are paid in ready money. This class of people therefore do not, or ought not, to complain of hard times; and they make a very considerable part of the city inhabitants. At the distance I live from our American fisheries, I cannot speak of them with any degree of certainty; but I have not heard that the labor of the valuable race of men employed in them is worse paid, or that they meet with less success, than before the Revolu- tion. The whalemen, indeed, have been deprived of one market for their oil; but another, I hear, is opening for them which it is hoped may be equally advantageous, and the demand is constantly increas- ing for their spermaceti candles, which therefore bear a much higher price than formerly. There remain the merchants and shopkeepers. Of these, though they make but a small part of the whole nation, the number is considerable, too great indeed for the business they are employed in; for the consumption of goods in every country has its limits, the faculties of the people—that is, their abil- ity to buy and pay—being equal only to a certain quantity of merchandise. If merchants calculate amiss on this proportion and import too much, they will of course find the sale dull for the overplus, and some of them will say that trade languishes. They N 1784] Essays 249 should, and doubtless will, grow wiser by experience and import less. If too many artificers in town, and farmers from the country, flattering themselves with the idea of leading easier lives, turn shopkeepers, the whole natural quantity of that business divided among them all may afford too small a share for each, and occasion complaints that trade is dead; these may also suppose that it is owing to scarcity of money, while in fact it is not so much from the few- ness of buyers as from the excessive number of sellers that the mischief arises; and if every shop-keeping farmer and mechanic would return to the use of his plow and working-tools, there would remain of widows and other women shopkeepers sufficient for the business, which might then afford them a com- fortable maintenance. Whoever has travelled through the various parts of Europe, and observed how small is the proportion of people in affluence or easy circumstances there, com- pared with those in poverty and misery; the few rich and haughty landlords, the multitude of poor, abject, rack-rented, tithe-paying tenants and half-paid and half-starved ragged laborers; and views here the happy mediocrity that so generally prevails through- out these States, where the cultivator works for him- self, and supports his family in decent plenty, will, methinks, see abundant reason to bless Divine Provi- dence for the evident and great difference in our favor, and be convinced that no nation known to us enjoys a greater share of human felicity. It is true that in some of the States there are par- ties and discords: but let us look back, and ask if we , Benjamin Franklin [2734 were ever without them? Such will exist wherever there 1s liberty; and perhaps they help to preserve it. By the collision of different sentiments, sparks of truth are struck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions, which at present divide us, aim all at the public good; the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it. Things, actions, measures, and objects of all kinds present themselves to the minds of men in such a variety of lights, that it is not possible we should all think alike at the same time on every subject, when hardly the same man retains at all times the same ideas of it. Parties are therefore the common lot of humanity; and ours are by no means more mischievous or less beneficial than those of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoying in the same degree the great blessing of political liberty. Some indeed among us are not so much grieved for the present state of affairs, as apprehensive for the future. The growth of luxury alarms them, and they think we are from that alone in the high road of ruin. They observe that no revenue is sufficient without economy, and that the most plentiful income of a whole people from the natural productions of their country may be dissipated in vain and needless expenses, and poverty be introduced in the place of affluence. This may be possible. It however rarely happens; for there seems to be in every nation a greater proportion of industry and frugality, which tend to enrich, than of idleness and prodigality, which occasion poverty; so that upon the whole there is a continual accumulation. Reflect what Spain, 50 bt 1784] Essays 51 Gaul, Germany, and Britain were in the time of the Romans, inhabited by people little richer than our savages, and consider the wealth they at present pos- sess, in numerous well-built cities, improved farms, rich movables, magazines stocked with valuable manufactures, to say nothing of plate, jewels, and coined money; and all this, notwithstanding their bad, wasteful, plundering governments, and their mad, destructive wars; and yet luxury and extrav- agant living have never suffered much restraint in those countries. Then consider the great proportion of industrious frugal farmers inhabiting the interior parts of these American States, and of whom the body of our nation consists; and judge whether it is possible that the luxury of our seaports can be suffi- cient to ruin such a country. If the importation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we should prob- ably have been ruined long ago; for the British nation claimed a right, and practised it, of import- ing among us, not only the superfluities of their own production, but those of every nation under heaven; we bought and consumed them, and yet we flour- ished and grew rich. At present, our independent governments may do what we could not then do, discourage by heavy duties, or prevent by heavy prohibitions, such importations, and thereby grow richer; if, indeed, which may admit of dispute, the desire of adorning ourselves with fine clothes, pos- sessing fine furniture, with elegant houses, etc., is not, by strongly inciting to labor and industry, the occa- sion of producing a greater value than is consumed in the gratification of that desire. a 2 g Benjamin Franklin [1784 The agriculture and fisheries of the United States are the great sources of increasing wealth. He that puts a seed into the earth is recompensed, perhaps, by receiving forty out of it; and he who draws a fish out of our water, draws up a piece of silver. Let us (and there is no doubt but we shall) be attentive to these, and then the power of rivals, with all their restraining and prohibiting acts, cannot much hurt us. We are sons of the earth and seas, and, like Antaeus in the fable, if, in wrestling with a Her- cules, we now and then receive a fall, the touch of our parents will communicate to us fresh strength and vigor to renew the contest. 252 XXX TO BENJAMIN VAUGHAN Passy, 14 March, 178s. My DEAR FrIEND:—Among the thoughts you lately sent me was one entitled: Thoughts on Execu- tive Justice. In return for that I send you a French one on the same subject, Observations concernant d’'Exécution de I'Article II. de la Déclaration sur le Vol. They are both addressed to the judges, but written, as you will see, in a very different spirit. The English author is for hanging all thieves. The Frenchman is for proportioning punishments to offences. If we really believe, as we profess to believe, that * This paper on the criminal laws and the practice of privateering, was written in the form of a letter to Vaughan. It first appeared anonymously in a small volume published by Sir Samuel Romilly, in 1786, being observations on a treatise by Dr. Madan, entitled: Thoughts on Executive Justice. It was printed as “‘a letter from a gentleman abroad to his friend in England.” In introducing it to his readers Sir Samuel says: “The simplicity of style and liberality of thought which distinguish it cannot fail of discovering its venerable author to such as are already acquainted with his valuable writings. To those who have not that good fortune, the Editor is not permitted to say more than that it is the production of one of the best and most eminent of the present age.” 253 25 Benjamin Franklin [178s the law of Moses was the law of God, the dictate of divine wisdom, infinitely superior to human, on what principles do we ordain death as the punishment of an offence which, according to that law, was only to be punished by a restitution of fourfold? To put a man to death for an offence which does not deserve death, is it not murder? And, as the French writer says, Dott-on punir délit contre la société par un crime contre la nature ? Superfluous property is the creature of society. Simple and mild laws were sufficient to guard the property that was merely necessary. The savage’s bow, his hatchet, and his coat of skins were suffi- ciently secured, without law, by the fear of personal resentment and retaliation. When, by virtue of the first laws, part of the society accumulated wealth and grew powerful, they enacted others more severe, and would protect their property at the expense of humanity. This was abusing their power and com- mencing a tyranny. If a savage, before he entered into society, had been told: ‘‘ Your neighbor by this means may become owner of a hundred deer; but if your brother, or your son, or yourself, having no deer of your own, and, being hungry, should kill one, an infamous death must be the consequence,” he would probably have preferred his liberty, and his common right of killing any deer, to all the advantages of society that might be proposed to him. That it is better a hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer, is a a 1785] Essays 5 maxim that has been long and generally approved; never, that I know of, controverted. Even the san- guinary author of the Thoughts agrees to it (p. 163), adding well, “‘that the very thought of injured inno- cence, and much more that of suffering nnocence, must awaken all our tenderest and most compas- sionate feelings, and at the same time raise our highest indignation against the instruments of it. But,” he adds, ‘“‘there is no danger of esther, from a strict adherence to the laws.” Really! Is it then impossible to make an unjust law? and if the law itself be unjust, may it not be the very ‘instrument ”’ which ought to “raise the author's and everybody's highest indignation’? I read, in the last newspaper from London, that a woman is capitally convicted at the Old Bailey, for privately stealing out of a shop some gauze, value fourteen shillings and threepence; is there any proportion between the injury done by a theft, value fourteen shillings and threepence, and the punishment of a human creature, by death, on a gibbet? Might not that woman, by her labor, have made the reparation ordained by God, in paying fourfold? Is not all punishment inflicted beyond the merit of the offence, so much punishment of innocence? In this light, how vast is the annual quantity of not only injured, but suffering innocence, in almost all the civilized states of Europe! But it seems to have been thought that this kind of innocence may be punished by way of prevent- ang crimes. I have read, indeed, of a cruel Turk in Barbary, who, whenever he bought a new Christian 2c" Benjamin Franklin [1755 slave, ordered him immediately to be hung up by the legs,and to receive a hundred blows of a cudgel onthe soles of his feet, that the severe sense of the punish- ment, and fear of incurring it thereafter, might pre- vent the faults that should merit it. Our author, himself, would hardly approve entirely of this Turk’s conduct in the government of slaves; and yet he appears to recommend something like it for the government of English subjects, when he applauds (p. 105) the reply of Judge Burnet to the convict horse-stealer, who, being asked what he had to say why judgment of death should not pass against him, and answering, that it was hard to hang a man for only stealing a horse, was told by the judge: ‘Man, thou are not to be hanged only for stealing a horse, but that horses may not be stolen.” The man’s answer, if candidly examined, will, I imagine, appear reasonable, as being founded on the eternal principle of justice and equity, that punish- ments should be proportioned to offences; and the judge’s reply brutal and unreasonable, though the writer “wishes all judges to carry it with them whenever they go the circuit, and to bear it in their minds as containing a wise reason for all the penal statutes which they are called upon to put in execu- tion. It at once illustrates,” says he, ‘‘the true grounds and reasons of all capital punishments what- soever, namely, that every man’s property, as well as his life, may be held sacred and inviolate.” Is there then no difference in value between property and life? If I think it right that the crime of murder 0 1785) Essays ’7 should be punished with death, not only as an equal punishment of the crime, but to prevent other mur- ders, does it follow that I must approve of inflicting the same punishment for a little invasion on my property by theft? If I am not myself so barbarous, so bloody-minded and revengeful, as to kill a fellow- creature for stealing from me fourteen shillings and threepence, how can I approve of a law that does it? Montesquieu, who was himself a judge, endeav- ors to impress other maxims. He must have known what humane judges feel on such occasions, and what the effects of those feelings; and, so far from thinking that severe and excessive punishments pre- vent crimes, he asserts, as quoted by our French writer, page 4, that— “L’atrocité des loix en empéche I'exécution. “Lorsque la peine est sans mesure, on est souvent obligé de lui préférer I'impunité. “La cause de tous les relachemens vient de Uimpu- nité des crimes, et non de la modération des peines.’’ = It is said by those who know Europe generally, that there are more thefts committed and punished annually in England than in all the other nations put together. If this be so, there must be a cause or causes for such depravity in your common people. May not one be the deficiency of justice and morality in your national government, manifested in your op- “The atrocity of laws prevents their being executed. “When the punishment is excessive, it is often found necessary to prefer impunity. “The cause of all the violations of the laws comes from the impunity of crimes, and not from the moderation of the penalties.” 2c 2 Benjamin Franklin [1785 pressive conduct to your subjects, and unjust wars on your neighbors? View the long-persisted in, un- just monopolizing treatment of Ireland at length acknowledged. View the plundering government ex- ercised by your merchants in the Indies; the con- fiscating war made upon the American colonies: and, to say nothing of those upon France and Spain, view the late war upon Holland, which was seen by impartial Europe in no other light than that of a war of rapine and pillage, the hopes of an immense and easy prey being its only apparent, and probably its true and real, motive and encouragement. Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang. After employing your people in rob- bing the Dutch, is it strange that, being put out of that employ by the peace, they should continue robbing, and rob one another? Piraterie, as the French call it, or privateering, is the universal bent of the English nation, at home or abroad, wherever settled. No less than seven hundred privateers were, it 1s said, commissioned in the last war! These were fitted out by merchants, to prey upon other merchants, who had never done them any injury. Is there probably any one of those privateering merchants of London, who were so ready to rob the merchants of Amsterdam, that would not as readily plunder another London merchant of the next street, if he could do it with the same impunity? The :58 I Essays J avidity, the alien: appetens, is the same; it is the fear alone of the gallows that makes the difference. How then can a nation which, among the honestest of its people, has so many thieves by inclination, and whose government encouraged and commissioned no less than seven hundred gangs of robbers,—how can such a nation have the face to condemn the crime in in- dividuals, and hang up twenty of them in a morning? It naturally puts one in mind of a Newgate anecdote. One of the prisoners complained that in the night somebody had taken his buckles out of his shoes. “What, the devil!” says another, “have we then thieves among us? It must not be suffered; let us search out the rogue, and pump him to death.” There is, however, one late instance of an English merchant who will not profit by such ill-gotten gains. He was, it seems, part-owner of a ship, which the other owners thought fit to employ as a letter of marque, and which took a number of French prizes. The booty being shared, he has now an agent here inquiring, by an advertisement in the gazette, for those who suffered the loss, in order to make them, as far as in him lies, restitution. This conscientious man is a Quaker. The Scotch Presbyterians were formerly as tender; for there is still extant an ordi- nance of the town council of Edinburgh, made soon after the Reformation, “forbidding the purchase of prize goods, under pain of losing the freedom of the burgh forever, with other punishment at the will of the magistrate; the practice of making prizes being contrary to good conscience and the rule of treating 785] 25C A Benjamin Franklin [1785 Christian brethren as we would wish to be treated; and such goods are not to be sold by any godly men within thes burgh.” The race of these godly men in Scotland is probably extinct or their principles aban- doned; since, as far as that nation had a hand in promoting the war against the colonies, prizes and confiscations are believed to have been a considerable motive. It has been for some time a generally received opinion, that a military man is not to inquire whether a war be just or unjust; he is to execute his orders. All princes who are disposed to become tyrants must probably approve of this opinion, and be willing to establish it; but is it not a dangerous one, since, on that principle, if the tyrant commands his army to attack and destroy, not only an unoffending neighbor nation, but even his own subjects, the army is bound to obey? A negro slave, in our colonies, being com- manded by his master to rob or murder a neighbor, or do any other immoral act, may refuse, and the magistrate will protect him in his refusal. The slavery then of a soldier is worse than that of a negro! A conscientious officer, if not restrained by the apprehension of its being imputed to another cause, may indeed resign rather than be employed in an unjust war; but the private men are slaves for life, and they are perhaps incapable of judging for themselves. We can only lament their fate, and still more that of a sailor, who is often dragged by force from his honest occupation, and compelled to imbrue his hands in, perhaps, innocent blood. 260 | Essays But methinks it well behooves merchants (men more enlightened by their education, and perfectly free from any such force or obligation) to consider well of the justice of a war before they voluntarily engage a gang of ruffians to attack their fellow mer- chants of a neighboring nation, to plunder them of their property, and perhaps ruin them and their families if they yield it, or to wound, maim, and mur- der them if they endeavor to defend it. Yet these things are done by Christian merchants, whether a war be just or unjust, and it can hardly be just on both sides. They are done by English and Ameri- can merchants, who, nevertheless, complain of pri- vate theft, and hang by dozens the thieves they have taught by their own example. It is high time, for the sake of humanity, that a stop were put to this enormity. The United States of America, though better situated than any Euro- pean nation to make profit by privateering (most of the trade of Europe, with the West Indies, passing before their doors), are, as far as in them lies, en- deavoring to abolish the practice, by offering in all their treaties with other powers an article, engaging solemnly that in case of future war no privateer shall be commissioned on either side, and that unarmed merchant-ships on both sides shall pursue their voy- ages unmolested.” This will be a happy improve- ment of the laws of nations. The humane and the just cannot but wish general success to the propo- t This offer having been accepted by the late king of Prussia, a treaty of amity and commerce was concluded between that monarch and the United States, containing the following humane, philanthropic 1785] 261 : Benjamin Franklin [1785 sition. With unchangeable esteem and affection, I am, my dear friend, ever yours, B. FRANKLIN. article, in the formation of which Dr. Franklin, as one of the American plenipotentiaries, was principally concerned, viz.: ARTICLE XXIII “If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the mer- chants of either country then residing in the other shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance; and all women and children, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, artisans, manufacturers, and fishermen, un- armed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general all others whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their houses and goods be burnt or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted by the armed force of the enemy in whose power by the events of war they may happen to fall; but if any thing is necessary to be taken from them for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price. And all merchants and trading vessels employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested; and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empower- ing them to take or destroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce.” 262 XXXI TO FRANCIS MASERES Passy, 26 June, 1785. Sir: —I have just received your friendly letter of the 20th instant. I agree with you perfectly in the opinion, that, though the contest has been hurtful to both our countries, yet the event, a separation, is bet- ter even for yours than success. The reducing and keeping us in subjection by an armed force would have cost you more than the dominion could be worth, and our slavery would have brought on yours. The ancient system of the British empire was a happy one, by which the colonies were allowed to govern and tax themselves. Had it been wisely continued, it is hard to imagine the degree of power and import- ance in the world that empire might have arrived at. All the means of growing greatness, extent of territory, agriculture, commerce, arts, population, were within its own limits, and therefore at its command. I used to consider that system as a large and beau- tiful porcelain vase; I lamented the measures that I saw likely to break it, and strove to prevent them; because, once broken, I saw no probability of its be- ing ever repaired. My endeavors did not succeed; 263 2. Benjamin Franklin [1785 we are broken, and the parts must now do as well as they can for themselves. We may still do well, though separated. I have great hopes of our side, and good wishes for yours. The anarchy and con- fusion you mention, as supposed to prevail among us, exist only in your newspapers. I have authentic accounts, which assure me that no people were ever better governed, or more content with their respec- tive constitutions and governments, than the present Thirteen States of America. A little reflection may convince any reasonable man that a government wherein the administrators are chosen annually by the free voice of the governed, and may also be recalled at any time if their conduct displeases their constituents, cannot be a tyrannical one, as your loyalists represent it; who at the same time inconsistently desire to return and live under it. And, among an intelligent, enlightened people, as ours 1s, there must always be too numerous and too strong a party for supporting good government and the laws, to sufier what is called anarchy. This bet- ter account of our situation must be pleasing to your humanity, and therefore I give it you. But we differ a little in our sentiments respecting the loyalists (as they call themselves), and the con- duct of America towards them, which, you think, ‘‘seems actuated by a spirit of revenge; and that it would have been more agreeable to policy, as well as justice, to have restored their estates upon their tak- ing the oaths of allegiance to the new governments.’ That there should still be some resentment against them in the breasts of those, who have had their ‘64 178 | Essays 3 houses, farms, and towns so lately destroyed, and re- lations scalped under the conduct of these royalists, is not wonderful; though I believe the opposition given by many to their re-establishing among us is owing to a firm persuasion that there could be no re- liance on their oaths; and that the effect of receiving those people again would be an introduction of that very anarchy and confusion they falsely reproach us with. Even the example you propose, of the Eng- lish Commonwealth’s restoring the estates of the royalists after their being subdued, seems rather to countenance and encourage our acting differently, as probably if the power, which always accompanies property, had not been restored to the royalists, if their estates had remained confiscated, and their per- sons had been banished, they could not have so much contributed to the restoration of kingly power, and the new government of the republic might have been more durable. The majority of examples in your history are on the other side of the question. All the estates in England and south of Scotland, and most of those possessed by the descendants of the English in Ire- land, are held from ancient confiscations made of the estates of Caledonians and Britons, the original pos- sessors 1n vour island, or the native Irish, in the last century only. It is but a few months since, that your Parliament has. in a few instances, given up confisca- tions incurred by a rebellion suppresed forty vears ago. The war against us was begun by a general act of Parliament declaring all our estates confiscated; and probably one great motive to the loyalty of the is 26¢ : Benjamin Franklin [1785 royalists was the hope of sharing in these confisca- tions. They have played a deep game, staking their estates against ours; and they have been unsuccess- ful. But it is a surer game, since they had promises to rely on from your government, of indemnification in case of loss; and I see your Parliament is about to fulfil those promises. To this I have no objection, because, though still our enemies, they are men; they are in necessity; and I think even a hired assassin has a right to his pay from his employer. It seems, too, more reasonable that the expense of paying these should fall upon the government who encour- aged the mischief done, rather than upon us who suffered it; the confiscated estates making amends but for a very small part of that mischief. It is not, therefore, clear that our retaining them is chargeable with injustice. I have hinted above, that the name loyalist was im- properly assumed by these people. Royalists they may perhaps be called. But the true loyalists were the people of America, against whom they acted. No people were ever known more truly loyal, and universally so, to their sovereigns. The Protestant succession in the House of Hanover was their idol. Not a Jacobite was to be found from one end of the colonies to the other. They were affectionate to the people of England, zealous and forward to assist in her wars, by voluntary contributions of men and money, even beyond their proportion. The king and Parliament had frequently acknowledged this by public messages, resolutions, and reimbursements. But they were equally fond of what they esteemed 266 1 Essays 7 their rights; and if they resisted when those were attacked, it was a resistance in favor of a British con- stitution, which every Englishman might share in en- joying, who should come to live among them; it was resisting arbitrary impositions, that were contrary to common right and to their fundamental constitutions, and to constant ancient usage. It was indeed a re- sistance in favor of the liberties of England, which might have been endangered by success in the at- tempt against ours; and therefore a great man in your Parliament * did not scruple to declare, he 7e- joiced that America had resisted. I, for the same reason, may add this very resistance to the other instances of their loyalty. I have already said that I think it just you should reward those Americans who joined your troops in the war against their own country; but if ever honesty could be inconsistent with policy, it is so in this instance. I am, etc., B. FRANKLIN. 1 The first Lord Chatham. »85] 26" XXXII PROPOSALS FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE CONVENTION FOR FORMING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 26 June, 1787. That the legislatures of the several States shall choose and send an equal number of delegates, namely, ——, who are to compose the second branch of the general legislature. That, in all cases or questions wherein the sove- reignties of the individual States may be affected, or whereby their authority over their own citizens may be diminished, or the authority of the general govern- ment within the several States augmented, each State shall have equal suffrage. That, in the appointment of all civil officers of the general government, in the election of whom the second branch may, by the Constitution, have part, each State shall have equal suffrage. That, in fixing the salaries of such officers, in all allowances for public services, and generally in all appropriations and dispositions of money, to be drawn out of the general treasury, and in all laws for supplying the treasury, the delegates of the sev- eral States shall have suffrage in proportion to the 268 roo Essays ) sums their respective States had actually contributed to that treasury from their taxes or internal excises. That, in case general duties should be laid by im- post on goods imported, a liberal estimation shall be made of the amount of such impost paid in the price of the commodities by those States that import but little, and a proportionate addition shall be allowed of suffrage to such States, and an equal diminution of the suffrage of the States importing. Remarks The steady course of public measures is most probably to be expected from a number. A single person’s measures may be good. The successor often differs in opinion of those measures, and adopts others; often is ambitious of distinguish- ing himself by opposing them, and offering new pro- jects. One is peaceably disposed; another may be fond of war, etc. Hence foreign states can never have that confidence in the treaties or friendship of such a government, as in that which is conducted by a number. The single head may be sick; who is to conduct the public affairs in that case? When he dies, who are to conduct till a new election? If a council, why not continue them? Shall we not be harassed with factions for the election of successors; and become, like Poland, weak from our dissensions? Consider the present distracted condition of Hol- land. They had at first a Stadtholder, the Prince of Orange, a man of undoubted and great merit. They 787] 26C 2 Benjamin Franklin 1737 found some inconveniences, however, in the extent of powers annexed to that office, and exercised by a single person. On his death they resumed and di- vided those powers among the states and cities; but there has been a constant struggle since between that family and the nation. In the last century the then Prince of Orange found means to inflame the popu- lace against their magistrates, excite a general insur- rection, in which an excellent minister, Dewitt, was murdered, all the old magistrates displaced, and the Stadtholder re-invested with all the former powers. In this century, the father of the present Stadt- holder, having married a British princess, did, by exciting another insurrection, force from the nation a decree, that the stadtholdership should be thence- forth hereditary in his family. And now his son, being suspected of having favored England in the war, and thereby lost the confidence of the nation, is forming an internal faction to support his power, and reinstate his favorite, the Duke of Brunswick; and he holds up his family alliances with England and Prussia to terrify opposition. It was this conduct of the Stadtholder which induced the states to recur to the protection of France, and put their troops under a French, rather than the Stadtholder’s German gen- eral, the Duke of Brunswick. And this is the source of all the present disorders in Holland, which, if the Stadtholder has abilities equal to his inclinations, will probably, after a ruinous and bloody civil war, end in establishing an hereditary monarchy in his family. 70 XXXIII AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, AND THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES UNLAWFULLY HELD IN BONDAGE PHILADELPHIA, 9 November, 1780. It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of humanity, that, in prosecuting the design of our association, our endeavors have proved suc- cessful far beyond our most sanguine expecta- tions. Encouraged by this success, and by the daily pro- gress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labors, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence. Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed 271 2, Benjamin Franklin [178 with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the com- mon standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellec- tual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart. Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme labor, age, and disease. Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society. Attention to emancipated black people, it is there- fore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national policy; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities. To instruct, to advise, to qualify those who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoy- ment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the BA : Essays 273 public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures. A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execu- tion without considerable pecuniary resources, be- yond the present ordinary funds of the Society. We hope much from the generosity of enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations or subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made to our treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton, chairman of our committee of correspondence. Signed, by order of the Society, B. FRANKLIN, President. 1789] 2%. 1782 Essays = Gaul, Germany, and Britain were in the time of the Romans, inhabited by people little richer than our savages, and consider the wealth they at present pos- sess, in numerous well-built cities, improved farms, rich movables, magazines stocked with valuable manufactures, to say nothing of plate, jewels, and coined money; and all this, notwithstanding their bad, wasteful, plundering governments, and their mad, destructive wars; and yet luxury and extrav- agant living have never suffered much restraint in those countries. Then consider the great proportion of industrious frugal farmers inhabiting the interior parts of these American States, and of whom the body of our nation consists: and judge whether it is possible that the luxury of our seaports can be suffi- cient to ruin such a country. If the importation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we should prob- ably have been ruined long ago; for the British nation claimed a right, and practised it, of import- ing among us, not only the superfluities of their own production, but those of every nation under heaven; we bought and consumed them, and yet we flour- ished and grew rich. At present, our independent governments may do what we could not then do, discourage by heavy duties, or prevent by heavy prohibitions, such importations, and thereby grow richer; if, indeed, which may admit of dispute, the desire of adorning ourselves with fine clothes, pos- sessing fine furniture, with elegant houses, etc., is not, by strongly inciting to labor and industry, the occa- sion of producing a greater value than is consumed in the gratification of that desire. oo ZK