 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLAND, CHAPTER XIII. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLAND, EDITED BY FRANK WOODWORTH PINE CHAPTER XIII. PUBLIC SERVICES AND DUTYS. 1749–1753. Peace being concluded, and the association business, therefore, at an end, I turned my thoughts again to the affair of establishing an academy. The first step I took was to associate in the design of a number of active friends, to whom the chunto furnished a good part. The next was to write and publish a pamphlet entitled, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This I distributed among the principal inhabitants gratis, and as soon as I could suppose their minds a little prepared by the perusal of it, I set on foot a subscription for opening and supporting an academy. It was to be paid in quotas yearly for five years. By so dividing it, I judged the subscription might be larger, and I believe it was so, amounting to no less, if I remember right, than five thousand pounds. In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their publication, not as an act of mine, but of some public-spirited gentleman, avoiding as much as I could, according to my usual rule, the presenting myself to the public as the author of any scheme for their benefit. The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate execution, chose out of their numbers twenty-four trustees, and appointed Mr. Francis, then Attorney General, and myself, to draw up constitutions for the government of the academy, which being done and signed, a house was hired, masters engaged, and the schools opened, I think, in the same year, seventeen forty-nine. Begin footnote. Trench Francis, uncle of Sir Philip Francis, emigrated from England to Maryland to become attorney for Lord Baltimore. He removed to Philadelphia and was Attorney General of Pennsylvania, from seventeen forty-one to seventeen fifty-five. He died in Philadelphia, August sixteenth, seventeen fifty-eight. End footnote. The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon found too small, and we were looking out for a piece of ground, properly situated, with intention to build, when providence drew to our way a large house already built, which, with a few alterations, might well serve our purpose. This was the building before mentioned, erected by the hearers of Mr. Whitfield, and was obtained for us in the following manner. It is to be noted that the contributions to this building being made by people of different sects, care was taken in the nomination of trustees in whom the building and ground was to be vested, that a predominancy should not be given to any sect, least in time that predominancy might be a means of appropriating the whole to the use of such sect, contrary to the original intention. It was therefore that one of each sect was appointed to be one Church of England man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Morovian, etc. Those in case of vacancy by death were filled it by election from among the contributors. The Morovian happened not to please his colleagues, and on his death they resolved to have no other of that sect. The difficulty then was how to avoid having two of some other sect by means of the new choice. Several persons were named, and for that reason not agreed to. At length one mentioned me, with the observation that I was merely an honest man, and of no sect at all, which prevailed with them to choose me. The enthusiasm which existed when the house was built had long since abated, and its trustees had not been able to procure fresh contributions for paying the ground rent and discharging some of the other debts the building had occasioned, which embarrassed them greatly. Being now a member of both sets of trustees, that for the building and that for the academy, I had a good opportunity of negotiating with both, and brought them finally to an agreement, by which the trustees for the building were to cede it to those of the academy, the latter undertaking to discharge the debt, to keep for ever open in the building a large hall for occasional preachers according to the original intention, and maintain a free school for the instruction of poor children. Writings were accordingly drawn, and on paying the debts the trustees of the academy were put in possession of the premises, and by dividing the great and lofty hall into stories, and different rooms above and below, for the several schools, and purchasing some additional ground, the whole was soon made fit for our purpose, and the scholars removed into the building. The care and trouble of agreeing with the workmen, purchasing materials, and superintending the work, fell upon me, and I went through it the more cheerfully, as it did not then interfere with my private business, having the year before taken a very able, industrious, and honest partner Mr. David Hall, with whose character I was well acquainted, as he had worked for me four years. He took off my hands all care of the printing office, paying me punctually my share of the profits. The partnership continued eighteen years, successfully for us both. The trustees of the academy, after a while, were incorporated by a charter from the governor. Their funds were increased by contributions in Britain and grants of land from the proprietaries, to which the assembly had since made considerable addition, and thus was established the present University of Philadelphia. I have been continued one of its trustees from the beginning, now near forty years, and have had the very great pleasure of seeing a number of the youth who have received their education in it, distinguished by their proven abilities, serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their country. Begin footnote. The institution was later called the University of Pennsylvania. End footnote. When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from private business, I flattered myself that, by the sufficient though moderate fortune I had acquired, I had secure leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all of Dr. Spence's apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments with great illiquity. But the public, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold of me for their purposes. Every part of our civil government, and almost at the same time, imposing some duty upon me. The Governor put me into the Commission of the Peace, the Corporation of the City, chose me of the Common Council, and soon after an Alderman, and the Citizens at Large chose me a Burgess to represent them in assembly. This latter station was more agreeable to me, as I was at length tired with sitting there to hear debates in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which were often so un-entertaining that I was induced to amuse myself with making magic squares or circles or anything to avoid weariness, and I conceived my becoming a member would enlarge my power of doing good. I would not, however, insinuate that my ambition was not flattered by all these promotions. It certainly was. For considering my low beginning, they were great things to me, and they were still more pleasing as being so many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion, and by me entirely unsolicited. The Office of Justice of the Peace I tried a little, by attending a few courts, and sitting on the bench to hear cases, but finding that more knowledge of the common law than I possessed was necessary to act in that station with credit. I gradually withdrew from it, excusing myself by being obliged to attend the higher duties of a legislature in the assembly. My election to this trust was repeated every year for ten years without my ever asking any elector for his vote, or signifying, either directly or indirectly, any desire of being chosen. On taking my seat in the house my son was appointed their clerk. The year following a treaty being held with the Indians at Carlisle the Governor sent a message to the House proposing that they should nominate some of their members to be joined with some members of council as commissioners for that purpose. The House named the Speaker, Mr. Norris, and myself, and being commissioned we went to Carlisle and met the Indians accordingly. As those people are extremely apt to get drunk, and when so are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbade the selling of any liquor to them, and when they complained of this restriction we told them that if they would continue sober during the treaty we would give them plenty of rum when business was over. They promised this, and they kept their promise, because they could get no liquor, and the treaty was concluded very orderly, and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received the rum. This was in the afternoon. They were near one hundred men, women, and children, and were lodged in temporary cabins built in the form of a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter. We found they had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square. They were all drunk, men and women, quarreling and fighting, their dark-colored bodies half-naked, seen only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, running after and beating one another with fire-brands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of hell that could well be imagined. There was no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight a number of them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which we took no notice. The next day, sensible, they had misbehaved in giving us that disturbance. They sent three of their old councillors to make their apology. The order acknowledged the fault, but laid it upon the rum, and then endeavored to excuse the rum by saying, The great spirit who made all things made everything for some use, and whatever use he designed anything for, that use it should always be put to. Now when he made rum, he said, Let this be for the Indians to get drunk with, and it must be so. And indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the sea coast. In 1751 Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia, a very beneficent design which has been ascribed to me but was originally his. For the reception and cure of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the province or strangers, he was zealous and active in endeavouring to procure subscriptions for it, but the proposal being a novelty in America, and at first not well understood, he met but with small success. The lengthy came to me with the complaint that he found there was no such thing as carrying a public spirited project through without my being concerned in it. For, says he, I am often asked by those to whom I propose subscribing, have you consulted Franklin upon this business? And what does he think of it? And when I tell them that I have not, supposing it rather out of your line, they do not subscribe, but say they will consider of it. I inquire into the nature and probable utility of his scheme and received from him a very satisfactory explanation. I not only subscribed to it myself but engaged heartily in the design of procuring subscriptions from others. Obviously, however, to the solicitation I endeavored to prepare the minds of the people by writing on the subject in the newspapers, which was my usual custom in such cases, but which he had omitted. The subscriptions afterward were more free and generous, but beginning to flag, I saw they would be insufficient without some assistance from the assembly, and therefore proposed a petition for it which was done. The country members did not at first relish the project. They objected that it could only be serviceable to the city, and therefore the citizens alone should be at the expense of it, and they doubted whether the citizens themselves generally approved of it. My allegation, on the contrary, that it met with such approbation as to leave no doubt of our being able to raise two thousand pounds by voluntary donations, they considered as a most extravagant supposition and utterly impossible. On this I formed my plan, and asked Leave to bring a bill for incorporating the contributions according to the prayer of their petition and granting them a blank sum of money, which Leave was obtained chiefly on the consideration that the House would throw the bill out if they did not like it. I drew it so as to make the important clause a conditioned one, vise, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that when the said contributions shall have met and chosen their managers and treasurer, and shall have raised by their contributions a capital stock of blank value, the yearly interest of which is to be applied to the accommodating of the sick poor in the said hospital free of charge for diet, attendance, advice, and medicines, and shall make the same appear to the satisfaction of the speaker of the assembly for the time being, that then it shall and may be lawful for the said speaker, and he is hereby required to sign an order on the provincial treasurer for the payment of two thousand pounds in two yearly payments to the treasurer of the said hospital to be applied to the founding, building, and furnishing of the same. The condition carried the bill through for the members who had opposed the grant, and now conceived they might have the credit of being charitable without the expense, agreed to its passage, and then in soliciting subscriptions among the people, we urged the conditional promise of the law as additional motive to give, since every man's donation would be doubled. Thus the clause worked both ways. Thus subscriptions soon exceeded the requisite sum, and we claimed and received the public gift, which enabled us to carry the design into execution. A convenient and handsome building was soon erected. The institution has by constant experience been found useful and flourishes to this day, and I do not remember any of my political maneuvers, the success of which gave me at the time more pleasure, or wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excused myself for having made some use of cunning. It was about this time that another projector, the Reverend Gilbert Tennant, came to me with a request that I would assist him in procuring a subscription for erecting a new meeting-house. It was to be for use of a congregation he had gathered among the Presbyterians, who were originally disciples of Mr. Whitfield. Unwilling to make myself disagreeable to my fellow citizen by too frequent soliciting their contributions, I absolutely refused. He then desired I would furnish him with a list of names of persons I knew by experience to be generous and public-spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in me, after their kind compliance with my solicitations, to mark them out to be worried by other beggars, and therefore refused also to give him such a list. He then desired I would at least give him my advice. That I will readily do, said I, and in the first place I advise you to apply to all those whom you know will give something. Next to those whom you are uncertain whether they will give anything or not, and show them the list of those who have given, and lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken. He laughed and thanked me and said he would take my advice. He did so, for he asked of everybody, and he obtained a much larger sum than he expected, with which he erected the capacious and very elegant meeting-house that stands in Arch Street. Begin footnote. Gilbert Tennant, 1703 to 1764, came to America with his father, Reverend William Tennant, and taught for a time in the Lough College, from which sprang the College of New Jersey. End footnote. Our city, though laid out with a beautiful regularity, the streets large, straight, and crossing each other at right angles, had the disgrace of suffering those streets to remain long unpaved, and in wet weather, bills of heavy carriages plowed them into a quagmire, so that it was difficult to cross them, and in dry weather the dust was offensive. I had lived near what was called the Jersey Market, and saw with pain the inhabitants waiting in mud while purchasing their provisions. A strip of ground down the middle of that market was at least paved with brick, so that being once in the market they had firm footing, but were often over shoes in dirt to get there. By talking and riding on the subject I was at length instrumental in getting the street paved with some stone between the market and the brick foot pavement that was on each side next to the houses. This for some time gave an easy access to the market, dry shod, but the rest of the street not being paved, where never a carriage came out of the mud upon the pavement, it shook off and left its dirt upon it, and it was soon covered with mire, which was not removed, the city as yet having no scavengers. After some inquiry I found a poor industrious man who was willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean by sweeping it twice a week, carrying off the dirt from before all the neighbor's doors for the sum of sixpence per month to be paid by each house. I then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neighborhood that might be obtained by this small expense. The greater ease in keeping our houses clean, so much dirt not being brought in by people's feet, the benefit of the shops by more custom, etc., etc., as buyers could more easily get at them and by not having, in windy weather, the dust blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I sent one of these papers to each house, and in a day or two went round to see who would subscribe an agreement to pay these sixpence. It was unanimously signed, and for a time well executed. All the inhabitants of the city were delighted with the cleanliness of the pavement that surrounded the market, it being a convenience to all, and thus raised a general desire to have all the streets paved and made the people more willing to submit to attacks for that purpose. After some time I drew a bill for paving the city and brought it into the assembly. It was just before I went to England in 1757 and did not pass until I was gone, and then with an alteration in the mode of assessment which I thought not for the better, but with an additional provision for lighting as well as paving the streets, which was a great improvement. It was by a private person, the late Mr. John Clifton, his giving a sample of the utility of lamps by placing one at his door, that the people were first impressed with the idea of enlightening all the city. The honour of this public benefit has also been ascribed to me, but it belongs truly to that gentleman. I did but follow his example, and have only some merit to claim respecting the form of our lamps, as differing from the globe lamps we were at first supplied with from London. Those we found inconvenient in these respects. They admitted no air below. The smoke, therefore, did not readily go out above, but circulated in the globe, lodged on its inside, and soon obstructed the light. They were intended to afford, giving, besides, the daily trouble of wiping them clean, and an accidental stroke on one of them would demolish it, and render it totally useless. I therefore suggested that composing them of four flat panes, with a long funnel above to draw up the smoke, and crevices admitting air below, to facilitate the ascent of the smoke. By this means they were kept clean, and did not grow dark in a few hours, as the London lamps do, but continued bright till morning, and an accidental stroke would generally break but a single pane easily repaired. I have sometimes wondered that the Londoners did not, from the effect holes in the bottom of the globe lamps used at Vaxall, have, in keeping them clean, learned to have such holes in their street lamps. But these holes being made for another purpose, these, to communicate flame more suddenly to the wick by a little flax hanging down through them. The other use of letting in air seems not to have been thought of, and therefore, after the lamps had been lit a few hours the streets of London were very poorly illuminated. In Footnote, Vaxall Gardens, once a popular and fashionable London resort situated on the Thames above Lambeth, the gardens were closed in 1859, but they will always be remembered because of Sir Roger DeCovery's visit to them in The Spectator, and from the description in Smollett's Humphrey Clinker and Thackerie's Vanity Fair. The mention of these improvements puts me in mind of one I proposed when in London to Dr. Fathergill, who was among the best men I have known, and a great promoter of useful projects. I had observed that the streets when dry were never swept, and the light dust carried away, but it was suffered to accumulate till the wet weather reduced it to mud, and then, after lying some days so deep on the pavement, that there was no crossing but in paths kept clear by poor people with brooms. It was, with great labour, raked together and thrown up into carts open above, the sides of which suffered some of the slush at every jolt on the pavement to shake out and fall, sometimes to the annoyance of foot-passengers. The reason given for not sweeping the dusty streets was that the dust would fly into the windows of shops and houses. An accidental occurrence had instructed me how much sweeping might be done in a little time. I found at my door, in Craven Street, one morning a poor woman sweeping my pavement with a birch broom. She appeared very pale and feeble, and just come out of a fit of sickness. I asked who employed her to sweep there. She said, nobody, but I am very poor and in distress, and I sweeps before gentle folks' doors, and hopes they will give me something. I bid her sweep the whole street clean, and I would give her a shilling. This was at nine o'clock. At twelve she came for the shilling. From the slowness I saw at first in her working I could scarce believe that the work was done so soon, and sent my servant to examine it, who reported that the whole street was swept perfectly clean and all the dust placed in the gutter which was in the middle, and the next rain washed it quite away. So that pavement and even the kennel were perfectly clean. I then judged that if that feeble woman could sweep such a street in three hours a strong active man might have done it in half the time. And here let me remark the convenience of having but one gutter in such a narrow street running down its middle, instead of two, one on each side, near the footway, for where all the rain that falls on the street runs from the sides and meets in the middle, it forms there a current strong enough to wash away all the mud it meets with. But when divided into two channels it is often too weak to cleanse either, and only makes the mud it finds more fluid, so that the wheels of carriages and feet of horses throw and dash it upon the foot pavement, which is thereby rendered foul and slippery, and sometimes splash it upon those who are walking. My proposal communicated to the good doctor was as follows. For the more effectual cleaning and keeping clean the streets of London and Westminster it is proposed that the several watchmen be contracted with to have the dust swept up in dry seasons and the mud raked up at other times, each in their several streets and lanes of his round, that they be furnished with brooms and other proper instruments for these purposes to be kept at their respective stands ready to furnish the poor people they may employ in the service. That in the dry summer months the dust will all be swept up into heaps in proper distances before the shops and windows of houses are usually opened, when the scavengers with close covered carts shall also carry it away. That the mud, when raked up, be not left in heaps to be spread abroad again by the wheels of carriages and trampling of horses, but that the scavengers be provided with bodies of carts, not placed high upon wheels, but low upon sliders, with lattice bottoms which, being covered with straw, will retain the mud thrown into them and permit the water to drain from it, thereby it will become much lighter, making the greatest part of its weight, and these bodies of carts to be placed at convenient distances, and the mud brought to them in wheel-barrows, by remaining there placed till the mud is drained, and the horses brought to draw them away. I have since had doubts of the practicality of the latter part of this proposal, on account of the narrowness of some streets, and the difficulty of placing the draining sleds so as not to encumber too much of the passage, but I am still of opinion that the former requiring the dust to be swept up, and carried away before the shops are open, is very practicable in the summer, when the days are long, for in walking through the strand and Fleet Street one morning, at seven o'clock, I observed there was not one shop open, though it had been daylight and the sun up above three hours, the inhabitants of London choosing voluntarily to live much by candlelight and sleep by sunshine, and yet often complain, a little absurdly, of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow. Some may think these trifling matters not worth mining or relating, but when they consider that though dust blown into the eyes of a single person, or into a single shop on a windy day, is but of small importance, yet the greater number of the instances in a populous city and its frequent repetitions give it weight and consequence. Perhaps they will not censor very severely those who bestow some attention to affairs of this seemingly low nature. Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus if you teach a poor young man to shave himself and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. The money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it, but in the other case he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors. He shaves when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good instrument. With these sentiments I have hazarded the few preceding pages, during that they may afford hints which some time or other may be useful to a city I love, having lived many years in it very happily, and perhaps to some of our towns in America. Having been for some time employed by the Postmaster General of America as his comptroller in regulating several offices and bringing the offices to account, I was, upon his death in 1753, jointly with Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him by a commission from the Postmaster General in England. The American office never had hitherto paid anything to that of Britain. We were to have six hundred pounds a year between us if we could make that sum out of the profits of the office. To do this a variety of improvements were necessary. Some of these were inevitably at first expensive. After that in the first four years the office became above nine hundred pounds in debt to us, but it soon after began to repay us, and before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers, of which I shall speak hereafter, we had brought it to yield three times as much clear revenue to the Crown as the Post Office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they have received from it not one farthing. The business of the Post Office occasioned my taking a journey this year to New England, where the College of Cambridge of their own motion presented me with a degree of Master of Arts. Yale College, in Connecticut, had before made me a similar compliment. Thus without studying in any college I came to partake of their honours. They were conferred in consideration of my improvements and discoveries in the Electric Branch of Natural Philosophy. Chapter 14 Albany Plan of Union In 1754 war with France being again apprehended a Congress of commissioners from the different colonies was, by an order of the Lords of Trade, to be assembled at Albany, there to confer with the chiefs of the six nations concerning the means of defending both their country and ours. Governor Hamilton, having received this order, acquainted the house with it, requested they should furnish proper presence for the Indians to be given on this occasion and naming the Speaker, Mr. Norris, and myself to join Mr. Thomas Penn and Mr. Secretary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania. The house approved the nomination and provided the goods for the present, and though they did not much like treating out of the provinces, and we met the other commissioners at Albany about the middle of June. In our way further I projected and drew a plan for the Union of all the colonies under one government, so far as might be necessary for defense and other important general purposes. As we passed through New York, I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge in public affairs, and being fortified by their approbation I ventured to lay it before the Congress. It then appeared that several of the commissioners had formed plans of the same kind. A previous question was first taken whether a Union should be established, which passed in the affirmative unanimously. A committee was then appointed, one member from each colony, to consider the several plans and a report. Mine happened to be preferred, and with a few amendments was accordingly reported. By this plan the general government was to be administered by a president general, appointed and supported by the Crown, and the Grand Council was to be chosen by the representatives of the people of the several colonies, met in their respective assemblies. The debates upon it in Congress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian business. Many objections and difficulties were started, but at length they were all overcome, and the plan was unanimously agreed to, and copies ordered to be transmitted to the Board of Trade and to the assemblies of the several provinces. Its fate was singular. The assemblies did not adopt it as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it, and in England it was judged to have too much of the democratic. The Board of Trade therefore did not approve of it, nor recommended, for the approbation of His Majesty. But another scheme was formed, supposed to answer the same purpose better, whereby the governors of the provinces with some members of their respective councils were to meet and order the raising of troops, building of forts, etc., and to draw on the treasury of Great Britain for the expense, which was afterward to be refunded by an active parliament laying attacks on America. My plan, with my reasons in support of it, is to be found among the political papers that are printed. Being the winter following in Boston, I had much conversation with Governor Shirley upon both the plans. Part of what passed between us on the occasion may also be seen among those papers. The different and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan makes me suspect that it was really a true medium, and I am still of opinion it would have been happy for both sides the water if it had been adopted. The colonies so united would have been sufficiently strong to have defended themselves. There would then have been no need of troops from England. Of course the subsequent pretense for taxing America, and the bloody contest it occasioned, would have been avoided. But such mistakes are not new. History is full of the errors of states and princes. Look round the habitable world how few know their own good or knowing it pursue. Those who govern having much business on their hands do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion. The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down to the Assembly, expressed his approbation of the plan, as appearing to him to be drawn up with great clearness and strength of judgment, and therefore recommended it as well, worthy of their closest and most serious attention. The House, however, by the management of a certain member, took it up when I happened to be absent, which I thought not very fair, and reprobated it without paying any attention to it at all, to my no small mortification. CHAPTER XV CORALS WITH THE PREPRIATARY GOVERNORS In my journey to Boston this year I met at New York with our new Governor, Mr. Morris. Just arrived there from England, with whom I had been before intimately acquainted. He brought a commission to supersede Mr. Hamilton, who, tired with the disputes his proprietary instructions subjected him to, had resigned. Mr. Morris asked me if I thought he must expect as uncomfortable an administration. I said, no, you may, on the contrary, have a very comfortable one if you will only take care not to enter into any disputes with the Assembly. My dear friend says, he pleasantly, how can you advise my avoiding disputes? You know I love disputing. It is one of my greatest pleasures. However, to show the regard I have for your counsel I promise you I will, if possible, avoid them. He had some reason for loving to dispute, being eloquent, an accurate sophister, and therefore generally successful in argumentive conversation. He had been brought up to it from a boy, his father, as I have heard accustomed his children to dispute with one another for his diversion, while sitting at table after dinner. But I think the practice was not wise. For, in the course of my observation, these disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them. We parted, he going to Philadelphia and I to Boston. In returning I met at New York with the votes of the Assembly, by which it appeared that notwithstanding his promise to me, he and the house were already in high contention, and it was a continual battle between them as long as he retained the government. I had my share of it, for as soon as I got back to my seat in the Assembly, I was put on every committee for answering his speeches and messages, and by the committees always desired to make the drafts. Our answers, as well as his messages, were often tart and sometimes indecently abusive, and as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, one might have imagined that when we met we could hardly avoid cutting throats. But he was so good nature to man that no personal difference between him and me was occasioned by the contest, and we often dined together. One afternoon, in the height of this public quarrel, we met in the street, Franklin says he, he must go home with me and spend the evening. I am to have some company that you will like. And taking me by the arm he led me to his house. In gay conversation over our wine after supper he told us, jokingly, that he much admired the idea of Sancho Pansa, who, when it was proposed to give him a government, requested it might be a government of blacks, as then, if he could not agree with his people, he might sell them. One of his friends, who sat next to me, says, Franklin, why do you continue to side with these damned Quakers? Had it not you better sell them, the proprietor would give you a good price. The governor, says I, has not yet blackened them enough. He indeed had labored hard to blacken the assembly in all his messages, but they wiped off his coloring as fast as he laid it on them, and placed it in return, thick upon his own face, so that, finding he was likely to be negrified himself, he as well as Mr. Hamilton grew tired of the contest, and quitted the government. These public quarrels were all at the bottom owing to the proprietaries, our hereditary governors, who, when any expense was to be incurred for the defense of their province, with incredible meanness, instructed their deputies to pass no act for levying the necessary taxes, unless their vast estates were in the same act expressly excused, and they had even taken bonds of these deputies to observe such instructions. The assemblies for three years held out against this injustice, though constrained to bend at last. At length Captain Denny, who was Governor Morris's successor, ventured to disobey these instructions, how that was brought about I shall show hereafter. But I have got forward too fast with my story. There are still some transactions to be mentioned that happened during the administration of Governor Morris. War being in a matter commenced with France, the government of Massachusetts Bay projected an attack upon Crown Point, and sent Mr. Quincy to Pennsylvania and Mr. Pownell, afterward Governor Pownell, to New York to solicit assistance. As I was in the assembly, knew his temper, and was Mr. Quincy's countryman, he applied to me for my influence and assistance. I dictated his address to them, which was well received. They voted an aid of ten thousand pounds to be laid out in provisions, but the governor refusing this assent to their bill, which included this with other sums granted for the use of the Crown, unless a clause were inserted exempting the proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax that would be necessary. The assembly, though very desirous of making their grant, to New England, effectual, were at a loss how to accomplish it. Mr. Quincy labored hard with the governor to obtain his assent, but he was obstinate. I then suggested a method of doing the business without the governor, by order of the trustees of the loan office, which by law the assembly had the right of drawing. There was indeed little or no money at that time in the office, and therefore I proposed that the order should be payable in a year and to bear an interest of five percent. With these orders I suppose the provisions might easily be purchased. The assembly, with very little hesitation, adopted the proposal. The orders were immediately printed, and I was one of the committee directed to sign and dispose of them. The funds for paying them was the interest of all the paper currency then extant in the province upon loan, together with the revenue arising from the excise, which being known to be more than sufficient, they obtained instant credit and were not only received in payment for the provisions but many moneyed people who had cash-line by them vested in those orders which they found advantageous as they bore interest while upon hand and might on any occasion be used as money, so that they were eagerly all bought up, and in a few weeks none of them were to be seen. Thus the important affair was by my means completed. Mr. Quincy, returned thanks to the assembly in a handsome memorial, went home highly pleased with this success of his embassy, and ever after bore for me the most cordial and affectionate friendship. CHAPTER XVI the British government not choosing to permit the union of the colonies as proposed at Albany, and to trust that union with their defence, lest they should thereby grow to military and feel their own strength. Suspicions and jealousies, at this time being entertained of them, sent over General Braddock with two regiments of regular English troops for that purpose. He landed at Alexandria in Virginia, and thence marched to Fredericktown in Maryland, where he halted for carriages. Our assembly apprehending, from some information, that he had conceived violent prejudices against them, as averse to the service wished me to wait upon him, as from them, but as postmaster general, under the guise of proposing to settle with him the mode of conducting with most celerity and certainty the dispatches between him and the government of the several provinces, with whom he must necessarily have continual correspondence, and of which they supposed to pay the expense. My son accompanied me on this journey. We found the general at Fredericktown, waiting impatiently for the return of those he had sent through the back parts of Maryland and Virginia to collect wagons. I stayed with him several days, dined with him daily, and had full opportunity of removing all his prejudices by the information of what the assembly had before his arrival actually done, and were still willing to do, to facilitate his operations. When I was about to depart, the returns of wagons to be obtained were brought in, by which it appeared that they amounted only to twenty-five, and not all of those were in serviceable condition. The general and all the officers were surprised, declared the expedition was then at an end, being impossible, and exclaimed against the ministers for ignorantly landing them in a country destitute of the means of conveying their stores, baggage, et cetera, not less than one hundred and fifty wagons being necessary. I happened to say I thought it was pity they had not been landed rather in Pennsylvania, as in that country almost every farmer had his wagon. The general eagerly laid hold of my words and said, Then you, sir, who are a man of interest there, can probably procure them for us, and I beg you will undertake it. I asked what terms were to be offered the owners of the wagons, and I was desired to put on paper the terms that appeared to me necessary. This I did, and they were agreed to, and a commission and instructions accordingly prepared immediately. What those terms were will appear in the advertisement I published as soon as I arrived at Lancaster, which being, from the great and sudden effect it produced, a piece of some curiosity, I shall insert it at length as follows—advertisement—Lancaster, April 26, 1755. Whereas one hundred and fifty wagons, with four horses to each wagon, and fifteen hundred saddle or pack horses, are wanted, for the service of His Majesty's forces, now about to rendezvous at Wills Creek and His Excellency General Braddock, having been pleased to empower me to contract for the hire of the same, I hereby give notice that I shall attend for that purpose at Lancaster, from this day to next Wednesday evening, and at York from next Thursday morning till Friday evening, where I shall be ready to agree for wagons and teams, or single horses, on the following terms. Feast, one, that there shall be paid for each wagon, with four good horses and a driver, fifteen shillings per diem, and for each able horse, with a pack saddle or other saddle and furniture, two shillings per diem, and for each able horse, without a saddle, eighteen pence per diem. Two, that the pay commenced from the time of their joining the forces at Wills Creek, which must be on or before the twenty-ninth of May, ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid over and above, for the time necessary for their traveling to Wills Creek and home again, after their discharge. Three, each wagon and team, and every saddle or pack horse, is to be valued by indifferent persons, chosen between me and the owner, and in case of the loss of any wagons, team, or other horse in the service the price accordingly to such valuation is to be allowed and paid. Four, seven days' pay is to be advanced and paid in hand by me to the owner of each wagon and team or horse at the time of contracting, if required, and the remainder to be paid by General Braddock or by the paymaster of the army at the time of their discharge, or from time to time as it shall be demanded. Five, no drivers of wagons or persons taking care of the hired horses are on any account to be called upon to do the duty of soldiers, or to be otherwise employed than in conducting or taking care of their carriages or horses. Six, all oats, Indian corn or other forage that wagons or horses bring to the camp more than is necessary for the subsistence of the horses is to be taken for the use of the army and a reasonable price paid for the same. Note, my son William Franklin is empowered to enter into like contracts with any person in Cumberland County. B. Franklin To the inhabitants of the counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, friends and countrymen, being occasionally at the camp of Frederick a few days since, I found the general and officers extremely exasperated on account of their not being supplied with horses and carriages which had been expected from this province, as most able to furnish them. But, though the dissensions between our governor and assembly, money had not been provided nor any steps taken for that purpose. It was proposed to send an armed force immediately into these counties to seize as many of the best carriages and horses as should be wanted, and compel as many persons into the service as would be necessary to drive and take care of them. I apprehended that the progress of British soldiers through these counties on such an occasion, especially considering the temper they are in and their resentment against us, would be attended with many and great inconveniences to the inhabitants, and therefore more willingly took the trouble of trying first what might be done by fair and equitable means. The people of these back countries have lately complained to the assembly that a sufficient currency was wanting. You have an opportunity of receiving and dividing among you a very considerable sum, for if the service of this expedition should continue, as it is more than probable it will, for one hundred and twenty days the hire of these wagons and horses will amount to upward of thirty thousand pounds, which will be paid to you in silver and gold of the king's money. The service will be light and easy. For the army will scarce march above twelve miles per day, and the wagons and baggage horses, as they carry those things that are absolutely necessary for the welfare of the army, must march with the army and no faster, and are, for the army's sake, always placed where they can be most secure, whether in a march or in a camp. If you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal subjects to his majesty, you may now do a most acceptable service and make it easy for yourselves. For three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the business of their plantations a wagon and four horses and a driver may do it together, one furnishing the wagon, another one or two horses, and another the driver, and divide the pay proportionally between you. But if you do not this service to your king and country voluntarily, when such good pay and reasonable terms are offered you, your loyalty will be strongly suspected. The king's business must be done. So many brave troops come so far for your defense, must not stand idle through your backwardness to do what may be reasonably expected from you. Wagons and horses must be had. Violent measures will probably be used, and you will be left to seek for recompense where you can find it, and your case perhaps be little pitted or regarded. I have no particular interest in this affair as except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do good. I shall have only my labor for my pains. If this method of obtaining the wagons and horses is not likely to succeed, I am obliged to send word to the general in fourteen days. And I suppose, Sir John St. Clair, the husser with a body of soldiers will immediately enter the province for the purpose, which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am very sincerely and truly your friend and well-wisher, B. Franklin. I received of the general about eight hundred pounds to be dispersed in advance money to the wagon owners, et cetera. But the sum being insufficient, I advanced upward of two hundred pounds more, and in two weeks the one hundred and fifty wagons with two hundred and fifty-nine carriage horses were on the march for the camp. The advertisement promised payment according to the valuation in case any wagon or horse should be lost. The owners, however, alleging they did not know general Braddock or what dependence might be had on his promise, insisted on my bond for the performance, which I accordingly gave them. While I was at the camp, supping one evening with the officers of Colonel Dunbar's regiment, he represented to me his concern for the subalterns, who, he said, were generally not in affluence and could ill afford, in this dear country, to lay in the stores that might be necessary for so long a march through a wilderness where nothing was to be purchased. I commiserated their care and resolved to endeavor procuring them some relief. I said nothing, however, to him of my intention, but wrote the next morning to the committee of the Assembly, who had the disposition of some public money, warmly recommending the case of these officers to their consideration and proposing that a present should be sent them of necessaries and refreshments. My son, who had some experience of a camp life and of its wants, drew up a list for me, which I enclosed in my letter. The committee approved and used such diligence that, conducted by my son, the stores arrived at the camp as soon as the wagons. They consisted of twenty parcels, each containing six pounds of sugar-loaf, six pounds of good muscovado, one pound good green tea, one pound good bohiedu, six pounds loaf sugar, six pounds good muscovado, one pound good green tea, one pound good bohiedu, six pounds good ground coffee, six pounds chocolate, one to two hundred weight best white biscuit, one to two pounds pepper, one quart best white wine, vinegar, one Gloucester cheese, one cake containing twenty pounds good butter, two dozen old Madero wine, two gallons Jamaican spirits, one bottle flower of mustard, two well-cured hams, one to two dozen dried tongues, six pounds rice, six pounds of raisins. These twenty parcels, well-packed, were placed on as many horses, each parcel with the horse being intended as a present for one officer. They were very thankfully received, and the kindness acknowledged by letters to me from the kernels of both regiments in the most grateful terms. The general too was highly satisfied with my conduct in procuring him the wagons, et cetera, and readily paid my account of disbursements, thanking me repeatedly and requesting my further assistance in sending provisions after him. I undertook this also, and was busily employed in it till we heard of his defeat, advancing for the service of my own money, upwards of one thousand pounds sterling, of which I sent him an account. It came to his hands, luckily for me, a few days before the battle, and he returned to me immediately an order on the paymaster for the round sum of one thousand pounds, leaving the remainder to the next account. I considered this payment as good luck, having never been able to obtain that remainder of which more hereafter. The general was, I think, a brave man, and might probably have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George Croyne, our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march with one hundred of those people who might have been of great use to his army as guides, scouts, et cetera, if he had treated them kindly. But he slighted and neglected him, and they gradually left him. In conversation with him one day he was giving me some account of his intended progress. After taking Fort Duquesne, says he, I am to proceed to Niagara, and having taken that to Fontanac, if the season will allow me, and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly retain me above three or four days, and I see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara. Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army must take in the march by a very narrow road to be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French who invaded the Eroquois country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign. But I ventured only to say, to be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops so well provided with artillery, that place not yet completely fortified, and as we hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from ambuscades of Indians who, by constant practice, are dexterous in laying and executing them, and the slender line near four miles long which your army must make may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several pieces which from their distance cannot come up in time to support each other. He smiled at my ignorance and replied, these savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the king's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impression. I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more. The enemy, however, did not take the advantage of his army which I apprehended its long line of march exposed it to, but let it advance without an eruption till within nine miles of the place, and then, when more in a body, for it had just passed river where the front had halted till all were come over, and in a more open part of the woods than any it had passed, attacked its advanced guard by heavy fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence the general had of an enemy's being near him. This guard being disordered, the general hurried his troops up to their assistance, which was done in great confusion, though wagons baggage and cattle, and presently the fire came upon their flank. The officers being on horseback were more easily distinguished, picked out as marks, and fell very fast, and the soldiers were crowded together in a huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be shot at till two-thirds of them were killed, and then being seized with a panic the whole fled with precipitation. The wagoners took each horse out of its team and scampered. Their example was immediately followed by others, so that all the wagons, provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general being wounded was brought off with difficulty. His secretary, Mr. Shirley, was killed by his side, and out of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men killed out of the eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked men from the whole army. The rest had been left behind with Colonel Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the stores, provisions, and baggage. The fliers not being pursued arrived at Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought with them instantly seized him and all his people, and though he had now above one thousand men and the enemy, who had beaten Braddock, did not at most exceed four hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding and endeavouring to recover some of the lost honor. He ordered all the stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more horses to assist his flight towards the settlements, and less lumber to remove. He was there met with requests from the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that he should post his troops on the frontier so as to afford some protection to the inhabitants. But he continued his hasty march through all the country, not thinking himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants could protect him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the power of British regulars had not been well founded. Begin footnote. Other accounts of this expedition and defeat may be found in Fisks, Washington, and his country, or lodges, George Washington, Volume I. End footnote. In the first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond the settlements, they had plundered and stripped the inhabitants, totally ruining some poor families. Besides insulting, abusing, and confining the people, if they remonstrated, this was enough to put us out of conceit of such defenders, if we had really wanted any. How different was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who, during a march, threw the most inhabited part of our country, from Rhode Island to Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned not the smallest complaint for the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple. Captain Ormy, who was one of the General's aides to camp, and, being grievously wounded, was brought off with him, and continued with him to his death, which happened in a few days, told me that he was totally silent all the first day, and, at night, only said, who would have thought it? That he was silent again the following day, saying only at last, we shall better know how to deal with them another time, and died in a few minutes after. The Secretary's papers, with all the General's orders, instructions, and correspondence falling into the enemy's hands, they selected and translated into French a number of articles which they printed to prove the hostile intentions of the British court before the declaration of war. Among these I saw some letters of the General to the Ministry, speaking highly of the great service I had rendered the Army, and recommending me to their notice. David Hume, too, who was some years after Secretary to Lord Hurtford, then Minister to France, and afterward to General Conway, when Secretary of State, told me he had seen among the papers in that office letters from Braddock highly recommending me. But the expedition having been unfortunate, my service, it seems, was not thought of much value, for those recommendations were never of any use to me. As to rewards for myself I asked only one, which was that he would give orders to his officers not to enlist any more of our bought servants, and that he would discharge such as had been already enlisted. This he readily granted, and several were accordingly returned to their masters, on my application. Dunbar, when the command devolved on him, was not so generous. He being at Philadelphia on his retreat, or rather flight, I applied to him for the discharge of the servants of three poor farmers in Lancaster County that he had enlisted, reminding him of the late General's orders on that head. He promised me that if the masters would come to him at Trenton where he should be in a few days on his march to New York, he would there deliver their men to them. They accordingly were at the expense and trouble of going to Trenton, and there he refused to perform his promise to their great laws and disappointment. As soon as the loss of the wagons and horses was generally known, all the owners came upon me for the valuation which I had given bond to pay. The demands gave me a great deal of trouble, by acquainting them that the money was ready in the paymaster's hands, but that orders for paying it must first be obtained from General Shirley, and by assuring them that I had applied to that general by letter. But he being at a distance an answer could not soon be received, and they must have patience. All this was not sufficient to satisfy, and some began to sue me. General Shirley at length relieved me from this terrible situation, by appointing commissioners to examine the claims and ordering payment. They amounted to near twenty thousand pound, which to pay would have ruined me. Before we had the news of this defeat, the two doctors' bond came to me with a subscription paper for raising money to defray the expense of a grand firework which it was intended to exhibit at a rejoicing on receipt of the news of our taking Fort Duquesne. I looked grave and said it would, I thought, be time enough to prepare for the rejoicing when we knew we should have occasion to rejoice. They seemed surprised that I did not immediately comply with their approval. Why, that devil, says one of them, you surely don't suppose that the Fort will not be taken. I don't know that it will not be taken, but I know that the events of war are subject to great uncertainty. I gave them the reasons of my doubting. The subscription was dropped, and the projectors thereby missed the mortification. They would have undergone if the firework had been prepared. Dr. Bond, on some other occasion afterward, said that he did not like Franklin's forebodings. Governor Morris, who had continually worried the assembly with message after message before the defeat of Braddock, to beat them into the making of acts, to raise money for the defense of the province, without taxing, among others, the proprietary estates, and had rejected all their bills for not having such an exempting clause, now redoubled his attacks with more hope of success, the danger and necessity of being greater. The assembly, however, continued firm, believing they had justice on their side, and that it would be giving up an essential right if they suffered the governor to amend their money bills. In one of the last, indeed, which was for granting fifty thousand pounds, his proposed amendment was only of a single word. The bill expressed that all estates real and personal were to be taxed. Those of the proprietaries not accepted. His amendment was for not. Red only. A small but very material alteration. However, when the news of this disaster reached England, our friends there whom we had taken care to furnish with all the assembly's answers to the governor's messages, raised a clamor against the proprietaries for their meanness and injustice in giving their governor such instructions, some going so far as to say that, by obstructing the defense of their province, they forfeited their right to it. They were intimidated by this, and sent orders to their receiver-general to add five thousand pounds of their money to whatever some might be given by the assembly for such purpose. This being notified to the house was accepted in lieu of their share of a general tax, and a new bill was formed with an exempting clause which passed accordingly. But by this act I was appointed one of the commissioners for disposing of the money, sixty thousand pounds. I had been active in modeling the bill and procuring its passage and had at the same time drawn a bill for establishing and disciplining a volunteer militia, which I carried through the house without much difficulty, as care was taken in it to leave the Quakers at their liberty. To promote the association necessary to form the militia, I wrote a dialogue stating and answering all the objections I could think of for such a militia, which was printed and had, as I thought, great effect. CHAPTER XVII. DEFENSE OF THE FRONTIR While the several companies in the city and country were forming and learning their exercise, the Governor prevailed with me to take charge of our north-western frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and provide for the defense of the inhabitants by raising troops and building a line of forts. I undertook this military business, though I did not conceive myself well qualified for it. He gave me a commission with full powers and a parcel of blank commissions for officers, to be given to whom I thought fit. I had but little difficulty in raising men, having soon five hundred and sixty under my command. My son, who had in the preceding war been an officer in the army, raised against Canada, was my aid camp, and of great use to me. The Indians had burned Gnadenhut, a village settled by the Morovians, and massacred the inhabitants. But the place was thought a good situation for one of the forts. In order to march thither I assembled the companies at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of those people. I was surprised to find it in so good a posture of defense. The destruction of Gnadenhut had made them apprehend danger. The principal buildings were defended by a stockade. They had purchased a quantity of arms and ammunition from New York, and had even placed quantities of small paving stones between the windows of their high stone houses, for the women to throw down upon the heads of any Indians that should attempt to force into them. The armed brethren, too, kept watch, and relieved as methodically as in any garrison town. In conversation with the bishop, Sprengenburg, I mentioned this, my surprise, for knowing they had obtained an act of parliament exempting them from military duties in the colonies, I had supposed they were conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms. He answered me that it was not one of their established principles, but that at the time of their obtaining that act it was thought to be a principle with many of their people. On this occasion, however, they, to their surprise, found it adopted by but a few. It seems they were either deceived in themselves or deceived the parliament, but common sense aided by present danger will sometimes be too strong for whimsical opinions. It was the beginning of January when we set out upon the business of building forts. I sent one detachment toward the menacing with instructions to erect one for the security of that upper part of the country, and another to the lower part with similar instructions, and I concluded to go myself with the rest of my force to Gnadenhut, where a fort was thought more immediately necessary. The Morovians procured me five wagons for our tools, stores, baggage, etc. Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers who had been driven from their plantations by the Indians came to me requesting a supply of firearms that they might go back and fetch off their cattle. I gave them each a gun with suitable ammunition. We had not marched many miles before it began to rain, and it continued raining all day. There were no habitations on the road to shelter us till we arrived near night at the house of a German, where, and in his barn, we were all huddled together as wet as water could make us. It was well we were not attacked in our march, for our arms were of the most ordinary sort, and our men could not keep their gun locks. The Indians are dexterous in contrivances for that purpose, which we had not. They met that day the eleven poor farmers above mentioned and killed ten of them. The one who escaped informed that his and his companions' guns would not go off, the priming being wet with the rain. Begin footnote. Flintlock guns, discharged by means of a spark, struck from flint and steel into powder, priming, in an open pan. The next day, being fair, we continued our march and arrived at the desolate Gunadenhut. There was a sawmill near, round which were left several piles of boards, with which we soon hutted ourselves an operation the more necessary at the inclement season. As we had no tents, our first work was to bury more effectually the dead we found there, who were half-interred by the country people. The next morning our fort was planned and marked out the circumference measuring four hundred and fifty-four feet, which would require as many palisades to be made of trees, one with another, of a foot diameter each. Our axes, of which we had seventy, were immediately set to work to cut down trees, and our men being dexterous in the use of them, great dispatch was made. Seeing the trees fall so fast, I had the curiosity to look at my watch, when two men began to cut at a pine. In six minutes they had it upon the ground, and I found it of fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made three palisades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. While these were prepared, our other men dug a trench all round, of three feet deep, in which the palisades were to be planted, and our wagons. The bodies taken off, and the four and hind-wheels separated by taking out the pin, which united the two parts of the perch. We had ten carriages, with two horses each, to bring the palisades from the woods to the spot. When they were set up, our carpenters built a stage, of boards all round within, about six feet high, for the men to stand on, to fire through the loopholes. We had one swivel gun, which we mounted on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as fixed to let the Indians know, if any were within hearing that we had such pieces, and thus our fort, if such a magnificent name may be given to so miserable a stockade, was finished in a week, though it rained so hard every other day that the men could not work. This gave me occasion to observe that, when men are employed, they are best contented. For on the days they worked they were good-natured and cheerful, and with the conscientiousness of having done a good day's work they spent the evening jollily. But on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humour, which put me in mind of a sea-captain, whose rule it was to keep his men constantly at work, and when his mate once told him they had done everything and there was nothing further to employ them about. O, says he, make them scour the anchor. This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a sufficient defence against Indians who have no cannon. Finding ourselves now posted securely, and having a place to retreat to on occasion, we ventured out in parties to scour the adjacent country. We met with no Indians, but we found places on the neighbouring hills where they had lain to watch our proceedings. There was an art in their contrivance of those places that seemed worth mentioning. It's being winter, a fire was necessary for them, but a common fire on the surface of the ground would by its light have discovered their positions at a distance. They had therefore dug holes in the ground, around three feet diameter, and somewhat deeper. We saw where they had, with their hatches cut off the charcoal from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With these coals they made small fires in the bottoms of the holes, and we observed, among the weeds and grass, the prints of their bodies, made by their laying all round with their legs hanging down in the holes to keep their feet warm, which with them is an essential point. This kind of fire so managed could not discover them, either by its light, flame, sparks, or even smoke. It appeared that their number was not great, and it seems they saw we were too many to be attacked by them with prospect of advantage. We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When they enlisted they were promised, besides pay and provisions, a gala of Rome a day, which was punctually served out to them half in the morning and the other half in the evening, and I observed they were punctual in attending to receive it, upon which I said to Mr. Beatty, it is perhaps below the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and only just after prayers you would have them all about you. He liked the thought, undertook the office, and, with the help of a few hands, to measure out the liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally and more punctually attended, so that I thought this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some military laws for non-attendance on divine service. I had hardly finished this business, and got my Fortwell stored with provisions when I received a letter from the Governor, acquainting me that he had called the Assembly and wished my attendance there if the posture of affairs on the frontier was such that my remaining there was no longer necessary. My friends, too, of the Assembly, pressing me by their letters to be, if possible, at the meeting, and my three intended forts now being completed with the inhabitants contented to remain on their farms under that protection, I resolved to return, the more willingly, as a New England officer, Colonel Chappan, experienced in Indian War, being on visit to our establishment, consented to accept the command. I gave him a commission and, parading the garrison, had it read before them, and introduced him to them as an officer who, by his skill in military affairs, was much more fit to command them than myself, and giving them a little exhortation drew my leave. I was escorted as far as Bethlehem, where I rested a few days to recover from the fatigue I had undergone. The first night, being in a good bed, I could hardly sleep. It was so different from my hard lodgings on the floor of our hut, at Gnaganhut, wrapped only in a blanket or two. While at Bethlehem I inquired a little into the practice of the Morovians. Some of them had accompanied me, and all were very kind to me. I found they worked for a common stock, ate at common tables and slept in common dormitories. Great numbers together. In the dormitories I observed loopholes at certain distances, all along just under the ceiling, which I thought judiciously placed, or change of air. I was at their church, where I was entertained with good music, the organs being accompanied with violins, hot boys, flutes, clarinets, etc. I understood that their sermons were not usually preached to mixed congregations of men, women, and children, as is our common practice. But that they assembled sometimes the married men, and other times their wives, then the young men, the young women, and the little children, each division by itself. The sermon I heard was to the latter, who came in and were placed in rows on benches, the boys under the conduct of a young man their tutor, and the girls conducted by a young woman. The discourse seemed well adapted to their capacities, and was delivered in a pleasing, familiar manner, coaxing them as it were to be good. They behaved very orderly, but looked pale and unhealthy, which made me suspect they were kept too much within doors, and not allowed sufficient exercise. I inquired concerning the Moravian marriages whether the report was true that they were by lot. I was told that lots were used only in particular cases, that generally when a young man found himself disposed to marry he informed the elders of his class who consulted the elder ladies that governed the young women, as these elders of the different sexes were well acquainted with the tempers and dispositions of their respective pupils. They could best judge what matches were suitable, and their judgments were generally acquiesced in. But if, for example, it should happen that two or three young women were found to be equally proper for the young man, the lot was then recurred to. I objected, if the matches are not made by the mutual choice of the parties, some of them may chance to be very unhappy. And so they may, answered my informer, if you let the partners choose for themselves. Which, indeed, I could not deny. Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the association went on swimmingly. The inhabitants that were not Quakers, having pretty generally come into it, formed themselves into companies and chose their captains, lieutenants and ensigns. According to the new law, Dr. B. visited me and gave me an account of the pains he had taken to spread a general good-liking to the law, and described much of those endeavours. I had had the vanity to ascribe all to my dialogue. However, not knowing, but what he might be in the right, I let him enjoy his opinion, which I take to be generally the best way in such cases. The officer's meeting chose me to be Colonel of the Regiment, which I this time accepted. I forgot how many companies we had, but we paraded around twelve hundred well-looking men with a company of artillery, who had been furnished with six brass-field pieces, which they had become so expert in the use of as to fire twelve times in a minute. The first time I reviewed my regiment, they accompanied me to my house and would salute me with some rounds fired before my door, which shook down and broke several glasses of my electrical apparatus, and my new honour proved not much less brittle, for all our commissions were soon after broken by a repeal of the law in England. During the short time of my colonel ship, being about to set on a journey to Virginia, the officers of my regiment took it to their heads that it would be proper for them to escort me out of town, as far as the lower ferry. Just as I was getting on horseback they came to my door, between thirty and forty, mounted, and all in their uniforms. I had not been previously acquainted with the project, or I should have prevented it, being naturally averse to the assuming of state on any occasion, and I was a good deal chagrined at their appearance, as I could not avoid their accompanying me. What made it worse was, that as soon as we began to move, they drew their swords and rode with them naked all the way. Somebody wrote an account of this to the proprietor, and it gave him great offence. No such honor had been paid him within the province, nor to any of his governors, and he said it was only proper to princes of the blood royal, which may it be true for ought I know, who was, and still am, ignorant of the etiquette of such cases. This silly affair, however, increased the ranker against me, which was before not a little, on account of my conduct in the assembly respecting the exemption of his estates from taxation, which I had always opposed very warmly, and not without severe reflection on his meanness and injustice of contending for it. He accused me to the ministry as being the great obstacle to the king's service, preventing, by my influence in the house, the proper form of the bills for raising money, and he insisted this parade with my officers as a proof of my having an intention to take the government of the province out of his hands by force. He also applied to Sir Edward Faulkner, the postmaster general, to deprive me of my office, but it had no other effect than to procure from Sir Everett's a general admonition, notwithstanding the continual wrangle between the governor and the house, in which I, as a member, had so large a share, there still subsisted a civil intercourse between the gentleman and myself, and we never had any personal difference. I have sometimes since thought that his little or no resentment against me for the answers he was known I drew up to his messages might be the effect of professional habit, and that, being bred a lawyer, he might consider us both as merely advocates for contending clients in a suit, he for the proprietaries, and I for the assembly. He would therefore sometimes call in a friendly way to advise with me on difficult points, and sometimes, though not often, take my advice. We acted in concert to supply Braddock's army with provisions, and when the shocking news arrived of his defeat, the governor sent in haste for me to consult with him on measures for preventing the destruction of the back counties. I forget now the advice I gave, but I think it was that Dunbar should be written to and prevailed with, if possible, to post his troops on the frontier for their protection, till, by reinforcements from the colonies, he might be able to proceed on the expedition. And after my return from the frontier, he would have had to me undertake the conduct of such an expedition with provincial troops for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, Dunbar, and his men being otherwise employed, and he proposed to commission me as general. I had not so good an opinion of my military abilities as he professed to have, and I believe his professions must have exceeded his real sentiments, but probably he might think that my popularity would facilitate the raising of the men and my influence in the assembly, the grant of money to pay for them, and that, perhaps, without taxing the proprietary estates, finding me not as forward to engage as he expected the project was dropped, and he soon after left the government being superseded by Captain Denny. CHAPTER XVIII. SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS Before I proceed in relating the part I had in public affairs under the new Governor's Administration, it may not be amiss here to give some account of the rise and progress of my philosophical reputation. In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with Dr. Spence, who was lately arrived from Scotland, and showed me some electric experiments. They were imperfectly performed, as he was not very expert, but being on a subject quite new to me, they equally surprised and pleased me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company, received from Mr. P. Collinson, fellow of the Royal Society of London, a present of a glass tube with some account of the use of it in making such experiments. I eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had seen at Boston, and by such practice acquired great readiness in performing those, also which we had an account of from England, adding a number of new ones. I say much practice, for my house was continually full, for some time with people who came to see these new wonders. Begin footnote. The Royal Society of London, for improving natural knowledge, was founded in 1660, and holds the foremost place among English societies for the advancement of science. End footnote. To divide a little of this encumbrance among my friends, I caused a number of similar tubes to be blown at our glass house, with which they furnished themselves, so that we had at length several performers. Among these the principal was Mr. Kenezley, an ingenious neighbor, who, being out of business, I encouraged to undertake showing the experiments for money, and drew up for him two lectures in which the experiments were ranged in such order and accompanied with such explanations in such method as the foregoing should assist in comprehending the following. He procured an elegant apparatus for the purpose in which all the little machines that I had roughly made for myself were nicely formed by instrument-makers. His lectures were well attended and gave great satisfaction, and after some time he went through the colonies, exhibiting them in every capital town, and picked up some money. In the West Indies, indeed, it was with difficulty the experiments could be made from the general moisture of the air. Obliged as we were to Mr. Collinson for his present of the tube, etc., I thought it right he should be informed of our success in using it, and wrote him several letters containing accounts of our experiments. He got them read at the Royal Society, where they were not at first thought worth so much notice as to be printed in their transactions. One paper, which I wrote for Mr. Kenezley on the sameness of lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchell, an acquaintance of mine, and one of the members also of that society, who wrote me a word that it had been read but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought them of too much value to be stifled and advised the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to Cave for publication in his Gentleman's magazine, but he chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his profit, or by the additions that arrived afterwards. They swelled to a quattro volume which has had five additions and cost him nothing for copy-money. It was, however, some time before those papers were much taken notice of in England, a copy of them happening to fall into the hands of the Count de Beaufort. A philosopher deservedly of great reputation in France, and indeed all over Europe, he prevailed with Mishor de la Barde to translate them into French and they were printed at Paris. The publication offended the Abinolais, preceptor of the natural philosophy to the royal family, and an able experimenter who had formed and published a theory of electricity which then had the general vogue. He could not at first believe that such a work came from America and said it must have been fabricated by his enemies at Paris to decry his system, afterwards having been assured that there really existed such a person as Franklin at Philadelphia, which he had doubted. He wrote and published a volume of letters chiefly addressed to me, defending his theory and denying the verity of my experiments and of the position deduced from them. I once proposed answering the abbey and actually began the answer, but on consideration that my writings contained a description of experiments which anyone might repeat and verify, and if not to be verified could not be defeated, or of observations offered as conjectures and not delivered dogmatically, therefore not laying me under any obligation to defend them, and reflecting that a dispute between two persons writing in different languages might be lengthened greatly by mistranslations and hence misconceptions of one another's meaning, much of one of the abbey's letters being founded on an error in the translation. I concluded to let my papers shift for themselves, believing it was better to spend what time I could spare from public business in making new experiments than in disputing about those already made. I therefore never answered Mishir Nure and the event gave me no cause to repeat my silence, for my friend Mishir Nure of the Royal Academy of Sciences took up my cause and refuted him. My book was translated into Italian, German, and Latin languages, and the doctrine it contained was, by degrees, universally adopted by the philosophers of Europe, in preference to that of the abbey, so that he lived to see himself the last of his sect, except Mishir Nure of Paris, his immediate disciple. What gave my book, the more sudden and general celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by Mishir Delabard and Delor at Marley, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engaged the public attention everywhere. Mishir Delor, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectured at the branch of science, undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia experiments, and after they were performed before the King and Court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this narrative with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I received in the process of a similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of electricity. Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris, wrote to a friend who was of the Royal Society, an account of the high esteem my experiments were in, among the learned abroad, and of their wonder that my writings had been so little noticed in England. The Society on this resumed the consideration of the letters that had been read to them, and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them, and of all I had afterwards sent to England on the subject, which he accompanied with some praise of the writer. This summary was then printed in the transactions, and some members of the Society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Kenton, having verified the experiment of producing lightning from the clouds by a pointed rod, had acquainted them with the success. They soon made me more than amends for the slight with which they had before treated me, without my having made any application for that honour. They chose me a member, and voted that I should be excused the customary payments, which would have amounted to twenty-five guineas, and ever since have given me their transactions gratis. They also presented me with the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley, for the year 1753, the delivery of which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of the President, Lord Maclefield, where I was highly honoured.