 Chapter 13 of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. Chapter 13, Public Service and Duties, 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 a number of active friends, of whom the Junto 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 5,000 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 number 24 trustees, and appointed Mr. Francis. Footnote, Tinch Francis, Uncle of Sir Philip Francis, immigrated from England to Maryland, and became attorney for Lord Baltimore. He removed to Philadelphia and was attorney general of Pennsylvania from 1741 to 1755. He died in Philadelphia August 16, 1758. Smith, end footnote. 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, 1749. 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 threw into our way a large house ready built, which, with a few alterations, might well serve our purpose. This was the building before mentioned, erected by the hearers of Mr. Whitefield, 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 sex, 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, lest in time that predominancy might be a means of appropriating the hold to the use of such sect, contrary to the original intention. It was therefore that one of each sect was appointed, namely, one Church of England man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, etc. Those, in case of vacancy by death, were to fill it by election from among the contributors. The Moravian 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 grant, and discharging some 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 forever 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 more cheerfully, as it did not then interfere with my private business. Having the year before taking a very able, industrious, and honest partner, Mr. David Hall, with whose character I was well acquainted, as he had worked for me for years, he took off my hands all care of the printing office, paying me punctually by 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 has since made considerable addition, and thus was established the present University of Philadelphia, footnote, later called the University of Pennsylvania, and footnote. I have been continued one of its trustees from the beginning, now nearly 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 improved abilities, serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their country. 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 secured leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spence's apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity, 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 of large chose me, a burgess, to represent them in assembly. This latter station was the 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, in which were often so unentertaining 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 causes, 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 legislator 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, in a desire of being chosen, on taking my seat in the house, my son was appointed their clerk. The following year, a treaty being to be 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. Footnote, see the votes to have this more correctly. Marge, note, and footnote, 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 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 room when business was over. They promised this, and they kept their promise, because they could get no liquor, and the treaty was conducted very orderly, and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received the room. This was in the afternoon. They were near 100 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 firebrands, 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 room, of which we took no notice. The next day, sensible, they had misbehaved in giving us that disturbance. They sent three of their old counselors to make their apology. The orator acknowledged the fault, but laid it upon the room, and then endeavored to excuse the room 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 room may be, they appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who farmally 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 ill as an act of an 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. At length he came to me with the compliment 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 inquired into the nature and probable utility of his scheme, and receiving from him a very satisfactory explanation, I not only subscribed to it, but engaged heartily in the design of procuring subscriptions from others. Previously, however, to the solicitation, I endeavour 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 afterwards were more free and generous. But beginning to flag, I saw they would be insufficient without some assistance from the assembly, and therefore proposed to 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 asking leave to bring in a bill for incorporating the contributors 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 could throw the bill out if they did not like it. I drew it so as to make the important clause a conditional one, namely, and be it enacted by the authority of aforesaid, that when the said contributors shall have met and chosen their managers and treasurer, and shall have raised by their contributions a capital stock of 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, and 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 and two yearly payments to the treasurer of the said hospital, to be applied to the founding, building, and finishing of the same. This 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 an additional motive to give. Since every man's donation would be doubled, thus the clause worked both ways. The subscriptions accordingly 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, footnote, Gilbert Tennant, 1703 to 1764, came to America with his father, Reverend William Tennant, and taught for a time in the Lodge College, from which sprang the College of New Jersey. Smith, in footnote, 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 the use of a congregation he had gathered among the Presbyterians, who were originally disciples of Mr. Whitefield, unwilling to make myself disagreeable to my fellow citizens by too frequently soliciting their contributions. I absolutely refused. He then desired I would furnish him with a list of the names of persons I knew by experience to be generous and public spirited. I thought it would be on becoming 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 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. 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 the wheels 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 length, paved with brick, so that, being once in the market, they had firm footing, but were often overshoes and dirt to get there. By talking and writing on the subject, I was at length, instrumental in getting the street paved, with stone between the market and the brick-foot pavement. That was on each side next the houses. This, for some time, gave an easy access to the market dry shod, but the rest of the street not being paved. Whenever a carriage came out of the mud upon this pavement, it shook off and left its dirt upon it, and it was soon covered with mire, which was not removed. The city is 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 neighbors' doors. For the sum of six pence 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 to 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 expenses. 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 this raised a general desire to have all the streets paved, and made the people more willing to submit to a tax 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 till I was gone. Footnote, see votes in footnote. 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 honor of this public benefit has also been ascribed to me, but it belongs truly to that gentle man. 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 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 the 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 Fuchs Hall have in keeping them clean. Footnote, Fuchs Hall 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 D Coverley's visit to them in the spectator, and from the description in Smollett's Humphrey Clinker and Thackeray's Vanity Fair. In footnote, learned to have such holes in their straight lamps, but these holes being made for another purpose, namely 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 have been laid a few hours, the streets of London are very poorly illuminated. The mention of these improvements puts me in mind of one proposed, when in London, to Dr. Father Gill, 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 wet, whether reduced it to mud. And then, after lying some days so deep on the pavement that there was no crossing, but in paths kept clean by poor people with brooms, it was great labour waked 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, footnote, a short street near Charring Cross London, in footnote, one morning a poor woman sweeping my pavement with a birch broom. She appeared very pale and feeble, as 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's 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 and are working. I could scarce believe that the work was done so soon, and sent my servant to examine it. But 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 the 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 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 a 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 the 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 be all swept up into heaps of proper distances. Before the shops and windows of houses are usually opened, when the scavengers, with clothes covered carts, shall also carry it all away, that the mud, when raked up, may 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, whereby it will become much lighter, water making the greatest part of its weight. These bodies of carts to be placed at convenient distances, and the mud brought to them in wheel burrows, they remaining where placed till the mud is drained, and then 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 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, and 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 great number of the instances in a populous city, and its frequent repetition 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, hoping 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 officers to account I was upon his death in 1753, appointed 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, so that in the first four years the office became above 900 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 the 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 honors. They were conferred in consideration of my improvements and discoveries in the electric branch of natural philosophy. End of chapter 13. The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. 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, requesting they would 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 thither, 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 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 a 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 and 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 it 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 afterwards to be refunded by an act of parliament laying attacks on America. My plan, with my reasons in support of it, is to be found among my 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 the true medium, and I am still of opinion it would have been happy for both sides of 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 contested 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. End of Chapter 14. Recording by Duane DeSalvo. Chapter 15 of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. Chapter 15. Cruels with the proprietary governors. In my journey to Boston this year, I met at New York with our new governor, Mr. Morse, 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 objected him to. That resigned. Mr. Morse asked me if I thought he must expect as uncomfortable in 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 dispute with the assembly. My dear friend, says he pleasantly, how could you advise my avoiding disputes? You know, I would 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 and a cute sophister, and therefore generally successful in argumented 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, their disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They give victory sometimes, but they never get goodwill, which will be more used 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 connection. And it was a continual battle between them, as long as he retained the government I had my share of. 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 I 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 natured a man that no personal difference between him and me was occasioned by the contest, and we often dinged together. One afternoon, in the height of his public quarrel, we met in the street. Franklin says he must go home and me spend the evening. I am to have some company you like. And taking me by the arm, he had led me to his house and gave a conversation over the wine. After supper, he told us, jokingly, that he much admired the idea of sanctio panza, a footnote, the round, selfish, and self-important square of Don Quixote in Cervantes, romance of that name, and a footnote, who, when it was, proposed to give him a government, requested it might be a government of blacks. As then, if you could not agree with his people, he might sell them. One of his friends who sat next to me says, Franklin, why you continue to side with these damned Quakers? Had you not better sell them, the proprietor would give you a good price. The governor, says I, is not yet black to 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, and placed it and returned 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 quit government. These public quarrels, a footnote might act in more this time, military, etc., mark note and a footnote, were all at bottom owning to proprietaries, or hereditary governors, who, when an expense was to be incurred for the defense of their province, with incredible meanness, instructed their deputies to pass no act for loving the necessary taxes, unless their vast estates in the same act expressly excused, and they had even taken bonds of these deputies to observe such instruction. The assemblies for three years held out against this injustice, though constrained to depend at last. At length, Captain Denny, who was Governor Morris' successor, ventured to disobey those instructions, how that was brought about, I shall show hereafter. But I am 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 manner commenced with France, the government of Massachusetts projected an attack upon Crown Point, a footnote unlike Chaplin, 90 miles north of Badliny. It was captured by the French in 1731, attacked by the English in 1755 and 1756, and abandoned by the French in 1759. It was finally captured from the English by the Americans in 1775. End of footnote. And sent Mr. Quincy to Pennsylvania, and Mr. Pownall, after Governor Pownall, to New York to solicit assistance. As I was in the assembly, knew its temper, and was Mr. Quincy's countryman, he applied to me for my influence and assistance. I dictated his addresses to them, which was well received. They voted an aid of 10,000 pounds to be laid out in provisions. But the Governor refusing his assent to their bill, Witt 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 varied its areas 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. Then I suggested a method of doing the business without the Governor, by orders on 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 a 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 atop of the proposal. The orders were immediately printed, and I was one of the committee directed to sign and dispose of them. The fund 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 X size, 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 lying by them vested in it 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 brought up, and in a few weeks none of them were to be seen. Thus, this important affair was, by my means, completed. Mr. Quincy returned, thanks to the assembly in a handsome memorial, then Tom highly pleased with this success of his embassy, and ever after bore for me the most cordial and affectionate friendship. End of Chapter 15 RED VIOLAGE OF FISHER Chapter 16 of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin Chapter 16 Braddock's Expedition The British government, not choosing to permit the union of the colonies as proposed at Albany, and to trust that union with their defense, 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 then marched to Fredericktown in Maryland, where he halted for carriages. Our assembly, apprehending from some information that he had conceived violent prejudice against them, as adverse to the service, wished me to wait upon him, not as much 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 governors of the several provinces, with whom he must necessarily have continual correspondence, and of which they proposed 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 opportunity of removing all his prejudice by the information of what the assembly had before his arrival, actually done, but 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, etc., not less than one hundred and fifty wagons being necessary. I happened to say I thought it was a pity they had not 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 be 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 it 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 horses, now about Tyrandeville at Will's 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. These, 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, that the pay commenced from the time of their joining of the horses at Will's Creek, which must be on or before the twentieth of May ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid over and above for the time necessary for their traveling to Will's 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 wagon, team, or other horse in the service, the price according to such valuation is to be allowed and paid. 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 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 light 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 at Frederick a few days since, I've 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 through 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 that should be wanted, and compel as many persons into the services 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 attendant 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 counties 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 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 to the welfare of the army, must march with the army, and know 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 to yourselves. For three or four of such, as cannot separately spare from the business of their plantations, a wagon and four horses in 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 to 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 a recompense where you confide it, and your case perhaps be little pitied 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 from my pains. If this method of obtaining the wagons and horses is not likely to secede, I'm obliged to send word to the general in fourteen days, and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar where the 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, etc., but that sum being insufficient, I have asked upward of two hundred pounds more, and in two weeks the one hundred and fifty wagons with two hundred and fifty nine carrying horses were on their 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. When 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 in so long a march. Through a wilderness where nothing was to be purchased, I commiserated their case 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 loaf sugar, six pounds good muscatto ditto, one pound good green tea, one pound good bohea ditto, six pounds good ground coffee, six pounds chocolate, one to two hundredth weight best white biscuit, one to two pounds pepper, one quart best white wine, one quart best white wine vinegar, one gloucester cheese, one keg containing twenty pounds good butter, two dozen old madera wine, two gallons Jamaica spirits, one bottle flower of mustard, two well cured hams, one to two dozen dried tongues, six pounds rice, six pounds 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, etc., and readily paid my account of disbursements, thanking me repeatedly and requesting my father's assistance in sending provisions after him. I undertook this also and was busily employed in it till we heard of his defeat, advancing from the service of my own money, upwards of one thousand pounds sterling, of which I sent him an account. He came to his hands, luckily for me, a few days before the battle, and he returned me immediately an order on the paymaster for the round sum of one thousand pounds, leaving the remainder to the next account. I consider 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 Cochran, 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, etc., if he had treated them kindly, but he slighted and neglected them, 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 Frontier, if the season will allow time, and I suppose it will, for Duquesne, can hardly detain me above three or four days, and then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara. Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army must take in their march by a very narrow road, to be cut for them through the woods in Bushus, and also what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iroquois country. I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of a 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 here with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from ambiscades 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 take, 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 led it advance without interruption till within nine miles of the place, and then, when more in the body, for it had just passed a 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 advance guard by heavy fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence the general had of an enemy being near him. This guard being disordered the general hurried the troops up to their assistance, which was done in great confusion through wagons, baggage, and cattle, and presently the fire came upon their flanks, 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 a horse out of his team and scampered. Their example was immediately followed by others, said that all the wagons, provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general being wounded was brought off with difficulty. The secretary, Mr. Shirley, was killed by a side, and out of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked 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 endeavoring to recover some of the lost honor, he ordered all the stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed so 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 would 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 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 prowess of British regulars had not been well founded. In their 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 were menstruated. 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 through 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 Orme, 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 first 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 the articles, which they printed, to provide 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 when minister in France, and afterwards 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 from himself, 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 already been 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, applied to him for the discharge of the servants of three poor farmers of 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 loss 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. Their demands gave me a great deal of trouble, my acquainting them that the money was ready in the paymaster's hands, that that orders for paying it must first be obtained from General Shirley. Am I assuring them 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 in ordering payment. They amounted to nearly twenty thousand pounds, which to pay would have ruined me. Before we had the news of this defeat, the doctor's 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 forward to King. 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 proposal. Why the D blank L, 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 that they would have undergone if the firework had been prepared. Dr. Bond, on some other occasion afterwards, 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 Bratic, 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 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 government 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, those of the proprietaries, not accepted. His amendment was for, not, read 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 clamour against the proprietaries for their meanness and injustice in giving their governors such instructions. Some going so far as to say that by obstructing the defense of their province they forfeited their right to do 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. 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 voluntary 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 to such a militia, which was printed and had, as I thought, great effect. Chapter 17 Of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin This Librebox recording is in the public domain. Franklin's Defense of the Frontier While the several companies in the city and country were forming and learning of their exercise, the governor prevailed with me to take charge of our northwestern 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, soon having 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 aide to camp, and of great use to me. The Indians had burned Ganadenhut, a village settled by the Moravians, 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 Ganadenhut 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 the high stone houses, for their 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. A conversation with the bishop Spangenberg I mentioned this my surprise, for knowing that 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 this business of building forts. I sent one detachment toward the mini-sink, 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 Moravians 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 the gun-locks dry. Footnote. Flint-lock guns, discharged by means of a spark, struck from flint and steel into powder priming in open pan. 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 companion's guns would not go off, the priming being wet with the rain. The next day, being fair, we continued our march, and arrived at the desolated Ganadenhut. 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 that inclement season as we had no tents. Our first work was to bury more effectively the dead we found there, who had been half-interred by the country people. The next morning our fort was planned and marked out. The circumference measured four hundred and fifty-five 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 preparing, our other men dug a trench all around, of three feet deep, in which the palisades were to be planted, and our wagons, the bodies being taken off, and the four and hind wheels separated by taking out the pin, which united the two parts of the perch—footnote—perch, here the pole connecting the front and rear wheels of a wagon. 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 around within, about six feet high for the men to stand on when to fire through the loopholes. We had one swivel gun, which we mounted on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as we 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 might 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 a consciousness 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 that they had done everything and there was nothing further to employ them about, oh, he says, 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 the places in the neighbouring hills where they had lain to watch our proceedings. There was an art in their contrivance of those places that seems worth mention. It 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 position at a distance. They had, therefore, dug holes in the ground about three feet in diameter and somewhat deeper. We saw where they had, with their hatchets, cut off the charcoal from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With these coals they had made small fires in the bottom of the holes, and we observed among the weeds and grass the prints of their bodies, made by laying all around, 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 flame, light, 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 our own 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 gill of rum 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 as 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 a steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and only 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 fort well stored with provisions when I received a letter from the governor, acquainting me that he had called to the assembly and wished to my attendance there, if the posture of affairs on the frontiers 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 being now completed and the inhabitants contented to remain on their farms under that protection, I resolved to return. The more willingly, as a New England officer, Colonel Clapham, experienced in Indian War being on a 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, from his skill in military affairs, was much more fit to command them than myself. And giving them a little exhortation took 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 lodging on the floor of our hut at Ganadon, wrapped only in a blanket or two. While at Bethlehem, I inquired a little into the practice of the Moravians. 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 for change of air. I was at their church, where I was entertained with good music, the organ 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, than 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 a 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 in, 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 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 parties 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 ascribed much to those endeavors. I had had the vanity to ascribe all to my dialogue. However, not knowing but that 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 the 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 the 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 colonelship, being about to set out on a journey to Virginia, the officers of my regiment took it into 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 horse back, 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 honour had been paid him when in the province, nor to any of his commanders. And he said it was only proper to princes of the blood royal, which may be true for ought I know, who was, and still am, ignorant of the etiquette of such classes. This silly affair, however, greatly increased his rancour against me, which was before not a little, on account of my conduct in the assembly respecting the exemption of his estate from taxation, which I had always opposed very warmly, and not without severe reflections 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 instanced this parade with my officers, as proof of my having an intention to take the government of the province out of his hands by force. He also applied to Sir Everard Falkener, the postmaster general, to deprive me of my office, but it had no other effect than to procure from Sir Everard a gentle 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 that 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 it 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 desertion of the back counties. I forgot 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 frontiers 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 me undertake the conduct of such an expedition with provincial troops, for the reduction of Fort Duchesne, 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 assembly, the grant of money to pay them, and that perhaps without taxing the proprietary estate. Finding me not so forward to engage as he expected, the project was dropped, and he soon after left the government, being superseded by Captain Denny. End of Chapter 17. Chapter 18 of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Greg Giordano. Scientific Experiments I proceed in relating the part I had in public affairs under this 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 a 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, he equally surprised and pleased me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company received Mr. P. Collinson, fellow of the Royal Society of London. 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 of Footnote. A presence of a glass tube was 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 much 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. To divide a little 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 headed length several performers. Among these the principal was Mr. Kinserly, 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 arranged in such order, and accompanied with such explanations in such method, as that 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. The 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 India islands, 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 that he should be informed of our success using it, and wrote him several letters containing accounts of our experiments. He got them read in the Royal Society, but they were not at first thought worth so much as to be printed in their transactions. One paper, which I wrote for Mr. Kinserly on the sameness of lightning with electricity, as under Dr. Mitchell, an acquaintance of mine, and one of the members also of that society, who wrote me a word that it had even read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fathergill, 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, Dr. Fathergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his profit, for by the editions that arrived afterward they swelled to a quarto volume, which had five editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money. It was, however, some time before those papers were much taken notice of in England, the copy of them happening to fall into the hands of the Count de Buffon. Footnote. A celebrated French naturalist, 1707 to 1788. End of Footnote. A philosopher deservedly of great reputation in France, and indeed all over Europe. He prevailed with Monsieur de l'Ibarre. Footnote. De l'Ibarre, who had translated Franklin's letters to Collinson into French, was the first to demonstrate in a practical application of Franklin's experiments that lightning and electricity are the same. Quote. This was May 10, 1752, one month before Franklin flew his famous kite at Philadelphia and proved the fact himself. End, quote. McMaster. End of Footnote. To translate them into French, and they were printed at Paris. The publication offended the Abbeine-Roulet, preceptor in 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 indicated 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 positions deduced from them. I once purposed answering the Abbeine, and actually began the answer. On consideration that my writings contained a description of experiments which anyone might repeat and verify, and if it not to be verified, could not be defended, 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 Abbe'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, and making new experiments, than in disputing about those already made. I therefore never answered Monsieur Nollet, and the event gave me no cause to repent my silence. For my friend, Manchur Leroy, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, took up my cause and refuted him. My book was translated into the Italian, German, and Latin languages, and the doctrine it contained was by degrees universally adopted by the philosophers of Europe, and preference to that of the Abbe, so that he lived to see himself the last of his sect, except Manchur B. of Paris, his eleve in immediate disciple. What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by Messers Delibar and Delor and Marley, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engaged the public attention everywhere, Manchur Delor, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectured in that 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 success 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 and 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 their transactions, and some members of the Society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Kanton, having verified the experiment of procuring lightning from the clouds by a pointed rod, and equating them with a 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 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, footnote. An English baronet died in 1709, donator of a fund of one hundred pounds, quote, in trust for the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge, end quote. End of footnote. For the year 1753, the delivery of which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of the President, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly honoured.