Volume I Part 15 (2/2)

As we shall see, the foundations of his New Jersey friends.h.i.+ps were laid very early. In following him on his journeys through Maryland, we find him entertained at the country seats of some of the most prominent gentlemen of the Colony, as for instance at Colonel Tasker's and at Mr. Milligan's. He was several times in Virginia in the course of his life, and it is an agreeable thing to a Virginian, who recollects that a Virginian, Arthur Lee, is to be reckoned among the contentious ”bird and beast” people, for whom Franklin had such a dislike, to recollect also that not only are Was.h.i.+ngton and Jefferson to be reckoned among Franklin's loyal and admiring friends, but that, after Franklin had been a few days in Virginia at Mr.

Hunter's, he expressed his opinion of both the country and its people in these handsome terms: ”Virginia is a pleasant Country, now in full Spring; the People extreamly obliging and polite.” There can be no better corrective of the petty sectional spirit, which has been such a blemish on our national history, and has excited so much wholly unfounded and senseless local prejudice, than to note the appreciation which that open, clear-sighted eye had for all that was best in every part of the American Colonies. ”There are brave Spirits among that People,” he said, when he heard that the Virginia House of Burgesses had appointed its famous Committee of Correspondence for the purpose of bringing the Colonies together for their common defense. He was never in the Carolinas or Georgia, we believe, though he was for a time the Agent in England of Georgia as well as other Colonies. But he had enough friends in Charleston, at any rate, when he was on his first mission abroad, to write to his Charleston correspondent, Dr. Alexander Garden, the eminent botanist from whom Linnaeus borrowed a name for the gardenia, that he purposed, G.o.d willing, to return by way of Carolina, when he promised himself the pleasure of seeing and conversing with his friends in Charleston. And to another resident of Charleston, Dr. John Lining, several highly interesting letters of his on scientific subjects were written. For Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, his fellow-commissioner for the purpose of negotiating the treaty of peace with Great Britain, he entertained a warm feeling of esteem and good will which was fully reciprocated by Laurens. It was a just remark of Laurens that Franklin knew very well how to manage a cunning man, but that, when he conversed or treated with a man of candor, there was no man more candid than himself. For Colonel John Laurens, of South Carolina, the son of Henry Laurens, the aide to Was.h.i.+ngton, and the intrepid young soldier, who perished in one of the last conflicts of the Revolutionary War, Franklin formed a strong sentiment of affection, when Laurens came to France, at the instance of Was.h.i.+ngton, for the purpose of obtaining some additional aids from the King for the prosecution of the war. In a letter to him, signed ”most affectionately yours,” when Laurens was about to return to America, Franklin inclosed him an order for another hundred louis with an old man's blessing. ”Take my Blessing with it,” he said, ”and my Prayers that G.o.d may send you safe & well home with your Cargoes. I would not attempt persuading you to quit the military Line, because I think you have the Qualities of Mind and Body that promise your doing great service & acquiring Honour in that Line.”[29]

How profound was the mutual respect and affection that Was.h.i.+ngton and Franklin entertained for each other, we have seen. It is an inspiring thing to note how the words of the latter swell, as with the strains of some heroic measure, when his admiration for the great contemporary, whose services to ”the glorious cause” alone exceeded his, lifts him up from the lower to the higher levels of our emotional and intellectual nature.

Should peace arrive after another Campaign or two, and afford us a little Leisure [he wrote to Was.h.i.+ngton from Pa.s.sy, on March 5, 1780], I should be happy to see your Excellency in Europe, and to accompany you, if my Age and Strength would permit, in visiting some of its ancient and most famous Kingdoms. You would, on this side of the Sea, enjoy the great Reputation you have acquir'd, pure and free from those little Shades that the Jealousy and Envy of a Man's Countrymen and Cotemporaries are ever endeavouring to cast over living Merit. Here you would know, and enjoy, what Posterity will say of Was.h.i.+ngton. For 1000 Leagues have nearly the same Effect with 1000 Years. The feeble Voice of those grovelling Pa.s.sions cannot extend so far either in Time or Distance. At present I enjoy that Pleasure for you, as I frequently hear the old Generals of this martial Country (who study the Maps of America, and mark upon them all your Operations) speak with sincere Approbation and great Applause of your conduct; and join in giving you the Character of one of the greatest Captains of the Age.

The caprice of future events might well have deprived these words of some of their rich cadence, but it did not, and, even the voice of cis-Atlantic jealousy and envy seems to be as impotent in the very presence of Was.h.i.+ngton, as at the distance of a thousand leagues away, when we place beside this letter the words written by Franklin to him a few years later after the surrender of Cornwallis:

All the world agree, that no expedition was ever better planned or better executed; it has made a great addition to the military reputation you had already acquired, and brightens the glory that surrounds your name, and that must accompany it to our latest posterity. No news could possibly make me more happy.

The infant Hercules has now strangled the two serpents (the several armies of Burgoyne and Cornwallis) that attacked him in his cradle, and I trust his future history will be answerable.[30]

Cordial relations of friends.h.i.+p also existed between Franklin and Jefferson. In their versatility, their love of science, their speculative freedom and their faith in the popular intelligence and conscience the two men had much in common. As members of the committee, that drafted the Declaration of Independence, as well as in other relations, they were brought into familiar contact with each other; and to Jefferson we owe valuable testimony touching matters with respect to which the reputation of Franklin has been a.s.sailed, and also a sheaf of capital stories, that helps us to a still clearer insight into the personal and social phases of Franklin's life and character. One of these stories is the famous story of Abbe Raynal and the Speech of Polly Baker, when she was prosecuted the fifth time for having a b.a.s.t.a.r.d child.

The Doctor and Silas Deane [Jefferson tells us] were in conversation one day at Pa.s.sy on the numerous errors in the Abbe's ”_Histoire des deux Indes_” when he happened to step in. After the usual salutations, Silas Deane said to him, ”The Doctor and myself, Abbe, were just speaking of the errors of fact into which you have been led in your history.” ”Oh no, Sir,” said the Abbe, ”that is impossible. I took the greatest care not to insert a single fact, for which I had not the most unquestionable authority.” ”Why,” says Deane, ”there is the story of Polly Baker, and the eloquent apology you have put into her mouth, when brought before a court of Ma.s.sachusetts to suffer punishment under a law which you cite, for having had a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. I know there never was such a law in Ma.s.sachusetts.” ”Be a.s.sured,” said the Abbe, ”you are mistaken, and that that is a true story. I do not immediately recollect indeed the particular information on which I quote it; but I am certain that I had for it unquestionable authority.”

Doctor Franklin, who had been for some time shaking with unrestrained laughter at the Abbe's confidence in his authority for that tale, said, ”I will tell you, Abbe, the origin of that story. When I was a printer and editor of a newspaper, we were sometimes slack of news, and to amuse our customers I used to fill up our vacant columns with anecdotes and fables, and fancies of my own, and this of Polly Baker is a story of my making, on one of those occasions.” The Abbe without the least disconcert, exclaimed with a laugh, ”Oh, very well, Doctor, I had rather relate your stories than other men's truths.”

Another of Jefferson's stories, is the equally famous one of John Thompson, hatter.

When the Declaration of Independence [he says] was under the consideration of Congress, there were two or three unlucky expressions in it which gave offence to some members. The words ”Scotch and other foreign auxiliaries” excited the ire of a gentleman or two of that country. Severe strictures on the conduct of the British King, in negativing our repeated repeals of the law which permitted the importation of slaves, were disapproved by some Southern gentlemen, whose reflections were not yet matured to the full abhorrence of that traffic. Although the offensive expressions were immediately yielded, these gentlemen continued their depredations on other parts of the instrument. I was sitting by Doctor Franklin, who perceived that I was not insensible to these mutilations. ”I have made it a rule,” said he, ”whenever in my power, to avoid becoming the draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman printer, one of my companions, an apprentice hatter, having served out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first concern was to have a handsome signboard, with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words, 'John Thompson, _Hatter, makes_ and _sells hats_ for ready money,' with a figure of a hat subjoined; but he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word '_Hatter_' tautologous, because followed by the words 'makes hats' which showed he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed that the word '_makes_' might as well be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the hats. If good and to their mind, they would buy, by whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third said he thought the words '_for ready money_' were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit; everyone who purchased expected to pay. They were parted with, and the inscription now stood, 'John Thompson sells hats.'

'_Sells hats!_' says his next friend. 'Why n.o.body will expect you to give them away; what then is the use of that word?' It was stricken out, and '_hats_' followed it, the rather as there was one painted on the board.

So the inscription was reduced ultimately to 'John Thompson,' with the figure of a hat subjoined.”

The next story has the same background, the Continental Congress.

I was sitting by Doctor Franklin [says Jefferson], and observed to him that I thought we should except books (from the obligations of the non-importation a.s.sociation formed in America to bring England to terms); that we ought not to exclude science, even coming from an enemy. He thought so too, and I proposed the exception, which was agreed to. Soon after it occurred that medicine should be excepted, and I suggested that also to the Doctor. ”As to that,” said he, ”I will tell you a story. When I was in London, in such a year, there was a weekly club of physicians, of which Sir John Pringle was President, and I was invited by my friend Doctor Fothergill to attend when convenient. Their rule was to propose a thesis one week and discuss it the next. I happened there when the question to be considered was whether physicians had, on the whole, done most good or harm? The young members, particularly, having discussed it very learnedly and eloquently till the subject was exhausted, one of them observed to Sir John Pringle, that although it was not usual for the President to take part in a debate, yet they were desirous to know his opinion on the question. He said they must first tell him whether, under the appellation of physicians, they meant to include _old women_, if they did he thought they had done more good than harm, otherwise more harm than good.”

This incident brings back to us, as it doubtless did to Franklin, the augurs jesting among themselves over religion.[31]

It is to be regretted that many other easy pens besides that of Jefferson have not preserved for us some of those humorous stories and parables of which Franklin's memory was such a rich storehouse. Doctor Benjamin Rush, one of his intimate friends, is said to have entertained the purpose of publis.h.i.+ng his recollections of Franklin's table-talk. The purpose was never fulfilled, but the sc.r.a.ps of this talk which we find in Dr. Rush's diary are sufficient to show that, even in regard to medicine, Franklin had a stock of information and conclusions which were well worth the hearing.

As a member of the Continental Congress, Franklin was brought into close working intercourse with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and formed a sincere sentiment of friends.h.i.+p for him, which was strengthened by the expedition that they made together to Canada, as two of the three commissioners appointed by Congress to win the Canadians over to the American cause. Samuel Chase, another Marylander, was the third commissioner, and the three were accompanied by John Carroll, the brother of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, whose character as a Catholic priest, it was hoped, would promote the success of the mission. On his way back to Philadelphia, in advance of his fellow-commissioners, Franklin acknowledged in grateful terms the help that he had received on his return journey from the friendly a.s.sistance and tender care of this good man, who became his firm friend, and was subsequently made the first Catholic Bishop of America upon his recommendation. William Carmichael, another Marylander, who was for a time the secretary of Silas Deane at Paris, was also one of Franklin's friends. There is a tinge of true affection about his letters to Carmichael, and the latter, in a letter written in the year 1777, while stating that Franklin's age in some measure hindered him from taking so active a part in the drudgery of business as his great zeal and abilities warranted, remarks, ”He is the Master to whom we children in politics all look up for counsel, and whose name is everywhere a pa.s.sport to be well received.” When Carmichael was the American Secretary of Legation at Madrid, Franklin still remembered enough of his Spanish to request the former to send him the _Gazette_ of Madrid and any new pamphlets that were curious. ”I remember the Maxim you mention of Charles V, _Yo y el Tiempo_,”

he wrote to Carmichael on one occasion, ”and have somewhere met with an Answer to it in this distich,

'I and time 'gainst any two, Chance and I 'gainst Time and you.'

”And I think the Gentlemen you have at present to deal with, would do wisely to guard a little more against certain Chances.” In another letter, Franklin, referring to his ”Essay on Perfumes,” dedicated to the Academy of Brussels, writes to Carmichael, ”You do my little Scribblings too much honour in proposing to print them; but they are at your Disposition, except the Letter to the Academy which having several English Puns in it, can not be translated, and besides has too much _grossierete_ to be borne by the polite Readers of these Nations.”

It was in Pennsylvania and New England, however, so far as America was concerned, that Franklin formed the intimate friends.h.i.+ps which led him so often to say towards the close of his life, as one old friend after another dropped through the bridge of Mirzah, that the loss of friends is the tax imposed upon us by nature for living too long.

The closest friend of his early youth was his Boston friend, John Collins.

The reader has already learnt how soon religious skepticism, drinking and gambling ate out the core of this friend's character.

With his intensely social nature, Franklin had hardly found employment in Philadelphia before in his own language he began to have some acquaintance among the young people of the town, that were lovers of reading, with whom he spent his evenings very agreeably. His first group of friends in Philadelphia was formed before he left Pennsylvania for London in 1724. In his pictorial way--for the _Autobiography_ is engraved with a burin rather than written with a pen--Franklin brings the figures of this group before us with admirable distinctness. They were three in number, and all were lovers of reading. Two of them, Charles...o...b..rne and Joseph Watson, were clerks to an eminent conveyancer in Philadelphia, Charles Brogden. The third, James Ralph, who has already been mentioned by us, was clerk to a merchant. Watson was a pious, sensible young man, of great integrity; the others were rather more lax in their principles of religion, particularly Ralph, who, as well as Collins, to quote the precise words of Franklin's confession, had been unsettled by him, ”for which,” he adds, ”they both made me suffer.”

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