Franklin and Freedom

An Address by Joseph Fels to the
''Poor Richard" Club of' Philadel
phia, January 6th, 1910 vv -^h

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Single Copies, Five Cents : ten or more. Three Cents each

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A TYPICAL AMERICAN.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

An Address delivered before the Old-Time Printers' Association
of Chicago, January 17, A. D. 1890,
By JOSEPH MEDILL,
Editor of the Chicago Tribune.

CHICAGO:
THE BEN FRANKLIN COMPANY.
1896.

Copyi'ife'ln, 189H, by
TlIK HlvN' FRANKLIN (JIJMI'ANY.

I ^¦"'

BEX.JAMIX FEAXKLIX.
Peint d'apres Nature pour la Famille.
ExposS an Salon de 1779.
[Reproduction from an engraving after Pnple^si-' paiutiug.J

PUBLISHEirs PREFACE.

The following address was delivered on a fitting
occasion and before an appropriate audience — at the
celebration of the one hundred and ninetieth anniver
sary of the birth of Franklin, by the Old-Time Print
ers' Association of Chicago, a body of veterans at the
case and the press. The address has but one fault :
it is too brief to do full justice to a life so useful and
noble as Franklin's. But Mr. Medill lumself says of
it, in a note to the publisher: "I have tried to crowd
into a small space enough to show what a wonderful
man Franklin was ; how many-sided or multifold his
mind was ; how nearly an universal genius he was ;
to show that his was a great mind in many directions.
I wish to have the pamflet tell enough about him to
arouse a curiosity on the part of young men which

IV PEE FACE.
will cause them to read more about this remarkable
man." Heartily sympathizing with Mr. Medill's view of
Franklin's life and character, — which he is commem
orating in enduring bronze, — the publisher has put
the address in permanent and attractive form, hoping
by its circulation to stimulate young men to a more
thorough study of the life and teachings of the great
printer, diplomat, iilosofer and patriot, and thereby
aid in perpetuating his influence for good.
May, 1896.

O^-^^^.

FRANKLIN AT TWENTY.
[From Parton's Life of Franklin.]

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

My Old-Time Printer Friends :
We are assembled here this evening to celebrate
the birthday of the printer's patron saint, the immor
tal Benjamin Franklin, who first saw the light of day
in Boston January 17, 1706, being one hundred and
ninety years ago. Queen Anne then reigned over the
British empire, and her great general, Marlborough,
was leading her soldiers to a series of victories over
the armies of France.
It is impossible for me to make an address de
scribing Franklin's life and career within the limits of
the brief time that I can claim from your patience. He
performed too many beneficial, worthy and remark
able actions, and gave the Avorld too many useful,
noble and wise thoughts to even catalog them in the
time at my disposal. Since history has recorded
human actions and ideas who has performed more
beneficial work for mankind? Who has added more
to the stock of human knowledge than Franklin?
Who has done more for human liberty or for the sons
of toil, in rendering the Hves of the common people
happier or their lot more endurable, than Benjamin

10 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Franklin ? He was born into the ranks of the hard
working masses, and he sympathized deeply with the
lives of toil and deprivation which they must lead and
endure. He devoted his own life to the amelioration
and improvement of theirs. He Avas the great and
beneficent schoolmaster of the poor and lowly, and
never ceased to sympatliize with them and to espouse
their cause till death closed his wonderful career.
Benjamin Franklin was the tenth and youngest
son of Josiah Franklin, who gave to him the name of
the Jewish patriarch's youngest son, Benjamin. Dr.
Franklin was able to trace his family in England back
through a line of farmers and mechanics to the time
of King Henry the Eighth, and beyond that period
into France, where it was lost in the hoary depths of
time. Franklin discovered, while in England, that ten
generations of his ancestors in the direct line were
freeholders ; that for three hundred years the Frank
lin family owned a farm of forty acres at Ecton ; that
the oldest son was heir and learned the blacksmith
trade and usually took the youngest son as an appren
tice. The other sons were taught to be carpenters,
masons, shoemakers, tallow-chandlers, or to learn
other village trades ; but the blacksmiths led and
controlled all the rest of the Franklins, probably be
cause they could strike the hardest knockdown blows.
A remarkable coincidence may be stated in this
connection on the authority of one of Franklin's biog-
rafers, viz., that the family from which George Wash
ington descended and Franklin's family were for many

ins ,\Nl'KS'l'I!Y. 11
generations near neighbors in England. The Wash
ington family was of the knights and nobility. A
Franklin blacksmith may have often tightened a rivet
ui the armor or placed a shoe upon the horse of a
A\'iisliing-ton, or dotfed his cap to a Washington riding
past his ancestral forge. But, until Postmaster Ben
Franklin of Pennsylvania met Col. George Washing
ton of Virginia in the camp of Geu. Braddock in 1755,
the two families had run their several ways without
association. But they became well ticijuaiiited in subsequent
years. They served together in the first convention
of the colonies, assembled in Philadelphia to consult
on measures for mutual defense against British tyr
anny. Franklin remained mtli that body to help
frame the Declaration of Independence, and Wash
ington withdrew from it to take command in chief of
the revolutionary forces. They met again twelve years
later in the convention of 1787, held in the same city,
to frame a national constitution, over which Wash
ington presided and Franklin served on ten of its
committees. It is the same constitution, with a few
subsequent amendments, under which we live.
Without the courage and genius of the great
Washington the Eevolution would have collapsed on
the battlefield. Without the persuasive, masterly
diplomacy of the great Franklin in obtaining money,
fleets and troops from France freedom's cause would
have perished, in spite of the heroic efforts of the
Father of His Country. The utmost talents of both
were indispensable to the glorious victory achieved.

12 BEN.JAJIIN FRANKLIN.
They were the complements of each other in estab
lishing the new, free Nation.
The Franquelins of France claimed relationship
with lum when he was ambassador to that country.
He exhibited several French traits of character, such
as humor with gravity, in his writings; pleasantry
mth seriousness ; fancy with good sense. He took
an optimistic rather than a pessimistic -siew of human
future progress and happiness. But from his mater
nal side he inherited his grave, solid, steadfast Anglo-
Saxon characteristics. He never became discouraged ;
never surrendered to obstacles ; never got rattled ;
but calmly fought on to victory.
I have said Franklin was the patron saint of the
printers — he was a "past master" of all branches of
the business. He was an inventor, and added im
provements to every part of the printer's art.
You are all familiar mth the story of his refusal
to adopt his father's trade of a tallow-chandler, but
he selected the more effective and congenial art of
dispelhng darkness by diffusing light into the minds of
mankind thi-ough the medium of types, ink and paper.
He seiwed as an apprentice under his brother James
in Boston, on the New England C our ant, which he
once edited while his brother seiwed a month's sen
tence in jail for reflecting mildly on the local govern
ment's tardiness in fitting out a ship to go in pursuit
of a pirate vessel which was preying on the commerce
of Boston. The pig-headed council decided this was
"a high affront to the government," and ordered the
sheriff to commit James Franklin to the Boston jail !

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
From ChnppelV Paintins-

HIS APPRENTICESHIP. 15
Benjamin was then a lad under seventeen years, but
managed, in the few weeks he ran the Courant, to
make it, as someone says, "the first sensation news
paper issued in New England." The Courant re
doubled its attacks on the council wiiile his brother
James lay in prison, assailing the tyrants in argu
ment, satire, verse and squib. Benny " roasted " the
insolent, oppressive government for months after his
brother James had emerged from jail. The boy was
indignant and exasperated at its grossly tyrannical
assault on the liberty of the press. He trebled the
circulation of the Courant by attacking it, and he car
ried public sentiment with him by storm. During his
long life afterward he was an invincible defender of
the liberty of the press. Tliis episode in Franklin's
early career conspicuously showed he possessed the
stuff in lum wiiich makes a successful journalist.
He remained in the Boston Courant office until
there was nothing more of the printer's trade to be
there learned, and, suffering personal abuse from his
unappreciative brother, he tells us in his admirable
autobiografy and in his humorous manner how he
ran away — "skipped" — from his brother's office sev
eral years before his apprenticeship had expired, and
"tramped" to the "City of Brotherly Love," stop
ping en route at New York long enough to learn it
was then overstocked with printer journeymen — there
being half a dozen or so, the place containing six
thousand or seven thousand quaint inhabitants, living
on crooked, narrow streets, with the gables of the
dwellings facing them. The language spoken was

16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
mostly Dutch, and the street signs were also in
Dutch. Arriving in Philadelphia with a few sliillings in
his pocket, weary, footsore and hungry, he bought
some baker's rolls ; walked along the middle of the
street, gazing into windows and munching his bread,
wliile his future wife looked and laughed at the rustic
young fellow as he passed by. He wet the dry bread
with a cup of river water, and followed a stream of
Quakers going to their meeting-house to worship in
silence. There he fell asleep from fatigue, and a
friendly Quaker awakened him and showed the boy
Franldin to a cheap lodging-house. He looked about
for work at liis trade ; soon found employment ; lived
frugally ; avoided intoxicants ; saved his wages ; read
every useful book he could borrow ; but books other
than dogmatic were few and far between, in those
days, in Philadelphia.
During this journeyman period of Ms life he
made the personal acquaintance of the governor of
the province. Sir William Keith, wiio professed to
take a great fancy to the thoughtful, industrious,
intelligent young fellow, and proposed to loan him
sufficient capital to set him up in the printing busi
ness. He had Franldin make out a complete sched
ule of the things needed, and caused him to sail to
London to select the outfit, promising to forward
drafts for payment. There he perfidiously left the
eighteen-year-old boy to sluft for himself. Keith was
a frothy, popularity-hunting demagog, rarely per
forming his promises. He soon played out.

HIS STAY IN LONDON. 17
Franklin, hearing nothing from Gov. Keith,
discovered that he had been victimized and was a
friendless stranger in a great city. But he was fuU
of self-reliance and soon got employment at low
wages. He remained in London nearly two years.
He acquii-ed skill in his trade and became a first-class
printer. He read many useful books ; made several
valuable acquaintances and some bad ones, and at
last concluded to return to America.
Suppose he had elected to remain in England,
what a change it would have made in the future his
tory of his country ! For himself he would have
become a leading publisher in London ; perhaps a,
member of Parliament and of the learned societies,
for he was of the kind of men who can not be kept.
down, but are born to rise. But a Avise Providence
which "shapes our ends, rough hew them how we
will," sent him back to his native land, where his
genius was aftenvard devoted to creating a free and
independent republic among the nations of the earth.
Soon after his return from London to Philadel
phia he organized a number of his fellow workingmen,
selecting them carefully, into a secret society called
the " -Junto." Its purpose was the improvement of its
members in virtue, knowledge and usefulness, and to
exercise the united influence of the members on the
city for its moral and material welfare. He remained
a member of the celebrated .Junto for forty years. It
accomphshed an immense amount of good in the city
and was of great mutual benefit to its members in
their business affairs.

18 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Franklin's ambition w^as to own and edit a news
paper. He soon founded the Pennsylvania Gazette,
which was a success from the first issue, and in a few
years became a leading journal in the Colonies and a
very profitable investment to himself. He added a
book and stationery store and established "Poor
Richard's Almanac," which quickly became so popu
lar that his presses could hardly fill the orders for it.
It was a serio-comic almanac, inculcating political
economy in humorous language and captivating epi
grammatic maxims. Nothing gave him more reputa
tion in these early days than his almanac, which
quickly circulated over all the Colonies and was re
printed in Great Britain and was copiously quoted in
France and Germany.
" Poor Piichard " taught the necessity of frugality,
industry and temperance, in a pleasing, captivating
way. While he made all classes of readers smile or
laugh at what seemed comical, he managed to plant
moral maxims or valuable truths in their minds, wiiich
would grow and make them richer, better and happier
people. The echoes of Franklin's proverbial filosofy,
taught in "Poor Richard," are still in our ears, one
hundred and fifty years after they were first uttered.
They were still fresh in my boyhood time. How often
my father, wiio was a farmer, used to say to me,
"My son, remember what 'Poor Richard' says,"
when he wanted me to go to bed early and get up
before sunrise: "'Early to bed and early to rise
makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.'" Some-

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Xe a Boston, dans la nouvelle Angleterre, le 17 Janv. 1706.
Honneur du nouveau monde et Thumanit^,
Ce sage amiable et vrais les guide et les eclaire;
Comme un autre Mentor, il cache 5 I'oeil vulgar,
Sous les traits d'un mortel, une divinity. Par M. Fcutnj.
Duplessis pin.rit Parisiis 177s. Chevillet sculpsit.
Tire du Cabinet de M. Le Ray Chaumont & Cie.
[Reproiliiced from an old steel entjraving,]

HIS MADr.IACiK. 21
times I w^ould reply that I had rather sleep longer in
the morning, even if I lost some of the -wisdom.
Another maxim he Mas fond of quoting, showing the
necessity of hard toil, was "An empty mealsack can
not stand alone." Another, "A penny saved is worth
more than a penny earned;" another, "Forewarned
is forearmed, except to fools." He ^vas fond of quot
ing one from Hudibras, which he credited to "Poor
Richard," and wiiich is often ascribed to Solomon's
Proverbs, that " Sparing the rod spoils the child," but
winch I declined to accept, though he often impressed
it upon me in a very striking manner.
Not long after his return from London Franklin
married Miss Deborah Read, the girl who laughed at
his singular appearance as he walked along the middle
of Market street eating his roll of bread, carrying one
under each arm and staring into the windows, on his
first appearance in Philadelphia. They lived happily
together as man and wife for more than forty years —
working hard in the earlier period to get on in the
Avoiid. She took care of the shop and accounts and
housekeeping, wliile he toiled early and late — often
burning the midnight oil at the case or press to get
out a piece of work wiien promised. He was a great
stickler for punctuality. He always tried to do a
good job, and charged fair prices; he never over
charged anybody, never cheated anyone, in all his
life. He carried a clean conscience with him under
all circumstances. Franklin prospered in "basket and store." He
became popular with people; they patronized his

22 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
publications and his store; they heaped offices on
him, both legislative and executive. They had him
appointed postmaster-general, and quartermaster,
and colonel during the French war. They consulted
him upon every subject, and his advice prevailed;
everything came his way. As postmaster-general he
increased the number and speed of the trips ; cheap
ened the postage greatly ; evolved order out of confu
sion and made the department yield handsome profits
where it had previously been conducted at a serious
loss. He was successful in all things he undertook,
because he applied reflection and methodical industry.
If ever there was a self-taught man Franklin was
that man. Without aid from any seat of learning he
received honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard for
his filosofical eminence and discoveries in electricity.
The British Royal Society, which at first ignored his
remarkable electrical achievements, afterward elected
him a member without charging him admission fees.
Oxford and Edinburgh conferred upon him their aca
demical degrees. The French were first to appreciate
his filosofical efforts, the Germans next and then the
Italians and the English.
Frankhn could not be persuaded to extend his
autobiografy beyond his fifty-first year. He only
wrote out those portions of his life which he thought
were unknown or had attracted little or no public
attention. Hence, what he wrote is a mere fragment
of his great life. But no autobiografy ever written
in any language equals it in style and charm of com
position.

A BUSY TWENTY YEARS. 23
This middle period, or active, pushing and busi
ness part, of Franklin's life comprised but twenty
years. His education, obtained when a lad at a Bos
ton primary school, was very scanty — embracing but
httle more than the "three R's." But he was always
absorbing knowiedge thereafter. During these twenty
years devoted to active business Franklin managed
to spare time to acquire what was then more than
equivalent to a good classical education, though he
never put his foot in a college except as a visitor.
He learned to read and to speak French, to read
Spanish and Italian, and obtained a fair elementary
knowledge of Latin. He went as far in mathematics
as he thought would be of any value to him. He read
ancient and modern history, ancT every filosofical
and scientific work he could lay hands upon ; he
made a study of political economy, and banking, and
paper money, and wrote essays on them. He became
the founder of the University of Pennsylvania and of
the American Philosophical Society.
At the end of those twenty busy and useful years
he had acquired what he deemed an ample compe
tence, which yielded about $12,000 a year, and he
resolved to retire from business and politics and
devote the remainder of his life to filosofy and sci
ence. He had already made part of those electrical
discoveries which fiUed Europe with his name and
fame. This was in 1748, when Franklin was only
forty-two years of age. He had already invented the
Franklin hand-press and the Franklin stove, which
latter comfortably heated houses and saved enormous

24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
quantities of fuel. He discovered the cause of and a
cure for smoky chimneys ; he impressed on the people
the sanitary value of ventilation of sleeping-rooms, and
told them how to avoid colds and the diseases arising
therefrom. He showed cities how to sewer, paAe and
clean their streets and furnish water through pipes,
all in the most economical way. He was the first to
suggest the idea of savings-banks, which have done so
much to aid in the formation of frugal habits and to
augment the nation's wealth. He invented a street-
lamp with such ventilation as would prevent sooting
up. He invented the lightning-rod, with sharp points,
for the protection of property. He introduced a paid
police and fire department into Philadelphia, which
was copied by other cities. He founded the system of
public circulating libraries, of which there are now
thousands in Anglo-American cities and towns. He
discovered and explained wiiy oil spreads on water
and calms and smooths the waves. He discovered that
storms run backward from the place of beginning,
instead of forward, as was supposed, the same as
water in a mill-race when the gate is opened. He
was the first to make observations on the Gulf Stream,
and his chart of it, pubhshed one hundred and twelve
years ago, still forms the basis of the charts now in use.
He devised a system of reformed orthografy winch if
adopted would have greatly shortened and simplified
the spelhngs of the English language, and thereby
promoted immensely the diffusion of education and
knowledge among the masses ; but the inveteracy of
habit defeated Ins beneficent purpose and millions

From the Original Painting
politan Museum

, by Duplessis, in the Metro-
of Art, New York.

HIS ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES. 27
have lived and died poor spellers, to be laughed at,
ridiculed and jeered by the comparative few who have
ever mastered the absurdities, intricacies and anom
alies of our hotch-potch orthografy. His mind seemed
capable of penetrating and unfolding every mystery.
Franklin was first brought into contact with the
mysterious substance called electricity in 1746. He
immediately began making experiments into its prop
erties and nature, and soon discovered that it exists
everywhere ; that it moves from a positive to a nega
tive pole, and has great affinity for iron and copper.
By experiments he discovered electrical attraction and
repulsion. He came to the conclusion, through pro
found reasoning, that the electricity that was produced
in the Leyden jar was of the same substance and
nature as lightning from a thunder-storm, and pro
ceeded to prove it by his celebrated experiment with
the liite. When the thunder-storm broke over Phila
delphia he went out on the open common and sent up
his kite iato the heavens, with a bright pointed rod
attached to it and a hempen cord with a metallic key
at the other end ; and then calmly faced death. The
kite rose high into the down-pouring rain, amidst the
crashing thunder and forked lightning. There he
courageously stood, with his son beside him, watching
the string tiU he saw the hempen fibers move ; then
he touched his knuckle to the key, knowing that he
might be struck dead at the instant. The lightning
sparks crackled and leaped to his fingers harmlessly.
He charged his Leyden jars Avith the fluid and proved
to the world the truth of his theory that Kghtning was

28 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
the same as electricity. In previous experiments with
electricity he had received shocks which had stunned
and almost kiUed him. With this personal knowiedge
of its i30wer it required nerve to tamper with a flash
of hghtning which could rend a great tree or kiU a
thousand men at a single shock.
Franklin's leisure for scientific investigations was
cut short by the political necessities of his country,
and he was transferred to diplomatic fields, first for
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia and Massachusetts
to London, and next for the thu-teen revolted prov
inces to Paris. Had he not been diverted from his
electrical studies and experiments where might he not
haAe pushed his discoveries ? He might have invented
the telegraf or the telefone. It is difficult to set Hmits
to the analyzing power of such a brain as he pos
sessed with the start he had gained in the electrical
field, as he was just reaching his greatest thinking
po\vers of mind when he was put into the pubhc serv
ice of his country.
Jefferson is credited with writing the most capti
vating sentences of the Declaration of Independence ;
but in Frankhn's brain was born, twenty-two years
previously, a conception of a union of all the colonies,
though acknowledging allegiance to Great Britain at
the outset. He says, in his autobiografy, that in
June, 1754, when Mar with France was apprehended,
a convention of commissioners from all the colonies
was ordered to be held at Albany to there meet the
Six Nations and to confer with those friendly Indian
tribes concerning the best means of defending their

UNION OF THE COLONIES. 29
country and the colonies against the French and the
hostile Indians. He Mas one of the four commis
sioners sent from Pennsylvania.
He goes on to relate that he "projected and drew
a plan for the union of all the colonies under one gov
ernment so far as might be necessary for defense and
important general purposes." He placed his project,
he says, before several gentlemen of the greatest
knowiedge in public affairs, and, having fortified his
opinion by their approbation of Ms scheme, he ven
tured to lay it before the congress. The new plan
Mas discussed for a number of days. It was then
voted unanimously a union of the colonies should be
established. A committee of one member from each
colony was appointed to consider several plans of
union wMch had been introduced as substitutes for
or amendments to Franklin's. After full considera
tion the Frankhn plan w'as reported back and adopted
by the congress. By his plan the General Govern
ment was to be administered by a President-General
appointed by the Crown, and a grand legislative coun
cil, or Senate, wMch was to be chosen by the legisla
tures of the several colonial states. The scheme of
union was remarkably similar to that by which the
states were afterward united into a Nation.
This bold idea, which was wrought out in detail
by its author, was submitted by the convention to the
legislatures of aU the colonies and to the British
Government for its sanction. Franklin says in En
gland it was judged to have too much democracy in
it, while many members of the colonial assemblies

30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
thought it contained too much prerogative. The Brit
ish Cabinet and Parliament saw this scheme would
speedily create a republic, and hence "sat down on
it." It was a remarkable advance toward an inde
pendent, self-governing nation, wiiich was achieved
after a long and bloody war tM'enty-nine years subse
quently. And it is a singular fact that the same Franklin
twenty-tM'o years later helped to draft and signed the
Declaration of Independence. He aided in framing
the government under which the war was fought, and
finally was elected a delegate from Pennsylvania to
the convention of 1787, which framed the constitution
and which was presided over by George WasMngton.
That constitution, with some amendments, is the one
under which we live to-day. Franklin was then
eighty-one years old, and w-hen the great work was
completed his health was better than when he began
this last of his great labors. The excitement and im
portance of the business kept him up.
The project of a convention to frame a stronger
government for this country originated in the fertile
mind of Alexander Hamilton several years previously,
and ripened slowiy and was only adopted after much
public discussion and six years' delay, during which
time the aged Dr. Franklin was president of a Society
for Political Inquiries, wiiich met in a large room in
Ms own house and listened to weekly papers and
essays on the all-important question of a better and
stronger government and constitution, which the
grand old sage earnestly advocated.

>
z PI

5

c z G

THE WAR BEGUN. 33
Finally the delegates Mere chosen and met in
PMladelphia. WasMngton at first decliued to attend,
and was reluctant by reason of his private affairs.
There A\as great opposition in the country by the
state-sovereignty men to making a national constitu
tion. If WasMngton and F'^ranklin had refused to
attend, the scheme would undoubtedly have proven
abortive. The vast influence of those two greatest
men of the period saved it, and an indissoluble Na
tion was created. One Miiter says the aM'ful dignity
of WasMngton in the chair and the contagious good-
temper of Frankhn on the floor and the vast influence
of both out of doors saved the constitution from rejec
tion by the jealous states in the ratification.
I now approach the most important service that
Franklin rendered to Ms country in his long and hon
orable career.
The Declaration of Independence had been sent
forth and the last political tie connecting England to
the colonies was severed, and the seven years' war
began. WasMngton had lost the battle of Brooklyn,
and Ms broken militia had retreated out of New York,
up the Hudson River, and finally across it into New
Jersey, with great loss of men and munitions of M-ar.
The scarcity of small arms, and ammunition, and
artillery, and money stared Congress in the face.
Silas Deane, of Connecticut, had been sent to France
to feel of that nation as to what aid it might render
the cause of the patriots. Arthur Lee was chosen to
assist Mm. The French Government flatly refused to
espouse the Revolutionary cause or give any aid, pub-

34 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
licly. It had no faith that the colonies possessed the
unity, cohesion or resources to win their independ
ence of Great Britain. An enthusiastic Frenchman
named M. de Beaumarchais, who had some influence
at court, managed to induce the government to fur
nish him secretly Mith a million dollars, which he,
under the guise of a trader or merchant, invested in
military munitions and supplies and shipped from
French ports to America. But spies of Great Britain
in France soon found out wiiat was being done and
made an uproar about it, and this small source of
assistance was peremptorily cut off by the French
Government, who disavowed Ms acts.
Previous negotiations of Benjamin Franklin and
John Adams with Lord Howe, at New York, who
offered pardon to the insurgents and certain trade
concessions, had failed to effect a peace. Franklin
insisted on Britain's acknowledgment of America's
independence. No agreement could be made and the
Mar continued ; but the American cause was becom
ing more gloomy every day. It was at this time that
Thomas Paine wrote Ms "American Crisis," begin
ning with the famous words, " These are the times
that try men's souls." Strong help from France,
however, was indispensable. The commissioners sent
there had made no headway in obtaining it. The
Congress in despair turned to Dr. Franklin and per
suaded the old man, then turning into Ms seventy-
first year, to undertake the all-important mission. If
he failed in securing the help of France the cause of
independence was lost beyond hope.

THE MISSION TO FRANCE. 85
Franklin reached Paris late in the fall of 1776
and set himself at work to be agreeable to the king
and his cabinet. He rapidly added to his knoMledgc
of the French tongue. He joined the scientific and
filosofical societies. The fame of his discoveries in
electricity had preceded Mm there, and helped Ms
mission greatly with the learned classes and the court.
The maxims of " Poor Richard " were household words
in French families. Franklin was looked upon as a
sage and filosofer like those of Greece and Rome.
In Ms bland and benign manner he pressed his
M'ay into the confidence of the most influential men
of France. He persuaded them that the contest
in America was more than a rebellion ; that it had
become a revolution ; that the revolted colonies were
almost able to achieve their independence without any
outside assistance, and that, with the aid of France,
short work would be made of England. He pressed
on the king and Ms ministers that now was France's
golden opportunity to "get even" with her old foe;
to cripple her power and to win back territory lost in
the last war with England. If not now taken advan
tage of such a chance would never return. If the
seceding colonies were conquered or coaxed back to
Britain they might help mightily in any future wars
against France. But if France helped them now to
achieve their independence they would ever be grate
ful and show it in their commerce and other ways
wMch would be of great benefit to France. Now was
the time to strike the blow that would cripple this
hereditary enemy, " perfidious Albion," and revenge

86 BENjAJriN FRANKLIN.
France for the loss of its Canadian possessions a few
years before.
Franklin poured these ideas and arguments into
the ears of the king, his court, his generals and admi
rals, and the merchants, manufacturers and bankers.
He worked incessantly and persuasively, and gained
ground continuously. The news of Washington's fine
victory over the British at Trenton helped him greatly
at the French court, and he made the most of it. His
good humor, courteous manners, persuasive argu
ments M'oii the day for the desperate, struggling Ameri
can cause. He induced France at first to privately
lend considerable money to America, and to run in
shiploads of muskets, ammunition, and artillery.
And soon afterward he persuaded the king to declare
war against Great Britain. After that money and
munitions of M'tir reached Congress in large quanti
ties and the tide began to turn against the British.
These M'ere followed by squadrons of warships, and
finally by brigades of French soldiers. A strong
French fleet bottled up the British army at Yorktown,
and a division of French troops, joining with Wash
ington's army, made an assault on the British force.
It surrendered to Washington and the M^ar was "prac
tically over, and independence was won. Without the
powerful aid given by the French independence could
not have been achieved ; without the diplomatic gen
ius of Franklin the French would not have declared
war on England to help the Americans.
The next great work Franklin was employed by
Ms country to perform was to negotiate a treaty of

TREATY M-ITH ENGLAND. 37
peace with sore, sulky, stubborn Britain, and he
acquitted himself Mith an ability and success that
have been the admiration of statesmen and diplomats
from that time to this. No other American could
have accomplished as much as he did. He almost
persuaded the British government to cede its Canadian
possessions to the United States. If he had pressed
the point just a little harder he would have succeeded.
But he was not aware of how near he M-as to accom
plishing his darling object.
He then returned home full of years and honors,
standing head and shoulders higher than all other
Americans, save Washington alone. As before stated,
he finished and crowned his manifold works for his
countrymen in helping to frame that wonderful con
stitution which Gladstone calls the greatest and most
perfect piece of constructive statesmanship ever coined
from the brain of man.
The birthdays of but few men are annually cele
brated or commemorated after their contemporaries
are dead. Whose in this country but Washington's
and Franklin's? Even Hamilton and Jefferson,
statesmen of the highest rank, seldom have their
birthdays celebrated, while Franklin's is perennially
commemorated by his admiring countrymen. His
fame dims not under the corroding tooth of time. His
thoughts are the common property of all civihzed
lands. His maxims and sayings are still household
M'ords. His numerous utilitarian inventions were
given to his country without patent or fee, the reason
being he was so much indebted, he said, to preceding

38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
generations for their inventions he could only repay
by bestowing Ms own inventions without patents on
his generation and on jiosterity.
In conclusion, I believe I am warranted in declar
ing the printer craft of America bus given to man
kind one of the greatest men who ev(;r lived, the
immortal Dr. Benjamin h'ranklin. He had a brain
wiiich penetrated, comprehended and investigated all
su]jj(;cts which could be made to yield benelit to his
countrymen and the human race. He spent his life
in doing good, without a particle of selfishness in
Ms motives. He was the greatest mental luminary
of his age. All his uttered thoughts and public actions
tended to instruct, enlighten and better the condition
of his fellow man, especially the poor and the weak.
When we pass from time to eternity we may see
the revered WasMngton sitting on high Olympus
among the immortal gods, and benign Franklin mtiy
be found walking in the academic groves conversing
with the shades of the sages and scientists, the filos-
ofers and filanthropists of all ages.

SOME GOOD WORDS ABOUT THE PKOOFSHEET.

It is a first-class assistant in every respect, and fills a long-
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Besides the valuable reading-matter it contains, it commends
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One of the most spicy little magazines that reaches this office
is The Pkoofsheet, a monthly publication, devoted to the inter
ests of proofreaders. It is full of good reading-matter, news and
literature, and should be read by every proofreader. — The Union
Printer and American Craftsman.
The Pkoofsheet is a valued publication that reaches this
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always rich and varied. This interesting little journal is issued
for §1 per year, and gives for this outlay a generous supply of
instruction and entertainment. To proofreaders it is invalu
able. — Alissouri Editor.
The Pkoofsheet is a little monthly, published by the Ben
Franklin Company, of Chicago, devoted to all matters appertain
ing to the duties of the proofreader. The typewriter operator
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critical proofreader or compositor, and he will find the same
kind and as large of measure of benefit in the careful study of
such a publication as The Ppoofsheet as will a member of the
special class for which it is designed. — Phonoi/raphic Maijaziw.

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matters of current literature —why not TAKE THE BEST! JOHN G. WHIT-
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ECONOMICAL, ACCURATE, TIME-SAVING.
THE BEN FRANKLIN COMPANY is prepared to supply
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PRICES AND TERMS: Single Copy, $4; if taken every
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THE BEN FRANKLIN COMPANY,
232 Irving Avenue, Chicago.

3 9002 08561 1656

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