From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin Part 61

"And you need none," interrupted Franklin. "My plan is that you take the office just as it is, pay me one thousand pounds a year, for eighteen years, releasing me from all care of the business, and, at the close of eighteen years, the whole business shall be yours, without further consideration."

"Well, I ought to be satisfied with that offer, if you are; it is certainly a generous one, and I shall accept it."

"And you will get out of it three or four times the amount of your present salary every year," suggested Franklin. "I mean it shall be a profitable enterprise for you; for your long service here has satisfied me that you are the partner I want."

This plan was carried into effect, and Franklin was no longer obliged to visit the printing office daily, whither he had been for over twenty years. His printing and newspaper business had been very profitable, so that he was comparatively wealthy for that day. His investments had proved fortunate; and these, with the thousand pounds annually from Hall, and five hundred pounds from two public offices he held, gave him an annual income of about fifteen thousand dollars, which was large for those times--one hundred and forty years ago.

"Now I can pursue my studies to my heart's content," Franklin said to his wife. "I have only had fragments of time to devote to electricity and other studies. .h.i.therto; but now I can command time enough to make research an object."

"I am very glad that you are able to make so favorable arrangements,"

Mrs. Franklin replied. "You have had altogether too much on your hands for ten years and more. You ought to have less care."

"And I have an intense desire to investigate science, especially electricity," Franklin continued. "I see a wide field for research and usefulness before me. But I have time enough to prosecute my plans."

Franklin was forty-two years old at this time; and it is a singular fact that his career as a philosopher did not begin really until he had pa.s.sed his fortieth birthday. But from the time he was released from the care of the printing office, his advancement in science was rapid. His fame spread abroad, both in this country and Europe, so that, in a few years, he became one of the most renowned philosophers in the world. In a former chapter we described his experiment with a kite, to prove that lightning and the electric fluid are identical; and this discovery established his fame as the greatest electrician of the world.

The Royal Society of London elected him a member by a unanimous vote, and the next year bestowed upon him the Copley medal. Yale College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts; and Harvard University did the same. Suddenly Franklin found himself the most conspicuous character in American history--a philosopher of the most honored type.

Mignet said of him, "Thus all at once distinguished, the Philadelphia sage became the object of universal regard, and was abundantly loaded with academic honors. The Academy of Sciences of Paris made him an a.s.sociate member, as it had Newton and Leibnitz. All the learned bodies of Europe eagerly admitted him into their ranks. Kant, the celebrated German philosopher, called him 'the Prometheus of modern times.' To this scientific glory, which he might have extended if he had consecrated to his favorite pursuits his thoughts and his time, he added high political distinction. To this man, happy because he was intelligent, great because he had an active genius and a devoted heart, was accorded the rare felicity of serving his country, skilfully and usefully, for a period of fifty years; and after having taken rank among the immortal founders of the positive sciences, of enrolling himself among the generous liberators of the nations."

A few years later, the three Universities of St. Andrew's, Oxford, and Edinburgh, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Europe vied with America in tributes of honor and praise.

His electrical experiments made him the author of several useful inventions, among which the LIGHTNING ROD was the foremost. It came into general use, not only in our country, but also in Europe. The celebrated Kinnersley wrote to him, "May this method of security from the destructive violence of one of the most awful powers of Nature meet with such further success as to induce every good and grateful heart to bless G.o.d for the important discovery! May the benefit thereof be diffused over the whole globe! May it extend to the latest posterity of mankind, and make the name of Franklin, like that of Newton, IMMORTAL!"

Franklin did not intend to continue in political life, when he entered into partners.h.i.+p with Mr. Hall; and he so announced to his friends. At that time he had served as Councilman in the city, been a member of the General a.s.sembly, acted as Commissioner on several important occasions, and served the public in various other ways; but now he designed to stop and devote himself entirely to scientific pursuits.

Within five years, however, he found himself more deeply involved in political plans and labors than ever before. He was as wise in statesmans.h.i.+p as he was in philosophy; and the services of such a man were in constant demand. The following list of public offices he filled shows that he stood second to no statesman in the land in public confidence and ability in public service:

A LEGISLATOR OF PENNSYLVANIA AT TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF AGE, CONTINUED FOR TWENTY YEARS.

FOUNDER AND LEADING TRUSTEE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

COLONEL OF MILITIA, WHICH HE ORIGINATED.

LEADER OF COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY FOR YEARS, IN TIME OF WAR.

POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

AGENT OF PENNSYLVANIA, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS, NEW JERSEY, AND GEORGIA TO THE KING OF ENGLAND.

MINISTER TO THE COURT OF ENGLAND IN 1764.

ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS IN 1775, AND A MEMBER OF IT.

MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO FRANCE IN 1776.

AUTHOR OF FIRST TREATY FOR AMERICA IN 1778.

MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO FRANCE IN 1778.

ONE OF FIVE TO DRAFT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

A LEADER IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

ONE OF THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSt.i.tUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

LIKE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, "FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE, AND FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN."

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were a.s.sociated with Franklin in drafting the Declaration of Independence, which Congress adopted, July 4, 1776. The original draft was by Jefferson, but it contained many interlineations in the hand-writing of Franklin. When they were signing the memorable doc.u.ment, after its pa.s.sage by Congress, John Hanc.o.c.k remarked:

"We must be unanimous,--we must all hang together."

"Yes, if we would not hang separately," replied Franklin.

Jefferson was viewing, with evident disappointment, the mutilation of his draft of the Declaration in Franklin's hand-writing, when the latter remarked:

"I have made it a rule, whenever in my power, to avoid becoming the draftsman 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 sign-board, 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 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.

Every one 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, the rather as there was one painted on the board. So his inscription was reduced, ultimately, to _John Thompson_, with the figure of a hat subjoined."

It is doubtful if American Independence would have been achieved when it was, but for the services of Franklin at the Court of England. His first appearance there was when his fame as a philosopher was at its zenith, and the greatest men of that country sought his acquaintance.

William Strahan, a member of Parliament, wrote to Mrs. Franklin, "I never saw a man who was, in every respect, so perfectly agreeable to me. Some are able in one view, some in another, he in all."

The Tories, who meant to keep the Colonies in subjection and burden them with taxes, were the leaders in governmental affairs and the majority in numbers. Of course, the Colonies could not expect many favors from them without the mediation of their strongest statesmen; and Franklin was the one above all others on whom they depended. His first diplomatic career in England, when he was the Agent of Pennsylvania and other Colonies, lasted from 1757 to 1762. He remained at home only a year and a half, when he was appointed "Minister to England," whither he went in 1764, remaining there ten years, a long, stormy period of political troubles, culminating in the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.

We have only to mention the Boston Port Bill, the Stamp Act, quartering British troops in the public buildings of Boston, and other measures which the Colonies considered oppressive, and even tyrannical, to show the line of Franklin's intercession in behalf of his countrymen, and how they came to throw off the yoke of bondage.

The Tory hatred towards Franklin was something fearful at times, exceeded only by their hatred towards the people whom he represented.

"I am willing to love all mankind except an American," exclaimed Dr.

Johnson. And when rebuked for his unchristian disposition, "his inflammable corruption bursting into horrid fire," says Boswell, "he breathed out threatenings and slaughter, calling them rascals, robbers, pirates, and exclaiming that he would burn and destroy them."

When Mr. Barclay hinted to Franklin that he might have almost any place of honor if he would consent to a certain line of action, our loyal hero spurned the bribe, saying, "The ministry, I am sure, would rather give me a place in a cart to Tyburn [prison] than any other place whatever." He could neither be coaxed nor frightened into submission to the British crown.

In February, 1766, he was summoned before the House of Commons, where he met the enemies of his country face to face, and stood firm through the searching examination.

"Will the Americans consent to pay the stamp duty if it is lessened?"

he was asked.

"No, never; unless compelled by force of arms," he answered.

"May not a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution?"

"Suppose a military force sent into America; they will find n.o.body in arms; what are they, then, to do? Then can not force a man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not _find_ a rebellion; they may, indeed, _make_ one."

"If the Stamp Act is enforced, will ill-humor induce the Americans to give as much for the worse manufactures of their own, and use them in preference to our better ones?"

"_Yes. People will pay as freely to gratify one pa.s.sion as another,--their resentment as their pride_."