From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin Part 62

"Would the people of Boston discontinue their trade?"

"The merchants of Boston are a very small number, and must discontinue their trade, if n.o.body will buy their goods."

"What are the body of the people in the Colonies?"

"They are farmers, husbandmen, or planters."

"Would they suffer the produce of their lands to rot?"

"No; but they would not raise so much. They would manufacture more and plow less. I do not know a single article imported into the Northern Colonies that they can not do without, or make themselves."

To Lord Kames he said, "America must become a great country, populous and mighty; and will, _in a less time than is generally conceived_, be able to shake off any shackles that may be imposed upon her, and perhaps place them on the imposers."

But his labors availed nothing, although Chatham, Pitt, Burke, Fox, and others, espoused the cause of the Colonies. Affairs hastened to the crisis of 1775, and Franklin returned to Philadelphia, reaching that city soon after the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, in 1776.

A few months before he left England for America, his wife died. Her death occurred on Dec. 17, 1774, though the sad tidings did not reach Franklin until a short time before he took pa.s.sage for home.

It was at this time that his famous letter to his old English friend, William Strahan, was written, of which we are able to furnish a _fac-simile_.

The scenes of the Revolution followed. Through the agency of Franklin, as Minister Plenipotentiary to France, the French Government formed an alliance with the Colonies, and the eight years' war was waged to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown; and Freedom was achieved.

No American exerted greater influence in securing the independence of the Colonies than Franklin. He was one of the originators of the Continental Congress, and was the author of the plan for a Union of the States. On his way to the Albany Conference in 1754 he drew up a plan of Union, which he presented to said Conference, composed of delegates from seven Northern Colonies. Other members presented plans, but his was preferred and adopted, with some amendments, and commended to the favorable consideration of the King and Parliament of England.

Franklin's plan of Union was substantially that which, subsequently, united the thirteen States into one nation.

No name is more conspicuous in history than that of Franklin. At one time in France, "prints, medallion portraits, and busts of him were multiplied throughout that country." In England, the most renowned statesmen and scholars acknowledged his abilities and praised his remarkable career. In America, his statue was set up in halls of learning and legislation, literary societies and inst.i.tutions were founded in his name, and numerous towns were called after him. Perhaps the author's native town--Franklin, Ma.s.s.--was the first to appropriate his name. A few years thereafter, a nephew called his attention to this fact, suggesting that the present of a bell from him would be very acceptable, as the people were erecting a house of wors.h.i.+p. Franklin was in Pa.s.sy, France, at the time, and he immediately addressed the following letter to his old friend, Dr.

Price, asking him to select and forward a library:

"Pa.s.sY, 18 March, 1785.

"DEAR FRIEND,--My nephew, Mr. Williams, will have the honor of delivering you this line. It is to request from you a list of a few books, to the value of about twenty-five pounds, such as are most proper to inculcate principles of sound religion and just government. A new town in the State of Ma.s.sachusetts having done me the honor of naming itself after me, and proposing to build a steeple to their meeting-house if I would give them a bell, I have advised the sparing themselves the expense of a steeple for the present, and that they would accept of books instead of a bell, sense being preferable to sound. These are, therefore, intended as the commencement of a little parochial library for the use of a society of intelligent, respectable farmers, such as our country people generally consist of. Besides your own works, I would only mention, on the recommendation of my sister, Stennett's 'Discourses on Personal Religion,' which may be one book of the number, if you know and approve it.

"With the highest esteem and respect, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately,

"B. FRANKLIN."

The inhabitants of Franklin got _sense_ instead of _sound_, and were never sorry.

Doctor Price, in the course of a letter dated at Newington Green, June 3, 1785, in which he speaks of Mr. Williams' visit, says: "I have, according to your desire, furnished him with a list of such books on religion and government as I think some of the best, and added a present to the parish that is to bear your name, of such of my own publications as I think may not be unsuitable. Should this be the commencement of parochial libraries in the States, it will do great good."

The books were duly forwarded to the town of Franklin. The Rev.

Nathaniel Emmons, clergyman of the parish for which the library was designed, preached a sermon in commemoration of this bounty, ent.i.tled "The Dignity of Man: a Discourse Addressed to the Congregation in Franklin upon the Occasion of their Receiving from Doctor Franklin the Mark of his Respect in a Rich Donation of Books, Appropriated to the Use of a Parish Library." This sermon was printed in the year 1787, with the following dedication: "To his Excellency Benjamin Franklin, President of the State of Pennsylvania, the Ornament of Genius, the Patron of Science, and the Boast of Man, this Discourse is Inscribed, with the Greatest Deference, Humility, and Grat.i.tude, by his Obliged and Most Humble Servant, the Author."

The library contained one hundred and sixteen volumes, chiefly relating to Government, Science, and Religion, of which about ninety volumes are still in a good state of preservation.

On the 17th of April, 1790, Franklin expired, mourned by a grateful nation and honored by the world. For two years he had lived in antic.i.p.ation of this event. One day he rose from his bed, saying to his daughter, "Make up my bed, that I may die in a decent manner."

"I hope, father, that you will yet recover, and live many years,"

replied his daughter.

"I hope not," was his answer.

When told to change his position in bed, that he might breathe more easily, he replied:

"A dying man can do nothing easy."

His sufferings were so great as to extort a groan from him at one time, whereupon he said:

"I fear that I do not bear pain as I ought. It is designed, no doubt, to wean me from the world, in which I am no longer competent to act my part."

To a clerical friend, who witnessed one of his paroxysms as he was about to retire, he said:

"Oh, no; don't go away. These pains will soon be over. They are for my good; and, besides, what are the pains of a moment in comparison with the pleasures of eternity?"

He had a picture of Christ on the cross placed so that he could look at it as he lay on his bed. "That is the picture of one who came into the world to teach men to love one another," he remarked. His last look, as he pa.s.sed away, was cast upon that painting of Christ.

In a codicil to his will was this bequest.

"My fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head, curiously wrought in the form of a cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend of mankind, _George Was.h.i.+ngton_. If it were a sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it."

Philanthropist, Scholar, Philosopher, Statesman, were the t.i.tles won by the Boston Printer Boy!