334 Z/i^^ AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [^791 



His popularity was now great among all parties and denominations 

 of men. But the unhappy divisions and disputes which commenced in 

 the provincial politics of Pennsylvania in the year 1754 obliged him 

 soon afterwards to choose his party. He managed his weapons like a 

 veteran combatant ; nor was he opposed with unequal strength or skill. 

 The debates of that day have been read and admired as among the most 

 masterly compositions of the kind which our language affords ; but it is 

 happy for us, at the present day, that the subject of them is no longer 

 interesting; and if it were, he who now addresses you was too much an 

 actor in the scene to be fit for the discussion of it. Dr. Franklin, by 

 the appointment of the general assembly, quitted the immediate field of 

 controversy, and in June, 1757, embarked for England, to contest his 

 point at the court of Great Britain, where he continued for several years 

 with various success in the business of his agency. In the summer of 

 1762 he returned to America; but the disputes which had so long agi- 

 tated the province, far from being quieted by his former mission, continued 

 to rage with greater violence than ever, and he was again appointed by 

 the assembly to resume his agency at the court of Great Britain. Much 

 opposition was made to his re-appointment, which seems greatly to have 

 affected his feelings, as it came from men with whom he had long been 

 connected both in public and private life, "the very ashes of whose 

 former friendship," he declared, "that he revered." His pathetic 

 farewell to Pennsylvania on the 5th of November, 1764, the day before 

 his departure, is a strong proof of the agitation of his mind on this 

 occasion. 



"I am now," says he, "to take leave (perhaps a last leave) of the 

 country I love, and in which I have spent the greatest part of my life. 

 Esto perpetita .' I wish every kind of prosperity to my friends, and I 

 forgive my e?iemies.^'' 



But under whatsoever circumstances this second embassy was under- 

 taken, it appears to have been a measure pre-ordained in the councils 

 of heaven ; and it will be forever remembered, to the honor of Pennsyl- 

 vania, that the agent selected to assert and defend the rights of a single 

 province at the court of Great Britain became the bold asserter of the 

 rights of America in general; "and, beholding the fetters that were 

 forging for her, conceived the magnanimous thought of rending them 

 asunder before they could be riveted."* And this brings us to consider 

 him in a more enlarged view, viz. : 



Secondly — As a citizen of America, one of the chief and greatest 

 workmen in the foundation and establishment of her empire and renown. 



But on this head little need be said on the present occasion. The 

 subject has been already exhausted by his eulogists, even in distant 



countries. His opposition to the Stamp-Act, his noble defence of the 



t 



* Abbe Fauchet. 



