342 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [^791 



of America; and on the iSth of September, 1787, that ilhistrious body 

 having concluded their labors, Dr. Franklin, in conjunction with his 

 colleagues of Pennsylvania, presented the result of the same, to the 



Speaker and House of Representatives : 



« 



Sir: I have the very great satisfaction of delivering to you and to this honorable 

 house, the resttlt of our deliberations in the late convention. We hope and believe that 

 the measures recommended by that body, w'ill produce happy effects to this common- 

 wealth, as well as to every other of the United States. 



He then presented, at the speaker's chair, the Constitution, agreed to in 

 convention, for the government of the United States. The remainder 

 of his term of office in the government, he devoted to the wise and 

 prudent administration of its duties; so far as the growing infirmities of 

 his years, and the painful disorder with which he had been long afflicted, 

 would permit. During the most excruciating paroxysms of that dis- 

 order, he strove to conceal his pain, that he might not give pain to 

 those around him ; and he would often say, that he felt the greatest 

 alleviation of his own pains, in the occasions which were offered him 

 of doing good to others; and which he never neglected to the latest 

 moments of his life. 



One of the last public acts in which he was concerned, was to sanc- 

 tion with his name the memorial presented to the general government 

 of the United States, on the subject of the slave trade, by the " Penn- 

 sylvania society for promoting the abolition of slavery, and the relief 

 of free negroes, unlawfully held in bondage." Of this society, he was 

 president; and the institution and design of it could not but be con- 

 genial to the soul of a man, whose life and labors had been devoted to 

 the cause of liberty, for more than half a century; ardently striving to 

 extend its blessings to every part of the human species, and particularly 

 to such of his fellow-creatures, as, being entitled to freedom, are never- 

 theless, injuriously enslaved, or detained in bondage, by fraud or 

 violence. 



It was not his desire, however, to propagate liberty by the violation 

 of public justice or private rights ; nor to countenance the operation of 

 principles or tenets among any class or association of citizens, incon- 

 sistent with, or repugnant to, the civil compact, which should unite and 

 bind the whole; but he looked forward to that a^ra of civilized human- 

 ity, when, in consistence with the Constitution of the United States, it 

 may be hoped, there shall not be a slave within their jurisdiction or 

 territory ! Nay, he looked more forward still, to the time when there 

 shall not be a slave nor a savage, within the whole regions of America. 

 He believed that this sublime aera had already dawned, and was ap- 

 proaching fast to its meridian glory; for he believed in Divine Revela- 

 tion, and the beautiful analogy of history, sacred as well as profane ! 

 He believed that human knowledge, however improved and exalted. 



