FRANKLIN. 



309 



On his return, he was chosen colonel by the officers 

 of a regiment. Pennsylvania was then a proprietary 

 government, and the proprietaries claimed to be 

 exonerated from taxes. In consequence of the dis- 

 putes to which this claim gave rise, colonel Franklin 

 was sent out (in 1757) to the mother country, by the 

 provincial assembly, as the agent of the province. 

 To aid the cause of his constituents, he published (in 

 1759) a considerable work entitled the Historical 

 Review, which was completely successful. His 

 reputation was now such, both at home and abroad, 

 that he was appointed agent of the provinces of 

 Massachusetts, Maryland," and Georgia. Oxford, 

 and the Scotch universities, conferred on him the 

 degree of doctor of laws, and the royal society elected 

 him a fellow. During his residence in England, 

 doctor Franklin formed personal connexions with the 

 most distinguished men of the country and of the 

 continent ; his correspondence with whom displays a 

 striking union of a cultivated mind with a native and 

 lively imagination. In 1762, he returned to America; 

 but, new difficulties arising between the province and 

 the proprietaries, the assembly determined to petition 

 for the establishment of a regal government, and 

 Franklin was again appointed agent, in 1764. 



But the American revolution was now commencing, 

 and he appeared in England no longer as a colonial 

 agent, butias the representative of America. He 

 arrived in London in 1764, about thirty-nine years 

 after his first landing in England as a destitute and 

 deluded mechanic. The project of taxing the colonies 

 had been already announced. He carried with him 

 a remonstrance of the provincial assembly of 

 Pennsylvania against it, which he presented to Mr 

 Grenville before the passage of the stamp-act. He 

 opposed the adoption of that measure, and, from its 

 passage (1765) toils repeal (1766), was indefatigable 

 in his exertions to prove the unconstitutionality and 

 impolicy of the act. When the repeal was about to 

 be attempted, it was concerted by his friends that he 

 should be examined on the whole question before the 

 house of commons. This memorable examination 

 took place February 3, 1766. The firmness, preci- 

 sion, readiness and epigrammatic simplicity of 

 manner with which he replied to the interrogatories, 

 mostly put by his friends, were so striking, the 

 information he communicated was so varied, com- 

 prehensive, and luminous, on all points of com- 

 merce, finance, policy and government, that the 

 effect was irresistible ; the repeal was inevitable. 

 On the passing of the revenue acts of 1767, he be- 

 came still more bold and vehement in his expostula- 

 tions, and openly predicted in England, that the 

 inevitable result of those and the other similar mea- 

 sures of the ministry would be a general resistance 

 by the colonies, and a separation from the mother 

 country. But he never deviated from his original 

 plan, to make every effort to enlighten the public 

 opinion in England, to arrest the ministry in their 

 infatuation, and to inculcate moderation and patience, 

 as well as constancy and unanimity, on America. He 

 endeavoured, at the same time, to stand well with 

 the British government, aware that this was neces- 

 sary to enable him to serve his country effectually ; 

 while he never ceased to proclaim the rights, justify 

 the proceedings, and animate the courage of his coun- 

 trymen. He was not ignorant, to use liis own words, 

 " that this course would render him suspected in 

 England of being too much an American, and in 

 America of being too much of an Englishman." His 

 transmission of the celebrated letters of Hutchinson 

 and Oliver (1772), which had been placed in his 

 hands, is not the least memorable of his acts at this 

 opening period of the revolution. He immediately 

 avowed his own share in the transaction, although 



he never divulged the names of the persons from 

 whom he had received them. The indignant peti- 

 tion of the assembly of Massachusetts, in consequence 

 of these letters, was presented by him to the minis- 

 try, and he was immediately made the object of the 

 most virulent abuse, and held up to the hatred and 

 ridicule of the British nation. He met the conflict 

 with no less spirit than wit, as is particularly exem- 

 plified in his two satirical pieces, the Prussian Edict 

 and the Rules for reducing a great Empire to a small 

 one. At the discussion of the petition before the 

 privy council, Franklin was present. Wedderburn 

 (afterwards lord Loughborough), the solicitor-general, 

 assailed him with the most coarse invective, styling 

 the venerable philosopher, and the official represen- 

 tative of four of the American provinces, a " thief 

 and a murderer," who had "forfeited all the respect 

 of society and of men. " The ministry now dismissed 

 him from his place of deputy postmaster-general, and 

 a chancery suit was instituted in relation to the let- 

 ters, for the purpose of preventing him from attempt- 

 ing his own vindication. Attempts were made, as 

 the difficulties increased, to corrupt the man whom 

 it had been found impossible to intimidate : " any 

 reward, unlimited recompense, honours, and recom- 

 pense beyond his expectations," were promised him ; 

 but he was as inaccessible to corruption as to threats. 

 It was at this period that he presented the petition 

 of the first American congress ; and he attended, be- 

 hind the bar (Feb. 1, 1775), in the house of lords, 

 when Chatham proposed his plan of a reconciliation. 

 In the course of the debate, that great man charac- 

 terized him as " one whom all Europe held in high 

 estimation for his knowledge and wisdom ; who was 

 an honour, not to the English nation only, but to 

 human nature." 



Having received an intimation, that the ministers 

 were preparing to arrest him as guilty of fomenting 

 a rebellion in the colonies, he embarked for America, 

 and was immediately elected member of the congress. 

 As a member of the committee of safety and of that 

 of foreign correspondence, he performed the most 

 fatiguing services, and exerted all his influence in 

 favour of the declaration of independence. In 1776. 

 he was sent to France as commissioner plenipoten- 

 tiary, to obtain supplies from that court. He was not, 

 at first, publicly received in his official capacity, but 

 he succeeded in gaining the confidence of the count 

 de Vergennes ; and, soon after the reception of the 

 news of the surrender of Burgoyne, he had the hap- 

 piness of concluding the first treaty of the new states 

 with a foreign power, Feb. 6, 1778. For the parti- 

 culars of this mission, we must refer to his corres- 

 pondence. He endeavoured to establish the credit 

 of America throughout Europe, by his essay entitled 

 Comparison of Great Britain and America as to 

 Credit, in 1777. No sooner were the capture of 

 Burgoyne and the treaty with France known in Eng- 

 land, than the ministry began to talk of a reconcilia- 

 tion. Emissaries were employed to sound Franklin 

 as to the terms on which this reconciliation of the 

 colonies could be effected ; but he rejected every idea 

 of treating except on the basis of independence. 

 " The Americans (he said) were neither to be dra- 

 gooned nor bamboozled out of their liberty." The 

 next act of the British ministry was to endeavour to 

 separate America from France, and to excite a jeal- 

 ousy between the two countries ; but all these wiles 

 were defeated by the firmness and prudence of the 

 American ministers. 



After the conclusion of the treaty with France, 

 Franklin had been appointed minister plenipotentiary 

 to that court (1778), and was subsequently named 

 one of the commissioners for negotiating the peace 

 with the mother country. At the close of the nego- 



